250 FEARS OF THE MAKOLOLO. 



replied^ "I see what you are driving at; and if you suspect 

 me you may return, for I am as ignorant of Loanda as 

 you are ; but nothing will happen to you but what happens 

 to myself. We have stood by each other hitherto, and will 

 do so to the last." The plains adjacent to Loanda are 

 somewhat elevated and comparatively sterile. On coming 

 across these we first beheld the sea : my companions 

 looked upon the boundless ocean with awe. On describing 

 their feelings afterward, they remarked that " we marched 

 along with our father, believing that what the ancients had 

 always told us was true, that the world has no end; but all 

 at once the world said to us, 'I am finished: there is no 

 more of me !' " They had always imagined that the world 

 was one extended plain without limit. 



They were now somewhat apprehensive of suffering 

 want, and I was unable to allay their fears with any pro- 

 mise of supply, for my own mind was depressed by disease 

 and care. The fever had induced a state of chronic dys- 

 entery so troublesome that I could not remain on the ox 

 more than ten minutes at a time ; and as we came down 

 the declivity above the city of Loanda on the 31st of May, 

 I was laboring under great depression of spirits, as I under- 

 stood that, in a population of twelve thousand souls, there 

 was but one genuine English gentleman. I naturally felt 

 anxious to know whether he were possessed of good-nature, 

 or was one of those crusty mortals one would rather not 



meet at all. 



t 



This gentleman, Mr. Gabriel, our commissioner for the 

 suppression of the slave-trade, had kindly forwarded u& 

 invitation to meet me on the way from Cassange, but, 

 unfortunately, it crossed me on the road. When we 

 entered his porch, I was delighted to see a number of 

 flowers cultivated carefully, and inferred from this circum- 

 stance that he was, what I soon discovered him to be, a 

 real whole-hearted Englishman. 



Seeing me ill, he benevolently offered me his bed. Never 

 shall I forget the luxurious pleasure I enjoyed in feeling 



