40 THROUGH ANGOLA 



up till live minutes before it started ; and Domingo, 

 the other servant, was so exeited at this, his first 

 long journey from home, that he broke our only 

 bottle of gun oil over my elothes. 



We started at last, but my troubles were not 

 over, for we stopped fifteen minutes later at the 

 upper town station to take a fresh crowd of people 

 into the train. Monteiro, ever my friend, had 

 mentioned me to some people who were travelling 

 in a speeial carriage, so I found myself invited 

 to share the private saloon of Senhor Eduardo 

 Lorenz. 



Sleepless through the dreadful jolting of the 

 train, my night was spent watching the country 

 we were passing, lit up as it was by the myriad 

 sparks that flew from the funnel of our wood-fed 

 engine. The sight was like a Brock's benefit night 

 at the Crystal Palace. The engines only spark 

 like this when climbing under forced pressure, and 

 the chance of sell ing the carriages on lire is then 

 very real. 



By live o'clock next morning, seven hours 

 after starting, we had covered only 60 miles, 

 owing to the steepness of the gradient. All the 

 early morning we passed through open and some- 

 what arid country, with baobabs and euphorbias 

 as the principal trees, while the ground was covered 

 with grass 3 or 4 feet high. The game round here 

 includes eland, bush cow, roan, kudu, water buck, 

 reed buck, bush buck, duiker, and occasionally 

 elephant. 



The Loanda to Mclanje line is a Government 

 railway, and was the first in Angola. Owing to 



