The crews of steamers were from the upper Congo, mainly from Bangala. Like Marlow's cannibal crew, the Bangalas were joyfully cannibalistic. The brother of Bapulula (popular pilot on the mission steamer Peace on the river at this time), when asked if he ate human flesh, answered, "Ah! I wish I could eat everybody on earth."

—Norman Sherry, Conrad's Western World, quoted in Cedric Watts' footnotes to Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness