SAN PAULO DE LOANDA 33 



and the sea. At one end of the cliffs, perched on 

 its highest crag, was the fort of San Michel, built 

 three hundred years ago ; and from this point 

 to the east, along the line of cliff, were a church, 

 a palace, and a convent, with many other solid, 

 time-worn buildings. These formed the upper 

 town. 



Between cliff and sea was a shelving beach 

 covered with shops and houses, the lower or com- 

 mercial part of the town. Down by the beach 

 the little sixteenth-century fort of San Francisco 

 reminds us of Loanda's past ; the railway station 

 and a wireless mast speak for the present and 

 future. 



The streets of the town are well paved and laid 

 out, and shaded with trees. The three hotels, all 

 in the lower town, were crowded; and I was glad 

 to find shelter, on my first night ashore, in the house 

 of the Eastern Telegraph Company. This house 

 was in the upper town, and, like most of the older 

 houses in Loanda (there arc few new ones), is 

 solidly built, its garden and courtyard surrounded 

 by high walls ; as is the case with all the original 

 houses, which were built to hold slaves. 



The upper town is approached through good 

 roads ; one of them was being cut out of the solid 

 cliff by Portuguese convicts. There is no death 

 penalty in Portugal, and those who have deserved 

 it are sent to Angola, where they arc at first 

 employed at manual work in the towns ; after a 

 time, if they behave themselves, they are given a 

 ticket- of-leave and allowed to settle in the country, 

 belli"; free if they report themselves when OP lied 

 3 



