Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 4/Chapter 1
THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS.
SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA.
CHAPTER I.
ANGOLA.
VER since the Portuguese navigators penetrated beyond the equator into the southern waters, or at least since the year 1485, when Diego Cam set up the stone at the mouth of the Congo indicating the formal possession of the land south of that estuary, the portion of the African seaboard extending southwards from the Congo has b(en regarded as belonging to the crown of Portugal. Since the year 1574, when a small Lusitanian colony was established in the island of Loanda, the relations between Lisbon and Angola have never been interrupted. This first section of the coast was originally occupied by seven hundred men commanded by Paul Diaz, grandson of the pioneer who discovered the Cape of Good Hope; but European households were not properly constituted till the year 1595, when the first Portuguese women arrived in the settlement.
General Survey.
In many newly discovered regions several generations have often passed after the first appearance of the whites before they have succeeded in acquiring any effective supremacy over the natives. But in this part of the African seaboard the Portuguese have never ceased for over three hundred years in exercising sovereign rights, or at least in maintaining alliances with the surrounding populations. Even in 1641, when the Dutch captured the strongholds on the coast, some Portuguese officials and others remained in the country, upholding the traditional sovereignty of the ancient Muata Poiu, "King of Portugal," or rather of the Muené Mpotu, "King of the sea." Nor were they long neglected by the mother country, a squadron despatched from Brazil Laving soon reconquered the colony. 2 SOUTU AND EAST AFRICA. The centre? of Portuguese colonisitioii were naturally the seaports, from which points European influences •'•nulually ppreud inland. Notwithstanding many vicissitudes of success and defeat, the ascendancy of the Portuguese, pioneers of a higher culture*, penetrated at last beyond the coast ranges and plateaux far to tho east of the great depression traversed by the Congo. This diffusion of Portuguese authority was largely due to the fact that the intertribal communications were much more easily effected on the southern slopes and upland plains than along the wild and rugged gorges through which the great river forced its way from full to fall to the Atlantic seaboard. Doubtless Stanley's great expedition has suddenly shifted the equilibrium of the continent, and the region of the fluvial basin has now become the chief centre of geographical progress and of the great events that are rapidly bringing about the social and political transformation of the land, liut this very circumstance has aroused Portugal from her lethargy, and stimulated her to redoubled efforts in opening up the vast domain which she has inherited, and her exclusive dominion over which is henceforth guaranteed by international treaties. The recent expeditions of Capello and Ivens, and of Serpa Pinto, attest the importance which the Portuguese now attach to the systematic exploration of their great colony in south-west Africa. The American missionaries stationed in the Bihe district have also of late years contributed much to the geographical study of Angola. The superficial area of the whole territory as far inland as the left bank of the Kwango, and exclusive of the small province lying to the north of the Congo, has been approximately estimated at 280,000 square miles. The popula- tion of the districts that have been roughly surveyed amounts to about four hun- dred and forty thousand ; but including the independent nations and the communi- ties connected with Portugal by the n^ore or less solid relations of vassalage, the whole population of the region lying between the Atlantic and the Kwango can scarcely be estimated at less than two millions. According to Chavanne's calcula- tions, the density of the population in the northern district between Ambriz and the Congo exceeds twelve persons to the square mile, a proportion which would give as many as five millions for the Portuguese possessions, taken in their widest sense. To the whole region has been extended the name of Angola (Ngola), a term originally restricted to the province lying east of Loanda, between the rivers Cuanza and Bengo. Some of the kinglets in the interior still bear this name of Ngola. The province of Angola has often been compared to Brazil, the vast region which faces it on the opposite side of the Atlantic. But the " African Brazil," which had not yet been detached from the mother country whence it received its first settlers, is far inferior to its potent rival in extent, natural resources, economic importance, and general importance amongst the civilised, or at least organised, lands of the globe. ^Nevertheless a real analogy is presented by the geographical structure of Angola and Brazil. In both regions a great river is developed to the north of the plains and elevated plateaux ; in both the relief of the land is formed by a series of terraces rising step by step one above the other. and separated by intervening ranges, which are disposed parallel with the coastline. Their position under corresponding parallels of latitude gives to both countries analogous climates and similar vegetable products, and at the same
time enables the inhabitants of each to migrate freely from one to the other without suffering much inconvenience from the change of climate. If Brazil has been enabled to develop a mixed white, Negro, and Indian population of over 4 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. twelve millions, there is uothing to prevent the territory of Angola from also becoming the home of a numerous people with a strong sentiment of national cohesion, instead of being occupied as at present by a few colonial groups almost lost amid the surrounding hostile populations. Nor should it be forgotten in forecasting its future prospects, that there is at last an end of the slave trade, by which the Brazilian plantations were peopled for nearly three hundred years at the cost of Angola. Physical Features. In the northern part of the territory limited on the north by the Congo, eastwards by the Kwango, and towards the south by the Cuanza, the section of the plateau exceeding 3,000 feet occupies not more than one half of the eastern zone. It consists of gneiss and mica schists, whose surface is disposed in long ridges, which the running waters have scored with deep gorges. The western slope, facing the Atlantic coast, presents on the whole a more gentle incline than the opposite side, where the escarpments fall rapidly towards the Kwango basin. The Cuanza, with its copious affluent, the Lu-Calla, interrupts the parallel series of ridges, which run uniformly north and south, and which are continued in the same direction beyond these watercourses. Thus the elevated mountain ridges are continuous only in the south-eastern section of the plateau, where the Talla Mangongo border range separates the upper course of the Kwango affluents from those of the Cuanza, and gradually merges by gentle undulations in the waterparting between the Kassai and the Zambese. South of the Cuanza, a series of three parallel steps follows from the sea towards the elevated range which forms the backbone of the land, and which runs at a mean distance of a hundred and twenty miles from the Atlantic. Lofty crests rise above the ridges of this intermediate plateau, which is cut up by the streams into several secondary ridges. Here Mount Lovili, under the twelfth degree of latitude, attains an elevation of 7,800 feet ; Mount Elongo, towards the south-west, rises to a height of 7,600 feet, and several other peaks on the neighbouring ranges fall little short of these altitudes. In the Jamba, or Andrade-Corvo chain, forming the eastern scarp of the plateau, some of the summits exceed 6,600 feet. Most of the higher ranges are here disposed in ridges dominated at intervals by peaks and rounded crests; some however of th(8e ambas, as they are called, appear to be completely isolated, standing out like pyramids in the middle of a plain. Thus Mount Hambi (7,240 feet) consists of an enormous crag rent down the centre, and presenting the appear- ance o^ a huge block of metal fissured during the process of cooling. At the eastern foot of the Jamba Mountains stretches the Bulum-Bulu steppe, which is overgrown with tall grasses heaving under the wind like the ocean waves. Taken collectively, these ranges, massive uplands and elevated plains, which are traversed by the trade route between Benguella and Bihe, constitute the culminating part of Angola. Towards the south the plateau decreases considerably ANGOLAN UPIANDS. 5 in height, the highest points here falling below 6,000 feet. Farther west the summits, rising on a plateau inferior to the eastern terrace, also fail to reach the altitude of Mount Lovili and the neighbouring peaks, although several present an imposing appearance, thanks to their isolated position, and the steep slope of their flanks. Such are the crags which lie some 60 miles to the east of Uenguella, and which, from their peculiar outlines, have received the name of Binga-Yam-Bambi, or " Gazelle Ilorns." According to Magyar, they exceed 3,000 feet in height, while the neighbouring Olombiugo peak is said to attain an elevation of over 5,000 feet. The mori^ westerly summits, standing on the last terrace of the plateau as it falls seawards, vary in altitude from GOO or 700 to 2,000 feet. Developing at their base precipitous cliffs, they present in many places the aspect of veritable mountains. But most of the hills skirting the coast are mere table rocks, rising little more than 300 or 400 feet above the terraces. They are usually flanked by steep slopes of talus formation, but may be surmounted by following the long winding valleys of erosion, which have been excavated at intervals in the thickness of the plateau. In the southern region of the Angola territory, the uplands of the interior have everywhere been denuded and eroded to great depths, by the aflfluents of the Cunene and the torrents of the coastlands. Nevertheless the Chella, or Sierra da Neve, that is, " Snowy Range," a superb mountain mass to the east of Mossamedes, has maintained its integrity in isolated grandeur, some of its crests falling little short of 6,300 feet. It owes its alternative Portuguese name to the white streaks sometimes visible in the more elevated crevasses, after the heavy rains brought by the cold southern winds. These highlands, whence flow an abundance of running waters, appear to present the most favourable prospects for the future colonisation of Angola. The climate approaches, nearer than that of any other of the Portuguese possessions in Africa, to the conditions preailing in the south of Europe, while the mean altitude of the upland valleys is about the same as that of Angola generally, being approximately estimated at 4,000 feet. The Angola highlands arc composed of gneiss and other crystalline rocks under- lying schistose formations of great age. These rocks, forming the outer frame- work of the land, make their first appearance at a mean distance of from 1'2 or 15 miles from the coast. Here the sedimentary rocks, and in many places those of the interior, belong to the Secondary and Tertiary periods, consisting of sandstones, conglomerates, limestones, clays and sands generally disposed in perfectly regular stratifications. The cretaceous deposits, which run parallel with the coast, cover- ing the outer slopes of the hills in the BcngucUa district, abound in f( ssils identi- cal with those which occur in the corresponding formations in Portugal. For long stretches the characteristic geological strata are concealed by laterites, white, yellow, or red, of relatively modern origin, which have been foraied by the decomposed surface of the underlying layers. The river basins of the interior have moreover been strewn with alluvial deposits due to the action of running waters. 6 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. The limestone cliffs are in many places pierced by deep caverns, where arc found narrow and hitherto unfathomed wells, which have given rise to numerous native legends. Thermal springs occur at various points of the territory ; but no volcanic rocks have been found, except in the northern districts, and even here the eruptive forces appear to have been limited to a few outbursts of basaltic lavas. Ladislas Magyar speaks of a volcano, but without stating whether he visited it himself, and there is every reason to believe that he was deceived by false reports, possibly even by the romantic but untrustworthy descriptions of the traveller J. B. Douville.* This active volcano, known as the Mulondo-Zambi, or " Demon Mountain," was reported to lie in the Libollo country some 30 miles to the south of the Cuanza. From the highest crater, overlooking all the surrounding crests, flames and smoke emitting a strong sulphurous odour were said to be ejected at intervals of three or four hours. The natives never venture to approach this burning mountain, which thoy suppose to be inhabited by the spirits of their ancestors. But all these reported eruptions will probably sooner or later be explained by some meteorological phenomena, like those of the pretended Otumbi volcano in the Gaboon territory. River Basins. Limited eastwards by the course of the Kwango, the Angola region is traversed by numerous streams, which either flow through deep gorges across one or more of the outer terraces of the plateau, or else, like the Cuanza and the Cunene, force their way seawards through the whole breadth of the intervening uplands. In the northern section of the territory, where the annual rainfall is relatively heavier than in the south, every valley has its perennial stream, although these rivers are prevented by the disposition of the rugged surface from uniting in one large fluvial system. A considerable number of the streams however flow, not directly seawards, but either to the east in the direction of the Kwango, or north- wards through the Kwilu, Lu-fu and Mposo to the Congo. Those which, like the Lelunda, Mbrish, and Loje, reach the Atlantic directly, are disposed in parallel valleys in the direction from east to west. But their mouths are nearly all closed to shipping b}' impassable burs, so that they are accessible only to small flat- bottomed craft. The Mbrish, which escapes from the Zonibo highlands to the east of San- Salvador, develops a series of cascades, the first of which has a fall of 150 feet, and the whole chain of rapids a total incline of 430 feet. The Dandd and Bengo, however, being navigable above their bars, present certain advantages as highways of commerce in the interior, and their shady banks are lined with plantations. But the chief river in Angola, and one of the most copious of the secondary watercourses in the whole of Africa, is the Cuanza, whose valley forms the Atlantic section of the transxerso depression which is continued through the Zambese basin south-eastwards to the Indian Ocean, The chief headstreams of the Cuanza have
• " Voyage au Congt) et dans rintcrieur de I'Afrique equinoxiale." 
tljoir sources beyond the region directly subject to Portuguese rule, intermingling their AckkI waters with those of the Zuml)ese and of the Ku-]iango on a plateau which has a mean altitude of not less than 5,500 feet. The farthest source of the mainstream is the little Lake Mussonilx), some 720 miles from the coast, by the windings of the fluvial valley. From this point the Cuanza descrilx's a vast semicircle, flowing at first towards the north-east and then to the north, after which it sweeps round to the north-west and west, finally trending to the south- west in its last meander seawards. More than half of its course lies to the east of the upland terraces and plateaux which form the backbone of Angola. By the direction of its ui)per valley it seems inclined to become a tributary of the Congo, but on reaching the Ba-Songa territory, where it has already become a copious stream, it curves round to the west, and forces its way over a long series of wild goi'ges, falls and rapids, through the intervening mountain barriers seawards. The Cambambe cataract, last of the series, 70 feet high, is also known as the
- Livingstone falls," although never visited by the illustrious explorer. It is
formed by a ledge of schistose rock confined on both sides by nearly vertical walls. During the floods the whole gorge is completely filled with the seething waters, but during the dry season the current is broken by projecting crags into several foaming channels of unequal size. The emerged rocks, damp with the 8])ray of the tumbling waters, are overgrown with the Atigohea fluitann, a plant with large semi-transparent stem and covered with smuU white flowers. Immediately below the cataracts the Cuanza is accessible to steamers, no obstacle interfering with the navigation all the way to the sea, although in this section of the river, about 120 miles long, there is a total fall of over 300 feet. The rocky gorge is continued for 10 miles beyond the rapids, between high red, white, or bluish cliffs, to which an endless variety of shades and forms is added by the climbing plants, tufted brushwood, and drapery of velvet mosses. Below the gorge the main stream is joined by the Mucoso, a considerable affluent from the north, and farther on, also on the right bank, by the still more copious Lu-Calla (Lua-Kalla), largest of all its tributaries. Like the Cuanza itself, the Lu-Calla rises to the east of the Angola highlands, and like it forces its way through them in a series of gorges where it plunges in its headlong course from fall to fall. The Lianzundo, one of these falls, is no less than 100 feet in height. The Lu-Calla also describes a vast semicircle, but exactly in the contrary direction ro that of the Cuanza, for it takes its rise in the northern part of the Portuguese possessions, not fur from the streams which flow on the oppo- site watershed down to the Congo. After its junction with the Lu-Calla, the Cuanza is swollen by no further contributions from any direction, but on the contrary discharges its waters to the right and left, into numerous lagoons or lateral reservoirs, which are succes- sively flooded and almost completely emptied with the alternating wet and dry seasons. In the lower reaches the hills continually recede more and more from the fluvial bed, although a few bluflFs stiU rise here and there along the banks of the river. One of these on the left side is the famous Pedro dos Feiticeiros, 8 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. or " Fetish Rock," over which the Quis^amas formerly hurled the unhappy wretches accused of witchcraft. The mouth of the Cuanza is obstructed by a dangerous bar, which is usually crossed by the local pilots on a raft, or rather a single plank of herminiera wood about 8 feet long and scarcely 3 feet wide. Kneeling on this spar, they steer their course with the aid of a single paddle, and thus reach the steamers which are at times riding at anchor over a mile from the coast. South of the Cuanza as far as the Cunene, none of the streams rising on the outer slopes of the mountains or in the western valleys can acquire any great development, nor are any of them utilised for navigation. They also flow through a region enjoying a less abundant rainfall than Northern Angola, so that many of them are completely exhausted during the dry season. They thus resemble the wadys of North and the nmaramhas or intermittent streams of South Africa. The chief permanent rivers are the Luga, running parallel with the lower Cuanza; the Cuvo (Keve), which discharges into Old Benguella Bay; the Bailombo, the Catumbella, and the Coporolo. Of all these little coast streams the Catimibella is the best known, owing to the vicinity of the city of Benguella. About 7 miles from the sea it develops the romantic cataract of Upa, where the whole stream is pent up within a rocky gorge scarcely 9 yards wide. Tho Cunene, which in Angola yields in length and volume to the Cuanza alone, has recently acquired an exceptional political importance as the line of demarca- tion between the Portuguese possessions and the territ ry annexed to the German colonial empire. Like the Cuanza, it rises to the east of the central highlands, and flows at first iilong the inner continental slope jointly with the Ku-Bango, and the eastern affluents of the Zambese ; but after escaping from this basin it describes a great bend to the west, piercing the intervening rocky barriers on its south-westerly course to the Atlantic. It develops altogether a total length of no less than 720 miles, the area of its drainage being estimated at about 110,000 square miles. Rising in the Jamba Mountains, over four degrees to the north of the latitude of its estuary, it skirts the southern and south-western base of the central uplands, collecting on both banks a large number of affluents during its winding upper and middle course. At Quiteve, a riverain village some 240 miles from its sources, Capello and Ivens found that even in June, that is, in the dry season, it had a breadth of nearly 500 feet, with a mean depth of over 8 feet. It flows between wooded banks with great velocity, but unobstructed by cataracts. During the rainy season this beautiful stream assumes the proportions of a mighty watercourse, fully justifying its native name of Cunene, that is, Ku-Nene, or " Great River." At this period it overflows its banks to the right and left, flooding the surround- ing pluins for several miles. At one point a depression many square miles in extent is transformed to a vast reservoir which receives the overflow of the upper Cunene After the subsidence of the waters, this depression is strewn with small lakes and stagnant meres ; the muddy bottom-lands are overgrown with ANGOLAN RIVERS. 9 toll reeds (arinvfo phragoti/es), while the brushwood on the higher grounds is covered to a height of 3 or 4 feet with the tufts of herbaceous vegetation borne along by the flood waters. In this extensive pltiin, alternately a lake and a morass, the Cunene is joined by the Caculovar (Kukulo-Male, or " Old liale "), a considerable stream which collects all the waters descending from the Snowy Range (Chella) and from the Huilla cirques. According to the unanimous testimony of travellers and residents, this region of the middle Cunene, notwithstanding its marshy character, is by no means insalubrious, a circumstance perhaps due to the antiseptic action of the mosses covering the 8u»*face of the waters, and probably also to the elevation of the land. The height of the plain about the confluence of the Cunene with the Caculovjir was estimated by Capello and Ivens iit about 3,500 feet, while Dufour, another explorer, found that the village at the confluence itself stood at an altitude of 3,800 feet. This elevated lacustrine district hus other emissaries besides the Cunene. At least three watercourses, designated by the generic name of umaramha, branch off from the left bank of the riyer through broad openings. in the en- circling cliffs. They take a southerly or south-easterly course, meandering through ihe territory of the Ova-Mpos as far as the great saline marsh of Etosha, which is distant 150 miles and situated at a level 330 feet lower than the main stream. The Cunene thus presents the extremely rare example of an incom- pleted delta, for in virtue of these lateral channels it belongs to the system of watercourses which, like the Ku-Bango, are lost in the depressions of the desert. Down to the middle of the present century the true course of the Cunene was still unknown, and on Lopez de Lima's map, which embodies the state of geographical knowledge at that period, it is represented as flowing eastwards in the direction of the Indian Oceun. But it is now known to reach the Atlantic after forcing its way through the intercepting western highlands. Report even speaks of a great cataract, followed lower down by a large number of smaller cascades. It seems in fact impossible that great falls or rapids do not exist in this section of the fluvial bed, for there is an incline of considerably more than 3,000 fret in the space of 180 miles between the estuary and the point where the mountains are traversed by the river. Systematic exploration has hitherto been made only in the lower part of the valley. So early as the yeir 1824 the English vessel, the Espieglc, had landed near the mouth of the Cunene, which was tlicn named the Nourse River ; yet the very next year Owen failed to discover the opening, doubtless because the bar had meantime been closed, and the river exhausted for a long way above its mouth. The entrance wns not rediscovered till the year 1854, when the river was ascended for some 25 miles from the coast. Even now the Cunene reaches the sea only during the rainy i^eason, from Decem- ber to April. At other times the abundant waters rolled down with the inun- dations of the upper basin are nearly completely evaporated in the vast lacustrine reservoirs of the middle course, nothing remaining for the lower reaches except a puny stream which soon runs out in the sands.
Climate of Angola.
Stretching north and south a total distance of over 720 miles between the sixth and seventeenth parallels of northern latitude, and presenting a series of terraces rising to a height of over 6,000 feet, the Angola territory naturally offers a great diversity of climate. But although the meteorological conditions and all the corresponding phenomena are modified with the latitude and relief of the
land, the actual extremes of temperature are but slight in the several physical zones. Hence travellers suffer quite as much from the fiery solar rays on the elevated plateaux of the interior as on the low-lying coastlands. The thermometric differences, however, become more pronounced with the alternating seasons of heat and cold, according as we advance farther from the equator and from the seaboard. The local variations of climate due to accidental conditions are often very great and extremely dangerous to strangers. In some of the upland districts ANGOLAN CT.TMATE. 11 it freezes, as in Europe, and even at an altitude of 3,500 feel on the eMtem slopes of the mountuins, Capello and Ivens hud to endure great extremes of temperature, from freezing-jwint at night to S2^ and even 80"* F. during the day. The most continuous meteorological observations have been taken at Loanda, capital of the colony, showing that at this place, although lying not more than GOO miles to the south of the equator, the great summer heats are less intense than at Lisbon. Thus the maximum temperature in February, the hottest month at Loanda, is greater than that of August, the hottest in Portugal. Travellers leaving Lisbon in summer for Angola are surprised at the relative coolness of these tropical regions. In fact the mean temperature of Loanda scarcely exceeds 73^ F., while the annual divergence between the tliermomctric extremes for each month is not usually more than twenty degrees. JJut between the greatest heat and the greatest cold the discrepancy rose in 1879 to nearly thirty-four degrees, the glass fulling from 88° F. in November to 55° F. in August. On the inland plateaux under the same latitude and at an elevation of 5,300 feet, the discrepancy is twice as great, ranging from freezing-p<nnt to 98^ F. At Mos- samedes, which of all the coast towns enjoys the most equable climate, the annual temperature oscillates from thirty-six to thirty-eight degrees, and this place presents the most favourable conditions for the acclimatisation of European residents. The relative coolness of the Angolan climate is due to the direction of the marine breezes, which generally blow from the temperate southern regions. In these latitudes the coast stream setting from the Antarctic zone has sufficient in- fluence to considerably lower the normal temperature of the surrounding waters and atmospheric layers ; hence the name of Cubo Frio, or " Cold Cape," given to the headland lying to the south of the Cunene. A neighbouring creek is also known as the Angra Fria, or " Cold Bay." Even north of the Cunene the coast- lands benefit by this cool marine current, although to a less degree, and its in- fluence is known to be felt as far north as the island of Sam-Thome. Off Loanda its mean velocity is about 1^ mile per hour, but it is at times completely arrested or even partly revei'sed by violent gales from the north-west. Generally speak- ing, the southern breezes prevail greatly over those from the north along this seaboard, where the trade-winds rarel}'^ maintain their normal direction from the south-east to the north-west, being deflected by the rarefied air from the hot regions of the interior, and thus transformed to south-westerly and even westerly monsoons. According to Ribeiro, the marine breezes stand to those of the conti- nent in the proportion of rather more than five to two. From the observations regularly taken at Malange, over 180 miles from the sea, it appears that in this inland district, notwithstanding its great distance from the alternating land and seacoast breezes {terral and rira^U't), a certain rhythm is still maintained between the easterly and westerly winds. According to Ilann, the former prevail especi- ally in the morning, the latter in the afternoon, the aerial current thus showing a tendency to set from the quarter of the heavens where the sun is found. Under the influence of the vapour-charged monsoons there is always a con12 SOUTU AND EAST AFRICA. siderable quantity of moisture present in the atmosphere.* From May to Septem- ber it often almost reaches the point of saturation, and then the horizon is everywhere veiled in the dense fogs of the cacimho. Yet the rainfall is compara- tively slight in the low-lying districts, the vapours being borne by the winds to the slopes of the hills, where frequent downpours occur regularly during the light rainy season from October to January, and the heavy from the beginning of April to the end of May. At Loanda the annual rainfall varies to a remarkable degree.t the average number of wet days being not more than fifteen in some years and four times as many in others. Over 20 inches have sometimes fallen in favourable years, while at other times the quantity has scarcely exceeded 5 or t) inches. In the northern districts the first rains are always unhealthy, the air being then charged with the foul exhalations with which the porous soil is saturated, and which are mingled with the decayed vegetation suddenly washed up from below the surface. In the direction from north to south the quantity of the rain- fall diminishes progressively along the low-lying coastlands. Copious at San- Salvador,* slight at Loanda, it ceases nearly altogether at Mossamedes and in the Lower Cunene basin. Hence this southern region lies on the verge of the desert, but is at the same time the most salubrious in Angola, thanks to the great dryness of the atmosphere and the ground, as well as to the relative coolness of the temperature. On the plateaux skirting the south side of the Lower Cunene the Quissaraa natives are obliged carefully to husband the rainwater in the hollow trunks of the baobabs. Flora. Since the explorations of Welwitsch in the province of Angola, the face of the land is well known in its broad features, and nothing now remains except to study its details. Hence the name of this learned botanist has justly been given to the Weluitachia mirabilis, the most remarkable plant in this part of the conti- nent. This tree, for it really is a tree, althougb in appearance more like an eccentric fungus than aught else, grows in the Mossamedes district, ranging north- wards only as far as the mouth of the intermittent river Sam-Nicolau, but reach- ing, south of the Cunene, far into the Damara country. The trunk, which is said to live for a hundred years, and which attains a compass of ten or twelve feet,
- Relative humidity during the three years 1879, 1880, and 1881 —
Mean .... 82-42 Highest mean . . . 87-69 Lowest mean . 76-69, Mean variation . . . 10^4 (Cotlho and Ribeiro). ainfall at Loanda : — Bainy Total Rainfill. Drtys. Inches. 1879. . . 62 24 1880. , . .'4 10 1881. • • 15 6 Mean 34 13 (Ribeiro) X Rainfall at San-Salvador in 1884, 63 days, with a total discharge of 36 inches. terminates abruptly a few inches above the ground in a level surface compared by Welwitsch to a "round table," but fissured and crevassed in all directions. From its outer rim branch off two thick leaves nearly 8 feet long, which resemble two great leather discs, and which are in fact the very first leaves, which have survived since the plant began to sprout, and which have grown with the growth of the tree itself. The edges of these strange leaves are frayed into numerous snake-like thongs, which have all the appearance of so many tentacles of a polype.
In the northern districts
of Angola the flora differs
in no respects from that of
the Lower Congo. Here the
characteristic plents of the
landscape are everywhere the
arborescent euphorbias, the
eriodendrons, the bombax, and
wide-spread baobab. In some
of the valleys well sheltered
from the sea breezes and
abundantly watered, tropical
vegetation displays all its
variety of great forest trees,
parasitic and climbing plants.
But the exposed plateaux, where the rainwater flows off rapidly and where the surface is covered only with a thin layer of vegetable soil, are overgrown for vast spaces with tall steppe grasses, giving refuge to numerous herds of large game. But these boundless savannahs are exposed to periodical gueimadas, or conflagrations, which sweep away all living creatures down to the very insects.
In the direction from north to south the vegetation grows scantier with the continuously decreasing rainfall. At a short distance south of Cape Padrão the primeval forest descends to the water's edge, whereas it gradually recedes in the interior to the south of the Cabeça de Cobra settlement. Still farther south forests are nowhere seen in the neighbourhood of the coast, and beyond Mossamedes the last lingering isolated clumps disappear altogether, although behind the outer terraces the vast wildernesses of the Sertão are still diversified with fine forest growths. In the same direction 14 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. from north to south certain characteristic species become gradually replaced by others. Thus the hi/phane giiineensi^, so common between the Congo estuary and Ambriz, is not found on the southern coastlands, and in the Mossamedes district a complete transition takes place from the flora of the equatorial regions to that of the closed fluvial basins in South Africa. In this southern province the great euphorbias, for instance, are no longer seen, their place being gradually usurped by the various gum-bearing species. Welwitsch's botanical record for the whole of the Angola territory comprises three thousand two hundred and twenty-seven species, of which one thousand eight hundred and ninety are flowering plants. In this numerous catalogue are included several indigenous forms, such as cactuses, a family formerly supposed to be found only in the New World, but which are here grouped about the crests of the plateau at great distances from the coast, and from all centres of colonisation. A number of the local plants are highly prized by the natives on account of their supposed magical properties, notably the poisonous erythrophlreum guineense, the bark of which {nhissa) is used in judicial trials by ordeal, and the ndui (decamera Jovis tonantis), a shrub whose branches are suspended above the houses as a protec- tion against lightning. In the sandy tracts of the south, the roots of the euphor- bias afford nutriment to a remarkable parasitic plant of the genus hydnom, which dwells underground for the greater part of its existence, and then suddenly projects above the surface a solitary stalk, whose extremity expands into a large red flower, with a smell like that of putrid meat. This plant is endowed with many virtues in the eyes of the natives, who employ its sap to give greater strength to their fishing-lines and fiets, and also utilise it especially as a specific against several maladies. On the other hand, the fruits of very few indigenous plants are gathered for alimentary purposes. Thus, although the Angolan flora comprises no less than thirty-two species of the vine, in but few localities are the grapes either eaten or pressed for making a little wine. The mariamhame, or coffee shrub, however, which grows wild in the forests of the interior, supplied the early planters with the first stock cultivated by them. Welwitsch has also, found in the Angolan forests the large Jjiberian species, which is already replacing the Arabian variety on so many plantations. All other plants, whose roots, leaves, fruits or seeds serve as food, have been introduced in Angola as in other parts of Africa either from Asia or from the New World. The mango, one of these exotics, which however thrives admirably, is rarely met in some districts, and especially along the banks of the Cuanza, where its shade is supposed to cause ill luck. Fauna of Angola. Transformations analogous to those of the flora have also taken place in the Angolan fauna. Just as the indigenous plants disappear before foreign intruders, wild animals withdraw farther and farther from the white man, his dogs and other domestic breeds. Elephants are no longer seen in the neighbourhood of AXCfOLAN FAUNA. 15 the coast, althouj^h clown to the middle of this century they were still found along the seaboard. In 1804 the first explorers of the Cunene met them in such hirgo numbers that it was proposed to call this watercourse the " Klephant River." But being now driven from the plains, they have taken refuge in the uplands and in the Chella mountains, where they range over the slopes and highest summits. Lions also frequently prowled at night about the streets of the coast towns. After the rainy season especially they were very numerous, descending from the steppes and forests of tlie interior on the track of the antelopes which came to browse on the tender herbage of the lowlands. They often attacked man himself, and some thus acquiring a taste for human flesh, fell upon the shepherd in preference to his flock. They were regarded as animal fetishes, and no native would venture to speak of them without giving them the title of ngana, or "lord." At present these felines have become rare, while panthers, and especially hyenas of more than one species, are still numerous. The peixr-mul/ier, that is, " mer- maid," or manatee, appears to have disappeared from all the Angolan rivers, except the upper reaches of the Cuanza,.and the hippopotamus has withdrawn into the lateral lagoons of the rivers. But the jncarh, or crocodiles, still infest many of the streams, although sharks, so numerous north of the Congo, are never seen on the southern coast. In the provinces lying south of the Cuanza occur some animals unknown north of that river. But zebras, as well as certain antelopes belonging to the zone of the Orange and Zambese basins, are seen only on the verge of the great southern steppes. It was probably one of these antelopes that the traveller Brochado mistook for a dromedary, an animal that has not yet been introduced into the country. The order of birds is represented in Angola by a great variety of species, and a considerable traffic in songsters is carried on with Lisbon. The natives have great faith in the omens furnished by the flight or the songs of birds, and meeting a quioco {tclephonus erythropterus) is always regarded as of favourable augury. The corythrix pauliim, a lovely little creature which feeds chiefly on steds ana fruits, is looked on as a potent magician whose cry strikes terror into the stoutest heart. Houses and even 'whole villages have been deserted because this bird happened to perch on a neighbouring branch and utter its funereal note. The fowlers who go to capture it in the forests on behalf of the Portuguese dealers, are very careful to avoid ull villages on their return with their prize, for fear of being accused by the inhabitants of complicity in witchcraft. In another rcs|)ect this bird is very remarkable, the bright red colour of its wings being soluble in water and yielding a certain proportion of copper (Monteiro). Nearly all the forests of the interior are inhabited by the honey-bird {cuculua indicator), which, flitting from tree to tree, leads the honey-seekers to the hive, and then waits patiently perched on a neighbouring branch for its share in the plunder. Except in some districts snakes are not common, but some varieties are 10 SOUTH AND EAST AFEICA. extremely dungerous, as, for instance, the cuspedeiro, or " spitter," which when irritated ejects an acrid and poisonous secretion that threatens those with blind- ness whose eyes it touches. With the exception of ants and mosquitoes, insects are comparatively rare on the Atlantic slope of Angola. Scarcely any are seen during the rainy season, and butterflies make their appearance only for a few weeks, or even days, when the hot weather sets in. But the neighbouring seas are densely stocked, and the water seems at times one living mass, so choked is it with fish, forming moving banks several square miles in extent. The natives oat a small species of shark, as well as the pungo, a singing fish, whose thrilling note, soft as the sound of a flute, is heard rising above the smooth surface. In the rivers and especially in the shallow lagoons flooded during the inundations, they capture the bagro, a species of siluroid six or eight feet long, which has the property of living for hours on dry land. Inhabitants of Angola. The natives of Angola belong for the most part to the group of Buntu popula- tions. But it seems probable that amongst them, as amongst those of the Congo and Ogoway basins, there also survive the descendants of races belonging to an epoch anterior to all civilisation, before Africa had yet received the alimentary plants of Asia and the New World, and when the scattered tribes led a wandering life in the forests, living only on the chase, fishing, roots, and wild berries. These primitive tribes, who are still distinguished from the invaders by their usages and speech, have in Angola been mostly driven southwards to the verge of the desert or uninhabited savannahs. But the conquerors themselves, although connected by common descent and a common language, represent several successive waves of invasion, each of which in its turn changed the political equilibrium of the land. The last of these irruptions was that of the Jagas, which occurred in the middle of the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese navigators had already made their appearance on the coast. The <levastating hordes of these Jagas swept like -a torrent over the land, destroying kingdoms and displacing whole communities. They are generally supposed to have been closely related to the Zulus and Kafirs of the southern regions. At present these ethnical shiftings take place more gradually, but the idtimate con- sequences are even more far-reaching. The Kabinda Negroes, the immigrants from Brazil, and the Portuguese half-castes, do not certainly present themselves as enemies, but their influence is on that very account all the more readily accepted. All these di.scordant elements are thus gradually merging in a common nationality, and preparing the way for a new era of social culture. Like those dwelling between the Congo and Shiloango rivers, the various tribes of the northern districts belong to the Ba-Fyot family. They also take the collective name of Congo from the river whose banks they occup5 These Ba- Fyots were the founders of the ancient kingdom of the Congo, which became
famous through its alliance with the Portuguese, and through the remarkable 
who have ventured to visit these northern populations have done so at the cost of much risk and great hardships.
The Sonho Negroes in the peninsula formed by the Congo estuary and the coast line, no longer hold any relations with their old master at San-Salvador. The disintegration of the empire in fact began towards the close of the seventeenth century, by the revolt of their kilamba, or chief, the "Count of Sonho" of the Portuguese chronicles. The complete ruin of the state was brought about by insurrections, the rivalries of the missionaries, the seizure of the trade routes by the Cabindas, and especially the slave trade carried on either by the monks themselves or by the Portuguese and foreign dealers. The kingdom is kept together only by the mystic power of tradition, like the "holy Roman Empire" during the Middle Ages.
Although dwelling on the banks of the Congo, in the immediate vicinity of
the factories visited by the whites, the native communities lying west of San-Salvador have only to a very small extent been brought under European influences. The Mu-Sorongos, Mu-Shicongos, Bambas and others, have remained pure fetishists unaffected by any ceremonies borrowed from the Roman Catholic INHABITANTS OF ANGOIA. 19 practices. They never omit, however, to supply their dead with boots or shoes iu the European fashion, doubtless to lighten their toilsome journey to the unknown world beyond the grave. The Mu-Shicongos, who claim to have sprung from the trees, have scarcely any domestic idols in their huts, but nearly all natural objects are for them ** fetishes," and every unexplained phenomenon seems to them an awe-inspiring prodigy, or the work of some potent magician. The world of spirits rules all mundane affairs. Women who have long remained childless, or who have lost a firstling, make solemn vows to devote their new-born offspring to the service of the fetishes, and from their early childhood these future priests learn from the great fetishists the occult arts, such as how to beat the magic drum, to utter the spells and incantations, to make the proper gestures and contor- tions required for conjuring the spirits, or causing and dispelling bodily ailments. Amongst the liambas, the rite of circumcision is attended by a long period of trials for initiation into the state of manhood. During this period the young men, formed into temporary republics in the recesses of the forest, dwell entirely apart from the rest of the tribe, absorbed in the study of the magic virtues of tlie herbs, trees, and animals, and in concocting the various " medicines," which they are required to carcfullj' preserve during their whole life as a protection against all misfortimes. They cannot return to the world until properly furnished with all these powerful charms. The king of the Bambas, whose ancestors were invested with the office of commander-in-chief by the emperor of Congo, is said to be now the keeper of the great fetish who dwells in a sacred grove inaccessible to all strangers. This mysterious being remains invisible, even to his worshippers themselves, and although he is supposed to be mortal, his priests gather up his remains, and from these the god springs ever into new life. All the members of the tribe are said to irnve in the same way to pass through a " temporary death," and it is reported that when the priest shakes hh calabash, full of all sorts of charms, the young men are thrown into a cataleptic sleep, falling like dead bodies on the ground. They remain in this state for three days, then returning to the life which they henceforth consecrate to the worship of the fetish by whom they have been resuscitated. Some, however, wake up in a drowsy state, only gradually recovering the memory of their previous existence. But, whatever be the practices of the Bamba magicians, it stems probable that they really possess this power of throwing the young men into a comatose state outwardly resembling deaih. Those who have not passed through this ceremony of the new birth are universally despised and forbidden to join in the tribal dances. In the midst of the Mu-Shicongos are scattered some Ma-Yumbu commu- nities, resembling in every respect the other Ma-Vumbus who are met north of the Congo, and who are equally distinguished by their Semitic features. According to the local traditions, the southern Ma-Vumbus, who are all members of influential families, have been settled in this region from time immemorial. 20 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. The Bundas. South of the tribes constituting the Congo group, and as far as the province of Mossamedes, stretches the linguistic domain of the Bundas (Bundo, Bond^), called also " Angola " like the whole land itself. According to one rather far- fetched etymology, the term Bundu is explained to mean " Strikers,*' or " Con- querors," recalling in fact the successive invasions of the race and its victories over the aboriginal populations. But the name seems rather to denote " family,** " descent," thus implying a consciousness of their common kinship on the part of those speaking the lingna gernl or " general language " of Angola. This Bunda speech is one of the most widely diffused in Africa, and one of those which have been longest known to students, without however having yet been thoroughly studied. Towards the end of the seventeenth century an Angolan grammar was published in Lisbon, and devotional works had already been com- posed in this language. For over two centuries Europeans have been familiar with Am-Bunda (Hem-Bunda or Kin-Bunda), whose domain, according to Monteiro, begins immediately below the river Dand^, and stretches thence far beyond the frontiers of Angola proper. If not spoken, it is at least understood by numerous tribes of the interior, who maintain uninterrupted commercial relations with Bunda caravan people. Thus it was not as " Strikers," but as traders, that the inhabitants of Angola propagated the use of their "lingua franca," from the Atlantic seaboard as far as the Congo, Ku-Bango, and Zambese basins. In the Portuguese possessions it is spoken in two dialects, distinct enough to have been classed as separate languages. These are the Angolan, or Bunda, properly so called, which is current north of the Cuanza, and the southern Bunda, which prevails throughout the whole region comprised between Benguella and the Bihe territory. Portuguese terms have penetrated into both varieties, and in fact into all the inland dialects as far as and beyond the Kassai. The Bundas (A-Bundo, Bin-Bundo) are thus divided into twto main divisions, a northern and a southern. But the latter, so far from forming compact national groups, are in their turn subdivided into a large number of tribes, which have reached very different degrees of civilisation. Some, who have been brought within the influence of Europeans either on the seaboard or on the plantations of the interior, are comparatively cultured, while others dwelling on the plateaux, or in the more remote upland villages, have remained in the savage state. Of all the Bundas, the Ba-Nano or "Highlanders," so naitied in contradistinction to the Ba-Bwero or " Lowlanders," have best preserved the racial purity and the primitive usages. Tlie term Ba-Nano (Nanno) is, however, extended by some writers in a collective sense to the whole nation. Referring to the traditions of the Bundas who occupy the hilly region lying south of the Cuanza, Magyar states that these tribes came from the north-east about the middle of the sixteenth century. Their ancestors, who were fierce cannibals, were constantly waging war against all the surrounding tribes in order to procure human prey, and when they had no longer any enemies to fall upon THE BUNDAS. 21 they began to exterminate each other. The whole race was threatened with extinction by these everlasting butcheries when, according to tlie legend, there was constituted the secret society of empacaimeiros, or " bu£FaIo hunters," who pledged themselves no longer to eat any flesh except that of wild beasts of the forest. The members of this association were distinguished by a buffalo tail tied round their head, and rings formed by the entrails of the same animal coiled round their arms and legs. In course of time the confederates became powerful enough openly to revolt against the cannibals conservative of the old usages. But, being compelled to quit the country, they cio^sed the Upper Cuanza in the direction of the west, and^ settled in the territory of the Bailundos and neighbouring districts, where they gradually learnt the art of husbandry and became steadfast allies of the Portuguese. Evtn duiiug their first "black wars," the early white settlers were aided by bands of these buffalo hunters at times numbering as many as thirty thousand warriors, armed with l)ow8 and arrows. On the other hand, the section of the Eunda nation which had remained in the country east of the Cuanza, after the emigration of the emjxicnsseirw, became too weak to maintain their super "ority over the surrounding peoples, by whom they appear to have become gradually absorbed. But although still savages, they no doubt lost much of their former ferocity. But whatever value is to be attached to these traditions, in which history and legend are largely intermingled, there can be no doubt that human sacrifices and cannibalistic practices survived in their religious ceremonies at least down to the middle of the present centurj'. According to Ladislas Magyar, who was himself the son-in-law of the king of Bihe, and as such a prominent personage in the dominant tribe of the Bundas, the body of the chief had to be sprinkled with the blood of slaves. Nor could his successor be enthroned until a slave-hunting expedition had been organised, in which the candidate for the chieftaincy was required to capture members of every trade practised in the country. Ihis was done in the belief that the various arts and industries could not possibly flourish imder the new administration unless all were represented by special victims at the inaugural ceremonies. Young girls and even pregnant women were thus immolated to secure fecundity during tl e ensuing reign, while the unborn babes were used in the concoction of elixirs destined to prolong human life. At every fresh succession some renowned warrior was also singled out, in order that the king might acquire courage by eating his heart. But in order to have the desired effect this hero had to be stricken down in the fullness of his strength and vigour ; hence he was suddenly cut down while joining in the war-dance. Strangers also accident- ally crossing the path of funeral processions were immediately dragged along and sacrificed on the grave Established usage even authorised promiscuous slaughter for a period of seven days between the death of the king and the accession of his successor, a e-ustom of which the so-called " sons of the elephant," that is, the regular troops of the standing army, took advantage to plimder and massacre with impunity. In ordinary times animals alone were sacrificed, the warrior offering to the fetishmen either a black goat or a black heifer, the bridegroom a white ox. 22 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. The Bundas, and especially the Nanos or Highlanders, are generally fine men with proud bearing and frank expression. Amongst them persons are often found with blue eyes, a trait which is not at all appreciated by the natives. In most of the tribes the women are tattooed with designs representing flowers and arabesques. They go bare-headed, whereas the men fold a sort of turban round their hair, or else part it into a multitude of ringlets decked with little clay balls in imitation of coral. Like those of most other African tribes, the Bunda solas, or chiefs, add to their usual dress the skin of a panther or of some other rapacious beast, this spoil of the chase baing regarded as an emblem of the terror by which royalty should ever be surrounded. Some of the tribes practise circumcision, a rite unknown in others, or reserved for the chiefs alone, who submit to the operation before assimiing the panther's skin. The Bundas are for the most part highly intelligent, under the direction of Europeans rapidly acquiring a knowledge of letters, writing, and music. In a few months they learn to speak Portuguese correctly, and also make excellent artisans. Each community has its blacksmith and armourer, its carpenter, weaver, potter, all of whom assist at the public gatherings, according to a w*5ll established order of precedence. But the Bundas distinguish themselves above all as traders. All the business affairs of the Portuguese with the interior are transacted by them, and they not unfrequently excel their teachers in com- mercial ability. The Bundas of the inland plateaux, whom Livingstone speaks of under the collective name of ^lambari, accompany the traders' carai^ans far into the interior of the continent. Owing to their long journeys through the bush country, they are also commoaly known as Pombeiros, from the native word pombe, answering to our scrub or brushwood. Some of these caravans at one time comprised as many as three thousand persons, and were occasionally transformed to bands oi" armed marauders. Many of these inland Bundas were in the habit of sending their children to the coast towns for the purpose of receiving a European education. The Bunda territory is divided- into a number of chieftaincies, some of which comprise a considerable population ; but each village constitutes an independent community in the enjoyment of self-government in all matters of purely local interest. The citizens, however, do not take part in the deliberations on a footing of equality, for there are numerous privileged classes, some by hereditary right, others through the royal favour, while over one-half of the whole popula- tion are enslaved. The slave element is supplied by captives in war, by distress compelling freemen to sell themselves and families, and by debts which are often paid by the loss of liberty. The expenses of funeral banquets have even at times been liquidated by selling the very children of the deceased. On the other hand, nearly all the slaves marrj'^ free Avomen, in order thus to lighten the burden of servitude and to ensure the emancipation of their children, who always take the social position of their mothers. When a slave becomes in this way related to a chief, his life is considered as of equal value to that of a free man. His body, like that of other Bundas, is consulted by the wizards, in order to ascertain whether the death has not been caused by the magic arts of some malevolent medicine
man; for the unavenged spirits of the dead fail not to return to the earth, and torment the living until justice is done them. 21 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. The Ganguellas and Lihollos. Beyond the Upper Cuanza, the peoples dwelling south-east of the Bundas, Iluambas, and Quirabandes — confederate tribes of blacksmiths and wax-hunters, scattered amid the depressions of the plateau — are collectively known as Gan- guellas, a term which appears to have been suggested by the contempt in which these aborigines are held. The word is said to mean "silly" or "senseless people," and in proof of their stupidity, it was till recently said of them that they looked on brandy as a poison, and consequently massacred the first importers of the pernicious liquor. Under the general designation of Ganguellas are now com- prised numerous tribes, whose idioms are connected towards the east with those of the Lobales, and westward with those of the Nanus. Notwithstanding the great difference in their social condition, all these peoples seem to have a common origin ; nor does their reputation for savagery prevent the Ganguellas from being highly intelligent and enterprising traders. According to Bastian, amongst them are to be sought the descendants of the terrible Jagas, who formerly overran the empire of Congo, and who have been affiliated by other writers to the Fulahs, the Zulu- Kafirs, and even the Hamitic Gallas. The Songo people, who occupy the waterparting between the Cuanza and the Kwango to the east of Malange, have been brought more under Portuguese influence than the Ganguellas ; yet there are few African lands where trial by the ordeal of the poisoned cup is more common than in their territory. It is employed even in the most frivolous cases, the litigants being, however, then replaced by a number of children, or of dogs, who represent the opposite sides. An attenuated decoction, which causes little danger to life, is administered all round, and the first to reject the potion secures the triumph of their party. The tribes dwelling along the left bank of the Lower Cuanza diverge more from the ordinary Bunda type, and the Bantu dialects spoken by them differ greatly from the current speech of Angola. To this group belong the Libollos, whose territory is limited eastwards by the little river Cango, who bear the rejiutation of being a mild, peace-loving, and industrious agricultural people. The Libollos are the hereditary foes of their western neighbours, the Quissamas (Kissama), who occupy the peninsvdar district bounded east and north by the great bend of the Lower Cuanza, west and south-west by the coast. Hitherto the Quissamas have preserved their complete independence, although it would have been easy to reduce their territory, almost entirely encircled as it is by the Portuguese possessions. During a famine, by which the land was wasted, some Bunda traders took advantage of the general distress to barter provisions for a large number of half-famished families. But the next year the Quissamas avenged themselves by capturing several of the Bunda merchants, whom they put to the torture, burning them with red-hot irons in punishment of the indignity offered to the nation. Owing to this occurrence the Bundas would now willingly offer their services to the Portuguese Government for the conquest of the Quissama territorv.
Meantime the Quissamus, a small black race of uncleanly habits, hold them- selves aloof from all the other natives, although still compelled at times to cross the Cuunza in order to find a market for their products amongst the Portuguese settlers. One of the most precious commodities exported by them are blocks of Silt about ten inches long, which are forwarded to the interior and used as currency throughout a great part of the continent. Dealers armed with fetisheft, which serve also as safe-conducts, introduce in return into their villages articles of European manufacture, such as glass beads used as ornaments by the women. The hair, encircled by a coronet of vegetable fibre in the form of a nimbus, is decked with false pearls alternating with narrow strips of bark. They also wear a robe prepared from the bast of the baobab, which ladies of rank cover behind with an antelope skin embellished with pendant shell ornaments jingling at every step. Their approach is thus heralded from a distance by the tinkling noise of the cowries attached to their costume. The Quissamas are altogether a very courteous and ceremonious people. The South Angolan Tribes. South of the LiboUos and Quissamas dwell the Amboellas, a liantu nation bearing the same name as the numerous tribes of like origin settled more to the southeast on the banks of the Ku-Bango and Upper Zambese. The Seli, or Mu- Seli, a coast tribe near Novo-Redondo, were till recently still cannibals, who at their religious ceremonies slaughtered a fetish victim whose head and heart were pre- sented to the king. Farther south the Mu-Ndomb^ savages, first reduced in the year 1847, are a nomad pastoral people of independent but unaggressive character. They are clothed in skins, and smear their bodies with oil or rancid butter blackened with powdered charcoal. Of all the Angolan peoples they alone wear sandals made of ox-hide. The ciihntaa, or huts, of the villages, scarcely high enough for headroom, resemble haycocks, and are of perfectly spherical form. They are furnished with bedsteads, which are mere heaps of clay levelled on top and lubricated with butter. When the young Mu-Ndombe gets married a banana garden is planted, and if there is no prospect of offspring when the fruit ripens, the wife has the right to claim a divorce. As a rule, the Mu-Ndombes eat nothing but game, abstaining from touching their cattle except at the death of a chief, on which "festive occasion " several hundred heads of oxen are sometimes consumed. At these Gargantuan feasts, which last for ten and even fifteen days, the whole animal is devoured — the half raw flesh, the blood, entrails, skin broiled over the fire, everj'- thing except the bones and horns. Between Benguella and Mossamedes the whole coast region is occupied by the Ba-Kwandos and the Ba-Kwiss^s, ethnical groups which are usually regarded as belonging to a primitive race in process of extinction. They are a small race with a yellowish black complexion, prominent cheek-bones, flat nose, pouting lips, projecting jaws, large paunch, and weak extremities. They are shunned as 26 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA, dangerous savages, although really a timid people, living in the caves and fissures of the mountains, and retreating step by step before the advance of the Europeans and of the other Negro populations. In their eyes the European is almost a divine being, whom they would not dare to resist. Hence, they are ever on their guard against strangers, and creep stealthily down to the coast, where they venture amongst the breakers in quest of fish, and of the flotsam and jetsam of all kinds cast ashore by the waves. This is their only food, for they have no arms or missiles with which to pursue the game in their forests. Amongst them the social state has not developed beyond the family circle, each little group of closely related kinsfolk keeping together and wandering about under the guidance of the elder or patriarch. Other fugitive peoples, such as the Ba-Kulabes (Caba^), and the Ba-Koroka, probably of mixed origin, roam the western slopes of the hills, being also utterly powerless to offer the least resistance to the European or native invaders. On the opposite side of the mountains dwell the Ba-Kankalas, a dwarfish tribe with large paunch and yellowish complexion, who would seem, like the Ba-Kwandos and Ba-Kwisses, also to represent the Bushman stock amongst the surrounding Bantu peoples. The descendants of these aborigines have held their ground most successfully in the southern districts of Angola, where they are still concentrated in the largest numbers. But here also the ever-advancing Bantu populations have acquired possession of the land, and the Bunda language has already become the prevalent form of speech. On the right or Portuguese side of the Cunene, the chief nation are the Ba-Simbas (Ba-Ximba, Ba-Shimba), the Cimbebas of Duparquet and other ethnologists Tlic upper basin of the Caculovar, chief affluent of the Cunene, belongs to the various tribes of the Ba-Nhaneka family, while the banks of the main stream itself are here occupied by the Ba-Nkombis. According to Nogueira, these two nations jointly comprise a population of over a hundred and forty thousand souls, all of Bunda speech and evidently of the same race as the northern Bundas. The local traditions attest that they formerly dwelt in the region about the head- waters of the Cuanza, whence they were expelled by the Ba-Nanos. Their customs, especially of the Ba-Nkombis, in some respects resemble those of the Arabs. Thus they shave the head, leaving only a tuft of hair on the crown, and respectfully remove their shoes before entering a friend's house. The houses " themselves resemble the dwars of the Mauritanian Beduins, and the commune is governed in the same way. Most of these tribes are independent, and even those paying a small tribute to some suzerain chief enjoy complete local self-govern- ment. Not even the hamba, or chief, literally the " more than man," can assert his will in all things, for he is surrounded by councillors, with whom all weighty matters have to be discussed, and whose views he has frequently to accept. When a hunter strikes down an elephant he presents the hamba with one of the tusks, but no other taxes are levied, except perhaps the fees exacted from suitors who come to plead before the tribunal of the "father." Although servi- tude exists, care is taken not to apply the name of slave to those in bondage, who THE SOUTH ANGOLAN TRIBES. 27 are comraouly designated as " sons," or "cousins." Nor are these altogether empty titles, for on the death of the legitimate heir — that is, the sister's son or uterine brother — the oldest slave succeeds to the estate, to the exclusion of the children themselves, or of the wives, who never inherit. When questioned by the European missionaries, both Ila-Nhanekas and Ba- Nkombis speak of a supremo god, and relate of the departed that " God has taken them unto himself." But to this deity they render no worship, whom in fact they confound with the sun. As pastors and husbandmen, their homage is chiefly reserved for animals — the ox that faithfully accompanies them from pasturage to jasturage, or even the snake that glides about their dwellings. Every Mu- Nhaneka has his favourite ox, and after death his remains, reduced by a peculiar culinary process to a sort of paste, are placed for burial in the hide of this animal. The great national feast, answering to our harvest home, is symbolised by a spotless white or black bull, who is led in the procession by the muene-hfimbo, or " chief pastor," and followed by a cow called the " mistress of the house." After the harvest the whole tribe, in company with the sacred oxen, goes in procession to the chief's residence, in order to consult the auguries and make preparations for the work of the new year. During the festival rejoicing must be universal, so that the very dead must cease to be mourned. Even the few crimes that may happen to be committed at this period of mutual good -will are overlooked, all inquiry for the delinquents being forbidden. Amongst these tribes of the Cunene basin all the youths are circumcised, this being the essential condition on which they are received as taba, that is to say, "equals." The Ba-Suto, or uncircumcised, are held in universal scorn and contempt ; and this, like all other painful operations, has to be endured without flinching. M. Nogueira, who resided eleven years amongst the natives of the Cunene valley, speaks with admiration of their dignified demeanour and of their civic virtues. Apart from the crimes which, as in all other countries, are inseparable from dynastic conflicts, no attacks are ever made against life or property, although all citizens go. armed, and enjoy complete exemption from police control. Such depravity, contentions, outrages, and misery as prevail have been introduced tntirely by the Portuguese. As in most other lands where Europeans have entered into direct relations with the natives, their influence is always baneful at first. Instead of improving, they begin by corrupting or even decimating the aborigines, and end at times by exterminating them. Before the conflicting elements can be reconciled, and all participate in the general progress, a period of strife intervenes, during which the weak too often succumb to the strong. , The Pretos and Europeans. The civilised blacks of Angola are uniformly designated by the name of Prcfos, while to those still keeping aloof from Portuguese influence is applied the synonymous expression Xrr/ros, often uttered in a contemptuous way. The Pretos are concentrated chiefly in the seaports and surrounding districts, where they are 28 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. brought into direct contact with the Europeans and the immigrant Cabindas, who no less than the whites must be regarded as the true civilisers of the inhabitants of Angola. Amongst the Pretos must also be included the Bunda communities of the Lower Cuanza, the Ambaquistas, or people of the Ambaca district in the Lu-Calla basin, and lastly the Bihenos, that is the natives of the Bihe plateau, which forms the divide between the waters flowing to the Cuanza, the Cunene, the Ku-Bango, and the Ku-Ndo basins. Amongst these more or less cultured Negroes it is by no means rare to meet well-informed persons, and from this element are derived most of those employed in the international traffic, as well as some of the colonial officials. Many even possess, or at least administer, extensive plantations. The Pretos, however, are essentially a mixed people, presenting every shade of complexion from an almost pure black to a hue light enough to class them as whites. Nevertheless, many of the practices prevailing amongst those dwelling in and about the towns still recall their primitive savagery. Mention is made by Ladislas Magyar of the vakunga, one of these barbarous customs still surviving down to the middle of the present century amongst the Mu-Ndombes settled in the neighbourhood of Benguella, who, at the same time, hold themselves as quite distinct from and superior to the savage Mu-Ndombes of the interior. In accordance with this vakunga, or " sale by auction," yoimg girls whose parents are not rich enough to defray the expenses of the sumptuous " wedding break- fast," are put up to the highest bidder, and in this way both contracting parties escape the reproach of a marriage performed without the customary festivities. The practice is still tmiversally observed amongst the Quissamas as well as the inland Mu-Ndombes. In the villages of the interior the bride joins in ths wedding procession plastered all over with a white clay, emblem of future happiness. In Angola the white element is represented only by a relatively small number of persons. Not more than about four thousand of the inhabitants are of European origin, and even of these nearly all have come with the intention of one day returning to the mother country. The Portuguese and other whites settled in Angola are either traders and artisans who hope to make rapid fortunes, or else Government ofiicials and soldiers, whose service in this remote colony entitles them to a double rate of promotion. Hence, it is not surprising that the territories comprised between " coast and coast," that is between the Congo and Zambese estuaries, are still for the most part an unknown region. Although indicated on the Portuguese maps as formin» a single Lusitauian domain, they have been traversed from ocean to ocean by a very small number of explorers. Europeans are rarely met who can be regarded as true immigrants, that have come with the intention of forming permanent homes on African soil. The reason is because for the Portuguese themselves all attempts at acclimatisation within the tropical zone are attended by risk. Doubtless, many cases may be mentioned of whites who have passed half of a long existence in the trading places along the coast, or on the plantations of the interior ; but even these seldom display the same energy and enterprise as their fellow-countr^^men in Europe. To preserve their health it is indispensable to abstain from manual labour in the sun, and all are obliged to move about in the tipoga, a kind of palanquin suspended from elastic palm-stems resting on the shoulders of two native porters. Speaking generally, it may be said that it is quite the exception
for whites, especially from the north of Europe, to succeed in adapting themselves to the climatic conditions of Portuguese Africa. North of Mossamedes the race never becomes acclimatised; all the settlements hitherto effected have perished miserably, and families can be kept alive only on the condition of returning to their native land. But the emigrants from Portugal or Madeira who have formed 80 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. settlements in the Mossamedes district, which already lies 1,000 miles south of the equator, here enjoy a relatively cool atmosphere, which is, at the same time, far less humid than that either of Loanda or of Benguella. Hence, instances of successful acclimatisation are here frequent enough, not only in the case of individuals but of family groups. Many natives of Portugal have reared a healthy offspring, with rosy cheeks and vigorous constitution. The race has here been perpetuated, although hitherto the mortality has normally exceeded the birth-rate ; and if few young girls are seen in Mossamedes, it is because they also emigrate, called away to found new homes in the other coast towns. The climate, which " eliminates " in the north, may thus be said to "assimi- late" in the southern province of Angola; and if while families can here maintain themselves on the seaboard, they naturally find still less difficulty in doing so on the breezy upland valleys of the interior. An irregular line embracing the whole of the Cunene bas n as far as the plateau separating it from the slopes draining to the Cuanza and Kwango rivers, roughly indicates the portion of the Portuguese possessions which has already become to a small extent a region of permanent colonisation. North of this parting line the territory can never become a colony in the strict sense of the term, and must always remain a mere ix)litical dependency useful only for its natural resources. The Portuguese are not the only whites who have begun to seek new homes in thrt southern parts of Angola. The immigration from the north has in recent times been increased by a corresponding movement from the j^outh of Africa. The Boers, descendants of the early Dutch settlers and of a few French Huguenot refugees, have continued as far as Angola the gradual northward advance begun by them some two centuries ago on the extreme southern shores of the continent. Steadily pushing forward from station to station, their farthest outposts have already reached the plateaux watered by the Upper Cunene. Notwithstanding the difficulties attending a first settlement, and despite the conflicts which have temporarily arrested and even driven back the onward movement, there can be no doubt that the Boers will ultimately secure a permanent footing in the Portu- guese territory, and thus contribute to the setvlement and progress of the country. Nor is this all, for in the general spread of European ideas, customs, and industries, account must also be taken of the Brazilian immigrants from the New World, who are partly Portuguese by descent, and altogether by language and social institutions. Most of them are certainly of mixed origin, and while they may claim to be Europeans on the father's side, as well as by name and family traditions, they must also be regarded as Africans in virtue of their maternal descent. These civilised half-castes thus constitute a natural intermediate element between the pure whites and the Negroes, between the colonists and the natives. Some share in the general civilisation of the country is also taken by the hybrid Hindus from Goa, chiefly priests, traders, and teachers, who are commonly known as " Canarians," because mainly immigrants from the district of Canara, on the west coast of India. The economic and social conditions of Angola have been completely revoluTHE SLAVE TRADE. 81 lionised during the last few years. For the throe centuries following the occupation of the land, the factories along the coast between the Congo and Cunene rivers traded exclusively in slaves. These stations were mere depots for the wretched captives destined for the Brazilian plantations, and mostly purchased in the interior by the traders of Sam Thome, descendants of the Jews banished to that island towards the end of the fifteenth century. The African coastlands having thus been depopulated for the benefit of the New World, it is not surprising that Angola has been so greatly distanced in material progress by the vast Brazilian empire. The number of blacks transporte 1 from Angola since the beginning of the sixteenth century has been estimated at about one million at least ; and to procure this multitude of slaves, the dealers in human flesh probably caused the destruction of three or four times as many in the slave- hunting exj)editiou8 and the terrible forced marches to the coast. No doubt the black cargoes received th'3 apostolic benediction wl^en setting sail, and at the time of Bastian's visit the stone seat was still shown at Loanda from which the bishop stretched forth his hands towards the parting hulks in order to bestow his episcopal blessing on their living freights. But it may be doubted whether the horrors of the middle passage were perceptibly abated for all this unctuous mummery. When, however, the traffic was checked, and at lust abolished alto- gether, about the middle of the present century, the broad Angolan uplands had ceased to be a hunting-ground for human quarry. But although the land now began to be slowly repeopled, the old trade in slaves was still continued from plantation to plantation, just as it flourishes at the present time throughout the Negro kingdoms of the interior beyond the Kwango river. The whole system of cultivation, as well as the colonial administration in general, depended on the forced labour of the serfs employed on the large domains ceded by the state to enterprising speculators. At last slavery was completely abolished in 1878 throughout the Portuguese possessions, where no native is any longer compelled to till a square yard of land which he cannot call his own. But the tenure of the land itself has not under- gone a corresponding change. Small freeholds, which tend so greatly to foster the self-respect and promote the well-being of the peasant, have not been substi- tuted for the extensive domains on which is based the ascendancy of a jwwerful landed aristocracy. Nevertheless such a radical change as the emancipation of the Negro cannot fail eventually to bring about a corresponding revolution in the prevalent system of manual labour. So also the ever- increasing importance of Angola, in the social economy of the African world, must necessarily ere long entitle this region to a larger share of local self-government, and to a funda- mental modification of the present system of complete dependence on the crown authorities resident in Lisbon. Topography. Although recognised by solemn international treaties as sole masters of the left bank of the Lower Congo, from Noki to Cape Padrfto, the Portuguese possess 82 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. no busy trading stations along this extensive section of the river. Nearly all vessels putting in to discharge or ship cargoes in the estuary stop either at Banana, Punta da Lenha, or Boma, all of which ports lie on the right bank, and consequently belong to the Congo Free State. The Portuguese side is thus almost deserted, and the water being shallower, is here loss favourable for navigation, while the riverain populations are more hostile to foreigners. The station of Santo- Antonio, although sheltered from the* west winds by the promontory of Cape PadrJio, is merely a military outpost without any local traffic. Quissaina, whose exuberant vegetation is a source of wonder to the traders of Boma, possesses three factories and some plantations, the produce of which is forwarded by a few light craft. The most frequented of all the riverain ports in Portuguese territory is Noki {Noqui), the Lukango of the natives, which is situated near the frontier, just below the cataracts. This haven, which is accessible to vessels of one thousand five hundred tons, has acquired some importance since the ivory trade has been transferred to the banks of the Congo, from the port of Ambriz on the seacoast. Noki is also the starting-point of travellers proceeding south-eastwards to San-Salvador, capital of the ancient kingdom of Congo, now tributary to the " King of the sea " residing in Lisbon. San -Salvador. Amhasv, the native city known to the Portuguese by the name of San- Salvador, occupies a commanding position worthy of an imperial capital which at one time ruled over all the land frotn the Gaboon to the Cuanza. It crowns the summit of a plateau of elliptical form, which stretches north and south for a distance of nearly two miles, with an average breadth of over half a mile. Towards the south, the valley of the Lueji, winding its way through a papyrus and grass-grown marshy tract, describes a semicircle round the escarpments of the plateau. On the east and west sides the narrow gorges, nearly 400 feet below the upper terraces, are traversed by rivulets, over which have been thrown suspen- sion bridges of twisted creepers Copious springs of pure water gush from the sides of the granite rock, which forms the base of this isolated plateau, and which is enclosed on all sides b)'^ old limestone formations. The " great fetish " of San-Salvador, formerly renowned throughout all the Angolan lands, has long lost its prestige, and the religious rites introduced by the Roman Catholic missionaries— Portuguese Dominicans and Italian Capuchin friars — had until recently been completely forgotten. Little survived of those times except a few inherited crucifixes, regarded by the chiefs as badges of authority, and the standard of the cross blessed by Pope Innocent* VIII., and still jealously guarded by the king as an aegis of his faded majesty. In the capital were also still preserved some images of saints, which were carried in procession with great pomp on certain festivals, accompanied by genuflexions and prayers, in which nothing but the merest traces could be detected of the ancient liturgy. Negro priests ordained at Loanda had from time to time visited the "congregations " at San-Salvador, in order to keep up a semblance of union between these communities and the rest of the Church. The names of those missionaries were inscribed on the trunk of a sacred tree standing in the centre of the town. But for some years a regular mission has again attached San-Salvador with the Catholic world. Baptist preachers are also endeavouring, although with no great success, to make, proselytes, especially among the slave children purchased from the surrounding tribes.
Under the influence of all these strangers some of the old superstitious
practices have disappeared, notably the ordeal of the poisoned cup; but polygamy still prevails, especially amongst the chiefs and rulers. The order of succession, which the missionaries had formerly endeavoured to make conformable to the Roman law, is not in the direct but the indirect line, from uncle to nephew, as amongst most African tribes. During the interregnum the executive authority is vested in a formidable dignitary bearing the title of Ma-Boma, or "Lord of Terror." The death of a king is accordingly regarded in a twofold sense as a national calamity. It is followed by a period of solemn mourning, during which all merrymaking, the dance and the song, are hushed in an all-pervading stillness. The natives remain confined to their huts, abstain from ablutions and almost from food, and even cease to till the land. For several months the body is preserved in a house facing the palace, adorned with a symbolic effigy of the sovereign, to which are religiously offered the usual daily meals. After the limbs have been
first broken and then dried, the remains are covered with a coating of clay and wrapped in strips of cotton and a silk shroud. Everybody contributes his share, until at last the swathed mummy-pack fills the whole width of the mortuary dwelling. When the remains are ultimately borne to the consecrated place of burial, the funeral procession must be made in a straight line, so that all the MUSSEEA. 8S
intervening houses have to be cleared awuy. Amongst the Mu-Sorongos the Icing
was not ofiicially interred for twelve years after his death, as if his subjects were
still reluctant to believe that he had passed away.
Since its return to the sphere of European culture, Sajj Salvador has already
been visited by a large number of travellers. l)om Pedro V., King of Congo,
who resides in the old city, has, like his forefathers, again become a vassal to the
crown of Portugal. French, Portuguese, and Dutch factories have sprung up in
the vicinity of the royal court, and missionaries, held almost in as great respect
as the king himself, have made the capital a centre of religious activity for again
gathering the surrounding |X)pulations into the Catholic fold. According to
Chavanne, they were able to boast of two thousand converts in 188j. Never-
theless the metrojx)lis is not very populous, containing in that year not more than
about seven hundred residents, including nine Europeans. But several hundred
visitors were temporarily attached to the place by the interests of trade, and porters
and packmen were continually plodding to and fro on all the surrounding highways.
In the San-Salvador district, the Lemheh market, at the converging point of
several routes, is the chief mart for caoutchouc within the zone of free trade south
of the Congo. Here the brokers and middlemen meet once or twice a month to
discuss business matters and exchange their commodities. A large open space
shaded with trees in the centre of the market was formerly a place of execution,
as the traveller is reminded by the blanched skulls still susj^ended from the
overhanging branches. Whenever a wretched culprit was beheaded, the members
of his family were said to be compelled to eat a few pieces from his hund.
South of Cape Padrao follow several factories surrounded by orchards and
plantations. Such are Mangue Grande, Mangue Pequrho {Great and Little Maugue),
and Cabc^a dc Cobra (" Snake's Head "), where sesame especially is cultivated, and
where may be purchased the fineut fetiches in West Africa, all carved by the
Musorongo artists.
Modilla and Ambrizcttej situated near the mouth of a river flowing from the
territorj'^ of the Mu-Shicongo people, enjoyed till lately some importance as out-
posts of the ivory trade. At present Ambrizctte largely exjwrts salt from the
neighbouring saline marshes. Beyond it the " PUar," a fine Portuguese pyramid,
and hills strewn with granite boulders weathered into fantastic forms, which at a
distance look like ramparts, towers, pillars, or obelisks, announce to the seafarer
the approach to Mmxera, formerly a prosperous city, whose powerful fetish, the
so-called "Mother of Waters," was still powerless to protect the place from the
ravages of small-pox and the sleep disease. This latter scourge did not make its
appearance in the region south of the Congo till the year 1870, when in a few
months it carried off two hundred victims in Mussera alone. The survivors fled
in alarm from their homes, and founded a new town in the neighbourhood.
During the cacimbo season, that is from June to August, the Mussera fisher-
men capture large quantities of the pungo, or singing fish, which is cured and
forwarded in all directions to the inland plateaux. To reach the fishing grounds
they brave the surf seated astride on two canoes coupled together, one foot in 86 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA.
each. From the bituminous sandstones of the Mussera district there oozes up a
kind of asphalt, which the natives say collects in little pools, but which they do
not allow the Europeans to visit.
Ambriz and Loanda.
Ambrtz, or rather Mbrish, so-named from a neighbouring river, is the only
port of call on the whole seaboard between the Congo estuary and Loanda.
Although it lias been occupied by the Portuguese since the year 1855, the
neighbouring roadstead of Quisscmbo, as well as the territory stretching thence
northwards, was left to the natives, so that foreign traders were able to carry on
business without being obliged to pay local dues to the Portuguese authorities.
Ambriz, whose various Henznlas, or quarters, are scattered over the face of a steep
cliff, has no harbour, nor any shipping accommodation beyond a pier, which
vessels may approach in calm weather. The open roadstead is sheltered only by a
low headland from the south and south-east winds ; but this part of the coast is
fortunately scarcely ever swept by storms. Ambriz was formerly visited by
numerous caravans conveying ivory from the San-Salvador region, and although
at present it exports very little of this commodity, its general trade has greatly
increased of lite years. Although lying beyond the Congo basin, it is situated
within the zone of free trade with the whole of the Angolan territory limited
southwards by the river Loje. Its staple export is coffee, which comes from the
plantations in the south-east, attracted to this port by its exemption from local
impost. Ambriz also forwards ground-nuts, caoutchouc, and the baobab bast
used in the manufacture of paper, the yearly value of all its exports being
estimated at from £160,000 to £200,000. The Brazilian jigger {pulcx penetrans),
originally introduced with the cargo of the Thomas Mitchell in 1872, has since
spread from this place throughout a great part of West Africa.
Ambriz is destitute of good routes towards the region of inland plateaux, and
especially towards Qnihilla, in the southern part of the Mu-Shicongo territory, as
well as towards Bembe. The latter is a fortrfied town standing 2,550 feet above
sea-level on a plateau separated from a peaked mountain by a deep valley
strewn with a number of malachite boulders, which appear to have been borne
thither by the action of water. Formerly the natives sold from two hundred to
three hundred tons annually to the Ambriz dealers. More recently an English
company was ruined in the attempt to work these deposits, nearly all the miners
introduced from Cornwall perishing in a few months.
The little fort of Sao Jose, or Das Pedrns de Encogi, is the chief strategical
station of the interior, but is much dreaded by the military convicts sent
here to die of fever. It crowns a bluff full of caves, which overlooks the upper
Loje Valley, and guards the frontiers of the kingdom of Congo. The surrounding
forests supply a large quantity of coffee, collected from the uncultivated plant.
South-east of Ambriz the seaboard as far as the Dande river is occupied by
the Mossul territory, which aboands in gum copal. This region is still very little known, although formerly erected by the Portuguese crown into a "Duchy" in favour of a Negro prince, on whose shoulders were tattooed the arms of Portugal, an indelible badge of which the bearer was not a little proud. This singular method of investiture was conferred on a Duke of Mossul so recently as the close of the eighteenth century. In the Dandé valley, which forms the boundary line Fig. 10. — Ambriz.
between the Ba-Fyot and Bunda populations, reservoirs of petroleum have been discovered, which, however, have hitherto been worked at a loss. For several generations the natives of the district have been so unruly that the European speculators have not yet ventured to establish factories in their midst. The upper Dandé valley is even still held by semi-independent Dembo 'tribes.
São-Paulo da Assumpcão de Loanda, or briefly Loanda, capital of their Angolan possessions, was the first town founded by the Portuguese on this coast. As it was also the most favourably situated for trading purposes, it naturally acquired a rapid development, and is at present the largest city on the West African seaboard for a distance of 3,000 miles, between Lagos and the Cape. Divided into an upper and a lower quarter, it spreads out in amphitheatrical form along the terraced slopes, terminating southwards in a rocky headland, on which stands the fortress of Sao Miguel. The somewhat open bay is partly sheltered from the ocean winds and surf by a strip of sand forming a continuation of a tongue of land which begins some 20 miles farther south, at the most advanced westerly point of the Angolan coast. This outer shore-line, which runs parallel with the inner seaboard, has been formed by the marine current which sets steadily in the direction from south to north close to the mainland. Towards the middle, however, it is pierced by a channel, the so-called bar of Corimba, through which light craft gain access to the bay. The northern extremity of this sandy rampart thus forms a long, low-lying island, whose shores are often flooded by the stormy
One year after the foundation of the insular settlement, Paulo Dias de Novaes,
grandson of the navigator who first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, secured a footing on the neighbouring coast, where by alliances with native chiefs and successful wars, the Portuguese gradually acquired possession of the surrounding territory. As a chief centre of the slave trade between Africa and Brazil, Loanda became a wealthy and populous city, where from twelve to fifteen vessels might at times be seen awaiting their turn to ship their living cargoes. But after the suppression of this traffic, itself a hindrance to the development of all legitimate trade, Loanda was all but ruined. Its population fell off, its buildings were forsaken, all business came to an abrupt end; the few remaining inhabitants, cut off 40 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. from supplies, ran the risk of periehing from hunger, and whole months passed without a single Portuguese or Brazilian vessel making its appearance in the port. Jiut although the planters predicted that the entire abolition of the slave trade would complete the ruin of Loanda and the whole territor}*, their forebodings have not been realised. The population, which numbered about twelve thousand in the middle of the present century, has even increased since then ; while the city, which for a time presented the appearance of having undergone a bombardment, has been enlarged and improved. The debris of churches and convents have been cleared away and replaced by promenades ; the narrow streets have been broadened, and the houses, built for the most part of Brazilian timber, proof against the attacks of termites, are well kept, well ventilated, supplied with verandahs, and painted in bright yellow, pink, or light blue colours. Over all the surrounding hills are dotted numerous musscqHes, or villas, nestling beneath the sliade of the baobab and other forest trees, which here thrive notwithstanding the poverty of the soil. But Loanda still continues to be an unhealthy place, and even recently the inhabitants were reduced to great straits for want of sufficient water, a well and a few cisterns being wholly inadequate to meet the demand. . Quite a flotilla of falavciras, or barges, had to bs daily sent for fresh supplies to the neighbouring river Bengo. At present the pure water of this stream is conveyed to the city bv means of a canal, which is also intended to be utilised for irrigation purposes. A beginn'ng has likewise been made with the line of railway which is to run throu<*'h the Zenza, or Upper Bengo valley, into the interior, and which must sooner or later be continued to the station of Ambaca, an important centre of trade with the surrounding Congoese populations. This railway, a first concession for which was made in 1875, is the initial section of the trans-continental line which is intended one day to traverse Portuguese Africa in its entire length from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Indian Ocean. More than half of the trade of Angola is centred in the port of Loanda, through which nearly all articles of European manufacture reach the interior. In exchange for these wares the inhabitants have little to offer beyond the produce of the local fisheries ; but from the inland districts they receive an abundance of colonial produce, especially coffee and caoutchouc. • The trade of Loanda is fostered by the ocean steamers which now regularly visit the roadstead ; but the port is unfortunately too shallow to enable them to approach the town. Down to the beginning of the present century the largest vessels were still able to ride at anchor within a few cable-lengths of the shore ; but this anchorage has been gradually encroached upon by the silting sands, and the beach has been enlarged at the expense of the bay, so that the naval fleet and Transatlantic packets are now obliged to cast anchor under the shelter of the sandy island nearly a mile and a half to the north of the city. Pending the completion of the railway intended to bring Loanda into direct conmiunication with the inland plantations, the best trade route is that offered by the course of the Lower Cuanza. Af ler rounding Cape Palmeirinhas and crossing the bar at its mouth, the coast steamers are able to ascend this great artery as far as the town of Dondo. One of the first riverain ports on the right bank is Calumbo, which may be regarded as the fluvial port of Loanda, which lies little more than 2° miles to the north-west, and which is connected by a good carriage 1oud with the Cuanza. It has also been proposed to construct a junction canal, us originally projected by the Dutch, who held possession of Loanda for a few years.
Nearly all the plantations in the rich valley of the Cuanza lie on the right bank, which is the lower and more fertile of the two. Here the vegetation
characteristic of moist tropical lands displays itself in all its splendour and exuberance; but here also the fluvial inundations are the most disastrous, often sweeping away the bougues, or embankments, together with the crops they were constructed to protect. The rich domain of Bom Jesus, where hundreds of hands are employed in distilling rum from the sugar-cane, has in this way frequently been wasted.
The only station on the left bank of the Lower Cuanza is Muzxima (Mushima), crowning the summit of a limestone hill, whence an extensive view is commanded of the territory of the savage Quissama tribes. Above a group of hovels at the foot of the hill rises a Christian church, which is regarded as a great "fetish" by all the inhabitants of the district, Catholics and pagans alike.
The trading station of Massangano, above the confluence of the Cuanza and Lu-Calla, owes its existence to the neighbouring coffee plantations of the Cazengo district. But here the chief centre of traffic is Dando, which lies at the head of the navigation of the Cuanza. It is a modern town, situated on the right bank of the river, in.a cirque surrounded by wooded hills, which prevent the free circulation of the air, The consequence is that the place is extremely unhealthy and from the local Portuguese traders has received the title of the "furnace," or "hell" of Angola. Here are manufactured porous earthenware vessels, and the native smiths employ European iron, although the neighbouring hills are very rich in ores of that metal. In the same district were formerly worked some silver
mines, which occur a little farther up near the cataracts of the Cuanza, and not far from the village of Cambanibé. The first attempt was made to secure possession of these mines in the year 1595, when the two hundred men forming the expedition were all massacred except seven, who escaped to report the disaster.
The most productive coffee district in Angola is the basin of the river Lu-Calla, which flows parallel with the Cuanza some distance above the confluence of both streams. The coffee-plant grows wild in the forests of this region, and in many places rich natural plantations are formed merely by the simple process of clearing the ground round about the trees. But the great plantations of the Cazengo, of Golungo-Alto, and neighbouring districts, have been created by the Portuguese and Brazilian settlers, originally employing the labour of slaves who have since become free labourers. The first fazendeiro who settled in the Cazengo territory came from Brazil in 1837. Eight years after beginning operations he AMBAOA. 48 was ablo to raise eight tons of coffee, and in 1880 as much aa two thousand five hundred tons were exported from this district alone. In the Lu-Culla basin the cotton-plant is also grown ; but this industry, which promised to acquire a great development during the American war of secession, at present yields pcx)r returns to the planters. The whole country abounds in mineral deposits, although little is work-nl except the iron ores, which have been famous from time immemorial for the excellence of the articles produced from them by the native metallurgists. The double blast b.dlows used by them are absolutely identical with those figured on the ancient monuments of f]g'pt. In the sands of the Golungo-Alto torrents is also found gold dust, but hitherto in insufficient quantity to yield any profit from the washings. This region of the Lu-Calla, one of the most picturesque and productive in the whole of Angola, was till recently entirely destitute of regular highways, so that the porters had to make their way to the coast-towns through the thoniy paths of the forests. A large part of the native traffic even took the direction of Ambriz, attracted thither by the cheap and abundant supply of commodities taken in exchange for the local produce. Pending the construction of the railway by which this produce may be forwarded direct to Loanda, all the foreign trade of the Lu-Calla basin is carried on by means of the steamers plying on the Cuanza. But to reach the riverain ports, the coffee has still to be conveyed by porters across th.e trackless forests. It is calculated that of the total annual trade of the Cuanza, estimated at over eleven thousand tons, about one-half is contributed by the Lu-Calla district. Hence, allowing a hundred pounds as an average load, the number of carriers, who yearly make the toilsome journey from the inland plantations to the banks of the Cuanza, must be reckoned at about a hundred and twenty-five thousand. Recently a road »H miles long has been opened between Dando and Cacullo, capital of the Cazengo district, which lies near the sources of the Lu-Inha, a southern affluent of the liU-Calla. This highway, which will henceforth dispense with human " beasts of burden," crosses two branches of the Lu-Calla by means of iron viaducts, the most remarkable work of man in the whole of the Angolan territory. PiinthOy which has been chosen as the terminus in the Ambaca district of the future railway from Loanda towards the interior, is situated, not on the Lu-Calla, but five miles west of that rivf r on a schistose and sandstone bluff, at the foot of which winds the Rio Pamba, a smalj affluent of the main stream. This station, which commonly takes the name of Ambaca, from the district itself, consisted of a single street with three houses and a dozen straw huts in the year 1879, when the engineers had already traced on the maps the definite course of the railway for 90 miles between Dando and Ambaca. The inhabitants, all clothed in black, presente:! a wretched funereal appearance, and the few travellers passing through the district asked with astonishment why this hamlet of all others had been chosen as the terminal point of a railway running for 210 miles, from the capital of the Portuguese possessions towards the interior of the continent. But Pamba owes this privilege to its rank as administrative centre of the countrj', to the extensive ground-nut and tobacco plantations of the surrounding district, to its position on the main caravan route penetrating fur into the kingdom of the Muato Yamvo, and possibly also to its past prestige. Ambaca was in fact formerly a populous and flourishing city, and the chief depôt and headquarters of the dealers who from that central point explored all the circumjacent lands in search of fresh markets. The Ambaquistas had become renowned throughout the Portuguese dominions for their wealth and enterprising spirit. Hence the needy servants of the crown intrigued and competed eagerly for promotion to a scarcely remunerative post, where they had every opportunity of rapidly making their fortunes. Such was their success that the inhabitants migrated, especially in the direction of Pungo-Ndongo, while trade sought ever fresh outlets. The
Ambaquistas have thus become more numerous in the conterminous provinces than in their original home; nor can the projected railway fail to repeople the country and open up its great natural resources.
In the upper valley of the Lu-Caila there are no large towns. Even Duque de Bragança, or simply Duque, the most advanced Portuguese station towards the north-east of the Angolan territory, is a mere presidio, or military post, much dreaded on account of the neighbouring malarious swamps caused by the overflow of the river, which flows east of the plateau crowned by the fort. Hence, few troops are sent to this station except military convicts, who avenge themselves by levying blackmail on the natives, under the disguise of Government taxes. As at Pamba, the result of this system of administration has been the PUNOO-NDONOO. 46 almost complete {le|K)pulution of the land. Although naturally very fertile and capable of growiug tobacco, cotton, and ground nuts, as well as European fruita eud vegetables, thanks to its altitude of nearly 3,500 feet above the sea, the district yields scurcely any agricultural produce. A short time before the ex- plorers Capello and Ivens passed thin way, a Jinga tril)e encampo<l in the vicinity of the fort move 1 off in the direction of the west, scared away through fear of being deprived of uU their cattle. Although lacking the agricultural importance for which the Lu-Calla valley is indebtefl to its extensive coffee plantations, the basin of the Cuanza mainstream is nevertheless much more frequented as a commercial highway. iJondo, the first riverain port, is followed eastwards by the town of Pungo-Ndongo^ the "Fetish of Ndongo,' chief depot of the dealers trading with the interior of the continent, and one of the historical cities of Angola. Here formerly resided the sovereigns from whom the Angolan territory took its name, and here the Portu- guese founded a permanent settlement so early as the year 1G71. This town, which lies at an altitude of about 4,000 feet above the sea, occupies a remarkable position in a highly picturesque district. In the middle of a vast plain stretch- ing southwards in the direction of the Cuanza, abruptly rises to a height of />00 or 600 feet, and even more, a group of conglomerate, schistose, gneiss, and porj)hyry crags, presenting the most varied and eccentric outlines. Some ha e the appear- ance of obelisks, others of domes, while most of them are dispo-sed in vertical turret-shaped peaks separated > narrow intei'ening crevasses, which are ren- dered conspicuous from a distance by the shrubs of dark green foliage with which they are overgrown. In some of these gorges — a very paradise of botanists, thanks to the endless variety of their plants — the trees are completely matted with parasitic creepers, which stretch from crag to crag in form of a vast canopy above the lower vegetation. In the flowering season this canopy of entangled lianas, itself now veiled by a dense mass of fiery red blossom, spreads out like a purple lake embedded between sheer rocky walls. . These beautiful rocks of Pungo- Ndongo are commonly known by the name of Pedras Negras, or *' lilack Stones," a designation, however, which is little deserx cd for at least a great part of the year. At the end of the dry season they assume rather a greyish hue. But in December, when the crevices of the rocks are flooded by lakelets foimed by the rains, the vertical sides exhibit blackif-h streaks which gradually broaden out downwards, at last completely covering the base of the cliffs as with a coating of black varnish. This coating is composed of myriads of tiny weeds of the scytonema family, which spring up during the rains but which disappear with the return of the dry season, sealing off and again revealing the natural greyish tint of the rock}' surface. On one of these picturesque eminences stands the fortress, while in an irregular cirque at its foot are grouped the huts of Pungo-Xdongo, environed by orange- groves and gardens, which are watered by rills of limpid water. Here are intermingled the fruit-trees of EurojK) and the Antilles, above which rise the spreading branches of a mighty baobab, associated with the first traditions of the place. Beneath the shadow of this tree was held the court of Queen Ginga, one of the great potentates of African traditional history. The rocks have also their local legends, some of them showing the fanciful imprint of human feet, others containing caverns whose galleries are supposed to give access to underground cities.
At Pungo-Ngondo daylight is of shorter duration than in the other towns oi Angola, This is due to the rocky heights, which delay the rising sun and hasten its setting rays; while the cliffs are often wrapped in fog and mist during the morning hours.
East of the "Black Stones," the commercial outpost of Loanda with the
interior is Malangé, a small town situated on a vast grassy plain which, during the rainy season, resembles a boundless field of wheat. Northwards stretch some morasses, Which might be easily drained and which are the source of some rivulets flowing to the Cuanza below a series of romantic cascades. Malangé is still a Portuguese station, being occupied by a small garrison; and here also reside some white traders, who have introduced the national currency. But beyond this point all European coins have to be exchanged for bales of cloth and other objects of barter. Here are organised, for their long inland journeys, the quibucas, or caravans of traders, agents, brokers, and porters, which penetrate beyond the Kwango, trading with the surrounding nations and wild tribes as far BlUfe. 47 as tbe region of the great lakes, and bringing back such commodities as ivory, wax, and caoutchouc. The southern trade route which starts from Benguella, JiOO miles south of Loanda, also possesses in the Cuanza basin an outlying station towards the interior. It lies, however, much farther south than Malang<?, on the upland j)Uiin where are collected the farthest headstreanis of the Cuanza. Jiclmonte, us this post is called, is not a military station. It was long the residence of the famous Portuguese traveller, Silva Porto, one of the few explorers who have crossed the continent from ocean to ocean, besides also visiting many hitherto little-known regions of the interior. The village of Belmonte, as well as the town of Cangombi, residence of the most powerful local chief, is commonly designated by the name of liihe (Bie), a term applied to the whole plateau, some 5,000 feet above the sea-level, which forms the waterparting for the streams flowing north to the Cuanza and south to the Ku- Bp.ngo. According to Cappello and Ivens, the lUhenos, who number altogether about twenty thousand, present no very distinct physical type. Descending from peoples of the most varied origin, brought by wars and slavery to this plateau, and having also introduced all manner of usages acquired during their long wanderings over the continent, they possess few characteristic points beyond their common love of gain and inborn capacity for trade. As many of them have also learned to read and write, a Portuguese dealer must be himself more than usually shrewd to get the better of the Bihe agent in their mutual bargainings. As a rule, the advantage is always on the side of the latter in the international dealings. The land thus enriched by profitable commercial pursuits might also become one of the granaries of the continent ; for the reddish silicious clayey soil is extremely fertile, and during the rainy season vegetation seems, so to say, to spring up with u visible growth. Capello and Ivens, who organised their expedition for the interior near Belmonte, obtained in two months abundant crops from a piece of ground near the camp, on which beans, maize, and other cereals had been carelessly scattered. One of the natives assured them with the utmost seriousness that, during the rainy season, he had one day stuck his freshly-cut staff into the mud in front of his hut, and stood at the door spinning a long yam to his relations seated round al)out, and that, before he had finished, he found himself under the shade of a mighty tree, whose existence was totally unknown to him, but which on examination he found to be his staff, that had taken root, shot out branches and leaves, and showed signs of bursting into flower. The vegetation of this region nmst be marvellously rapid to give rise to such popular " yarns." Travellers coming from the wilderncpscs of the interior speak in enthusiastic language of this " earthly paradise," where, after long periods of scarcity and hardships, they suddenly find an abundance of exquisite fruits and vegetables. The rich plateau of Bihe has accordingly been spoken of as a promising field of future colonisation for the hard-pressed Portuguese peasantry. But during the 48 SOUTH AND EAST AFEICA. rainy season fevers are here unfortunately scarcely less dangerous tlian on tLe lowlands, and many of the natives also suffer from goitr»{. American missionaries have recently established themselves in the district ; but their principal station lies farther west, in the territory of the Bailundos, which Ladislas Magyar calls the " heart of the Bundu country." The chief article of exchange introduced by the Biheuos into the interior is the fazcnda, or bale of cotton, either plain or striped, of English manufacture and generally of rather inferior quality. The baneful Hamburg brandy, more or less mixed with drugs and diluted with water, is also a great article of exchange with nearly all the surrounding tribes. The caravans supply them, moreuver, with rifles, powder and shot, and other munitions of war, besides tablets of salt, brass wire, white and red china beads, and glass trinkets, mostly importel through England from Bohemia. Umbrellas and nightcaps are also much sought after in the kingdom of the Muata Yamvo and conterminous states. Traders have, lastly, to provide themselves with carpets, rugs, uniforms, embroidered fabrics, and other more costly wares, as presents for the chiefs, whose permission they have thus to purchase in order to transact business with their subjects. In exchange for these European commodities, tlie dealeis bring back ivory, caoutchouc, wax, honey, palm-oil, and skins of wild animals. The porters, hired either for the whole journey or for a certain distance, are loaded with burdens never weighing less than a hundred and seldom more than a hundred and thirty- five pounds, the weight varying according to the season and the difficulties of the route. The porter also frequently procures the assistance of another native, and at times, turning trader himself, he is accompanied by one or more women, who carry his provisions and the purchases he makes on setting out. His services are paid either partly or altogether in advance ; but the tribal chief, in whose presence the contract price is stipulated, becojnes responsible for the conduct of the porter in case of his making off with the goods or deserting the caravan. On the other hand, the merchant is held to be answerable for all the crimes or offences committed by his retainers in the districts visited by the convoy. The least infringement of the local usages gives rise to interminable " palavers," which are invariably concluded by the imposition of a fine on the stranger. The traders, journeying from land to land, are for the most part provided with the itnpemha, or passport, which, however, is not inscribed en paper or parchment, but made non-transferable by being painted on the body. At the starting-place they present themselves to the chief to explain the projected journey and make the customary offering of a sacrificial animal and a rag dipped in blood. The traveller must carefully preserve this precious talisman, as well as a piece of chalk, with which the chief traces certain cabalistic signs on his forehead, breast, and arms ; and when these signs get effaced he renews them with the chalk, taking great care not in any way to alter their form. South of the Cuanza the coastlands, occupied by the Quissamas and other still independent natives, have no groups of habitations beyond a few little bartering stations scattered over a space of about 120 miles. The fortalice of Benguella BENOUELLA. 49 Ve//>a, or " Old Benguella," which was erected in the fifteenth century on a head- land overlooking the north side of the Cuvo estuary, has been abandoned. The town of NocO'Redoiiih, which replaces it some distance farther nouth, is a mere cluster of hovels perched on a cliff nearly inaccessible from the sea. At the foot of the escarpment, and of a fortress founded in 1769, flows the little river Gun/a, fringed with shady palms, but obstructed at its mouth by a sandy bir. Accorrling to Ladislas Magyar deposits of sulphur occur at some distance inland, but they lie idle, as do also the copper mines of Sumhi-Anibela, near the mouth of the Cuvo. Quicomho, south of Novo-Redondo, is a group of factories and a re- victualling station for passing ships. Egito or Lucito, midway between Novo-Redondo and Benguella, is merely a military post commanding the entrance of the river of like name. Till recently it was, so to say, permanently blockaded by the surrounding tribes, so that about every two months the little garrison had to close the gates and fire on the assailants. Benguella, capital of the central province of the same name, although a much smaller place than its northern rival, Loanda, presents none the less a charming prospect, being pleasantly grouped in amphitheatrical form on the slopes of a steep escarpment. Its low but spacious houses, enclosing large courts and sur- rounded by gardens, occupy a considerable space, which is still further extende 1 by the public promenades and shady avenues The citadel of San-Filippe, from which the town itself takes its official designati »u, was erected in 1617 on the headland which projects seawards on the south west side The rivulet of Cavaco, which in the dry season is merely a sandy bed, flows to the north of the town some miles beyond the point where the Catunihclla reaches the coast. This river, which during the floods gives access to the quays of a small trading station, is commanded by a fort of the same name. The hills encircling Benguella are clothed with brushwood, which till recently was the haunts of wild animals. The inhabitants being too few to protect them- selves from their inroads, artillery had to be employed to scare away the elephants, who were laying waste the neighbouring plantations. The white jwpulation con- sists partly of convicts or criminals banished to this remote station, while the mixed native element represents all the races in the Portuguese possessions in Africa. Bihenos here jostle natives of Cabinda, Ambaquistas mingle with Kiokos, and when the caravans reach the Catumbella river from the interior, the observer might fancy himself suddenly transported to s( mc market town in the kingdom of the Muata Yamvo. Several European traders have built their villas along the neighbouring beach, which being exposed to the marine breezes is more healthy than Benguella. This seaport, whose annual exchanges average from £'200,000 to £240,000, is connected with the Bihe plateau by a trade route or track, which runs eastwards along the valley of the Catumbella. But two other and longer routes make a detour to the south, one by the valley of the Cavaco and the village of Sapa, the other by the basin of the Capororo river. This watercourse, which separates the 101— A7 50 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. Dombe-Pequcno district on the north from that of Dombe-Graude on the south, serves in its lower course to irrigate extensive sugar-cane plantations used for the manufacture of spirits. The sands of the fluvial bed, when the waters have been evaporated by the summer heats, are also cultivated, yie'ding abundant crops of maize and manioc. The flour packed in bu-^hels is forwarded in large quantities to Benguelhi and to the landing stage on tlie bay of Caio, a small marine inlet at the mouth of the Capororo. Although this river flows on the surface only during the rainy season, its bed is always dangerous to cross near the sea, where occur numerous sinks and pools of deep water, and here and there quagmires concealing an underground current, in which the careless wayfarer runs the risk of being swallowed up. The two districts of Dombe have acquired some importance from their mineral resources, the gneiss formations near the Cuio inlet containing pocke's of rich copper ores, as well as lodes of argentiferous lead. The neighbouring hills of gypsum, fonning the backbone of the country in the direction of Benguella, also contain enormous masses of pure sulphur. Monteiro noticed an eminence which seemed to be composed entirely of this substance, while from the selenite deposits he was able to extract some excellent plaster, fully equal to that obtained in the Paris basin The upper course of the Capororo, here known as the Calunga, traverses the ri<^h valley of Qitilkngiies, where resides a powerful chief. Tliis upper basin, lying at an altitude of from 2,^^00 to 3,300 feet above the sea, still presents a tropical aspect in its exuberant vegetation, although herds of cattle now graze in the extensive forest clearings. The Ba-Nano wild tribes occupying the northern districts frequently make incursions into the Quillengues Valley in order to raid (m these herds. They an^ said to have the power of inducing the animals to follow them spontaneously over hill and dale merely by the device of beating to time two ])ieces of stick, and at intervals repeating certain notes of call. The rugged Serra Vis*ecua, which has to be crossed in order to descend from Quillengues eastwards down to the Cunene basin, is of very difficult access, but was traversed by the explorers Capello and Ivens at an elevation of 4,800 feet. South of Benguella and Dombe the first centre of population occurring on the coast is the prosperous modern town of Mossamedcs, from which the southernmost province of Angola takes its name. In 178.5 the Bay of Angra do Xegro, the Little Fish Bay of the English, had aire idy received this appellation in honour of a certain General Mossamedes ; but the first Portuguese settlement in the district dates only from the year 1840. The new colony developed more rapidly than the old facl-ories and establishments on the Angolan coast farther north, and although it does not take, like Benguella, the title of " city," Mossamedes is a larger place, of all the towns in the Portuguese African possessions yielding to Loanda alone in population. ]n 1884 nearly three hundred and fifty natives of Madeira joined the colony, which has a relatively larger proportion of whites than any other place along this coast. While the European and Brazilian immigrants settle in
other places for the most part without their families, they generally come to 
Mossumedes with their wives and children, althouj^h even here the mortality is
iilways in excels of the births. The relative prosperity enjoyed by thin southern
town is in part also due to its privilej^e of never havinj^ been a centre of the slave
trade, like Benguella and Loanda. Hitherto it has been chiefly occupied with
fishing and agricultural pursuits.
The iH)rt of Mossaniedes is shelt^jred from all winds and sufficiently deep to
allow large vessels to ride at anchor close inshore. liut on arriving on this
desolate-looking coast, with its dunes, sandy plains, and rocky escarpments
encircling a few groups of houses and rows of palms, the visitor asks what such
an arid region can sui)ply for an exjx>rt trade, which in any case scarcely exceerls
il()(>,000 annually. Jiut if the soil is ungrateful the sea at least is bountiful,
teeming with every variety of animal life. The fishermen on the coast capture
and cure thousands of large fish w hich re-^emble the cod, and from which they
extract an abundance of " cod-liver oil " for ex])ortation. And although the land
round about ISIossamedes is too barren and waterless to be profitably cultivated, the
beds of the wadys which wind between the hills are highly j)roductive. Here
gardens, banana and orange groves, cotton and sugar-cane plantations, develop a
continuous zone of magnificent vegetation, while sugar refineries have already
been established by the immigrants from Pernambuco. The cultivated tracts
along the Rio liero and the liio Giraul, a few miles north of Mos.saraedes, yield
excellent returns to the husbandman, and farther inland the stoi-kbreeders raise
large herds of cattle for the markets of the Cape and the Gaboon. As in Kafirland
and the Dutch South African republics, the so-called hni-caraUoa, or "riding-oxen,"
are bred by the farmers, so that the southern province of Angola is already to
some extent connected by the customs of its inhabitants with the regions of
the Cape.
Mossamedes communicates with the eastern slope of the coast range by a
natural route partly improved by the labour of man, who has had here and there
to remove obstructions and reduce the incline in the more difficult sections. Some
of the heights hitherto inaccessible to pack-animals have thus been rendered
practicable by a series of cuttings and zigzags cliinbing the slopes of the hills.
The waggons and teams of the Dutch immigrants are now enabled to cross the
Chella Mountains and descend into the ^Mossamedes district.
On the western slope of these highlands the most important station is the
fortified post of CnpaiKimnhe, where are to be had provisions and stores of goods
for the barter trade. Along the route water .sometimes fails, although reservoirs
are usiiallv maintained in the cavities of the granite rocks. The I'edra Grnnde,
one of the.se natural basins, consists of an isolated block rising in the midst of the
plain, acd hollowed out with such perfect reg^arity that it looks like the work of
man. A few plantations are scattered amongst the more humid depressions
watered by springs or brooks. The pa.ss across the Chella range, standing at an
altitude of about 5,400 feet, forms a pleasant grassy tableland, irrigatetl by limpid
streams, and recently brought under cultivation by the Portuguese coffee and
sugar-cane planters. 62 SOUTH ANT» EAST AFRICA.
The Cunene basin, which is reached after crossing the Chella Mountains,
contains in its upper parts a few little outposts of the Portuguese dominion.
These stations promise one day to acquire a certain importance as rallying points
for immigrants, but have hitherto remained obscure hamlets. Even the military
post of Caconda, lying on a plain traversed by a western affluent of the Upper
Cunene, had till recently been almost abandoned by traders, the caravans of the
Ganguella tribes conveying nothing but a little ivory and wax to this station.
The Nanos, Iluambos, and other local tribes have withdrawn to a distance in order
to avoid the oppressive imposts levied by the chefes who represent the Portuguese
authority. Some of the sobas, or native chiefs, whose predecessors had regularly
taken the oath of fidelity to the King of Portugal, lately refused to do so any
longer, and the vast and fertile plain, which might easily support a population of
a million, is said to have not more than eight thousand inhabitants.
Nevertheless it seems impossible that such a favoured land can fail to become
a flourishing agricultural and commercial region. At this mean altitude of about
5,400 feet above the sea the temperature is mild, and the country, if not entirely
free from fever, as has been asserted, is at least relatively salubrious. Here all
the plants of the temperate zone flourish by the side of a sub-tropical vegetation,
and coffee would certainly succeed, to judge at least from the oriango, or will
species, found growing in +he forests.
In its vegetation, its running waters, and genial climate, Caconda (5,650 feet)
is a land of promise, which some Transvaal Boers have already vi>ited in order to
study its resources and found settlements. Several Portuguese, mostly convicts,
own a few gardens planted round about a little fort which dates from the seven-
teenth century. The Portuguese administration is also now engaged in improv-
ing the highways leading from Caconda and the Upper Cunene north-westwards
in the direction of Benguella.
The station of Iluilla, at the eastern foot of the Chella Mountains, has recently
outstripped Caconda, thanks to its greater relative proximity to the sea-coast, and
to the arrival of some Dutch settlers from Transvaal. A Catholic mission under
French control has also established itself at Huilla, where the priests have
founded a college for educating the children of the traders residing on the coast.
The dwellings are surrounded by gardens growing European plants, and avenues
of the eucalyptus fringe the banks of the torrent which flows to the Caculovar,
chief affluent of the Cunene.
On a terrace to the north of Huilla has been founded San-Januario, the
principal Boer station, which also takes the name of Humpata from the surround-
injj district. Here are scattered the neat little cabins with wooden frames,
thatched roof, and cowdung floor, built by the Afrikanders on the model of their
Transvaal dwellings. During this long trek, or exodus from their southern
homes, the Boers had to endure great hardships and privations, as they drove
their herds before them, plodding wearily from pasturage to pasturage, sojourning
for months together in some more favoured localities in order to recruit their
strength, but again exposing themselves to the inclemency of the weather, and HUM1>ATA. 58
facing the perils of forced marcht's across the waterless wilderness. Many
perished of exhaustion, and the rejwrt even spread that all had succumbed. Hut
towards the close of the year 18H0 some four or five hundred survivors at last
reached the promised land, distant more than 1,200 miles from the mother country.
But even here under this favoured climate of Mossamedes the fates still pursued
them ; small-pox broke out amongst the new arrivals and decimated iheir ranks;
nearly all the horses, which they had brought with them to the great terror of
the natives, died of fatigue; all the flocks of sheep disappeared together with
two-thirds of the horned cattle. Despair seized many of the settlers, who em-
barked for the Cape ; others retracing their steps endeavoured to return overland
to Transvaal, while others resuming the trek penetrated from stage to stage
farther into the Cunene basin and the region of the inland plateaux. But some
few held out against fate itself.
At present the plains of Hunipata, being carefully cultivated and irrigated by
well-constructed canals, yield an ample supply of provisions for the inhabitants.
The Boers are also endeavouring to increase their live-stock from the few animals
that survived the trek across the desert. As hunters they pursue the elephant
and hippopotamus, utilising the fat in the preparatioli of soap, and they have als(i
turned to mining in order to smelt the iron ores of the neighbouring rocks and
wash the streams for gold dust. Others again have become traders, journeying as
far as Walvisch Bay in the Damara country to purchase European wares, and
acting as conveyors between Huilla and the port of Mossamedes. Their indus-
trious habits have thus enabled them to acquire a certain degree of comfort, while
also ensuring the pennanency of their settlement. Since their arrival the trade
between both slopes of the coast-range has been more than doubled.
Although very suspicious of their Portuguese neighbours, who speak another
language and profess a different belief, they have nevertheless reconciled them-
selves to the contact of these "aliens," even protecting them against the incur-
sions of various marauding tribes, to whom is applied the collective designation of
" Hottentots." Some marriages have even already been contracted between the
Portuguese and the daughters of the Uyaras, as the immigrants from Transvaal
are locally called. Hitherto nothing has been required of them beyond a purely
theoretical recognition of the Portuguese suzerainty, which is represented at
Humpata by a single official. Fcr all communal matters they have been per-
mitted to retain complete self-government.
From these first groups various branches have already been detached, which
have proceeded to found fresh settlements in various other piirts of the country.
But the tide of German immigration has not yet penetrated into the Upper
Cunene basin, notwithstanding the efforts that had been made to divert it to that
region. The peasantry have hitherto rejected the bait held out to them by the
traveller Dewitz, who in 1884 acquired possession of a large piece of land for the
purpose of founding colonies in the Luceque district about the confluence of the
Catapi and Cunene rivers.
East and south of Huilla the other military and missionary stations, such as Gambos and Humbé (Kumi), have hitherto remained mere groups of cabins inhabited by the natives. Along this marshy tract of the Middle Cunene the white population has so far been represented only by # few solitary individuals, Fig. 17. — Tiger Bay and the Cunene.
chiefly fishermen attracted by the multitude of fish in this part of the stream. The section of the seaboard lying between Mossamedes and the estuary, political boundary of Angola, has also remained almost uninhabited. Yet this part of the coast presents the rare advantage of the two excellent havens of Bahia Pinda (Port Alexander) and Bahia dos Tigres (Great Fish Bay), both formed by sand-banks deposited in a line with the coast, and connected by a narrow strip with the mainland. On the lofty headland of Cabo Negro, which commands the northern entrance of Port Alexander, are still visible the remains of a pedrão, or a stone block erected in 1485 by Diego Cam to commemorate his discoveries. A similar memorial pile crowns the summit of Cape Santa-Maria, between Dombe-Grande and Mossamedes.
Despite the fertility of its plateaux and river valleys, Angola still remains one of those African lands in which hunting and fishing continue to have almost as much importance as husbandry. But this could scarcely be other wise in a region which was formerly depopulated by the slave trade, and where the desolate seaboard consequently presents but few plantations and cultivated tracts. At the same time the withdrawal of wild animals towards the interior, and the reckless destruction of forests along the coast continually diminish the natural resources of the land, and give a correspondingly greater relative value to the products of human industry. Ivory, which next to slaves was formerly the most valuable commodity exported from Angola,[1] tends to disappear, while the tusks obtained from the more inland regions are forwarded by the Congo route.
In the same way the supply of caoutchouc, which was at one time exported to the yearly value of from £120,000 to £160,000, will necessarily fall off when the lianas from which it is extracted shall have disappeared from all the districts near the seaboard. The orchilla moss used in dyeing,Fig. 18. — Chief zones of useful plants in Angola.
which hangs in festoons from the branches of the baobab and other large forest trees, has already become much scarcer than formerly; gum copal, however, which is annually forwarded from the Angolan ports, is still found in abundance on the coastlands, and is supplemented by large quantities of wax brought down from the interior by the natives. The modern industrial arts have, moreover, imparted a special value to numerous natural products of Angola for which hitherto no use could be found. The palms yield their oils, fibre, and fruits; the acacias offer their gums and resins; the euphorbias supply their sap, the so-called almeidina, or starch extract; while from the baobab are obtained the bark and bast, which serve for the manufacture of cordage, paper, and even cloth. And how many vegetable growths are still met in the forests, whose wood, leaves, gums, or fruits might be utilised for their industrial or medicinal properties! Amongst these plants there are some the timber of which is proof against the attacks of the destructive termite. Angola is also rich in mineral resources, chief amongst which are the extensive copper ores.
The chief cultivated plants are those which yield alimentary substances for the local consumption. Manioc, which is grown principally in the northern districts of Angola, is replaced in the southern provinces by maize, millet, and sorgho. The European fruits and vegetables, as well as the Chinese tea plant, have also been introduced, and thrive well at least in the upland valleys. Since the year 1840 potatoes have been grown by the Biẖenos in the region forming the great divide between the Cuanza, Kwango, and Cunene basins. The coast towns are generally surrounded by gardens, the umbrageous arimos of Loanda being
rivalled by the more productive hortas of Mossamedes. Even the vine has been planted in some districts, and tobacco, cotton, and ground-nuts are also included amongst the products of the country. Mossamedes cultivates the sugar-cane, which serves chiefly for the distillation of spirits. But the staple agricultural product is certainly the coffee berry. Since the middle of the present century this industry has acquired a rapid development not only in the Cazengo district, but also throughout the basin of the Lu-culla and all its affluents.
Stockbreeding has but slight economic importance on the coastlands. Between the Congo and Cuanza estuaries there are no herds of horned cattle, and the attempts made in many places to raise oxen, horses or mules have resulted in RESOUECES OF ANGOLA. 57 failure. Even dogs lose their scent and perish, and at Bemb^ cat« become paralysed in a few mouths after their arrival. The meat-markets along the seaboard are supplied mainly from the inland platejux, although stockbreeding succeeds very well almost everywhere south of the Cuanza. The formidable tsetse fly, which infests such extensive tracts in Eust Africa, is unknown in Angola, where cattle discuses are also generally less fatal than in the Zambe^e and Limpopo basins. A baneful inheritance bequeathed by the institution of slavery is the prevailing system of largo landed estates. Nearly all the domains belonging to the planters are of vast extent, comprising many hundreds and even thousands of acres, and what is worse, the proprietor rarely, and in some districts never, resides with his family on the plantation. In this respect, however, the province of Mossamedes presents a happy contrast to the other parts of Angola. Here the land is owned in much smaller lots, and many planters dwell in the midst of their labourers. .The grunts made in this agricultural region can never exceed 150 acres, whereas in the central and northern provinces the vast domains are still administered pretty much in the same way us in the days of Negro servitude. In fact on most of the?e plantations the so-called contratados, or coolies hired by contract, are temix)rarily attached like serfs to the glebe, working under the direction of Portuguese gangers or task-masters. Slavery no doubt is abolished, but not so the custom of long contract service, so that the natives are even hired and despatched to the plantations of Sao-Thome for periods of two, four, or even five years. At the same time, most of the hands employed on the great estates are so indebted to thi ir masters that they can scarcely hope ever to become quite independent. AVages run very low, and the money used in paying the Negroes is of less intrinsic value than that current amongst the whites. The reiH fracon, intended for circulation amongst the Negroes, represents only three-fifths in value of the corresponding reis fortes, legal currency. Beyond the plantations slavery still flourishes amongst the native populations in defiance of the law. The slave is of course aware that he might claim his freedom in any Portuguese town ; but custom is here stronger than right, and he dare not enforce his claim. Doubtless he is honoured with the title of •' son," like the reul offspring of his owner ; but he is not the " uterine son," but only the " son of barter," or of the "cotton-bale." Industry in the strict sense of the term is still in its infancy, although there exist in some parts of the country certain factories or workshops where the native hands have learnt to make use of European appliances. Such are the important brickfields near Ijoanda, besides numerous manufactories of matting in the Cuanza valley, and several distilleries and cigar factories in the coast towns, while 3Hossamedes even boasts of both a spinning and a weaving mill, founded by an Alsatian. The locomotive also has made its apix?arance at Loanda on the line of railway now being constructed from the coast to Ambaca. The telegraph system has been developed in the interior as far as the coffee plantations, and small steamers ply on the river Cuanza. Good carriage roads now connect Loanda 68 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. with the two neighbouring rivers, Dondo with the Lu-Calla, Donilje- Grande with Cuio, Catumbella with Beuguella, and Mossamedes with the various settlements founded in the southern province. But in spite of all these public facilities and improvements, the foreign trade of Angola has not increased as rapidly as might have been expected. Of late years it has even diminished, at least in appearance, owing to the displacement of large streams of traffic. The public tariffs are so exorbitant that traders naturally seek an outlet for their produce in the free zone of the northern districts. Even those of the Cunene and Humpata prefer to send their waggons across the swamps and hills to Walviseh Bay, a distance of o4() miles in a straight line, rather than make their purchases in the neighbouring port of Mossamedes. Over two-thirda of the foreign trade of Angola is carried on with England, and nearly all the imported textile fabrics are of British manufacture. The Portuffuese merchants derive but little benefit from this movement, fully five- sixths of the whole trade of the country being diverted from the ports of Lisbon and Oporto. Hence the current remark that the part played by the metropolis on the Angolan seaboard was merely that of coast-guirds in the service of foreign commerce. Public instruction is more developed in Angola than might be supposed, judging only from the numb^T of schools. Thousands of natives, descendants of those formerly taught by the missionaries, learn to read in their families hundreds of miles from any public educational establishments. The postal service and the relative importance of the press also testify to a higher general level of instruc- tion than that of some countries where schools are more numerous. An observa- tory has been founded at Loanda. The Portuguese province of Angola, to which the designation of " kingdom " is also sometimes applied, is in complete dependence on the central government at Lisbon. It is represented neither by elected members nor by special deputies, except to the Lisbon Cortes. Hence the administration is entirely carried on by instructions transmitted from Portugal to the governor-general, who resides at lioanda. This system of political pupilage, which cannot but retard the natural development of the colony, is explained if not justified by the handful of Europeans scattered over a vast territory, nearly all of whom are moreover either government officials, traders, or exiles, whose chief interests and moral ties are still rooted in the mother country. The only object of the traders and their assistants is to make rapid fortunes, or at least amass sufficient wealth to enable them to spend the rest of their days in comfort at home. The officials and military follow their vocation abroad in the hope of more rapid promotion on their return to Europe, while the d('(/rcda(/os, or convicts, have to recover the rights of citizenship by a long residence in the colonies. During the decade from 1872 to 1881 not more than 3,348 immigrants settled in the country. The natives have on their part preserved their primitive method of government, except in the vicinity of the towns and plantations, where the traditional bonds of the tribe or clan become loosened or broken. As a rule the ADMINISTRATION OF ANGOLA- 69 blacks still elect their own aohri (chief), or else iickiiowlwl^e him according to the laws of suecessiuii in the several tribes, which sometimes runs in the direct line from father to son, but more commonly from brother to brother or else from unclo to sister's son. liut by the side of the soba, whose autonomy increases in direct proportion with his distance from the Portuguese military' «tations, there reside the c/ufix, or jx)liiical agents, apiniintcd by the governor of Loanda. These chefes claim the right of interfering under various circumstiinces in the internal affairs of the tribes, and apply themselves above all to the increase of taxation, more to their own benoHt than to that of the Portuguese treasury. In virtue of special decrees they had formerly the power of compelling the natives to work, and thus reducing them to the position of a disguised slavery, by exacting a certain share of unrcmunerated labour at their hands. They named at pleasure the persons who had to work gratuitously for them in the capacity of carregadorcx, or porters. Put this iniquitous system of corvee was abolished in the year 1S,06. The direct administration of Portugal bjing restricted to a few points on the coast and in the interior, and the local tribes being for the most part of a very docile disposition, not more than a few hundred Portuguese soldiers are required for garrisons in the military posts or for hostile expeditions. Hence the budget is almost entirely devoted to the civil service, the expenditure being partly covered by the customs. Nevertheless the public revenues are far from sufficing to cover the outlay, especially during the last few years. Thus its West African posses- sions have always been a burden to the mother country, as is the case with most colonial dominions which take no part in the local administration. The territory of Angola is divided into four districts, which are again sub- divided into concclliOH often of considerable extent. But some of these circles contain so few civilised inhabitants that it hjis been found impossible to establish any regular administration in them. A table of the distriets and concelhos, with their chief towns, will be found in the Appendix, (^f these towns two alone, Loanda and Benguella, rank as cidailrs, or "cities, all the rest being " villas " — towns, boroughs, or villages.
- ↑ Revenue of the Province of Angola in 1834: — Sale of slaves, £29,000, or four-fifths of the whole; other revenues, £4,000, or one-fifth of the whole.