We Left Golungo Alto On The 24th Of May, The Winter In These Parts.
Every Evening Clouds Come Rolling In Great Masses Over The Mountains
In The West, And Pealing Thunder Accompanies The Fall Of Rain During The Night
Or Early In The Morning.
The clouds generally remain on the hills
till the morning is well spent, so that we become familiar with morning mists,
a thing we never once saw at Kolobeng.
The thermometer stands at 80 Degrees
by day, but sinks as low as 76 Degrees by night.
In going westward we crossed several fine little gushing streams
which never dry. They unite in the Luinha (pronounced Lueenya) and Lucalla.
As they flow over many little cascades, they might easily be turned
to good account, but they are all allowed to run on idly to the ocean.
We passed through forests of gigantic timber, and at an open space
named Cambondo, about eight miles from Golungo Alto,
found numbers of carpenters converting these lofty trees into planks,
in exactly the same manner as was followed by the illustrious Robinson Crusoe.
A tree of three or four feet in diameter, and forty or fifty feet
up to the nearest branches, was felled. It was then cut
into lengths of a few feet, and split into thick junks, which again
were reduced to planks an inch thick by persevering labor with the axe.
The object of the carpenters was to make little chests,
and they drive a constant trade in them at Cambondo. When finished
with hinges, lock, and key, all of their own manufacture,
one costs only a shilling and eightpence. My men were so delighted with them
that they carried several of them on their heads all the way to Linyanti.
At Trombeta we were pleased to observe a great deal of taste
displayed by the sub-commandant in the laying out of his ground
and adornment of his house with flowers. This trifling incident
was the more pleasing, as it was the first attempt at neatness I had seen
since leaving the establishment of Mozinkwa in Londa. Rows of trees had been
planted along each side of the road, with pine-apples and flowers between.
This arrangement I had an opportunity of seeing in several other districts
of this country, for there is no difficulty in raising any plant or tree
if it is only kept from being choked by weeds.
This gentleman had now a fine estate, which but a few years ago was a forest,
and cost him only 16 Pounds. He had planted about 900 coffee-trees upon it,
and as these begin to yield in three years from being planted,
and in six attain their maximum, I have no doubt but that ere now
his 16 Pounds yields him sixty fold. All sorts of fruit-trees and grape-vines
yield their fruit twice in each year, without any labor or irrigation
being bestowed on them. All grains and vegetables, if only sown, do the same;
and if advantage is taken of the mists of winter, even three crops of pulse
may be raised. Cotton was now standing in the pods in his fields,
and he did not seem to care about it. I understood him to say
that this last plant flourishes, but the wet of one of the two rainy seasons
with which this country is favored sometimes proves troublesome to the grower.
I am not aware whether wheat has ever been tried, but I saw
both figs and grapes bearing well. The great complaint of all cultivators
is the want of a good road to carry their produce to market.
Here all kinds of food are remarkably cheap.
Farther on we left the mountainous country, and, as we descended toward
the west coast, saw the lands assuming a more sterile, uninviting aspect.
On our right ran the River Senza, which nearer the sea takes
the name of Bengo. It is about fifty yards broad, and navigable for canoes.
The low plains adjacent to its banks are protected from inundation
by embankments, and the population is entirely occupied
in raising food and fruits for exportation to Loanda by means of canoes.
The banks are infested by myriads of the most ferocious mosquitoes I ever met.
Not one of our party could get a snatch of sleep. I was taken into
the house of a Portuguese, but was soon glad to make my escape
and lie across the path on the lee side of the fire, where the smoke
blew over my body. My host wondered at my want of taste,
and I at his want of feeling; for, to our astonishment,
he and the other inhabitants had actually become used to what was at least
equal to a nail through the heel of one's boot, or the tooth-ache.
As we were now drawing near to the sea, my companions were
looking at every thing in a serious light. One of them asked me
if we should all have an opportunity of watching each other at Loanda.
"Suppose one went for water, would the others see if he were kidnapped?"
I replied, "I see what you are driving at; and if you suspect me,
you may return, for I am as ignorant of Loanda as you are;
but nothing will happen to you but what happens to myself.
We have stood by each other hitherto, and will do so to the last."
The plains adjacent to Loanda are somewhat elevated and comparatively sterile.
On coming across these we first beheld the sea: my companions looked upon
the boundless ocean with awe. On describing their feelings afterward,
they remarked that "we marched along with our father,
believing that what the ancients had always told us was true,
that the world has no end; but all at once the world said to us,
`I am finished; there is no more of me!'" They had always imagined
that the world was one extended plain without limit.
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