Great Quantities Of Soil
Are Also Washed In The Rainy Season From The Heights Above The City,
So That The
Port, which once contained water sufficient to float
the largest ships close to the custom-house, is now at low
Water dry.
The ships are compelled to anchor about a mile north of their old station.
Nearly all the water consumed in Loanda is brought from the River Bengo
by means of launches, the only supply that the city affords
being from some deep wells of slightly brackish water.
Unsuccessful attempts have been made by different governors to finish a canal,
which the Dutch, while in possession of Loanda during the seven years
preceding 1648, had begun, to bring water from the River Coanza to the city.
There is not a single English merchant at Loanda, and only two American.
This is the more remarkable, as nearly all the commerce is carried on
by means of English calico brought hither via Lisbon.
Several English houses attempted to establish a trade about 1845,
and accepted bills on Rio de Janeiro in payment for their goods,
but the increased activity of our cruisers had such an effect
upon the mercantile houses of that city that most of them failed.
The English merchants lost all, and Loanda got a bad name
in the commercial world in consequence.
One of the arrangements of the custom-house may have had some influence
in preventing English trade. Ships coming here must be consigned to some one
on the spot; the consignee receives one hundred dollars per mast,
and he generally makes a great deal more for himself by putting a percentage
on boats and men hired for loading and unloading, and on every item
that passes through his hands.
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