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Title: Angola and the River Congo, vol. 1

Author: Joachim John Monteiro

Illustrator: Edward Fielding
        Rose Monteiro

Release date: May 17, 2022 [eBook #68110]

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: Macmillan and Co

Credits: Peter Becker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANGOLA AND THE RIVER CONGO, VOL. 1 ***



[Illustration:

  MAP OF
  ANGOLA
  Compiled by
  J. J. MONTEIRO]




  ANGOLA

  AND

  THE RIVER CONGO.

  BY
  JOACHIM JOHN MONTEIRO,

  ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES, AND CORRESPONDING
  MEMBER OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.


  IN TWO VOLUMES.

  VOL. I.

  _WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS._


  London:
  MACMILLAN AND CO.
  1875.

  _All Rights Reserved._




  LONDON:
  PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
  STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.




  TO

  ROSE MY WIFE

  I Dedicate this Work

  IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF THE HAPPY DAYS WE PASSED TOGETHER
  IN THE PEACEFUL STILLNESS AND TROPICAL LUXURIANCE
  OF THE VAST SOLITUDES OF ANGOLA.




PREFACE.


The following description of the country between the River Zaire or
Congo, and Mossamedes or Little Fish Bay, comprising ten degrees of
latitude, is the result of many years of travel in and exploration of
that part of the coast.

My aim has been to present an accurate and truthful account of its more
striking features and productions, and of the manners and customs of
the various tribes which inhabit it.

I have avoided mentioning more names of places and persons than are
necessary, as they would be of little or no interest to the general
reader. I have also omitted detailed lists and descriptions of plants
and animals that I have collected, as such would only interest
naturalists, who are referred to the different scientific publications
in which they have been described.

This being the first detailed account of a most interesting and rich
part of Tropical Africa, I leave it with confidence to the indulgence
of my readers, assuring them that at all events a want of truth is not
included in its shortcomings.




  CONTENTS.
                                                                    PAGE

  CHAPTER I.

  HISTORY                                                              1


  CHAPTER II.

  PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY--CHARACTER OF VEGETATION--RIVERS                 23


  CHAPTER III.

  THE RIVER CONGO A BOUNDARY--SLAVE TRADE--SLAVERY--ORDEAL BY
  POISON--INSENSIBILITY OF THE NEGRO--INGRATITUDE                     53


  CHAPTER IV.

  THE RIVER CONGO--BANANA--PORTO DA LENHA--BOMA--MUSSURONGO
  TRIBE--PIRATES--MUSHICONGO TRIBE--FISH--PALM CHOP--PALM WINE        81


  CHAPTER V.

  COUNTRY FROM THE RIVER CONGO TO AMBRIZ--VEGETATION--TRADING--
  CIVILIZATION--COMMERCE--PRODUCTS--IVORY--MUSSERRA--SLEEP
  DISEASE--SALT--MINERAL PITCH                                       100


  CHAPTER VI.

  AMBRIZ--TRADE--MALACHITE--ROAD TO BEMBE--TRAVELLING--MOSQUITOES--
  QUIBALLA TO QUILUMBO--NATIVES--QUILUMBO TO BEMBE                   152


  CHAPTER VII.

  BEMBE--MALACHITE DEPOSIT--ROOT PARASITE--ENGONGUI--MORTALITY
  OF CATTLE--FAIRS--KING OF CONGO--RECEPTIONS--CUSTOMS--SAN
  SALVADOR--FEVERS--RETURN TO AMBRIZ                                 189


  CHAPTER VIII.

  CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO--FETISH--CUSTOMS--ARMS
  AND WAR--DRESS--ZOMBO TRIBE--BURIAL--INSANITY                      238


  CHAPTER IX.

  CUSTOMS OF THE MUSSUBONGO, AMBRIZ, AND MUSHICONGO NEGROES--MANDIOCA
  PLANT; ITS PREPARATIONS--CHILI PEPPER--BANANAS--RATS--WHITE
  ANT--NATIVE BEER--STRANGE SOUNDS                                   280




 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

 _Drawn on Wood by_ MR. EDWARD FIELDING; _the Views from Sketches by_
 MRS. MONTEIRO, _and from Photographs; the Implements, &c., from the
 Originals_.


  MAP                 _Frontispiece_.

  Travelling in Angola--View near Ambriz      _To face page_          23

  Porto da Lenha                                      ”               81

  View on the Congo, above Boma                       ”               99

  Ankle-ring--Ring to ascend Palm-trees--Cage for carrying Ivory
  tusks--Engongui--Fetish figure--Mask--Pillow        ”              140

  Granite Pillar of Musserra--Wooden trumpet--Hoe--Pipe--Knives--
  Clapping hands and Answer                           ”              145

  View in the hilly country of Quiballa--Camoensia
  maxima                                              ”              177

  Quilumbo                                            ”              185

  Bembe Valley                                        ”              189

  Bembe Peak                                          ”              231




ANGOLA AND THE RIVER CONGO.




CHAPTER I.

HISTORY.


The following sketch of the discovery and earlier history of Angola
is translated and condensed from an interesting work in Portuguese by
Feo Cardozo, on the ‘History of the Governors of Angola’ (Paris, 8vo,
1825):--

“The Portuguese, engrossed by the great hopes raised by the conquest
of Brazil and the Indies, did not determine to establish themselves in
Angola till eighty-four years after they had discovered it. The King
of Angola, jealous of the advantages that he supposed his neighbour
the King of Congo derived from his trade and intercourse with the
Portuguese, determined to send several of his subjects to Portugal to
beg the like friendship for himself. Queen Catherine, acceding to
his request, sent to him Paulo Diaz de Novaes, grandson of the famous
Bartolomeo Diaz, who had discovered the greater part of the West Coast
and the Cape of Good Hope. Paulo Diaz left Lisbon in September, 1559,
with three ships, a few soldiers, and a present for the King, bearing
instructions to open commercial relations with the latter, and to
convert him to Christianity. After many dangers he arrived in May,
1560, at the mouth of the River Quanza; the King of Angola was dead,
but his son, who then reigned, renewed on his arrival his father’s
request for friendly relations with the Portuguese. Paulo Diaz, relying
on his statements, landed with only twenty men, and leaving the rest on
board the ships ordered them to return to Portugal if within a certain
time he should not come back to them. He immediately marched to the
Court of Angola, where he and his present were received by the King
with acclamation.

“After the lapse of a few days, Paulo Diaz, wishing to retire to his
ships, was prevented by the King under the pretence of his aid being
required in some wars he was then engaged in. He was thus detained a
prisoner until the King, hard pressed by the revolt of one of his
powerful vassals, determined to allow him to return to Portugal, so
that he might bring him assistance. From the missals, altar-stones,
and old-fashioned church furniture that he saw in the hands of the
negroes during his expedition into the interior, Paulo Diaz concluded
that missionaries had already been in the country many years before.
Returning to Portugal he gave an account of what he had seen to the
King, Dom Sebastian, who sent him back with the title of Conqueror,
Coloniser, and Governor of Angola, and conceded to him ample powers for
the establishment of the new colony.

“Paulo Diaz left Lisbon in October, 1574, with a fleet of seven ships,
and seven hundred men, and sighted land after a passage of three months
and a half. Landing on the island facing the present city of Loanda,
he took formal possession of it in the name of the King of Portugal.
An immense number of negroes witnessed the ceremony, as well as forty
Portuguese who had retired from the kingdom of Congo, owing to the wars
amongst the negroes of that country.

“The King of Angola received the Portuguese with great joy, and in
return for the presents that Dom Sebastian had sent him, gave Paulo
Diaz several armlets of silver and of copper, and sticks of Quicongo
wood; the silver of the armlets was afterwards made into a chalice and
presented to the church of Belem at Lisbon.

“Finding that the island was not suitable for establishing the new
colony, the Portuguese removed to the mainland, and choosing the spot
now occupied by the fortress of San Miguel, built a church and founded
their first colony in Angola. They then aided the King, and enabled
him speedily to reduce his rebel vassal to obedience. After several
months passed in the greatest friendship, the King of Congo attempted
to intrigue against the Portuguese, but without success. Perfect
peace existed between the Portuguese and the blacks of Angola for six
years, when it was destroyed by the base perfidy of a Portuguese,
who begged the King to make him his slave, as he wished to disclose
a most important secret. Astonished at this proposition, the King
called together his ‘Macotas’ or council, and in their presence ordered
the infamous traitor to divulge it; on which he said that Paulo Diaz
planned despoiling him of his kingdom and mines, for which purpose he
had collected great stores of powder and ball. Next day the King caused
all the Portuguese to appear before him, and in their presence the
traitor repeated his story. The Portuguese, in astonishment, attempted
to refute the calumny, but without attending to their explanations
the King ordered them from his presence, and taking counsel of his
‘Macotas’ was persuaded by them to destroy at once all the Portuguese,
and thus avert the threatened danger. Approving their advice, he
feigned forgetfulness of the occurrence, then under pretence of a war
in the interior, sent forward the Portuguese, who, ignorant of the
stratagem, were all suddenly set upon and murdered, together with the
Christian slaves, numbering over a thousand. A similar fate befell all
the Portuguese engaged in trading in different parts of the country,
and their goods and property were taken possession of. The traitor
received the just punishment of his infamy, for the King ordered him
to be executed, saying, it was not right that one should live who had
caused the death of his countrymen. This cruel butchery concluded, the
King sent Paulo Diaz, who was on his journey from Loanda, an order not
to proceed beyond the spot at which he should receive it.

“The Governor, though totally ignorant of the horrible catastrophe,
distrusted the message, and, retiring to Anzelle, erected a wooden
intrenchment, and fortifying it with two small cannon, awaited the
solution of the affair. But few days had elapsed before he received
tidings of the dreadful tragedy, and of the advance of a great army of
blacks to annihilate him and the remaining Portuguese. This news, far
from terrifying him, inspired him with the hope of speedily avenging
the murder of his countrymen. Animating his garrison, of only 150 men,
with the same sentiment, he, with the aid of their two guns, repelled
the attack of the blacks, causing such havoc among them that they were
completely routed and dispersed; he also sent his lieutenant into the
interior to ravage it with fire and sword. This was accomplished so
successfully, that the King, repenting of his barbarity, turned against
the Macotas who had counselled him, and ordered them all to be put to
death.

“Paulo Diaz being reinforced from Portugal, defeated several of the
‘Sobas,’ or chiefs of Quissama, who attempted to impede his navigation
of the River Quanza, defeated a second time the King of Angola, and
conquered the greater part of the Provinces of Quissama and Illamba,
the whole of which he could not occupy from want of men. He then,
resolving to acquire the silver mines said to exist in the mountains of
Cambambe, fortified himself with his Lieutenant, Luis Serrão, and 120
men, at Tacandongo, which is a short distance from the supposed mines.

“Here they were approached by the third army of the King of Angola, so
numerous that it extended for two leagues. The Governor attacked it on
the 2nd February, 1583, before it had had time to form on the plain
below, and with the assistance of several native chiefs fell on the
black multitude with such success as to disperse it completely in a
few hours, leaving the field covered with dead. Paulo Diaz ordered the
noses of all the slain to be cut off, and sent several loads of them
to Loanda as evidence of his victory, and to inspire the blacks with
the fear of his arms. The King of Angola, rendered desperate by these
repeated defeats, attempted with a fourth army to obtain a victory
over the Portuguese, but was again routed with great slaughter.
In celebration of the above victory Paulo Diaz founded the first
settlement in the interior at Massangano, under the title of Nossa
Senhora da Victoria.

“In 1597, 200 Flemish colonists arrived at Loanda, but nearly the whole
of them quickly died from the effects of the climate.

“About the same time the colony of Benguella was founded by a party of
seventy soldiers, but fifty of these having walked out unarmed on the
beach, to amuse themselves by fishing, were surprised by a large number
of blacks, who cut their heads off, and then attacked the twenty men
in the fort. They defended themselves bravely until all but two, who
managed to escape, were killed.

“Constantly engaged in wars with the powerful ‘Sobas’ and savage
populous nations of the interior, the Portuguese gradually extended and
established their power in Angola.

“In 1595, Jeronymo d’Almeida, with 400 men and twenty-one horses, again
started from Loanda to take possession of the silver mines of Cambambe,
and on his way established the fort at Muxima on the River Quanza.
Continuing his march, he fell ill, and was obliged to return to
Loanda, leaving his officers in command. These were unfortunately drawn
into an ambuscade in a rocky ravine at Cambambe, where, an immense
number of blacks falling on them, 206 of the Portuguese were slain,
notwithstanding their bravest resistance, and only seven men escaped
the wholesale slaughter.

“In the same year João Furtado de Mendonça arrived at Loanda, bringing
with him twelve white women, the first that had ever arrived in Angola,
and who are said to have all married immediately.

“The new Governor’s first acts were to retrieve the losses suffered
by his predecessor, but starting in the worst season of the year, he
remained some time on the banks of the River Bengo, where 200 men died
of fever, the rest suffering greatly from hunger. At last, continuing
his march with the remains of his force, he very successfully reduced
the rebellious ‘Sobas’ to obedience, and relieving the little garrison
at Massangano, inflicted great loss on the blacks in a battle at that
place. Returning down the River Quanza, he re-established at Muxima the
fort that had been abandoned.

“In 1602, João Rodrigues Coutinho arrived as Governor with
reinforcements of men and ammunition, and full powers to promote the
conquest of the silver mines of Cambambe. A powerful and well-appointed
expedition again started for this purpose, but on arriving at a place
called Cacullo Quiaquimone he fell ill and died. Manoel Cerveira
Pereira, his successor, resolving to carry out his predecessor’s
intentions, marched into Cambambe, and on the 10th August, 1603,
offered battle to the Soba Cafuxe, whom he defeated in a great
engagement; continuing his march he built a fort in Cambambe and forced
the Soba Cambambe to submit.

“About 1606, the first attempt was made to communicate across the
continent of Africa with the River Senna, on the eastern coast, and
for this expedition Balthazar Rebello de Aragão was chosen, but after
proceeding for a considerable distance he was obliged to return to
relieve the garrison at Cambambe, closely besieged by the blacks.

“Though constant wars were necessary to reduce the warlike Sobas of
the interior to obedience, the successes of the Portuguese continued,
and their efforts were also directed to the conquest of Benguella and
settlement there.

“In the year 1621, the famous Queen Ginga Bandi came to Loanda as
head of an embassy from her brother, the Gola Bandi; she arranged a
treaty of peace with the Portuguese, was converted to Christianity
and baptized under the name of Ginga Donna Anna de Souza. She was
proclaimed Queen of Angola on the death of her brother, whom she
ordered to be poisoned, never forgiving him for having killed her son.
She then not only forsook Christianity, but forgetting the manner in
which she had been treated by the Portuguese, bore them a deadly hatred
for upwards of thirty years, during which time she was unsuccessful in
all her wars against them.

“The Dutch, who for several years had greatly annoyed the Portuguese
on the West Coast, attempted to possess themselves of some of their
ports for the purpose of obtaining a supply of slaves for their
colonies in America. During the governorship of Fernan de Souza the
Dutch despatched a fleet of eight ships commanded by Petri Petrid, who
attempted to force the bar of Loanda, but meeting with a determined
resistance retired from the coast after a stay of three months, having
only captured four small vessels.

“The Count of Nassau, considering that without an abundant supply of
slaves from the west coast the Dutch possessions in America would be
of little value, determined to take stronger measures for obtaining
them, and sent a powerful fleet of twenty vessels, under the command of
General Tolo. On the 24th August, 1641, this formidable fleet appeared
at Loanda, and such was the consternation it caused that the Governor
and inhabitants abandoned the city and retired to Bembem. The Dutch
landing next day became, without opposition, masters of the place and
of a large booty.

“Pedro Cezar retired to the River Bengo, but, pursued by the Dutch,
retired to Massangano, where the Portuguese suffered terribly from the
effects of the climate. Many of the native chiefs, taking advantage
of the occasion, rose in arms against them. Queen Ginga and several
other powerful chiefs immediately formed an alliance with the Dutch.
The Portuguese attempted, but unsuccessfully, to punish several of
them. The Dutch subsequently formed a truce with the Portuguese,
in consequence of news arriving from Europe of a treaty of peace
having been concluded between the two powers; but shortly after,
treacherously attacking the Portuguese, they killed the principal
officers and forty men, and took the Governor and 120 men prisoners.

“Those that escaped fled to Massangano until another truce was
concluded, and means were found to enable Pedro Cezar to escape from
the fortress of San Miguel, where he was imprisoned.

“Francisco de Soutomayor now arrived from Portugal as Governor of
Angola, and with the remnant of the troops at Benguella, where he had
landed, proceeded to Massangano, without knowledge of the enemy. Queen
Ginga, influenced secretly by the Dutch, was collecting her forces for
the purpose of attacking the Portuguese, but was completely defeated,
leaving 2000 blacks dead on the field of battle. A few days after, the
Dutch again broke their truce, and the Portuguese, incensed at their
repeated treachery, declared war against them. Thus they remained till
the arrival of Salvador Correa de Sá e Benavides, Governor of Rio
Janeiro, from which place he started in May, 1648, with a fleet of
fifteen vessels and 900 men. Towards the expenses of this expedition
the inhabitants of Rio Janeiro largely contributed, as they saw how
hurtful to their interests the loss of Angola would be from the failure
in the supply of slave labour.

“Arrived at Loanda, he sent a message to the Dutch Governor that
although his orders were to preserve peace with him, still, as he had
so treacherously and repeatedly broken it with the Portuguese, he
considered himself free to declare war against him; but, to prevent
bloodshed, he gave the Dutch the option of surrendering, assuring
them of an honourable capitulation. The Dutch asked for eight days
to consider; Salvador Correa accorded them two, at the end of which
he sent his secretary on shore, with orders to signal whether the
Dutch accepted his terms or meant to defend themselves; they chose
the latter, and the Portuguese immediately landed, and invested the
fortress of San Miguel. The Dutch had abandoned six guns, these
with four others from the ships were the same night planted on two
batteries, and the fortress bombarded. This not having the desired
effect, Salvador Correa ordered a general attack. The Portuguese were,
however, repulsed with a loss of 163 men killed and wounded. The Dutch,
unaware of this great loss, and expecting a second attack, hoisted a
white flag, and sent to arrange the terms of capitulation, which being
done, the gates, on the 15th of August, 1648, were thrown open, and
there issued forth 1100 Dutch, German, and French infantry, and as many
blacks, who were all surprised, on passing the Portuguese troops, at
the smallness of their numbers, and repented their hasty submission.
Salvador Correa sent them all on board three vessels to await their
countrymen away in the interior. On their arrival these were also
placed on board, and they set sail the same day. Shortly after he
caused the Dutch establishments at Pinda and Loango to be demolished,
and their expulsion being completed, he next fell on and defeated the
native chiefs.

“It was in the time of this Governor that the Italian Capuchin Friars
passed from the kingdom of Congo to Loanda, to establish in the
interior their excellent missions. For several years the Portuguese
waged a constant war with the Libollos, the Quissamas, the Soba N’golla
Caboco, the Chiefs of Benguella, and the Dembos Ambuillas at Encoge.

“In the year 1694 the first copper coinage was introduced from Portugal
into Angola, the currency up to that time being in the shape of little
straw mats called ‘Libongos,’ of the value of fifty reis each (about
2_d._). (These little mats are at present only employed as money in
Cabinda.)

“In 1758, the Portuguese established themselves at Encoge. In 1783, an
expedition was despatched to the Port of Cabinda, to establish a fort;
300 men, however, quickly died there from the effects of the climate,
and the rest surrendered to a French squadron, sent to demolish any
fortifications that might impede the free commerce of all nations on
the coast of Loango.

“Shortly after 1784, the Portuguese had a great war with the natives of
Mossulo, which lasted some five years before they were finally defeated.

“It was during the government, and by the efforts of Antonio de
Saldanha da Gama (1807-1810), that direct intercourse was established
with the nation of the Moluas, and through their intervention overland
communication with the eastern coast was obtained.

“The first attempt to communicate directly across the continent, from
Angola to Moçambique, was made as already noticed in the year 1606.
Two expeditions were proposed to start simultaneously from Moçambique
and Angola, and meet in the interior. The former, under the command of
the naturalist, Dr. Lacerda, started from the River Senna, and reached
Cazembe, where Lacerda fell a victim to the insalubrity of the climate.

“Antonio de Saldanha, anxious to realize a project so interesting to
geographical knowledge, and which he judged might besides be of great
importance to Portugal, had renewed the inquiries and investigations
that might suggest the means of attaining its accomplishment.
At Pungo Andongo, there lived one Francisco Honorato da Costa,
Lieutenant-Colonel of Militia, a clever man, and Chief of Cassange, the
farthest inland of the Portuguese vassal provinces. Through him Antonio
de Saldanha learnt that the territory of the Jaga, or Soba of Cassange,
was bounded to the east by another and more powerful kingdom, that of
the Moluas, with whom the Jaga was in constant intercourse, but whom he
prevented from treating directly with the Portuguese, so as to derive
the great advantage of monopolizing all the trade with the latter. For
this end the Jaga employed several absurd statements to intimidate the
Muata Yamba, or King of the Moluas, whose power he feared, telling him
that the Portuguese (or white men) issued out of the sea, that they
devoured negroes, that the goods he traded in were manufactured in his
dominions, and that if the Moluas invaded these, the Portuguese would
avenge him.

“As soon as the Governor was informed of these particulars, he ordered
Honorato to make himself acquainted with the position of the nation
of the Moluas. Honorato succeeded in sending his ‘Pombeiros’ (black
traders) to their principal town, where the Muata Yamba resided,
and where they were hospitably received. Convinced by them of the
falsehoods of the Jaga Cassange, the Muata, though still in fear,
decided to send his wife, who lived at some distance off, on an embassy
to the same effect to Loanda. Accompanied by Honorato’s ‘Pombeiros,’
the embassy, unable to pass the territory of the Soba Cassange, through
his opposition, proceeded to the country of the Soba Bomba, who not
only allowed them free passage, but likewise sent an ambassador to the
Portuguese. They arrived in January, 1808, at Loanda, where they were
received in state by the Governor.

“On arriving at the door of the audience-room, they advanced towards
the General with great antics, and delivered to him the presents
they had brought, which consisted of slaves, a zebra skin, several
skins of ‘ferocious monkeys,’ a mat, some straw baskets, two bars of
copper, and a sample of salt from Cazembe. After receiving the greatest
hospitality, they were sent back with presents for their respective
sovereigns. The ambassadors wore long beards, their heads adorned with
a great bunch of parrots’ feathers, grey and red, their arms and legs
covered with brass and iron rings; from a large monkey skin twisted and
hanging from one shoulder depended a large knife,--in their left hand
a spear, in the right a horse’s tail, as an emblem of authority, and
round the waist a striped cloth, over which hung a monkey skin, giving
them altogether a very wild and showy appearance. The ‘Pombeiros’
described the Moluas as a somewhat civilized nation; that the ‘Banza,’
or town of the Muata, was laid out in streets and shaded in summer,
to mitigate the heat of the sun and prevent dust; that they had a
flour and grain market for the housing and regular distribution of
provisions, and many squares or open spaces of large extent.

“The wife of the Muata lived at a distance from him of thirty or forty
leagues, in a country where she reigned as Queen absolute, and only saw
her husband on certain days in the year. The executions in the ‘Banza’
of the Queen amounted to eight, ten, and fifteen blacks per day, and
it is probable that in that of the Muata the number was not less. The
barbarity of their laws, and the want of communications by means of
which to get rid of their criminals, was the cause of this horrible
number of executions.”

Feo Cardozo, who expresses himself most strongly against slavery, here
observes: “Despite the theories and declamation of sensitive minds led
away by false notions of the state of the question, as long as the
barbarity and ignorance of the African nations shall exist, the barter
of slaves will always be considered by enlightened philanthropists
as the only palliative to the ferocity of the laws that govern those
nations.

“It was further ascertained from the ‘Pombeiros,’ that the nation of
Cazembe, where Dr. Lacerda had died, was feudatory to the Muata Yamba,
and in token of its vassalage paid him a yearly tribute of sea salt,
obtained from the eastern coast. The possibility of communication with
the east coast through the interior being now evident, the Governor
Saldanha instructed the ‘Pombeiros’ to retrace their steps towards the
east, and continue in that direction.

“It was during the succeeding Governorship of José d’Oliveira Barboza,
however, that the feasibility of such communication was finally
proved, for he sought out a black trader to go to Moçambique across
the interior, and return by the same route, bringing back answers from
the Governor of that Colony to letters sent him from Loanda. This fact
added nothing to geographical knowledge, from the ignorance of the man
who accomplished it.

“In 1813, this Governor formed the plan of conveying the waters of the
River Quanza into the city of Loanda, from a distance of about fourteen
leagues, by means of a canal, which was commenced in that year, and
the workings continued during 1814 and 1815, but abandoned after being
cut for a length of 3000 fathoms, on account of the difficulties
encountered for want of a previous survey.”

No attempt has since been made to supply the city with water from the
Quanza, or from the still nearer River Bengo; besides the great boon
such a work would confer on the hot and dry town, it could not fail to
be a great success from a monetary point of view.

[Illustration: PLATE I.

TRAVELLING IN ANGOLA--VIEW NEAR AMBRIZ.

  _To face page 23._]




CHAPTER II.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY--CHARACTER OF VEGETATION--RIVERS.


The Portuguese possessions of Angola on the south-west coast of Africa
extend from Ambriz in 7° 49´ S. Lat. to Cape Frio in 18° 20´ S. Lat.
Their farthest establishment south is, however, at Mossamedes, or
Little Fish Bay, in 15° 20´ S. Lat.

Throughout this book in speaking of Angola I include not only the
country from Mossamedes to Ambriz, at present occupied by the
Portuguese, but farther north, as far as the River Congo, that being
its strong natural limit of climate, fauna, and ethnology, as I shall
further explain.

This long extent of coast comprises, as may be readily imagined,
considerable variety in geological formation, physical configuration,
climate, vegetation, and natural productions, tribes of natives, and
different languages, habits, and customs.

The coast-line is nowhere very bold; level sandy bays, fringed with a
belt of the dark evergreen mangrove, alternate with long stretches of
cliffs, seldom attaining any great height or grandeur, and covered with
a coarse branching grass (_Eragrostis_ sp.), small patches of shrubby
scrub, a tall cactus-like tree Euphorbia, and the gigantic towering
Baobab with its fantastic long gourd-like fruit. (Plate I.)

The “Calema,” or surf-wave, with its ceaseless roar, breaks heavily in
long white lines on the smooth beach, and pulverizes the hardest rock,
and every particle of shell and animal structure. It dashes against the
base of the cliffs, resounding loudly in its mad fury as it has done,
wave after wave and hour after hour, for unknown ages; and the singular
absence of gulls or any moving living objects, or noises, to divert the
eye or ear from the dreadful monotony of constantly recurring sound,
and line after line of dazzling white foam, gives a distinctive and
excessively depressing character to the coast, in harmony, as it were,
with the enervating influence of its climate.

The character of the Angolan landscape is entirely different from that
of the West Coast proper; say from Cape Verde to the Gaboon and the
River Congo. Along that great length of coast are hundreds of square
miles of brackish and salt-water lagoons and swamps, level with the
sea, and often only separated from it by a narrow mangrove-fringed
beach. The bottom of these lagoons is generally a soft deep black
fetid mud, and a stick plunged into it comes up thickly covered with
a mass nearly approaching in appearance to paste blacking. In the dry
season great expanses of the bottom of these swamps become partially
dry, and fermenting in the hot tropical sun cause a horrible stench,
from the decayed millions of small fish, crabs, &c., left exposed on
the surface. The number of fish and some of the lower forms of life
inhabiting the mud and water of the lagoons is almost incredible. If
one keeps quite still for a few minutes, the slimy ground becomes
perfectly alive and hissing from the legions of small brightly coloured
land crabs that issue simultaneously from thousands of round holes,
from the size of a quill to about an inch and a-half in diameter.

It is in these gigantic hotbeds of decomposition that the deadly types
of African fever are, I believe, mostly generated; and these pest
waters and mud, when swept into the rivers by the floods in the rainy
season, are carried far and wide, with what effect to human life on
that coast it is needless to mention.

On those parts of the West Coast where level swampy ground is not
the rule, a most agreeable change is seen in the character of the
landscape, although, perhaps, the climate is just as unhealthy.
Drenched constantly by pelting thunderstorms, and drizzling mists that
roll down from the high lands and mountain-tops, the country is covered
by the most luxuriant forest vegetation, in one expanse of the deepest
unvarying green, the combined result of excessive moisture and the
tropical sun of an almost uninterrupted summer.

This alternation of swamp and dense forest ends completely on arriving
at the River Congo, and a total change to the comparatively arid
country of Angola takes place; in fact, at about 13° S. Lat. it becomes
almost a perfectly arid, rocky, and sandy desert.

I may say that, without exception, from the River Congo to Mossamedes
no dense forest is seen from the sea, and from thence not a single
tree, it is said, for hundreds of miles to the Orange River. A little
mangrove, lining the insignificant rivers and low places in their
vicinity, is all that varies the open scrub, of which the giant
Adansonias and Euphorbias have taken, as it were, exclusive possession.
Nowhere on the coast is seen more than an indication of the wonderful
vegetation, or varied beauty and fertility, which generally begins at a
distance of from thirty to sixty miles inland.

At this distance, a ridge or hilly range runs along the whole length
of Angola, forming the first elevation; a second elevation succeeds it
at about an equal distance; and a third, at perhaps twice the distance
again, lands us on the central high plateau of Africa.

From the few and insignificant streams traversing Angola to the coast,
which at most only reach sufficiently far inland to have their source
at this third elevation or central plateau, it would seem that a great
central depression or fall drains the waters of that part of Africa in
either an easterly or southerly direction.

I think it is very doubtful whether the Congo, with its vast body
of water and rapid current, drains any large extent of country in
an easterly direction to the interior, beyond the first rapids. The
gradual elevation from the coast to the ridge beyond which the central
plateau begins, and from which the streams that drain Angola seem to
have their source, may have been formed by the upheaval of the country
by volcanic action. Of this there is evidence in the trachytes and
basalts of Cambambe and the country to the south of Benguella, which
form an anticlinal axis running the whole length of Angola, and thus
prevent the drainage of the interior to the sea on this part of the
coast.

These successive elevations inland are accompanied by very remarkable
changes in the character of the vegetation covering the surface of the
country, and in my several excursions and explorations to the interior
from Ambriz to Bembe, from Loanda to the Pungo Andongo range, from Novo
Redondo to Mucelis, and to the interior of Benguella and Mossamedes,
I have had frequent opportunities of remarking these very singular
and sudden changes. These are due, I believe, as Dr. Welwitsch has
pointed out, to the difference of elevation alone, irrespective of its
geological formation.

A sketch of the vegetation of the country traversed by the road
from Ambriz to Bembe, where is situated the wonderful deposit of
malachite,--a distance of about 120 miles E.N.E.--will give an idea
of the general character of the change observed in travelling towards
the interior of Angola. For about twenty-five miles from Ambriz the
vegetation is, as already described, principally composed of enormous
Baobabs, Euphorbias, a tall Agave (or aloe), a tree called “Muxixe” by
the natives, bearing curious seed-pods (_Sterculia tomentosa_), a few
small slender creepers, great abundance of the _Sansevieria Angolensis_
in the thickets of prickly bushes, and coarse short tufty grasses,--the
branching grass being only found near the coast for a few miles. The
country is pretty level, dry, and stony, of weathered large-grained
gneiss. At Matuta the scene suddenly and magically changes, and in so
striking a manner as to impress even the most unobservant traveller.
The Baobabs become much fewer in number, the Agaves, the Sansevieria,
the Euphorbias, suddenly and almost completely disappear, as also do
most of the prickly shrubs, the fine trailing and creeping plants, the
Muxixe, and several other trees, and a number of smaller plants. A new
set of larger, shadier trees and shrubs take their place, the grass
becomes tall and broad-leaved, and one seems to be travelling in an
entirely new country.

This character is preserved for another stretch of road till Quiballa
is reached, about sixty miles from the coast, where the rise in level
is more marked; and again the vegetation changes, almost as remarkably
as at Matuta, where, however, the difference in altitude is not so
sudden, but a gradual rise is noticed all the way from Ambriz. Creepers
of all kinds, attaining a gigantic size, here almost monopolize the
vegetation, clasping round the biggest trees, and covering them with
a mass of foliage and flower, and forming most exquisite festoons
and curtains as they web, as it were, one tree to another in their
embrace. No words can describe the luxuriance of these tree creepers,
particularly in the vicinity of the shallow rivers and rivulets of
the interior. Several trees together, covered from top to bottom with
a rich mantle of the India-rubber creeper (_Landolphia florida_?),
with bright, large dark-green leaves somewhat resembling those of
the magnolia, thickly studded with large bunches of purest white
jasmine-like flowers, loading the air for a considerable distance with
its powerful bitter-almond perfume, and attracting a cloud of buzzing
insects, form altogether a sight not easily forgotten. Once at Bembe
I saw a perfect wall or curtain formed by a most delicate creeper,
hung from top to bottom with bottle-brush-like flowers about three
inches long;--but the grandest view presented to my eyes was in the
Pungo Andongo range, where the bottom of a narrow valley, for quite
half a mile in length, was filled, as they all are in the interior, by
a dense forest of high trees; the creepers, in search of light, had
pierced through and spread on the top, where their stems and leaves had
become woven and matted into a thick carpet on which their flowers were
produced in such profusion that hardly a leaf was visible, but only one
long sea of beautiful purple, like a glacier of colour--filling the
valley and set in the frame of green of the luxuriant grass-covered
hill sides. The very blacks that accompanied me, so little impressed
as they are usually by the beauties of nature, beat their open mouths
with the palm of the hand as they uttered short “Ah! ah! ahs!” their
universal mode of expressing astonishment or delight, so wonderful,
even to them, appeared the magnificent mass of colour below us as it
suddenly came in view when we arrived at the head of the valley, down
one side of which we descended to the plain below.

I have seen the surface of a large pool of water thickly covered with a
layer of purple pea-shaped flowers, fallen from the large Wistaria-like
bunches of blossom of a creeper overgrowing a mass of trees standing
at the edge: it seemed as if Nature, loth that so much beauty should
fade quickly, had kept for some time longer the fallen flowers fresh
and lovely on the cool still water of the shady lake. This abundance
of creeping plants is more or less preserved till at about sixty miles
farther inland we arrive at Bembe and the comparatively level country
stretching away to the interior; the oil-palm (_Elæis Guineensis_)
then becomes again abundant, these trees being only found on the coast
in any number in the vicinity of the rivers; the beautiful feathery
papyrus also again covers the lagoons and wet places.

The comparatively short and spare thin-leaved and delicate tufted
grasses of the first or littoral region are succeeded in the second, as
I have already said, by much stronger kinds, attaining an extraordinary
development in the highest or third region. Gigantic grasses from five
to as much as sixteen feet high, growing luxuriantly, cover densely
the vast plains and tracts of country in these two regions where tree
vegetation is scarce. The edges of the blades of most of these tall
grasses are so stiff and finely and strongly serrated as to be quite
sharp, and if passed quickly over the skin will cause a deep cut, as
clean as if done with a knife; one species is called by the natives
“Capim de faca” in Portuguese, or “knife grass,” from the manner in
which it cuts if handled, or in going through it.

I have often had my hands bleeding from cuts inflicted by this grass
when in going down steep, dry, slippery places I have clutched at the
high grass on each side of me to prevent falling. To any one accustomed
to grass only a few inches high, the dimensions that these species
attain are simply incredible. Like snow and ice in northern latitudes,
grasses in interior tropical Africa for some six months in the year
take undisputed possession of the country and actually interrupt all
communication in many places.

It is a very strange feeling when travelling in a hammock, to be forced
through grass so dense and so high that nothing but the sky above can
be seen,--a wall of dry rustling leaves on each side shutting out all
view sometimes for mile after mile, and so intensely hot and breathless
as to be almost unbearable, causing the perspiration to run in drops
off the wet, shining, varnished skins of the almost naked blacks. In
going through places where the grass has nearly choked up all signs of
a path, it is necessary to send in advance all the blacks of the party,
so as to open aside and widen it sufficiently to allow the traveller in
his hammock to be carried and pushed through the dense high mass: even
if there be a moderate breeze blowing it is, of course, completely shut
out; the perspiration from the negroes is wiped on the grass as they
push through it, now shoving it aside with their hands and arms, now
forcing their way through it backwards, and it is most disagreeable
to have the wetted leaves constantly slapping one’s face and hands, to
say nothing of the horrible stink from their steaming bodies. It is a
powerful odour, and the quiet hot air becomes so impregnated with it
as to be nearly overpowering. It is difficult to compare it with any
other disagreeable animal smell; it is different from that of the white
race, and the nearest comparison I can give is a mixture of putrid
onions and rancid butter well rubbed on an old billy-goat. In some it
is a great deal worse than in others, but none, men or women, are free
from it, even when their bodies are at rest or not sensibly perspiring;
and it being a natural secretion of the skin, of course no amount of
washing or cleanliness will remove it. The mulattoes, again, have it,
but different, and not generally so strong as the pure black, and with
a more acid odour, reminding one strongly of the caprylic and similar
acids known to chemists. The natives themselves naturally do not notice
it, and after some time of residence in the country, except in very
powerful cases, strangers become comparatively accustomed to it, and,
as showing how a person may in time become used to nastiness, I have
even partaken of a dish in which were some forcemeat balls that I had
previously watched the negro cook roll with the palm of his hand on his
naked stomach, to make them of a proper round shape, without spoiling
my appetite or preventing me from joining in the deserved praise of the
stew that contained them.

The Portuguese and Brazilians call the smell that exhales from the
bodies of the blacks “Catinga,” and I witnessed an amusing instance
of its effect on a dog, when it smelt it for the first time. On my
second voyage to Angola, I took with me a beautiful “perdigueiro,” or
Portuguese pointer, from Lisbon; this animal had evidently never smelt
a negro before our arrival at Ilha do Principe (Prince’s Island); for,
on two of the blacks from the custom-house boat coming on the poop, it
began sniffing the air at some distance from where they were standing,
and carefully and slowly approached them with its neck and nose at full
stretch, with a look on its intelligent face of the greatest curiosity
and surprise. On approaching within three or four yards, the smell of
the blacks, who kept quite still, being afraid it might bite them,
seemed too much for its sensitive nose, and it sneezed and looked
perfectly disgusted. It continued to approach them and sneeze and
retreat repeatedly for some little time, evidently unable to get used
to the powerful perfume. The poor dog’s unmistakeable expression of
thorough dislike to the odour of the black race was most comical.

An old Brazilian mule that I had at Benguella could not bear the blacks
to saddle her or put her bridle and head-gear on; she would throw back
her ears, and suddenly make a snap with her teeth at the black who
attempted it. She was a very tame animal, and would be perfectly quiet
to a white man. She had been seventeen years in Benguella before she
came into my possession, but never became used to negroes; whether she
disliked them from their disagreeable odour, or from some other reason,
I could not discover; but, judging from the dog’s decided antipathy,
I presume their smell was her principal objection, and yet it is very
singular that wild animals in Africa will scent a white sooner than
a black hunter. I have heard this from many persons in Angola, both
blacks and whites. It would be interesting to know if our hunters at
the Cape have noticed the same thing. The fact that, notwithstanding
the “Catinga,” black hunters can lie in ambush, and antelope and other
game come so close to them that they can fire the whole charge of their
flint muskets, wadding and all, into them, is well known in Angola.

Whilst exploring for minerals in Cambambe, I was prevented for a
long time from visiting several localities, from the paths to them
being choked up with grass. It is difficult to imagine how exhausting
it is to push through thick, high grass; in a very short time one
becomes completely out of breath, and the arms hang powerless with the
exertion: the heat and suffocating stillness of the air may have as
much to do with this as the amount of force exerted to push aside the
yielding, rustling mass.

Shortly after the rains cease in May, the grass, having flowered and
attained its full growth, rapidly dries up under the hot sun, and is
then set on fire by the blacks, forming the wonderful “Queimadas,”
literally “burnings,” of the Portuguese, and “smokes” of the English in
the Bights. If only the leaves are sufficiently dry to catch fire, the
stems are left green, with a black ring at every joint or base of the
leaf, and the mass of whip-like stems then looks like a forest of long
porcupine quills. This is very disagreeable to travel through, as the
half-burnt stems spring back and cross in every direction behind the
front bearer of the hammock, and poke into the traveller’s face, and
thrash the hands when held up to save the eyes from injury, and after
a day’s journey one gets quite black, with eyes and throat sore and
parched from the charcoal dust and fine alkaline ash.

When the grass has become thoroughly dry, the effect of the “Queimada”
is indescribably grand and striking. In the daytime the line of fire
is marked by a long cloud of beautiful white steam-like smoke curling
slowly up, dense and high in the breathless air, in the most fantastic
forms against the clear blue sky. This cloud of smoke is closely
accompanied by a perfect flock of rapacious birds of every size and
description, from the magnificent eagle to the smallest hawk, circling
and sailing high and grandly in the air, and now and then swooping
down upon the unfortunate rats, mice, and small animals, snakes, and
other reptiles, burnt and left exposed by the conflagration. Near the
blazing grass the scene is very fine, a deafening noise is heard as
of thousands of pistol shots, caused by the imprisoned air bursting
every joint of the long stems, and the loud rush and crackling of the
high sheet of flame, as it catches and consumes the dry upright straw.
One is inspired with awe and a feeling of puny insignificance before
the irresistible march of the flames that are rapidly destroying the
enormous extent of the dense, nearly impenetrable mass of vegetation
covering the surface of the country, leaving it perfectly bare with the
exception of a few charred root stumps of grass, and a few stunted,
scorched shrubs and trees. At night the effect is wonderfully fine:
the vast wall of fire is seen over hill and valley, as far as the eye
can reach; above the brilliant leaping flames, so bright in the clear
atmosphere of the tropical night, vast bodies of red sparks are shot up
high into the cloud of smoke, which is of the most magnificent lurid
hue from the reflection of the grand blaze below.

No trees or shrubs are consumed by the burning of the grasses,
everything of a larger growth being too green to take fire; a whitening
or drying of the leaves is generally the only effect even where the
light annual creepers growing on them have been consumed. Forest
or jungle in Angola, unlike other countries, never burns, and is
consequently the refuge of all the larger animals and birds from the
“Queimadas,” which are undoubtedly the cause in many parts of Angola of
the great scarcity of animal and insect life which strikes a traveller
expecting to meet everywhere the great abundance known to exist in the
interior.

Great is the alarm of the natives on the near approach of these fires
to their towns, the whole population turning out, and with branches
of trees beating out the fire. It is seldom, however, that their huts
are consumed, as the villages are generally situated in places where
trees and shrubs abound, and the different huts are mostly separated by
hedges of different species of Euphorbiaceæ. Many villages are entirely
surrounded by a thick belt of these milky-juiced plants, effectually
guarding them from any chance of fire from the grass outside. Where the
huts are not thus protected, the danger, of course, is very great, but
the natives sometimes take the precaution of setting fire to patches
of the grass to clear a space around the huts or village. There is no
danger in travelling from these grass fires, for, when they are seen
approaching, their rate of progress being slow, it is sufficient to set
fire to the dry grass to leeward to clear a space in which to encamp in
safety.

The change in vegetation is also accompanied by difference of climate,
but it is difficult to say whether they react on each other, and if
so, in what proportion. The rains are very much more abundant and
constant towards the interior of the country, where the vegetation is
densest: on the coast the rains are generally very deficient, and some
seasons entirely fail; this is more especially the case south of about
12° Lat., several successive rainy seasons passing without a single
drop of rain falling. A three years’ drought in the interior of Loanda
is still vividly remembered, the inhabitants, from their improvident
habits, perishing miserably by thousands from starvation. In my mining
explorations at Benguella, I was at Cuio under a cloudless sky for
twenty-six months, in the years 1863 and 1864, with hardly a drop of
water falling.

I had under my charge at that time twenty-four white men, and between
400 and 600 blacks at work on a copper deposit, mining and carrying
ore to the coast, distant about four miles; and no one accustomed to
a constant supply of water, can imagine the anxiety and work I had to
go through to obtain the necessary amount for that large number of
thirsty people, very often barely sufficient for drinking purposes; no
water fit for drinking or cooking was to be had nearer than six miles,
and as no bullock carts could be employed, it had all to be carried in
kegs on men’s shoulders, and by a troop of the most miserable, small,
idiotically stubborn donkeys that can be imagined from the Cape de
Verde Islands. It was impossible always to be looking after the blacks
told off daily on water duty, and words cannot express the annoyance
and vexation that the rascals constantly caused us, by getting drunk on
the road, wilfully damaging the kegs, selling the water to natives on
their way back, bringing the filthiest water out of muddy pools instead
of clear from the proper place, sleeping on the road, and keeping all
waiting, sometimes without a drop of water, very often till far into
the night. This was no joke when we were thirsty, hungry, dusty, and
tired, after a hot day’s work blasting rock, breaking up copper ore
in the sun at the mine in the bottom of a circular valley, where the
little air above seldom reached, and where the dazzling white sand and
gneiss rock, bare of nearly all vegetation, reflected and intensified
the glare and heat almost unbearably in the hot season.

In going from north to south the character of the vegetation changes
very insensibly from the River Congo to Mossamedes. As far as
Ambrizzette the Mateba palm (_Hyphæne Guineensis_) is very abundant.
This palm-tree, unlike the oil-palm, which is only found near water,
or in rich soil, grows on the dry cliffs and country of the littoral
region very abundantly as far as about Ambriz. The leaves of this
palm-tree are employed to make small bags, in which most of the
ground-nuts are exported from the coast. The Cashew-tree (_Anacardium
occidentale_) grows on this part of the coast from Congo to Ambrizzette
still more abundantly, in many places there being hardly any other tree
or shrub; it is also very plentiful again around Loanda, but to the
south it nearly disappears. A thin stemmy Euphorbia, nearly leafless,
is a principal feature of the landscape about Loanda, and gives it a
very dull and arid appearance. The cactus-like, upright Euphorbia is a
notable characteristic of the whole coast of Angola.

South of Benguella the country is extremely arid, the gneiss, gypsum,
and basalt, of which it is principally composed, appearing only to
afford nourishment to a very limited vegetation, both in number or
species, principally spiny trees and shrubs with numbers of dreadful
recurved prickles, nearly bare of leaves a great part of the year,--and
over immense tracts of very uneven ground even these are scarce: only
the gigantic Euphorbias, and the stunted roots of grass sparingly
distributed, break the monotony of a silent, dry, rocky desert.

A very curious creeper, a species of Cassytha, is extremely abundant
in Benguella, covering the shrubs and small trees closely with its
network of leafless string-like stems. The _Sansevieria Angolensis_ is
very plentiful all over the littoral region of Angola; the flat-leaved
species (_S. longiflora_) is only noticed north from Ambriz to Congo,
and only growing very near the sea: the S. Angolensis is but rarely
seen with it, and it is very curious how distinctly these two species
are separated. In the immediate vicinity of all the rivers and streams
of Angola the vegetation is, as might be expected, generally very
luxuriant, particularly north of Benguella.

The total absence of horned cattle among the natives on the coast,
from the River Congo to south of the River Quanza, is very remarkable;
due, I believe, as much to some influence of climate, or poisonous or
irritant nature of the vegetation, as to the neglect of the natives
to breed them, though a few small herds of cattle to be seen at
Ambrizzette and Quissembo belonging to the white traders, and brought
by the natives far from the interior, appear to thrive very well, and
several Portuguese have bred fine herds at the River Loge, about three
miles from Ambriz; they would not thrive, however, at Bembe, where
those that were purchased from the ivory caravans from the interior
gradually became thin and died. The natives south of the Quanza beyond
the Quissama country, as far as Mossamedes, breed large numbers of
cattle--their principal wealth, in fact, consisting of their herds.
The district of Loanda cannot supply itself with cattle sufficient for
its moderate consumption, a large proportion having to be brought from
Cambambe and Pungo Andongo and even much farther from the interior.

South of the Congo there is only one navigable river, the Quanza, in 9°
20´ S., and even the bar and mouth of this are shifty, and so shallow
as only to admit vessels drawing not more than five or six feet of
water, and this only at high tides. The Rivers Dande and Bengo are only
navigable by barges for a few miles; others, such as the Ambrizzette,
Loge, Novo Redondo, Quicombo, Egito, Anha, Catumbella, and Luache,
barely admit the entrance of a canoe, and their bars are often closed
for a considerable time in the dry season; the beds of others are
completely dried up for miles inland at that time of the year, and it
is very curious to see the level sandy bed without water between the
luxuriant and creeper-covered banks, and the borders of sedge and grass.

Although dry on the surface, cool delicious water is met with at a few
inches below. I shall never forget, on my first journey into Cambambe,
the haste with which we pushed forward, on an intensely hot morning,
in order to arrive at the River Mucozo, a small stream running into
the Quanza. We had encamped the night before at a place where only a
small supply of water was to be had from a filthy and muddy hole, and
so thick and ochrey was it that, even after boiling and straining,
it was nearly undrinkable; on reaching the high banks of the Mucozo,
great was my disappointment to see the bed of the river one long
expanse of dry sand shining in the hot sun, and my hope of water, as
I thought, gone! Not so the blacks, who raised a loud shout as they
caught sight of it, dashed in a race down the banks, and throwing
themselves on the sand quickly scooped out a hole about six inches deep
with their hands, and lying flat on their bellies stuck their faces in
it, and seemed never to finish drinking to their hearts’ content the
inexpressibly refreshing, cool, filtered water. After having only dirty
and thick water to drink, not improved by coffee or bad rum, after a
long, hot day’s journey, tired and exhausted, the ground for a bed,
mosquitoes, and a smoky fire on each side to keep them off, fleas and
other biting things from the sand, that nip and sting but are not seen
or caught, snatches of sleep, feverish awakening in the morning, with
parched mouth, the perspiration dried on the face and skin, gritty
and crystallized and salt to the feel and taste, no water to drink or
wash with, the sun out and shining strong again almost as soon as it
is daylight, and hurry, hurry, through dry grass and sand without a
breath of air, and with the thermometer at 90° in the shade, for four
or five hours before we reached the Mucozo--it was no wonder I was
disinclined to move from the place till the afternoon came, and the
great heat of the day was passed; or that I thought the water, fresh
and cold from its clean sandy bed, the most delicious drink that could
be imagined!

The delight of a drink of pure cold water in hot climates has over and
over again been described by all travellers, but it is impossible to
realize it fully without experiencing the sensations that precede and
cause the thirst that only cold water seems to satisfy.

The River Luache, at Dombe Grande, near the sea, in the province of
Benguella, is dry for some miles inland every year, and its bed of
pure, clean, deep sand is as much as half a mile broad at that place.
The first great rains in the interior generally come down the dry
beds of these rivers suddenly, like a great torrent or wave, and I
was fortunate enough to be at Dombe Grande once when the water came
down the Luache from the interior. It was a grand sight to see a wave
the whole breadth of the river, and I should judge about eight feet
high, driving before and carrying with it an immense mass of trees
and branches, roots, sedges, and grasses all confused and rolling
irresistibly to the sea, with a dull rushing roar, quite unlike the
noise one would imagine a body of water to make, but more like a
rush of rocks down a mountain in the distance; and very strange and
agreeable was the change in the landscape--a broad desert of white sand
suddenly transformed into a vast running river of fresh water, bringing
gladness to all living things.

The sandy bars of some of the other small rivers of Angola become
closed sometimes for several months, but the stream remains of about
the same volume, or opens out into a pool or lake, or partly dries up
into lovely sedgy pools inhabited by wild-fowl of various kinds, and
fields of beautiful aquatic grasses and papyrus plants, in which I
have often seen caught by hand the singular fresh-water fish “Bagre”
(_Clarias Capensis_, _Bagrus_, &c.) vigorously alive, left behind by
the diminishing waters, in grassy swampy places where the foot hardly
sank ankle deep in water, and where it was certainly not deep enough
to cover them. The dry sandy beds of rivers in the rainless season
are often completely covered with a magnificent growth of the Palma
Christi, or Castor Oil plant, with its beautiful large leaves. This
I have noticed more particularly in the district of Novo Redondo and
Benguella.

Sharks, so frightfully dangerous in the surf of the West Coast, are
unknown south of the River Congo. I have never heard of a person being
attacked by one, although at Loanda the white population bathe off
the island in front of the town, and blacks dabble about in the sea
everywhere, and swim to and from the boats and barges.

No strikingly high mountain, I believe, exists in Angola; no hills of
any great importance till we arrive at the first rise, which, as we
have seen, extends the whole length of Angola at a distance of from
thirty to sixty miles from the sea. The second and third elevations
contain some fine mountain or hill ranges, as at Bembe, Pungo Andongo,
Cazengo, Mucellis, and Capangombe. To the south of Benguella as far as
Mossamedes flat-topped or table hills, perfectly bare of vegetation,
are a very prominent feature, seen from the sea; they are of basalt,
and are about 200 or 300 feet in height, and are in many places the
only remains left of a higher level. In others, this higher level still
exists for a considerable extent, deeply cut by narrow gorges and
ravines leading towards the sea, with nearly perpendicular sides.




CHAPTER III.

 THE RIVER CONGO A BOUNDARY--SLAVE TRADE--SLAVERY--ORDEAL BY
 POISON--INSENSIBILITY OF THE NEGRO--INGRATITUDE.


The River Congo, or Zaire, is a very striking and well-marked line
of division or boundary, in respect of climate, fauna, natives and
customs, between Angola and the rest of the West Coast.

The difference in the scenery and vegetation from those of the north is
very great indeed, and not less so is that of the birds and animals.
I have noticed enough to convince me that it would well repay a
naturalist to investigate the number of species this river cuts off,
as it were, from Angola; the gorilla and chimpanzee, for instance, are
only known north of the Congo; they are found at Loango and Landana,
and from reports of the natives, even near to the river itself; many
species of monkeys, very abundant at Cabinda and on the north bank,
are quite unknown in Angola; and the ordinary grey parrot, which is to
be seen in flocks on the Congo, is also unknown to the south--the only
exception to this rule, as far as I have been able to ascertain, being
at Cassange, about 300 miles to the interior of Loanda, where the rare
“King parrot,” with red feathers irregularly distributed among the grey
ones, is not uncommon. Of small birds I have noticed many at Cabinda
that I never observed in Angola; the same with butterflies, and other
insects.

The Congo is very deep, and the current is always very strong;
even above Boma (or M’Boma), about ninety miles distant from the
sea, the river is a vast body of water and the current still very
swift. From the mouth to beyond this place the banks are deeply cut
into innumerable creeks and rivers, and form many large islands.
The enormous quantity of fresh water poured by this river into the
sea gives rise to many curious speculations as to its extent and
probable sources. I am inclined to believe that the River Congo, or
its principal branch, after going in a north-east direction for a
comparatively short distance, bends to the southward, and will be
found to run for many degrees in that direction.

In the preceding chapter we have seen that south of the Congo no river
deserving of that name, or draining more than the country up to the
third elevation, exists in Angola. The vast country from the River
Congo to perhaps the Orange River, or about 1200 miles, has therefore
no outfall for its waters into the Atlantic Ocean.

The existence of volcanic rocks in Cambambe and Mossamedes appears
to explain the elevation of this part of the coast; how much farther
to the south this elevation has taken place is as yet unknown, and I
can only reconcile the vast body of water of the River Congo with the
absence of any large river farther south, by supposing it to bend down
and drain the long line of country upheaved on the seaboard: it is not
likely to drain much country to the north from the existence of several
rivers such as the Chiloango, Quillo, Massabi, and Mayumba, in a
distance of about 360 miles from its mouth to that of the River Gaboon
under the Equator.

For many years, and up to about the year 1868, the Congo was the
principal shipping place for slaves on the South-West Coast, the large
number of creeks in it affording safe hiding-places for loading the
ships engaged in the traffic, and the swift current enabling them to go
out quickly a long way to sea, and clear the line of cruisers. Boma was
the centre or point for the caravans of slaves coming from different
parts of the interior, and there was little or no trade in produce.

It may not be out of place here to say a few words on the slave-trade
of the South Coast, because a great deal of ignorance and misconception
exists on the subject from judging of it as having been similar to
the slave-trade in North and East Africa. Repugnant and wicked as is
the idea of slavery and dealing in human flesh, philanthropy must be
debited with an amount of unknowing cruelty and wholesale sacrifice
of life perfectly awful to contemplate, as a set-off against its
well-intentioned and successful efforts to put a stop to slavery and
the known horrors of the middle passage, and subsequent ill-treatment
at the hands of the planters.

In no part of Angola or among tribes to the interior have slave-hunts
ever existed as in the north; there are no powerful or more civilized
nations making war on weaker tribes for the purpose of obtaining
slaves, and devastating the country by fire and sword. There is very
little cruelty attending the state of slavery among the natives of
Angola, I believe I may say even in the greater part of the rest of
tropical Africa, but I will restrict myself to the part of which I have
an intimate knowledge. It is a domestic institution, and has existed,
as at present, since time immemorial; and there is no more disgrace or
discredit in having been born of slave parents, and consequently in
being a slave, than there is in Europe in being born of dependents or
servants of an ancestral house, and continuing in its service in the
same manner.

There is something patriarchal in the state of bondage among the
negroes, if we look at it from an African point of view (I must again
impress on my readers that all my remarks apply to Angola). The free
man, or owner, and his wife, have to supply their slaves with proper
food and clothing; to tend them in sickness as their own children, to
get them husbands or wives, as the case may be, to supply them with the
means of celebrating their festivals, such as their marriages, births,
or burials, in nearly the same way as amongst themselves; the slaves,
in fact, are considered as their family, and are always spoken of as
“my son,” or “my daughter.” If the daughters of slaves are chosen as
wives or concubines by their owners or other free men, it is considered
an honour, and their children, though looked upon as slaves, are
entitled to special consideration.

There is consequently no cruelty or hardship attending the state of
slavery; a male slave cannot be made by his master to cultivate the
ground, which is women’s work, and the mistress and her slaves till the
ground together.

A stranger set down in Angola, and not aware of the existence of
slavery, would hardly discover that such an institution prevailed
so universally amongst them, so little apparent difference is there
between the master and slave. A not very dissimilar condition of things
existed in the feudal times in England and other countries. Yet many
hundred thousand slaves were brought down to the coast to be sold to
the white men and shipped off, and I will now explain how this was the
case, paradoxical though it may appear after what I have just said.
The number was partly made up of surplus slave population sold off by
the owners, probably from inability to feed or clothe them; cases of
famine from failure of the crops, from drought, &c., a common local
occurrence, also supplied large numbers of slaves; but by far the
greatest part were furnished by the effect of their own laws, almost
every offence being punishable by slavery, to which not only the guilty
party, but even in many cases every member of his family was liable.

Offences against property are especially visited by the severe
penalties of slavery, fine, or death. Any one caught in the act of
stealing, be the amount ever so small, becomes at once the property
or slave of the person robbed. It is a common thing to see blacks
working in chains at factories and houses where they have been caught
stealing, the custom among the Europeans generally being to detain them
until their relatives shall have paid a ransom for them. I must do the
natives the justice to say that they are very observant of their own
laws, even to a white man alone in their territory, who claims their
protection against offenders. Certain offences that we should consider
trifling, are by some tribes visited with heavy punishment, such as
stealing Indian corn whilst growing, or an egg from under a sitting
hen. In other tribes breaking a plate or other article of crockery is
a great offence: this is especially the case to the interior of Novo
Redondo, where the punishment is death or slavery.

I was told there of the amusing manner in which a Portuguese trader
turned the tables on a Soba, or chief of a town, where he had
established himself, and who annoyed him greatly by his constant
demands for presents, by placing a cracked plate under a sheet on
his bed, on which the Soba was in the habit of sitting during his
too frequent visits. On the Soba sitting down as usual, on the trap
prepared for him, he, of course, smashed the plate to atoms, to his
great surprise; frightened at the possible result of the accident,
he humbly begged the trader not to let a soul in the place know of
it, promising restitution; the wished-for result of the scheme was
attained, as he ceased all his importunities during the remainder of
the trader’s stay in the country.

But all these sources of slaves for shipment were but a fraction of
the number supplied by their belief in witchcraft. Witchcraft is their
principal, or only belief; every thing that happens has been brought
about by it; all cases of drought, sickness, death, blight, accident,
and even the most trivial circumstances are ascribed to the evil
influence of witchery or “fetish.”

A “fetish” man is consulted, and some poor unfortunate accused and
either killed at once or sold into slavery, and, in most cases, all
his family as well, and every scrap of their property confiscated and
divided amongst the whole town; in other cases, however, a heavy fine
is imposed, and inability to pay it also entails slavery; the option of
trial by ordeal is sometimes afforded the accused, who often eagerly
demand it, such is their firm belief in it.

This extremely curious and interesting ordeal is by poison, which is
prepared from the thick, hard bark of a large tree, the _Erythrophlæum
Guineense_ (Oliver, ‘Flora of Tropical Africa,’ ii. 320). Dr. Brunton
has examined the properties of this bark, and finds that it possesses
a very remarkable action. The powder, when inhaled, causes violent
sneezing; the aqueous extract, when injected under the skin of
animals, causes vomiting, and has a remarkable effect upon the vagus
nerve, which it first irritates and then paralyses. The irritation of
this nerve makes the heart beat slowly. (Fuller details may be found
in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society’ for this year.) It is called
“casca” by the natives, and I obtained a specimen at Bembe, which was
brought to me concealed in rags, by a half-witted water-carrier in my
service, and he procured it for me only after my promising him that I
would not tell anyone. He said it was from a tree growing about half a
day’s journey off, but I could not get him to take me to it. The other
blacks denied all knowledge of it, and said it was “fetish” for anyone
to have it in his possession. On two occasions afterwards, I obtained
some more specimens from natives of Cabinda, where the tree is said to
be abundant, and the natives very fond of referring all their disputes
and accusations to its decision.

“Casca” is prepared by the bark being ground on a stone to a fine
powder, and mixed with about half a pint of cold water, a piece about
two inches square being said to be a dose. It either acts as an emetic
or as a purgative; should the former effect take place, the accused is
declared innocent, if the latter, he is at once considered guilty, and
either allowed to die of the poison, which is said to be quick in its
action, or immediately attacked with sticks and clubs, his head cut off
and his body burnt.

All the natives I inquired of agreed in their description of the
effect produced on a person poisoned by this bark; his limbs are first
affected and he loses all power over them, falls to the ground, and
dies quickly; without much apparent suffering.

It is said to be in the power of the “fetish” man to prepare the
“casca” mixture in such a manner as to determine which of the effects
mentioned shall be produced; in case of a dispute, both parties drink
it, and according as he allows the mixture to settle, and gives one
the clear liquid and the other the dregs, so does it produce vomiting
in the former, and acts as a purgative in the latter case. I have very
little doubt that as the “fetish” man is bribed or not, so he can and
does prepare it.

The Portuguese in Angola strictly prohibit the use of “casca,” and
severely punish any natives concerned in a trial by this bark, but it
is nevertheless practised in secret everywhere.

The occasion of the test is one of great excitement, and is accompanied
by much cruelty. In some tribes the accused, after drinking the potion,
has to stoop and pass under half-a-dozen low arches made by bending
switches and sticking both ends into the ground; should he fall down in
passing under any of the arches, that circumstance alone is sufficient
to prove him guilty, without waiting for the purgative effect to be
produced.

Before the trial the accused is confined in a hut, closely guarded,
and the night before it is surrounded by all the women and children
of the neighbouring towns, dancing and singing to the horrid din of
their drums and rattles. On the occasion of the ordeal the men are all
armed with knives, matchets, and sticks, and the moment the poor devil
stumbles in going under one of the switches, he is instantly set upon
by the howling multitude and beaten to death, and cut and hacked to
pieces in a few minutes. I was at Mangue Grande on one occasion when
a big dance was going on the night before a poor wretch was to take
“casca.” I went to the town with some of the traders at that place,
and we offered to ransom him, but to no purpose; nothing, they said,
could save him from the trial. I learnt, however, that he passed it
successfully, but I think I never heard such a hideous yelling as the
400 or 500 women and children were making round the hut, almost all
with their faces and bodies painted red and white, dancing in a perfect
cloud of dust, and the whole scene illuminated by blazing fires of dry
grass under a starlit summer sky.

The most insignificant and extraordinary circumstances are made the
subject of accusations of witchcraft, and entail the usual penalties.

I was at Ambrizzette when three Cabinda women had been to the river
with their pots for water; all three were filling them from the stream
together, when the middle one was snapped up by an alligator, and
instantly carried away under the surface of the water, and of course
devoured. The relatives of the poor woman at once accused the other
two of bewitching her, and causing the alligator to take her out of
their midst! When I remonstrated with them, and attempted to show
them the utter absurdity of the charge, their answer was, “Why did not
the alligator take one of the end ones then, and not the one in the
middle?” and out of this idea it was impossible to move them, and the
poor women were both to take “casca.” I never heard the result, but
most likely one or both were either killed or passed into slavery.

At a place near the mountain range of Pungo Andongo, about 150 miles
inland of Loanda, I was once the amused spectator at a curious trial
of a man for bewitching the spirit of his dead wife. Her sister, it
appeared, suffered from violent headaches, and sleepless nights, which
were said to be caused by the wife’s spirit being unable to rest, on
account of the widower being a wizard. A large circle of spectators
was formed round the sick sister, who was squatting on the ground; a
fetish man was beating a drum, and singing, or rather droning, some
incantation; after a little while, the woman began to give short yelps,
and to close her eyes, and on being interrogated by the fetish man,
said the spirit of her sister had spoken to her, and that she could
not rest until her husband had made restitution of her two goats and
her baskets, &c., which he had appropriated, and which she had desired
should be given to her sister. The man instantly rose, and brought the
goats, baskets, clothes, &c., and laid them before his sister-in-law,
and the trial was over. If he had denied the accusation, he would
inevitably have had to take “casca.”

When we consider the great population of the vast country that supplied
the slave trade of the coast, and that, as I have explained, the
state of their laws and customs renders all transgressions liable to
slavery, the absence of necessity for the slave wars and hunts of the
north of Africa and other extensive and thinly populated districts is
sufficiently proved. I have been unable to collect positive information
as to the statistics of the slaves shipped in Angola (from Congo to
Benguella inclusively), but the number could not have been far short of
100,000 per annum. I was told by some of the old inhabitants, that to
see as many as ten to twelve vessels loading at a time at Loanda and
Benguella was a common occurrence. At the time of the last shipments
from Benguella, about ten years ago, I have seen as many as 1000
slaves arrive in one caravan from the interior, principally from Bihé.

Up to within a very few years there existed a marble arm-chair on
the wharf at the custom-house at Loanda, where the bishop, in the
slave-trading times, was wont to sit, to baptize and bless the batches
of poor wretches as they were sent off in barge-loads to the vessels
in the harbour. The great slaughter now going on in a great part of
Africa, which I have mentioned as the result of the suppression of
the slave shipments from the coast, can now be understood; whereas
formerly they were sent to the coast to be sold to the white men and
exported, they are now simply murdered. On the road down from Bembe in
April last, we passed the ashes and bones of a black who had stolen
a trade-knife, a bit of iron in a small wooden handle, and made in
Germany at the rate of a few shillings per gross, and passed on the
coast in trade; on the top of his staff was stuck his skull and the
knife he had stolen, a ghastly and lasting warning to passersby of the
strict laws of the country respecting property.

If a famine overtakes any part of the country, a common occurrence,
the slaves are simply taken out and knocked on the head to save them
from starvation. I was told by the natives that the slaves offered no
resistance to that fate, but accepted it as inevitable, and preferable
to the pangs of hunger, knowing that it was no use going to the coast
to save their lives at the hands of the white men by being shipped as
slaves. At Musserra, three Cabinda blacks from the boats’ crews joined
three natives in robbing one of the factories: on complaint being made
to the king and principal men of the town, they marched off the three
Cabindas, promising to punish them, which they did by cutting off their
heads, unknown to the white men; they then brought the three natives
to deliver up to the traders as their slaves, but on these refusing
to accept them, and demanding that a severe punishment should also be
passed on them, they quietly tied a large stone to their necks, took
them out in a canoe to the bay, and dropped them into the sea.

It is impossible to reclaim the hordes of savages inhabiting the
interior even of Angola from their horrid customs and their disregard
for life; the insalubrity of the country, though it is infinitely
superior in this respect to the rest of the West Coast, would be an
almost insuperable bar to their improvement; their own progress is
still more hopeless. In my opinion, it would be necessary that tropical
Africa should undergo a total physical revolution, that the long line
of unhealthy coast should be upheaved, and the deadly leagues of
pestiferous swamps be thus drained, before the country would be fitted
for the existence of a higher type of mankind than the present negro
race.

It can only have been by countless ages of battling with malaria,
that they have been reduced physically and morally to their present
wonderful state or condition of withstanding successfully the climatic
influences, so fatal to the white and more highly organized race--the
sun and fevers of their malignant and dismal mangrove swamps, or
the mists and agues of their magnificent tropical forests, no more
affecting them than they do the alligators and countless mosquitoes
that swarm in the former, or the monkeys and snakes that inhabit the
latter. It is really astonishing to see the naked negro, without a
particle of covering on his head (often shaved), in the full blaze of
the fierce sun, his daily food a few handfuls of ground-nuts, beans,
or mandioca-root, and very often most unwholesome water for drink. At
night he throws himself on the ground, anywhere, covers himself with
a thin grass or cotton cloth, nearly transparent in texture, without
a pillow, like a dog, and awakes in the morning generally wet through
with the heavy dew, and does not suffer the least pain or inconvenience
from the climate from infancy to old age unless his lungs become
affected.

The way babies are treated would be enough to kill a white child. The
women when at work on the plantations generally place them on a heap
of grass or on the ground, and are not at all particular to put them
in the shade, and I have often seen them naked and filthy, and covered
with a thick mass of large buzzing flies over their faces and bodies,
fast asleep, with the sun shining full on them. The women, in carrying
them tied behind their backs, seldom include their little heads in
the cloth that secures them, but leave them to swing and loll about
helplessly in every direction with the movement of walking.

Children, of any age, seldom cry, and when they do it is a kind of
howl; when hurt or punished, they very rarely shed tears, or sob, but
keep up a monotonous noise, which would never be imagined to be the
crying of a child, but rather a song.

I once saw, in one of the market-places in Loanda, a boy of about
sixteen lying on the ground, nearly naked, with his face and body
covered with flies, but none of the busy thronging crowd had thought
that he was dead and stiff, as I discovered when I touched him with
my foot, but thought he was simply asleep and basking in the sun: his
being covered with flies was too trivial a circumstance to attract any
attention.

The manner in which negroes receive most severe wounds, with apparently
little pain and absence of nervous shock, is most extraordinary. I have
often been told of this by the Portuguese surgeons, who remark the
absence of shock to the system with which negroes undergo amputations
and other severe operations (without chloroform), which are attended
by so much danger to the white race. I was staying at Ambrizzette when
a man came there with his right hand blown to a mass of shreds, from
the explosion of a gun-barrel; he was accompanied by his relatives, who
took him to the different factories to beg the white men to cut off
the hanging shreds of flesh and dress the injured part. All refused to
attend to the man, till a Frenchman gave them a sharp razor, arnica,
and balsam, and some bandages, and made them go out of the house
and enclosure to operate on the sufferer themselves, away from the
factories; which they did. About an hour after I was passing a group
of natives sitting round a fire, and amongst them was the wounded man
laughing and joking quite at his ease, and with his left hand roasting
ground-nuts with the rest, as if nothing had happened to him.

The reason the white men refused to help the wounded black was not
from want of charity or pity, as all would have done everything in
their power to alleviate his sufferings, but it was the singular
custom of the natives that prevented their doing so. Had he died, the
white man who ministered to him would have been made responsible for
his death, and would have been almost as heavily fined as if he had
murdered him! If he got well, as he did, his benefactor would have been
inconvenienced by heavy demands for his maintenance and clothing, and
expected to make presents to the king, &c., for he would be looked upon
as having saved his life, and consequently bound to support him, to a
certain extent, as he was, though alive, unable from the accident to
get his own living as readily as if he were uninjured. The Frenchman
got over this risk by giving the remedies, not to the wounded black
himself, but to his friends, and also making them clear out of the
precincts of the house; so that in no case, whether the man died or
lived, could any claim be made against him.

The only way to put a stop to the awful bloodshed now going on in the
interior would be to organize an emigration scheme, under the direct
supervision of the several governments who have entered into treaties
for the abolition of slavery, and transport the poor wretches, now
being murdered in cold blood by thousands, to tropical climates where
they might earn their living by the cultivation of those articles
necessary for consumption in civilized countries; their constitution
would enable them to resist the climate, and they would gradually
become civilized.

One great bar to their civilization in Angola, is that no tribe on the
coast can be induced to work for wages, except as servants in houses
and stores, and even these are mostly slaves of other natives, or work
to pay off some fine or penalty incurred in their towns. For some years
that I have been collecting the inner bark of the Adansonia digitata,
or Baobab tree (the application of which to paper-making I discovered
in 1858, and commenced working as a commercial speculation in 1865), I
have been unable to induce one single native to hire himself to work by
day or piecework; they will cut, prepare, and dry it, and bring it for
sale, but nothing will induce them to hire themselves, or their slaves,
to a white man.

There are at present in Angola several sugar and cotton plantations
worked by slaves, called at present “libertos,” who are meant by the
Portuguese Government to work ten years, as a compensation to their
owners for the capital expended in their purchase and for their
clothing, education and medical treatment. At a near date, the total
abolition of slavery in Angola has been decreed, and will come into
force; with the inevitable result of the ruin of the plantations, or
of its becoming a dead letter in the province.

By the native laws, a black once sold as a slave, and escaping back to
his tribe, is considered a free man, so that a planter at present has
no hold on his slaves; if they escape into the neighbouring towns, the
natives will only deliver them up on the payment of a certain amount,
very often more than he had cost in the first instance.

No amount of kindness or good done to a negro will have the slightest
influence in preventing him from leaving his benefactor without as much
as a “good-bye,” or a shadow of an excuse, and very often going from
a pampered existence to the certainty of the hard fare and life of
their free condition, and this, not from the slightest idea of love of
freedom, or anything of the kind, but simply from an animal instinct to
live a lazy and vegetative existence.

When I was at Cuio, working a copper deposit, a black called Firmino,
the slave of a Portuguese there, attached himself very much to me, and
was, seemingly, never so happy as when accompanying me in my trips
and rambles, and not from any payment I gave him, beyond a small and
occasional present. When his master was leaving the place, Firmino came
crying to me, begging me to buy him, that he might remain in my service
as my slave, promising that he would never leave me.

His master generally treating him with harshness, if not cruelty, I
took pity on him, and gave 13_l._ 10_s._ for him, a high and fancy
price there, but he was considered worth it from his great size and
strength, his speaking Portuguese perfectly, and good qualities
generally.

I explained to him that although I had bought him, he was a free man,
and could go at once if he liked; but that as long as he remained in my
service as my personal attendant, he should have clothes and pay. He
went on his knees to thank me and to swear in negro fashion, by making
a cross in the dust with his forefinger, that he would never leave me.
A fortnight after, having to send him with a bundle of clothes from
Benguella to Cuio, he delivered them to the person they were addressed
to, but joined three slaves in stealing a boat and sailing to Loanda.

A month after I received a letter from the police there advising
me that a nigger called Firmino had been caught with others in an
extensive robbery, and claimed to be my slave. I answered that he was
no slave of mine, detailing the circumstances of my freeing him, and
asking that he should be dealt with as he deserved. He was punished and
drafted as a soldier at Loanda, and on my meeting him there one day and
asking him his reason for leaving me, and treating me so ungratefully,
he said that “he did not know why he had done so;” and I do not believe
he did, or ever tried to find out, or bothered his head any more about
it.

It is no use disguising the fact that the negro race is, mentally,
differently constituted from the white, however disagreeable and
opposed this may be to the usual and prevailing ideas in this country.
I do not believe, and I fearlessly assert, that there is hardly
such a thing possible as the sincere conversion of a single negro
to Christianity whilst in Africa, and under the powerful influence
of their fellows. No progress will be made in the condition of the
negro as long as the idea prevails that he can be reasoned out of his
ignorance and prejudices, and his belief in fetish, or that he is the
equal of the white man; in fact, he must remain the same as he is now,
until we learn to know him properly, and what he really is.

Loanda was discovered in the year 1492, and since 1576 the white race
has never abandoned it. The Jesuits and other missionaries did wonders
in their time, and the results of their great work can be still noticed
to this day: thousands of the natives, for 200 miles to the interior,
can read and write very fairly, though there has hardly been a mission
or school, except in a very small way, at Loanda itself, for many many
years; but those accomplishments are all that civilization or example
has done amongst them. They all believe firmly in their fetishes and
charms, and though generally treated with the utmost kindness and
equality by the Portuguese, the negro race, and even the mulattoes,
have never advanced further than to hold secondary appointments, as
writers or clerks, in the public offices and shops, and to appear
(in public) in the most starched and dandyfied condition. I can only
recollect one black man who had at all distinguished himself in trade;
keeping low and filthy grog-shops being about the extent of their
business capacity. Another honourable exception is a Captain Dias, who
is the captain or governor of the district of the “Barra do Bengo,”
near Loanda, a very intelligent man, and from whom I several times
experienced great kindness and hospitality.

[Illustration: PLATE II.

  PORTO DA LENHA.        _To face page 81._]




CHAPTER IV.

 THE RIVER CONGO--BANANA--PORTO DA LENHA--BOMA--MUSSURONGO
 TRIBE--PIRATES--MUSHICONGO TRIBE--FISH--PALM CHOP--PALM WINE.


At the mouth of the River Congo and on its north bank a long spit of
sand separates the sea from a small creek or branch of the river. On
this narrow strip, called Banana, are established several factories,
belonging to Dutch, French, and English houses, and serving principally
as depôts for their other factories higher up the river and on the
coast. The Dutch house especially is a large establishment, and it was
in one of their small steamers that my wife and myself ascended the
river in February 1873.

The first place we touched at was Porto da Lenha, about forty or
forty-five miles from Banana. The river banks up to this point are
sheer walls of large mangrove trees rising out of the water; at high
water, particularly, hardly a dry place can be seen where one could
land from a boat or canoe. The natives have, of course, openings known
to themselves, under and through the mangrove, where their little
canoes dart in and out.

Porto da Lenha (Plate II.) consists of half-a-dozen trading factories,
built on ground enclosed from the river by piles, forming quays in
front, where large vessels can discharge and load close alongside.
The wharves are continually sinking, and have to be replaced by
constant addition of new piles and layers of thick fresh-water
bivalve shells, very abundant in the river. We here found growing in
the mud, and with the roots covered by the river at high water, the
lovely orchid “_Lissochilus giganteus_” in full bloom; we collected
some of its roots, which reached England safely, and are now growing
in Kew Gardens. Several fine creepers were also in flower, and we
observed numerous butterflies, which were not easy to capture from the
difficulty of getting at them, as at the back of the houses the dense
bush grows out of swamp, and only those specimens crossing the small
dry space on which the houses are built could be collected. Little
creeks divide one house from another; in some cases a plank bridge
affords communication, but it is mostly effected by boats. A few days
before our arrival a flood had covered the whole of the ground with
several inches of water. Considering the conditions of the place, it
does not seem to be so unhealthy to Europeans as might be expected.
Next day we proceeded to Boma, also situated on the north bank of the
river, about ninety-five miles from Banana.

The scenery completely changes after leaving Porto da Lenha, the
mangrove totally disappears, and several kinds of bright green bushes,
interspersed with different palms and trees, cover the banks for many
miles. Near Boma, however, the banks are higher, and become bare of
trees and shrubs, the whole country being comparatively free of any
other vegetation but high grass; we have arrived, in fact, at the
grass-covered high country before mentioned as beginning at the third
elevation from the coast over the whole of Angola.

We were most hospitably received by a young Portuguese, Senhor Chaves,
in charge of an English factory there, picturesquely situated,
overlooking the banks of the river. A high hill opposite Boma and
across the river is covered from the top right down to the water’s
edge with an impenetrable forest, and it is not easy to explain this
vegetation, as it stands in such singular relief to the comparative
barrenness of the surrounding country, gigantic Baobabs being the great
tree-feature of the place. We crossed the river several times to this
thickly-wooded hill, and were only able to find just sufficient shore
to land under the branches of the trees, one of which (_Lonchocarpus
sericeus_) was in beautiful bloom. The current of the river is so
strong, and the stream so broad, that it took us half-an-hour to get
across in a good boat with ten strong Kroomen paddling.

The view from a high hill on the north bank is magnificent: a
succession of bends of the river, and as far as the sight could reach,
the flat country to the south and west cut into innumerable islands
and creeks, of the brightest green of the water-grass and papyrus
reed, divided by the sunlit and quicksilver-like streams of the vast
rapidly-flowing river.

Boma, as before observed, was formerly the great slave-trade mart,
thousands arriving from all quarters of the interior; they generally
carried a load of provisions, chiefly small beans, a species of the
haricot, for sale to the traders, and on which the slaves were chiefly
fed, in the barracoons and on board the vessels in which they were
shipped, and the Congo used in this way to supply the coast, even to
Loanda, with abundance of beans, mandioca-meal, &c.; but since the
cessation of the slave-trade there has been such great scarcity of
native grown food produce, not only in the river but everywhere on the
coast--the cultivation of other products, such as ground-nuts, being of
greater advantage to the natives--that Europeans are sometimes reduced
to great straits for food for the natives in their service, and even
for the fowls. This is one of the curious changes produced in the
country by the abolition of the slave-trade. A very large trade quickly
sprang up at Boma in ground-nuts, palm-oil, palm-kernels, &c.; but a
foolish competition amongst the white traders has induced them to go
higher up the river to trade; the consequence has been that Boma, so
capitally situated in every way for a trading station, is now nearly
reduced to a depôt for produce brought from farther up the river.

We were a fortnight at Boma, but were greatly disappointed at the small
number of species of insects we collected, and the poverty in plants
as well. All the lovely coloured finches and other birds of the grassy
regions were here most conspicuous in number and brilliancy, and it
was really beautiful to see the tall grass alive with the brightest
scarlet, yellow, orange, and velvet black of the many different
species, at that season in their full plumage.

We were very much amused at a pretty habit of the males of the tiny
little sky-blue birds (_Estrelda cyanogastra_) that, with other small
birds such as the Spermestes, Estreldas, Pytelias, &c., used to come
down in flocks to feed in the open space round the house. The little
mites would take a grass flower in their beaks, and perform quite a
hoppy dance on any little stick or bush, bobbing their feathery heads
up and down, whilst their tiny throats swelled with the sweetest little
song-notes and trills imaginable. This was their song to the females,
who were feeding about on the ground below them. The long-tailed
little whydah birds (_Vidua principalis_) have a somewhat similar habit
of showing off whilst the hens are feeding on the ground; they keep
hovering in the air about three or four feet above them, twit-twitting
all the time, their long tails rising and falling most gracefully to
the up-and-down motion of their little bodies.

One Sunday during our stay Senhor Chaves organized a pic-nic of the
principal white traders to a native village in the interior, where he
had arranged that the nine kings who govern Boma and receive “customs”
from the traders, should meet us, in order that he might make them
each a “dash,” which he wished my wife to present, in commemoration
of a white woman’s visit. We started in hammocks, and after about two
hours’ journey, arrived at the place of meeting, where a good breakfast
awaited us. Our road was over hilly ground, rough and rocky (mica
schist), and was remarkably bare of vegetation; we passed one or two
large and well-cultivated ravines.

After breakfast the nine kings appeared on the scene, and a miserable
lot they were, with one exception, a fine tall old grizzly negro;
their retinues were of the same description, and wretchedly clad. There
was a big palaver, the customary amount of rum was consumed by them,
and they each received, from my wife, their “dress” of several yards of
cloth, piece of cotton handkerchiefs, red baize sash, and red cotton
nightcap. One old fellow had a very curious old crucifix, which he did
not know the age of; he could only tell that he was the fifth Soba
or king that had inherited it. It had evidently belonged to the old
Catholic Portuguese missionaries of former times.

Crucifixes are often seen as “fetishes” of the kings in Angola. Nothing
will induce them to part with them, as they belong to part of the
“fetishes” that have been handed down from king to king from time
immemorial, and must not be lost or disposed of.

An amusing incident occurred on our way at a large village, where a
great crowd, chiefly of women and children, had collected to cheer the
white woman, seen for the first time in their lives. My hammock was a
little way behind, and on arriving at the village I was met with great
shouts and much shaking of hands; as the other white men had not been
similarly received, I inquired the reason why, and was then informed
that it was to denote their satisfaction at seeing the “proprietor or
owner of the white woman,” as they expressed it.

The natives here, in fact above Porto da Lenha, are Mushicongos, and
are not a bad set of blacks; but, like all this large tribe, are weak
and puny in appearance, dirty in their habits, and scanty of clothing.
They have not as yet allowed white men to pass from Boma, or any
other point of the river, to St. Salvador, and several Portuguese who
have wished to go from St. Salvador to Boma have been dissuaded from
attempting the journey by the king and natives, not from any objection
on their part, but from the certainty that the blacks near the river
would make them turn back.

There is a very great objection on the part of all the tribes of
the interior of Angola, and particularly of those not in the actual
territory held by the Portuguese, to the passage of a white man through
the country. This is due in the first place to the natural distrust
and suspicion of the negro character, and secondly to their fear of
the example of the occupation of Ambriz and the Bembe mines by the
Portuguese. It is impossible for blacks to understand that a white man
will travel for curiosity’s sake; it is perfectly incomprehensible to
them that he should spend money in carriers, making presents, &c.,
only for the pleasure of seeing the country; they are never satisfied
without what they consider a good reason; consequently they always
imagine it must be for the purpose of establishing a factory for
trade, or else to observe the country for its occupation thereafter.
This is the reason why natives will never give reliable information
regarding even the simplest question of direction of roads, rivers,
distances, &c. It is very difficult to obtain exact information, and it
is only after being very well acquainted with them that their natural
suspicions are lulled, and they will freely afford the knowledge
desired.

Their explanations of our object in collecting insects, birds, and
other objects of natural history were very curious. Our statements that
we did so to show in the white man’s country what plants, insects,
birds, &c., were to be found in Africa, as ours were so different,
never satisfied them; they always thought that the specimens must be
worth a great deal of money amongst the white men, or, as others did
not devote themselves to collecting, it was to make “fetishes” of
them when we got home: some, who considered themselves wiser than the
others, said it was to copy designs for the Manchester prints, and that
they would see the flowers, butterflies, and birds, copied on the trade
cloth as soon as I got back to my country.

Their idea of my manufacturing the specimens into “fetishes” was a
perfectly natural one in my case, as my nickname at Ambriz and on the
coast is “Endoqui,” or fetish man, from my having introduced the new
trade of collecting and pressing the bark of the Adansonia tree, and
from my wonderful performances in working a small steam engine, and
putting up the hydraulic presses and a corrugated iron store, the first
they had seen, and which caused great surprise.

The natives of the Congo River, from its mouth to a little above Porto
da Lenha, belong to the Mussurongo tribe, and are an ill-favoured
set--they are all piratical robbers, never losing an opportunity of
attacking a loaded barge or even ship, unless well armed or keeping
in the centre of the river, where the great current prevents them
from collecting around it in their canoes. These pirates have been
continually attacked by the Portuguese and English men-of-war,
generally after some more than usually daring robbery, and have had
several severe thrashings, but without their taking the slightest
example by them, the next ship or boat that runs aground on the
numerous sandbanks being again immediately attacked. They have taken
several white men prisoners on such occasions, and have exacted a
ransom for their liberation. They have, however, always treated them
well whilst detained in their towns. The principal houses now do their
trade by steamers, which the Mussurongos dare not, of course, attack.

A few years ago, a notorious pirate chief called Manoel Vacca, who had
caused great loss to the traders by his piracy, was captured by them at
Porto da Lenha and delivered to the British Commodore, who, instead of
hanging him at the yard-arm as he deserved, and as an example to the
nest of thieves of which he was the chief, took him to St. Helena, and
after some time brought this savage back carefully to Porto da Lenha to
his disconsolate followers, who had been unable to find a fit leader
for their piratical robberies. Manoel Vacca, of course, quickly forgot
his promises of amendment made whilst on board the British man-of-war,
and again became the pest he had formerly been, and when we were up the
river had exacted, without the slightest pretence but that of revenge,
a large payment from the traders at Porto da Lenha, threatening to stop
all trade, rob all boats, and kill the “cabindas” or crews, on the
river, if not immediately paid, and--on our way from Boma--we narrowly
escaped being involved in a fight there, in consequence of this
scandalous demand, which I afterwards heard had been complied with.
The traders vowed that if ever they caught him again, they would not
deliver him to have his education continued at St. Helena, but would
finish it on the spot.

The Mussurongos are very fond of wearing ankle-rings, which, when of
brass, are Birmingham made, and obtained from the traders, but in many
cases are made by the natives of iron forged by their smiths, and
cast-tin or pewter, which they obtain in trade in the form of little
bars. Those made by the natives are invariably ornamented with one
peculiar design (Plate IV.). These rings are seldom above a few ounces
in weight, and are worn by men and women alike, very different from the
natives of Cabinda, on the north of the River Congo, whose women wear
them as large and heavy as they can be made. I have in my possession
two copper ankle-rings which I purchased for six shawl-handkerchiefs of
a little old Cabinda woman at Ambriz, weighing seven pounds each. It
cost a smith some considerable time and trouble to take them off, as
from their thickness it was very difficult to wedge them open without
injury to the woman’s legs. It seems almost incredible that Fashion
should, even among these uncivilized tribes, compel the dark sex to
follow her arbitrary exactions, to the extent of carrying the enormous
weight of fourteen pounds of solid metal on their naked feet. Till the
ankles become hardened and used to the rings, the wearers are obliged
to tie rags round them, to protect the skin from injury by the heavy
weight.

The River Congo teems with animal life: above Porto da Lenha
hippopotami are very abundant; alligators, of course, swarm, and are
very dangerous.

Of the few small fish that I caught with a line at Boma, no less than
four were new species, and have been named by Dr. A. Günther, of the
British Museum, as the Bryconœthiops microstoma, Alestes holargyreus,
Distichodus affinis, and Mormyrus Monteiri (see ‘Annals and Magazine of
Natural History’ for August, 1873).

At Boma the Koodoo (_Tragelaphus Spekei_, Sclater) antelope must be
very abundant, judging from the number of times that we there ate of
its delicious flesh, brought in for sale by the natives. In my former
visits to Banana I made several shooting excursions to neighbouring
villages of friendly natives, in company with a Portuguese called
Chico, employed at the Dutch factory, who was a keen sportsman: we
generally started in the evening, and slept at a village a few miles
off, rising at daybreak to shoot wild fowl in the lovely creeks and
marshes, before the sun forced us to return to breakfast and the
welcome shade of the palm-trees, under which were the pretty huts of
the village.

Our breakfast invariably consisted of “palm chop,” a delicious dish
when properly prepared, and from the fresh nut. This dish has been
so abused by travellers, who have perhaps hardly tasted it more than
once, and who might have been prejudiced by the colour of the oil,
or the idea that they were eating waggon-grease or palm-soap, that I
must give an accurate description of its preparation and defend its
excellence against its detractors. The nuts of the oil-palm (_Elæis
Guineensis_) are about the size of large chestnuts, the inner part
being excessively hard and stony, and containing an almond (technically
“palm-kernel”). It is enclosed or surrounded by a thin outer mass of
fibre and pulp containing the oil, and covered with a rich red-brown
skin or husk somewhat thinner than that on a chestnut. The pulpy oil
and fibrous portion being separated from the nuts, is melted in a pot
over the fire to further separate all the fibres, and the rich, thick
oily mass is then ready to be added to a dismembered duck or fowl, or
any other kind of meat, and the whole stewed gently together with the
proper amount of water, with the addition of ground green Chili peppers
and salt to taste, until it is quite done, and in appearance like a
rich curry, with which it can best be compared; a squeeze of lime or
lemon is a great improvement. The flavour of this dish is not at all
like what might be expected from the strong smell of the often rancid
palm oil received in this country. It is always eaten with some boiled
preparation of maize flour, or better still of meal from the mandioca
root. A good cook will make a very good “palm chop” with fresh oil, in
the absence of the new nuts.

Another excellent dish is the ordinary haricot bean stewed with palm
oil and Chili peppers till quite tender and thick.

It is from the oil-palm that the finest palm wine is obtained, and it
is curious how few travellers have accurately described this or its
properties. The blacks ascend the trees by the aid of a ring formed
of a stout piece of the stem of a creeper which is excessively strong
and supple: one end is tied into a loop, and the other thrown round
the tree is passed through the loop and bent back (Plate IV.): the end
being secured forms a ready and perfectly safe ring, which the operator
passes over his waist. The stumps of the fallen leaves form projections
which very much assist him in getting up the tree. This is done by
taking hold of the ring with each hand, and by a succession of jerks,
the climber is soon up at the top, with his empty gourds hung round
his neck. With a pointed instrument he taps the tree at the crown, and
attaches the mouth of a gourd to the aperture, or he takes advantage of
the grooved stem of a leaf cut off short to use as a channel for the
sap to flow into the gourd suspended below. This operation is performed
in the evening, and in the early morning the gourds are brought down
with the sap or juice that has collected in them during the night. The
palm wine is now a slightly milky fluid, in appearance as nearly as
possible like the milk in the ordinary cocoa-nut, having very much the
same flavour, only sweeter and more luscious.

When cool in the morning, as brought down fresh from the tree, it is
perfectly delicious, without the slightest trace of fermentation,
and of course not in the least intoxicating; in a few hours, or
very shortly if collected or kept in old gourds in which wine has
previously fermented, it begins to ferment rapidly, becoming acid and
intoxicating; not so much from the quantity of alcohol produced, I
believe, as from its being contained in a strongly effervescent
medium, and being drunk by the natives in the hot time of the day, and
when they are heated by travelling, &c. Even in the morning the wine
has sometimes a slightly acid flavour, if it has been collected in an
old calabash. We used to have new gourds employed for ourselves. The
natives, again, can never be trusted to bring it for sale perfectly
fresh or pure, always mixing it with water or old wine, and of course
spoiling it, and I have known the rascals take water in the calabashes
up the tree to mix with the pure juice, when they thought they should
not have an opportunity of adulterating it before selling it.

[Illustration: PLATE III.

  VIEW ON THE CONGO, ABOVE BOMA.       _To face page 99._]

The smell of the palm wine, as it dries on the tree tops where they
have been punctured, is very attractive to butterflies, bees, wasps,
and other insects, and these in their turn attract the many species
of insectivorous birds. This is more particularly the case with the
beautiful little sunbirds (_Nectariniæ_), always seen in numbers busily
employed in capturing their insect prey, actively flitting, from top to
top, and darting in and out of the leaf-stems with a little song very
much like that of the cock-robin.




CHAPTER V.

 COUNTRY FROM THE RIVER CONGO TO
 AMBRIZ--VEGETATION--TRADING--CIVILIZATION--COMMERCE--PRODUCTS--IVORY--MUSSERRA--SLEEP
 DISEASE--SALT--MINERAL PITCH.


The southern point, at the entrance of the River Congo, is called Point
Padrão, from a marble “Padrão,” or monument raised by the Portuguese
to commemorate the discovery of the River Congo by Diogo Cam, in 1485.
At a short distance from it there formerly existed a monastery and
missionary establishment dedicated to Santo Antonio. That part of the
southern bank of the river opposite Banana is called Santo Antonio
to this day, and a few years ago a Portuguese trader opened a house
there for the purpose of trade; in this he was followed by the agent
of a Liverpool firm, but the result, naturally to be foreseen, took
place, and both factories were robbed and burnt down by the rascally
Mussurongos. Some time before this took place, I was waiting at Banana
for some means of conveyance by sea to Ambriz, but none appearing,
I determined, in company with a Brazilian who was also desirous of
proceeding to the same place, to cross over to Santo Antonio, and try
if we could induce the natives to allow us to pass thence over land to
Cabeça da Cobra. This we did, and remained at the trader’s house till
we got carriers and permission, on making a small present to the king
of Santo Antonio town, to pass through. No white man had been allowed
to do so for many years.

We started one night as soon as the moon rose, about one o’clock, and
after travelling a couple of hours, almost the whole time over marshy
ground and through a dry wood, which we had to pass on foot,--as it
was a fetish wood and it would have been highly unlucky to cross it in
our hammocks,--we arrived at the town of Santo Antonio, which appeared
large and well populated. Here we rested for a little while, whilst we
got some fresh carriers, and the king and several of the natives came
to see us and received two pieces of cotton handkerchiefs, and a couple
of gallons of rum, which we had brought for them. The old bells of
the monastery are still preserved in the town, hung from trees, and
we were treated with a din on them in return for our present. We then
continued our journey over good dry ground till we arrived at Cabeça da
Cobra, or “Snake’s Head,” in time for a late breakfast at the house of
a Portuguese trader. Here Senhor Fernando José da Silva presented me
with a letter of introduction he had brought with him from Lisbon some
years previously, and which he had not before had an opportunity of
delivering.

I at once engaged him to help me in developing my discovery of the
application of the fibre of the Baobab (_Adansonia digitata_) to
paper-making, and in introducing among the natives the new industry of
collecting and preparing it, and I must here render him a tribute of
gratitude for his friendship and the unceasing activity and energy with
which he has laboured to assist me in permanently establishing this new
trade, in the face of the greatest difficulties, privations, and hard
work for long years on the coast.

The coast line from Cabeça da Cobra to Ambriz is principally composed
of red bluffs and cliffs, and the road or path is generally near the
edge of the cliffs, affording fine views of the sea and surf-beaten
beach below. The country is arid and thinly wooded, and is covered with
hard, wiry, branched grass; and the curious Mateba palm grows in great
abundance in the country from the River Congo to Moculla, where it is
replaced by the Cashew tree as far as Ambrizzette. The flat-leaved
Sansevieria (_S. longiflora_) is extremely abundant, and disappears
south almost entirely about Musserra, where it is in its turn replaced
by Sansevieria Angolensis. These changes are very curious and striking,
being so well marked on a comparatively small extent of coast. The
Baobab tree is everywhere seen, its vast trunk throwing, by comparison,
all other trees into insignificance: it is less abundant perhaps from
the River Congo to about Ambrizzette; from that place, southwards, the
country is one open forest of it.

The natives as far as Mangue Grande are Mussurongos. From this to
Ambriz they are a branch of the Mushicongo tribe. The Mussurongos are
at present an indolent set, but there are signs that they are becoming
more industrious, now that they have given up all hope of seeing the
slave-trade again established, which enabled them, as one said to me,
to be rich without working. Since the last slave was shipped from this
part of the coast, about the year 1868, the development of produce in
the country itself and from the interior has been very great indeed,
and promises in a few years to be still more, and very important in
amount. This will be more particularly the case when the present system
ceases, by which the natives of the coast towns act as middle-men to
the natives from the interior. At present nearly the entire bulk of the
produce comes from the interior, no extensive good plantation grounds
being found before arriving at the first elevation, which we have seen
to commence at from thirty to sixty miles from the coast, the ivory
coming from not less than 200 to 300 miles.

The blacks, on arriving from the interior, put up at the towns on the
coast, where the natives, having been in constant intercourse with the
whites for years, all speak Portuguese, and many of them English. It is
a fact that the natives speak Portuguese more correctly than they do
English, which I attribute to the good custom of the Portuguese very
seldom stooping to murder their language when speaking to the blacks,
which the English universally do, under the mistaken idea of rendering
themselves more intelligible.

These blacks act as interpreters and brokers, and are thereby enabled
to satisfy fully and successfully their innate propensity for roguery
by cheating the natives from the interior to their hearts’ content.
They bargain the produce with the white men at one price, telling the
natives always that it is for a much lower sum, of course pocketing the
difference, sometimes amounting to one-half and more. It is a common
thing to be asked to have only so much,--naming the amount for which
they have pretended to have sold the produce,--paid whilst the owners
are present, and getting a “book” or ticket for the rest, which they
receive from the white trader at another time.

It has been found impossible to do away with this custom, as the
white men are almost dependent for their trade upon these rogues,
called “linguisteres” (derived evidently from the Portuguese term
“lingoa,” “tongue,” or interpreter). These have their defence for the
custom, first, that it has always existed, a great argument with the
conservative negro race; secondly, that it is their commission for
looking after the interests of the natives from the interior, who
would otherwise be cheated by the white men, who would take advantage
of their want of knowledge of the selling prices on the coast; and
thirdly that they have to make presents to the natives out of these
gains, and give them drink at the towns to keep them as their customers
and prevent their going to other towns or linguisteres. The natives
from the interior, again, are very suspicious and afraid of the white
man, and they would hardly dare approach him without being under the
protection of the coast negroes. There is no doubt that the development
of the trade from the interior would increase greatly if the natives
and owners of the produce obtained the full price paid by the white
men. There is almost a certainty, however, that the system will not
last much longer, as the natives are beginning to find out how they
are cheated by their coast brethren, and are already, in many cases,
trading direct with the white men.

The system adopted in trading or bartering with the natives on the
coast, comprehended between the River Congo and Ambriz, is somewhat
complicated and curious. All produce (except ivory) on being brought to
the trader, is put on the scales and the price is agreed, in “longs” in
English, or “peças” in Portuguese. This “peça” or “long” is the unit of
exchange to which all the multifarious articles of barter are referred:
for instance, six yards of the ordinary kinds of cotton cloth, such
as stripes, unbleached calico, blue prints, cotton checks, are equal
to a “long;” a yard and a half of red or blue baize, five bottles of
rum, five brass rods, one cotton umbrella, 3000 blue glass beads,
three, six, eight, or twelve cotton handkerchiefs, according to size
and quality, are also severally equal to a “long;” articles of greater
value, such as kegs of powder, guns, swords, knives, &c., are two or
more “longs” each.

As each bag of coffee (or other produce) is weighed and settled for,
the buyer writes the number of “longs” that has been agreed upon on
a small piece of paper called by the natives “Mucanda,” or, by those
who speak English, a “book;” the buyer continues his weighing and
purchasing, and the “books” are taken by the natives to the store,
which is fitted up like a shop, with shelves on which are arranged at
hand the many different kinds of cloth, &c., employed in barter. The
natives cannot be trusted in the shop, which contains only the white
man and his “Mafuca” or head man, so the noisy, wrangling mob is paid
from it through a small window. We will suppose, for instance, that a
“book” is presented at the window, on which is marked twenty “longs” as
the payment of a bag of coffee; the trader takes--

  A gun--value                   4 longs
  One keg powder                 2   ”
  One piece of 18 yards stripes  3   ”
  One of 18 yards grey calico    3   ”
  One of 18 yards checks         3   ”
  Eight handkerchiefs            1   ”
  Five bottles of rum            1   ”
  One table-knife                1   ”
  Three thousand beads           1   ”
  Five brass rods                1   ”
                                --
                        Total:  20 longs.
                                --

This is now passed out, the trader making such alterations in the
payment as the natives desire within certain limits, exchanging, for
instance, the handkerchiefs for red baize, or the piece of calico for
a sword, but there is an understanding that the payment is to be a
certain selection, from which only small deviations can be made. If
such were not the case the payment of 100 or more “books” in a short
time would be impossible. It is by no means an easy task to trade
quickly and successfully with the natives; long practice, and great
patience and good temper are necessary. A good trader, who is used to
the business, can pay the same “book” for a great deal less value than
one unaccustomed to the work, and the natives will often refuse to
trade with a new man or one not used to their ways and long known to
them.

It is rather startling to a stranger to see and hear a couple of
hundred blacks all shouting at the top of their voices to be paid
first, and quarrelling and fighting over their payment, or pretending
to be dissatisfied with it, or that they have been wrongly paid.

Ivory is purchased in a different manner; the tusk is weighed, and
an offer made by the trader in guns, barrels of powder and “longs,”
generally in about the proportion of one gun, one keg of powder, and
two longs; thus a tusk, we will say, is purchased for twelve guns,
twelve kegs of powder, and twenty-four “longs.” The natives do not
receive this, but a more complicated payment takes place; of the twelve
guns they only receive four, the rest being principally in cloth,
on a scale well understood, the guns being calculated generally at
four “longs” each; the same process is carried out with the kegs of
powder, only a certain number being actually given in that commodity:
the twenty-four “longs” are given in cloth and a variety of small
objects, including razors, cheap looking-glasses, padlocks, ankle
rings, playing-cards, empty bottles, hoop-iron off the bales, brass
tacks, glass tumblers and decanters, different kinds of beads, &c. The
amount first agreed upon is called the “rough bundle,” and the trader,
by adding the value of the guns, powder, and “longs,” and dividing the
sum by the weight of the tusk, can tell very nearly what the pound
of ivory will cost when reduced by the substitution of the various
numerous articles given in lieu of the guns and powder agreed upon on
the purchase of the tusk.

The small extent of coast comprised between Ambriz and the River
Congo is a striking example of the wonderful increase of trade, and
consequently industry, among the negroes, since the extinction of the
slave trade, and evidences also the great fertility of a country that
with the rudest appliances can produce such quantities of valuable
produce; about a dozen years ago, a very few tons, with the exception
of ivory, of ground-nuts, coffee, and gum copal only, were exported.
Last year the exports from Ambriz to, and not including, the River
Congo, were as follows:--

  Adansonia fibre    1500 tons
  Ground-nuts        7500  ”
  Coffee             1000  ”
  Sesamum seed        650  ”
  Red gum copal        50  ”
  White Angola gum    100  ”
  India-rubber        400  ”
  Palm-kernel         100  ”
  Ivory               185  ”

Besides this amount of produce, the value of which may be estimated at
over 300,000_l._, a considerable quantity of ground-nuts find their
way to the River Congo from the interior of the country I am now
describing. This is already a most gratifying and interesting result,
and one from which valuable lessons are to be deduced, when we come
to compare it with what has taken place in other parts of the coast,
most notably in the immediate neighbouring country to the south in the
possession of the Portuguese, and is a splendid example of the true
principles by which the African race _in Africa_ can be successfully
civilized, and the only manner in which the riches of the West Coast
can be developed and made available to the wants of the rest of the
world.

There can be no doubt that our attempts to civilize the negro by purely
missionary efforts have been a signal failure. I will say more: so
long as missionary work consists of simply denominational instruction
and controversy, as at present, it is mischievous and retarding to the
material and mental development and prosperity of Africa. Looking at
it from a purely religious point of view, I emphatically deny that a
single native has been converted, otherwise than in name or outward
appearance, to Christianity or Christian morality. Civilization on
the coast has certainly succeeded in putting a considerable number of
blacks into uncomfortable boots and tight and starched clothes, and
their women outwardly into grotesque caricatures of Paris fashions, as
any one may witness by spending even only a few hours at Sierra Leone,
for instance, where he will see the inoffensive native transformed into
a miserable strutting bully, insolent to the highest degree, taught to
consider himself the equal of the white man, as full as his black skin
can hold of overweening conceit, cant, and hypocrisy, without a vice or
superstition removed, or a virtue engrafted in his nature, and calling
the native whose industry supplies him with food, “You nigga! Sah!”

This is the broad and characteristic effect of present missions on the
coast, I am sorry to say, and they will continue to be fruitless as
long as they are not combined with industrial training. That was the
secret of the success of the old Catholic missionaries in Angola; they
were traders as well, and taught the natives the industrial arts,
gardening, and agriculture. What if they derived riches and power,
the envy of which led to their expulsion, from their efforts, so long
as they made good carpenters, smiths, masons, and other artificers of
the natives, and created in them a new life, and the desire for better
clothing, houses, and food, which they could only satisfy by work and
industry?

On landing at Bonny from the steamer, to collect plants and insects on
the small piece of dry land opposite the hulks in the river, we saw the
pretty little church and schoolroom belonging to the mission there,
in which were a number of children repeating together, over and over
again, like a number of parrots, “I know dat I hab a soul, because I
feel someting widin me.” Only a few yards off was the village in which
they lived, and a large fetish house exactly the same as any other;
not a sign of work of any kind, not a square yard of ground cleared or
planted, not a fowl or domestic animal, save a lean cur or two, to be
seen; the children, and even big girls, or young women, in a complete
state of nudity,--nothing in fact to show any difference whatever from
any other town in the country. Can any one believe for a moment that
the instruction afforded by that mission was of any avail, that the few
irksome hours of repetition of texts, writing and reading, explanations
of the Bible, &c., could in the least counteract the influence of the
fetish house in the village, or the superstition and ignorance of the
children’s parents and elders, or remove the fears and prejudices
imbibed with their mothers’ milk? Is it not more natural to suppose,
as is well known to be the case, that this imperfect training is just
sufficient to enable them when older to be sharper, more dishonest and
greater rogues than their fellows, and to ape the vices of the white
man, without copying his virtues or his industry?

I remember at Ambrizzette a black who could read and write, forging a
number of “books” for gunpowder, and thus robbing some of the houses
to a considerable extent. The natives wanted to kill him, but on the
white men interceding for his life, they chopped off the fingers of his
right hand with a matchet, to prevent his forging any more. Educated
blacks, or even mulattoes, cannot be trusted as clerks, with the charge
of factories, or in other responsible situations. I do not remember a
case in which loss did not sooner or later result from their employment.

Trade or commerce is the great civilizer of Africa, and the small part
of the coast we are treating of at present is a proof of this. Commerce
has had undisturbed sway for a few years, with the extraordinary result
already stated. The natives have not been spoilt as yet by contact with
the evils of an ignorant and oppressive occupation, as in Portuguese
Angola, or, as on the British West Coast on the other hand, by having
been preached by a dozen opposed and rival sects into a muddled state
of assumed and insolent equality with the white race, whom they hate
in their inmost hearts, from the consciousness of their infinite
inferiority.

Commerce has spread before them a tempting array of Manchester goods,
guns, gunpowder, blankets, rugs, coats, knives, looking-glasses,
playing cards, rum and gin, matchets, tumblers and decanters, beads,
silver and brass ankle-rings, and many other useful or ornamental
articles, without any duties to pay, or any compulsory regulations
of passports, papers, tolls, or hindrances of any kind; the only
key necessary is a bag of produce on the scales; a fair, and in many
cases, even high price is given in return, and every seller picks and
chooses what he or she desires;--and let not rum or gin be abused for
its great share in the development of produce, for it is a powerful
incentive to work. A black dearly loves his drop of drink; he will very
often do for a bottle of rum, what he would not even think of stirring
for, for three times the value in any other article, and yet they are
not great drunkards, as we shall see, when describing their customs;
they so divide any portion of spirits they can obtain, that it does
them no harm whatever. The rum and gin, though of the very cheapest
description, is pure and unsophisticated, the only adulteration being
an innocent one practised by the traders, who generally mix a liberal
proportion of water with it.

When a black does give way to intemperate habits, his friends make him
undergo “fetish” that he shall drink no more, and such is their dread
of consequences if they do not keep their “fetish” promise, that I have
known very few cases of their breaking the “pledge.” Sometimes a black
is “fetished” for rum or other spirit-drinking, but not against wine,
which they are beginning to consume in increasing quantity; the kind
they are supplied with being the ordinary red Lisbon.

In describing the different kinds of produce of this country, the first
on the list, the inner bark of the “Baobab,” or Adansonia digitata,
claims precedence, it being the latest discovery of an African
production as an article of commerce, and of great importance from its
application to paper-making, and also from its opening a new and large
field to native industry.

It was on my first arrival in Ambriz in February 1858, that this
substance struck me as being fit for making good paper: a few simple
experiments enabled me to make specimens of bleached fibre and pulp
from it, proving to me conclusively its suitableness for that purpose.

Having been engaged in mining in Angola, it was not till the year
1865 that I finally determined to proceed to Ambriz, with the view of
developing my discovery, and I have ever since been actively engaged
in establishing houses on the part of the coast I am now describing,
for bartering the Adansonia fibre,--pressing and shipping the same
to England. In my long and arduous task I have met with more than
the ordinary amount of losses and disappointments, from commercial
failures and other causes that seem to fall to the lot of discoverers
or inventors in general; but I have triumphed over all obstacles and
prejudices, and have established its success as a paper-making material
beyond any doubt.

The Baobab, or “monkey fruit tree,” is well known from descriptions as
one of the giants of the vegetable kingdom. It rears its vast trunk
thirty or forty feet high, with a diameter of three or four feet in
the baby plants, to usually twenty to thirty feet in the older trees.
Adansonias of more than thirty feet in diameter are rare, but they have
been measured of as great a size as over 100 feet in circumference; the
thickest trunk I have ever seen was sixty-four feet in circumference,
and was clean and unbroken, without a crack on its smooth bark.

The leaves and flowers are produced during the rainy season, and are
succeeded by the long pendant gourd-like fruit, like hanging notes of
admiration, giving the gigantic, nearly leafless tree a most singular
appearance. Millions of these trees cover the whole of Angola, as
they do in fact the whole of tropical Africa, sufficient to supply an
incalculable amount of paper material for years, but for the indolence
of the negro race. I have no doubt, however, that they will in time
follow the example of the Ambriz blacks, and a very large trade be
developed as in the case of the palm-oil and the india-rubber trade.

The leaves of the Baobab when young are good to eat, boiled as a
vegetable, and in appearance are somewhat like a new horse-chestnut
leaf about half grown, and of a bright green; the flowers are very
handsome, being a large ball of pure white, about four or five inches
across, exactly like a powder puff, with a crown of large thick white
petals turned back on top of it. After a few days the flowers become
tipped with yellow, before dropping from the tree. The trunks, even
of the largest trees, have properly speaking no wood, that is to say,
a plank could not be sawn out of it, or any work made from it;--a
section of a trunk shows first a thin outer skin or covering of a
very peculiar pinkish ashen white, somewhat like that of a silver
birch, some appearing quite silvery against the colour of other trees
and foliage; then there follows about an inch of substance like hard
mangold wurzel with fibres, then the thick coat of fibrous inner bark,
which readily separates; next, the young wood, very much like the inner
bark, and lastly, layers of more woody texture, divided or separated by
irregular layers of pith, the most woody parts having no more firmness
than perfectly rotten mildewed pine wood, and breaking quite readily
with a ragged and very fibrous fracture.

The centre of these vast trunks easily rots, and becomes hollow from
the top, where the stem generally branches off laterally into two or
three huge arms. This is taken advantage of by the Quissama blacks,
who inhabit the south bank of the River Quanza, to use them as tanks
to store rain water in against the dry season, as it is a country very
destitute of water.

The hollow Baobabs are very seldom open from the sides; I only remember
one large tree of this kind in which an aperture like a door gave
admittance into the empty centre; this was in Cambambe, and the hollow
was large enough for two of us to sit inside, with a small box between
us for a table, and have our breakfast, and room to spare for our cook
to attend on us. Whilst we were comfortably enjoying our meal in its
grateful shade, our cook suddenly gave a shout and rushed out, crying
“Nhoca, Nhoca,” “Snake, Snake,” and sure enough there was a fine fellow
about four feet long over-head, quietly surveying our operations; a
charge of shot settled this very quickly, and down he fell, a victim to
his curiosity.

The inner bark of the Adansonia is obtained by first chopping off the
softer outer bark of the tree with a matchet, and then stripping the
inner bark in large sheets. The smaller trees produce the finest and
softest fibre, and it is taken off all round the tree, which does not
appear to suffer much injury. A fresh layer of bark grows, and is thick
enough to take off in about six to eight years. The bark is only taken
off the large trunks in places where the outer bark is smooth and free
from knobs, &c. In the course of time, the trunk growing, shows the
scar, high above the ground, of the place where the bark has been taken
off years before. The layers of inner bark when cut are saturated with
sap; the pieces are beaten with a stick to soften them, and shaken
to get rid of some of the pithy matter attached to them. The bark is
then dried in the sun, when it is ready for pressing into bales, and
shipping.

This inner bark is put to a variety of uses by the natives. It is
twisted into string and rope for all sorts of purposes, or used in
strips to secure loads, and to tie the sticks, &c., in making their
huts. Finer pieces are pulled out so as to resemble a coarse network,
and the edges being sewn together, make handy bags for cotton, or gum,
grain, &c.; and very strong bags are woven from thin strips, in which
coffee and ground-nuts are brought down from Cazengo to the coast.

Several amusing incidents occurred on my introducing the trade in
Baobab fibre among the natives. I had great difficulty at first in
inducing them to take to it, but they soon saw the advantage of doing
on a large scale what they had been accustomed to do for their own
small necessities; their principal reason for suspicion about it was
that it had never before been an article purchased by the white men;
they would not believe it was for making paper, but thought it must be
for making cloth, and one old fellow very sagely affirmed that it was
to be used for making mosquito curtains, from the open texture of the
finer samples. It was debated at the towns whether it should be allowed
to be cut and sold, and finally agreed to, and the trade was fully
established at Ambriz for several months, when a report spread amongst
the natives that the object of my buying it was to make it into ropes
to tie them up some fine day when they least expected it, and ship them
on board the steamers as slaves. Such was the belief in this absurd
idea that all the natives employed at the factories disappeared, and
not a man, woman, or child appeared in Ambriz for several days, and the
place was nearly starved out.

I had an old black as my head man of the name of “Pae Tomás” (Father
Thomas) who was very much respected in the country; he had been with
me for some years, and it took all his influence to get the natives to
return to Ambriz and to bring in fibre again for sale.

Another instance of how any little variation from the usual state of
things will excite the suspicions of these natives, even accustomed
as they have been to contact with white men for many years, was the
appearance at Ambriz of a four-masted steamer,--one of the Lisbon
monthly line: such a thing as a “ship with four sticks” had never been
seen before, and without waiting to inquire, every black ran away from
Ambriz, and the same thing happened on her return from Loanda; it
was only after repeated voyages that the natives lost their fear of
her; they could give no other reason than that it had never been seen
before, and that therefore it must be a signal for the white men to do
something or other they could not understand.

It was not till some time after putting up and working the hydraulic
press at Ambriz that I was able to go north and establish them at
other places. I had to invite the King and Council of Musserra to come
to Ambriz and see it at work, and convince them that it was quite an
inoffensive machine, and could only squeeze the fibre into bales; only
by this means could I get their leave to land one there and erect it
and begin the trade, and I believe that had I not been already long
known to them I should have been unable to do it so soon. They somehow
had the idea that the cylinder was a great cannon, and might be fired
off with gunpowder, and I might take the country from them with it, but
they were reassured when they saw it had no touch-hole at the breech,
and that it was set upright in the ground and worked by water.

At Kimpoaça, a neighbouring town was averse to one being landed there,
but as I had obtained the leave of the king and the townspeople they
felt bound to allow me to set it up, and for about a fortnight that
the surf prevented its being landed the whole of the inhabitants were
on the beach every day with loaded guns, to fight the other town, if
necessary, as they had threatened forcible opposition to its being put
up--it all went off quietly, however, but a couple of years after, the
rains having failed to come down at the proper time, the fetish men
declared that the “matari ampuena,” or the “big iron,” had fetished the
rain and prevented its appearance.

The matter was discussed in the country at a meeting of the people of
the neighbouring towns, and it was determined to destroy the press and
throw it into the sea if it was found to be a “feiticeiro,” or wizard.
This was, of course, to be proved by the ordeal by poison, namely,
by making it take “casca,” the bark that I have already described as
determining the innocence or guilt of any one accused of witchcraft;
but this difficulty presented itself to their minds, that as the “big
iron” had no stomach or insides, the “casca” could have no action, so
after much deliberation it was resolved to get over the difficulty by
giving the dose to a slave of the king, who represented the hydraulic
press. Very luckily the poison acted as an emetic, and the press was
proved innocent of bewitching the rain. After some time, the rains
persisting in not coming down, the poor slave was again forced to take
“casca,” but with the same fortunate result,--the press was saved,
and the natives have never again suspected it of complicity with evil
spirits.

It was these hydraulic presses for baling the baobab fibre, at Ambriz
and elsewhere, which more than anything else firmly established amongst
the natives the name they had given me of “Endoqui ampuena,” or, the
great wizard. There is something to them so marvellous in the simple
working of a lever at a distance, by a little water in a tank, that no
rational explanation is possible to their minds,--it is simply a case
of pure witchcraft.

The fruit of the baobab is like a long gourd, about fourteen to
eighteen inches in length, covered by a velvety greenish-brown coating,
and hanging by a stalk two to three feet long. It is filled inside
with a curious dry, pulverulent, yellowish-red substance, in which
the seeds, about the size of pigeon-beans, are imbedded. The seeds
are pounded and made into meal for food in times of scarcity, and the
substance in which they are embedded is also edible, but strongly and
agreeably acid. This gourd-like fruit is often used for carrying water
or storing salt, &c., the walls, or shell, being very hard and about
a quarter of an inch thick. From its shape it makes a very convenient
vessel for baling water out of a canoe, one end being cut slantwise,
and it is used by the natives everywhere on the coast for this purpose.

The finest orchilla weed is found growing on the baobab trees near
the coast, and the natives ascend the great trunks by driving pegs
into them one above the other, and using them as steps to get to the
branches. These trees are the great resort of the several species
of doves so abundant in Angola, and their favourite resting-place
on account of the many nooks and spaces on the monstrous trunks and
branches in which they can conveniently build their flat nests and rear
their young.

There is something peculiarly grand in the near appearance of these
trees, and it is impossible to describe the sensation caused by these
huge vegetable towers, that have braved in solitary grandeur the hot
sun and storms of centuries; and very pleasant it is to lie down under
the shade of one of these giants and listen to the soft, plaintive
“coo--coo--coo” of the doves above, the only sound that breaks the
noonday silence of the hot and dry untrodden solitude around.

A lowly plant, but perhaps the most important in native tropical
African agriculture, the ground-nut (_Arachis hypogæa_), next deserves
description. Many thousand tons of this little nut are grown on
the whole West Coast of Africa, large quantities being exported to
Europe,--principally to France,--to be expressed into oil. We have
already seen what a great increase has taken place in the cultivation
of this nut in the part of the coast I am now specially describing, and
I believe that it is destined to be one of the most important oil-seeds
of the future.

The native name for it is “mpinda” or “ginguba,” and it is cultivated
in the greatest abundance at a few miles inland from the coast, where
the comparatively arid country is succeeded by better ground and
climate. It requires a rich soil for its cultivation, and it is chiefly
grown, therefore, in the bottoms of valleys, or in the vicinity of
rivers and marshes. The plant grows from one to two feet high, with a
leaf and habit very much like a finely-grown clover. The bright-yellow
pea-like flowers are borne on long slender stalks; these, after
flowering, curl down, and force the pod into the ground, where it
ripens beneath the soil. Its cultivation is a very simple affair. The
ground being cleared, the weeds and grass are allowed to dry, and are
then burnt; the ground is then lightly dug a few inches deep by the
women with their little hoes--their only implement of agriculture--and
the seeds dropped into the ground and covered up. The sowing takes
place in October and November, at the beginning of the rainy season,
and the first crop of nuts for eating green is ready about April;
but they are not ripe for nine months after sowing, or about July or
August, when they are first brought down to the coast for trade.

A large plantation of ground-nuts is a very beautiful sight: a rich
expanse of the most luxuriant foliage of the brightest green, every
leaf studded with diamond-like drops glittering in the early sun. The
ground-nut is an important part of the food of the natives, and more
so in the country from Ambriz to the River Congo than south at Loanda
and Benguella. It is seldom eaten raw, but roasted, and when young and
green, and roasted in the husks, is really delicious eating. It is
excessively oily when fully ripe, and the natives then generally eat
it with bananas and either the raw mandioca root, or some preparation
of it, experience showing them the necessity of the admixture of a
farinaceous substance with an excessively oily food. The nuts are also
ground on a stone to a paste, with which to thicken their stews and
messes. This paste, mixed with ground Chili pepper, is also made into
long rolls, enveloped in leaves of the _Phrynium ramosissimum_, and is
eaten principally in the morning to stay the stomach in travelling till
they reach the proper camping-places for their breakfast or first meal
and rest, generally about noon. It is called “quitaba,” and I shall
never forget the first time I tasted this composition: I thought my
palate and tongue were blistered, so great was the proportion of Chili
pepper in it.

A considerable quantity of oil used to be prepared by the natives
from this nut by the most rudimentary process it is possible to
imagine. The nuts are first pounded into a mass in a wooden mortar; a
handful of this is then taken between the palms of the hands, and an
attendant pours a small quantity of hot water on it, and on squeezing
the hands tightly together the oil and water run out. Since the great
demand for, and trade in, the ground-nut, but little oil is prepared
by the natives, as they find it more advantageous to sell the nuts
than to extract the oil from them by the wasteful process I have just
described. Ground-nut oil is very thin and clear, and is greatly used
in cookery in Angola, for which it is well adapted as it is almost free
from taste and smell.

The greater part of the several thousand tons of nuts that at present
constitute the season’s crop in this part of the country is grown
in the Mbamba country, lying parallel with the coast, at a distance
of from thirty to eighty miles inland, or at the first and second
elevation. Some idea of the great population of this comparatively
small district may be formed from the fact that the whole of the above
ground-nuts are shelled by hand, and brought down to the coast on the
heads of the natives. It is difficult for any one unacquainted with the
subject to realise the vast amount of labour implied in the operation
of shelling this large quantity by hand.

The trade in coffee is almost entirely restricted to Ambriz, and it
comes principally from the district of Encoge, a considerable quantity
also being brought from the Dembos country and from Cazengo, to the
interior of Loanda, from which latter place the trade is shut out by
the stupid and short-sighted policy of high custom-house duties on
goods, and other restrictions on trade of the Portuguese authorities.
Very little of the coffee produced in the provinces of Encoge and
Dembos is cultivated; it is the product of coffee-trees growing
spontaneously in the virgin forests of the second elevation. The
natives, of course, have no machinery of any kind to separate the berry
from the pod, these being dried in the sun and then broken in a wooden
mortar, and the husks separated by winnowing in the open air.

The sesamum seed (_Sesamum indicum_) has only very recently become an
article of trade in Angola. It was cultivated sparingly by the natives,
who employ it, ground to a paste on a stone in the same manner as
the ground-nut, to add to their other food in cooking. It is as yet
cultivated for trade principally by the natives about Mangue Grande,
and only since about the year 1868, but there is no doubt it will be
an important product all over Angola, as it is found to grow near the
coast, in soil too arid for the ground-nut.

The red gum copal, called “maquata” by the natives, is of the finest
quality, and is almost entirely the product of the Mossulo country.
It is known to exist north, in the vicinity of Mangue Grande, but it
is “fetish” for the natives to dig it, and consequently they will not
bring it for trade, and even refuse to tell the exact place where it is
found, but there can be no doubt about it, as they formerly traded in
it with the white men.

Until about the year 1858, it was a principal article of export from
Ambriz; vessels being loaded with it, chiefly to America, but with the
American war the trade ceased, and it has never since attained anything
like its former magnitude. I believe it to be a fossil gum or mineral
resin. I have examined quantities of it, to discover any trace of
leaves, insects, or other remains, that might prove it to have been of
vegetable origin, but in vain.

It is obtained from a part of Angola where white men are not permitted
by the natives to penetrate, and I have consequently not been an actual
observer of the locality in which it occurs; but by all the accounts
received from intelligent natives, it is found below the surface of a
highly ferruginous hard clay or soil, at a depth of a few inches to
a couple of feet. It is very likely that if the ground were properly
explored, it would be found deeper, but most probably this is as deep
as the natives care to dig for it, if they can obtain it elsewhere
nearer the surface. It is said to be found in irregular masses, chiefly
flat in shape, and from small knobs to pieces weighing several pounds.
These are all carefully chopped into small nearly uniform pieces, the
object of this being to enable the natives to sell it by measure,--the
measures being little “quindas” or open baskets; the natives of the
country where it is obtained not only bring it to the coast for barter,
but also sell it to the coast natives, who go with goods to purchase it
from them.

The blacks of the gum country are so indolent that they will only dig
for the gum during and after the last and heaviest rains, about March,
April, and May, and these, and June and July, are the months when it
almost all makes its appearance, and they will only allow a certain
quantity to leave the country, for fear that its price on the coast may
fall; hence only a few tons of this beautiful gum are now obtained,
where some years ago hundreds were bought. It is said by the natives
that no trees grow on or near the places where the gum copal is found,
and that even grass grows very sparingly: the very small quantities
of red earth and sand sometimes attached to the gum show it to be so
highly ferruginous, that I should imagine such was really the case.

The white Angola gum is said to be the product of a tree growing near
rivers and water, a little to the interior of the coast. I have never
had an opportunity of seeing the tree myself, however.

We now come to one of the most curious products of this interesting
country, namely, india-rubber, called by the natives “Tangandando.”
It had been an article exported in considerable quantities north of
the River Congo, and knowing that the plant from which it was obtained
grew in abundance in the second region, about sixty miles inland from
Ambriz, I distributed a number of pieces of the india-rubber to natives
of the interior, and offered a high price for any that might be brought
for sale. In a very short time it began to come in, and the quantity
has steadily increased to the present day.

The plant that produces it is the giant tree-creeper (_Landolphia,
florida?_), covering the highest trees, and growing principally on
those near rivers or streams. Its stem is sometimes as thick as
a man’s thigh, and in the dense woods at Quiballa I have seen a
considerable extent of forest festooned down to the ground, from tree
to tree, in all directions with its thick stems, like great hawsers;
above, the trees were nearly hidden by its large, bright, dark-green
leaves, and studded with beautiful bunches of pure white star-like
flowers, most sweetly scented. Its fruit is the size of a large orange,
of a yellow colour when ripe, and perfectly round, with a hard brittle
shell; inside it is full of a soft reddish pulp in which the seeds are
contained. This pulp is of a very agreeable acid flavour, and is much
liked by the natives. The ripe fruit, when cleaned out, is employed
by them to contain small quantities of oil, &c. It is not always easy
to obtain ripe seeds, as this creeper is the favourite resort of a
villainous, semi-transparent, long legged red ant--with a stinging bite
like a red-hot needle--which is very fond of the pulp and seeds.

Every part of this creeper exudes a milky juice when cut or wounded,
but unlike the india-rubber tree of America, this milky sap will not
run into a vessel placed to receive it, as it dries so quickly as to
form a ridge on the wound or cut, which stops its further flow.

The blacks collect it, therefore, by making long cuts in the bark with
a knife, and as the milky juice gushes out, it is wiped off continually
with their fingers, and smeared on their arms, shoulders, and breast
until a thick covering is formed; this is peeled off their bodies and
cut into small squares, which are then said to be boiled in water.

From Ambriz the trade in this india-rubber quickly spread south to the
River Quanza, from whence considerable quantities are exported.

The ivory that reaches this part of the coast is brought down by
natives of the Zombo country. These are similar in appearance to the
Mushicongos, to which tribe they are said to be neighbours, and are
physically a poor-looking race, dressed mostly in native grass-cloth,
and wearing the wool on their heads in very small plaits, thickly
plastered with oil and charcoal dust, which they also plentifully apply
to their faces and bodies.

They are about thirty days on the journey from their country to the
coast, which can therefore be very closely calculated to be about
300 miles distance. The road they follow passes near Bembe, and the
caravans shortly afterwards divide into three portions, one taking the
road to Moculla, another to Ambrizzette, and the third to Quissembo,
the three centres, at present, of the ivory trade. The caravans of
ivory generally travel in the “cacimbo” or dry season, on account of
the great number of streams and gullies they have to cross on their
long journey, and almost impassable in the rainy season. These caravans
never bring down any other produce with them but ivory, except at
times a few grass-cloths, some bags of white haricot-beans, and fine
milk-white onions, neither of which are cultivated by the natives near
the coast. The tusks are carried by the natives on their heads or
shoulders, and, to prevent their slipping, are fastened in a sort of
cage of four short pieces of wood (Plate IV.). Very heavy teeth are
slung to a long pole and carried by two blacks. The largest tusks I
have seen were two that came to Quissembo, evidently taken from the
same animal; they weighed respectively 172 and 174 pounds!

[Illustration: PLATE IV.

1. Ankle-ring--2. Ring to ascend Palm-trees.--3. Cage for carrying
Ivory Tusks. 4. Engongui.--5. Fetish figure.--6. Mask.--7. Pillow.

  _To face page 140._]

The knives on Plate V. were obtained from natives composing these
caravans.

From all the more intelligent natives I always obtained the same
information respecting the origin of the ivory brought down to the
coast, namely, that it was all from animals killed, and not from
elephants found dead. The natives from the interior always laughed at
the idea of ivory becoming scarce from the numbers of elephants that
must necessarily be killed to supply the large number of tusks annually
brought down,--the number slaughtered must therefore be very small in
comparison to the living herds they must be in the habit of seeing on
the vast plains of the interior. They are said to be shot, and that the
natives put such a charge of powder and iron bullets into their guns
that when fired from the shoulder the hunter cannot use his gun again
that day, so great is the kick he gets from its recoil. I can well
understand that this is not an exaggerated account, from the manner in
which blacks always load a gun, the charge of powder being one handful,
as much as it can hold, then a wadding of baobab fibre, then lead shot,
or lead or iron bullets (in default of which they use the heavy round
pieces of pisolitic iron ore very common in the country), another wad
of baobab fibre, and the gun must then show that it is loaded a “palm,”
or about eight or nine inches of the barrel.

On festive occasions, or at their burials, the guns are loaded with a
tamping of “fuba,” or fine mandioca-meal, instead of other wadding, and
they then give a terrific report when fired off, and not unfrequently
burst.

This coast abounds with fish, but very few of the natives engage in
their capture, as they make so much by trading that they will not take
the trouble. Several fish, such as the “Pungo,” weighing as much as
three “arrobas,” or ninety-six pounds, visit the coast only in the
“cacimbo” or cold season of the year, or from June to August.

The Bay of Musserra is a noted place for large captures of this fine
fish, as many as forty or fifty being caught in a day by the natives,
with hook and line, from their small curious shaped canoes. It is a
very firm-fleshed fish, and cut up, salted, and dried in the sun, was
a great article of trade at Musserra, being sold to the natives from
the interior, particularly to the “Zombos” composing the caravans of
ivory, who are very fond of salt fish. There was a great row in the
season 1870, which was a very scarce one for ground-nuts, between the
natives of the interior and the blacks at Musserra, on account of the
latter taking to collect Adansonia fibre in preference to catching
“Pungo,” and therefore disappointing the inlanders of their favourite
salt delicacy.

The canoes on this part of the coast, and as far north as Cabinda, are
very curious, and totally unlike any that I have seen anywhere else.
They are composed of two rounded canoes lashed or sewn together below,
and open at the top. This aperture is narrow, and each canoe forms, as
it were, a long pocket. The natives stand or sit on them with their
legs in the canoe, or astride, as most convenient according to the
state of the surf, on which these canoes ride beautifully.

The town of Musserra was formerly a large and populous one, but
small-pox and “sleep disease” have reduced it to a mere handful.

This “sleep disease” was unknown south of the River Congo, where it
formerly attacked the slaves collected in the barracoons for shipment.
It suddenly appeared at the town of Musserra alone, where, I was told
by the natives, as many as 200 of the inhabitants died of it in a few
months. This was in 1870, and, curious to say, it did not spread to the
neighbouring towns. I induced the natives to remove from the old town,
and the mortality decreased till the disease died out.

This singular disease appears to be well known at Gaboon, &c., and is
said to be an affection of the cerebellum. The subjects attacked by it
suffer no pain whatever, but fall into a continual heavy drowsiness
or sleep, having to be awakened to be fed, and at last become unable
to eat at all, or stand, and die fast asleep as it were. There is no
cure known for it, and the patients are said to die generally in about
twenty to forty days after being first attacked.

There was nothing in the old town to account for this sudden and
singular epidemic; it was beautifully clean, and well built on high,
dry ground, surrounded by mandioca plantations, and the last place to
all appearance to expect such a curious outbreak.

About four or five miles inland of Musserra, on a ridge of low
hills, stands the remarkable granite pillar marked on the charts, and
forming a capital landmark to ships at sea (Plate V.).

[Illustration: PLATE V.

Granite Pillar of Musserra.--1. Wooden Trumpet.--2. Hoe.--3. Pipe.--4.
Knives.--5 and 6. Clapping Hands, and Answer.

  _To face page 145._]

The country at that distance from the coast is singularly wild in
appearance, from the whole being broken up into what can only be
compared to a vast granite quarry:--huge blocks of this rock, of
every imaginable size and shape, are scattered over the hilly ground,
thickly interspersed with gigantic baobabs and creepers. Some of the
masses of rock imitate grotesquely all manner of objects: a very
curious one is exactly like a huge cottage-loaf stuck on the top of a
tall slender pillar. Others are generally rounded masses, large and
small, piled one on top of another, and poised and balanced in the
most fantastic manner. This extraordinary appearance is due to softer
horizontal layers or beds in the granite weathering unequally, and to
strongly-marked cleavage planes running N.N.E. and S.S.W.

The granite pillar itself stands on the top of one of the last of the
low hills forming the rocky ridge that comes down to within a few miles
of the coast. It consists of a huge slice or flat piece of granite,
facing the sea, standing upright on another block that serves it for a
pedestal. The top piece is about forty-five feet high, and twenty-seven
broad at the base, and eight to ten feet thick. Its faces correspond to
the cleavage plane of the granite of the country, and from large masses
that lie around on the same hill, it is clear that these have fallen
away from each side, and left it alone standing on the top. The square
pedestal on which it stands is about forty feet long, and twenty high,
by twenty-seven wide. I climbed once to the top of this square block
by the help of a small tree growing against it, and found that the
top piece rested on three points that I could just crawl under. Under
some lichen growing there I found numbers of a beetle (_Pentalobus
barbatus_, Fabr.), which I presented to the British Museum.

A considerable quantity of salt is made by the natives of this part of
the coast, from Quissembo to Ambrizzette, particularly at the latter
place, in the small salt marshes near the sea, and with which they
carry on a trade with the natives from the interior.

At the end of the dry season the women and children divide the surface
of these marshes into little square portions or pans, by raising mud
walls a few inches high, so as to enclose in each about two or three
gallons of the water, saturated with salt from the already nearly
evaporated marsh. As the salt crystallizes in the bottom of these
little pans, it is taken out, and more water added, and so the process
is continued until the marsh is quite dry. In many cases a small
channel is cut from the marsh to the sea (generally very close to it)
to admit fresh sea-water at high tide.

It is an amusing sight to see numbers of women and children, all stark
naked, standing sometimes above their knees in the water, baling
it into the “pans” with small open baskets or “quindas,” and all
singing loudly a monotonous song;--others are engaged in filling large
“quindas” with dirty salt from the muddy pans, whilst others again are
busily washing the crystallized salt by pouring sea-water over it till
all the mud is washed away, and the basketfuls of salt shine in the sun
like driven snow.

Towards evening long lines of women and children will be seen carrying
to their towns, on their heads, the harvest of salt, and great is the
fun and chaff from them if they meet a white man travelling in a
hammock,--all laughing and shouting, and wanting to shake hands, and
running to keep pace with the hammock-bearers.

The proprietress of each set of little evaporating pans marks them as
her property by placing a stick in each corner, to which is attached
some “fetish” to keep others from pilfering. This “fetish” is generally
a small bundle of strips of cloth or rags, or a small gourd or baobab
fruit containing feathers, fowl-dung, “tacula” (red wood), or very
often some little clay or wooden figure, grotesquely carved, and
coloured red and white.

Quantities of little fish are also captured about the same time from
these marshes, being driven into corners, &c., and prevented from
returning to the marsh by a mud wall. The water from the enclosure thus
formed is then baled out by the women with baskets, and the fish caught
in the mud. I have often seen as many as twenty women all standing in a
line, baling out the water from a large pool in which they had enclosed
shoals of little fish. These are spread out on the ground to dry in the
sun, and the stench from them during the process is something terrific.
When dry they are principally sold to natives from the interior.

Many kinds of aquatic birds of all sizes flock in the dry season to
these marshes, where a rich abundance of finny food awaits them, and it
is curious to see what little regard they pay to the women collecting
salt or baling water, and singing loudly in chorus, very often quite
close to them. The reason of this tameness is that the natives seldom
fire at or molest them, only a very few hunters shooting wild-ducks for
sale to the white men, though they will always eat any kind of rank
gull or other bird that a white man may shoot. Very beautiful are the
long lines of spoonbills, flamingoes, and herons of different species,
standing peacefully in these shallow marshes, their snow-white plumage
and tall graceful forms brightly reflected on the dark unruffled
surface of the water.

The marshes on this coast are fortunately not extensive enough to
influence much the health of the white residents; they are all
perfectly salt, and free from mangrove or other vegetation, and
generally dry up completely (with rare exceptions) in the dry season,
when sometimes the stench from them is very perceptible.

The worst season for Europeans is about May, June, and July, when the
marshes are quite full from the last heavy rains, and exhale no smell
whatever.

The point at Musserra is composed of sandstone, the lower beds of which
are strongly impregnated with bitumen, so strongly, indeed, that it
oozes out in the hot season.

At Kinsao, near Mangue Grande, and a few miles to the interior, a lake
of this mineral pitch is said to exist, but of course the natives will
not allow a white man to visit the locality to ascertain the fact,
and it is also “fetish” for the natives to trade in it. The fear of
annexation of the country by the white men has caused the natives to
“fetish” and absolutely prohibit even the mention of another very
important article--malachite--of which there is every reason to believe
a large deposit exists, about six miles up the river at Ambrizzette.
The scenery up this little river is very lovely, but the natives will
not allow white men to ascend more than a few miles or up to a hill
beyond which the deposit or mine of malachite is believed to exist. In
the slave-trading time quantities of this mineral in fine lumps used to
be purchased of the natives from this locality, but on the occupation
of Ambriz by the Portuguese, in 1855, for the purpose of reaching the
malachite deposit at Bembe, the natives of Ambrizzette closed the
working of their mine, and it remains so to this day, and nothing will
induce them to open it again.

I have had many private conversations with them, and tried hard to make
them work it again, but, as might be expected, without success.




CHAPTER VI.

 AMBRIZ--TRADE--MALACHITE--ROAD TO
 BEMBE--TRAVELLING--MOSQUITOES--QUIBALLA TO QUILUMBO--QUILUMBO TO BEMBE.


Ambriz, seen from the sea, consists of a high rocky cliff or
promontory, with a fine bay sweeping with a level beach northward
nearly to the next promontory, on which stand the trading factories
forming the place called Quissembo, or Kinsembo of the English.

In the bay the little River Loge has its mouth, and marks the northern
limit of the Portuguese possession of Angola. The country beyond,
described in the last chapter, is in the hands of the natives, under
their own laws, and owing no allegiance or obedience to any white
power. Ambriz was, up to the year 1855, when it was occupied by the
Portuguese, also in the hands of the natives, and was one of the
principal ports for the shipment of, and trade in slaves, from the
interior.

There were also established there American and Liverpool houses,
trading in gum copal, malachite, and ivory, and selling, for hard cash,
Manchester and other goods to the slave dealers from Cuba and the
Brazils, with which goods the slaves from the interior were all bought
by barter from the natives.

The Portuguese, following their usual blind and absurd policy, at
once established a custom-house, and levied high duties on all goods
imported. The consequence was, that the foreign houses, to escape their
exactions, at once removed to Quissembo, on the other side of the River
Loge, and the trade of Ambriz was completely annihilated and reduced
to zero. For many years the revenue barely sufficed to pay the paltry
salaries of the custom-house officials, but when I established myself
at Ambriz, I succeeded in inducing the Governor-General of Angola to
reduce the duties, so as to enable us at Ambriz to compete successfully
with the factories at Quissembo, six miles off, where they paid no
duties whatever, with the annual exception of a few pounds’ worth of
cloth, &c., in “customs” or presents to the natives.

The Governor, Francisco Antonio Gonçalves Cardozo, a naval officer,
had the common sense to perceive that moderate duties would yield a
greater revenue, and would be the only means of bringing back trade
to the place. An import duty of six per cent. ad valorem was decreed,
notwithstanding the violent opposition of the petty merchants, and
ignorant officials at Loanda. The experiment, it is needless to say,
was highly successful, and the receipts of the Ambriz custom-house now
amount to a considerable sum, of which a third is devoted to public
works. The factories at Quissembo are at present doing but little
trade, except in ivory, which has not yet been coaxed back to Ambriz.

The town of Ambriz consists principally of one long, broad street or
road, on the ridge that ends at the cliff or promontory forming the
southern point of the bay. At the end of the road a small fort has been
built, in which are the barracks for the detachment of troops forming
the garrison. This useless fort has been a source of considerable
profit to the many ill-paid Portuguese governors or commandants of
Ambriz, and though it has cost the country thousands of pounds, it is
not yet finished. There is a tumble-down house for the commandant, and
an attempt at an hospital, also unfinished, though it has been building
for many years. There are no quarters for the officers, who live as
best they can with the traders, or hire whatever mud or grass huts they
can secure.

The custom-house is in ruins, notwithstanding many years of
expenditure, for which, in fact, fort, hospital, barracks,
custom-house, and all other government and public works might have
been built long ago, of stone and building materials from Portugal. A
church was commenced to be built by subscriptions, the walls only were
raised, and thus it remains to this day. There is a government paid
priest who celebrates mass on most Sunday mornings in a small room in
the commandant’s house, but for whom no school-room, residence, or any
convenience whatever is provided, and who lives in a hut in a back
street, where he trades for produce with the natives on week days.

The garrison is badly armed and disciplined. Some time ago the
soldiers revolted, and for some days amused themselves by firing
their muskets about the place, and demanding drink and money from
the traders. There was nobody killed or wounded, no house or store
robbed or sacked, the mutineers in fact behaving remarkably well.
The commandant kept indoors until the news reached Loanda, and after
several days the Governor-General arrived in a Portuguese man-of-war
with troops, which were disembarked, the valiant Governor-General
remaining on board till order was restored, when he landed, had a
couple of the ringleaders thrashed, made a speech to the rest of the
mutineers, and returned to Loanda, leaving the tall commandant to twirl
his moustaches. The Governor-General was at that time an officer called
José da Ponte e Horta, and though not one of the most competent men
that Portugal has sent to Angola as governor, the inhabitants of Loanda
have to thank him for paving a great part of their sandy city.

Were not the natives of Ambriz such a remarkably inoffensive and
unwarlike race, they would long ago have driven the Portuguese into the
sea. It is a great pity that Portugal should neglect so disgracefully
her colonies, so rich in themselves, and offering such wonderful
advantages in every way for colonization and development.

In the year 1791 the Portuguese built a fort at Quincollo, about six
miles up the River Loge, on a low hill commanding the road from Ambriz
to Bembe and St. Salvador, where they then had a large establishment,
and the masses of masonry still remain, a standing memorial of the
former energy and bravery of the Portuguese who subjugated the then
powerful kingdom of Congo and the savage tribes of the coast, so
strikingly in contrast to the present spiritless and disgraceful
military misrule of Angola.

Ambriz boasts of the only iron pier in Angola, and this was erected
at my instigation. It is 200 feet long, and is a great advantage in
loading and discharging cargo into or from the lighters.

Ambriz is an open roadstead, and vessels have to anchor at a
considerable distance from the beach, and though the surf sometimes
interferes with the above operations on the beach, vessels are always
safe, such things as storms or heavy seas being unknown.

Behind the beach a salt, marshy plain extends inland for a mile or so,
and nearly to Quissembo in a northerly direction. Along the edge of
this plain is the road to Quincollo, and many little ravines or valleys
lead into it. These, in the hot season particularly, are most lovely in
their vegetation, the groups of gigantic euphorbias festooned with many
delicate-leaved creepers being especially quaint and beautiful.

A handsome orange and black diurnal moth is found abundantly about
Ambriz, and is curious from its exhaling a strong smell of gum benzoin,
so strong indeed as to powerfully scent the collecting box. It is the
_Eusemia ochracea_ of entomologists.

In 1872, the ship “Thomas Mitchell” took a cargo of coals from England
to Rio de Janeiro, and after discharging proceeded in ballast to
Ambriz. The crew on arrival were suffering from “chigoes” or “jiggers”
in their feet, which they contracted in the Brazils. These pests were
quickly communicated to the black crews of our boats and introduced on
shore, and in a short time every one in Ambriz had them in their feet
and hands. Many of the blacks were miserable objects from the ravages
of this horrid insect on their feet and legs, in the skin of which they
burrow and breed. They gradually extended up the coast, but not towards
the interior. By last advices they appear to be dying out at Ambriz. It
is to be hoped that such is the case, and that this fresh acquisition
to the insect scourges of tropical Africa may be only temporary. A
friend just arrived from the coast tells me that they have already
reached Gaboon, and they will doubtlessly run all the way up the coast.

Previous to the occupation of Ambriz by the Portuguese in 1855, the
natives used to bring down a considerable quantity of fine malachite
from Bembe for sale. A Brazilian slave-dealer, a man of great energy
and enterprise, called Francisco Antonio Flores, who, after the
abolition of the slave-trade, laboured incessantly to develop the
resources of Angola, in which effort he sank the large fortune he had
previously amassed, obtained the concession of the Bembe mines from the
Portuguese Government, who sent an expedition to occupy the country,
and succeeded without any opposition on the part of the natives.

In January, 1858, I was engaged by the Western Africa Malachite Copper
Mines Company, who had acquired the mines from Senhor Flores, to
accompany a party of twelve miners sent under a Cornish mining captain
to explore them. We arrived at Bembe on the 8th March, and the next day
seven of the men were down with fever; the others also quickly fell
ill, and for three months that followed of the heavy rainy season, they
passed through great discomforts from want of proper accommodation.
Ultimately eight died within the next nine months, and the rest had to
be sent home, with the exception of one man and myself. This result was
not so much the effect of the climate, as the want of proper lodgings
and care.

The superintendent was at that time the Portuguese commandant, who of
course did not interfere with the mining captain, an ignorant man, who
made the men work in the same manner of day and night shifts as if they
were in Cornwall, in the full blaze of the sun, in their wet clothes,
&c.

An English superintendent next arrived, but he unfortunately was
addicted to intemperance, and soon died from the effects of the brandy
bottle. After being at Bembe eight or nine months, the mining captain,
either from stupidity or wilfulness, not only had not discovered a
single pound of malachite, but insisted that there was none in the
place, where the natives for years previously had extracted from 200 to
300 tons every dry season! In view of his conduct I took upon myself
the responsibility of taking charge of the mining operations, and
sent him back to England. A few days after we discovered fine blocks
of malachite, fifteen tons of which I sent to the Company in the same
steamer that took him home.

It would not interest the reader to describe minutely the causes that
led gradually to the abandonment of the working of these mines, and
to the heavy loss sustained by the Company, but I am convinced that,
had duly qualified and experienced men directed the working from the
beginning, they would have proved a success. Many hundred tons of
malachite were afterwards raised, with the help of a very few white
miners, but too late to correct the previous mistakes and losses.

During the years 1858 and 1859 I travelled the road from Ambriz to
Bembe eight times, and in the month of April 1873, I went again, for
the last time, with my wife.

Lieutenant Grandy and his brother had been our guests at Ambriz, where
we had supplied them with the greater part of the beads and goods they
required for their arduous journey into the interior. These gentlemen,
it will be recollected, were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to
discover the source of the Congo, and to meet and aid Dr. Livingstone
in the interior should he have crossed the continent from the east
coast, as it was imagined he might probably do.

We had arranged to proceed together from Ambriz as far as Bembe,
but owing to the great mortality in the country from two successive
visitations of small-pox, which had ravaged the coast, we were unable
to obtain the necessary number of carriers. The two brothers alone
required nearly 200, and as only a few comparatively could be had
at a time, they went singly first, and, about a week after they had
both started, my wife and myself were able to get together sufficient
carriers to leave also.

To travel in a country like Angola it is necessary to be provided with
almost everything in the way of food and clothing, and goods for money,
and as everything has to be carried on men’s heads, a great number of
carriers are necessarily requisite.

The “tipoia,” or hammock, is the universal travelling apparatus in
Angola (Plate I.), and is of two forms, the simple hammock slung to
a palm pole (the stem of the leaf of a _Metroxylon_, Welw.), which
is very strong and extremely light, or the same with a light-painted
waterproof cover, and curtains, very comfortable to travel in, and
always used by the Portuguese to the interior of Loanda, where the
country is more open, and better paths or roads exist, but they
would quickly be torn to pieces north, and on the road to Bembe,
from the very dense bush, and in the wet season the very high grass;
consequently the plain hammock and pole only are generally employed,
the traveller shading himself from the sun by a movable cover
held in position by two cords, or by using a white umbrella. When
travelling long distances six or eight bearers are necessary: the two
hammock-carriers generally run at a trot for about two hours at a
stretch, when another couple take their places.

On any well-known road the natives have established changing or resting
places, which, when not at a town, are generally at some shady tree or
place where water is to be had,--or at the spots where fairs are held,
or food cooked and exposed for sale by the women.

When the road was clear of grass, in the dry season, I have more than
once travelled from Ambriz to Bembe--a distance of not less than 130
miles--in four days, with only eight bearers and light luggage, and
this without in any way knocking up or distressing the carriers, and
only running from daybreak to nightfall;--very often they joined in
a “batuco” or dance, for several hours into the night, at the town I
slept at, and were quite fresh and ready to start next morning.

It is only the stronger blacks that are good hammock-bearers,
especially the coast races, very few of the natives of the interior,
such as the Mushicongos, being sufficiently powerful to carry a hammock
for any distance. The motion is extremely disagreeable at first, from
the strong up and down jerking experienced, but one soon becomes quite
used to it, and falls asleep whilst going at full trot, just as if
it were perfectly still. The natives of Loanda and Benguella, though
not generally such strong carriers as the Ambriz blacks, take the
hammock at a fast walk instead of the sharp trot of the latter, and
consequently hammock travelling there is very lazy and luxurious.

The pole is carried on the shoulder, and rests on a small cushion
generally made of fine grass-cloth stuffed with wild cotton, the
silky fibre in the seed-pod of the “Mafumeira,” or cotton-wood tree
(_Eriodendron anfractuosum_), or “isca,” a brown, woolly-like down
covering the stems of palm-trees. Each bearer carries a forked stick on
which to rest the pole when changing shoulders, and also to ease the
load by sticking the end of it under the pole behind their backs, and
stretching out their arm on it. No one who has not tried can form an
idea what hard, wearying work it is to carry a person in a hammock, and
it is wonderful how these blacks will run with one all day, in the hot
sun, nearly naked, with bare shaved heads, and not feel distressed.

On arriving at any stream or pool they dash at once into the water,
and wash off the perspiration that streams from their bodies, and I
never heard of any ill consequence occurring from this practice. The
hammock-bearers do not as a rule carry loads; by native custom they
are only obliged to carry the white man’s bed, his provision-box,
and one portmanteau. To take my wife, myself, a tent--as it was the
rainy season--provisions, bedding, and a few changes of clothes, only
what was absolutely necessary for a month’s journey, we had to engage
exactly thirty carriers: this included our cook and his boy with the
necessary pots and pans; our “Jack Wash,” as the laundry-boys are
called, with his soap and irons; and one man with the drying-papers and
boxes for collecting plants and insects. We also took a Madeira cane
chair, very useful to be carried in across the streams or marshes we
should meet with.

All being ready we started off, passing Quincollo and arriving at
Quingombe, where we encamped for the night on top of a hill, to be
out of the way, as I thought, of a peculiarly voracious mosquito very
abundant there, and of which I had had experience in my former journeys
to and from Bembe.

I shall never forget the first night I passed there in going up to
the mines with the twelve miners. There was at that time a large
empty barracoon built of sticks and grass for the accommodation of
travellers. Soon after sunset a hum like that of distant bees was
heard, and a white mist seemed to rise out of the marshy land below,
which was nothing less than a cloud of mosquitoes. The men were
unprovided with mosquito nets, and the consequence was that sleep was
perfectly out of the question, so they sat round the table smoking and
drinking coffee, and killing mosquitoes on their hands and faces all
night long. I had been given an excellent mosquito bar or curtain, but
the ground was so full of sand-fleas, that although I was not troubled
with mosquitoes, the former kept me awake and feverish. In the morning
we laughed at our haggard appearance, and swollen faces and hands;
luckily we were not so troubled any more on our journey up.

Where mosquitoes are in such abundance, nothing but a proper curtain
will avail against them; smoking them out is of very little use, as
only such a large amount of acrid smoke will effectually drive them
away as to make the remedy almost unbearable. The substances usually
burnt in such cases are dry cow-dung, mandioca-meal, or white Angola
gum.

There are several species of mosquito in Angola; that found in marshes
is the largest, and is light brown in colour, and very sluggish in its
flight or movements. When the fellow settles to insert his proboscis,
it is quite sufficient to put the tip of a finger on him to annihilate
him, but none of the others can be so easily killed; two or three
species--notably a little black shiny fellow, only found near running
water--are almost impossible to catch when settled and sucking, even
with the most swiftly delivered slap. Another species is beautifully
striped or banded with black, body and legs.

Mosquitoes rarely attack in the daytime, except in shady places, where
they are fond of lying on the under side of leaves of trees. Some with
large beautiful plumed antennæ appear at certain times of the year in
great numbers, and are said to be the males, and are not known to bite
or molest in any way.

Although we pitched our tent on top of a hill to escape the marsh
mosquitoes, and had a terrific rain-storm nearly the whole of the
night, they found us out, and in the morning the inner side of our
tent was completely covered with them;--had we not slept under a good
mosquito net, we should have passed just such another night as I have
described. We had to stop a second night on this hill to wait for our
full number of carriers. The scenery from it is magnificent, low hills
covered with dense bush of the prickly acacia tree (_A. Welwitschii_),
high grass, baobabs and euphorbias, and in the low places a great
abundance of a large aloe, with pale crimson flowers in tall spikes.

At last all loads were properly distributed and secured in the
“mutetes,” an arrangement in which loads are very conveniently carried.
They are generally made from the palm leaves, the leaflets of which are
woven into a kind of basket, leaving the stems only about five or six
feet long; a little shoe or slipper, made of wood or hide, is secured
to the under side. When the carrier wishes to rest, he bends down his
head until the palm stems touch the ground, and the load is then leant
up against a tree. If there is not a tree handy, then the end of their
stick or staff being inserted into the shoe, forms with the two ends
three legs, on which it stands securely. This shoe is also useful with
the staff when on the journey, to rest the carrier for a few minutes by
easing the weight of the load off his head without setting it down. The
natives of the interior carry loads on their heads that they are unable
to lift easily from the ground, and the “mutete” is therefore very
convenient. In carrying a large bag of produce, a long stick is tied on
to each side, to act in the same way as the “mutete.”

In four days we arrived at Quiballa, where we rested a couple of days,
to collect plants and some fine butterflies from the thick surrounding
woods, and to dry the plants we had gathered thus far. The country we
had passed was comparatively level, and the scenery for the most part
was very like that of a deserted park overgrown with rank grass and
weeds.

As Quiballa is approached the country becomes very hilly in all
directions, and the vegetation changes to fine trees and creepers,
conspicuous amongst which is the india-rubber plant already described.

Quiballa is a large town most picturesquely situated on a low,
flat-topped hill, surrounded on all sides by other higher hills, and
separated from them by a deep ravine filled with magnificent forest
vegetation, and in the bottom of which a shallow stream of the clearest
water runs swiftly over its fantastic rocky bed--all little waterfalls
and shady transparent pools. Our finest specimens of butterflies, such
as _Godartia Trajanus_, _Romaleosoma losinga_, _R. medon_, _Euryphene
Plistonax_ and others, were collected in these lovely woods; they do
not come out into the sunny open, but flit about in the shadiest part
under the trees, flying near the ground, and occasionally settling on
a leaf or branch on which a streak of sunshine falls through the leafy
vault above. Other species, such as the Papilios (_P. menestheus_, _P.
brutus_, _P. demoleus_, _P. erinus_, _Diadema misuppus_), &c. &c., on
the contrary, we only found in the full sunshine, on the low bushes and
flowering plants, skirting, as with a broad belt, the woods or forest.

The change in vegetation from the coast to Quiballa may be due not
only to difference of altitude, but partly to the rock of the country,
which is a large-grained, very quartzose mica rock or gneiss from the
coast to near Quiballa, where it changes to a soft mica slate, easily
decomposed by water and atmospheric influences. Several species of
birds, very abundant on the coast and as far as Matuta, disappear about
Quiballa, the most notable being the common African crow (_Corvus
scapulatus_), the brilliantly-coloured starlings (_Lamprocolius_),
and the several rollers; doves also, so abundant on the coast, are
comparatively rare after passing Quiballa.

The _Coracias caudata_, the most beautiful of the African rollers, has
a very extraordinary manner of flying, tumbling about in a zig-zag
fashion in the air as if drunk, and chattering loudly all the time. I
once shot at one on the top of a high tree at Matuta; it fell dead,
as I thought, but on picking it up I was gladly surprised to find
it quite uninjured, and only stunned apparently. I placed it in a
hastily-constructed cage, and took it with me to Bembe, where it became
quite tame, and I had it several months, till my boy, feeding it one
morning, left the door of its cage open, and it flew away. In its
native state it feeds principally on grasshoppers; in captivity its
food was mostly raw meat, which it ate greedily.

The starlings of darkest shades of blue, with bright yellow eyes, are
strikingly beautiful when seen flying, the sunshine reflecting the
metallic lustre of their plumage.

The cooing of the doves serves the natives at night instead of a clock,
as they coo at the same hours as the common cock, and in travelling, if
the natives are asked the time during the night, they always refer to
the “dove having sung,” as they term it, or not. Its cooing a little
before day-dawn is the signal to prepare for the start that day.

At the town of Quirillo, where we slept one night, the Madeira chair
first came into use, to cross a stream and marsh in which the water
came up to the men’s necks. Our hammock-boys thought it fine fun to
pass us over the different streams in the chair; all twelve would stand
in the water close together, with the chair on their shoulders, and
pass my wife across first, singing in chorus, “Mundelle mata-bicho,
Mundelle mata-bicho” (Mundelle = white-man, mata-bicho = a “dash” of a
drink of rum). On landing her safely they would yell and whistle like
demons, accompanied by all the rest on the banks, and splash and dabble
about like ducks in the water. The chair would then come back for me,
and the same scene be again enacted. A bottle of rum, or a couple of
bunches of beads, was always the reward for crossing us over without
wetting us.

Quiballa is by far the largest town to be met with from Ambriz, and
contains several hundred huts distributed irregularly over the flat top
of the hill on which it stands. The huts are square, built of sticks
covered with clay, and roofed with grass. The principal room in the
largest hut was swept out, and placed at our disposal by the king, and
we made ourselves very comfortable in it. The king, Dom Paolo, is a
fine, tall old negro, and knowing of our arrival sent his son and a
number of men to meet us, when they took my wife’s hammock, and raced
her into the town at a great pace. He has considerable influence in the
country, where his is an important town, as it marks the limits of the
coast or Ambriz race, and that of the Mushicongo tribe beyond.

There is a good deal of rivalry between the two races;--the Ambriz
blacks do not like going beyond Quiballa, and the Mushicongos object
to go into the Ambriz country. Before the road was taken possession of
by the Portuguese, Quiballa was the great halting-place for the two
tribes, the Mushicongos bringing the proceeds of the copper mines at
Bembe to sell to the Ambriz natives, who then carried it to the traders
on the coast. With the increased trade in other produce, a great deal
of this separation has been done away with, and both tribes now mingle
more freely; but at the time I was engaged at the Bembe mines we were
obliged to have a large store at Quiballa to receive loads going up
from Ambriz, and copper ore coming down from Bembe, and there change
carriers.

The Ambriz negroes, being very much stronger, never objected to any
loads, however heavy, some of these going up the country with sixteen
or twenty carriers, such as the heavy pieces of the steam-engine,
saw-mill, pumps, &c. There was great difficulty in inducing the
Mushicongos to take these heavy and very often cumbersome loads from
Quiballa to Bembe, and once, when loads for upwards of 1000 carriers
had accumulated at the store, I was obliged to hit upon the following
plan to get the Mushicongos to take them up, and it succeeded admirably.

I engaged 1000 carriers at Bembe to go empty-handed to Quiballa for
the cargo there, and paid them only the customary number of beads for
rations on the road, rations for the return journey to be paid at
Quiballa, and pay for the whole journey at Bembe, on delivery of the
loads. My calculation was that the greater number would be forced from
hunger to take them, and so it happened. The morning after we arrived
at Quiballa they all flatly refused to take a single load of the
machinery in the store;--I very quietly told them they might go about
their business, and for three days I was yelled at by them, but they
were at last forced to accept my terms, and I returned to Bembe with
800 loads.

It was at Quiballa that we were so fortunate as to obtain specimens
of the flowers, and a quantity of ripe seeds of the beautiful plant
named _Camoensia maxima_ by its discoverer, Dr. Welwitsch. We saw
it growing along the sides of the road as soon as we left the gneiss
formation and entered on the mica slate, but most abundantly in the
more bare places on the sides of the hills at Quiballa, in the very
hard clay of the decomposed mica slate.

[Illustration: PLATE VI.

VIEW IN THE HILLY COUNTRY OF QUIBALLA--CAMOENSIA MAXIMA.

  _To face page 177._]

The _Camoensia maxima_ (Plate VI.) grows as a hard, woody bush, with
rather straggling long branches covered with fine large leaves, and
bearing bunches of flowers, the lower, and by far the largest petal
of which is shaped like a shell, of a delicate creamy white, with its
edges exquisitely crisped, bordered with a golden rim, and nearly the
size of an open hand. Its roots spread underground to great distances
and shoot out into other plants, so that on attempting to remove what
we thought nice small plants, we always came on great thick roots which
we followed and found to proceed from old bushes at a considerable
distance. Several small plants that we brought away alive died
subsequently at Ambriz. Half a dozen of the seeds germinated on arrival
at Kew Gardens, so that I hope this lovely flower will be shortly in
cultivation, a welcome addition to our hot-houses. All the plants that
we collected and dried are deposited in the herbarium at Kew Gardens.

A peculiarity of the towns on the coast inhabited by the Ambriz blacks,
and which disappears inland, is their being surrounded by a thick, high
belt or hedge of a curious, thin, very branching Euphorbia.

The huts in coast towns are all built separately, but near one another,
in a clear space, and not separated by trees or hedges; in the
interior, however, the space occupied by the towns is very much larger,
and many of the huts are built in a square piece of ground and enclosed
by a hedge either of a square-stemmed, prickly, cactus-like euphorbia,
or more generally of the Physic-nut plant (_Jatropha curcas_), the
“Purgueira” of the Portuguese, and from the greater number of trees
and palms left standing, the towns are very much prettier, some being
remarkably picturesque. Most of them are situated in woods, which are
not found in the littoral region. The huts of the Mushicongos, from
the greater abundance of building materials, are very much larger than
those of the Ambriz blacks, and very often contain two rooms. The towns
of both are remarkably clean, and are always kept well swept, as are
also the interiors of their huts;--their brooms are a bundle of twigs,
and the dust, ashes, &c., are always thrown into the bush surrounding
the towns.

A cleanly habit of all blacks, and one which it always struck me might
be imitated with advantage by more civilized countries, is that of
always turning away their faces to expectorate, and invariably covering
it with dust or sand with their feet.

At certain places on the road, generally in the vicinity of water, or
where several trees afford a convenient shade, a kind of little market
is held all day, of plantains, green indian-corn, mandioca roots,
and other articles of food for the supply of the carriers or natives
passing up and down. Here the women from the neighbouring towns come
with their pots, and cook food, such as dry fish and beans, and sell
“garapa” or “uallua,” as a kind of beer made from indian-corn is called.

My wife, of course, excited the greatest curiosity in all the towns we
passed through; only two white women (both Portuguese) had before made
the journey to Bembe, and the remarks and observations made on her
appearance, principally by the women, were often very amusing. One old
woman at a town where we stayed to breakfast, and who was the king’s
mother, after watching us for some time, expressed her satisfaction
at our conduct, and said we appeared to be a very loving pair, as I
had helped my wife first to food and drink. She was very thankful for
a cup of coffee, and a handful of lumps of sugar for her cough. Their
greatest astonishment, however, was at our india-rubber bed and bath,
and the whole town would flock round in breathless amazement to see
them blown out ready for use, when our tent had been put up. Some would
ask to be allowed to touch them, and would then look quite frightened
at their peculiar feel.

In the mornings on coming out of our tent we would generally find a
large audience squatted on the ground waiting for our appearance, to
wish us good morning, though curiosity to see the finishing touches of
our toilette was the principal cause.

My wife’s last operations of hair-dressing, which could not be
conveniently effected in the closed tent, seemed to cause them most
surprise. Beyond this very natural curiosity to see us, we were never
once annoyed by any rudeness or impropriety on the part of the natives.

Having rested a couple of days at Quiballa, we again started on
our journey. The road (which is nowhere other than a narrow path,
only admitting the passage of blacks in single file), after leaving
Quiballa, winds around some rocky hills, which are succeeded by a
couple of miles of level valley thickly grown with cane and very
high grass, until the hill called Tuco is reached, the first great
sudden elevation. On the left is a deep valley, filled with an almost
impenetrable forest of the most luxuriant foliage and creepers; the
great trunks and branches of the high trees are mostly white and
shiny, and contrast in a singular manner with the dark green of their
leaves. On the right the hill-side is also covered with trees and bush
on which was growing abundantly a beautiful creeper, bearing large
handsome leaves and bright yellow flowers (_Luffa sp._). From the top,
looking back towards Quiballa, a magnificent view is obtained. As far
as the eye can reach is seen a succession of forest-covered mountains
brightly lit in the cloudless sun to the distant horizon, shaded off
into a haze of lovely blue. It is almost impossible to imagine a more
exquisite panorama, and words fail to describe its beauty and grandeur.

After this hill is passed, the country continues comparatively level
for some miles, and is very beautiful, being covered with dense
vegetation, in which are seen abundance of dark feathery palms,
relieved by the bright green patches of the banana groves, planted
round the little towns. The soil is very fertile, and many ground-nut
and mandioca plantations are seen everywhere.

Our first halt was at Ngungungo, a large and very picturesque town,
where there is a considerable trade carried on in mandioca root and
its different preparations, as well as in beans and ground-nuts, the
produce of the country around.

After passing this town the road becomes very rocky and stony,
necessitating getting out of the hammocks and walking a good deal over
the rough ground. Farther on, another steep but bare hill had to be
ascended, and finally we reached a little new town called Quioanquilla,
where we slept. This had been a large and important town, but the
natives having robbed several caravans going up to the mines, the
Portuguese punished them by burning it some years ago. We saw a
considerable quantity of wild pineapples growing about this town, but
the natives make no use of its fine fibre, contenting themselves with
eating the unripe fruit.

Next day’s journey brought us, early in the afternoon, to a very
prettily situated new town, of which a little old woman was the queen;
her two sons were the head men, and we were most hospitably received by
them.

We had, fortunately, thus far escaped rain-storms during the day
whilst travelling; rain had always come down at night, when we were
comfortably housed in our tent or in the hut at Quiballa. We put up
our tent in an open space in the middle of the town, and took the
precaution, as usual, of cutting a small trench round it to carry
away the water in case of rain. When we retired the weather was fine,
but we had not been asleep long before we were awakened by a terrific
thunderstorm, accompanied by torrents of rain. The trench overflowed,
and a stream of water began to enter our tent. In the greatest hurry
I cut another trench along the side of our bed, a foot wide and about
nine inches deep, and for two hours did this drain run full of water,
such was the downpour of rain. Next morning we continued our journey,
and in about half-an-hour’s time arrived at a rivulet that drained
what was usually a large marsh, but the storm of the previous night
had turned the marsh into a lake and the rivulet into a roaring stream
quite impassable. After trying it lower down, and finding we could not
ford it, we had no alternative but to return to the town and remain
there for that day, or till the water should have subsided sufficiently
to enable us to cross. The remainder of the day we employed in
collecting insects and in drying the plants we had gathered the last
few days.

A child was born whilst we were in this town, and, being a girl, it was
at once named Rose, after my wife, who had therefore to make the mother
a present of a piece of handkerchiefs and an extra fine red cotton one
for the baby.

Next day we were able to pass the swollen stream in our chair, after
a couple of hours spent in cutting away branches of trees, &c., that
obstructed the passage, at a place where the depth of water was about
five feet. In a fish-trap I here found the curious new fish described
by Dr. A. Günther, and named by him _Gymnallabes apus_ (‘Annals and
Magazine of Natural History’ for August, 1873).

[Illustration: PLATE VII.

  QUILUMBO.       _To face page 185._]

That day’s journey, through a country alternately covered with lovely
forest and high grass, brought us to the large town of Quilumbo,
beautifully situated in a forest, and with a great number of oil-palm
trees (Plate VII.). This is at present the largest and most important
town on the road to Bembe, containing several hundred huts and quite
a swarm of inhabitants. About noon we halted for breakfast at a
market-place near a town on the River Lifua. Here were about forty
or fifty armed blacks, with the king from the neighbouring town, all
getting rapidly drunk on “garapa,” or indian-corn beer; their faces and
bodies painted bright red, with a few white spots, looking like so many
stage demons, dancing, singing, and flourishing their guns about. They
were all going to a town where we heard the kings of five towns were
to have their heads cut off that day for complicity in the murder of a
woman by one of them. They were accompanied by a man blowing a large
wooden trumpet of most extraordinary form (Plate V.).

This trumpet is made of the hollow root and stem of a tree, said to
grow in the mud of rivers and marshes; it does not appear to have been
thinned away much at its narrow end, but seems to have grown naturally
from the large flat root to a thin stem at a short distance above it. I
immediately wanted to buy this instrument, but nothing would induce the
king to part with it till I offered to exchange it for a brass bugle. I
had to give them a “mucanda” or order for one at our store at Ambriz;
even then it was not delivered to me, but the king agreed to send one
of his sons to Ambriz with it on my return from Bembe, which he did,
and thus I became possessed of it.

Next day’s journey was through pretty undulating country, covered
principally with high grass, and after passing a couple of small
towns we arrived, early in the afternoon, at the River Luqueia,
which we passed over on a very good plank bridge, just built by the
Portuguese officer commanding the small detachment at Bembe. Here our
carriers stopped for about an hour, bathing in the river, and dressing
themselves in their best cloths and caps, that they had brought with
them carefully packed--so as to make their appearance in a dandy
condition on entering Bembe, which we did in about half-an-hour’s time,
having to walk up a stiff hill, too steep to be carried up in our
hammocks.

We had thus travelled the whole distance from Ambriz to Bembe, which,
as I have before stated, is certainly not less than 130 miles, in
eight travelling days. This will give some idea of the endurance of
the Ambriz natives, as, from having to take down and pack the tent
every morning, and make hot tea or coffee before starting, it was never
before seven or eight o’clock that we were on the move. Moreover, from
the rain and heavy dew at night, the high grass was excessively wet,
and it would not do to start till it had somewhat dried in the morning
sun. In going through woods we generally got out of our hammocks in
the grateful, cool shade, and collected butterflies, the finest being
found in such places. In rocky and hilly places my wife, of course,
could not get over the ground on foot so quickly as a man might have
done.

A description of the dress she adopted may be useful to other ladies
who may travel in similar wild countries, as she found it exceedingly
comfortable and convenient for going through wet grass and tangled
bush, and through the excessively spiny trees and thorny bushes of
the first thirty or forty miles of the road. It was very simple and
loose, and consisted of one of my coloured cotton shirts instead of the
usual dress-body, and the skirt made short and of a strong material,
fastening the shirt round the waist; either or both could then be
easily and promptly changed as required.

[Illustration: PLATE VIII.

  BEMBE VALLEY.      _To face page 189._]




CHAPTER VII.

 BEMBE--MALACHITE DEPOSIT--ROOT PARASITE--ENGONGUI--MORTALITY
 OF CATTLE--FAIRS--KING OF CONGO--RECEPTIONS--CUSTOMS--SAN
 SALVADOR--FEVERS--RETURN TO AMBRIZ.


Bembe is the third great elevation, and it stands boldly and cliff-like
out of the broad plain on which we have been travelling, and at its
base runs the little river Luqueia.

Approaching it from the westward, we see a high mountain to the right
of the plateau of Bembe, separated from it by a narrow gorge thickly
wooded that drains the valley, separating in its turn the table-land
of Bembe from the high flat country beyond, in a north and easterly
direction. This valley, in which the great deposit of malachite exists,
is about a mile long in a straight line and runs N.N.W. by S.S.E.
(Plate VIII.).

It is a _cul-de-sac_ at its northern end, terminating in a beautiful
waterfall which the waters of a rivulet have worn in the clay slate
of the country. This rivulet, after running at the bottom of the
valley, takes a sudden bend at its southern end, and escapes through
the narrow gorge described above as separating the peak or mountain
from the table-land of Bembe. The side of the valley next to Bembe is
very steep along its whole length, and shows the clay slate of the
country perfectly; the other side, however, is a gradual slope, and is
covered by a thick deposit of clayey earths, in which the malachite is
irregularly distributed for the whole length of the valley.

The malachite is often found in large solid blocks;--one resting on
two smaller ones weighed together a little over three tons, but it
occurs mostly in flat veins without any definite dip or order, swelling
sometimes to upwards of two feet in thickness, and much fissured in
character from admixture with dark oxide of iron, with which it is
often cemented to the clay in which it is contained.

Two kinds of clay are found, a ferruginous red, and an unctuous black
variety. The malachite occurs almost entirely in the former. A large
proportion was obtained in the form of small irregularly-shaped shot,
by washing the clay in suitable apparatus. Large quantities had been
raised by the natives from this valley before the country was taken
possession of by the Portuguese.

For about fifteen years previously, as before stated, from 200 to 300
tons per annum had been brought down to Ambriz by the natives for sale.
The mining captain sent out by the English Company did not judiciously
employ his force of miners in properly exploring the deposit, so that
its extent was never fully ascertained; no shafts were sunk to more
than six or eight fathoms in depth at the bottom of the valley, from
the quantity of water met with, but in several places the bottom of
these shafts was found to be pure solid malachite. In no case was
malachite ever found in the clay-slate rock of the country, and there
can be no doubt that this vast deposit was brought and deposited in
the valley by the agency of water. No other mineral is to be found in
the valley, and only some rounded, water-worn pieces of limestone were
found in the clay and associated with the malachite.

In some pieces of this a few crystals of atacamite are to be rarely
seen. The clay-slate is completely bare of minerals,--with very few
veins of quartz, which is highly crystalline,--has well-defined
cleavage planes, with a strike of N.W. by S.E., and dips to the S.S.W.
at an angle of about 55°.

In no part of Angola, except at Mossamedes, have any regular lodes or
deposits of copper or other metals (except iron) been found _in situ_;
all bear unmistakable evidences of having been brought from elsewhere,
and deposited by the action of water in the places where they are now
found.

I have no doubt that the country farther to the interior will be found
immensely rich--in copper principally--where the lodes most likely
exist that have supplied the enormous amount of copper carbonates found
all over Angola, and farther north at Loango.

Some idea may be formed of the great extent of the Bembe deposit, if
we consider the manner in which the natives formerly extracted the
malachite. It was entirely by means of little round pits, about three
or four feet in diameter, sunk in the bottom of the valley and along
its whole length, particularly at several places where the water
draining from the country above had washed away the clay, and formed
little openings on the same level as the bottom of the valley. When I
arrived at Bembe, many of these pits were still open for a couple of
fathoms deep, as many as eight or nine pits being sunk together in a
rich spot. They sunk them only in the dry season, and as deep as four
or five fathoms, but of course they were never carried down quite
perpendicularly, but in an irregular zigzag fashion, and not being
timbered they often fell together, and numbers of blacks were buried
alive in them every year. We several times came across bones of blacks
who had thus lost their lives. During the rainy season, of course,
these pits were filled up with water and mud, and fresh ones had to be
dug in the succeeding dry season.

To ascend and descend them the natives drove wooden pegs into the
walls, and their only mining tools were the little hoes used in
clearing and cultivating the ground, and the cheap spear-pointed
knives, ten or eleven inches long, they received in barter at Ambriz
from the traders.

The mines belonged to several of the towns in the immediate
neighbourhood, principally to one called Matuta; but they allowed the
natives of other towns to extract malachite from them, on payment of a
certain quantity of the ore they raised.

The natives of Ambriz who went up to Bembe to buy malachite of the
Mushicongos were seldom allowed to pass the River Luqueia, where the
malachite was brought down for sale by measure, in little baskets,
being like the red gum copal, broken into moderate-sized pieces, except
the finer lumps, which were sold entire. Most of the malachite has
since been obtained by means of levels driven into the side from the
bottom of the valley, but the great mass, below the level at which
water is reached, remains practically untouched.

The failure of the English Company, from causes to which it is here
unnecessary further to advert, caused the works at the mines to be
gradually abandoned, and for the last few years the Portuguese have
allowed the blacks to work them in their own fashion again; and I was
very sorry to see the place in a complete state of ruin, with only a
few stone walls overgrown with a luxuriant growth of creepers and other
plants to mark the places where the houses and stores formerly stood,
and where several hundred natives used to be daily at work.

During the years 1858 and 1859, when I was first at Bembe, any number
of natives could be had from the neighbouring towns, willing to work at
the mines, and as many as 200 to 300 were daily employed, principally
in carrying the ore and clay to the washing-floors, cutting timber,
clearing bush, &c.; they were generally engaged for a week’s time,
their pay ranging from one to three cotton handkerchiefs, and twenty or
thirty beads for rations per day. Some few worked steadily for several
weeks or even months, when they would go off to their towns, with
perhaps only a few handkerchiefs, leaving the rest of their earnings
to the care of some friend at Bembe till their return, as, if they
took such an amount of wealth to their towns, they ran the risk of
being accused of “fetish” and of having the whole taken from them, with
perhaps a beating besides. Very often they would go “on the spree” for
a week or more till they had spent it all on drink and rioting, when
they would return to visit their towns nearly as poor as when they
arrived.

Our best workmen were the soldiers of the garrison, mostly blacks
and mulattoes from Loanda, and belonging to a sapper corps, and
consequently having some knowledge of working, and of tools and
implements. It was great trouble to teach the natives the use of the
pick and shovel, and the wheelbarrow was a special difficulty and
stumbling-block;--when not carrying it on their heads, which they
always did when it was empty, two or three would carry it; but the
most amusing manner in which I saw it used, was once where a black was
holding up the handles, but not pushing at all, whilst another in front
was walking backward, and turning the wheel round towards him with his
hands. As many as 1000 carriers at a time could easily be had from the
neighbouring towns to carry the copper ore to Quiballa or Ambriz, by
giving them two or three days’ notice.

The carriers, either at Bembe or on the coast, are always accompanied
by a head-man, called a “Capata” (generally from each town, and
bringing from 10 to 100 or more carriers), who is responsible for the
loads and men. The load of the carriers used to be two and a half
“arrobas” or eighty pounds of malachite, and some few strong fellows
used to carry two such loads on their heads all the way to Ambriz.
Their pay was one piece of ten cotton handkerchiefs, and 300 blue
glass beads for each journey--the “Capata” taking double pay and no
load. This was equal to about 5_l._ per ton carriage to Ambriz. At
present the cost would be much more on account of the great decrease of
population from several epidemics of small-pox, and from the very large
carrying trade in ground-nuts and coffee.

At the end of the valley, where it joins the narrow gorge that drains
it, an enormous mass of a very hard metamorphic limestone, destitute
of fossil remains, rises from the bottom to a height of about thirty
feet, and in it are contained two caverns or large chambers. This mass
of rock is imbedded in a dense forest, and is overgrown by trees and
enormous creepers, the stems of which, like great twisted cables, hang
down through the crevices and openings to the ground below.

Great numbers of bats inhabit the roof of the darkest of these caverns,
and some that I once shot were greatly infested with a large, and very
active, nearly white species of the curious spider-looking parasite
Nyctiribia, that lives on this class of animals.

In the thick damp shade of the trees surrounding this mass of rock,
we collected the rose-coloured flowers of that extremely curious root
parasite, the _Thonningea sanguinea_ (Dr. Hooker, ‘Transactions of the
Linnean Society,’ 1856).--These specimens are now in the Kew Museum.

The Portuguese built a fine little fort at Bembe, with a dry ditch
round it, which has stood one or two sieges; but the Mushicongos are
a cowardly set without any idea of fighting, so that they were easily
beaten off by the small garrison.

At the time of my first arrival at Bembe, there were about 200 men
in garrison, who were well shod, clothed, and cared for. They had a
band of music of some fifteen performers, and the manner in which it
was got up was most amusing. One of the officers sent to Loanda for a
number of musical instruments, and picking out a man for each, he was
given the option of becoming a musician, or of being locked up in the
calaboose on bread and water for a certain period. They all, of course,
preferred the former alternative, and there happening to be a mulatto
in the garrison who had been a bandsman, he was elevated to the post of
bandmaster, and forthwith ordered to teach the rest.

The performances of this band may be best left to the imagination,
but wonderful to relate, the governor (Andrade) used to take pleasure
in listening to the excruciating din, which would have delighted a
Hottentot, and would make them play under his quarters several evenings
a week.

On the anniversary of the signing of the “Carta Constitucional,” a
great day in Portugal, the same governor invited us all to a picnic
at the top of the Peak, where a large tent had been erected and a
capital breakfast provided: a three-pounder gun had been dragged up
to fire salutes, and we enjoyed a very pleasant day. From the summit
a magnificent view of the surrounding country is obtained, and on
descending, we proceeded to visit the town of Matuta, some little
distance off. On approaching the town, the band struck up, accompanied
by the big drum beaten to the utmost. Our approach had not been
perceived, and at the unaccountable uproar of the band as we entered
the town, a most laughable effect was produced on the inhabitants,
who fled in all directions in the greatest dismay, with the children
crying and yelling as only small negroes can. After our sitting down,
and holding out bottles of rum and bunches of beads, they quickly
became convinced of our peaceable intentions and flocked round us, and
in a little time the king, a short thin old man, made his appearance,
dressed in a long red cloak, a large cavalry helmet on his head, and
carrying a cutlass upright in his hand, at arm’s-length. After the
usual drinks and compliments, the band played again, to the now intense
enjoyment of the inhabitants, who capered and danced and shouted around
like demons. So great was the effect and pleasure produced on them by
the band, that they made a subscription of beads, and presented it to
the performers.

From this town we went to another close by, separated only by a small
stream, which was governed by another king, also a very old man,
who, we found, was nearly dying of age and rheumatism. In crossing
the stream, our king of the red cloak and helmet presented a comical
appearance, for to save his finery from wetting, he tucked it up
rather higher than was necessary or dignified. This same king, having
on one occasion brought into Bembe a couple of blacks who had robbed
their loads in coming up the country from Ambriz, got so drunk upon
the rum which he received as part of the reward for capturing them,
that his attendants stripped him of his state uniform and helmet, and
left him by the side of the road stark naked, with a boy sitting by his
side holding an umbrella over him till his everyday clothes were sent
from his town, and he was sufficiently sober to walk home. In Africa,
as everywhere else, there is often but a step from the sublime to the
ridiculous!

Mr. Flores’s agent at Bembe used to buy ivory, though after a time he
had to give up trading there, partly on account of having to carry
up the goods for barter from Ambriz, and from the natives wanting
as much for the tusks as they were in the habit of getting on the
coast;--blacks having no regard whatever for time or distance, eight or
ten days’ journey more or less being to them perfectly immaterial. The
road followed by the caravans of ivory from the interior passes, as I
have said before, near Bembe; consequently a good many caravans left
the usual track and came there to sell their ivory, or if they could
not agree on the terms, passed on to the coast, and it was interesting
to see them arrive, and watch the process of bartering.

From Bembe we could descry the long black line of negroes composing
the “Quibucas” or caravans, far away on the horizon across the mine
valley, and it was here that I became convinced of the superiority of
the negro’s eyesight over the white man’s. Our blacks, particularly
old Pae Tomás, could tell with the naked eye the number of tusks, and
the number of bags of “fuba” or meal, in a caravan, and whether they
brought any pigs or sheep with them, at such a distance that not one of
us could distinguish anything without a glass--in fact, when we could
only see a moving black line. Caravans of 200 and 300 natives, bringing
as many as 100 large tusks of ivory, were not unfrequent.

As soon as they came within hearing distance, they beat their
“Engongui,” as the signal bells are called, one of which accompanies
every “Quibuca,” and is beaten to denote their approach, the towns
answering them in the same manner, and intimating whether they can
pass or not, if there is war on the road, and so on. These “Engongui”
(Plate IV.) are two flat bells of malleable iron joined together by a
bent handle, and are held in the left hand whilst being beaten with
a short stick. There is a regular code of signals, and as each bell
has a different note, a great number of variations can be produced by
striking each alternately, or two or three beats on one to the same, or
lesser number on the other; a curious effect is also produced by the
performer striking the mouths of the bells against his naked stomach
whilst they are reverberating from the blows with the stick.

As the caravans were coming down the valley, Pae Tomás used to amuse
himself sometimes by signalling “war,” or that the road was stopped,
when the whole caravan would squat down, whilst the “Capatas,” or
head-men in charge, would come on alone, but at the signal “all right,”
or “road clear,” all would start forward again.

Only one “Engongui” can be allowed in each town, and belongs to the
king, who cannot part with it on any account, as it is considered a
great “fetish,” and is handed down from king to king. To obtain the
one in my possession, I had to send Pae Tomás to the “Mujolo” country,
where they are principally made, but as he was away only four days, I
believe he must have got it nearer Bembe than the “Mujolo,” which lies
to the N.N.E. of Bembe, but according to all accounts at many days’
journey, which I am inclined to believe, as these “Mujolos” never come
down to the coast, and were formerly very rarely brought as slaves in
the caravans. They are greatly prized as slaves by the Portuguese,
as they are very strong and intelligent, and work at any trade much
better than any other race in Angola. They have very peculiar square
faces, and are immediately known by their cheeks being tattooed in fine
perpendicular lines, in fact the only race in Angola that tattoo the
face at all. They are said to be a very savage race, and to practise
cannibalism.

When the caravans approached Bembe, the “Capatas” would dress
themselves in their best and each carry an open umbrella, or when
the “Capata” was a very important personage, the umbrella used to be
carried before him by a black, whilst he followed behind in the sun.

The day of their arrival was always spent in looking over the stock of
goods, and receiving presents of cloth and rum, and generally a pig
for a feast. The next day the tusks would be produced and the barter
arranged in the manner explained in the preceding chapter.

The caravans seldom brought any curiosities, only very rarely a few
mats or skins; one skin that I purchased proved to be that of a new
monkey, described by Dr. P. L. Sclater as the _Colobus Angolensis_
(‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,’ May, 1860).

A few slaves were sometimes brought to Bembe from the interior, and
sold to the Cabinda blacks, who were our washer-boys, and also to
the Ambriz men, our servants, slaves being amongst the natives in
Angola the principal investment of their savings. The prices paid for
them varied according to size, sex, age, and freedom from blemish
or disease, and ranged from one to two pieces of “chilloes” (a
Manchester-made cloth, in pieces of fourteen yards, and costing about
3_s._ each) for a boy or girl; to six or seven pieces, at most, for a
full-grown man or woman.

Gum Elemi, called “Mubafo,” used to be brought in large cakes, and is
said to be very abundant not many days’ journey from Bembe, but its low
price in Europe does not allow of its becoming an article of trade from
this part of Africa at present.

There are no cattle from the River Congo to the latitude of Loanda.
At Bembe a few oxen used to arrive from a country eight to ten days’
journey off, in a S.E. direction, but, although carefully tended, would
gradually lose flesh and die in a few months. On the coast they seem to
thrive very well in the hands of white men, but yet the natives never
breed them, whether from indolence, or from the climate not being quite
suitable to them, it is difficult to say, but most likely from the
former.

The Portuguese expedition to occupy Bembe took mules, donkeys, and
camels from the Cape de Verde Islands, but they all died, though in
charge of a veterinary surgeon, who attributed their death to the
character of the grass, most of the species having the blades very
serrated, and according to him causing death by injury to the coats of
the stomach.

In connection with the mortality of cattle and other animals, I may
mention that all the cats at Bembe had their hind quarters more or
less paralysed, generally when a few months old, sometimes even when
quite young kittens, when it certainly could not be the result of any
blow. This was the case without exception during the two years I was at
Bembe. I have seen the same occur on the coast, but more rarely.

Sheep and goats breed very well, particularly about Ambrizzette. The
sheep are a very peculiar variety, long-legged, and covered with short
hair. The goats are small but especially beautiful, and generally black
and white in colour. Cocks and hens are small and tasteless and always
scarce, as the natives are too indolent to rear any, only keeping a few
animals that can find their own living: they never think of giving them
any food or water unless they are actually dying, the consequence is
that only sheep and goats and a few fowls thrive or are seen in their
towns. I have only seen a few pigeons in two or three towns. Their
pigs, as might be imagined, are painful to look upon, living on grass
and what few roots they can grub up, and on all the excrement and filth
of the towns. It is impossible to conceive anything more distressingly
thin and gaunt than the poor pigs, perfectly flat, and hardly able to
trot along.

On our journey to Bembe the natives were greatly surprised at our
giving some boiled rice from our plates to a brood of pretty little
chickens at a town where we breakfasted, as they did not belong to us.
Their dogs, wretched, small, starved, long-eared animals, like little
jackals, live, like the pigs, upon rubbish, and hunt rats and other
small game. I once saw a dog eating the grains off a green indian-corn
cob, which he was holding down with his two front paws, nibbling it as
a sheep would, and seeming to enjoy it. Cats are very rarely seen in
the towns;--they are greatly esteemed by the Mushicongos for food, and
their skins for wearing as an ornament. I once shot a half-wild cat
that used to visit my fowl-yard, and had eaten some chickens; my cook
skinned it, and sold the flesh for 300 beads, and the skin for 200--300
beads being then a fancy price for the largest fowl, ordinary chickens
usually averaging 100 beads each only.

Provisions at that time were fabulously cheap, though not more so,
perhaps, than should be expected from the wonderful fertility of the
soil, the little trouble the natives have in its cultivation, and their
small necessities. Eggs and bananas were sold at one blue glass bead
each, of a kind made in Bohemia, and costing wholesale under twopence
for a bunch of 600. Mandioca-meal, beans, &c., were sold at a similar
rate.

One ugly black was the principal purveyor of eggs; he used to collect
them at all the towns and fairs around, and bring them into Bembe for
sale, but he was a sad rogue, and never sold a basketful of eggs but a
number were sure to be found rotten. At the fort he was once tied over
a gun and well thrashed, but this did not cure him, and at last, tired
of buying bad eggs from him, I had him held by a couple of our servants
the next time he brought me a basket of eggs for sale, whilst my cook
broke them into a basin one by one, the rotten ones being rubbed on
his great woolly head, on which he had allowed the hair to grow like
a great frizzled bush. His appearance when released was most comical,
and produced the greatest excitement among the rest of the niggers,
who danced and yelled and hooted at him as he ran along, crying, to the
stream at the mines to wash himself. The cure was effectual this time,
and we never had further cause of complaint against him.

There are four weekly fairs or markets held near Bembe, the principal
one being at Sona, about six miles off. To this market natives from
many miles distant come with produce, &c., to barter for cloth, rum,
and beads from the coast. To travel two or three days to attend a fair
is thought nothing of by the blacks,--this is not to be wondered at
when we consider the climate, and that a mat to sleep on is the most
they need or carry with them on a journey. Their food being almost
entirely vegetable and uncooked, they either take it with them, or buy
it on the road.

Another celebrated fair is at Quimalenço, on the road to Bembe, and
about thirty miles distant, and our servants and blacks working at the
mine were constantly asking leave to go to it. Both at Sona and the
latter fair no blacks are allowed with sticks or knives, a very wise
precaution, considering the quantity of palm wine, garapa, and other
intoxicating liquors consumed. I have seen not less than 2000 natives
assembled at these fairs, selling and buying beans, mandioca roots and
meal of different kinds, Indian corn, ground-nuts, palm-nuts and oil;
pigs, sheep, goats, fowls; cotton cloth, handkerchiefs, &c.; crockery,
clay pipes, and pipe-stems, but not a single article manufactured by
themselves, with the exception, perhaps, of a few sleeping-mats, and
the conical open baskets called “Quindas,” in which the women carry
roots, meal, and other produce on their heads.

During my first stay in Bembe, the king of Congo having died, his
successor, the Marquis of Catende, came in state to Bembe to ask the
Portuguese to send priests to San Salvador, to bury his predecessor and
to crown him king. In former times, San Salvador, the capital of the
kingdom of Congo, was the chief missionary station of the Portuguese,
who built a cathedral and monasteries there, the ruins of which still
exist; they appear to have been very successful in civilizing the
natives, and though the mission was abandoned more than a hundred
years ago, their memory is revered in the country to this day. I have
been told by the Portuguese priests and officers who have been at San
Salvador that the graves of the former missionaries are still carefully
tended and preserved, with every sign of respect, and that missals
and other books, letters, chalices, and other church furniture of the
olden time still exist, and the natives would not part with them on any
account.

In times past the King of Congo was very powerful; all the country, as
far as and including Loanda, the River Congo, and Cabinda, was subject
to him, and paid him tribute. The missionaries under his protection
worked far and wide, attained great riches, and were of immense
benefit to the country, where they and the Portuguese established and
fostered sugar-cane plantations, indigo manufacture, iron smelting, and
other industries. With the discovery and colonization of the Brazils,
however, and the expulsion of the Jesuits from Angola, the power of the
Portuguese and of the king of Congo has dwindled away to its present
miserable condition. The king of Congo is now only the chief of San
Salvador and a few other small towns, and does not receive the least
tribute from any others, nor does he possess any power in the land.
Among the natives of Angola, however, he still retains a certain amount
of prestige as king of Congo, and all would do homage to him in his
presence, as he is considered to possess the greatest “fetish” of all
the kings and tribes, though powerless to exact tribute from them.

The Marquis came to Bembe attended by a retinue of 300 blacks and his
private band, consisting of eight elephant tusks blown like horns, and
six drums. These tusks were moderate sized, about three to three and
a half feet long, and were bored down the centre nearly to the point,
to a small hole, or narrow aperture cut in the side, to which the lips
are applied to produce the sound, which is deep and loud, but soft in
tone, and can be heard at a great distance. The drums are hollowed
out of one piece of wood, generally of the “Mafumeira” tree, which is
very soft and easily worked: the open end is covered with a sheepskin
tightly stretched and rubbed over with bees-wax, a small portion of
which is left sticking in the middle. Before use, these drums are
slightly warmed at a fire to soften the wax and make the skin a little
sticky, when being struck by the flat of the fingers (not the palms
of the hands) they adhere slightly, and cause the blows to produce a
more resonant sound. The better made ones are rubbed quite smooth on
the outside with the dry leaf of a certain tree, which is very rough,
and acts like sand-paper, and then dyed a bright red with the fresh red
pulp enveloping the seeds of the Annatto plant (_Bixa Orellana_), which
I have seen growing wild in the interior.

When the Marquis approached Bembe he made known his coming by his
band blowing the horns and thumping the drums, and we could see the
caravan in the distance slowly winding through the grass. On arriving
at the edge of the mine valley they all halted, and the band again
struck up. The Marquis got out of his hammock, attired like any other
black, unlocked a small box containing his wardrobe, and proceeded
to dress himself, in which operation he was assisted by his two
secretaries;--first he put on a white shirt, but not having taken the
precaution to unbutton the front, it was some time before his head
emerged from it; a gaily-coloured cloth was next produced from the box
and fastened round his waist; a blue velvet cloak edged with gold lace
was put on his shoulders, and on his head a blue velvet cap, which
completed his royal costume; his feet bare of course.

They then came into Bembe, and proceeded to the fort, where they were
received with a salute of four guns, which it was the Marquis’s right
to receive from the Portuguese, but which being evidently unexpected,
made one half of the crowd scamper as fast as they could, till they
were recalled. At the gate the guard turned out and presented arms,
and, preceded by the band of the fort, he was taken to the Governor’s
quarters, where we were all assembled to meet him.

The usual complimentary speeches then took place, his secretary
translating for him, and the Governor’s cook being interpreter on our
side. The Marquis spoke only a few words of Portuguese, and never
having been among white men, he was rather strange to the use of knives
and forks, so at dinner his meat was cut up small for him, which he
forked slowly into his mouth, now and then draining a whole tumblerful
of Lisbon wine. The dinner-service of crockery and glass, &c., seemed
to strike him as being of marvellous magnificence.

After first tasting a glass of beer myself, according to the fashion
of the country, I offered it to him, to see how he would like it; he
took a mouthful, but immediately turned round and spat it out, with a
very wry face. He passed the remainder to his two secretaries, who were
squatted on the ground behind him, eating stewed fowl and mandioca-meal
out of a dish with their fingers. As it would have been an unpardonable
incivility on their part not to drink whatever he gave them, they each
took a mouthful from the glass, though he was making faces and wiping
his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, but both got up instantly and
hurried outside, where we could hear them spitting and sputtering at
the bitter draught.

On handing round the “palitos” or toothpicks after dinner, he took one,
but did not know what to do with it till he saw to what use they were
applied by us, when he burst out laughing, and said in Congo language,
“that the white men were very strange people, who, after putting such
delicious food into their mouths, must needs pick out the little bits
from their teeth with a stick,” and he asked for a few, which he gave
to his secretaries to keep, to take back to his country as curiosities.

He is a handsome, stout, middle-aged man, and with a very much better
cast of countenance than is usual among the Mushicongos.

During the time that he was at Bembe, the kings of the neighbouring
towns came together one morning to pay him homage, and his state
reception was a very amusing and interesting ceremony.

The kings and their people appeared, not in their best, but in the
poorest and most ragged condition possible, whether according to
custom, or from a fear that the Marquis might, in view of their
riches, demand tribute from them as formerly, I know not. The Marquis
was seated on a chair placed on a large mat, with his bare feet on a
leopard skin;--behind his chair squatted the whole of his retinue.

The kings, with their people, not less than 100 blacks, on arriving at
some little distance, dropped on their knees, bowed their heads to the
ground, and then clapped their hands, to which the Marquis replied by
moving the fingers of his right hand to them; one of his secretaries,
a very tall, lanky negro, dressed in a quaker coat with a very high,
straight collar, then knelt before him, and presented him with the
sword of state, which the Marquis pulled out of the scabbard and
returned to him.

The tall secretary now borrowed a red cloak from one of the retinue,
which he secured round his waist with his left hand, allowing it
to drag behind him like a long red tail, and commenced a series of
most extraordinary antics, dancing about brandishing his sword, and
pretending to cut off heads, to exemplify the fate in store for his
majesty’s enemies.

Approaching the kneeling embassy, he shook his sword at them like a
harlequin at a clown in a pantomime, when they all rose and followed
him for a few paces, and then dropped on their knees whilst he went
through the dance and sword exercise again; this performance repeated,
brought them nearer the Marquis, and a third time brought the whole lot
to his feet, where they all rubbed their foreheads and fingers in the
dust, whilst the secretary knelt and placed the sword across his knees;
then came a general clapping of hands, and the king of Matuta and
several others made long speeches, to which the Marquis replied, not
to them directly, but to his secretary, who repeated it, every twenty
or thirty words being interrupted by a great blowing of the horns and
beating of the drums, lasting for a couple of minutes.

After the speeches the kings presented their offering, which consisted
only of a gourd of palm wine, of which, according to custom, the
Marquis had to drink.

The Governor of Bembe had provided him with a couple of bottles of
Lisbon wine for the ceremony, and also a tumbler; this last was filled
with palm wine from the gourd, and given to the secretary, and he
handed it to the Marquis, who made the sign of the cross over it with
his hand, repeating at the same time some words in Latin: this they
have learnt from the ceremonies of the mass in the old Roman Catholic
missals still in their possession.

The Marquis, not feeling inclined to drink palm wine, availed himself
of the custom of the kings of Congo not eating or drinking in public,
to practise a little deception. Whilst two attendants held up a
large mat before him, he passed the tumblerful of palm wine to his
secretaries, who quickly swallowed its contents, and taking up one of
the bottles of Lisbon wine from under his chair, put it to his mouth,
and nearly emptied it at a draught. The curtain was then removed, and
the nearly empty bottle of wine passed to the king of Matuta, who
poured the contents into the tumbler, took a drink himself, and passed
it to the rest, who had a sip each till it was drained dry. Speeches
were again made, and the embassy, having once more rubbed their
foreheads and fingers in the dust, got up and bent nearly double, then
turned and walked away very slowly and carefully, reminding me most
comically of cats after they have been fighting.

A singular custom of the kings of Congo is that of never expectorating
on the ground in public, it being “fetish” to do so, and foretelling
some calamity. When the Marquis wished to clear his throat, the lanky
secretary would kneel before him, and taking a dirty rag out of a grass
pouch suspended from his shoulder, would present it to him with both
his hands, to spit into; the rag was then carefully doubled up, kissed,
and replaced in the pouch.

I was told by the padre at Bembe, who went on a mission to Engoge,
that the king there, the “Dembo Ambuilla,” also has the same custom,
but performed in a much more disgusting manner, as, instead of spitting
into a rag like the King of Congo, the “Dembo” expectorates into the
palm of an attendant’s hand, who then rubs it on his head!

Having heard at Loanda that Dr. Bastian had passed through San
Salvador, I inquired of the Marquis whether he had seen him. He replied
that a white man, whose name he knew not, had lately been through
his town (a little distance from San Salvador), and had given him a
“mucanda” or letter, which he would show me: and, taking me into his
hut, he took out of his box a parcel of rags, which he carefully undid
till he came to a half-sheet of small paper, on which was engraved the
portrait of some British worthy dressed in the high-collared coat in
fashion some thirty or forty years ago. As the lower half of the sheet
was torn off, there was no inscription on it by which I could identify
the portrait, which seemed to have been taken from a small octavo
volume. The Marquis would not show the portrait to the Governor or any
Portuguese, as he was afraid that it might say something that would
compromise him with them, and on my assuring him that there was no
danger whatever in it, he seemed to be much easier in his mind.

On the Sunday morning the Marquis attended the garrison’s military
mass, and caused much amusement by bringing his band with him, which
played during the service. Although he had never before heard mass, his
conduct, and that of the head men who accompanied him, was most proper
and decorous; they knelt, crossed themselves, and seemed to pray as
earnestly as if they had been brought up to it all their lives.

A visit they paid the works at the mines greatly interested them, the
steam-engine and saw-mill specially attracting their attention; but
the most incomprehensible wonder to them was an ordinary monkey, or
screw-jack, which was fixed under one end of a huge trunk of a tree
lying on the ground, and on which as many blacks were asked to sit as
it could carry;--great was their astonishment to see me lift the whole
tree and blacks by simply turning the handle of the monkey. After
much clapping of their hands to their mouths, the universal way of
expressing surprise by the blacks, the Marquis asked, through his tall
secretary, how I had performed the wonderful “fetish?” I explained as
well as I could, that it was due to the mechanism inside, but I could
see they did not believe me, and I afterwards ascertained that they
thought the power was contained in the handle.

The king only spoke a few words of Portuguese, but the tall secretary
not only spoke, but wrote it very fairly. He assured me that he had
not been taught by the white men, but by blacks whose ancestors had
acquired the language from the old missionaries. I am inclined to
believe that he must have been a native of Ambaca, or some other
province of the interior of Angola, where a great many of the natives
at the present day can read and write Portuguese, transmitted from
father to son since the olden time.

Some time after the Marquis left, the Portuguese sent a padre from
Loanda to join the one at Bembe, and proceed together to San Salvador,
with an escort in charge of the officer at Bembe, an ignorant man, who,
after the old king had been buried, became frightened and suddenly
decamped without allowing them to crown the Marquis of Catende. A
second expedition of 100 soldiers was then sent. The priests were
welcomed with demonstrations of the greatest joy by the natives, who
loaded them with presents; but the military were coldly received, and
not a single present was given to them or the officer in command, who,
alarmed at their hostility and vexed at the reception given to the
padres, again retreated to Bembe as fast as he could, and to screen his
want of success and cowardice, intrigued with the Governor-General at
Loanda, and the padres were censured for that for which he himself was
alone to blame.

Nearly 200 blacks presented themselves to the padres, saying that
they were the descendants of the slaves of the former missionaries,
and offering to rebuild the church and monasteries, if they were only
directed and fed.

Had the Portuguese allowed the padres to go to San Salvador alone,
unaccompanied by a military force, which gave an air of conquest to
the expedition, a great step would have been made in the introduction
of trade and civilization in that part of the interior, and it would
have opened the way to geographical discovery. I am convinced that the
invincible opposition to Lieutenant Grandy’s passage into the interior
was due principally to the fear of the natives that the Portuguese
might follow in his steps, and annex the country from whence they
derive their ivory.

The soil about Bembe is magnificent, and will produce almost
anything. Sugar-cane grows to a huge size, and vegetables flourish
in a remarkable manner. During the time I was there I had a fine
kitchen-garden, and not only kept the miners supplied with vegetables,
but almost every day sent as much as one, and sometimes two, blacks
could carry to the fort for the soldiers. Greens of all kinds and
cabbages grow beautifully, although the latter seldom form a hard
head; all kinds of salad grow equally well, such as endive, lettuce,
radishes, mustard and cress, &c.; peas, turnips, carrots, mint, and
parsley also flourish, and tomatoes, larger than I ever saw them even
in Spain and Portugal. Cucumbers, melons, and vegetable-marrows, we
obtained very fine the first season, but the succeeding year a swarm
of very small grasshoppers prevented us from getting a single one.
Broad beans, although growing and flowering luxuriantly, never produced
pods. I gave seeds to the old King of Matuta, and promised to buy
their produce from him, and we very quickly had a load of beautiful
vegetables every day.

It is almost impossible to estimate the advantage, in a country
and climate like Africa, of an abundant supply of fresh salad and
vegetables, and yet, although growing so luxuriantly, and with so small
an amount of trouble, they are never cultivated by the natives of any
part of Angola, and rarely by the Portuguese; the market at Loanda, for
instance, is very badly supplied with vegetables.

Benguella and Mossamedes--particularly the latter--are the only
exceptions to the general and stupid want of attention to the
cultivation of vegetables. The only vegetable introduced by the former
missionaries that still exists in cultivation in the country is the
cabbage, which is sometimes seen in the towns (generally as a single
plant only), growing with a thick stem, which is kept closely cropped
of leaves, and as much as four or five feet high, surrounded by a
fence to keep the goats and sheep from browsing on it; but I have never
seen it in their plantations.

About Bembe a handsome creeper (_Mucuna pruriens_), with leaves like
those of a scarlet-runner, and bearing large, long bunches of dark
maroon bean-like flowers, grows very abundantly. The flowers are
succeeded by crooked pods covered with fine hairs (cow-itch) which
cause the most horrible itching when rubbed on the skin. The first
time I pulled off a bunch of the pods I shook some of the hairs over
my hand and face, and the sensation was alarming, like being suddenly
stung all over with a nettle. I have seen blacks, when clearing bush
for plantations, shake these hairs on their hot, naked bodies, and jump
about like mad, until they were rubbed with handfuls of moist earth.

I saw at Bembe a striking illustration of the immunity of Europeans
from fever and ague when travelling or otherwise actively employed.

One hundred Portuguese soldiers having misconducted themselves in some
way at Loanda, were ordered to Bembe as a punishment. They marched
from Ambriz in the worst part of the rainy season without tents (which,
singular to say, are never used in Angola by the Portuguese troops),
and were a fortnight in reaching Bembe.

They were not a bad-looking set of men, and were well shod and
clothed, but had been badly fed on the road, principally on beans and
mandioca-meal, and had had only water from the swollen pools and rivers
to drink. Notwithstanding the exposure and hardships, only twelve fell
ill on the march, and of those, only four or five had to be brought
into Bembe in hammocks.

Fine barracks at the fort had been prepared for them, but next morning,
on inspection by the doctor, no less than forty were ordered into
hospital; next day thirty more followed, and within a week of their
arrival every one of the 100 men had passed through the doctor’s
hands, suffering principally from attacks of intermittent fever and
ague, remittent fever, and a few cases of diarrhœa; but, to show the
comparatively healthy climate of Angola, only one man died.

We were not so fortunate with our Cornish miners, all fine, strong,
healthy, picked men; several causes contributed to their ill-health
and deaths; exposure to sun and wet whilst at work, bad lodging, but
principally great want of care on their part in eating and drinking
whilst recovering from an attack of illness.

One circumstance that struck the doctor greatly, was the total want
of pluck in the Cornishmen when ill; they used actually to cry like
children, and lie down on their beds when suffering from only a slight
attack of fever that a Portuguese would think nothing of. When they
were seriously ill, it was with the greatest difficulty we could make
them keep up their spirits, which is so essential to recovery, in
fevers particularly. When convalescent, on the contrary, they could not
be kept from eating or drinking everything, however indigestible or
objectionable, that came in their way; and often was our good doctor
vexed, and obliged to employ the few words of abuse he knew in English,
on finding them, after a serious illness, eating unripe bananas, or a
great plateful of biscuit and cheese and raw onions.

So constant were their relapses, from want of the commonest care on
their part, that the doctor at last refused to attend them unless
they were placed under lock and key till fit to be let out and feed
themselves. Their complaints and grumblings, when well even, were
incessant, and they were the most unhandy set imaginable; they could
not even mend a broken bedstead, or put up a hook or shelf to keep
their things from the wet or rats. There was but one exception, a
boiler-maker, named Thomas Webster, who was a universal favourite from
his constant good-humour and willingness. Poor fellow! after recovering
from a very severe attack of bilious fever, he died at Ambriz, whilst
waiting for the steamer that was to take him home.

The worthy Portuguese officer in command at Bembe on my last visit,
Lieutenant Vital de Bettencourt Vasconcellos Canto do Corte Real, had
prepared for our use the old house in which I had formerly lived, and
received us most hospitably. We breakfasted and dined with him for the
eight days of our stay, and with Lieutenant Grandy and his brother,
who were also his guests. We were all the more thankful for Lieutenant
Vital’s very kind reception, from our cook having fallen ill the day
before we arrived, and being consequently unable to prepare our food.

[Illustration: PLATE IX.

  BEMBE PEAK.      _To face page 231._]

We made several excursions to the mines and to the caves, and one
morning my wife and myself ascended to the top of the peak or mountain
(Plate IX.), and breakfasted there.

On the 15th April, 1873, we bade good-bye to Bembe, and to the brothers
Grandy and Lieutenant Vital, who accompanied us to the River Luqueia.
On the third day we arrived at Quiballa, where we remained four days,
employing them, as before, in collecting butterflies and drying some
fine plants, amongst others the beautiful large red flowers almost
covering a fine tree (_Spathodea campanulata_--R. de B.?).

The second afternoon we were visited by a terrific thunderstorm; one
vivid flash of lightning was followed almost instantaneously by a
deafening clap of thunder; the former must have struck the ground very
near our hut, as both my wife and myself felt a slight shock pass
through our ankles quite distinctly, and on asking the owner of the hut
and one of our blacks who were with us, if they had felt anything, they
both described having felt the same sensation.

So much rain fell during this storm that we were forced to remain a
couple of days longer, as some carriers had been obliged to return to
Quiballa, unable to pass the rivers. It was now nearly the end of the
rainy season, when the heaviest falls occur, and we had already, after
leaving Bembe, found that a lovely bank on the River Lifua, on our
journey up the country, had been swept away by a flood, and a high pile
of sand covered the beautiful carpet of flowers and ferns.

A small dog that we had taken a fancy to on board the steamer in which
we went out, and who had been our constant companion, also accompanied
us on this journey, and it was amusing to see her attempts to swim
the swift currents, where she generally had to be carried across. The
faithful creature seemed to know that there was danger in crossing the
swollen streams, and she would yelp and cry on the bank till my wife
and myself had been carried over, when she would express her delight by
tearing along the banks and paths like mad.

Her solicitude for our safety was sometimes rather embarrassing, as
whenever she had passed a swamp, in which her legs generally sank
deep into the black mud, she would always insist on jumping up on the
hammocks, evidently to ascertain that we were all right, and of course
quite unmindful of the dreadful mess she made with her wet paws.

Like all European dogs, she never got over a certain antipathy to
the black race, and although on the best terms with our own boys,
who delighted in petting her, she always showed her contempt for the
natives by making sudden rushes at them, from under her mistress’s
hammock, when in passing through a town the women and children came
running along cheering and shouting, to see the “white woman.” Though
she never bit them, her sudden and fierce-looking attack would
generally scatter the crowd, who, however, always took it in good part.
At night we always put her under the Madeira chair, which made a very
good kind of cage, and which we placed at the foot of our bed under the
mosquito curtain, thus saving her from these pests, and also preventing
her from rushing out at any noise outside the tent.

The evening before we reached Quingombe, we raced the blackest
thunderstorm I have ever witnessed. About four o’clock in the
afternoon of the very fierce, hot and sultry day, the wind began to
lull and distant thunder was heard behind us. The sky indicated plainly
that no ordinary storm was gathering, the clouds deepening in colour
till at last they seemed to descend and touch the ground, forming a
nearly black curtain, which as it slowly advanced hid hills, trees, and
everything behind it; the top part of this thick black curtain seemed
to travel at a faster rate than the rest below, and slowly formed a
black arch over-head; at about five o’clock it seemed to be only a few
hundred yards behind us, like a solid angry night trying to overtake
us. Sudden flashes and long streaks of lightning seemed to shoot out of
it, up and down and in all directions, with scarcely any intermission
of the explosions of thunder that accompanied them.

Our carriers seemed perfectly frightened, and ran us along in our
hammocks as if racing for life, till, a little before sunset, we
reached a small village near the road, just as the advancing raindrops
at last overtook and began pattering down upon us. We hurried with our
baggage into a hut, but the wind suddenly seemed to increase in power
from the south, and blew the storm away from its path to the westward,
so that it only rained for about half an hour, and we had just time to
set up our tent before the darkness of night, calm and cool, came on.
Some of our carriers, who had remained behind and not been able to keep
ahead of the storm, described the rain as coming down on them like a
perfect deluge.

Next day we arrived late in the afternoon at Quingombe, and our
carriers tried to dissuade us from proceeding on to Ambriz, alleging
that the heavy rains had filled the marshes, so that they were
impassable in the dark; but disbelieving them, I hurried them on, and
reached the swamp that separates the town of Quingombe from the ferry
on the River Loge at Quincollo;--sure enough it was one sheet of water,
but unwilling to brave another night of mosquitoes we pushed on. Twice
we had to get out of our hammocks (which were slung as high as they
could possibly be) on to the Madeira chair, to be carried across deep
places; and for about two miles there was hardly a dry place, our poor
dog swimming and carried most of the time.

At last, at seven in the evening, we arrived at Quincollo to find that
the river had overflowed the banks, and that, with the exception of
a house and cane-mill, there was not a foot of dry ground to encamp
upon, except a great heap of cane refuse from the mill. This and the
house belonged to a convict, who had been a swineherd in Portugal, but
in consequence of the abolition of capital punishment in that country,
had escaped hanging, after committing a cruel murder. He is now a large
slaveholder, agent to the line of steamers from Lisbon owned by an
English firm at Hull, and much protected by the Portuguese authorities
at Loanda!

Not caring to sleep on his premises, we encamped on the heap of
refuse, on which we found it impossible to put up our tent, contenting
ourselves with hanging up the mosquito-bar alone. We had reached our
last biscuit and tin of preserved provision, and had just finished our
tea and supper when the white man in charge of the convict’s premises,
with his servants, came out with torches and armed, to find out who we
were, fearing it might be an attack of the natives of Quingombe. He
was most kind and pressing in his offers of shelter, in the absence of
the owner, but we declined. He made us promise, however, that we would
accept a canoe of his in the morning, which took us down the river
about six miles to the bar, from whence we rode in our hammocks along
the beach to Ambriz, thus happily ending our last excursion in Africa.

We had been absent just one month, in the worst part of the rainy
season, without the slightest illness, and returned laden with a very
interesting collection of insects and plants.




CHAPTER VIII.

 CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO--FETISH--CUSTOMS--ARMS AND WAR--DRESS--ZOMBO
 TRIBE--BURIAL--INSANITY.


The language, customs, and habits of the Mussurongo, Ambriz, and
Mushicongo tribes are very similar, and are distinguished in many
particulars from those of the natives of the district of Loanda, who
speak the Bunda language. This is not astonishing, when we consider
that Loanda has been constantly occupied by the white race since its
discovery, and that this intercourse has necessarily modified their
character to a certain extent. The former tribes are, however, still
almost in their primitive or natural condition, and should be studied
or described apart and before continuing the description of the country
south of about 8°, their limit in latitude.

I believe that it is very difficult to understand correctly the
character of the negro race in Africa, and that it requires long
intercourse with, and living amongst them, to get behind the scenes, as
it were, and learn their manner of thought or reasoning, and in what
way it influences their life and actions.

In the first instance, it is not easy to dispossess oneself of the
prejudices both against and in favour of the negro. It is so natural
to judge him by our own standard, and as we should wish him to be;--so
easy to think of him as agreeing with the preconceived idea that he is
just like one of ourselves, but simply in a state of innocent darkness,
and that we have only to show him the way for him to become civilized
at once.

It is very disagreeable to find in the negro an entirely new and
different state of things to that we had fondly imagined, and to have
to throw overboard our cherished theories and confess our ignorance and
that we have been entirely mistaken; but the truth must be told, and
we shall have to run counter to the self-satisfied wisdom of the great
number of people who judge from not always wilfully false reports, but
from hasty or superficial descriptions or tales that agree with their
foregone conclusions, and whose benevolent feelings and sympathy for
the negro are therefore established upon baseless grounds.

It is not my intention to deprecate any efforts for the benefit of the
negro race, but simply to show that the good seed in Africa _will_ fall
on bare and barren ground, and where weeds _will_ rise and choke it;
and I must warn philanthropy that its bounty is less productive of good
results on the negro of tropical Africa than perhaps on any other race.

It is heartrending to see money, lives, and efforts squandered and
wasted under the misguided idea of raising the negro to a position
which, from his mental constitution, he cannot possibly attain, whilst
so many of our own race are doomed from innocent infancy to grow up
among us to a future of misery and vice, and when we know that the
charity so lavishly shown to the negro and almost completely wasted
would enable many of these poor children to become good and useful
members of society. Let us, by all means, bring in the frozen vipers,
and feed the famished wolves and the hungry vultures, but do not let
us expect that because we have done so they will change into harmless
snakes, noble dogs, or innocent doves, or neglect to succour the lambs
and sheep of our own flock.

I cannot help thinking that so long as (in a rich country like England)
we read of poor creatures perishing from starvation on doorsteps and
in garrets, more care should be taken of our starving poor at home and
less charity showered upon the negro, who has growing close to his hut
all he wants to sustain life in almost absolute laziness.

The character of the negro is principally distinguished not so much by
the presence of positively bad, as by the absence of good qualities,
and of feelings and emotions that we can hardly understand or realize
to be wanting in human nature. It is hardly correct to describe the
negro intellect as debased and sunken, but rather as belonging to
an arrested stage. There is nothing inconsistent in this; it is,
on the contrary, perfectly consistent with what we have seen to be
their physical nature. It would be very singular indeed if a peculiar
adaptation for resisting so perfectly the malignant influences of
the climate of tropical Africa, the result of an inferior physical
organization, was unaccompanied by a corresponding inferiority of
mental constitution. It is only on the theory of “Natural Selection,
or the survival of the fittest” to resist the baneful influence of
the climate through successive and thousands of generations--the
“fittest” being those of greatest physical insensibility--that the
present fever-resisting, miasma-proof negro has been produced, and his
character can only be explained in the corresponding and accompanying
retardation or arrest of development of his intellect.

The negro knows not love, affection, or jealousy. Male animals and
birds are tender and loving to their females; cats show their affection
by delicious purring noises and by licking; horses by neighing and
pawing; cocks by calling their hens to any food they may find;
parroquets, pigeons, and other birds, by scratching one another’s polls
and billing and cooing; monkeys by nestling together and hunting for
inconvenient parasites on each other’s bodies; but in all the long
years I have been in Africa I have never seen a negro manifest the
least tenderness for or to a negress. I have never seen a negro, even
when inebriated, kiss a girl or ever attempt to take the least liberty,
or show by any look or action the desire to do so. I have never seen a
negro put his arm round a woman’s waist, or give or receive any caress
whatever that would indicate the slightest loving regard or affection
on either side. They have no words or expressions in their language
indicative of affection or love. Their passion is purely of an animal
description, unaccompanied by the least sympathetic affections of love
or endearment. It is not astonishing, therefore, that jealousy should
hardly exist; the greatest breach of conduct on the part of a married
woman is but little thought of. The husband, by their laws, can at
most return his wife to her father, who has to refund the present he
received on her marriage; but this extreme penalty is seldom resorted
to, fining the paramour being considered a sufficient satisfaction. The
fine is generally a pig, and rum or other drink, with which a feast is
celebrated by all parties. The woman is not punished in any way, nor
does any disgrace attach to her conduct. Adultery on the part of the
husband is not considered an offence at all, and is not even resented
by the wives.

It might be imagined that this lax state of things would lead to much
immorality: but such is not the case, as from their utter want of love
and appreciation of female beauty or charms, they are quite satisfied
and content with any woman possessing even the greatest amount of the
hideous ugliness with which nature has so bountifully provided them.
Even for their offspring they have but little love beyond that which
is implanted in all animals for their young. Mothers are very rarely
indeed seen playing with or fondling their babies: as for kissing them,
or children their mothers, such a thing is not even thought of. At the
same time I have never seen a woman grossly neglect or abandon her
child, though they think nothing of laying them down to sleep anywhere
in the sun, where they soon become covered with flies; but as this does
not appear to hurt or inconvenience them in the least, it can hardly be
termed neglect.

The negro is not cruelly inclined; that is to say, he will not inflict
pain for any pleasure it may cause him, or for revenge, but at the same
time he has not the slightest idea of mercy, pity, or compassion for
suffering. A fellow-creature, or animal, writhing in pain or torture,
is to him a sight highly provocative of merriment and enjoyment. I have
seen a number of blacks at Loanda, men, women, and children, stand
round, roaring with laughter at seeing a poor mongrel dog that had been
run over by a cart, twist and roll about in agony on the ground, where
it was yelping piteously, till a white man put it out of its misery.
An animal that does not belong to them, might die a thousand times of
hunger and thirst before they would think of stirring a foot to give
it either food or drink, and I have already described how even their
own animals are left to fare and shift as best they can on their own
resources, and their surprise that my wife should feed some little
chickens that did not belong to her, at a town on the road to Bembe.

In the houses it is necessary to see for oneself that all the animals
are regularly fed and watered every day, or they would quickly die
of neglect. We cannot, therefore, be surprised to find the negro so
completely devoid of vindictive feelings as he is. He may be thrashed
to within an inch of his life, and not only recover in a marvellously
short space of time, but bear no malice whatever, either at the time
or afterwards. In Angola, the attempt to take a white man’s life by
his slaves, for ill treatment or cruelty to them, is extremely rare.
If any amount of bad treatment is not resented, no benefit or good,
however great, done to a negro, is appreciated or recognised by him:
such a thing as gratitude is quite unknown to him; he will express
the greatest delight at receiving a present or any benefit, but it
is not from thankfulness; he only exhibits the pleasure he feels at
having obtained it without an effort on his part. He cannot be called
ungrateful exactly, because that would imply a certain amount of
appreciation for favours conferred, which he does not feel. In the same
way his constant want of truth, and his invariable dishonesty are the
result, not so much of a vicious disposition, as of the impossibility
to understand that there is anything wrong in being either a liar or a
thief: that they are not vicious thieves is shown by the few concerted
robberies practised by them, and the comparative safety of property in
general; their thieving, as a rule, is more of a petty and pilfering
description, in which, as might be expected, they are very cunning
indeed.

To sum up the negro character, it is deficient in the passions, and in
their corresponding virtues, and the life of the negro in his primitive
condition, apparently so peaceful and innocent, is not that of an
unsophisticated state of existence, but is due to what may be described
as an organically rudimentary form of mind, and consequently capable of
but little development to a higher type; mere peaceable, vegetarian,
prolific human rabbits and guinea pigs, in fact; they may be tamed and
taught to read and write, sing psalms, and other tricks, but negroes
they must remain to the end of the chapter. The negro has no idea of
a Creator or of a future existence; neither does he adore the sun nor
any other object, idol, or image. His whole belief is in evil spirits,
and in charms or “fetishes:” these “fetishes” can be employed for evil
as well as to counteract the bad effect of other malign “fetishes” or
spirits. Even the natives of Portuguese Angola, who have received the
idea of God or Creator from the white men, will not allow that the
same Power rules over both races, but that the God of the white man
is another, and different from the God of the black man; as one old
negro that I was once arguing with expressed it, “Your God taught you
to make gunpowder and guns, but ours never did,” and it is perfectly
established in their minds that in consequence of our belonging to
another and more powerful God, their “fetishes” are unavailing either
for good or evil, to the white man; our ridiculing their belief in
“fetish” only serves to make them believe the more in it.

In almost every large town there is a “fetish house” under the care of
a “fetish man.” This house is generally in the form of a diminutive
square hut, with mud walls, painted white, and these covered with
figures of men and beasts in red and black colours. The spirit is
supposed to reside in this habitation, and is believed to watch over
the safety of the town: the hut also contains the stock-in-trade of
the “fetish man.” These “fetish men” are consulted in all cases of
sickness or death, as also to work charms in favour of, and against
every imaginable thing; for luck, health, rain, good crops, fecundity;
against all illness, storms, fire, surf, and misfortunes and calamities
of every kind. No death is attributed to natural causes, it is always
ascribed to the person or animal having been “fetished” by some spirit
or living person, and the “fetish man” is consulted to find out, and if
the latter, the culprit is fined, sold into slavery or executed, or has
to take “casca,” to prove his innocence. The “fetish man” also prepares
the charms against sickness, &c., with which every man, woman, and
child, as well as their huts and plantations, is provided.

These charms are of many kinds, and are worn round the neck and waist,
or suspended from the shoulder. A short bit of wood with a carved head,
with a couple of beads, cowries, or brass tacks for eyes, and contained
in a little pouch, with the head left sticking out, and hung by a
string round the neck, is a very common form. A pouch stuffed full of
fowls’ dung, feathers, and “tacula,” is also a favourite “fetish.” A
bundle of rags or shreds of cotton cloth of all kinds, black with filth
and perspiration, is often seen suspended from the shoulder or hung
in their huts. The large flat seed of the “Entada gigantea” is also
a common “fetish” to hang from the neck. A couple of iron bells like
the “Engongui” described in page 203 but very much smaller, and with a
small bit of iron as a clapper inside, are often hung from the neck
or waist. Small antelopes’ horns, empty or filled with various kinds
of filth, are also suspended round the neck for charms. Children are
never seen without a string tied round the waist, with or without some
beads strung on it, and the ends hanging down in front. The land shells
(_Achatina Welwitschii_ and _Zebrina_) are filled with fowls’ dung and
feathers, “tacula,” &c., and stuck on a stick in the plantations and
salt pits, to protect them from thieves; also the gourd-like pods or
fruit of the baobab tree, likewise filled with various kinds of filth,
and painted on the outside white and red, with “pemba” (a white talcose
earth from the decomposition of mica and mica schist) and “tacula.”
A great “fetish” in childbirth and infancy is made in the shape of a
little pouch about two inches long and the thickness of the middle
finger, very prettily woven of fine grass; these are filled with fowls’
dung and “tacula,” and a couple are placed in a small vessel containing
water; the father of the child squeezes the pouches in the water, much
in the manner that a washerwoman does her blue-bag, till it becomes
coloured by the dirt and dye in the pouch; he then sprinkles the
mother and newly-born child with the dirty water, and ties one of the
pouches round the mother’s neck, and the other round the child’s. If
this be not done, the blacks believe that the mother and child would
quickly die;--the pouches are not taken off till the child can walk.
Another great “fetish” in childbirth is a large bunch of a round hollow
seed like a large marble, which is hung round the mother’s neck, and
not taken off till the child is weaned, generally in twelve moons, or a
year’s time.

Hung in the huts, and outside over the doors are all kinds of
“fetishes,” and in the towns and about the huts are various figures,
generally roughly carved in wood, and sometimes made of clay, but
always coloured red, black, and white. The finest “fetishes” are
made by the Mussurongos on the Congo River. Plate IV. represents one
obtained at Boma. Some of these large “fetishes” have a wide-spread
reputation, and the “fetish men” to whom they belong are often sent
for from long distances to work some charm or cure with them. I have
constantly met them carrying these great ugly figures, and accompanied
by two or three attendants beating drums and chanting a dismal song as
they go along.

On the coast there are several “fetish men” who are believed to have
power over the surf, and their aid is always invoked by the natives
when it lasts long, or is so strong as to prevent them going out in
their canoes to fish. There is a celebrated one at Musserra, and I
have often seen him on the high cliff or point going through his
incantations to allay the heavy surf; he has a special dress for
the occasion, it being almost covered with shells and sea-weed; he
is called the “Mother of the Water,” and his power is held in great
dread by the natives. No white man can go to the Granite Pillar at
Musserra without having propitiated him by a present. This one,
however, being half idiotic, is a poor harmless black, but others are
not so, and render themselves very troublesome to the white traders by
working mischief against them amongst the natives. A young Englishman
established at Ambrizzette, although well known to them for many
years, having been formerly engaged amongst them in the slave trade,
was obliged to escape from there for a time, in consequence of an
epidemic of small-pox being ascribed by the “fetish men” as having been
introduced into the country by him, in a jar!

Others take advantage of the dread the natives have of spirits, to
commit robberies. One at Bembe robbed several houses during the absence
of the white owners, by mewing like a cat, when, such was the fear of
the blacks, that they instantly lay on the ground, face downwards,
and covered their heads till he had gone away; meantime he had coolly
walked in and helped himself to whatever he pleased;--in this way he
went off with a trunk full of clothes from the doctor’s house, the
servants not daring to lift up their heads as soon as they heard the
mewing approaching, in the firm belief that they would be instantly
struck dead if they even saw him. I heard this man mewing in the high
grass behind my house one night, when I instantly fired a charge of
small shot in the direction of the noise, and I did not hear him again
till a few days after, when, having been captured by a Portuguese
soldier whilst attempting to rob his hut, he was tied on a gun at the
fort, and by a tremendous thrashing made to mew in earnest. All the
blacks in the place went to see him punished, jeering at him, and
telling him the white man’s “fetish” was stronger than his.

The negroes have great confidence in the power of “fetishes” to protect
their houses, &c., from fire or other misfortune, and an instance that
I witnessed at Bembe proves their blind faith in them. The Cabinda
negroes who were working as washer-boys, &c., lived apart from the
other natives, as they always do, in a little town or collection of
huts by themselves; one afternoon one of these huts caught fire, and
such was their belief in their “Manipanzos” as they call their “fetish”
figures, to preserve the huts from fire, that they did nothing either
to put it out, or to prevent the flames spreading; in a very short
time the town was consumed, and the Cabindas lost the whole of their
property; they ran about like madmen, throwing up their arms and crying
out, and abusing the “Endochi” (their name for Endoqui) in Cabinda who
had cheated them with useless “fetishes,” and vowed vengeance on him
when they should return to their country.

The Mussurongo, Ambriz, and Mushicongo negroes, are much afraid of
going about at night, unless there is moonlight; if one is sent with a
message on a dark night, he always takes one or two more with him for
protection, for fear of spirits.

As already noticed, when speaking of the present want of power of the
King of Congo, there are no very great chiefs in the country from the
River Congo to the district of Loanda, the most important or powerful
being the King of N’Bamba and the “Dembo Ambuilla,” or King of Encoge.
Every town has its own king and council, generally of ten or twelve of
the oldest men, who are called “Macotas,” and who together administer
the laws, settle disputes, &c. A king has no power by himself, the
natives simply reverencing him as being invested with the “fetish” of
chief, and he receives very little tribute from the natives of his own
town; the fines and penalties levied he has also to divide with the
“Macotas.”

In all the tribes of Angola that I am acquainted with, the office of
king descends from uncle to nephew (or in want of nephew, to niece),
but by the sister’s side, as, from what we call morals being but little
understood by them, the paternity of any child is liable to very great
doubt; but as a black once explained to me, “there is no doubt that my
sister and myself came from the same mother, and there is no doubt,
therefore, that my sister’s child must be my nephew.” This necessity
for a positive or certain descent is very curious, as no record is kept
of their pedigree or history.

The only division of time being into moons or months, and into dry and
wet seasons, and no record of any kind being kept, blacks are quite
unable to estimate their own age; servants keep an account of the
months they are in service by tying a knot on a string for every moon.

Every king has a stick of office; this is in form like a straight,
thick, smooth walking-stick, generally made of ebony, or of other wood
dyed black, almost always plain, but sometimes carved with various
patterns and ornamented with brass tacks, or inlaid with different
designs in brass or tin plate. These sticks are always sent with
a messenger from the king, and serve to authenticate the message.
The principal insignia of the king’s office is the cap, which is
hereditary. It resembles a short nightcap, and is made of fine fibre,
generally that of the wild pineapple leaf, and some are beautifully
woven with raised patterns. The king never wears it in the usual way,
but on any occasion of ceremony it is carried on the head doubled in
four. The “Macotas” also use the same kind of cap, but worn properly on
the head, and, like the king, only on occasions of ceremony.

When a white man, travelling, stops to rest for meals, or to sleep at a
town, it is usual for the king and “Macotas” to give him a ceremonious
reception, for which the king dresses himself in his best, and when
they are all assembled they send word to say that they are ready to
make their compliments. The meeting is generally in front of the king’s
hut, or else under the largest tree in the town (usually a baobab),
where ceremonials have taken place from time immemorial. The king only
is seated, another seat being placed at a little distance in front
for the traveller. All the hammock-boys and servants belonging to the
latter attend and squat behind him; on the king’s side is generally
the whole available population of the town, for whom the occasion is
an excitement, the front rows squatting on the ground, and the rest
standing crowded together in a circle. The traveller’s retinue first
begin by clapping hands to the king and “Macotas.” This is performed
in a peculiar manner by hollowing both palms, as in the action of
filling them with water, and then bringing them together crosswise,
when a much louder and deeper sound is produced than by clapping the
hands in the ordinary manner. The king returns the salute by extending
the left hand before him horizontally, with the palm towards him, and
placing the back of the right hand flat in the palm of the left, and
the fingers projecting over it are then waved quickly in succession in
that position. (Plate V., figs. 5, 6.) This is the universal manner of
greeting in Angola between an inferior and superior of high rank; when
the difference is not so great, as children to their parents, slaves
to their masters, ordinary natives to their “Macotas,” &c., both clap
their hands, but the inferior has to do it first, and both squat down
for a moment to do it. A powerful king answers a salute by simply
lifting his right hand, and waving his first and second finger only.

The king then speaks to one of the “Macotas” who can best translate
his speech to the white man, welcoming him to the town, and inquiring
after his health; the traveller then calls one of his attendants to
act as interpreter, and returns the compliments, and makes the king
a present of a few handkerchiefs and beads for his wives, but the
ceremonial is not considered complete without the traveller presenting
a bottle or a drink of wine or rum, which the king first partakes of,
and then passes to the “Macotas;”--the white man then shakes hands with
the king and takes his leave, the king always sending him some little
present, generally a fowl or pig, for which, however, another present
equal to its value is expected. It is not considered etiquette for the
king to speak Portuguese on these occasions, however well he may know
or understand it, but always to use his native language, and employ an
interpreter; the white man must also employ an interpreter to translate
his speech.

Besides rubbing the forehead on the ground to a powerful king, which
I have described as practised to the King of Congo, the blacks have
another way of rendering homage; this is by rubbing the fingers of both
hands on the ground, and transferring the dust that adheres to them to
the eyebrows, ears, and cheeks.

The appearance of some of the kings dressed in their fine clothes is
very ridiculous. A red or blue baize cloak thrown over the shoulders
is considered the correct thing, particularly over an old uniform of
any kind, with the more gold lace on it the better. The old King of
Quirillo, on the road to Bembe, was as amusing a figure as any I have
seen. He always used to appear in a woman’s brightly-coloured chintz
gown, with a short red cloak over his shoulders, and a great brass
cavalry helmet on his head, his black wrinkled face in a broad grin of
satisfaction at the admiration that his brilliant costume appeared to
excite among the natives.

The blacks in this part of the country are armed with flint muskets,
of which many thousands are annually passed in trade on the coast.
They like the heavy pattern of gun, unlike the natives to the south,
who will only have very light flimsy Liege-made guns. They are fond of
ornamenting the stock with brass tacks;--I have seen the whole of the
woodwork of some of their muskets completely covered with them. They
have no idea of using them properly, generally firing them from the
side without any regard to aim or the distance that they can carry.
Their manner of loading them I have already described.

These natives are arrant cowards, and in their so-called wars or
disputes between one town and another they seldom resort to firearms
to settle their differences. If one man is killed or wounded it is
considered a very great war indeed, although a great deal of powder
may have been burnt in mutual defiance at a safe distance. The
Portuguese were engaged in war on several occasions on the road to
Bembe, and punished, by burning, a number of towns where robberies
had been committed, and where, from the thickness of the bush and
forest, the ridiculously small force at their command would have been
quickly massacred, had not the natives been such craven cowards,
and so incapable of using their firearms. A shot from a six-pounder
gun, by which a king and seven other blacks were killed--swept off a
path where they were standing in file at what they considered a safe
distance--contributed more than anything else to restore peace on the
road.

The boats that used to navigate the River Congo were formerly armed
with a small carronade, to protect themselves from any attack by the
piratical Mussurongos on that river. One of these carronades falling
into the hands of those blacks was by them sold to a town in the
interior. The natives of this became involved in a dispute with those
of a powerful neighbouring town, who proceeded to attack it. The
natives of the former town, who depended on the carronade as their
principal means of defence, placed it on the path, loaded to the muzzle
with powder and stones, and laying a long train of powder to it awaited
the advance of the enemy; when it appeared in sight the train was
fired, and the inhabitants took to their heels. The assailing army,
hearing such a terrific report, paused to consider, and prudently
decided to return to their town. Next day they sent proposals of peace
to the little town, saying that as the latter had such a big “fetish,”
they could not think of making war any more.

The Mussurongo and Ambriz blacks knock out the two middle front teeth
in the upper jaw on arriving at the age of puberty. The Mushicongos
are distinguished from them by having all their front teeth, top
and bottom, chipped into points, which gives them a very curious
appearance. These tribes, like all blacks, have magnificent sets of
teeth, and the great care they take to keep them beautifully clean
is most singular, considering their generally dirty habits and want
of cleanliness. A negro’s first care in the morning is to rinse out
his mouth, generally using his forefinger to rub his teeth; the big
mouthful of water with which they wash their mouths is always squirted
out afterwards in a thin stream on their hands, to wash them with,
this being about the extent of their ablutions. Many use a bit of cane
switch or soft stick with the end beaten into a brush of fibres to
clean their teeth with, this brush being often carried suspended from
a piece of string round their necks. After every meal they always wash
their mouths and teeth, and I have seen them dip their forefinger into
the clean sharp sand of a river, and use it vigorously as tooth-powder.

Polygamy is of course an established institution among the natives of
Angola, and the number of wives that a black may keep is only regulated
by his means to maintain them. This applies to free blacks, the wives
or married women being all free. A free man may also keep as many
slaves and concubines as he can clothe.

There is no ceremony of marriage amongst the Mussurongo, Ambriz, or
Mushicongo blacks, except mutual consent, but the bridegroom has to
make his father-in-law a present of from two to three pieces of cloth
and some bottles of rum. He has, besides, to provide a feast to which
all the relatives of both families are invited, and in which a pig is
an indispensable element, and as much rum or other drink as his means
will allow. The bride’s trousseau is also provided by him, but this,
among the poorer Mushicongos, very often only consists of a couple of
handkerchiefs or a fathom of cotton cloth. In many cases the bride is
delivered over naked to the bridegroom. He has to provide her with
clothing, baskets, hoe, pipe, pots for cooking, wooden platters, &c.,
and a separate hut with sleeping-mat for each wife; in return for
this the wives have to cook and cultivate the plantations and to keep
themselves and the husband in food. Should he be unable to supply a
wife with the customary clothing, &c., she can leave him and return to
her parents, in which case he loses her, and the amount he gave for her
as well.

The dress of the blacks near the coast is, as might be expected, not so
scanty as those farther inland. The men wear a waistcloth reaching to
the knees, tied round the waist with a strip of red baize, and those
who can afford it fringe the ends of the cloth, which are allowed
to hang nearly to, and in some cases to trail on, the ground. The
women sew together two widths of cotton cloth, which is worn wrapped
round the body, covering it from under the arm-pits to the knees, and
tied in the same manner round the waist with a strip of baize;--the
top-end being tucked in, secures the cloth under the arms over the
breast, but when travelling or working in the fields, they allow the
top width to fall down on their hips, and leave the upper part of the
body exposed. In the poorer towns the men only wear a small waistcloth
of cotton cloth or matting; the women also wear a short waistcloth,
and a handkerchief folded diagonally and tied tightly under the
arms, with the ends hanging over and partly concealing the breasts.
Girls and young women generally wear a single handkerchief tied by a
string round their hips, the ends of the handkerchief not meeting at
the side, leaving one thigh exposed. Children run about stark naked,
or with a piece of string tied round the waist and the ends hanging
down in front. Their covering at night is only the waistcloth or mat,
which is generally long enough to cover them from head to foot. These
mats are made from the cuticle of the leaves of a dwarf palm, which is
peeled off when green and dried in the sun. It is only very few of the
richer folks who have a baize cloth or other covering for their bodies
at night. As might be expected, they are very glad to get cast-off
garments, and they will wear any article of clothing however ragged
it may be. One of my boys, to whom I had given an old shirt without
a back, fastened it on by lacing it up behind with a string, and the
contrast presented by his shiny black back and his clean shirt front,
collar, and sleeves, was most comical. Another hammock-boy made his
appearance in a wide-awake, blue silk tie, pair of slippers, and the
body-part of an old pair of white duck-trousers I had given him, the
legs of which he had cut off to make a present of to his brother. The
cotton umbrellas they receive in barter from the traders, each segment
of which is a different bright colour, when old are taken off the ribs,
the hole at the top is enlarged to pass the head through, and they are
then worn on the shoulders like a cape.

The coast tribes do not interfere with nature in the development of
the female figure, but the Mushicongos object to prominent breasts,
and girls tie a string tightly round the chest to reduce the growing
breasts to the perfectly flat shape in fashion;--the appearance of some
of the old negresses with their breasts hanging low and flat in front
is very disgusting.

The blacks have a great admiration for a white woman’s costume, and
I shall never forget an old “Capata’s” description of a Portuguese
officer’s wife that he had seen at Ambriz, or his imitation of her slim
waist and flowing dress. I told him I would send him a thin-waisted
wife from England if he promised to put away the three he then had; he
refused then, but next day came to me and said that, having considered
my offer, he would accept it!

The Mussurongo, but not the Ambriz or Mushicongo men, wear ankle-rings
made of brass (European make), or of tin, made by themselves from
bar-tin obtained in trade from the white men. The women of the three
tribes are very fond of wearing rings both on their arms and legs;
these are sometimes made in one piece of thin brass wire wound loosely
round the arm or leg, but a number of separate rings, about the size
of ordinary rings on curtain-rods, is most esteemed, and they must be
solid; they are not appreciated if hollow. Some of the richer women
wear as many as twenty of these rings on each leg and arm, the weight
rendering them almost unable to move, but six or eight is a very usual
number to wear on each limb. It must not be understood that this is the
universal custom, as it is only the wives of the kings or “Macotas” who
can afford these ornaments.

These three tribes generally keep their heads shaved, or else only
allow their hair to grow very short, and cut or shave it into
various patterns, sometimes very complicated in character. Where
razors or scissors are scarce, I have seen blacks shave heads with
a piece of glass split from the bottom of an ordinary bottle, the
operator stretching the skin of the scalp tightly towards him with
the thumb of the left hand, while he scrapes away from him with the
sharp edge of the wedge-shaped piece of glass in his right. Did they
not keep their woolly heads so free from hair, great would be the
production of a certain obnoxious insect, under the combined influence
of dirt and heat. Amongst the Mushicongos the chiefs’ wives and
other more aristocratic ladies allow their hair to grow into a huge
worsted-looking bush or mop, which is carefully combed straight up and
out, and of course swarms with insect inhabitants. A very curious plan
is adopted to entrap them:--a number of little flask-shaped gourds,
about the size of an ordinary pear, are strung through their necks
on a string, which is tied round the greasy forehead; a little loose
cotton-wool is stuffed into each, and the open narrow ends stick into
the bush of hair; they are taken off each morning, the cotton-wool
is pulled out, and the little innocents that have crawled into it are
crunched on the ground with a stone; the wool is replaced, and they are
again hung round the back of the head as before. These traps in fact
act in the same way as the little pots turned upside down and filled
with hay, which our gardeners employ to capture earwigs on dahlias.

Hunting them by hand is of course very much in vogue, and I was once
greatly amused at the way the chase was carried on on a woman’s head
at a town called Sangue, near Bembe. She was sitting on a low stool,
and two girls were busily turning over her hair and collecting the
lively specimens, which, as they were caught, were pinched to prevent
their crawling, and placed in the open palm of a child’s hand, who
also stood in the group. My curiosity was excited as to the reason of
the specimens being thus carefully preserved, and on asking one of my
hammock-boys, he told me “that is for the payment”--they are afterwards
counted, and the girls get a glass bead for every one they have caught.

I thought that a bead each was rather high pay for the work, and told
him so; his answer was, “If you had a hundred on your head, would you
not give a hundred beads to have them caught?” and I was obliged to
confess that I should consider it a cheap riddance.

The Zombo and other natives farther to the interior, who come to the
coast with ivory, &c., seldom shave their heads: the common lot let
their hair grow anyhow, without apparently ever combing it out--a
confused mass of wool, dirt, and palm oil--so that it gives them a
wild appearance; others comb it straight up, letting it grow about six
inches long, and ornament the front with a cock’s feather or a red
flower, or sometimes stick two or three brass tacks in it; others shave
their heads all round, leaving the hair in the middle to grow upright,
but the most usual manner is to plait their hair in little strings all
over the head; some twist and plait these strings again round the head,
ending at the top in a round knob, so that they look exactly as if they
had a basket on their heads.

Any malformation with which a child may be born is considered a
“fetish” by the negroes in Angola. A very short or sunken neck is
thought a very great fetish indeed. I saw two blacks in the Bembe
country who seemed to have no necks at all.

Albinos are not at all uncommon, and very repulsive looking creatures
they are, with their dirty white, scabby, shrunken skins. Blacks
with six fingers and toes are often seen, and are also considered as
“fetish.”

Women bear children with the greatest facility. In every town there are
one or more old women who act as midwives, and I was informed that very
few deaths indeed occur from childbirth, and in a very short time after
the mothers may be seen about.

A very striking instance of the ease with which women go through this
trial, happened to my knowledge whilst I was at Benguella. Senhor
Conceição, the agent of the copper mine I was exploring there, had
occasion to send up a number of poles to the mine, which was about six
miles inland. He called his slaves together early one morning and told
them that all who were able to carry poles should take up one and go
off to the mine with it;--these wooden poles weighing about thirty to
forty pounds each. About twenty of the slaves in the yard shouldered
one, and away they went, merrily singing together. Amongst them was a
woman near her confinement, who need not have gone with her companions
if she had chosen to remain behind. After breakfast we proceeded to
the mine, and on arriving at a place about four miles off we noticed
a few of the poles on the ground, but none of the bearers near; our
hammock-boys shouted for them, thinking they had perhaps gone into the
bush and laid down to sleep, leaving their loads on the road. A woman
came out of a thicket and explained that the pregnant woman’s time
had arrived, and that the child had just been born. Senhor Conceição
ordered the women to remain with her till we should arrive at the mine,
when he would send bearers with a hammock, blanket, wine, &c., to carry
her back. After some time they returned, saying that she and the other
women had gone! and when we reached Benguella in the evening, Senhora
Conceição described to us her surprise at seeing the women return
carrying green boughs, singing merrily, and accompanying the woman
bearing her new-born baby in her arms, she having walked back all the
way, not caring to wait for the hammock!

An allowance of grog was served out, and a “batuco,” or dance, was held
by all the slaves in honour of the event, whilst the woman coolly sat
on a stone in their midst, nursing her baby as if nothing had happened.

The burial of kings, or head men, and their wives in this part of
Angola is very singular. When the person dies, a shallow pit is dug
in the floor of the hut in which he or she died, just deep enough to
contain the body. This, which is seldom more than skin and bone, is
placed naked in the trench on its back, and then covered with a thin
layer of earth. On this three fires are lighted and kept burning for
a whole moon or month, the hot ashes being constantly spread over the
whole grave. At the end of this time, the body is usually sufficiently
baked or dried: it is then taken out and placed on its back on an open
framework of sticks, and fires kept burning under it till the body is
thoroughly smoke-dried. During the whole time the body is being dried,
the hut in which the operation is performed is always full of people,
the women keeping up a dismal crying day and night, particularly the
latter;--I have often been annoyed and had my rest disturbed by their
monotonous and unceasing howl on these occasions.

At the pretty town of Lambo I was obliged one night to leave and
bivouac at some distance under a baobab, to escape the noise kept up
over the dead body of one of the king’s wives, which was undergoing
the last process of drying over a fire; I looked into the hut and saw
a naked bloated body stiff and black on the frame, over a good fire,
where, as one of my hammock-boys told me, it would take long in drying,
as she was “so fat and made so much dripping.” The stench from the body
and the number of blacks in the hut was something indescribable.

When the body is completely desiccated it is wrapped in cloth and
stuck upright in a corner of the hut, where it remains until it is
buried, sometimes two years after. The reason for this is, that all
the relations of the deceased must be present at the final ceremony,
when the body is wrapped in as many yards of cloth as they can possibly
afford, some of the kings being rolled in several hundred yards of
different cloth. On the occasion of the burial a “wake” or feast
consisting of “batuco,” or dancing, with firing of guns and consumption
of drink, roast pig, and other food, is held for the whole night.

It is believed that the spirit of the dead person will haunt the town
where he died, and commit mischief if the “wake” is not held.

About Ambriz, and on the coast, it is the fashion to place boots or
shoes on the feet of free men when they are buried, and old boots and
shoes are considered a great gift from the whites for this purpose. The
body is generally buried in the same hut occupied by the person during
life. In some few places they have a regular burial ground, the graves,
generally simple mounds, being ornamented with broken crockery and
bottles. The natives have great veneration for their dead, and I found
it impossible to obtain a dried body as a specimen, although I offered
a high price for one.

Very little ceremony is used in burying blacks found dead, who do not
belong to the town in or near which they have died; the wrists and
knees are tied together and a pole passed through, and they are then
carried by two men and buried outside, anywhere;--if the corpse is that
of a man, his staff and “mutete” are laid on the grave; if a woman, a
basket is placed on it. (Plate XII.)

Their mourning is simple and inexpensive; a few ground-nuts are roasted
in a crock till they are nearly burnt, and being very oily are then
readily ground into a perfectly black paste. This, according to the
relationship with the deceased, is either rubbed over the whole, or
only part of the face and head; in some cases this painting is a
complicated affair, being in various devices all over the shaven head
and face, and takes some time and pains to effect; and to prevent
its being rubbed off at night by the cloth with which they cover
themselves, they place a basket kind of mask on their faces. (Plate
IV.) This mask is also employed to keep off the cloth from the face and
prevent the mosquitoes from biting through.

Circumcision is a universal custom among the blacks of Angola. They
have no reason for this custom other than that it would be “fetish” not
to perform it, and in some of the tribes they cannot marry without.

The operation is only performed in a certain “moon” (June), the one
after the last of the rainy season, and on a number of boys at a time.
For this purpose a large barracoon is built, generally on a hill and at
some little distance from any town. There the boys live for a “moon” or
month under the care of the “fetish man” or doctor, and employ their
time in beating drums and singing a wild kind of chant, and in hunting
rats in the fields immediately the grass is burnt down. The boys’ food
is taken up daily by the men of the towns, women not being allowed
to approach the barracoon during the time: the path leading to it is
marked where it joins the main path by one or two large figures made
either of clay or straw, or smaller ones roughly carved of wood, and
always of a very indecent character. At the end of the month the boys
return to their towns, wearing a head-dress of feathers, singing and
beating drums, and preceded by the “fetish man.”

Insanity exists, though rarely, among blacks. I have only seen several
natural born idiots, but I have been informed by the natives that they
have violent madmen amongst them, whom they are obliged to tie up, and
sometimes even kill; and I have been assured that some lunatics roam
about wild and naked in the forest, living on roots, sometimes entering
the towns when hard pressed by hunger, to pick up dirt and garbage, or
pull up the mandioca roots in the plantations. This can only be in this
part of the country, where the larger carnivora are scarce, or with the
exception of the hyena, almost entirely absent.




CHAPTER IX.

 CUSTOMS OF THE MUSSURONGO, AMBRIZ, AND MUSHICONGO NEGROES--MANDIOCA
 PLANT--ITS PREPARATIONS--CHILI PEPPER--BANANAS--RATS--WHITE
 ANT--NATIVE BEER--STRANGE SOUNDS.


The Mussurongo, Ambriz, and Mushicongo negroes have hardly any
industrial or mechanical occupation; they weave no cloths of cotton or
other fibre; their only manufactures being the few implements, baskets,
pots, &c., required in their agriculture and household operations.

The reason for this want of industry, apart from the inherent laziness
and utter dislike of the negroes for work of any kind, is to be found
in their socialistic and conservative ideas and laws.

No man can be richer than his neighbour, nor must he acquire his riches
by any other than the usual or established means of barter or trade of
the natural products of the country, or of his plantations.

Should a native return to his town, after no matter how long an
absence, with more than a moderate amount of cloth, beads, &c., as
the result of his labour, he is immediately accused of witchcraft or
“fetish,” and his property distributed among all, and is often fined as
well.

I have already mentioned how the natives at Bembe, on receiving their
pay, would squander it in riot before leaving for their towns, knowing
that it would only be taken away from them, and so preferring to enjoy
themselves with it first.

Some of the black traders on the coast, who acquire large values in
the ivory trade, have to invest them in slaves, and even form towns
consisting of their wives and slaves, and entirely maintained by
them;--even these traders are constantly being accused of “fetish,”
from which they have to clear themselves by heavy payments.

We have already seen how there are hardly any social distinctions among
the negroes, and consequently no necessity for finer clothing, food,
houses, &c.; it is even considered very mean for one black to eat or
drink by himself. Any food or drink, however little, given to them, is
always distributed amongst those present. The Portuguese convict whom I
have described as owning the sugar-cane plantation at Quincollo, goes
under the nickname among the blacks of “Fiadia,” or one who eats alone,
from his having, when first starting a grog shop, lived in a hut apart,
and as the blacks said “when he ate his dinner no other white man saw
him, and what was over he kept for the next day.”

Nature favours the habits and customs of the blacks, removing all
inducement to work by providing with a prodigal hand their few
necessities, and exacting scarcely any exertion on their part in
return. Their principal food or staff of life, the mandioca root, does
not even require harvesting or storing. A knife or matchet, a hoe, a
sleeping-mat, and a couple of pots and baskets, enable persons about to
marry to begin life and rear a large family without the least misgiving
for the future, or anxiety for the payment of rent, doctor’s and
tailor’s bills, schooling, rates, or taxes.

The materials for their huts grow around them in the greatest
abundance, a few forked upright poles form the walls, and bear others
forming the roof; thin sticks tied horizontally or perpendicularly to
the uprights, both inside and out, forming a double wall, complete the
framework of the hut, which is then plastered with clay or earth, or
covered with grass or “loandos,” or mats made of the dried stem of the
papyrus. The roof is of grass neatly laid on in layers like thatch,
on a frame of light cane or the mid-rib of the palm-leaf. The door is
made of slabs of the “Mafumeira” or cotton-wood tree, or of palm-leaves
woven together; the door is always about a foot from the ground, and
the threshold generally the trunk of a small tree, forming the usual
seat of the inmates during the day.

The Mushicongos, living on the mica schist and clay slate formations,
which decompose readily, forming tenacious clayey soils, and are the
favourite habitat of the white ant, are obliged to prepare with great
care the poles employed in building their huts, in order to preserve
them from the ravages of that most destructive insect.

For this purpose the poles are soaked for months in stagnant pools,
until they become black with fetid mud or slime, and, the end which is
intended to be stuck in the ground is then held over a fire till the
surface is charred. The smoke from the fire, always kept burning in
a hut, preserves it perfectly from the attacks of the white ant, the
interior becoming in time perfectly black and shining as if varnished,
there being of course no chimney and very seldom a window, though
sometimes an open space is left at the top ends for the smoke to issue
from.

The furniture is restricted to a bed, made of a framework of sticks or
palm-leaves plaited together, and resting on two logs of wood or short
forked sticks, so as to raise it about six inches or a foot from the
ground. On the bed is laid a sleeping-mat made by the natives of the
interior, and sometimes there is a mat-pillow stuffed with wild cotton,
but this is seldom more than an inch or two thick;--blacks mostly sleep
without pillows, with their heads resting on the extended arm.

The negroes from the interior are sometimes seen using curious small
pillows made of wood (Plate IV.) and carved in fanciful patterns;
they carry them slung from the shoulder. A very singular habit of all
negroes is that of never slinging anything across the shoulders and
chest as we do, but always from one shoulder, and hanging under the arm.

Building huts is man’s work, and as no nails of any kind are employed
in their construction, the sticks only being notched and tied together
with baobab fibre, a few days, with but little trouble, suffices to
build one.

Women’s work is entirely restricted to cultivating the ground and
preparing the food. Their simple agricultural operations are all
performed with one implement, a single-handed hoe (Plate V.). This hoe
is made of iron, nearly round, about the size and shape of a large
oyster-shell, and has a short spike which is burnt into the end of the
handle, a short knobbed stick about eighteen inches long. With this hoe
the ground is cleared of grass and weeds, which are gathered into heaps
when dry, and burnt. The ground is then dug to a depth of about six to
eight inches, and the loose broken earth scraped together into little
hillocks ready for planting the mandioca. This plant, the Cassada or
Cassava of the West Indies, &c. (_Manihot aipi_), grows as a peculiar
thick round bush from three to six feet high, bearing an abundance of
bright green, handsome deeply-cut leaves; it flowers but sparingly, and
bears few seeds; it is propagated by cuttings, any part of the stem
or branches, which are soft, brittle, and knotty, very readily taking
root. About the beginning of the rainy season is the usual time of
planting,--two or three short pieces of stem, about a foot long, being
stuck in each hillock. In some places two of the pieces are of equal
length, and planted near each other, the third piece being shorter,
and planted in a slanting position across the other two. This method
of planting is supposed, but with what truth I know not, to produce
a greater crop of roots than any other. The mandioca is of rapid and
luxuriant growth, and in favourable soil the plant throws out many
branches. The roots are very similar in outward appearance to those of
the dahlia, though of course, very much larger; the usual size is about
a foot long, but roots two feet long and several inches wide throughout
are of common occurrence. When fresh they are white and of a peculiar
compact, dense, brittle texture, more like that of the common chestnut
than anything else I can compare it to, and not unlike it in taste,
though not so sweet, and more juicy. They are covered by a thin, dark,
rough, dry skin, which is very easily detached. Gentle hill-slopes are
the places generally chosen for the mandioca plantations, to ensure
good drainage, as the roots are said to rot readily in places where
water stagnates. The mandioca-root is sufficiently large and good to
eat about nine months after planting, but is only pulled up then in
case of need, as it does not attain its full perfection for fifteen or
eighteen months after the cuttings are planted, and as it can remain in
the ground for two or even three years without damage or deterioration,
there is no need of a regular time for digging it up. It is eaten fresh
and raw as taken out of the ground, though the natives are fondest of
its various preparations.

The roots peeled and dried in the sun constitute what is called “bala,”
and are eaten thus or roasted. “Bombó” is prepared by placing the roots
in water for four or five days, running streams being preferred to
stagnant pools for this purpose; the outer black skin then peels off
very readily and the roots have suffered a kind of acetous fermentation
affecting the gluten and gum, and setting free the starch--of which
the bulk of the root is composed;--they now have a strong disagreeable
acid taste and flavour, but on drying in the sun become beautifully
white and nearly tasteless, and so disintegrated as to be readily
crushed between the fingers into the finest flour. This “bombó” is
also eaten thus dry or roasted, but most usually it is pounded in a
wooden mortar and sifted in the “uzanzos” or baskets, into the white
flour called “fuba.” From this is prepared the “infundi,” the food
most liked by the natives, which is made in this way:--into an earthen
pot half full of water, kept boiling on three stones over a fire, the
“fuba” is gradually added, and the whole kept constantly stirred round
with a stick; when the mass attains the consistency of soft dough the
pot is taken off the fire, and being secured by the woman’s toes if
she be sitting down, or by her knees if kneeling, it is vigorously
stirred with the stick worked by both hands, for some minutes longer,
or till it no longer sticks to the side of the pot. Portions of the
semi-transparent viscous mass are then transferred with the stick to
a small basket or “quinda,” dusted with dry “fuba,” and rolled round
into a flat cake about three or four inches in diameter and a couple
of inches thick. It is eaten hot, bits of the sticky cake being pulled
out with the fingers and dipped for a flavour into a mess of salt fish,
pork, or beans, or into a gravy of stewed mandioca or bean-leaves,
Chili pepper, and oil. This “infundi,” or “infungi” as it is also
pronounced by some of the natives, is delicious eating with “palm-chop.”

“Quiquanga” is also a very important preparation of the mandioca-root,
large quantities being prepared in the interior and brought down to the
coast for sale and for barter for dried fish, salt, &c. The fresh roots
are placed in water for a few days, in the same manner as described
for “bombó,” and peeled, but instead of being dried in the sun, are
transferred wet as they are taken out of the water to the wooden
mortars, and pounded to a homogeneous paste; this is rolled between the
hands into long, flattened cakes about eight inches in length, or into
round thick masses. These are rolled neatly in the large, strong smooth
leaf of the _Phrynium ramosissimum_--a beautiful trailing plant with a
knotted stem, growing very abundantly in moist and shady places,--and
steamed over a pot of boiling water carefully covered up to keep the
steam in, and then left to dry in the sun or air. The cakes then
become fit to keep for a long time, and are of a very close, cheesy,
indigestible character, with a disagreeable acid flavour. Cut into thin
slices and toasted, the “quiquanga” is not a bad substitute for bread
or biscuit.

It is curious that in the district of Loanda and as far south as
Mossamedes, the principal food of the people should be a preparation
of the mandioca-root, which is hardly ever used by the natives of the
country from Ambriz to the River Congo: this is the meal called by
the Portuguese and Brazilians “Farinha de pão.” It is made by rasping
the fresh roots, previously peeled, on a grater, generally a sheet of
tin-plate punched with holes or slits, and nailed over a hole in a
board. The grated pulp is then put into bags and squeezed in a rude
lever-press to extract as much of the juice as possible, and then dried
on large round iron or copper sheets fitting on a low circular stone
wall, where a wood fire is kept burning. When thoroughly dry it is
nearly white, and has the appearance of coarse floury saw-dust, and is
excellent eating. Carefully prepared, it appears on all Angolan and
Brazilian tables, and is taken dry on the plate to mix with the gravy
of stews, &c. Scalded with boiling water, and mixed with a little
butter and salt, it is very nice to eat with meat, &c.

Another very favourite way of cooking it is by boiling it to a thick
paste with water, tomatoes, Chili pepper, and salt, with the addition
of some oil or butter in which onions have been fried. This is called
“pirão,” and a dish of it appears at table as regularly as potatoes do
with us.

With cold meat, fish, &c., it is also eaten raw, moistened with water,
oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt, or, better still, with orange or
lemon juice, with pepper and salt. This is called “farofa,” and is an
excellent accompaniment to a cold dinner. The natives generally eat it
dry, or slightly moistened with water, and from its being carelessly
prepared it is always very gritty with sand and earth, and is the cause
of the molars of the natives being always ground very flat. A negro
never makes any objection to grit in his food. Fish is always dried on
the sandy beach; mandioca-roots or meal, if wet, are also spread on a
clean bit of ground and swept up again when dry, and he crunches up
his always sandy food with the most perfect indifference, his nervous
system not being of a sufficiently delicate character to “set his teeth
on edge” during the operation, as it would those of a white man.

Next to the mandioca-root, as an article of food among the blacks, is
the small haricot bean; these are of various colours, the ordinary
white bean being scarce. A species is much cultivated, not only for the
beans, which are very small, but also for its long, thin, fleshy pods,
which are excellent in their green state. Beans are boiled in water,
with the addition of palm or ground-nut oil or other fat, salt, and
Chili pepper. The leaves of the bean, mandioca, or pumpkin plants are
sometimes added.

Chili pepper is the universal condiment of the natives of Angola, and
it is only one species, with a small pointed fruit about half an inch
long, that is used. It grows everywhere in the greatest luxuriance
as a fine bush loaded with bunches of the pretty bright green and
red berries. It seems to come up spontaneously around the huts and
villages, and is not otherwise planted or cultivated. It is eaten
either freshly-gathered or after being dried in the sun. It has a most
violent hot taste, but the natives consume it in incredible quantities;
their stews are generally of a bright-red colour from the quantity of
this pepper added, previously ground on a hollow stone with another
smaller round one. Their cookery is mostly a vehicle for conveying this
Chili pepper, and the “infundi” is dipped into it for a flavour.

Eating such quantities of this hot pepper often affects the action of
the heart, and I remember once having to hire a black to carry the
load of one of my carriers, who was unable to bear it from strong
palpitation of the heart, brought on from the quantity of Chili pepper
he had eaten with his food.

In our garden at Bembe we grew some “Malagueta” peppers, a variety with
a long pod, and perhaps even hotter than the Chilies. Our doctor’s
cook, coming to me once for a supply of vegetables, was given a few
of these, and commenced eating one. I asked him how he could bear to
eat them alone? He laughed, and said he “liked them with rum early in
the morning.” To try him, I gave him a couple and a glass of strong
hollands gin, and he coolly chewed them up and drank the spirit without
the slightest indication that he felt the pungency of the fiery
mixture. A round and deliciously-scented variety, bearing pods the size
of a small marble, is also grown, but is not commonly seen.

Bananas or plantains, grow magnificently, as might be expected, and
without requiring the least trouble; yet, such is the stupid indolence
of the natives that there is often a scarcity of them. They are
principally grown in valleys and other places, where the rich, moist
earth in which they delight is found, and where, protected by palm
and other trees, they rear their magnificent leaves unbroken by a
breath of air. A grove of banana-trees thus growing luxuriantly in a
forest clearing is one of the most beautiful sights in nature;--the
vast leaves, reflecting the rays of the hot sun from their bright-green
surface, contrast vividly with the dark-hued foliage of the trees
around, and show off the whorls of flowers with their fleshy, metallic,
purple-red envelopes and the great bunches of green and ripe yellow
fruit. Numbers of butterflies flit about the cool stems and moist
earth, whilst the abundant flowers are surrounded by a busy crowd of
bees and other flies, and by lovely sunbirds that, poised on the wing
in the air, insert their long curved beaks into the petals in search of
the small insects and perhaps honey that constitute their food.

The negroes of Angola always eat the banana raw, but it is roasted by
the whites when green, when it becomes quite dry and a good substitute
for bread, or boiled, to eat with meat instead of potatoes; and when
ripe, roasted whole, or cut lengthways into thin slices and fried in
batter and eaten with a little sugar and cinnamon or wine, forming
a delicious dish for dessert. A very large plantain, growing as long
as eighteen or twenty inches, is cultivated in the interior, and is
brought down to the coast by the “Zombos” with their caravans of ivory.
Indian corn is the only other plant that is grown and used as food by
the negroes of Angola, except the ground-nut already described. It is
sparingly cultivated, though bearing most productively, and is eaten
in the green state, raw or roasted, and sometimes boiled. About Loanda
the dry grain is occasionally pounded into meal and boiled into a stiff
paste with water, and eaten in the same manner as the “infundi” from
the mandioca-root.

Other edible plants, though not much cultivated by the natives, are the
sweet potato; the common yam (which is very rarely seen, and I am quite
unable to give a reason for its not being more commonly cultivated);
the Cajanus indicus, a shrub bearing yellow pea-like flowers and a
pod with a kind of flat pea, which is very good eating when young and
green; the purple egg-plant, or “berenjela” of the Portuguese; the
“ngilló” (_Solanum sp._), bearing a round apple-like fruit, used as
a vegetable; the ordinary pumpkin, and a species of small gourd; and,
lastly, the “quiavo” or “quingombó” (_Abelmoschus esculentus_) of the
Brazilians.

The Ambriz and Mushicongo natives make but little use of animal food,
seldom killing a domestic animal, and of these the pig is the most
esteemed by them. Very little trouble would enable them to rear any
quantity of sheep, goats, and other live stock; but, such is their
indolence, that, as I have already stated, these animals are quite
scarce in the country, and are daily becoming more so.

Blacks, as a rule, seldom engage in the chase. Antelopes, hares, &c.,
are only occasionally captured or shot, though they are abundant in
many places; but they are very fond of field-rats and mice, though
house-rats are held in disgust as articles of food. Immediately after
the annual grass-burnings the inhabitants of the towns turn out
with hoes and little bows and arrows to dig out and hunt the rats
and mice. Various devices are also employed to entrap them. A small
framework of sticks, about a foot high, is raised across the footpaths,
leaving small apertures or openings into which the open ends of long
funnel-shaped traps of open flexible wickerwork are inserted. The
bushes are then beaten with sticks, and the rats, frightened out of
their haunts, rush along the paths into the traps, in which they cannot
turn round, and as many as four or five are caught at a time in each
(Plate XI.).

Another common trap is made by firmly fixing in the ground one end of
a strong stick, and bending down the other end, to which is attached a
noose inserted in a small basket-trap, and so arranged as to disengage
the bow and catch the unlucky rat round the throat and strangle it as
soon as it touches the bait. The rats, as soon as killed, are skewered
from head to tail on a long bit of stick, and roasted over a fire in
their “jackets” whole, without any cleaning or other preparation,
generally five on each skewer.

Frogs are only eaten by the Mushicongos. They are also very fond of
grasshoppers, which are beaten down with a flapper, like a battledore,
made out of a palm-leaf, their legs and wings pulled off, and roasted
in a pot or crock over a fire; they smell exactly like stale dry
shrimps.

A large king-cricket (_Brachytrypes achatinus_) is greatly relished
everywhere, and the blacks are wonderfully clever at finding the exact
spot where one is chirping in the ground, and digging it out from
perhaps the depth of a foot or more. It is incredible how puzzling
it is to discover the exact place from whence the loud chirp of this
insect proceeds.

A large white grub or larva, the interior of which is very streaky
in appearance, and which is roasted and eaten spread on a cake of
“infundi” as we should spread marrow on a slice of toast, is considered
a great delicacy, as also is a very large yellow caterpillar. I have
seen, when travelling, all the blacks of my party suddenly rush off
with the greatest delight to a shrub covered with these caterpillars,
which they eagerly collected to eat in the same way as the grubs I have
just described.

The “salalé,” or white ant, is eaten by the natives of Angola when
it is in its perfect or winged state; they are captured by hand as
they issue from holes in the ground, stewed with oil, salt, and Chili
pepper, and used as a sauce or gravy with which to eat the “infundi.”
They have a very sharp taste, from the formic acid contained in them.

The natives of Angola manufacture but one kind of drink, called
“uállua” in the district of Ambriz, and “garapa” in the rest of Angola.
It is a sort of beer, prepared from Indian corn and “bala,” or dry
mandioca-root. The Indian corn is first soaked in water for a few days,
or until it germinates; it is then taken out and thinly spread on
clean banana leaves, and placed on the ground in the shade, where it
is left for two or three days; at the end of that time it has become
a cake or mass of roots and sprouts; it is then broken up and exposed
in the hot sun till it is quite dry, then pounded in wooden mortars
and sifted into fine flour; the dry mandioca-roots are also pounded
fine and mixed in equal parts with the Indian corn. This mixture is
now introduced in certain proportions, into hot water, and boiled
until a thick froth or scum rises to the surface. Large earthen pots,
called “sangas,” are filled with this boiled liquor, which when cold
is strained through a closely woven straw bag or cloth, and allowed
to stand for one night, when it ferments and is ready for use. It is
slightly milky in appearance, and when freshly made is sweetish and not
disagreeable in taste, but with the progress of fermentation becomes
acid and intoxicating. The rationale of the process of making “garapa”
is the same as that of the manufacture of beer. The germination of the
Indian corn, in which part of its starch is changed into sugar with
the production of diastase, and the arrest of this process by drying,
corresponds to the “malting,” and the boiling in water with mandioca
flour to the “mashing;” the diastase acting on the starch of the
mandioca-root, transforms it into sugar, which in its turn is fermented
into alcohol, rendering the “garapa” intoxicating, and ultimately
becoming acid, or sour, from its passing to the state of acetous
fermentation.

The “quindas” or baskets, used by the natives of Angola, are of various
sizes and all conical in shape. They are made of straw, but are not
woven. A kind of thin rope is made by covering a quantity of straight
straws or dry grass stems, about the thickness of an ordinary lead
pencil, with a flat grass, or strips of palm leaf, and the basket is
built up by twisting this rope round and round, and tightly sewing
it together. A coarser kind is made at Loanda for carrying earth or
rubbish. It is very curious that no other form of basket should be made
in the country, and when a cover is required, another basket inverted
is employed.

The “loangos,” or “loandos” are large mats about four to five feet
long, and from two to four wide; they are made of the dry, straight,
flattened stems of the papyrus plant (_Papyrus antiquorum_), and like
the baskets are also not woven or plaited, but the stems are passed
through or sewn across at several places with fine string made of
baobab fibre. These mats are stiff, but at the same time thick and
soft; they are used for a variety of useful purposes, such as for
fencing, for lying or sitting upon, and for placing on the ground on
which to spread roots, corn, &c., to dry in the sun, but principally
to line or cover huts and houses. The papyrus grows most luxuriantly
in all the pools, marshes, and wet places of Angola, and in many parts
lines the banks of the rivers. I have seen it growing everywhere, from
a few hundred yards distance from the sea, to as far in the interior
as I have been. It is always of the brightest bluish-grey green, and
the long, graceful, smooth stalk surmounted by the large feathery
head, waving in every breath of wind, makes it a beautiful object. It
often covers a large extent of ground in low places, particularly near
rivers, to the exclusion of any other plant, and forms then a most
lovely cool patch of colour in the landscape, and hides numbers of
happy water birds which, unmolested, boom and churrr and tweet in its
welcome shade.

Very curious are the sounds that issue in the stillness of the night
from these papyrus-covered fields, principally from different species
of waterfowl; and I have often remained awake for hours listening to
the weird trumpetings, guttural noises and whistlings of all kinds,
joined to the croak of frogs and the continual, perfectly metallic,
ting, ting, ting--like the ring of thousands of tiny iron hammers on
steel anvils--said to be made by a small species of frog.

Nothing gives such an idea of the wonderful multiplicity of bird or
insect life in tropical Africa, as the number and variety of sounds to
be heard at night. Every square foot of ground or marsh, every tree,
bush, or plant, seems to give out a buzz, chirp, or louder noise of
some sort. With the first streak of daylight these noises are suddenly
hushed, to be quickly succeeded by the various glad notes of the
awakened birds, and later on, when the sun’s rays are clear and hot,
the air is filled with the powerful whirr of the cicads on every tree.

The “uzanzos” are a kind of sieve in the form of an openwork basket,
rather prettily and neatly made of the thin and split midrib of the
palm leaflets, in which the women sift mandioca, Indian corn, or
whatever else they may pound into meal in their wooden mortars. These
latter are “uzus,” and the long wooden pestles employed with them are
termed “muinzus” (Plate XII.).

These mortars are made of soft wood, mostly of the cotton-wood tree,
which is easily cut with a knife; for scooping out the interior of the
mortars the natives use a tool made by bending round about an inch of
the point of an ordinary knife, which they then call a “locombo.”

The last article to be described, in daily use amongst the natives of
Angola, is a small wooden dish, which is more rarely made now owing
to the large quantity of earthenware plates and bowls that have been
introduced by the traders on the coast. These dishes are invariably
made square in shape (Plate XIV.).


END OF VOL. I.




INDEX.


  A

  Abuses by authorities of Angola, i. 54.

  Adansonias, abundance of, from River Congo to Mossamedes, i. 27.

  African fevers, facts and observations about, ii. 236.

  Agave, i. 29.

  Alligators, i. 65, ii. 123.

  Ambaca, natives of, ii. 103.

  Ambaquistas, natives of Ambaca, ii. 103.

  Ambriz, description of town, i. 153;
    trade of, _ib._;
    iron pier at, 157;
    author’s return to, 233;
    negroes, customs of the, 281.

  ----, vegetation of, i. 30; exports from in 1874, 111.

  ---- to Mossamedes, i. 23.

  ---- to Loanda country, ii. 1.

  Ambrizzette, witchcraft at, i. 65;
    treatment of a black for forgery, 115.

  _Amydrus fulvipennis_, ii. 164.

  Andrade, on board the, to Quanza, ii. 113.

  Angola, discovery and early history, i. 1;
    Portuguese possessions of, 23;
    physical geography of, _ib._;
    description of coastline, _ib._;
    character of landscape, 25;
    change of landscape at 13° S. lat., 26;
    vegetation of from Ambriz to Bembe, 29;
    slave trade in, 59;
    statistics of slaves shipped in, 67;
    division of, ii. 51;
    pay of governor and army officers, 52;
    abuses by authorities of, 54;
    climate of, 223;
    effect of climate on Europeans, ii. 237;
    customs of the natives, ii. 268.

  _Angolœa fluitans_, ii. 133.

  Anha River, ii. 173.

  Animal food of the natives, i. 297.

  _Arachis hypogœa_, native name of, “mpinda,” or “ginguba,” i. 129;
    description of, 130;
    its cultivation, _ib._;
    preparation of the nut and Chili pepper, 132.

  Arms and war, i. 261.

  Atacamite, where found, i 192.

  Athletic sports at Sierra Leone, account of, ii. 315.

  Author buys a slave, i. 77;
    the slave’s ingratitude to, _ib._;
    reception of by Senhor Chaves at Boma, i. 83;
    at a picnic organized by Senhor Chaves, 87;
    catches four new species of fish at Boma, 95;
    discoverer of the baobab fibre as a substance for paper-making, 118;
    manages a malachite mine, 161;
    accompanies Mr. Augustus Archer Silva to Quanza, ii. 112.

  ----, mining explorations of, at Benguella, i. 43, ii. 191,199.


  B

  Baba Bay, abundance of fish at, ii. 216.

  Babies, treatment of, i. 71.

  Bagre fish, i. 50.

  _Bagrus_, “Bagre” fish, ii. 134.

  Baobab-tree--_Adansonia digitata_, i. 24, 29.

  ---- bark, its application to paper-making (discovered by author in
   1858), i. 75;
    baobabs at Boma, 84.

  ---- or _Adansonia digitata_, as a substance for paper-making, i. 118;
    description of the tree, and use of the trunk, 120.;
    mode of taking off the bark, 122;
    its fruit, and mode of climbing it, 128.

  Banana, trading factories at, i. 81.

  Bananas, or plantains, i. 294;
    as food, 295.

  Barra da Corimba, ii. 21.

  Basalt, ii. 220.

  Bats, abundance of in churches, ii. 129.

  Bed-clothing of the natives, i. 266.

  Beer, native, manufacture of, i. 301.

  Bees--mode of getting honey, ii. 165.

  Bellows, native, ii. 93.

  Bembe, vegetation of, i. 31;
    description of, 109.

  ---- Fort, i. 190; soil about, 225.

  Bengo river, ii. 16.

  Bengo to Loanda, vegetation, ii. 18.

  Benguella, i. 28;
    mining operations at, 43;
    country south of, 45;
    fertility of its soil, trade, &c., ii. 181;
    slave-trade at, 184.

  ---- and Mossamedes, country between, ii. 212.

  Berenjela, egg plant, i. 296.

  Bigode, or moustache-bird (_Crithagra ictera_), ii. 205.

  Bimba tree (_Herminiera Elaphroxylon_), ii. 195.

  Bimbas, birds at, ii. 206.

  Birds of Boma, i. 86;
    habits of various kinds, _ib._

  Bitumen, ii. 11.

  Bleeding, fondness of the natives for, ii. 262.

  Boma, as centre for slave-trade, i. 56;
    cultivation of, 85;
    birds of, 86;
    distrust of natives at, 90.

  Bombó, preparation, i. 287.

  Bonny, landing at, i. 114.

  _Brachytrypes achatinus_ (king cricket), i. 299.

  Brandy, use of in Africa, ii. 245.

  Bronchitis, &c., native treatment of, ii. 258.

  Bruto, plantation at, ii. 119.

  _Bucorax Abyssinicus_ (hornbill), ii. 71.

  Bunda-speaking natives, indolence of, ii. 100.

  Burial among the natives, i. 276.

  ---- and burial-places, ii. 275.

  Bustards, ii. 5.

  Bustards at Benguella, ii. 201.

  Butterflies, species of, ii. 295.


  C

  Cabeça da Cobra to Ambriz--description of coast-line, i. 102;
    vegetation, 103.

  _Cajanus indicus_, shrub, i. 296.

  Calumbo, scenery, vegetation, &c., ii. 116.

  Cambambe, high grass at, i. 38;
    water at, 47;
    cataracts at, ii. 133.

  _Camoensia maxima_, plant, i. 177.

  Cannibalism, ii. 157.

  Capatas, or captains of the carriers, i. 196, 203.

  Cardozo, Feo, on the “History of the Governors of Angola,” i. 1.

  Casca, preparation of, i. 63;
    effect by poisoning from, 127.

  Cashew-tree, i. 44.

  Cassão, dogfish, ii. 207.

  Cassanza, country about, ii. 153.

  Cassytha--(_C. Guineensis?_), i. 45;
    at Luache, ii. 198.

  Castor-oil plant in Novo Redondo and Benguella, i. 51.

  Catinga, or odour of the natives, i. 30.

  Cattle, cause for absence of, i. 46.

  ---- and other animals, mortality of, i. 207.

  Catumbella, scenery and vegetation, ii. 178.

  Cazengo, abundance of food at, ii. 84-88.

  Celis country, ii. 105.

  Chameleons, ii. 109.

  Circumcision among the natives, i. 278.

  Civilization of the negro, i. 113.

  Climate of Angola, effect on Europeans, ii. 237.

  Coffee-trade, i. 134.

  Coffee plantations, ii. 87;
    wild, about Golungo Alto and the Dembos, ii. 92.

  Cola fruit, ii. 37.

  Commerce, i. 117.

  Congo River, i. 26;
    a boundary, i. 53;
    mouth of, i. 81.

  ----, probable sources of, i. 54, ii. 69.

  ---- to Ambriz, the country from, i. 100.

  ---- River and Ambriz, system of trading, i. 105.

  Congo, king of, i. 213;
    customs of, 221.

  Cookery of Angola natives, ii. 239.

  Copper at Benguella, ii. 179;
    at Quileba, 191.

  Copper ore at Cuio Bay, ii. 198.

  _Coracias caudata_, manner of flying, &c., i. 172, ii. 19.

  _Corythaix Paulina_, plantain-eaters, superstitious dread of by the
   natives, ii. 74.

  _Corythornis cyanostigma_, kingfisher, ii. 121.

  Cotton growth at Cazengo, ii. 105.

  Creepers, description of, i. 31, 45.

  Crime, punishment for in Angola, ii. 46.

  Crows (_Corvus scapulatus_), ii. 215.

  Cuacra, cannibalism at, ii. 155.

  Cuio Bay, ii. 198.

  _Cursorius Senegalensis_, ii. 19.

  Customs of natives of the interior, ii. 99.

  _Cynocephalus sp._ of dog-faced monkey, ii. 194.


  D

  Dances of the natives, ii. 137.

  Dande River, ii. 15.

  Dead, “drying” of the, i. 275.

  _Decamera Jovis-tonantis_, hard-wood shrub, preservative against
   lightning, ii. 99.

  Diamba, hemp for smoking, ii. 26, 257.

  Dias, Captain, governor of Barra do Bengo, i. 80.

  Dirty habits of the natives, ii. 259.

  Dish, Angola native, i. 305.

  Dog’s sense of smell when nearing a negro, i. 36.

  Dombe Grande, rush of water down the Luache, i. 49.

  ----, district of, ii. 196.

  Dondo town, ii. 130.

  Dress of the kings, i. 260.

  ---- natives, i. 263.

  Drunkenness of Englishmen, ii. 243.

  Dyes and paints, ii. 299.

  Dysentery, native treatment of, ii. 252.


  E

  Egg-trade, i. 209.

  Egito river, ii. 169.

  Eland steak, a breakfast of, ii. 224.

  Engongui signal-bells, i. 203.

  Entuchi, shrub, used for curing headache, ii. 251.

  Epsom-salts, ii. 262.

  _Eriodendron anfractuosum_, cottonwood tree, ii. 86.

  _Erythrophlœum Guineense_, action of poison extracted from, i. 61.

  Euphorbia tree, i. 24;
    abundance of, from River Congo to Mossamedes, 27;
    in Ambriz, 29.

  _Eusemia ochracea_, moth, i. 158.


  F

  Fairs, i. 209.

  Falls of Cambambe, ii. 133.

  Farofa, preparation, i. 291.

  Farinha de pao, preparation, i. 290.

  Fedegozo (_Cassia occidentalis_) as a substitute for quinine, ii. 249.

  Fetish, as a punishment to drunkards, i. 117.

  “Fetishes” of the negro, fetish men, &c., i. 243-253.

  Fetish-house, ii. 7.

  Fever, its prevention and cure, ii. 246;
    native treatment of, 249.

  Fevers at Bembe, i. 227.

  Fish, mode of cooking at Loanda, ii. 30.

  ---- caught at Loanda, ii. 31.

  ---- and fisheries between Benguella and Mossamedes, ii. 206.

  Food, abundant growth at Cazengo, ii. 105.

  Frogs as food, i. 298.

  Fruits, ii. 297.

  Furniture of the natives, i. 282.


  G

  Gamboa, General, ii. 3.

  Garapa, drink, i. 300.

  Garlic as a food for hot climate, ii. 240.

  Gigantic grasses, i. 33.

  Giraul river, ii. 218.

  Gold at Lombige, ii. 90.

  Golungo Alto, ii. 85.

  Gorilla and Chimpanzee, where found, i. 53.

  Gourds of Cazengo and Pungo Andongo, ii. 104.

  Grandy, Lieut., i. 162.

  Grass, “Capim de faca” or knife-grass, i. 33;
    description of burning, 39.

  Ground-nut, analysis, ii. 110.

  Gum-arabic at Mossamedes, ii. 218.

  Gum Elemi, called “mubafo,” i. 206.

  Gun-loading by the natives, i. 141.

  Gypsum, ii. 16.


  H

  Habits and customs of natives in Angola, ii. 268.

  Hammock, description of, i. 163.

  Haricot-bean, i. 97.

  Head, mode of shaving the, i. 269.

  ----, “inhabitants” of the, trap for catching, and professional
   catchers, i. 269.

  Herva Santa Maria (_Chenopodium ambrosioides_), ii. 250.

  Hippopotami in the River Quanza, ii. 124.

  Hornbill, the, ii. 73.

  ---- (_Toccus elegans_ and _Toccus Monteiri_), at Benguella, ii. 201.

  Hot-spring at Dongo, ii. 162.

  _Hydnora_, a Rafflesiaceous plant, ii. 207.

  Hydraulic-press for baleing the baobab fibre, i. 125.

  Hyenas steal the author’s sheep, ii. 81;
    attacked by wolf-hounds, 225.


  I

  Import-duties, ii. 61.

  India-rubber creeper, description of, i. 31, 137.

  Indian-corn, i. 296.

  Indolence of the Bunda-speaking natives, ii. 100.

  Infundi, preparation, i. 288.

  Ink, ingredients of native, ii. 98.

  Insanity among the natives, i. 279.

  Iron-smelting at Cazengo, ii. 95.

  Ivory, i. 139.


  J

  Jasmine at Benguella, ii. 192.

  Jasminum auriculatum, ii. 5.

  ---- multipartitum, ii. 5.


  K

  Kew Gardens, author’s collection of plants in the herbarium at,
   i. 178.

  Kimpoaca, aversion of natives to the landing of hydraulic press,
   i. 126.

  King Parrot, where found, i. 53,

  Kingfishers, ii. 121.

  Kinsao, mineral pitch at, i. 150.


  L

  _Landolphia, florida?_ the tree-creeper that produces indiarubber, i.
   31, 137.

  Language of the different races, ii. 96.

  Lead ore, ii. 199.

  Leeches, abundance of, ii. 266.

  Lemur, _Galago Monteiri_, ii. 306.

  Libollo country, ii. 145.

  Libongo, ii. 9.

  Lions at Carunjamba, ii. 209.

  _Lissochilus giganteus_, found at Porto da Lenha, i. 82.

  Little Fish Bay, i. 23.

  Lizards, ii. 109.

  Loanda, cause for change of vegetation, i. 28;
    baptizing slaves at, 68.

  ----, death of a boy in market-place at, i. 72.

  ----, vegetation, ii. 18.

  ----, city of St. Paul de, ii. 20;
    population, 22;
    style of building, _ib._;
    market of, 25;
    custom of the ladies of, 33;
    dress of the people, 35;
    slavery in, 39;
    vegetation, 44;
    police of, 48;
    lighting of the city, _ib._;
    theatre at, _ib._;
    morals, _ib._

  Loangos or Loandos’ mats, i, 302.

  Lobato, Senhor, ii. 63.

  Lobito Bay, ii. 176.

  Loranthus, seed of, used as bird-lime, ii. 205.

  Luache river at Dombe Grande, i. 49.

  ----, quicksands at, ii. 197.


  M

  “Macotas,” or the council, i. 255.

  Maculo, a disease peculiar to blacks, its treatment, ii. 252.

  Malachite, ii. 161, 191.

  ----, how and where found, i. 191-195.

  Malagueta pepper, i. 294.

  Manatee, or woman-fish, ii. 17, 125.

  Mandioca plant, cultivation of, i. 287;
    preparation, 291, ii. 197.

  Mangrove tree, ii. 117.

  _Manis multiscutata_, ant-eating animal, ii. 278.

  Manoel Vacca, notorious pirate, i. 92.

  Maquata, the red gum-copal, i. 134.

  Maracachão bird (_Pytelia elegans_), ii. 205.

  Marble column at Santa Maria Cape, commemorating its discovery, ii.
   216.

  Marriage law of the natives, i. 264.

  Massangano town, ii. 128.

  Mateba palm, abundance of, from River Congo to Ambrizzette, i. 44.

  Matuta, change of scenery and vegetation, i. 29.

  ----, visit to, i. 199.

  Mineral pitch, i. 150.

  Mirage at Mossamedes, ii. 231.

  Mossamedes, i. 23, 27, 28.

  ---- (Little Fish Bay), ii. 217.

  ----, climate, society, &c., ii. 232.

  Mosquitoes, i. 167.

  Mourning of the natives, i. 277.

  Mucelis, i. 28.

  Mucoandos tribe, ii. 226.

  Mucozo river, i. 47, ii. 66.

  Mundombes, the inhabitants of Benguella, their clothing, vegetation,
   mode of eating meat, &c., ii. 186;
    their arms, 188.

  Muinzus or pestles, i. 304.

  Mule, dislike to being harnessed by a negro, i. 37.

  Muqueca, its ingredients, ii. 239.

  Muquices tribe, ii. 227.

  _Mus Gambianus_, ii. 168.

  Mushicongo negroes, customs of, i. 280;
    mode of building their huts, 284;
    furniture of the, _ib._

  Musical instruments of the natives, ii. 139.

  Mussera, town, i. 143.

  Mussurougo tribe, pirates, i. 92;
    ankle-rings worn by, 93;
    customs of, 280.

  Muxima town, ii. 122.

  Muxixe tree, i. 29.


  N

  Native remedies for diseases, ii. 263.

  Natives, custom of, in case of death, after the administration of
   medicine, or after the performance of an operation, i. 73;
    objection of to work for wages, 75;
    fear of at sight of a steamer, 125;
    customs of the, 257;
    bed-clothing, 266.

  Navigation of Rivers Dande, Bengo, &c., i. 47.

  Nborotuto shrub, ii. 70.

  Ncombo, or goat-root, used to flavour tobacco, ii. 270.

  _Nectariniæ_, i. 99.

  Negro cook making forcemeat balls, i. 36.

  Negro, insensibility of the, i. 69-75;
    ingratitude of the, 77;
    character of the, 238;
    absence of affection in the, 242;
    social laws of the, 242;
    absence of sympathy in the, 243;
    absence of cruelty in the, 245;
    “fetishes” of the, 246, 247;
    toilet of, 263;
    mode of shaving the head, 269.

  Negroes, odour of, i. 36;
    ankle-rings worn by, 94;
    customs of, 181.

  Ngilló, vegetable, i. 296.

  Novo Redondo, i. 28.

  ---- natives of, ii. 155-159.

  _Nymphœa dentata_ and _stellata_, water-lily, ii. 121.


  O

  Oil, dog-fish, ii. 207.

  Oil-palm at Bembe, i. 32.

  Ophthalmia, its rarity, ii. 258.

  Orange River, i. 27.

  Orchilla-weed, ii. 184.

  Ordeal by poison, i. 61.

  Ornaments of kings’ and macotas’ wives, i. 268.

  Ox-bird (_Buphaga Africana_), ii. 204.

  Oxen trained for riding, ii. 218.


  P

  Palm-chop, i. 97.

  ---- tree, mode of climbing, i. 97.

  ---- wine, i. 97.

  Panda or wattled crane (_Grus carunculata_), ii. 203.

  Paper-making, baobab-tree in its application to, i. 118.

  Papyrus, growth of, i. 302.

  Pedra grande, or “big stone,” ii. 221.

  _Pentalobus barbatus_, beetle, i. 146.

  Pepper, Chili, &c., i. 293.

  Picnic at Boma, visit of the nine kings, i. 87.

  Pirão, preparation, i. 291.

  Pitch, mineral, ii. 9.

  Plants used by natives for cure of dysentery or diarrhœa, ii. 252.

  Plaster-of-paris, manufactured by author from gypsum-rock, ii. 200.

  Polygamy among the natives, i. 263.

  Porcupines, ii. 297.

  Porto da Lenha, description of, i. 83.

  ---- Domingos, ii. 66.

  Potato, sweet, i. 296.

  Productions of Cazengo, ii. 105.

  Products from River Congo to Ambriz, i. 119-141.

  _Ptyelus olivaceus_, or spit-frog, ii. 108.

  Pungo Andongo range, description of scenery, i. 31.

  ----, natives of, ii. 102.

  Pungo fish, i. 142.

  Purgatives used by the natives, ii. 262.


  Q

  Quanza River, i. 47, ii. 113.

  “Queimada,” burning grass, description of, i. 39.

  Quiavo, or Quingombó, i. 297.

  Quiballa, i. 30;
    description of country, 171.

  ---- to Bembe, i. 181-187.

  Quifandongo, ii. 19.

  Quileba, copper at, ii. 191.

  Quilumbo, i. 185.

  Quinbundo natives, ii. 146.

  Quincollo, i. 236.

  Quindas or baskets, i. 301.

  Quingombe, i. 235.

  Quinine--fedegozo used as a substitute by Portuguese, ii. 249.

  Quioco bird, ii. 79.

  Quipupa, spring of ferruginous water at, ii. 196.

  Quiquanga, preparation, i. 289.

  Quirandas, shell-bead ornaments, ii. 169.

  Quissama country, ii. 144.

  ---- ladies, fashions of the, ii. 147.


  R

  Rain, fall of, i. 42.

  Rat-catching, i. 298.

  Rats, as food, i. 298;
    at Libongo, ii. 8.

  Root parasite, i. 198, ii. 207.


  S

  Salalé, or white ant, i. 299, ii. 277.

  Salt, i. 147.

  San Francisco River, ii. 196.

  San Salvador, i. 225.

  Sand-grouse--_Pterocles namaquus_, ii. 201.

  Sangue-sangue, tall grass, ii. 250.

  Sanseviera plant, i. 29, 45.

  Santa Maria Cape, ii. 214.

  Sarna, a kind of itch common among blacks, ii. 259.

  Scents, ii. 299.

  Scorpions, effects of their sting, ii. 170, 171.

  _Scopus umbretta_, heron-like bird, ii. 73.

  Senhor Chaves, i. 83;
    organizes a picnic, 87.

  _Sesamum indicum_ seed, i. 134.

  _Sesbania punctata_, Pers., shrub common in marshes, ii. 176.

  Sharks, absence of south of River Congo, i. 51.

  Silva, Mr. Augustus Archer, accompanies author to Quanza, ii.  112.

  Silver in Cambambe, ii. 62.

  Skin-disease, treatment of, ii. 261.

  Slave, author buys a, i. 77.

  Slaves shipped in Angola, statistics of, i. 67;
    treatment of in case of famine, 69;
    native laws regarding, 76;
    cost of, 205.

  Slave-trade, i. 56;
    explanation of in Angola, 58.

  ---- at Benguella, ii. 185.

  Slavery, i. 56;
    observance of laws, 59;
    witchcraft in, 61;
    ordeal by poison, _ib._;
    in Loanda, ii. 39;
    author’s views on abolition of, 41.

  Sleep-disease, i. 143;
    description of, 144.

  Snakes, ii. 300.

  Soba, a, visits the author, ii. 173.

  ---- Dumbo, formerly a powerful king, ii. 67.

  _Solanum saponaceum_, fruit of the, used as soap, ii. 111.

  Solé, bird, ii. 166.

  Sounds of birds, &c., i. 304.

  Sphynx moths, ii. 304.

  Spit-frog, the, ii. 108.

  Spring-bok, near Mossamedes, ii. 213.

  _Sterculia tomentosa_, i. 29.

  Sulphate of magnesia, ii. 220.

  Sulphur at Dombe Grande, ii. 197.

  Suspension-bridge at Novo Redondo, ii. 159.


  T

  “Tangandando,” india-rubber, i. 137.

  Tobacco, its efficacy for inflammation of bowels, ii. 263;
    its use by natives, 269.

  Toilet of the negro, i. 263.

  Trading between River Congo and Ambriz, i. 105.

  Traps to catch “inhabitants” of the head, i. 269.

  Travelling, mode of, i. 165.

  _Treron calva_, pigeon, ii. 164.

  Trial of a man for bewitching the spirit of his dead wife, i. 66.

  _Trionyx nilotica_, tortoise, ii. 125.

  _Turacus cristatus_, plantain-eater, ii. 86.


  U

  Uallua, drink, i. 300.

  Ulcers, native remedies for, ii. 253.

  Uzanzos, baskets or sieves, i. 304.

  Uzus, or mortars, i. 304.


  V

  Vegetables, growth of, at Bembe, i. 225.

  Vegetation of Angola, from Ambriz to Bembe, i. 29;
    from River Congo to Mossamedes, 43.

  Viuva, or long-tailed whydah-finch (_Vidua paradisea_), ii. 205.

  _Voandzeia subterranea_, ii. 111.

  Volcanic rocks, ii. 69, 220.


  W

  Wages of Englishmen in Africa, ii. 243.

  Water, mode of getting, in dry season, i. 43;
    finding of at Cambambe, 47;
    curious deposits of ii. 221.

  Watercress, ii. 93.

  Wasps, ii. 287, 291.

  _Welwitschia, mirabilis_, plant, ii. 229.

  White men, reception of, by king, i. 257.

  Wild-hemp smoking, ii. 257.

  Witchcraft at Ambrizzette, i. 65.

  Women’s work, i. 285.

  Writing, style of employed by natives, ii. 315.


  Z

  Zebras at Benguella, ii. 194.

  Zombo tribe, mode of dressing the hair, &c., i. 271.


  LONDON:
  PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
  STANFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.




Transcriber’s Notes

A few minor errors in punctuation were fixed.

“Sanseviera Angolensis” changed to “Sansevieria Angolensis” in a few
locations throughout the text.

The index has been copied from the second volume into the first,
although it is not present in the original.



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