Having, through the kindness of Colonel Pires,
reproduced some of my lost papers, I left Pungo Andongo
the first day of this year, and at Candumba, slept in
one of the dairy establishments of my friend, who had sent forward orders
for an ample supply of butter, cheese, and milk.
Our path lay along
the right bank of the Coanza. This is composed of the same sandstone rock,
with pebbles, which forms the flooring of the country. The land is level,
has much open forest, and is well adapted for pasturage.
On reaching the confluence of the Lombe, we left the river,
and proceeded in a northeasterly direction, through a fine open green country,
to the village of Malange, where we struck into our former path.
A few miles to the west of this a path branches off to a new district named
the Duke Braganza. This path crosses the Lucalla and several of its feeders.
The whole of the country drained by these is described as extremely fertile.
The territory west of Braganza is reported to be mountainous,
well wooded and watered; wild coffee is abundant, and the people
even make their huts of coffee-trees. The rivers Dande, Senza, and Lucalla
are said to rise in one mountain range. Numerous tribes inhabit the country
to the north, who are all independent. The Portuguese power
extends chiefly over the tribes through whose lands we have passed.
It may be said to be firmly seated only between the rivers Dande and Coanza.
It extends inland about three hundred miles to the River Quango;
and the population, according to the imperfect data afforded by the census,
given annually by the commandants of the fifteen or sixteen districts
into which it is divided, can not be under 600,000 souls.
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