ANGOLA
AND
THE RIVER CONGO.
BY
JOACHIM JOHN MONTEIRO,
ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES, AND CORRESPONDING
MEMBER OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
_WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS._
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1875.
_All Rights Reserved._
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
COUNTRY FROM AMBRIZ TO LOANDA--MOSSULO--LIBONGO--BITUMEN--RIVER
DANDE--RIVER BENGO--QUIFANDONGO 1
CHAPTER II.
CITY OF LOANDA--NATIVES--SLAVERY--CONVICTS--THEATRE AND MORALS 20
CHAPTER III.
DIVISION OF ANGOLA--WRETCHED PAY OF OFFICIALS--ABUSES BY
AUTHORITIES--EVILS OF HIGH IMPORT DUTIES--SILVER MINES OF
CAMBAMBE--JOURNEY TO CAMBAMBE--EXPLORATION--VOLCANIC
ROCKS--HORNBILL--THE PLANTAIN-EATER--HYENAS 50
CHAPTER IV.
PROVINCE OF CAZENGO--GOLUNGO ALTO--GOLD--WILD COFFEE--IRON
SMELTING--FORMER MISSIONARIES--CUSTOMS--NATIVES--PRODUCTIONS 84
CHAPTER V.
RIVER QUANZA--CALUMBO--BRUTO--MUXIMA--MASSANGANO--DONDO--FALLS OF
CAMBAMBE--DANCES--MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--QUISSAMA--LIBOLLO 112
CHAPTER VI.
COUNTRY SOUTH OF THE RIVER QUANZA--CASSANZA--NOVO
REDONDO--CELIS--CANNIBALS--LIONS--HOT
SPRINGS--BEES--EGITO--SCORPIONS--RIVER ANHA--CATUMBELLA 151
CHAPTER VII.
TOWN OF BENGUELLA--SLAVE-TRADE--MUNDOMBES--CUSTOMS--COPPER--HYENAS--
MONKEYS--COPPER DEPOSIT--GYPSUM--HORNBILLS--BIRDS--FISH--LIONS 180
CHAPTER VIII.
COUNTRY BETWEEN BENGUELLA AND MOSSAMEDES--MOSSAMEDES--CURIOUS
DEPOSITS OF WATER--HYENAS--WELWITSCHIA MIRABILIS--MIRAGE 212
CHAPTER IX.
CLIMATE--COOKERY--DRUNKENNESS--FEVER--NATIVE
TREATMENT--ULCERS--SMOKING WILD-HEMP--NATIVE REMEDIES 233
CHAPTER X.
CUSTOMS--BURIAL--WHITE ANT--WASPS--FRUITS--SCENTS--SPITTING-SNAKE--
SCARABÆUS--LEMUR 268
CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION 307
* * * * *
APPENDIX 315
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
View of the City of St. Paul de Loanda _To face page_ 20
Bellows--Marimba--Native smiths--Rat-trap ” 93
Maxilla and Barber’s shop--Carrying corpse for burial--Quissama
Women, and manner of pounding and sifting meal in Angola ” 147
Mundombes and Huts ” 185
Native-smelted Copper--Powder-flask--Mundombe Axe--Manner of
securing Fish for drying--Hunters’ fetish (Benguella)--Manner
of carrying in the hand (native jug)--Gourd-pipe for smoking
Diamba--Wooden dish--Double-handled hoe ” 190
Welwitschias growing in a plain near Mossamedes ” 229
Pelopœus spirifex and nest--Devil of the Road--Dasylus
sp.--Caterpillars’ nests--Mantis and Nest--Manis multiscutatum
and Ants’ nests ” 277
ANGOLA AND THE RIVER CONGO.
CHAPTER I.
COUNTRY FROM AMBRIZ TO LOANDA--MOSSULO--LIBONGO--BITUMEN--RIVER
DANDE--RIVER BENGO--QUIFANDONGO.
The distance from Ambriz to Loanda is about sixty miles, and the
greater part of the country is called Mossulo, from being inhabited
by a tribe of that name. These natives have not yet been reduced
to obedience by the Portuguese, not from any warlike or valorous
opposition on their part, but entirely from the miserable want of
energy of the latter in not taking the few wretched towns on the road.
Incredible as it may appear, it is nevertheless a fact that to the
present day the Mossulos will not allow a white man to pass overland
from Libongo (about half-way from Loanda) to Ambriz, although this
last place was occupied in 1855, and several expeditions have since
been sent to and from Ambriz to Bembe and San Salvador. Nothing could
have been easier than for one of these to have passed through the
Mossulo country and to have occupied it, at once doing away with the
reproach of allowing a mean tribe to bar a few miles of road almost at
the gates of Loanda, the capital of Angola.
One of these expeditions, on its return from chastising the natives
of a town on the road to Bembe for robbery, was actually sent to
Loanda by road. The Governor-General (Amaral) was then at Ambriz,
and being unacquainted with the negro character, and having mistaken
humanitarian ideas, gave strict orders that the natives of Mossulo, who
had committed several acts of violence, should not be punished, but
that speeches should be made to them warning them of future retribution
if they continued to misconduct themselves. Their towns and property
were not touched, nor were hostages or other security exacted for their
future good conduct.
The natural consequence was that this clemency was ascribed by the
natives to weakness, and that the Portuguese were afraid of their
power, as not a hut had been burnt, a root touched, or a fowl killed,
and they consequently, in order to give the white men an idea of their
power and invincibility, attacked some American and English factories
at Mossulo Bay, the white men there having the greatest difficulty to
save their lives and property; a Portuguese man-of-war landed some
men, and so enabled the traders to get their goods shipped, but the
factories were burnt to the ground. This was in September 1859.
I was at Ambriz when the expedition started, so I determined to join
it, and examine the country to Loanda.
The expedition consisted of 150 Portuguese and black soldiers, and
as many armed “Libertos,” or slaves, who are freemen after having
served the Government for seven years; these “Libertos” dragged a
light six-pounder gun. The commander was Major (now General) Gamboa,
an officer who had seen upwards of twenty years’ service in Moçambique
and Angola, and to whom I was indebted for great friendship during
the whole time I was in the country. The major and two officers rode
horses; two others and myself were carried in hammocks. We started
one afternoon and halted at a small village consisting of only a few
huts, at about six miles south of Ambriz. There we supped and slept,
and started next morning at daybreak. The start did not occupy much
time, as the Portuguese troops and officers in Angola do not make use
of tents when on the march, and their not doing so is undoubtedly the
cause of a good deal of the sickness and discomfort they suffer. In
the evening we arrived at the Bay of Mossulo, where we were hospitably
entertained by the English and American traders there established.
The country we passed through on our march was of that strange
character that I have described as occurring in the littoral region of
Ambriz. In the thickets dotted over the country a jasmine (_Corissa
sp._) is a principal plant. It grows as a large bush covered with long
rigid spines, and bears bunches of rather small white flowers having
the scent of the usual jasmine. Also growing in these thickets, and
very often over this species, are two creeping jasmines--the “_Jasminum
auriculatum_” (_J. tettensis? Kl._) and “_Jasminum multipartitum?_”
Various kinds of birds abounded, principally doves and the beautiful
purple starlings, and on the ground small flocks (from two to four
or five) of the bustards Otis ruficrista and Otis picturata were not
uncommon, appearing in the distance like snakes, their heads alone
being visible over the tops of the short rough grass as they ran along.
A small hare is found in abundance, and also several species of ducks
in some small marshes near Great Mossulo. Of larger game only some
small kinds of antelope are found.
I had gone on some distance ahead of the troops, and on approaching
one large town, about a dozen natives armed with muskets stopped my
hammock, and told me I must return to Ambriz, as no white man could
be allowed to pass. I told them that the soldiers were close behind,
and that resistance would be useless, as their town would be taken and
burnt if they attempted any; they, however, still persisted in not
letting me go forward, so I had to wait for a few minutes till they
saw Major Gamboa and the two officers approaching on horseback, when
they scampered off into the bush without even saying good-bye, and on
our entering the town we found it deserted save by the king and a few
other old men, who were all humility, and protested that they would
never more insult or ill treat white men.
Major Gamboa was perfectly convinced of the uselessness of only talking
to blacks, his intimate knowledge of them telling him that the only
safe plan would have been to have burnt the towns on the road and
taken the king and old men to Loanda as hostages, but he had to obey
his instructions, and the result was that they attacked the factories
and killed a number of natives. The Portuguese, however, instead of
punishing this outrage, tamely pocketed the affront, and left the
Mossulos in undisputed possession of the road.
In these towns were the largest “fetish” houses I have seen in Angola.
One was a large hut built of mud, the walls plastered with white, and
painted all over inside and out with grotesque drawings, in black
and red, of men and animals. Inside were three life-size figures
very roughly modelled in clay, and of the most indecent description.
Behind this hut was a long court the width of the length of the hut,
enclosed with walls about six feet high. A number of figures similar
in character to those in the hut were standing in this court, which
was kept quite clean and bare of grass. What, if any, were the uses to
which these “fetish” houses were applied I could not exactly ascertain.
I do not believe that they are used for any ceremonials, but that the
“fetishes” or spirits are supposed to live in them in the same manner
as in the “fetish” houses in the towns in the Ambriz and Bembe country.
At one of the towns we saw a number of the natives running away into
the bush in the distance, carrying on their backs several of the dead
dry bodies of their relatives. I hunted in all the huts to find a dry
corpse to take away as a specimen, but without success; they had all
been removed.
Next day we continued our journey, and bivouacked on the sea-shore, not
very far from Libongo, and near the large town of Quiembe.
On the beach we found the dead trunk of a large tree that had
evidently been cast ashore by the waves, and had been considered a
“fetish;” for what reason, in this case, I know not, as trees stranded
in this way are common. It was hung all over with strips of cloth and
rags of all kinds, shells, &c. As it was dry, it was quickly chopped up
for firewood by the soldiers and blacks.
The following morning our road lay along the beach till we reached the
dry mouth of the River Lifune, a small stream that only runs during the
rainy season. We then struck due inland for about three miles to reach
the Portuguese post of Libongo, consisting of a small force commanded
by a lieutenant. This officer (Loforte) I had known at Bembe, and he
gave us a cordial welcome.
The “Residencia,” or residence of the “Chefe,” as the commandants are
called, was a large, rambling old house of only one floor, and it
contained the greatest number of rats that I have ever seen in any one
place.
One large room was assigned to the use of Major Gamboa, two officers,
and myself, a bed being made in each corner of the room. We had taken
the precaution of leaving the candle burning on the floor in the middle
of the room, but we had scarcely lain down when we began to hear lively
squeaks and rustlings that seemed to come from walls, roof, and floor.
In a few minutes the rats issued boldly from all parts, running down
the walls and dropping in numbers from the roof on to the beds, and
attacking the candle. We shouted, and threw our boots, sticks, and
everything else that was available at them, but it was of no use, and
we could hardly save the candle. It was useless to think of sleep under
these circumstances, for we considered that if the rats were so bold
with a light in the room, they would no doubt eat us up alive in the
dark, so we dressed ourselves, and pitched our hammocks in the open
air, under some magnificent tamarind-trees, and there slept in comfort.
Libongo is celebrated for its mineral pitch, which was formerly much
used at Loanda for tarring ships and boats. The inhabitants of the
district used to pay their dues or taxes to government in this pitch.
It is not collected at the present time, but I do not know the reason
why.
I was curious to see the locality in which it was found, as it had not
been visited before by a white man, so Lieutenant Loforte supplied
me with an old man as guide, and Major Gamboa and myself started one
morning at daybreak.
We had been told that we might reach the place and return in good time
for dinner in the evening, and consequently only provided a small
basket of provisions for breakfast and lunch; we travelled about six
miles, and reached a place where we found half-a-dozen huts of blacks
belonging to Libongo, engaged in their mandioca plantations. These
tried hard to dissuade us from proceeding farther, saying that we
should only reach the pitch springs next morning. I, of course, decided
to proceed, but Major Gamboa, who did not take the interest in the
exploration that I did, determined to return to breakfast at Libongo at
once, leaving me the provisions for my supposed two days’ journey.
After a short rest I started off again, and about mid-day arrived at
the place I was in search of. It was the head of a small valley or
gully, worn by the waters from the plain on their way to the sea,
which was not far off, as although it could not be seen from where I
stood, the roll of the surf on the beach could just be heard. It must
have been close inland to the place where we had bivouacked a few
nights before, and had burnt the “fetish” tree for firewood.
The rock was a friable fine sandstone, so impregnated with the bitumen
or pitch, that it oozed out from the sides of the horizontal beds and
formed little cakes on the steps or ledges, from an ounce or two in
weight to masses of a couple of pounds or more.
Although it was very interesting to see a rock so impregnated with
pitch as to melt out with the heat of the sun, I was disappointed, as
from the reports of the natives I had been led to believe that it was a
regular spring or lake. My guide was most anxious that I should return,
and as I was preparing to shoot a bird, begged me not to fire my gun
and attract the attention of the natives of the town of Quiengue, close
by, whom we could hear beating drums and firing off muskets. Next day
we knew at Libongo that these demonstrations had been for the purpose
of calling together the natives, to attack the factories at Mossulo
Bay.
There was great talk at Loanda about sending an expedition to punish
these natives, but, as usual, it ended in smoke, and no white man has
since been allowed to pass through the Mossulo country.
Several years after, the King of Mossulo sent an embassy to me at
Ambriz, begging me to open a factory at Mossulo. On condition that
I, or any white man in my employ, should be free to pass backwards
and forwards from Loanda to Ambriz, I promised to do so, and was
taken to the king’s town at Mossulo, where it was all arranged. I did
not believe them, of course, but I gave a few fathoms of cloth and
other goods that they might build me a hut on the cliff at Mossulo
Bay, which they did, and I then declared myself ready to send a
clerk with goods to commence trading, as soon as they should send me
hammock-boys to carry me to Loanda. As I expected, they never sent
them, and for several years, whilst the hut on the cliff lasted, it
served as a capital landmark to the steamers and ships on the coast.
The Governor-General at Loanda, to prevent traders from establishing
factories at Mossulo Grande, warned us at Ambriz that if we did so we
must take all risks, that he would not only not protect us, but that
all goods for trading at Mossulo would have to be entered and cleared
at the Loanda custom-house. Far from such disgraceful pusillanimity
being censured at Loanda, it was, with few exceptions, considered by
the Portuguese there as a very praiseworthy measure.
The rock of the country at Libongo is a black shale; also strongly
impregnated with bitumen. A Portuguese at Loanda, believing that this
circumstance indicated coal in depth, sunk a shaft some few fathoms in
this shale, and I visited the spot to see if any organic remains were
to be found in the rock extracted, but could not discover any. About
half way from Libongo to the place where I saw the bituminous sandstone
formation, I observed a well-defined rocky ridge of quartz running
about east and west, which appeared to have been irrupted through the
shale.
The ground about Libongo is evidently very fertile, the mandioca and
other plantations being most luxuriant, and I particularly noticed
some very fine sugar-cane. Some of the tamarind-trees were extremely
fine, and on the stem of a very large one a couple of the “engonguis,”
or double bells, were nailed, which had belonged to the former native
town there, and as they are considered “fetish,” no black would steal
or touch them.
A few hours’ journey (or about fifteen miles) to the south of Libongo
is the River Dande, navigable only by large barges, and draining a
fertile country.
It is only within the last two years that the value of this river, for
trading or produce, has attracted attention at Loanda, and I am glad to
say that it was owing to two foreign houses that trading was commenced
there on anything like a respectable scale. The interior is rich in
coffee, gum-copal, ground-nuts, and india-rubber, and this country
promises an important future; cattle thrive here, and Loanda is now
supplied with a small quantity of excellent butter and cream cheese
from some herds in the vicinity of this river near the bar.
Limestone is also burnt into lime, which is sold at a good price at
Loanda; and were the Portuguese and natives more enterprising and
industrious, the banks of the river would be covered with valuable
gardens and plantations; but apathy reigns supreme, and the authorities
at Loanda prevent any attempt to get out of this state by the
obstructions of all kinds of petty and harassing imposts, rules, and
regulations, having no possible aim but the collection of a despicable
amount of fees to keep alive and in idleness a few miserable officials.
The country is comparatively level, and calls for no particular
description, till about eighteen miles southward the high and bold
cliff of Point Lagostas (Point Lobsters) marks the bay into which runs
the beautiful little river Bengo, or Zenza, as it is called farther
inland.
This is even a smaller river than the Dande, though more important
from its near proximity to Loanda, and the remarks as to the wonderful
indifference and hindrance to the development of the River Dande, apply
with still greater force to the Bengo, a very mine of wealth at the
doors of Loanda! It is hardly possible to restrain within reasonable
limits the expression of surprise at the fact that Loanda, with its
thousands of inhabitants, should be still destitute of a good supply
of drinking water, when there is a river of splendid water only nine
miles off, whence it receives an insignificant and totally inadequate
supply brought in casks only, carried by a few rotten barges and canoes
that are often prevented from leaving or entering the river for days
together, on account of the surf at the bar. A small cask of Bengo
water, holding about six gallons, costs from twopence to fourpence!
All kinds of fruit and vegetables grow luxuriantly on the banks of
the Bengo, and yet Loanda, where nothing can grow from its sandy and
arid soil, is almost unprovided with either--a few heads of salad or
cabbage, or a few turnips and carrots being there considered a fine
present.
At Point Lagostas a good deal of gypsum is found, and also specimens of
native sulphur.
Both the River Bengo and the River Dande are greatly infested by
alligators, and a curious idea prevails amongst all the natives of
Angola, that the liver of the alligator is a deadly poison, and that it
is employed as such by the “feiticeiros” or “fetish”-men.
The Manatee is also not uncommon in these rivers;--this curious mammal
is called by the Portuguese “Peixe mulher” or woman fish, from its
breasts being said to resemble those of a woman. Near the mouth of the
Dande this animal is sometimes captured by enclosing a space, during
the high tides, with a strong rope-net made of baobab fibre, so that
when the tide falls it is stranded and easily killed. I was never so
fortunate as to see one of these animals, and am therefore unable to
describe it from personal observation, but it is said to be most like
a gigantic seal. I once saw a quantity of the flesh in a canoe on the
River Quanza, and was told that the greater part had been already
sold, and I had given me a couple of strips of the hide of one that
had been shot in the River Loge at Ambriz. These strips are about
seven feet long and half an inch thick, of a yellowish colour, and
semi-transparent. They are used as whips, being smooth and exceedingly
tough. The flesh is good eating, though of no particular flavour,
and is greatly liked by the natives. The marshes and lagoons about
the River Bengo are full of wild duck and other water-fowl, and are
favourite sporting places of the officers of the English men-of-war
when at Loanda. The Portuguese, not having the love of sport greatly
developed, seldom make excursions to them.
The country from the Bengo to Loanda rises suddenly, and the coast line
is high and bold, but the soil is very arid and sandy, the rocks being
arenaceous, evidently of recent formation, and full of casts of shells.
There is much admixture of oxide of iron, and some of the sandy
cliffs and dunes close to Loanda are of a beautiful red from it. The
vegetation is, as might be expected, of a sterile character, being
principally coarse grass, the _Sanseviera Angolensis_, a few shrubs,
euphorbias, and a great number of giant baobabs. Though the vegetation
is comparatively scarce, birds of several species are common;
different kinds of doves are especially abundant, as are several of
the splendidly coloured starlings; kingfishers are very common, and
remarkable for their habit of choosing a high and bare branch of a
tree to settle on, from whence, in the hottest part of the day, they
incessantly utter their loud and plaintive whistle, and, after darting
down on the grasshoppers and other insect prey, return again to the
same branch.
The exquisitely coloured roller (_Coracias caudata_) is also very
common in the arid country surrounding Loanda.
The pretty runners (_Cursorius Senegalensis_, and _C. bisignatus_, n.
sp.) are also seen in little flocks on the sandy plains, and are most
elegant in their carriage as they swiftly run along the ground. Two or
three species of bustards are also common.
The great road from the interior skirts the River Bengo for some miles
to the bar, where it turns south to Loanda; and the last resting or
sleeping place for the natives carrying produce is at a place called
Quifandongo, consisting of a row of grog-shops and huts on either side
of the road.
It is a curious sight to see hundreds of carriers from the interior
lying down on the ground in the open air, each asleep with his load by
his side. A march of two hours brings them to a slope leading down to
the bay, at the end of which Loanda is built.