In Crossing The Lombe,
My Ox Sinbad, In The Indulgence Of His Propensity To Strike Out A New Path
For
Himself, plunged overhead into a deep hole, and so soused me
that I was obliged to move on to dry
My clothing, without calling
on the Europeans who live on the bank. This I regretted,
for all the Portuguese were very kind, and, like the Boers
placed in similar circumstances, feel it a slight to be passed
without a word of salutation. But we went on to a spot
where orange-trees had been planted by the natives themselves,
and where abundance of that refreshing fruit was exposed for sale.
On entering the district of Ambaca, we found the landscape enlivened
by the appearance of lofty mountains in the distance,
the grass comparatively short, and the whole country at this time
looking gay and verdant. On our left we saw certain rocks of the same nature
with those of Pungo Andongo, and which closely resemble the Stonehenge group
on Salisbury Plain, only the stone pillars here are of gigantic size.
This region is all wonderfully fertile, famed for raising cattle,
and all kinds of agricultural produce, at a cheap rate. The soil contains
sufficient ferruginous matter, to impart a red tinge to nearly
the whole of it. It is supplied with a great number of little flowing streams
which unite in the Lucalla. This river drains Ambaca,
then falls into the Coanza to the southwest at Massangano.
We crossed the Lucalla by means of a large canoe kept there by a man
who farms the ferry from the government, and charges about a penny per head.
A few miles beyond the Lucalla we came to the village of Ambaca,
an important place in former times, but now a mere paltry village,
beautifully situated on a little elevation in a plain surrounded on all hands
by lofty mountains.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 576 of 1070
Words from 164952 to 165268
of 306638
