382 FEUITS OF JESUIT TEACHING. Chap. XIX. 



Arsenio de Carpo, who spoke a little English. He recommended 

 wine for my debility, and here I took the first glass of that 

 beverage I had taken in Africa. I felt much refreshed, and could 

 then realize and meditate on the weakening effects of the fever. 

 They were curious even to myself, for, though I had tried several 

 times since we left Ngio to take lunar observations, I could not 

 avoid confusion of time and distance, neither could I hold the 

 instrument steady, nor perform a simple calculation ; hence many 

 of the positions of tins part of the route were left till my return 

 from Loanda. Often, on getting up in the mornings, I found my 

 clothing as wet from perspiration as if it had been dipped in 

 water. In vain had I tried to learn or collect words of the 

 Bunda, or dialect spoken in Angola. I forgot the days of the 

 week and the names of my companions, and, had I been asked, 

 I probably could not have told my own. The complaint itself 

 occupied many of my thoughts. One day I supposed that I had 

 got the true theory of it, and would certainly cure the next 

 attack whether in myself or companions, but some new symptoms 

 would appear, and scatter all the fine speculations which had 

 sprung up, with extraordinary fertility, in one department of my 

 brain. 



This district is said to contain upwards of 40,000 souls. Some 

 ten or twelve miles to the north of the village of Ambaca, there 

 once stood the missionary station of Cahenda, and it is now quite 

 astonishing to observe the great numbers who can read and write 

 in tins district. This is the fruit of the labours of the Jesuit and 

 Capuchin missionaries, for they taught the people of Ambaca ; 

 and ever since the expulsion of the teachers by the Marquis of 

 Pombal, the natives have continued to teach each other. These 

 devoted men are still held in high estimation throughout the 

 country to this day. All speak well of them (os padres Jesuitas), 

 and now that they are gone from this lower sphere, I could not 

 help wishing that these our Koman Catholic fellow-Christians had 

 felt it to be their duty to give the j)eople the Bible, to be a light 

 to their feet when the good men themselves were gone. 



When sleeping in the house of the Commandant an insect, well 

 known in the southern country by the name Tampan, bit my foot. 

 It is a kind of tick, and chooses by preference the parts between 

 the fingers or toes for inflicting its bite. It is seen from the size 



