240 A SOLDIER-GUIDE. 



we parted with the feeling in my mind that I should never 

 forget their disinterested kindness. They not only did 

 every thing they could to make my men and me comfort- 

 able during our stay, but, there being no hotels in Loanda, 

 they furnished me with letters of recommendation to their 

 friends in that city, requesting them to receive me into 

 their houses, for without these a stranger might find him- 

 self a lodger in the streets. May God remember them in 

 their day of need ! 



The latitude and longitude of Cassange, the most easterly 

 station of the Portuguese in Western Africa, is lat. 9° 37' 

 30" S and long. 17° 49' E.; consequently we had still about 

 three hundred miles to traverse before we could reach the 

 coast. We had a black militia-corporal as a guide. He was 

 a native of Ambaca, and, like nearly all the inhabitants of 

 that district, known by the name of Ambakistas, could both 

 read and write. He had three slaves with him, and was 

 carried by them in a "tipoia," or hammock slung to a pole. 



Having left Cassange on the 21st, we passed across the 

 remaining portion of this excessively-fertile valley to the 

 foot of Tala Mungongo. We crossed a fine little stream 

 called the Lui on the 22d, and another named the Luare on 

 the 24th, and then slept at the bottom of the height, which 

 is from a thousand to fifteen hundred feet. 



Situated a few miles from the edge of the descent, we 

 found the village of Tala Mungongo, and were kindly 

 accommodated with a house to sleep in, — which was very 

 welcome, as we were all both wet and cold. We found 

 that the greater altitude and the approach of winter 

 lowered the temperature so much that many of my men 

 suffered severely from colds. At this, as at several other 

 Portuguese stations, they have been provident enough to 

 erect travellers' houses on the same principle as khans or 

 caravanserais of the East. They are built of the usual 

 wattle and daub, and have benches of rods for the way- 

 farer to make his bed on; also chairs, and a table, and a 

 large jar of water. These benches, though far from luxu- 



