FEELINGS OF FEEED SLAVES. 335 



the country. As we were now in the alleged latitude of the 

 Coanza, I was much astonished at the entire absence of any 

 knowledge of that river among the natives of this quarter. But 

 I was then ignorant of the fact that the Coanza rises considerably 

 to the west of this, and has a comparatively short course from its 

 source to the sea. 



The famous Dr. Lacerda seems to have labored under the 

 same mistake as myself, for he recommended the government 

 of Angola to establish a chain of forts along the banks of that 

 river, with a view to communication with the opposite coast. 

 As a chain of forts along its course would lead southward instead 

 of eastward, we may infer that the geographical data within 

 reach of that eminent man were no better than those according 

 to which I had directed my course to the Coanza where it does 

 not exist. 



26M. We spent Sunday on the banks of the Quilo or Kweelo, 

 here a stream of about ten yards wide. It runs in a deep glen, 

 the sides of which are almost five hundred yards of slope, and 

 rocky, the rocks being hardened calcareous tufa lying on clay shale 

 and sandstone below, with a capping of ferruginous conglomerate. 

 The scenery would have been very pleasing, but fever took away 

 much of the joy of life, and severe daily intermittents rendered me 

 very weak and always glad to recline. 



As we were now in the slave-market, it struck me that the 

 sense of insecurity felt by the natives might account for the 

 circumstance that those who have been sold as slaves and freed 

 again, when questioned, profess to like the new state better than 

 their primitive one. They lived on rich, fertile plains, which 

 seldom inspire that love of country which the mountains do. If 

 they had been mountaineers, they would have pined for home. To 

 one who has observed the hard toil of the poor in old civilized 

 countries, the state in which the inhabitants here live is one of 

 glorious ease. The country is full of little villages. Food 

 abounds, and very little labor is required for its cultivation ; the 

 soil is so rich that no manure is required ; when a garden becomes 

 too poor for good crops of maize, millet, etc., the owner removes 

 a little farther into the forest, applies fire round the roots of the 

 larger trees to kill them, cuts down the smaller, and a new, rich 

 garden is ready for the seed. The gardens usually present the ap- 



Bb 



