Chap. XXII. GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 429 



west of Braganza is reported to be mountainous, well wooded and 

 watered ; wild coffee is abundant, and the people even make their 

 huts of coffee-trees. The rivers Dande, Senza, and Lucalla, are 

 said to rise in one mountain-range. Numerous tribes inhabit the 

 country to the north, who are all independent. The Portuguese 

 power extends chiefly over the tribes through whose lands we 

 have passed. It may be said to be firmly seated only between 

 the rivers Dande and Coanza. It extends inland about three 

 hundred miles to the river Quango ; and the population, according 

 to the imperfect data afforded by the census, given annually by 

 the commandants of the fifteen or sixteen districts into which it is 

 divided, cannot be under 600,000 souls. 



Leaving Malange, we passed quickly, without deviation, along 

 the path by which we had come. At Sanza (lat. 9° 37' 46" S., 

 long. 16° 59' E.) we expected to get a little seed- wheat, but this 

 was not now to be found in Angola. The underlying rock of 

 the whole of this section, is that same sandstone winch we have 

 before noticed, but it gradually becomes finer in the grain, with 

 the addition of a little mica, the further we go eastward ; we enter 

 upon clay-shale at Tala Mungongo (lat. 9° 42' 37" S., long. 17° 

 27' E.), and find it dipping a little to the west. The general 

 geological structure, is a broad fringe of mica and sandstone schist 

 (about 15° E.), dipping in towards the centre of the "country, 

 beneath these horizontal and sedimentary rocks of more recent 

 date, winch form an inland basin. The fringe is not, however, the 

 highest in altitude, though the oldest in age. 



While at this latter place, we met a native of Bilie who has 

 visited the country of Shinte three times, for the purposes of trade. 

 He gave us some of the news of that distant part, but not a word 

 of the Makololo, who have always been represented in the coun- 

 tries to the north as a desperately savage race, whom no trader 

 could visit with safety. The half-caste traders whom we met at 

 Shmte's, had returned to Angola with sixty-six slaves and upwards 

 of fifty tusks of ivory. As we came along the path, we daily met 

 long lines of carriers bearing large square masses of bees'-wax, 

 each about a hundred pounds weight, and numbers of elephants' 

 tusks, the property of Angolese merchants. Many natives were 

 proceeding to the coast also on their own account, carrying bees'- 

 wax, ivory, and sweet oil. They appeared to travel in perfect 



