This Fine River
Flows Among Extensive Meadows Clothed With Gigantic Grass And Reeds,
And In A Direction Nearly North.
The Quango is said by the natives to contain many venomous water-snakes,
which congregate near the carcass of any hippopotamus
that may be killed in it.
If this is true, it may account
for all the villages we saw being situated far from its banks.
We were advised not to sleep near it; but, as we were anxious
to cross to the western side, we tried to induce some of the Bashinje
to lend us canoes for the purpose. This brought out the chief of these parts,
who informed us that all the canoe-men were his children,
and nothing could be done without his authority. He then made
the usual demand for a man, an ox, or a gun, adding that otherwise
we must return to the country from which we had come. As I did not believe
that this man had any power over the canoes of the other side, and suspected
that if I gave him my blanket - the only thing I now had in reserve -
he might leave us in the lurch after all, I tried to persuade my men to go
at once to the bank, about two miles off, and obtain possession of the canoes
before we gave up the blanket; but they thought that this chief
might attack us in the act of crossing, should we do so.
The chief came himself to our encampment and made his demand again.
My men stripped off the last of their copper rings and gave them;
but he was still intent on a man. He thought, as others did,
that my men were slaves. He was a young man, with his woolly hair
elaborately dressed: that behind was made up into a cone, about eight inches
in diameter at the base, carefully swathed round with red and black thread.
As I resisted the proposal to deliver up my blanket until they had placed us
on the western bank, this chief continued to worry us with his demands
till I was tired. My little tent was now in tatters,
and having a wider hole behind than the door in front, I tried in vain
to lie down out of sight of our persecutors. We were on a reedy flat,
and could not follow our usual plan of a small stockade,
in which we had time to think over and concoct our plans. As I was trying
to persuade my men to move on to the bank in spite of these people,
a young half-caste Portuguese sergeant of militia, Cypriano di Abreu,
made his appearance, and gave the same advice. He had come across the Quango
in search of bees'-wax. When we moved off from the chief
who had been plaguing us, his people opened a fire from our sheds,
and continued to blaze away some time in the direction we were going,
but none of the bullets reached us. It is probable that
they expected a demonstration of the abundance of ammunition they possessed
would make us run; but when we continued to move quietly to the ford,
they proceeded no farther than our sleeping-place. Cypriano assisted us
in making a more satisfactory arrangement with the ferrymen
than parting with my blanket; and as soon as we reached the opposite bank
we were in the territory of the Bangala, who are subjects of the Portuguese,
and often spoken of as the Cassanges or Cassantse; and happily
all our difficulties with the border tribes were at an end.
Passing with light hearts through the high grass by a narrow footpath
for about three miles to the west of the river, we came to
several neat square houses, with many cleanly-looking half-caste Portuguese
standing in front of them to salute us. They are all enrolled in the militia,
and our friend Cypriano is the commander of a division established here.
The Bangala were very troublesome to the Portuguese traders,
and at last proceeded so far as to kill one of them; the government of Angola
then sent an expedition against them, which being successful, the Bangala
were dispersed, and are now returning to their former abodes as vassals.
The militia are quartered among them, and engage in trade and agriculture
for their support, as no pay is given to this branch of the service
by the government.
We came to the dwelling of Cypriano after dark, and I pitched my little tent
in front of it for the night. We had the company of mosquitoes here.
We never found them troublesome on the banks of the pure streams of Londa.
On the morning of the 5th Cypriano generously supplied my men
with pumpkins and maize, and then invited me to breakfast, which consisted of
ground-nuts and roasted maize, then boiled manioc roots and ground-nuts,
with guavas and honey as a dessert. I felt sincerely grateful
for this magnificent breakfast.
At dinner Cypriano was equally bountiful, and several of his friends
joined us in doing justice to his hospitality. Before eating,
all had water poured on the hands by a female slave to wash them.
One of the guests cut up a fowl with a knife and fork.
Neither forks nor spoons were used in eating. The repast was partaken of
with decency and good manners, and concluded by washing the hands as at first.
All of them could read and write with ease. I examined the books
they possessed, and found a small work on medicine, a small cyclopaedia,
and a Portuguese dictionary, in which the definition of a "priest" seemed
strange to a Protestant, namely, "one who takes care of the conscience."
They had also a few tracts containing the Lives of the Saints,
and Cypriano had three small wax images of saints in his room. One of these
was St. Anthony, who, had he endured the privations he did in his cell
in looking after these lost sheep, would have lived to better purpose.
Neither Cypriano nor his companions knew what the Bible was,
but they had relics in German-silver cases hung round their necks,
to act as charms and save them from danger by land or by water,
in the same way as the heathen have medicines.
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