L B L O B
ordeal with, such recklessness that for every grown-up person who dies a natural death three or four, it is estimated, perish by this judgment of the invisible powers. A custom which readily catches the eye of the foreigner is that of setting their marriageable maidens forth to view in a little bower specially erected in front of the parents' dwelling – their skins stained red with a peculiar powder. Near Chinchoxo there is a curious tribe, the Mavumbu or Umwambu, known to Europeans as Black Jews on account of their strikingly Semitic features. The coast people proper or Bavilli look down on their more inland neighbours as less civilized; and these in their turn pay the same compliment to those beyond, – the Bayombe and Bayaka, who occupy the mountainous woodland on the borders of Loango, being reckoned as genuine savages.
The people are scattered throughout the country in small villages; Nkondo, probably the largest, contains only 350 to 400 huts, though it is the seat of one of the most influential "princes." There is no town or village of Loango, – the place of that name on Loango Bay being a mere group of factories. Buri, Boari, or Boali, was the name of the former capital; Loangiri or Loangele (visited in 1873 by Bastian) was the burial-place of the ancient kings; and Lubu, which is still neutral in war, is that of the "princes." At one time included in the great Congo kingdom, Loango became independent about the close of the 16th century, and was still of considerable importance in the days of Abbé Proyart (1750), though Kakongo and other districts were practically independent. At present there is no central authority in the country; the petty local chiefs are local chiefs and nothing more; but the members of the blood royal are still honoured with special privileges, a large number of nominal titles remain in use, and a common tradition of greatness gives a sort of cohesion to the political conglomerate.
The slave trade was longer maintained in Loango than anywhere else on the West African seaboard; and since its extirpation palm oil and india-rubber have been the main objects of commerce. Perfect freedom of trade prevails; and there are Dutch, Portuguese, German, French, and English factories on the coast and up the rivers. The Portuguese have made considerable efforts to secure territorial supremacy; but they have hitherto failed, partly owing to direct French opposition, partly to the state of the country.
The following are the principal stations of European trade: – Banana at the mouth of the Congo, the central post of the Rotter dam African Trading Company, whose comptoirs are scattered along a vast extent of the west coast; Muanda, with one of the best of the native villages; Vista; Kabinda, the natives of which are known as far south as Mossamedes for their enterprise and skill as car penters, tailors, &c.; Landana, the seat of Dutch, French, and Portuguese factories, and of a French mission from the Gaboon; and Chincho or Tchinchotcho (5 9 14" S. lat., 12 3 45" E. long.) the post occupied by the German Exploring Expedition in 1873-76.
See, besides Merolla and Battel (Pinkerton, vol. ii.), Proyart, Histoire de Loango, Paris, 1766 (also in Pinkerton); Degrandpré, Reise nach der westlichen Küste von Afrika, Weimar, 1801; Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, Jena, 1874-75; and Die Loango-Expedition, by Dr Paul Güssfeldt (1871)), Julius Falkenstein (1879), and Pechuel-Loesche (1882).
LOBELIA, L., the typical genus of the tribe Lobelieæ, of the order Campanulaceæ, named after Matthias de Lobel, a native of Lille, botanist and physician to James I. It numbers about two hundred species, natives of nearly all the temperate and warmer regions of the world, excepting central and eastern Europe as well as western Asia. For the sections into which the genus is divided, see Genera Plantarum, by Bentham and Hooker, vol. ii. p. 551; and for species, De C., Prod., vii. p. 357. Two species are British, L. Dortmanna, L., named after Dortmann, a Dutch druggist, which occurs in gravelly mountain lakes; and L. urens, L., which is only found on heaths, &c., near Axminster (see Baxter's Brit. Gen., No. 79). The genus is distinguished from Campanula by the irregular corolla and completely united anthers, and by the excessive acridity of the milky juice. The species earliest described and figured appears to be L. cardinalis, L., under the name Trachelium americanum sive cardinalis planta, "the rich crimson cardinal's flower": Parkinson (Paradisus, 1629, p. 356) says, "it groweth neere the riuer of Canada, where the French plantation in America is seated"; De Candolle records it from New England to Carolina (Prod., vii. 382). This species, as well as several others, are in cultivation as ornamental garden plants, e.g., the dwarf blue E. Erinus, L., from the Cape, which, with its varieties, forms a familiar bedding plant. L. splendens, Willd., and L. fulgens, Willd., growing from 2 to 4 feet high, from Mexico, have scarlet flowers; while L. amœna, Mich., from North America, as well as L. syphilitica, L., and its hybrids, from Virginia, have blue flowers. The last-named was introduced in 1665, according to Paxton (Bot. Dict., p. 340), but is not mentioned by Parkinson. Certain species of lobelia are used medicinally, the chief being L. inflata, L., a native of north-eastern America, called "Indian tobacco," as its effects are very similar to those of tobacco; for its localities, &c., see Pickering, Chron. Hist. of Pl., p. 1015. It is expectorant and diaphoretic in small doses, but in full medicinal doses is nauseating and emetic. It is used for spasmodic asthma, and as an adjunct to diuretics. See Bentley and Trimen's Med. Pl., No. 162; Pharmacographia, p. 357; and Pereira's Mat. Med., vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 8. For active principles, see Pharm. Journ., vol. x. pp. 270, 456. Another medicinal species is L. syphilitica, L., the blue cardinal, of which the root is used by the North American Indians for the purpose implied in the specific name. The value, however, is said to have no foundation in fact (Pearson, Obs. on var. Art. of Mat. Med., p. 70), but see Amer. Dispens., p. 494. A third species is L. decurrens, Cav., from near Arequipa in Peru, where the Indians use it as an emetic (Pharm. Journ. [1], vol. xiii. p. 14).
LOBO, Ieronimo (1593-1678), a Jesuit missionary, was
born in Lisbon in 1593, and entered the Order of Jesus
at the age of sixteen. In 1621 he was ordered to repair
as a missionary to India, and in 1622 he arrived at Goa.
With the intention of proceeding to Abyssinia as a mission
ary, he left India in 1624, but after disembarking on the
coast of Mombas, and attempting to reach his destination
by land, through the Galla country, was forced to return.
Repeating the attempt in the ensuing year, in concert with
Mendez, the newly-appointed patriarch of Ethiopia, and
eight missionaries, Lobo landed on the coast of the Red
Sea, and settled down in Abyssinia as superintendent of
the missions in the state of Tigre, travelling about a good
deal over the country, and thus obtaining much valuable
information on its geography and people. He remained
at his post for some years, until death deprived the
Catholics of their protector, the emperor Segued. Forced
by persecution to leave the kingdom, in 1634 Lobo fell,
along with his companions, into the hands of the Turks at
Massowah, and was sent by them to India to procure a
ransom for his imprisoned fellow-missionaries. This object
he gained, and at the same time he endeavoured, though
without avail, to persuade the Portuguese viceroy to send
an armament against Abyssinia. Intent upon accomplish
ing this cherished project, he embarked for Portugal, and
after he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, and
captured by pirates, arrived at Lisbon. Neither at this
city, however, nor at Madrid and Rome, was any counten
ance given to Lobo's plan for Christianizing Abyssinia by
the aid of arms. He accordingly returned to India in
1640, and was elected rector, and afterwards provincial, of
the Jesuits at Goa. After some years he returned to his
native city, and died there January 29, 1678.
Lobo wrote an account of his travels in Portuguese, which appeals never to have been printed, but is deposited in the monastery of St Roque, Lisbon. Balthezar Telles made large use of the information therein in his Historia Geral da Etiopia Alta (Coimbra, 1660), which is often erroneously attributed to Lobo (see Machado's Bibliotheca Lusitana). Lobo's own narrative was translated from a MS. copy into French, under the title of Voyage Historique de Abissinie, by the Abbé Legrand, Paris, 1728. In 1669 a translation by Sir Peter Wyche of several passages from a MS. account of Lobo's travels was published by the Royal Society, and this was translated into Thenevot's Relation des Voyages in 1673. An English abridgment of Legrand's edition by Dr Johnson was published in 1735, and reprinted in 1789. In a Mémoire justicatif en rehabilitation des Pierre Paez et Jerome Lobo, Dr C. T. Beke maintains the accuracy of Lobo's statements as to the source of the Abai branch of the Nile against Bruce.
LOBSTER. See CRUSTACEA, and FISHERIES, vol. ix. p. 265.
