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.
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