Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/82

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