Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/35

 success of the Roman Catholic missionaries, who converted, or at least baptised, many hundred thousand natives. The kingdom still exists, although much weakened, most of the Ba-Fyot tribes having ceased to yield it obedience. The Mu-Sorongos, kinsmen of those dwelling north of the Congo, the Mu-Shicongos, the Ba-Kongos, Bambas, Muyolos, and other Fyot peoples occupying the region south of the Lower Congo far into the Mbrish basin, render little more than a nominal vassalage to the sovereign who resides at Sun Salvador, while even the Portuguese authority is but slightly enforced in those districts. The few explorers

who have ventured to visit these northern populations have done so at the cost of much risk and great hardships.

The Sonho Negroes in the peninsula formed by the Congo estuary and the coast line, no longer hold any relations with their old master at San-Salvador. The disintegration of the empire in fact began towards the close of the seventeenth century, by the revolt of their kilamba, or chief, the "Count of Sonho" of the Portuguese chronicles. The complete ruin of the state was brought about by insurrections, the rivalries of the missionaries, the seizure of the trade routes