246 CARRIERS. 



8' 30" S., long. 15° 2' E.) The whole district is extremely 

 beautiful. The hills are all bedecked with trees of various 

 hues of foliage, and among them towers the graceful palm, 

 which yields the oil of commerce for making our soaps and 

 the intoxicating toddy. 



We were most kindly received by the commandant, 

 Lieutenant Antonio Canto e Castro, a young gentleman 

 whose whole subsequent conduct will ever make me re- 

 gard him with great affection. Like every other person 

 of intelligence whom I had met, he lamented deeply the 

 neglect with which this fine country had been treated. 

 This district contained, by the last census, 26,000 hearths 

 or fires; and, if to each hearth we reckon four souls, we 

 have a population of 104,000. The number of carre- 

 gadores (carriers) who may be ordered out at the pleasure 

 of Government to convey merchandise to the coast is in 

 this district alone about 6000 ; yet there is no good road 

 in existence. This system of compulsory carriage of mer- 

 chandise was adopted in consequence of the increase in 

 numbers and activity of our cruisers which took place in 

 1845. Each trader who went, previous to that year, into 

 the interior, in the pursuit of his calling, proceeded on the 

 plan of purchasing ivory and bees'-wax, and a sufficient 

 number of slaves to carry these commodities. The whole 

 were intended for exportation as soon as the trader reached 

 the coast. But when the more stringent measures of 1845 

 came into operation, and rendered the exportation of slaves 

 almost impossible, there being no roads proper for the em- 

 ployment of wheel-conveyances, this new system of com- 

 pulsory carriage of ivory and bees'-wax to the coast was 

 resorted to by the Government of Loanda. A trader who 

 requires two or three hundred carriers to convey his mer- 

 chandise to the coast now applies to the general Govern- 

 ment for aid. An order is sent to the commandant of a 

 district to furnish the number required. Each head-man 

 of the villages to whom the order is transmitted must fur- 

 nish from five to twenty or thirty men, according to tha 



