368 THROUGH ANGOLA 



straggling grass and open scrub near Benguella, 

 and in its turn, farther north, into savannah. 



It was interesting to contrast the old towns 

 that had served as seaward gates for centuries, 

 Benguella and Loanda and Ambriz, with the 

 growing, upstart town of Lobito, restless and 

 commercial. The old towns stood for a great 

 historic past of European venture and influence, 

 itself grafted on to a civilization which, though 

 African, might still be called great ; the kingdom 

 of the Congo with its long lines of kings and 

 courts and ancient customs. 



They were a brave-hearted race these Por- 

 tuguese sailors that manned the little high-pooped 

 caravels, little larger than our trawlers, and sailed 

 them past uncharted shores, through unknown 

 seas ever onward, searching first the mysterious 

 Prester John, and then new worlds to conquer for 

 the Faith and Portugal, and from which to bring 

 slaves and gold and ivory. It must have been a 

 stirring sight to see these sea captains, and their 

 sailors in doublet and hose and jerkin, with sword 

 and spike and arquebus, fighting at great odds, 

 first the natives whose weapons were near the 

 equal of their own, then Dutch and French, to 

 hold what they had found with such dauntless 

 hardihood. 



They built well, these old adventurers, as 

 stone fort and church, house and palace, still can 

 show ; and if those who came after them had 

 sought and fought and built with half their zeal, 

 this country of Angola would now have been a 

 great colony of Portugal. 



