where we were welcomed by all the Arabs, and I got a letter from Dr.
Kirk and another from the Sultan, and from Mohamad bin Nassib who was
going to Karagwé: all anxious to be kind. Katomba gave flour, nuts,
fowls, and goat. A new way is opened to Kasongo's, much shorter than
that I followed. I rest a few days, and then go on.

_25th February, 1871._--So we went on, and found that it was now known
that the Lualaba flowed west-south-west, and that our course was to be
west across this other great bend of the mighty river. I had to suspend
my judgment, so as to be prepared to find it after all perhaps the
Congo. No one knew anything about it except that when at Kasongo's nine
days west, and by south it came sweeping round and flowed north and
north and by east.

Katomba presented a young soko or gorillah that had been caught while
its mother was killed; she sits eighteen inches high, has fine long
black hair all over, which was pretty so long as it was kept in order by
her dam. She is the least mischievous of all the monkey tribe I have
seen, and seems to know that in me she has a friend, and sits quietly on
the mat beside me. In walking, the first thing observed is that she does
not tread on the palms of her hands, but on the backs of the second line
of bones of the hands: in doing this the nails do not touch the ground,
nor do the knuckles; she uses the arms thus supported crutch fashion,
and hitches herself along between them; occasionally one hand is put
down before the other, and alternates with the feet, or she walks
upright and holds up a hand to any one to carry her. If refused, she
turns her face down, and makes grimaces of the most bitter human
weeping, wringing her hands, and sometimes adding a fourth hand or foot
to make the appeal more touching. Grass or leaves she draws around her
to make a nest, and resents anyone meddling with her property. She is a