Chap. XIX. FEELINGS OF FREED SLAVES. 357 



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 laboured 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 southwards instead 

 of eastwards, 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. 



26th. — 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 inter- 

 mittents 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 labour 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, &c, 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 



