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.
They were now somewhat apprehensive of suffering want, and I was unable
to allay their fears with any promise of supply, for my own mind was depressed
by disease and care.
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