GOLUNGO ALTO- 247 



proportion that his people bear to the entire population of 

 the district. For this accommodation the trader must pay 

 a tax to the Government of one thousand reis, or about 

 three shillings, per load carried. The trader is obliged to 

 pay the carrier also the sum of fifty reis, or about two- 

 pence a day, for his sustenance. And, as a day's journey 

 is never more than from eight to ten miles, the expense 

 which must be incurred for this compulsory labor is felt to 

 be heavy by those who were accustomed to employ slave- 

 labor alone. Yet no effort has been made to form a great 

 line of road for wheel-carriages. The first great want of 3 

 country has not been attended to, and no development of 

 its vast resources has taken place. The fact, however, of 

 a change from one S} T stem of carriage to another, taken in 

 connection with the great depreciation in the price of 

 slaves near this coast, proves the effectiveness of our efforts 

 at repressing the slave-trade on the ocean. 



The latitude of G-olungo Alto, as observed at the re- 

 sidence of the commandant, was 9° 8' 30" S., longitude 

 15° 2' E. A few days' rest with this excellent young man 

 enabled me to regain much of my strength, and I could 

 look with pleasure on the luxuriant scenery before his 

 door. We were quite shut in among green hills, many of 

 which were cultivated up to their tops with manioc, coffee, 

 cotton, groundnuts, bananas, pineapples, guavas, papaws, 

 custard-apples, pitangas, and jambos, — fruits brought from 

 South America by the former missionaries. 



We left Golungo Alto on the 24th of May, — the winter 

 in those parts. Every evening clouds come rolling iD 

 great masses over the mountains in the west, and pealing 

 thunder accompanies the fall of rain during the night or 

 early in the morning. The clouds generally remain on the 

 hills till the morning is well spent, so that we become fami- 

 liar with the morning mists, — a thing we never once oaw 

 at Kolobeng. The thermometer stands at 80° by day, but 

 sinks as low as 76° by night. 



In going westward we crossed sevei-al fine little gushing 



