COUNTRY BETWEEN BENGUELLA AND MOSSAMEDES--MOSSAMEDES--CURIOUS DEPOSITS
OF WATER--HYENAS--WELWITSCHIA MIRABILIS--MIRAGE.
The country between Benguella and Mossamedes abounds with large
animals: elands, spring-bok, and other antelopes, zebras, wild
buffaloes, &c. The natives affirm positively that the eland and other
antelopes in their wild state capture and eat small birds.
It would be curious to ascertain if this strange habit or taste in a
herbivorous animal is true, or has been observed in South Africa, where
these animals are still more abundant.
I was once fortunate enough to see, from a low rocky ridge, a vast herd
of spring-bok running at full speed across a plain near Mossamedes, and
it was really a fine sight. This very beautiful animal has a quantity
of long, snow-white hair completely hidden in a fold of the skin along
its spine;--when running, its pace seems to be a succession of high
leaps, in which this long white hair is alternately exposed and hidden
at each jump. The effect of these flashes of pure white in the sun
was most striking and beautiful, as the thousands of spring-bok sped
rapidly across the plain at our feet, and gradually vanished in the
distance. Although I had been prepared to see large herds of antelopes
at Mossamedes, from the accounts of the Portuguese there, and from what
I had read in books of travel in Southern Africa, I could not help
being astonished at the sight, and feeling how impossible it was to
realize, except from actual observation, the appearance of thousands
of these lovely animals assembled together and scudding like a cloud
across the face of the great bare plain.
The large tree euphorbias, so common near the coast at Ambriz and
Loanda, become scarcer in the country to the south till we get to the
desert hills and cliffs about Elephant Bay, and beyond to Mossamedes,
where they completely disappear.
Perfectly flat-topped hills are a striking feature of this part of
the coast, and are appropriately termed “mezas” or “tables” by the
Portuguese. The coast, more particularly from the River San Nicolau,
is deeply cut by ravines with almost perpendicular sides, and leading
no great distance inland, evidently worn by the action of the water
through the basalt and other friable rock. It makes travelling on foot
hard work, as the usual road is near the sea and some of the walls of
cliff are difficult and dangerous to ascend and descend.
In one of my excursions in this part of the coast, I saw the dead body
of a black lying at the foot of one of these precipices, seemingly
fallen from the top. It was nearly devoured by birds, crabs, and small
animals. There is another road, a very good one, a few miles farther
inland.
There are no elephants to be met with now on the coast at any part
of Angola; the last were said to have been seen about Elephant Bay,
from which it may probably have derived its name. They do come down
occasionally on the Quissama side of the River Quanza, and one was
lately shot at Bruto, most likely having swum the river.
On Cape Santa Maria, the southern point of the “Bahia dos Passaros”
(Bay of Birds), there is an old marble column, placed there by the
Portuguese in olden times to commemorate the discovery of this cape,
in 1486, by the navigator Diogo Cam. I once went with a Portuguese
in a boat from Cuio to Catara, a small bay beyond Cape Santa Maria.
Our men had been rowing all the moonlight night long, and at daybreak
we landed at the Bahia dos Passaros, and found an empty hut that had
been occupied by a curer during the fishing season; this was taken
possession of by our blacks, who went fast asleep in it, after hauling
up the boat. We had our breakfast under the shade of the boat sail, and
then followed their example. We had slept about a couple of hours when
I was awakened by the loud cawing of the pretty white-banded crows of
the coast (_Corvus scapulatus_). I threw a stone at the noisy birds,
and happening to look in the direction of the sea, noticed that our
boat was gone; I looked into the hut thinking our men had gone off with
it in search of birds’ eggs, but they lay like logs, still fast asleep.
I woke my companion, and we ran to the beach and saw our boat at the
northern end of the bay slowly drifting away, the tide having risen and
floated it while we slept. Our men ran along the beach and swam off to
the boat, and we thanked the crows with the remains of our breakfast.
It is astonishing how soon a number of these birds will appear after
any one lands in these desolate bays, to pick up any food that may be
left about. This bay derives its name from the number of sea-gulls that
inhabit a high-peaked rock rising out of the sea at a short distance
from the shore.
The River San Nicolau only runs in the rainy season, which is likewise
the case with all the other rivers on this part of the coast, south of
the River Quanza, and even this shifts its bar a mile or more to the
north in the dry season.
At the little Bay of Baba, I saw a very extraordinary sight, and one
that shows the great quantity of fish in the sea of that coast. I had
started on foot early in the morning, from the house of a Portuguese
who was engaged in the fishing trade, on my way to Mossamedes, and as
I walked along the beach for more than a mile, I saw for the whole
distance, in the calm water, a small species of fish, about a foot
long, in countless numbers, packed side by side so closely as almost
to touch one another, and their snouts touching the sand. Farther
south, fish are said to be even more plentiful.
At Port Pinda a three-masted fishing vessel arrived with a crew of
fishermen from Algarve, and they caught such quantities that they found
the work of curing too hard, and they gradually gave up fishing, and
employed their vessel in earning freights up and down the coast.
I was told by the captain of a British man-of-war that at Walwish Bay
he had seen eight tons of fish taken at one haul of the seine net.
The town of Mossamedes (or Little Fish Bay of the English charts)
is very prettily built on the shore of the little bay from which it
derives its name. The houses are of stone, well built and commodious,
and the town has quite a clean and imposing appearance as seen from
the sea. The bay is very pretty, and protected from the “calema” or
surf. A fort commands it, which is built on a low cliff immediately
south of the town. At a little distance off a low line of hills hides
the further view of the interior, and all around nothing but an arid
waste of pure white sand meets the eye with a very depressing effect.
Three miles to the north are the “hortas” or “kitchen gardens” of the
Portuguese, where the fertile sandy soil grows every kind of root and
vegetable. The common potato grows there in perfection, and was the
principal article of cultivation a few years ago, when the American
whalers used to call there from the fishery on the coast. The English
cruisers also used to touch there for cattle and fresh provisions.
Cattle used to be so abundant that the ordinary price of a bullock was
from ten shillings to one pound. There is a considerable quantity of
sugar-cane grown there and converted into rum, several thousand pipes
being the yearly production. The little River Giraul runs through these
plantations, and its overflow sometimes causes considerable damage.
I saw excellent gum-arabic at Mossamedes, brought from the Gambos
country, and I sent a large tinfull of it to London, where it was
reported upon as being equal to the best quality in the market.
At Mossamedes oxen are trained for riding; the cartilage of the nose is
perforated, and through the opening a thin, short piece of round iron
is passed, at the ends of which are attached the reins, and the animal
is guided by them in the same manner as a horse. A good bullock will
trot well, and even gallop for a short distance. They are most useful
in that country, and are very comfortable to ride. The saddle is made
of leather, and is only a well-padded cushion with stirrups. A riding
ox will go faster, if required, than blacks on foot can accompany it,
but as in travelling a caravan of blacks with provisions and baggage is
always necessary, there is no need of greater speed. They will live on
such spare dry grass as can be obtained on the road, and are much safer
over the stony and sandy ground than horses, and not so liable to lame
or be knocked up;--they will also go a much longer time without water.
On one of my visits to Mossamedes I was away a fortnight in the bush,
on an excursion to explore several places where copper ore had been
found, and reached about forty miles into the interior, to near the
first range of mountains called the “Xellas” (pronounced Sheilas). Our
road lay north till we had crossed the dry, sandy bed of the River
Giraul, and then in an easterly direction. The first deposits met with
are recent clayey beds, gypsum-dust, and sandstones, and in some places
the perpendicular faces of the high masses are covered with an abundant
efflorescence of almost pure sulphate of magnesia. This had attracted
the attention of some of the Portuguese, who imagined that it might be
nitre. One man sent a cask full of it to Lisbon to be reported upon,
and the answer he received was, “that it was not nitre as it would not
make gunpowder, and that they could not tell what else it was!”
This formation is succeeded by massive basalt, containing in places
small quantities of double refracting calcspar and heulandite.
This narrow belt or strip of basalt is followed farther inland by a
highly quartzose schistose rock with much iron and hornblende. This
insensibly changes to a quartzose granite, then to more schist, and in
some places to a fine-grained porphyry. In these are found quartz veins
with small strings or lodes of very rich sulphide of copper. These
were the only copper lodes _in situ_ that I have been able to find in
Angola, but unfortunately, although containing the very richest copper
ore, they are so poor in size, and otherwise under such disadvantages
that they would be quite profitless to work or explore.
About twenty or thirty miles from Mossamedes the granite country is
very peculiar. In some places huge single rocks rise out of the nearly
level plain; in others hills of rocks, in several of which deposits
of rain-water are found at the very top. One of these was a natural
tank with a narrow entrance, and so dark that we had to light an old
newspaper to see it. It contained, I should say, not less than three or
four hundred gallons of water, which was exquisitely clear and cool. It
was covered by vast slabs of granite, from which the rain drained into
it, so that the sun was unable to evaporate it during the hot season,
when not a drop of water is to be found for miles anywhere else.
A still more singular phenomenon is that of the “Pedra Grande,” or
“big stone,” on the road to the interior at over thirty miles from
Mossamedes. This, as its name implies, is a huge rounded mass of
granite rising out of the granitic, sandy plain.
On the smooth side of this rock, about twenty or thirty feet above the
plain, is a circular pit about nine or ten feet deep and five or six
wide. The rainfall on that part of the rock that lies above this pit,
drains into it, and is said to fill it completely every rainy season.
The form of the pit is like that of the inside of a crucible, narrowing
gently to the bottom. The walls are perfectly smooth and regular, and
it can contain several thousand gallons of water. The mass of granite
rock is of the closest and hardest description, and no explanation
seems possible of the formation of this pit, except that of a bubble
in the rock when primarily formed, or that there was a mass of easily
soluble or decomposable mineral contained in it that has since been
dissolved out. I must say, however, that there is no evidence anywhere
visible to corroborate this latter theory. There are, it is true,
one or two other small and similar pits near the great one, but this
does not throw any more light upon their probable formation. This
grand deposit supplies the Mundombes and travellers with an abundant
supply of water during the dry season, and is therefore a principal
halting-place.
This is a lion country, but on both occasions that I was at Mossamedes
it was not the season in which they abounded, so that I saw but little
signs of them.
They come regularly to the “hortas” near the town, and several have
been shot there by the Portuguese. I was shown the hut of a German
emigrant where a lion came through the grass roof on to the table at
which he was seated at supper with his wife.
It appeared that the lion had chased a cat on to the roof from an
outhouse, and the roof being of a frail nature, had given way under his
weight, but luckily the cries of the man and his wife so frightened the
astonished beast, that he forced himself through the slender walls of
the hut and ran away.
On an excursion to visit a copper locality inland of Baba Bay, where a
Portuguese convict alleged he had discovered and extracted a basketful
of good specimens of ore, I put up one night at a hut belonging to a
Portuguese engaged with a number of slaves in collecting orchilla-weed.
At a distance of about two or three hundred yards from the hut was
a pool of brackish water, in a grove of trees at the foot of a rocky
hill. During the night, which was pitch dark, the blacks declared
that a lion had captured some animal at the pool, and was eating
it. At daybreak we turned out and came on about a dozen black and
white dog-like animals, about the size of a Newfoundland dog, that
ran quickly up the hill on our approach. Close to the pool we found
the remains of an eland that had been killed by the lion. The other
animals, which are said to follow it, and wait till the royal beast has
had its fill of the game it has killed, and devour the remainder, had
not had time to finish it, and there was enough left to afford us a
good breakfast of venison steak, and our blacks a feast of fresh meat.
Thick eland steak is delicious, both from its juiciness and flavour,
and its exquisite tenderness.
My excursion was unsuccessful in discovering the copper-mine, as I
found that the rogue of a convict, who had been promised a large sum
of money for it by a friend of mine at Mossamedes, Senhor Accacio
d’Oliveira, had buried a basketful of copper ore taken from some other
locality, in a hole, where he pretended to find it when my friend sent
his own blacks with him to bring away larger samples.
Hyenas are very common; and I saw at Mossamedes a magnificent wolfhound
(from the Serra da Estrella, in the north of Portugal) and his dam,
who always used to run out together at night and chase away any hyena
that came near their master’s house. One night, however, they did not
return, so their owner turned out to seek for them as soon as it was
daylight, and found them at some little distance lying down bleeding
and exhausted, and between them the dead body of a huge hyena which
they had fought with and killed. Some idea may be formed of the size of
the hyena, and of the ferocious nature of the fight, when I state that
the dogs were young, as powerful and as large as any I have ever seen,
and that they were protected by thick collars studded with strong iron
spikes. These beautiful animals recovered from their wounds, but they
never ran out after hyenas again.
The country about Mossamedes is exposed to periodical irruptions of
the Monanos, or natives from the Nano country, which is inland, and
north of Mossamedes. They come down in large expeditions, laying
waste the country by driving off the cattle and sheep belonging to the
Mundombes. One of these marauding columns came down to the very town
of Mossamedes, but they agreed to retire on the payment of a certain
amount of cloth and other goods by the Portuguese; and amongst other
articles that they stipulated for were a number of dogs, which they
wanted for food. This condition was easily complied with, as Mossamedes
always contains a number of maimed and horribly mangy mongrels, who try
to pick up a living from the remains of fish and other offal on the
beach.
The few native inhabitants about Mossamedes are Mundombes, like those
of Benguella, but between the two places there is a district peopled
by a curious tribe called the Mucoandos. This district lies to the
interior, and between Point Santa Maria and the River San Nicolau.
These Mucoandos are a roving, migratory tribe, rearing flocks of
sheep, which are their only wealth; it is said that they hardly ever
cultivate the ground, and only build temporary huts or shelters. They
go about nearly naked, only wearing a small piece of sheepskin round
their loins, and are a quiet and inoffensive tribe. They are said to be
gradually dying out.
A still more curious tribe are the Muquices, of whom only a few now
remain. They are found near the sea, between Mossamedes and Carumjamba.
They do not keep sheep or cattle, or any live-stock whatever, and
never cultivate the ground or build huts to live in. Their food is
principally fish, which they catch with hook and line, and shellfish,
particularly mussels, which are very abundant and fine on the rocks,
and oysters. They cook their food by roasting it at a fire, and at
night they each make a small half circle of stones about a foot high,
against which they curl up like dogs as a shelter from the wind, very
often on the bare tops of the cliffs overhanging the sea. They also
take advantage of the ledges of rock and open caves or holes to sleep
in, but they are always on the move, never remaining more than a few
days at each place. I often saw these encampments, with the usual
accompaniments of heaps of mussel-shells and ashes, the remains of
their food and fires on the cliffs.
I once saw a party of eight of these Muquices at Point Giraul, the
northern end of Mossamedes Bay, where I had gone with some friends for
a day’s picnic of fish, oysters, and mussels off the rocks. This was
the largest number I had seen together. They were living in a large
hole in the soft rock, and were very pleased to have a talk, and get a
drink and a few small presents.
They are rather light-coloured, with very decided obliquely-set eyes,
which gives them a singular Chinese expression of face. They are slow
and gentle in their manner, and are said to be what their appearance
indicates, very quiet and inoffensive. The Portuguese often employ them
as letter-carriers up and down that part of the coast.
Their constantly roving habits do not allow them to have old or infirm
people;--when these cannot walk and keep up with the rest, they are
killed by being knocked on the head from behind with a stick. The
eldest son, or nearest male relative, does the deed, and the victim is
not apprised beforehand of his fate.
About Mossamedes that most singular plant the _Welwitschia mirabilis_
is found growing, and the country about the River San Nicolau, or 14°
S. lat., seems to be its northern limit. It has been found south, in
Damara Land. I was fortunate enough to be able to collect specimens of
the plant, flowers, and cones for Dr. Hooker, which supplied some of
the materials for his splendid monograph on this wonderful plant. These
specimens are now preserved in the Kew Museum.
[Illustration:
PLATE XV.
WELWITSCHIAS GROWING IN A PLAIN NEAR MOSSAMEDES.
_To face page 229._]
The following account of it is an extract from Dr. Hooker’s work:--“The
‘Welwitschia’ is a woody plant, said to attain a century in duration,
with an obconic trunk, about two feet long, of which a few inches
rise above the soil, presenting the appearance of a flat, two-lobed,
depressed mass, sometimes (according to Dr. Welwitsch) attaining
fourteen feet in circumference (!), and looking like a round table.
When full grown it is dark-brown, hard, and cracked over the whole
surface (much like the burnt crust of a loaf of bread); the lower
portion forms a stout tap-root, buried in the soil, and branching
downwards at the end. From deep grooves in the circumference of the
depressed mass two enormous leaves are given off, each six feet long
when full grown, one corresponding to each lobe: these are quite
flat, linear, very leathery, and split to the base into innumerable
thongs that lie curling upon the surface of the soil. Its discoverer
describes these same two leaves as being present from the earliest
condition of the plant, and assures me that they are in fact developed
from the two cotyledons of the seed, and are persistent, being replaced
by no others. From the circumference of the tabular mass, above but
close to the insertion of the leaves, spring stout dichotomously
branched cymes, nearly a foot high, bearing small, erect scarlet cones,
which eventually become oblong and attain the size of those of the
common spruce-fir. The scales of the cones are very closely imbricated,
and contain, when young and still very small, solitary flowers, which
in some cones are hermaphrodite (structurally but not functionally), in
others female. The hermaphrodite flower consists of a perianth of four
pieces, six monadelphous stamens with globose three-locular anthers,
surrounding a central ovule, the integument of which is produced into a
styliform sigmoid tube, terminated by a discoid apex. The female flower
consists of a solitary erect ovule contained in a compressed utricular
perianth. The mature cone is tetragonous, and contains a broadly-winged
fruit in each scale.”
I first saw the plant in my first journey inland from Mossamedes. On a
second visit to Mossamedes I went one day specially to obtain the large
specimens now at Kew, which were growing about six miles south of the
town on the sandy plain near the sea.
I found a considerable number of the plants growing, and having secured
my specimens, placed fresh cones in spirit, and transplanted a couple
of the small plants into a box of earth, I prepared to return. I had
ridden an old mule, and taken with me a number of blacks with poles to
carry the specimens. I tied the mule to a pole and left her to graze
about on the scanty tufts of grass whilst I dug out the plants. The
little refreshment she had picked up made her quite skittish, and all
our efforts to catch her were unavailing. For more than an hour did she
manage to elude us over the burning white sand, and I was fairly tired
out when she was at last caught.
I several times witnessed the “mirage” at Mossamedes. At a distance
of a few hundred yards before me I seemed to see the surface of the
ground covered with about two feet of water, and only the tops of the
grass and bushes could be seen out of it. The illusion is absolutely
perfect: the little waves and ripples of the water, and the reflection
of the sun from the surface, are all there, and only seeing the tops of
the grass still further increases the reality of the impression, which
continues sometimes for more than a quarter of an hour.
I found most agreeable society at Mossamedes, many of the Portuguese
there having their wives and families with them, which was not the case
at Benguella or elsewhere in Angola.
The climate at Mossamedes is remarkably healthy, and for many years
fevers were quite unknown there. I saw the white children looking as
healthy and rosy and strong as in Europe, and the white men working in
the plantations as in Portugal. Subsequently fever made its appearance
there, and once of a rather severe type, which I cannot help thinking
originated from the total want of sanitary arrangements for the greatly
increased population.
The Portuguese in Angola are everywhere remarkably neglectful and
careless of these matters, so necessary for the preservation of health,
especially in a hot climate.