X INTRODUCTION. 



the distinguished learning acquired by Welwitsch, and to the 

 important studies which he had made on the flora and fauna of 

 Portugal. 



On the voyage from Lisbon, which he left on the 8th August 

 1853, he had the opportunity of visiting Madeira (12th to 

 14th August), the Cape Verde Islands (20th to 24th August), 

 Sierra Leone (29th August to 6th September), Prince's Island 

 (15th to 22nd September), and the Island of St. Thomas 

 (23rd September) ; at Freetown, in Sierra Leone, he first became 

 acquainted with a thoroughly tropical vegetation. He reached 

 Loanda, the capital of Angola, on the 30th September 1853, and, 

 making that town the base of his operations, he at once under- 

 took a series of excursions in every direction, collecting plants 

 especially, but also Hymenoptera, beetles, and other insects, as 

 well as Mollusca, and the higher animals. His attention was 

 naturally directed to the country near the coast, which he care- 

 fully explored from the mouth of the Quizembo, a little to the north 

 of Ambriz (about 8° 15' S. lat.), w^here he remarked upon the 

 absence of seaweeds, to the mouth of the Cuanza (about 9° 20' S.). 

 His first impressions will be found in a letter to Mr. Kippist, 

 dated the 2nd March 1854, printed in the Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society. 



In this letter he said that "it is much to be regretted that 

 excursions in this country are attended with so much expense 

 and such great inconveniences of all kinds. Although the Portu- 

 guese Government allow me .£45 per month, I shall nevertheless 

 be under the necessity of contracting heavy debts before I return 

 to Europe, since everything is at least three times dearer than 

 in London. As there are few roads, and fewer beasts of burden, 

 all baggage, provisions, water, presses, paper, beds, cooking 

 utensils, with the necessary articles for barter {e.g., guns, brandy, 

 cotton goods, glass-pearls, etc.) must be conveyed on the heads 

 of negroes ; so that even the shortest excursion of three or four 

 days costs an enormous sum. Meanwhile my reliance is upon 

 England; that is to say, I anticipate that my cases of living 

 plants, insects, seeds, etc., as also a few herbaiia of the flora of 

 this neighbourhood, will be duly honoured ; and in that hope I 

 intend, within two or three weeks from this time, to make up a 

 sample- collection for London." 



An edict of the Colonial Government at Loanda, dated the 

 8th March 1854, appointed a Commission, of which Dr. Welwitsch 

 was to act as chairman, to prepare and arrange a collection of 

 natural products of the province of Angola, to be forwarded to 

 the Portuguese section of the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and to 

 undertake for this purpose the necessary exploration, examination 

 and analysis. 



In the Boletim do Conselho Utramarino of Lisbon for the 

 7th August 1854, Welwitsch published a list of some of the 

 seeds of plants which he had collected in the course of his travels 

 up to that time, and which he forwarded to the Botanical Garden 



