Formerly the people who wandered from their own neighbourhood among the surrounding tribes were killed and eaten, and so did not return among their people to enlighten them by showing that human flesh was useful as an article of food. Soon after the station of Equator was established, the residents discovered that a wholesale human traffic was being carried on by the natives of the district between this station and Lake M'Zumba. The most daring of these natives were the tribes about Irebo, whose practice was to ascend the river Lulunou with large armed parties, and raid among the natives on its banks. These people, though a well-built sturdy race, were not fighting people.

When the raiders had collected a sufficient number of people to fill their canoes, they returned to the Congo, and