LANDSCAPE OF NORTH COANZA 41 



wood fuel and the continued ascent to Melanje, 

 300 miles away, the train rarely travels faster 

 than 20 miles an hour ; and though the official 

 time for the journey from Loanda to Melanje 

 is twenty hours, it usually takes much longer. 



The line lies roughly parallel to the River 

 Coanza and just north of its main tributary, the 

 Lucala. First following the valley of the Dande 

 River, it then crosses the Dande-Coanza water- 

 shed, to approach, 160 kilometres from Loanda, 

 the River Coanza and the old town of Muxima, 

 one of the first posts occupied by the Portuguese 

 in the sixteenth century. 



The train had been steadily mounting the hills 

 ever since it left Loanda, and when we reached 

 Cassualola, a refreshment station on the Lucala 

 River, at midday, we were 500 to 600 feet above 

 sea-level. Just to the south lies Massangano, 

 another old Portuguese fort, for many years the 

 main town in the interior. 



Where the railway approached the Coanza, 

 and again later the Lucala River, the scenery 

 changed from open to closer forest. Soon after 

 leaving Cassualola, we left the valley of the 

 Lucala River to run up that of its small tributary, 

 the Luimbe a pretty valley this, between forest- 

 covered hills. The train was now passing through 

 the country of N'gola Cafiixe, whose people had 

 fought the Portuguese during the seventeenth 

 century, and sometimes with success. 



The land continues to rise. At the 165th 

 milestone the height is 700 feet. Nine miles 

 farther on, it hay risen 1000 feet, and at the town 



