The Fact Of Other Avenues Of Wealth Opening Up So Readily
Seems Like A Providential Invitation To Forsake The Slave-Trade
And Engage In Lawful Commerce.
We saw the female population occupied,
as usual, in the spinning of cotton and cultivation of their lands.
Their only instrument for culture is a double-handled hoe, which is worked
with a sort of dragging motion.
Many of the men were employed in weaving.
The latter appear to be less industrious than the former, for they require
a month to finish a single web. There is, however, not much inducement
to industry, for, notwithstanding the time consumed in its manufacture,
each web is sold for only two shillings.
On returning to Golungo Alto I found several of my men laid up with fever.
One of the reasons for my leaving them there was that they might recover
from the fatigue of the journey from Loanda, which had much more effect
upon their feet than hundreds of miles had on our way westward.
They had always been accustomed to moisture in their own well-watered land,
and we certainly had a superabundance of that in Loanda. The roads, however,
from Loanda to Golungo Alto were both hard and dry, and they suffered severely
in consequence; yet they were composing songs to be sung
when they should reach home. The Argonauts were nothing to them;
and they remarked very impressively to me, "It was well you came
with Makololo, for no tribe could have done what we have accomplished
in coming to the white man's country:
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