It Is A Pity That The Church
To Which They Belong, When Unable To Attend To The Wants Of Her
Children,
does not give them the sacred writings in their own tongue;
it would surely be better to see them
Good Protestants, if these
would lead them to be so, than entirely ignorant of God's message to man.
For my part, I would much prefer to see the Africans good Roman Catholics
than idolatrous heathen.
Much of the civility shown to us here was, no doubt, owing to the flattering
letters of recommendation I carried from the Chevalier Du Prat, of Cape Town;
but I am inclined to believe that my friend Cypriano was influenced, too,
by feelings of genuine kindness, for he quite bared his garden
in feeding us during the few days which I remained, anxiously expecting
the clouds to disperse, so far as to allow of my taking observations for
the determination of the position of the Quango. He slaughtered an ox for us,
and furnished his mother and her maids with manioc roots,
to prepare farina for the four or five days of our journey to Cassange,
and never even hinted at payment. My wretched appearance must have excited
his compassion. The farina is prepared by washing the roots well,
then rasping them down to a pulp. Next, this is roasted slightly
on a metal plate over a fire, and is then used with meat as a vegetable.
It closely resembles wood-sawings, and on that account is named "wood-meal".
It is insipid, and employed to lick up any gravy remaining on one's plate.
Those who have become accustomed to it relish it even after they have returned
to Europe.
The manioc cultivated here is of the sweet variety; the bitter,
to which we were accustomed in Londa, is not to be found very extensively
in this fertile valley. May is the beginning of winter,
yet many of the inhabitants were busy planting maize;
that which we were now eating was planted in the beginning of February.
The soil is exceedingly fertile, of a dark red color,
and covered with such a dense, heavy crop of coarse grass,
that when a marauding party of Ambonda once came for plunder
while it was in a dried state, the Bangala encircled the common enemy
with a fire which completely destroyed them. This, which is related
on the authority of Portuguese who were then in the country,
I can easily believe to be true, for the stalks of the grass
are generally as thick as goose-quills, and no flight could be made
through the mass of grass in any direction where a footpath does not exist.
Probably, in the case mentioned, the direction of the wind was such
as to drive the flames across the paths, and prevent escape along them.
On one occasion I nearly lost my wagon by fire, in a valley where the grass
was only about three feet high. We were roused by the roar, as of a torrent,
made by the fire coming from the windward. I immediately set fire
to that on our leeward, and had just time to drag the wagon
on to the bare space there before the windward flames reached the place
where it had stood.
We were detained by rains and a desire to ascertain our geographical position
till Monday, the 10th, and only got the latitude 9d 50' S.;
and, after three days' pretty hard traveling through the long grass,
reached Cassange, the farthest inland station of the Portuguese
in Western Africa. We crossed several fine little streams
running into the Quango; and as the grass continued to tower
about two feet over our heads, it generally obstructed our view
of the adjacent country, and sometimes hung over the path,
making one side of the body wet with the dew every morning,
or, when it rained, kept me wet during the whole day. I made my entrance
in a somewhat forlorn state as to clothing among our Portuguese allies.
The first gentleman I met in the village asked if I had a passport,
and said it was necessary to take me before the authorities.
As I was in the same state of mind in which individuals are who commit
a petty depredation in order to obtain the shelter and food of a prison,
I gladly accompanied him to the house of the commandant or Chefe,
Senhor de Silva Rego. Having shown my passport to this gentleman,
he politely asked me to supper, and, as we had eaten nothing
except the farina of Cypriano from the Quango to this, I suspect I appeared
particularly ravenous to the other gentlemen around the table.
They seemed, however, to understand my position pretty well,
from having all traveled extensively themselves; had they not been present,
I might have put some in my pocket to eat by night; for, after fever,
the appetite is excessively keen, and manioc is one of the most unsatisfying
kinds of food. Captain Antonio Rodrigues Neves then kindly invited me
to take up my abode in his house. Next morning this generous man arrayed me
in decent clothing, and continued during the whole period of my stay
to treat me as if I had been his brother. I feel deeply grateful to him
for his disinterested kindness. He not only attended to my wants,
but also furnished food for my famishing party free of charge.
The village of Cassange (pronounced Kassanje) is composed of
thirty or forty traders' houses, scattered about without any regularity,
on an elevated flat spot in the great Quango or Cassange valley.
They are built of wattle and daub, and surrounded by plantations of manioc,
maize, etc. Behind them there are usually kitchen gardens,
in which the common European vegetables, as potatoes, peas, cabbages,
onions, tomatoes, etc., etc., grow. Guavas and bananas appear,
from the size and abundance of the trees, to have been introduced
many years ago, while the land was still in the possession of the natives;
but pine-apples, orange, fig, and cashew trees have but lately been tried.
There are about forty Portuguese traders in this district,
all of whom are officers in the militia, and many of them have become rich
from adopting the plan of sending out Pombeiros, or native traders, with large
quantities of goods, to trade in the more remote parts of the country.
Some of the governors of Loanda, the capital of this, the kingdom of Angola,
have insisted on the observance of a law which, from motives of humanity,
forbids the Portuguese themselves from passing beyond the boundary.
They seem to have taken it for granted that, in cases where
the white trader was killed, the aggression had been made by him,
and they wished to avoid the necessity of punishing those who had been
provoked to shed Portuguese blood.
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