Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/558

 Kassongo. Here the Arab trader has erected a stronghold to which he has given the ambitious name of "London."

North-west of Kassongo, which has a population of nine thousand "slaves and porters," the twin town of Nyangwe, on the right bank of the Congo, has also become an important centre of trade, and according to Gleerup it is already the largest riverain town in the whole of the Congo basin, with a population of no less than ten thousand. The upper quarter is occupied by the Arab chiefs and

their followers, the lower by other immigrants from the east, and a well-attended market is held alternately every day in both. Besides being the chief trading place in the Upper Congo, Nyangwe with Tabora and Ujiji forms one of the three great stations along the eastern section of the main transcontinental highway between the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans. It is an exclusively Mohammedan town, in which no Europeans have yet made any settlements.

Below Nyangwe follow other cannibal communities, which maintain direct