Leaving Malange, We Passed Quickly, Without Deviation, Along The Path
By Which We Had Come.
At Sanza (lat.
9d 37' 46" S., long. 16d 59' E.)
we expected to get a little seed-wheat, but this was not now to be found
in Angola. The underlying rock of the whole of this section
is that same sandstone which we have before noticed, but it gradually
becomes finer in the grain, with the addition of a little mica,
the farther we go eastward; we enter upon clay shale at Tala Mungongo
(lat. 9d 42' 37" S., long. 17d 27' E.), and find it dipping
a little to the west. The general geological structure
is a broad fringe of mica and sandstone schist (about 15 Deg. E.),
dipping in toward the centre of the country, beneath these
horizontal and sedimentary rocks of more recent date, which form
an inland basin. The fringe is not, however, the highest in altitude,
though the oldest in age.
While at this latter place we met a native of Bihe who has visited
the country of Shinte three times for the purposes of trade. He gave us
some of the news of that distant part, but not a word of the Makololo,
who have always been represented in the countries to the north
as a desperately savage race, whom no trader could visit with safety.
The half-caste traders whom we met at Shinte's had returned to Angola
with sixty-six slaves and upward of fifty tusks of ivory.
As we came along the path, we daily met long lines of carriers
bearing large square masses of beeswax, each about a hundred pounds weight,
and numbers of elephants' tusks, the property of Angolese merchants.
Many natives were proceeding to the coast also on their own account,
carrying beeswax, ivory, and sweet oil.
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