from others of the continent as English is from Turkish or Chinese. Some earlier writers have endeavoured to trace similarities, but later research has proved that they do not exist. The origin of the race must ever remain a mystery. What, when, and where, cannot be ascertained, for no memorials exist in books or monuments. The Bantu race and languages cannot be an evolution from something inferior; they are a degradation from something superior. Coastwards there are traditions of change and movement on the part of the people; in the east and on the south marauding tribes and slave-hunters have devastated large tracts of country, but there is no sign of general movement on the part of the Bantus.
The traditions of countries along the coast where white men have long settled speak of much greater, more powerful kingdoms in the past; and after due allowance has been made for exaggeration, it is too evident that the kings of Congo, Kabinda, Loango, and Angola, exerted at one time far more influence than they do to-day. Indeed, the King of Congo is the only chief who maintains his style and title; the others have become extinct during this century. We find then the whole country in a state of disintegration; every town a separate state, and its chief, to all practical purposes, independent.
Makoko, the Teke chief with whom De Brazza made his famous treaty, is said to have levied taxes on the north bank people near his town. The King of Congo used to receive a tribute from the remnants of the old Congo empire; but to-day he has to content himself with levying a mild blackmail on passing caravans, and receives a present, when he gives the ‘hat’ and the insignia of office to those who succeed to chieftainships over which in olden times the kings exercised suzerainty. Few, indeed, of those acknowledge him to-day even to that extent.
These independent townships group themselves into tribes and tribelets; it is, however, a matter of great difficulty to learn the tribal names, which