BENGUELLA TO CHINGUAR 123 



mounting ever eastwards to the plateaux and high- 

 lands of Central Angola. These hills are pierced 

 by the valleys of many a mountain river, and if 

 engineering alone had dictated the route of the 

 Benguella Railway it might have been running 

 to-day from Lobito by the Catumbella valley to 

 the plateau, but local and political influences de- 

 termined that the line should go first along the 

 coast to Benguella, to begin its climb through the 

 mountains up the steep little valley of the Lengue 

 River, a tributary of the Cavaco. 



For the first 15 to 20 miles the railway runs 

 along a sandy seashore, past the Catumbella River 

 valley and the old-world town founded three 

 centuries ago, where Cameron in 1804 found his 

 way to the sea, weary and foot-sore, after crossing 

 the African continent. It passes through Ben- 

 guella town, once the greatest slave and ivory 

 market of this coast, yet the capital of the district, 

 lying stretched along its open, useless bay, a great 

 collection of old-world balconied houses in high- 

 walled slave compounds, separated by wide, shaded 

 avenues. 



Benguella lies dormant, but jealous ; ns a 

 woman who sees a younger rival growing to fame 

 and power by her side. She cannot compete with 

 Lobito ; Nature itself forbids it. The harbour is 

 worthless, the deadly mosquito is here, and the 

 fever it brings ; but the toAvn has several thousand 

 inhabitants, of whom some 3000 are whites, and 

 the Governor's palace and such society as the 

 district boasts are still at Benguella. The line 

 passes through the Benguella plantations, and is 



