36 



Brazil in order to fetch labour for their plantations. The old 

 slave routes are still discernible in that there is a kind of village 

 or oasis at distances of 20 kilometres, and there very often one 

 sees plants and herbs that were evidently brought from abroad. 

 The river courses were the usual route followed by the slave traders 

 to the interior. 



In the hinterland of Angola, some 300 kilometres from 

 Loanda, in the zone of the Malange railway, on the banks of the 

 numerous rivers traversing the country (Quanza, Bengo, Lucalla, 

 &c.) one sees still, very distinctly the stone buildings (some of 

 them magnificent) of the early colonists, who first settled in those 

 lonely districts. 



in the middle of the 19th century the merchants of Loanda 

 suggested the necessity of a bank, in order to facilitate their 

 transactions. 



In 1867 the exports of Angola amounted to 274 tons of cotton, 

 716 tons of beeswax, 179 tons of indigo, 912 tons of coffee, 276 tons 

 of palm-nuts, the value of which totalled 1,247 contos. 



The Banco Nacional Ultramarino was founded in 1864, and 

 in 1865 the head office at Lisbon and the offices in the colonies 

 had discounted 3,684 drafts, amounting to 5,717 contos, 434 contos 

 had been advanced on securities, and 2,789 contos had been trans- 

 ferred to and from the colonies. The deposits at sight showed a 

 balance of 300 contos and the other deposits 159 contos, the 

 movement of the deposits aggregating 6,783 contos. 



The office of the Bank at Loanda was opened in 1868, and 

 the trade of the colony was so small that only 126 drafts were 

 discounted, their amount being 121 contos; the number of 

 advances on securities was 124, totalling 56 contos; the amount 

 of transfers was 153 contos; the cash returns amounted to 490 

 contos. The notes in circulation in Angola amounted to 41 

 contos. 



In 1867 the Bank established an office at S. Thome and have 

 supported, since that date, all the agricultural undertakings of 

 the richest colony of Portuguese West Africa. 



In the same year a loan was made to the Governor of the 

 district of Mossamedes (South Angola) with the object of opening 

 the roads of Capangombe, Huila and Bibala, the most suitable 

 districts for white settlement in that zone. 



The vicissitudes of the incipient tropical plantations reflected 

 themselves on the Bank, and the first years of experience were 

 far from successful. 



In 1871 the agricultural loans in S. Thome, Loanda, and 

 Cape Verde were already 5,600 contos. 



