a kingdom in the interior of western Africa, bounded on the west by the river Umbré, which runs into the Zaire, the kingdom of Wangua, and the Ambos, who border on Loango; and on the south by Songo and Sunda, provinces of Congo. It contains a great variety of wild beasts, as lions, rhinoceroses, &c., and many copper-mines. The king of Ansiko, or the great Micoco, is said to command thirteen kingdoms, and is esteemed the most powerful monarch in this part of Africa. Our knowledge of the country, however, is very imperfect, being derived solely from the hearsay reports of Lopez and Merolla, who visited Congo in the 16th century. According to them, the people are brave, swift, active, but savage and cruel in the most frightful degree, human flesh being not only eaten, but openly sold in the markets, and the subjects offering themselves to the sovereign for the gratification of his palate. These reports, which are not very credible, are contrasted with others that represent them as an industrious people, manufacturing cloths from the fibres of the palm-tree, and carrying on an extensive trade both with Congo and interior Africa. Their language is barbarous, and difficult to be learned, even by the inhabitants of Congo. The most distinguished among them wear red and black caps of Portuguese velvet; the lower ranks go naked from the waist upwards; and, to preserve their health, anoint their bodies with a composition of pounded sandal-wood and palm-oil. Their arms are battle-axes, and small but very strong bows, adorned with serpents' skins. Their strings are made of pliant and tender shoots of trees, that will not break; and their arrows of hard and light wood. They kill birds flying, and shoot with surprising swiftness. With equal dexterity they manage their battle-axes, one end of which is sharpened and cuts like a wedge, while the other is flattened like a mallet, with a handle set between, about half the length of the iron, rounded at the end like an apple, and covered with the skin of a serpent. The current money in this country is the zimbis or shell, which passes among several African nations. They worship the sun as their chief deity, representing him by a male figure, and the moon by a female. They have also an infinite number of inferior deities, each individual having a particular idol. They seem on the whole to be a people respecting whom it might be desirable to obtain further and more recent information.