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We left the quitanda with the same shouting and rushing which accompanied my appearance. Return to the Congo Mouth. In the evening there was a palaver. I need hardly say that my guide, after being paid to show me Nsundi, never had the slightest intention to go beyond the Yellala.
Before leaving the Yellala, I wandered along the right bank, and found a cliff, whose overhanging brow formed a fine cavern; it remarkably resembled the Martianez Fountain under the rock near the beautiful Puerto de Orotava. Here the fishermen were disporting themselves, and cooking their game, which they willingly exchanged for beads.
The highest and most formidable of these pongos, which are descended on rafts, that of Mayasi, is however only three feet in height. What the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia call chellal in the Nile, is called yellala in the River Congo.
After sailing between ridges of high rocky hills, the expedition came to the Yellala, or great cataract, and here they met with a second disappointment. Instead of another Niagara, which general report had led them to expect, they saw only a comparative brook bubbling over its stony bed.
I thus make the distance of the Yellala from the mouth between 116 and 117 miles and the total fall 390 feet, of which about one half occurs in the sixty-four miles between Boma and the Yellala: of this figure again 100 feet belong to the section of five miles between the Vivi and the Great Rapids. The Zambeze, according to Dr.
Captain Tuckey heard nothing of the Lumini River entering 43 leagues above the Yellala, and he gives no professional opinion touching the navigability of the total of six greater rapids which, to judge from what I saw, can hardly offer any serious obstruction to the development of the Nzadi.
Tuckey, in 1816, had ascended the Congo beyond the Yellala Falls; but over an extent of two hundred miles at the most. This simple halting-place could not give a definite knowledge of the country, and nevertheless, it had caused the death of the greater part of the savants and officers who composed the expedition. Thirty-seven years later, Dr.
Before the second north-eastern reach, the interpreters exclaimed "Yellala falla" "the cataract is speaking," and we could distinctly hear the cheering roar. The stream now assumed the aspect of Niagara below the Falls, and the circular eddies boiling up from below, and showing distinct convexity, suggested the dangerous "wells" of the northern seas.
Another half hour, and a descent of 127 feet placed us under a stunted calabash, 100 feet above the water, and commanding a full view of the Yellala. On the whole, the impression was favourable. Old Shimbah, the Linguister at Porto da Lenha, and other natives had assured me that the Cataracts were taller than the tallest trees.
My escort forgot their disappointments in a "ball," which lasted through the cool, clear and dewy night till nearly dawn. It is evidently a happy temperament which can dance off hunger and fatigue. The Yellala of the Congo. But the great Yellala was hidden by the hill- shoulder. We at once fell into a descent of some 890 feet, which occupied an hour.
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