MEETING WITH NATIVE TRADERS. 281 



. \:» their huts of coffee-trees. The rivers Dande, Senza, 

 n> «j Lucalla are said to rise in one mountain-range 

 .Numerous tribes inhabit the country to the north, who are 

 all independent. The Portuguese power extends chiefly 

 over the tribes through whose lands we have passed. It 

 may be said to be firmly seated only between the rivers 

 Dande and Coanza. It extends inland about three hun- 

 dred miles to the river Quango; and the population, 

 according to ihe imperfect data afforded by the census 

 given annually by the commandants of the fifteen or six- 

 teen districts into which it is divided, cannot be under 

 600,000 souls. 



Leaving Malange, we passed quickly, without deviation, 

 along the path by which we had come. At Sanza (lat. 9° 

 37' 46" S., long. 16° 59' E.) we expected to get a little seed- 

 wheat, but this was not now to be found in Angola. 



While at Tala Mungongo, we met a native of Bihe who 

 has visited the country of Shinte three times for the pur- 

 poses of trade. He gave us some of the news of that dis- 

 tant part, but not a word of the Makololo, who have always 

 been represented in the countries to the north as a despe- 

 rately-savage race, whom no trader could visit with safety. 

 The half-caste traders whom we met at Shinte's had re- 

 turned to Angola with sixty-six slaves and upward of fifty 

 tusks of ivory. As we came along the path, we daily met 

 long lines of carriers bearing large square masses of bees'- 

 wax, each about a hundred pounds' weight, and numbers 

 of elephants' tusks, the property of Angolese merchants. 

 Many natives were proceeding to the coast also on their 

 own account, carrying bees'-wax, ivory, and sweet oil. 

 They appeared to travel in perfect security; and at differ- 

 ent parts of the road we purchased fowls from them at a 

 penny each. My men took care to celebrate their own 

 daring in having actually entered ships, while the natives 

 of these parts, who had endeavored to frighten them on 

 their way down, had only seen them at a distance. Poor 

 fellows! they were more than ever attentive to me; and, 



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