DEPARTURE FROM CABANGO. 299 



Mr. Gabriel at Loanda. I was always anxious to transmit 

 an account of my discoveries on every possible occasion, 

 lest, any thing happening in the country to which I was 

 going, they should be entirely lost. I also fondly expected 

 a packet of letters and papers which my good angel at 

 Loanda would be sure to send if they came to hand ; but 1 

 afterward found that, though he had offered a large sum 

 to any one who would return with an assurance of having 

 delivered the last packet he sent, no one followed me with 

 it to Cabango. The unwearied attentions of this good 

 Englishman, from his first welcome to me, when, a weary, 

 dejected, and worn-down stranger, I arrived at his resi- 

 dence, and his whole subsequent conduct, will be held in 

 lively remembrance by me to my dying day 



As we thought it best to strike away to the S.E. from 

 Cabango to our old friend Katema, I asked a guide from 

 Muanzanza. He agreed to furnish one, and also accepted 

 a smaller present from me than usual, when it was re- 

 presented to him by Pascoal and Faria that I was not a 

 trader. 



We were forced to prepay our guide and his father too; 

 and he went but one day, although he promised to go with 

 us to Katema. 



The reason why we needed a guide at all was to secure 

 the convenience of a path, which, though generally no 

 better than a sheep-walk, is much easier than going 

 straight in one direction through tangled forests and 

 tropical vegetation. We knew the general direction we 

 ought to follow, and also if any deviation occurred from 

 our proper route ; but, to avoid impassable forests and 

 untreadable bogs, and to get to the proper fords of the 

 rivers, we always tried to procure a guide, and he always 

 followed the common path from one village to another 

 when that lay in the direction we were going. 



After leaving Cabango, on the 21st, we crossed several 

 little streams running into the Chihombo on our left. 



On the 28th we reached the village of the chief Bango, 



