398 SUGAR MANUFACTORY — GEOLOGY. Chap. XX. 



and is so named from having been the residence of a former 

 native king. The proportion of slaves is only 3*38 per cent, of 

 the inhabitants. The commandant of this place, Laurence Jose 

 Marquis, is a frank old soldier and a most hospitable man ; he is 

 one of the few who secure the universal approbation of then* fellow- 

 men for stern unflinching honesty, and has risen from the ranks to 

 be a major in the army. We were accompanied thus far by our 

 generous host, Edmund Gabriel, Esq., who, by Ins unwearied 

 attentions to myself, and liberality in supporting my men, had 

 become endeared to all our hearts. My men were strongly im- 

 pressed with a sense of his goodness, and often spoke of him in 

 terms of admiration all the way to Linyanti. 



While here we visited a large sugar manufactory belonging to 

 a lady, Donna Anna da Sousa. The flat alluvial lands on the 

 banks of the Senza or Bengo are well adapted for raising sugar- 

 cane, and this lady had a surprising number of slaves, but some- 

 how the establishment was far from being in a flourishing con- 

 dition. It presented such a contrast to the free-labour establish- 

 ments of the Mauritius winch I have since seen, where, with not 

 one tenth of the number of hands, or such good soil, a man of 

 colour had, in one year, cleared 5000?. by a single crop, that I 

 quote the fact in hopes it may meet the eye of Donna Anna. 



The water of the river is muddy, and it is observed that such 

 rivers have many more mosquitoes than those winch have clear 

 water. It was remarked to us here that these insects are much 

 more numerous at the period of new moon than at other times ; 

 at any rate we were all thankful to get away from the Senza and 

 its insect plagues. 



The whole of this part of the country is composed of marly 

 tufa, containing the same kind of shells as those at present alive 

 in the seas. As we advanced eastward and ascended the higher 

 lands, we found eruptive trap, which had tilted up immense 

 masses of mica and sandstone schists. The mica schist almost 

 always dipped towards the interior of the country, forming those 

 mountain-ranges of which we have already spoken as giving a 

 highland character to the district of Golungo Alto. The trap 

 has frequently run through the gorges made in the upheaved 

 rocks, and at the points of junction between the igneous and 

 older rocks, there are large quantities of strongly magnetic iron- 



