130 THROUGH ANGOLA 



times over its dry and sandy bed, under which 

 the water flowed, as happens with most of these 

 southern Angolan rivers that pass through desert 

 country. The road stopped at the pump station 

 of Bimbas, and here Machado left me to return to 

 Benguella. 



Beyond Bimbas the valley became a gorge 



*J \J O O 



where the Cavaco emerged from the hills. Through 



O O 



these hills, the first of those terraced ranges which 

 end at last in the great Angolan plateau, winds 

 the railway ; by the river valleys where it can, or 

 over the hills on its way through the plateau to 

 Katanga. Leaving the open Cavaco valley for a 

 space, it climbs over the hills, past the station 

 of San Pedro, again to meet the Cavaco River, 

 near Catengue, 40 miles away. 



At the head of the open valley was the pump 

 station of Bimbas : at the mouth of the gorge 

 two miles beyond it, were two lagoons and tw r o 

 small villages ; and somewhere in the valley of 

 the Cavaco River, hidden in rocky cave or in the 

 long grass by the lagoons, was this family of lions. 

 Round one village and the water-hole of the Cavaco 

 River near by it, were many of their tracks. 

 Three or four nights before our arrival, the lions 

 had killed five goats in this village, and the night 

 after had growled so fiercely round the little huts 

 that the villagers had fled, and the village was now 

 deserted. 



There were two possible ways of trying to kill 

 these lions. One was to track them up by day 

 to their lair in the hills ; the other to wait for 

 them down by the village when they came to 



