It Has A Jail, And A Good House For The Commandant,
But Neither Fort Nor Church, Though The Ruins Of A Place Of Worship
Are Still Standing.
We were most kindly received by the commandant of Ambaca, Arsenio de Carpo,
who spoke a little English.
He recommended wine for my debility,
and here I took the first glass of that beverage I had taken in Africa.
I felt much refreshed, and could then realize and meditate on
the weakening effects of the fever. They were curious even to myself;
for, though I had tried several times since we left Ngio
to take lunar observations, I could not avoid confusion of time and distance,
neither could I hold the instrument steady, nor perform a simple calculation;
hence many of the positions of this part of the route were left till my return
from Loanda. Often, on getting up in the mornings, I found my clothing
as wet from perspiration as if it had been dipped in water.
In vain had I tried to learn or collect words of the Bunda, or dialect spoken
in Angola. I forgot the days of the week and the names of my companions,
and, had I been asked, I probably could not have told my own.
The complaint itself occupied many of my thoughts. One day I supposed that
I had got the true theory of it, and would certainly cure the next attack,
whether in myself or companions; but some new symptoms would appear,
and scatter all the fine speculations which had sprung up,
with extraordinary fertility, in one department of my brain.
This district is said to contain upward of 40,000 souls.
Some ten or twelve miles to the north of the village of Ambaca there once
stood the missionary station of Cahenda, and it is now quite astonishing
to observe the great numbers who can read and write in this district.
This is the fruit of the labors of the Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries,
for they taught the people of Ambaca; and ever since
the expulsion of the teachers by the Marquis of Pombal,
the natives have continued to teach each other. These devoted men
are still held in high estimation throughout the country to this day.
All speak well of them (os padres Jesuitas); and, now that they are gone
from this lower sphere, I could not help wishing that these
our Roman Catholic fellow-Christians had felt it to be their duty
to give the people the Bible, to be a light to their feet
when the good men themselves were gone.
When sleeping in the house of the commandant, an insect,
well known in the southern country by the name Tampan, bit my foot.
It is a kind of tick, and chooses by preference the parts
between the fingers or toes for inflicting its bite. It is seen
from the size of a pin's head to that of a pea, and is common
in all the native huts in this country. It sucks the blood until quite full,
and is then of a dark blue color, and its skin so tough and yielding
that it is impossible to burst it by any amount of squeezing with the fingers.
I had felt the effects of its bite in former years, and eschewed
all native huts ever after; but as I was here again assailed
in a European house, I shall detail the effects of the bite.
These are a tingling sensation of mingled pain and itching,
which commences ascending the limb until the poison imbibed
reaches the abdomen, where it soon causes violent vomiting and purging.
Where these effects do not follow, as we found afterward at Tete,
fever sets in; and I was assured by intelligent Portuguese there
that death has sometimes been the result of this fever.
The anxiety my friends at Tete manifested to keep my men
out of the reach of the tampans of the village made it evident
that they had seen cause to dread this insignificant insect.
The only inconvenience I afterward suffered from this bite
was the continuance of the tingling sensation in the point bitten
for about a week.
MAY 12TH. As we were about to start this morning, the commandant,
Senhor Arsenio, provided bread and meat most bountifully for my use
on the way to the next station, and sent two militia soldiers as guides,
instead of our Cassange corporal, who left us here. About midday
we asked for shelter from the sun in the house of Senhor Mellot, at Zangu,
and, though I was unable to sit and engage in conversation,
I found, on rising from his couch, that he had at once proceeded
to cook a fowl for my use; and at parting he gave me a glass of wine,
which prevented the violent fit of shivering I expected that afternoon.
The universal hospitality of the Portuguese was most gratifying,
as it was quite unexpected; and even now, as I copy my journal,
I remember it all with a glow of gratitude.
We spent Sunday, the 14th of May, at Cabinda, which is one of the stations
of the sub-commandants, who are placed at different points
in each district of Angola as assistants of the head-commandant, or chefe.
It is situated in a beautiful glen, and surrounded by plantations
of bananas and manioc. The country was gradually becoming more picturesque
the farther we proceeded west. The ranges of lofty blue mountains of Libollo,
which, in coming toward Ambaca, we had seen thirty or forty miles
to our south, were now shut from our view by others nearer at hand,
and the gray ranges of Cahenda and Kiwe, which, while we were in Ambaca,
stood clearly defined eight or ten miles off to the north, were now close
upon our right. As we looked back toward the open pastoral country of Ambaca,
the broad green gently undulating plains seemed in a hollow
surrounded on all sides by rugged mountains, and as we went westward
we were entering upon quite a wild-looking mountainous district,
called Golungo Alto.
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