The population of Congo has been represented by some authors, who wrote either from mere conjecture, or from uncertain information, to he but inconsiderable. The missionaries we know, however, and the Portuguese who first visited this country, found it for the most part covered with towns and villages, which even swarmed with inhabitants. The metropolis, it is said, contained above 50,000 souls. The other cities were also filled with people. The provinces, if not equally populous, were yet far from being in this respect strikingly defec tive. The province of Mancha is even at present said to be able to raise to the amount of 200,000 fighting men; and its former population is said to have been double of what it now contains. The army of the King of Congo in 1665, is stated to have consisted of 900,000 fighting men, who were attended by an infinite number of women, children, and slaves.
Time number of converts to Christianity, which a small number of Capuchin friars made among the more civi lized of the people of this country, is affirmed to have amounted to 600,000. These accounts of the numbers of the Congoesc w will appear the more credible, when we consider the extreme fecundity of their women, the hardiness with which they bring up their children, and the stoutness and healthiness of their men. Consistent with these accounts is the statement we have received as to the numbers of slaves sold annually out of the cou•. try, which in ordinary years seldom fall short or 15,000 or c 6,000.
The government of Congo is monarchical, and as des potic as any in Asia or Africa. The property of all the lands within their dominions is vested in the king, who parcels them out to individuals on condition of a certain tribute, and of the performance of particular services. Any failure in these respects, or any other neglect, is attended with ejection and deprivation ; and the rigour and cruel extortion with which any demands that can be preferred on those grounds are too often enforced, arc, as they might well be expected to be, the frequent occa sions of revolt or of open rebellion. Even the princes of the blood are subject to the same laws in respect to property as others. Hence it is, that no person what ever, within the limits of this state, Call bequeath a foot of land to his heirs ; but when the first owners under the crown die, the lands which they held return to it again, whether they were in their own possession or in that of tenants, and it depends entirely on the prince whether then they shall be continued in the same, or disposed into other hands. The crown of this state is partly hereditary and partly elective. No candidate for it ac cordingly can be chosen, unless lie be of the royal blood; and since the introduction of Christianity, it is in like manner necessary that he should be a Christian of the church of Rome. The whole process of the coronation
of the prince, and his mode of living after his advance ment to the throne, are attended with various circum stances of splendour and magnificence. It is but seldom that lie goes abroad, and when he does so, he is attended by a numerous guard of Anseki and others of neighhoui Mg nations, who are the most in his con lid( nee, musicians, knights of the I holy Cross, an order which was instituted by the first Christian king of this country, and a number of officers richly accoutred. The respect which Congocse pay to their sovereign, approach.s (yen to idolatry. The palace in vvhich lie lodges is commodious, grand, and spacious ; his court numerous and brilliant ; and he has his seraglio, which is plentifully provided with concubines, who there indulge themselves in the• most licentious gratifications, but are subject to be detained in it for the rest of their lives, and are placed under the coutroul or the single lawful wife, which, as to other Christians in this region, is alone allowed, even to the prince. The royal revenue consists chiefly in the tribute that is obtained from several vassal princes, in free-will offerings, which are made in acknowledgement for the lands held under the sovereign, in the property of all the zimbis, or that description or shells which con stitute the current coin of this and the neighbouring states ; in mines of silver and gold, which, however, as serving comparatively little purpose here, are much neglected ; and in the sums arising from the renewal of fiefs and investitures, from fines and confiscations. The prince has, moreover, a discretionary power of levying taxes on his subjects at pleasure. The standing forces of the Congoese monarchy are far from being numerous. They are at the same time neither well disciplined, nor well clothed, nor well armed. Their mode of fighting is tumultuous and ferocious, and they give no quarter. Those that are taken alive being hurried to the sea-side, or to some inland market, are there sold for slaves to the Europeans. There are no written laws among the Con goese, but where favour or bribery do not interpose, cus tom and tradition serve them instead both of code and commentaries. Every province has a chief justice for civil and criminal affairs, from whom an appeal lies to the king. Under him there are also inferior officers in every town and community. Treason, murder, and sorcery, are here deemed capital offences, of which the two first are punished by decollation, and the last by burning alive. The punishments of lesser offences are the bastinado, hanging, fines, and imprisonment.