Many Climbing Plants Run Up The Lofty Silk, Cotton, And Baobab Trees,
And Hang Their Beautiful Flowers In Gay Festoons
On the branches.
As we approach Massangano, the land on both banks of the Lucalla becomes
very level, and large
Portions are left marshy after the annual floods;
but all is very fertile. As an illustration of the strength of the soil,
I may state that we saw tobacco-plants in gardens near the confluence
eight feet high, and each plant had thirty-six leaves,
which were eighteen inches long by six or eight inches broad.
But it is not a pastoral district. In our descent we observed the tsetse,
and consequently the people had no domestic animals save goats.
We found the town of Massangano on a tongue of rather high land,
formed by the left bank of the Lucalla and right bank of the Coanza,
and received true Portuguese hospitality from Senhor Lubata.
The town has more than a thousand inhabitants; the district has 28,063,
with only 315 slaves. It stands on a mound of calcareous tufa,
containing great numbers of fossil shells, the most recent of which
resemble those found in the marly tufa close to the coast.
The fort stands on the south side of the town, on a high perpendicular bank
overhanging the Coanza. This river is here a noble stream,
about a hundred and fifty yards wide, admitting navigation in large canoes
from the bar at its mouth to Cambambe, some thirty miles above this town.
There, a fine waterfall hinders farther ascent.
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