We Met Numbers Of Mambari On Their Way Back To Bihe.
Some of them
had belonged to the parties which had penetrated as far as Linyanti,
and foolishly showed their displeasure at the prospect of the Makololo
preferring to go to the coast markets themselves to intrusting them
with their ivory.
The Mambari repeated the tale of the mode in which
the white men are said to trade. "The ivory is left on the shore
in the evening, and next morning the seller finds a quantity of goods
placed there in its stead by the white men who live in the sea."
"Now," added they to my men, "how can you Makololo trade with these `Mermen'?
Can you enter into the sea, and tell them to come ashore?"
It was remarkable to hear this idea repeated so near the sea as we now were.
My men replied that they only wanted to see for themselves;
and, as they were now getting some light on the nature of the trade
carried on by the Mambari, they were highly amused on perceiving
the reasons why the Mambari would rather have met them on the Zambesi
than so near the sea-coast.
There is something so exhilarating to one of Highland blood in being
near or on high mountains, that I forgot my fever as we wended our way among
the lofty tree-covered masses of mica schist which form the highlands around
the romantic residence of the chefe of Golungo Alto. (Lat. 9d 8' 30" S.,
long. 15d 2' E.) The whole district is extremely beautiful.
The hills are all bedecked with trees of various hues of foliage,
and among them towers the graceful palm, which yields the oil of commerce
for making our soaps, and the intoxicating toddy. Some clusters of hills
look like the waves of the sea driven into a narrow open bay, and have assumed
the same form as if, when all were chopping up perpendicularly,
they had suddenly been congealed. The cottages of the natives,
perched on the tops of many of the hillocks, looked as if the owners
possessed an eye for the romantic, but they were probably influenced more
by the desire to overlook their gardens, and keep their families
out of the reach of the malaria, which is supposed to prevail most
on the banks of the numerous little streams which run among the hills.
We were most kindly received by the commandant, Lieutenant Antonio
Canto e Castro, a young gentleman whose whole subsequent conduct
will ever make me regard him with great affection. Like every other
person of intelligence whom I had met, he lamented deeply
the neglect with which this fine country has been treated.
This district contained by the last census 26,000 hearths or fires;
and if to each hearth we reckon four souls, we have a population of 104,000.
The number of carregadores (carriers) who may be ordered out
at the pleasure of government to convey merchandise to the coast
is in this district alone about 6000, yet there is no good road in existence.
This system of compulsory carriage of merchandise was adopted
in consequence of the increase in numbers and activity of our cruisers,
which took place in 1845. Each trader who went, previous to that year,
into the interior, in the pursuit of his calling, proceeded on the plan
of purchasing ivory and beeswax, and a sufficient number of slaves to carry
these commodities. The whole were intended for exportation as soon as
the trader reached the coast. But when the more stringent measures of 1845
came into operation, and rendered the exportation of slaves almost impossible,
there being no roads proper for the employment of wheel conveyances,
this new system of compulsory carriage of ivory and beeswax to the coast
was resorted to by the government of Loanda. A trader who requires
two or three hundred carriers to convey his merchandise to the coast
now applies to the general government for aid. An order is sent
to the commandant of a district to furnish the number required.
Each head man of the villages to whom the order is transmitted
must furnish from five to twenty or thirty men, according to the proportion
that his people bear to the entire population of the district.
For this accommodation the trader must pay a tax to the government
of 1000 reis, or about three shillings per load carried.
The trader is obliged to pay the carrier also the sum of 50 reis,
or about twopence a day, for his sustenance. And as a day's journey
is never more than from eight to ten miles, the expense which must be incurred
for this compulsory labor is felt to be heavy by those who were accustomed
to employ slave labor alone. Yet no effort has been made to form
a great line of road for wheel carriages. The first great want of a country
has not been attended to, and no development of its vast resources
has taken place. The fact, however, of a change from one system of carriage
to another, taken in connection with the great depreciation in
the price of slaves near this coast, proves the effectiveness of our efforts
at repressing the slave-trade on the ocean.
The latitude of Golungo Alto, as observed at the residence of the commandant,
was 9d 8' 30" S., longitude 15d 2' E. A few days' rest
with this excellent young man enabled me to regain much of my strength,
and I could look with pleasure on the luxuriant scenery before his door.
We were quite shut in among green hills, many of which were cultivated
up to their tops with manioc, coffee, cotton, ground-nuts, bananas,
pine-apples, guavas, papaws, custard-apples, pitangas, and jambos,
fruits brought from South America by the former missionaries. The high hills
all around, with towering palms on many points, made this spot appear
more like the Bay of Rio de Janeiro in miniature than any scene I ever saw;
and all who have seen that confess it to be unequaled in the world beside.
The fertility evident in every spot of this district was quite marvelous
to behold, but I shall reserve further notices of this region
till our return from Loanda.
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