Below Stanley Pool the chief stations on the portage skirting the fulls lie about midway between Leopoldville and Matadi, where the river presents a less rapid incline. Here is the English missionary station of Lutete on the left side, followed by the two villages of Manyanga, on both banks, and farther on Lukungu and Voonda (Baynesville), both on the south side. In the fertile and populous Kwilu Valley, which debouches higher up, are situated the towns of Banza Makuta, the chief market between Stanley Pool and Ambriz, and Tungwa, a great centre of the ivory trade.
Between Manyanga and Boma on the north side the dominant people are the energetic and haughty Ba-Sundi, who hold themselves as the equals of the whites, with whose forces they have frequently been in collision. Their chief pursuits
are war and fishing, leaving to the women all other occupations, such as trade, weaving, wickerwork, pottery, and other industries. Near the Manyanga in this district lies the chief trading-place between Stanley Pool and the coast. Below Manyanga, whose well-attended fair is held every eight days, the fortified station of Isangila marks the point where the river plunges from a vertical height of about 16 feet, and then describes a great bend southwards to the point where the Lu-Fu River leads to San-Salvador, former metropolis of the Congo empire.
After being twice displaced as the capital of the Congo Free State, the station of Vivi (M' Vivi) has been finally abandoned, and the seat of Government removed farther down to Boma, on the same side of the river. Both the old and new stations of Vivi, standing on plateaux commanding the right bank of the river a little below the last cataracts, were found to suffer from the same inconvenience
