Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/81

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