The Above Was Put Down In My Journal
When I Had No Idea That Enlarged Supplies Of Cotton From New Sources
Were So Much Needed At Home.
It is common to cut down cotton-trees as a nuisance, and cultivate beans,
potatoes, and manioc sufficient only
For their own consumption.
I have the impression that cotton, which is deciduous in America,
is perennial here; for the plants I saw in winter were not dead,
though going by the name Algodao Americana, or American cotton.
The rents paid for gardens belonging to the old convents are merely nominal,
varying from one shilling to three pounds per annum. The higher rents
being realized from those in the immediate vicinity of Loanda,
none but Portuguese or half-castes can pay them.
When about to start, the horse which the governor had kindly presented
for Sekeletu was seized with inflammation, which delayed us some time longer,
and we ultimately lost it. We had been careful to watch it when coming
through the district of Matamba, where we had discovered the tsetse,
that no insect might light upon it. The change of diet here may have had
some influence in producing the disease; for I was informed by Dr. Welweitsch,
an able German naturalist, whom we found pursuing his arduous labors here,
and whose life we hope may be spared to give his researches to the world,
that, of fifty-eight kinds of grasses found at Loanda,
only three or four species exist here, and these of the most diminutive kinds.
The twenty-four different species of grass of Golungo Alto are
nearly all gigantic. Indeed, gigantic grasses, climbers, shrubs and trees,
with but few plants, constitute the vegetation of this region.
NOVEMBER 20TH. An eclipse of the sun, which I had anxiously
hoped to observe with a view of determining the longitude,
happened this morning, and, as often took place in this cloudy climate,
the sun was covered four minutes before it began. When it shone forth
the eclipse was in progress, and a few minutes before it should
(according to my calculations) have ended the sun was again
completely obscured. The greatest patience and perseverance are required,
if one wishes to ascertain his position when it is the rainy season.
Before leaving, I had an opportunity of observing a curious insect,
which inhabits trees of the fig family (`Ficus'), upward of twenty species
of which are found here. Seven or eight of them cluster round a spot
on one of the smaller branches, and there keep up a constant distillation
of a clear fluid, which, dropping to the ground, forms a little puddle below.
If a vessel is placed under them in the evening, it contains
three or four pints of fluid in the morning. The natives say that,
if a drop falls into the eyes, it causes inflammation of these organs.
To the question whence is this fluid derived, the people reply
that the insects suck it out of the tree, and our own naturalists
give the same answer.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 334 of 572
Words from 178366 to 178872
of 306638
