WELCOME TO LOANDA. 421 



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 promise of supply, for 

 ray own mind was depressed by disease and care. The fever had 

 induced a state of chronic dysentery, 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 

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

 was but one genuine English gentleman. I naturally felt anxious 

 to know whether lie were possessed of good-nature, or was one of 

 those crusty mortals one would rather not meet at all. 



This gentleman, Mr. Gabriel, our commissioner for the sup- 

 pression of the slave-trade, had kindly forwarded an 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 circumstance 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 myself again 

 on a good English couch, after six months' sleeping on the ground. 

 I was soon asleep ; and Mr. Gabriel, coming in almost immediate- 

 ly, rejoiced at the soundness of my repose. 



