113 



They are great wine-drinkers, using beer made 

 from Indian corn and fermented by a kind of 

 hops. This " capata " is made by boiling maize 

 and hop seeds for several hours ; it is not very 

 intoxicating, and I have found it sustaining. If 

 honey or sugar is added to " capata " a good deal 

 more alcohol is produced, and this "guisanga" is , 

 very intoxicating. * ' 



The older - established villages show strong- 

 stockades, constructed at a time when these 

 tribes were constantly at war with their neighbours, 

 but since the Portuguese have destroyed the power 

 of the Chiefs, and stopped all intertribal wars 

 and the carrying of firearms, the fortification of 

 villages has ceased. 



The plateau which has been described in this 

 chapter, continues for another 200 miles and more 

 towards the sea. The long road which crosses it 

 from Central Africa to Benguella, and over part 

 of which we had marched for so many days, has 

 seen many changes, and will see more before this 

 century is over. It was once the track of the 

 slave traders, who for centuries followed this road 

 from Central Africa, through Bihe to the slave 

 markets at Loanda and Benguella, where slave 

 ships awaited their cargoes for the Indies and 

 Brazil in very truth a road of suffering and 

 hideous cruelty ! 



Along part of this road came Livingstone, 

 who did so much to destroy the slave trade ; on 

 it Cameron, Capello, Ivens, and Serpa Pinto, each 

 in turn, took up and carried the torch of hope 

 and mercy which Livingstone had lighted. 



