cutting the
nose and ears off some, and the foot or the hand from others. His own
death, not unlooked for, would be received without regret.

A single man in all Kazounde might, perhaps, lose by the death of
Moini Loungga. This was the contractor, Jose-Antonio Alvez, who agreed
very well with the drunkard, whose authority was recognized by the
whole province. If the accession of his first wife, Queen Moini,
should be contested, the States of Moini Loungga might be invaded by
a neighboring competitor, one of the kings of Oukonson. The latter,
being younger and more active, had already seized some villages
belonging to the Kazounde government. He had in his services another
trader, a rival of Alvez Tipo-Tipo, a black Arab of a pure race, whom
Cameron met at N'yangwe.

What was this Alvez, the real sovereign under the reign of an imbruted
negro, whose vices he had developed and served?

Jose-Antonio Alvez, already advanced in years, was not, as one might
suppose, a "msoungou," that is to say, a man of the white race. There
was nothing Portuguese about him but his name, borrowed, no doubt, for
the needs of commerce. He was a real negro, well known among traders,
and called Kenndele. He was born, in fact, at Donndo, or the borders
of the Coanza. He had commenced by being simply the agent of the
slave-brokers, and would have finished as a famous trader, that is to
say, in the skin of an old knave, who called himself the most honest
man in the world.

Cameron met this Alvez in the latter part of 1874, at Kilemmba, the
capital of Kassonngo, chief of Ouroua. He guided Cameron with his
caravan to his own establishment at Bihe, over a route of seven
hundred miles. The convoy of slaves, on arriving at Kazounde, had been
conducted to the large square.

It was the 26th of May. Dick Sand's calculations were then verified.
The journey had lasted thirty-eight days from the departure of the
army encamped on the banks of the Coanza. Five weeks of the most
fearful miseries that human beings could support.

It was noon when the train entered Kazounde. The drums were beaten,
horns were blown in the midst of the detonations of fire-arms. The
soldiers guarding the caravan discharged their guns in the air, and
the men employed by Jose-Antonio Alvez replied with interest. All
these bandits were happy at meeting again, after an absence which had
lasted for four months. They were now going to rest and make up for
lost time in excesses and