CHAPTER III 



LUANDA TO MELANJE AND THE NORTHERN 

 ANGOLAN RAILWAY 



IT was dusk when the ship entered Loanda 

 harbour, and steamed between a line of 

 cliffs and a long sand-spit to where the 

 lights of a town shone out at the harbour's end. 

 It was night when we anchored, but I went 

 ashore to decide whether to go inland from Loanda 

 by the line to Melanje, its rail-head, or sail south 

 to Lobito Bay, and there entrain for Chinguar, 

 where the Central Railway for the moment ended. 

 From Melanje to the sable country was to travel 

 some 200 miles south-cast over an unkno\vn track ; 

 from Chinguar, a day's motor ride to Bihe, and 

 thence four days north-east by a wagon road. 

 My ship left in a week from Loanda ; the next 

 train in six days. The loss of time was equal, but 

 in one plan lay the hope of a new game country, 

 and the chance of mapping the big sable to the 

 north ; so the decision w r as made for the northern 

 road. 



When rowing to land next morning, the cliffs 

 of Loanda seemed red in the light of dawn, and 

 lay ahead like the arc of a gigantic bow, \vhose 

 cord was that long spit of sand between the harbour 



