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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