Chap. XIX. VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 369 



Cliefe, Senhor de Silva Eego. Having shown my passport to this 

 gentleman, he politely asked me to supper, and as we had eaten 

 nothing except the farina of Cypriano from the Quango to this, 

 I suspect I appeared particularly ravenous to the other gentlemen 

 around the table. They seemed, however, to understand my 

 position pretty well, from having all travelled extensively them- 

 selves ; had they not been present, I might have put some in my 

 pocket to eat by night, for, after fever, the appetite is excessively 

 keen, and manioc is one of the most unsatisfying kinds of food. 

 Captain Antonio Eodrigues Neves then kindly invited me to 

 take up my abode in his house. Next morning tins generous 

 man arrayed me in decent clotliing, and continued during the 

 whole period of my stay to treat me as if I had been his brother. 

 I feel deeply grateful to him for his disinterested kindness ; he 

 not only attended to my wants, but also furnished food for my 

 famishing party free of charge. 



The village of Cassange (pronounced Kassanje) is composed of 

 thirty or forty traders' houses, scattered about without any regu- 

 larity, on an elevated flat spot in the great Quango or Cassange 

 valley. They are built of wattle and daub, and surrounded by 

 plantations of manioc, maize, &c. Behind them, there are usually 

 kitchen gardens, in which the common European vegetables, as 

 potatoes, peas, cabbages, onions, tomatoes, &c. &c, grow. Guavas 

 and bananas appear, from the size and abundance of the trees, to 

 have been introduced many years ago, while the land was still in the 

 possession of the natives, but pine-apples, orange, fig, and cashew- 

 trees have but lately been tried. There are about forty Portuguese 

 traders in this district, all of whom are officers in the militia, and 

 many of them have become rich from adopting the plan of 

 sending out Pombeiros, or native traders, with large quantities 

 of goods, to trade in the more remote parts of the country. Some 

 of the governors of Loanda, the capital of this, the kingdom of 

 Angola, have insisted on the observance of a law which, from 

 motives of humanity, forbids the Portuguese themselves from 

 passing beyond the boundary. They seem to have taken it for 

 granted, that, in cases where the white trader was killed, the 

 aggression had been made by him, and they wished to avoid the 

 necessity of punishing those who had been provoked to shed 

 Portuguese blood. Tins indicates a much greater impartiality 



2 B 



