436 RUINS OF IRON FOUNDRY. 



introduced by the same agency. It is known that the Jesuits 

 also introduced, many other trees for the sake of their timber 

 alone. Numbers of these have spread over the country, some 

 have probably died out, and others failed to spread, like a lonely 

 specimen which stands in what was the Botanic Garden of Lo- 

 anda, and, though most useful in yielding a substitute for frank- 

 incense, is the only one of the kind in Africa. 



A circumstance which would facilitate the extensive propagation 

 of the coffee on the proper clay soil is this : The seed, when buried 

 beneath the soil, generally dies, while that which is sown broad- 

 cast, with no covering except the shade of the trees, vegetates 

 readily. The agent in sowing in this case is a bird, which eats 

 the outer rind, and throws the kernel on the ground. This plant 

 can not bear the direct rays of the sun ; consequently, when a num- 

 ber of the trees are discovered in the forest, all that is necessary is 

 to clear away the brushwood, and leave as many of the tall forest- 

 trees as will afford good shade to the coffee-plants below. The 

 fortunate discoverer has then a flourishing coffee plantation. 



This district, small though it be, having only a population of 

 13,822, of whom ten only are white, nevertheless yields an annual 

 tribute to the government of thirteen hundred cotton cloths, each 

 5 feet by 18 or 20 inches, of their own growth and manufacture. 



Accompanied by the commandant of Cazengo, who was well 

 acquainted with this part of the country, I proceeded in a canoe 

 down the River Lucalla to Massangano. This river is about 85 

 yards wide, and navigable for canoes from its confluence with 

 the Coanza to about six miles above the point where it receives 

 the Luinha. Near this latter point stand the strong, massive 

 ruins of an iron foundry, erected in the times (1768) and by 

 the order of the famous Marquis of Pombal. The whole of 

 the buildings were constructed of stone, cemented with oil and 

 lime. The dam for water-power was made of the same materials, 

 and 27 feet high. This had been broken through by a flood, and 

 solid blocks, many yards in length, were carried down the stream, 

 affording an instructive example of the transporting power of 

 water. There was nothing in the appearance of the place to in- 

 dicate unhealthiness ; but eight Spanish and Swedish workmen, 

 being brought hither for the purpose of instructing the natives in 

 the art of smelting iron, soon fell victims to disease and "irregu- 



