battlefield an enthusiastic individual with a highly nervous organisation, who hissed out his orders one after another without a moment's hesitation. He was capable of sustaining intense fatigue, and would lead his warriors through the country at a run for hours together.

The band of brigands with which Gongo had surrounded himself were mostly of the Batetela race. These Batetela, and more particularly one tribe called the Bakussu, are, as far as I could ascertain from making inquiries in every direction, the most inveterate cannibals. During excursions in the neighbourhood of their towns, I on more than one occasion saw a public execution. When the chief of the town — who is of course an absolute monarch — decides that a man must die, he hands him over to the people. He is immediately torn to pieces, and