Shinte, However, Sent A Recommendation
To His Sister Nyamoana To Furnish As Many Canoes As We Should Need
For Our Descent Of The Leeba And Leeambye.
As I had been desirous of introducing some of the fruit-trees of Angola,
both for my own sake
And that of the inhabitants, we had carried
a pot containing a little plantation of orange, cashew-trees,
custard-apple-trees (`anona'), and a fig-tree, with coffee,
aracas (`Araca pomifera'), and papaws (`Carica papaya'). Fearing that,
if we took them farther south at present, they might be killed by the cold,
we planted them out in an inclosure of one of Shinte's principal men,
and, at his request, promised to give Shinte a share when grown.
They know the value of fruits, but at present have none except wild ones.
A wild fruit we frequently met with in Londa is eatable,
and, when boiled, yields a large quantity of oil, which is much used
in anointing both head and body. He eagerly accepted
some of the seeds of the palm-oil-tree (`Elaeis Guineensis'),
when told that this would produce oil in much greater quantity
than their native tree, which is not a palm. There are very few palm-trees
in this country, but near Bango we saw a few of a peculiar palm,
the ends of the leaf-stalks of which remain attached to the trunk,
giving it a triangular shape.
It is pleasant to observe that all the tribes in Central Africa
are fond of agriculture. My men had collected quantities of seeds in Angola,
and now distributed them among their friends. Some even carried onions,
garlic, and bird's-eye pepper, growing in pannikins. The courts
of the Balonda, planted with tobacco, sugar-cane, and plants used as relishes,
led me to the belief that care would be taken of my little nursery.
The thermometer early in the mornings ranged from 42 Deg. to 52 Deg.,
at noon 94 Deg. to 96 Deg., and in the evening about 70 Deg. It was placed
in the shade of my tent, which was pitched under the thickest tree
we could find. The sensation of cold, after the heat of the day,
was very keen. The Balonda at this season never leave their fires
till nine or ten in the morning. As the cold was so great here,
it was probably frosty at Linyanti; I therefore feared
to expose my young trees there. The latitude of Shinte's town
is 12d 37' 35" S., longitude 22d 47' E.
We remained with Shinte till the 6th of July, he being unwilling
to allow us to depart before hearing in a formal manner,
in the presence of his greatest councilor Chebende, a message from Limboa,
the brother of Masiko. When Masiko fled from the Makololo country
in consequence of a dislike of being in a state of subjection to Sebituane,
he came into the territory of Shinte, who received him kindly,
and sent orders to all the villages in his vicinity to supply him with food.
Limboa fled in a westerly direction with a number of people,
and also became a chief.
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