Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/49

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THE PRETOS AND EUROPEANS.
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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

Fig. 7. — Routes of the Explorers who have crossed the Continent.

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