COUNTRY SOUTH OF THE RIVER QUANZA--CASSANZA--NOVO
REDONDO--CELIS--CANNIBALS--LIONS--HOT
SPRINGS--BEES--EGITO--SCORPIONS--RIVER ANHA--CATUMBELLA.
The country south of the River Quanza is very different from that to
the north of it, just described, not only in its physical aspect, but
also in the tribes of natives inhabiting it. The evidences of a former
degree of civilization, and of the good work of the old missionaries,
are not here visible, and I should almost imagine that this part of
Angola was not under their care to anything like the same extent.
From June 1861 to the end of 1863, I was engaged in working two copper
deposits at Cuio and Benguella, and in exploring the coast from
Cassanza, about eighty miles from the River Quanza, as far as and
including Mossamedes or Little Fish Bay.
In these explorations I did not go inland a greater distance than
about thirty or forty miles at Mossamedes, and forty or fifty at Novo
Redondo. I cannot, therefore, speak from personal knowledge of those
most interesting places in the interior, Bihé and Bailundo, or the
Portuguese districts of Caconda, Quillengues, Huilla, Capangombe, &c.
The geological character of the coast-line from the Quanza to
Mossamedes is gneiss, mostly very quartzose, then with a good deal of
hornblende and mica near Cuio, passing to a fine-grained porphyry and
fine granite with large, distinct feldspar about Mossamedes. Close to
the sea these primary rocks are joined by a line of tertiary deposits,
principally massive gypsum, and sandstones of different thicknesses
curiously separated by layers of the finest dust. Farther south,
between the River San Nicolao in 14° S. lat. and Mossamedes, there is a
strip of columnar basalt and trap-rock of only a few miles in width.
The character of these rocks is sufficient to account for the very
sterile nature of the country; in fact, most of it is completely
a rocky desert, without a drop of water, and covered with but
little grass, and frightfully thorny bushes. Although this is the
general character, there are numerous places of the greatest beauty,
particularly at a distance of twenty to thirty miles from the coast,
where the first elevation is reached, and where the vegetation, as in
the rest of Angola, changes to a luxuriant character.
The country about Cassanza is level and well covered with grass, and
the natives appeared inoffensive and quiet. They have a considerable
quantity of fine cattle, and what is rare amongst the natives of
Angola, they milk the cows regularly twice a day, the milk being a
principal article of food with them. The few days that I was there in
1863, I enjoyed the abundance of beautiful milk immensely.
The Portuguese with whom I was staying was then engaged in cotton
planting, but the ground did not appear very suitable for its
cultivation. He also had a beautiful cotton and sugar-cane plantation
at Benguella Velha, and at a pretty place called Cuvo, where there is
a small river and good ground near its mouth.
On that occasion I had come up in a sailing barge from Benguella to
Novo Redondo, to explore that district for copper, specimens of the
ore having been found in several places. The river at Novo Redondo had
overflowed its banks, and the road we had to follow was under water
for some miles, and whilst waiting for the river to subside, I started
to Cuvo and Cassanza to see the country and my friend. On returning to
Novo Redondo I obtained for guide the services of a jovial and useful
black named David, who had been educated at Benguella. He could read
and write Portuguese, which language he spoke perfectly, and was a
man of great importance in the Novo Redondo country, as he was the
hereditary king of the place, and was to be proclaimed as such as soon
as he could make up his mind to eat a man’s head and heart, roasted or
stewed, as he should fancy. David was not at all inclined either to
forego his kingship, or to eat any part of one of his fellow-creatures,
which by the custom of his country it was imperative he should do to be
proclaimed king.
He had been putting off the disagreeable ceremony for some two years,
if I remember right, but his people were getting impatient at not
having a king, and were threatening to elect another. How he got over
the difficulty, or if he at last submitted to overcome his repugnance
to roast or stewed negro, I never heard.
The “Mucelis,” or natives of Novo Redondo and of the country inland
called “Celis,” are cannibals, and, as far as I could ascertain, there
are no others in Angola.
The Portuguese have no stations inland on that part of the coast, that
of Caconda, to the interior and south of Benguella, being the first;
and they do not allow the practice of cannibalism at the town of Novo
Redondo itself, as they strictly prohibit and punish there, as in the
rest of Angola, any fetish rite or custom, but I found that at Cuacra,
the second large town I passed on my way inland, human flesh was eaten,
and in several other towns I passed I saw evidences of this custom in a
heap of skulls of the blacks that had been eaten in the centre of the
towns, and on the trees were also the clay pots in which the flesh was
cooked, and which, according to their laws, can only be used for that
purpose.
One night I walked out of my hut at a town where I was sleeping, and
seeing that no one was about, I chose a nice skull from the heap,
and brought it home and presented it to my friend Professor Huxley,
who exhibited it at a meeting of the Anthropological Society. I had
previously asked whether I might take one of these skulls, but had been
told that it would be considered a great “fetish” if I did, and David
begged me not to do so, as there would be a great disturbance, so I was
obliged to steal one in the way I have described, and hide it carefully
in my portmanteau.
It is only natives who are killed for “fetish” or witchcraft that are
eaten, and the “soba” or king of the town where they are executed has
the head and heart as his share.
I was informed that at these feasts every particle of the body was
eaten, even to the entrails. At the principal towns of Ambuin and Sanga
(said to be the capital) I was told that as many as six and seven
blacks were eaten every month, and that the “sobas” of those two towns,
and their wives, only used human fat to anoint their bodies with.
I was shown at one of the towns the little axe with which the poor
wretches were decapitated, and which was distinguished from others used
by the natives by having a lozenge-shaped hole in the blade.
I was very much surprised to find that, notwithstanding their cannibal
propensities, the natives of Novo Redondo were such an extremely fine
race; in fact, they are the finest race of blacks, in every way, that I
have met with in Africa.
Cannibalism may possibly be one reason of their superiority, from
this custom supplying them with a certain amount of animal food more
than other tribes make use of, or it may be due to their usual food,
which is principally a mixture in equal parts of haricot beans and
indian-corn, being very much more nutritious than the diet of mandioca
meal, of almost pure starch, that supplies the staple food of other
tribes. Whatever the reason may be, there can be no question of the
superior physique and qualities of this cannibal tribe.
When about to start on my journey, I saw that only four carriers had
been provided for my hammock, and I refused to start with less than
six or eight, as I made sure, judging from every other place in Africa
I had travelled in, that I should have to walk a great deal, as four
men, even in Ambriz, where I had found the best carriers, would not be
able to carry me, day after day, on a long journey. I was assured that
it was never customary to have more than four, that two would carry me
from daybreak till noon, and the other two from noon till sunset, and
that I might have six or more, but that four alone would carry me every
day. This I found was the case, not only in that journey, but also when
returning overland from Novo Redondo to Benguella, a distance of about
ninety miles.
Another extremely curious feature, distinguishing them favourably from
all other negro races, is their degree of honesty and honour.
Any white or other trader going into the interior agrees to pay the
“soba” of a town the customary dues, and he provides the trader with a
clean hut, and is responsible for the goods in it. The trader may go
away farther inland, and he is perfectly certain that on coming back he
will find his property untouched, exactly as he left it. Whilst I was
at Novo Redondo, an embassy arrived from a town in the interior, where
a Portuguese had established himself to trade in palm-oil and beeswax,
and where he had died, bringing every scrap of produce and goods
belonging to him to deliver the same to the “chefe.”
They were paid and rewarded for their honesty, and I was told that it
was the usual thing for these natives to do, on the death of a trader
in their country. I do not know of any other part of Africa where such
an example would be imitated, certainly not by the Christian negroes at
Sierra Leone.
There is a magnificent palm forest on the banks of the river at Novo
Redondo. This river is small, but brings down a considerable body of
water in the rainy season.
I crossed it on the second day of my journey inland by means of a
curiously constructed suspension-bridge attached to the high trees on
either side. This bridge was made entirely of the stems of a very
tough tree-creeper, growing in great lengths, and about the thickness
of an ordinary walking-stick. From two parallel ropes made of this
creeper, right across the stream and about two feet apart, hung a frame
of open, large-meshed basket-work about three feet deep, forming a kind
of flexible net or trough open at the top. The bottom or floor of this
trough was made of the same creeper, woven roughly and openly in the
same manner as the sides, and when walking in it, I found it necessary
to be careful to tread on the network, or my feet would have slipped
through, and to help myself along by holding on to the guys or ropes at
the top, which reached up to about my waist.
The length of the bridge must have been some thirty paces. Near it I
noticed, on a flat-topped tree of no great height, a large bird of the
eagle species sitting on its eggs in an open nest, and the male bird on
a branch near his mate; this tree was quite close to the road or path,
and though numerous natives passed under it to and fro, neither they
nor the birds seemed to heed one another in the least.
The Celis country is infested with lions, but I was not so fortunate
as to see one, though one morning we came upon the fresh footprints of
what the natives affirmed to be a family consisting of a full-grown
male and female and three half-grown young ones. To my inexperienced
eyes there appeared to have been more, so numerous seemed the
plainly-marked footprints in the moist sand of the bottom of a small
ravine.
We escaped an encounter with one the day we started on our trip. About
half-past four in the afternoon we arrived at a pretty clump of trees
round a pool of deliciously cool water, and near a low line of rather
bare-looking hills. David would not allow our carriers to tarry at this
pool, as he knew it to be the evening drinking-place for the lions
living in the low hills near. We went on, and shortly after we met an
old Cabinda man on his way to Novo Redondo, carrying a letter tied in
a cleftstick (the usual way to send a native with a letter in Angola).
He was an acquaintance of David’s, who had a talk with him, and we went
on our several ways. Next morning we heard that the poor fellow had
been caught by a lion not more than an hour after, and at the very
pool of water where David had warned us not to stop long. The lion had
evidently eaten part of the body at the pool itself, and had carried
off the rest to its lair in the hills.
I went to several places where indications of copper had been found,
but was disappointed in finding any worth exploring. They were all
in the recent beds at the junction or near the primary rock of the
country, and consisted of indications of blue and green carbonate
of copper in the fine sedimentary mud and sandstone beds. These
indications are most abundant everywhere in that district, and
curiously enough the plantain-eaters are also most abundant, more so
than in any other part of Angola I have been in. I went as far as a
range of very quartzose schist rock or gneiss mountains, called Ngello,
which I suppose to be between forty and fifty miles from the sea; and
at a pass called Tocota on the road to some important town in the
interior, named Dongo, I visited a hot-water spring about half way up
the mountain side. I had no thermometer with me, but the water, as it
issued from a crevice in the rock, was so hot that I could only keep
my hand in it for a few seconds.
The direction of the mountain range was about N.N.E by S.S.W.; the rock
composing it was nearly vertical, inclining slightly to the west, and
with a strike about north and south. There is a most picturesque little
town of huts stuck on a rocky ledge, and the natives use the water
from the hot springs to drink, but first allow it to stand a day to
cool. It has a very pleasant taste when cold, with just the slightest
ferruginous flavour. From this range of mountains magnificent views are
obtained, the scenery and vegetation reminding me strongly of Cazengo;
and there can be no question that it is likewise capable of growing the
coffee-plant to perfection. Some sugar-cane I saw growing there was
as fine as I have ever seen it, and the native plantations were most
luxuriant. I do not know whether trade at Novo Redondo has increased in
the same ratio as on the Quanza and Ambriz, but that it is destined to
be a very rich country I have no doubt. There is a great deal of white
gum in the country, collected from a tree of which whole forests are
said to be found.
The principal article of trade at Novo Redondo when I was there was
palm-oil, which was mostly bought in exchange for rum, measure for
measure, and I often saw the very gourds and pots in which the natives
brought the palm-oil filled up with the rum in exchange without any
more cleansing than allowing the vessels to well drain off the oil.
I noticed a great variety of birds, and I am sure the country would
well repay a collector’s trouble. In the middle of a small cultivated
valley I saw a low, flat-topped baobab, which had been taken possession
of by a flock of eight or ten birds about the size of a thrush, of a
black colour, with smoky-white feathers on the wings. They had built a
common nest on the flat top of the tree, and were all sitting hatching
their eggs together, quite unprotected from the sun. This bird is the
_Amydrus fulvipennis_, Sw., of ornithologists.
I also saw numbers of a beautiful green pigeon (_Treron calva_), which
is very fat and good to eat. The food of this bird is principally fruit
and berries, especially the small figs of the “Mucozo,” a large-leaved,
handsome tree. They are generally seen in small flocks, and they sit
very close on the trees whilst feeding, during which operation they
utter a curious low noise, as of people talking at a distance. If
alarmed, they suddenly hush and stop eating until the alarm has passed
away, when they re-commence feeding. The natives state that if a man
is completely concealed, he can shoot a number, one after the other,
off the same tree where a flock may be feeding, as the discharge of
the gun is not sufficient to frighten them away if they do not see the
sportsman.
The natives here are great bee-keepers, as are also the natives on both
banks of the Quanza. The hives are to be seen on almost every baobab,
this being the tree chosen in preference to any other, and as many as
four or five hives may be seen on one tree. They are made by splitting
a piece of wood, generally a branch of a tree with the bark on, about
five feet long and ten or twelve inches in diameter; the centre is
scooped out, leaving the ends entire; the two halves are securely tied
together, and three holes large enough to admit the little finger are
bored at each end. An aperture is cut in the middle of the hollow
cylinder, where the two halves are joined together, large enough to
admit the hand. This aperture is closed with a piece of wood, and
clayed over to thoroughly prevent any rain from getting in. The hive
is securely placed in the branches of the tree, and a quantity of dry
grass put over it as a roof or thatch.
Once a year the owner climbs the tree and draws up a basket for the wax
and honey with a cord, and also some dry grass and fire. He opens the
aperture, and, lighting wisps of grass, smokes the bees as they issue
out. Most of them drop half suffocated to the ground, and the comb is
extracted, a small quantity being left behind to induce the bees to
work again in the same hive. If no comb be left, the natives affirm
that they will not return to the hive. In some places the natives are
careful not to kill any of the bees, and are said to extract the comb
as often as three times a year. Bee-hives are the principal wealth
of these blacks, and some families possess as many as three and four
hundred.
I was told that very little wild honey or wax was found, and that a
bird was known to the natives that showed them where the wild bees’
nests were. They called it “solé,” and described it as having a white
bar across its tail, and making its nest of the hair of different
animals which it collected for the purpose.
The Mucelis have a curious custom which I have not heard of as existing
in any other tribe, namely, that on the death of the great “sobas”
of Ambuin and Sanga, all fires in the kingdom must be put out, and
relighted by the succeeding “soba” from fire struck by rubbing two
sticks together.
Their laws, principally those relating to the protection of property,
are very strict, slavery being the punishment for even trifling
robberies, such as a cob of growing indian-corn, or an egg. Oddly
enough, they have the same custom of the “lent rat” as in Cambambe,
and the punishment if it is not returned entire is a heavy fine, or in
default slavery.
To show the extent of some beliefs in Angola amongst tribes far
apart, speaking different languages, and having not the slightest
communication with each other, I may mention that amongst the
Mushicongos a certain field-mouse is believed to drop down dead if it
crosses at the point where one path is intersected by another, and I
found this absurd idea entertained exactly in the same manner in the
Celis country. I presented a skin of this mouse to the British Museum.
It is nearest to the _Mus Gambianus_ in the same collection.
Some of the natives from the interior of Novo Redondo had the most
extraordinary way of wearing their hair of any I have seen in Africa;
amongst other curious fancies the most usual and striking was that
of fashioning it into the exact resemblance of a large Roman helmet
with a projecting round horn in front. The custom of wearing a great
thickness of strings of flat beads made of shell, and called “dongos,”
is universal. They are also worn by the Mundombes, or natives of
Benguella, and are mostly made in the Celis country. They are made
from the shell of the _Achatina monetaria_, Morelet, which is broken
and chipped into little round pieces about the size of a fourpenny
bit, and these are strung on a string. The labour and time taken
in their manufacture may be imagined, as it takes several yards of
these flat beads coiled round the neck to make a proper necklace,
about the thickness of a man’s arm. This once put on is never taken
off again during life, and becomes a filthy mass of dirt, grease,
and perspiration. The women also wear these strings or “Quirandas”
(weighing sometimes as much as 20 to 30 lbs.) round the waist, and they
pass as money in the country.
From Novo Redondo I returned overland to Benguella, fording the River
Quicombo, at the mouth of which the Portuguese have a small detachment,
and where a few traders are established. This river is broad, but
shallow where I crossed it, about six miles from the sea.
The road was generally good and not far from the sea. It passed along
and across several ravines, in which I noticed a great quantity of the
castor-oil plant growing most luxuriantly.
Late in the evening I arrived at the edge of the valley of the River
Egito, at the mouth of which is situated the Portuguese station of
Egito. It was getting dark, and there was a steep and long hillside to
descend, and some distance to go afterwards before reaching the house
of the “chefe,” whose guest I was to be. I therefore determined to make
snug for the night under a great baobab growing close to a wall of
rock, and my carriers were clearing a space from leaves and branches
for my bed and mosquito curtain, when one of them was stung in the foot
by a scorpion.
These poisonous creatures are extremely abundant in the whole of the
district of Benguella, and cases are constantly occurring of persons
being stung by them. In some places hardly a stone or piece of wood
can be lifted from the ground without finding one or more scorpions
under it. They are of all sizes, up to six and seven inches long. Their
sting is rarely fatal, except to old people or persons in a bad state
of health. The effects of the sting are, however, very extraordinary;
in severe cases it appears to paralyse all the muscles of the body,
sometimes with much pain, in others with little or none.
The black stung on the occasion I am describing complained of a good
deal of pain during the night, but only after some hours, or I might
have thought of burning the part with a hot iron at first; his comrades
applied hot oil to his foot, but in the morning he had lost the use
of his legs completely. I had to put him into my hammock and have him
carried to Egito. Here I remained with my friend the “chefe” for
four days, and the wounded black was laid in the sun every day to
keep him warm, the usual custom in such cases, a sensation of cold
always accompanying the subsequent stages of a scorpion bite. On the
fourth day he had acquired so much use of his limbs that he could drag
himself in a sitting position on the ground to a sunny corner, still
complaining of cold, but his appetite seemed good.
I left him to the care of the “chefe,” asking him to send him on to
me at Benguella as soon as he should be able to walk. A week after he
came to me there quite recovered. Another case of scorpion-bite was
described to me by a Portuguese officer (a mulatto) who was “chefe” of
the district of Dombe Grande, to the south of Benguella. The man, a
tall, stout, powerful and healthy fellow, whilst sitting one evening
outside his house, smoking and talking with his family, chanced to drop
one of his slippers while crossing one leg over the other; on rising
after some time and putting his foot into the slipper, a scorpion that
had taken refuge in it stung him in the big toe. He did not think much
of the occurrence, but he gradually became worse, and next day could
not rise from his bed; his legs and arms were completely paralysed, but
without any pain, and his tongue being but little affected he could
speak and swallow without difficulty. His mind was perfectly clear,
and he only felt a certain degree of numbness and cold. Not expecting
to survive he dictated his will, and remained thus paralysed for five
or six days, when he gradually recovered, and was well in about a
fortnight’s time and without the least inconvenient after-effect.
The view from the top of the valley of Egito was one of the grandest
sights I have ever seen. The river was visible for a considerable
distance inland, fringed by a dark band of palm forest. The level
spaces between it and the high rocky sides of the valley in which it
ran were filled with luxuriant cultivated fields, and as the vast
rolling mists were dissipated by the morning rays of the sun, presented
a panorama of peaceful pastoral beauty that I have never seen surpassed.
The Portuguese have here a pretty little fort on an eminence, a
small garrison being necessary as the natives from the interior
sometimes give considerable trouble, by coming down and attacking the
plantations farthest removed from the town, but without doing any great
damage beyond keeping the inhabitants in a state of alarm.
From Egito I continued my journey, sleeping the next night at the
valley of the River Anha, where I had been warned against an attack of
the natives, several Portuguese traders having been robbed there. I did
not take any goods with me, and provided myself with a few bottles of
rum as a present for the “soba,” feeling convinced that no harm would
be done me by them.
On arriving at the river, a small stream flowing through a valley of
lovely forest scenery, I crossed and encamped under a tree on the
southern bank. I then sent one of my blacks, who knew the “soba,” with
a bottle of rum and a request that he would come and have a drink with
me. When he arrived, with about a dozen of the old men of the town, I
was just sitting down to my dinner. Being well up in the customs of
the blacks of Angola, I made him sit down on my portmanteau, and asked
him through one of my men who acted as interpreter, how he and his
wives and sons were, and if his country “was well,” to which he duly
answered, and asked me in my turn where I had come from, and where I
was going? Proper answers being given, I filled a tumbler with wine,
and after drinking a portion (to show that there was no “fetish” in it)
I handed the rest to him, and a couple of bottles of rum for his old
men. I then gave him some of my dinner, which happened to be boiled
fowl, rice, and sweet potatoes, a portion of all which, with biscuit
or bread, must be given, put on the plate, and a spoon to eat it with.
There is a significance in all these minutiæ to which great importance
is attached by the blacks, and by which they know if the white man
is a gentleman or a common man. My seating him on my portmanteau was
considered equivalent to a chair, because it was part of my furniture,
and a “soba” must not sit on the ground if there is a chair or stool to
be had.
If I had nothing else then I should have had to provide a mat for
him to squat upon. Giving him my own wine to drink, and rum to the
rest, was equal to showing him a special regard as distinguished from
that shown to them; the plateful of every part of my dinner, that I
considered him as an equal; and the spoon, that I also believed him to
be a big chief who did not eat his food with his fingers.
After finishing his plateful he retired with his old men, and shortly
after sent me a couple of fowls and a basket with fresh mandioca-roots
for my blacks; I returned the compliment with a few yards of cotton
cloth, and went to sleep knowing that I should not be disturbed in any
way. He could not attack or rob me after drinking my wine and eating my
dinner, as it would have been great “fetish,” according to the customs
of the blacks in Angola.
They would, besides, have been afraid of the consequences, not only
of having committed “fetish,” but also of the heavy fine that I could
have made the “soba” and his people pay, through any other neighbouring
tribe to whom I might have complained of such a crime having been
perpetrated in their country. Had I been molested, any accident or ill
luck, want of rains, sickness or death that might have happened to his
tribe, would be at once attributed to the “fetish” committed by the
“soba” and his council of old men.
I started again early next morning, and at noon arrived at the bay of
Lobito, a beautiful and singular natural dock with a narrow deep mouth,
and large enough to hold a great fleet. This would be an invaluable
site for a city, the only disadvantage being the absence of a stream
of fresh water in the immediate vicinity. In the evening I arrived at
Catumbella, after passing through a thick jungle of a shrub (_Sesbania
punctata_, Pers.) bearing bright yellow pea-like flowers thickly
spotted with purple, and always found growing in swamps and marshy
places in Angola, both near the sea and inland.
Catumbella is an important place, and is about nine miles to the north
of the town of Benguella. The Portuguese have there a fine little
fort on a hill, a commodious “residencia” of the “chefe,” and a small
detachment of soldiers from Benguella.
There is here a pretty little river, very broad and shallow, so that it
can always be forded except during the heavy rains. It is very full of
alligators, which are constantly carrying off blacks whilst crossing.
The scenery at Catumbella, about three or four miles from the sea, and
for some little distance inland, is exquisite, from the hilly and rocky
character of the country and the luxuriance of the vegetation, both
wild and cultivated.
From the top of a mountain near Catumbella which, with one opposite,
forms the deep gorge or valley through which the river, dotted with
green islands, passes, the view is one of the greatest loveliness.
There are many traders established here, and a large trade is done with
the natives of the interior in wax, ivory, gum-copal, white gum, &c.
It is on the high road to those very important and extensive countries
of the interior, Bailundo, Bihé, and others, reputed to enjoy excellent
climate and most fertile soil, and never yet visited except by a very
few Portuguese traders, who have gone very far beyond, even nearly
reaching the east coast, after ivory.
I had a very unpleasant experience once, at Catumbella, of the
sufferings of hunger and thirst. I went with an old Portuguese to visit
the place inland where a very fine sample of copper ore had been found
by the natives. We started at daybreak, and our pretended guide told
us that we could reach the place and be back at noon for breakfast.
Relying on his statement, we only took half a dozen biscuits and a tin
of jam with us.
It was noon when we left the River Catumbella, after travelling over
several miles of very rocky ground, and struck due south. Shortly
after, we luckily met with an intelligent young Mundombe, who told us
we were going quite wrong and volunteered to show us the place, as it
was some considerable distance off in quite another direction. To cut
a long story short, we only got to a spring of beautiful water in the
evening, where we finished our three biscuits each and tin of sweets.
Next day we journeyed on, and only reached the locality we sought at
noon. Having had nothing to eat or drink, we started back as fast as
we could to Catumbella, only reaching the river at sunset, and the
way we rushed to the water’s edge to drink was amusing. We had then a
long high hill to ascend, and at midnight arrived at a black trader’s
hut, who most fortunately had prepared a good dinner for us, as he had
expected us the evening before.
My companion was more dead than alive. However, some wine our black
friend had had the forethought to send to Catumbella for, and the
excellent fowl-soup he had prepared, soon set him to rights, and we
left again to reach Catumbella at daybreak, completely worn out with
fatigue and want of sleep.
Our friends had prepared an expedition to seek for us, almost giving
us up for lost, as they knew we had taken no provisions with us. The
country was very arid and stony, and the vegetation mostly prickly
trees and bushes. I subsequently sent a miner with a party of blacks
from Benguella to bring away the little copper ore at the place I
visited. The total weight raised was about half a ton of very good
quality, but no more was to be seen. The manner in which small
quantities of copper ore are thus found in many places in Benguella is
most extraordinary.