xxxii PREFATORY LETTER. 



crops are luxuriant: grapes, figs and peaches are the fruits 

 of his cultivation: nature all round him is prolific, food is 

 abundant, and the labourers are cheerful and well-fed. 

 Were there a few more men scattered through Angola like 

 this "merchant prince," it would soon become a bright 

 jewel in the Crown of Portugal — of far higher price than it 

 ever was, even in those days when the export trade in slaves 

 was not restrained but encouraged by the great Christian 

 states of Europe. 



Here Dr Livingstone learnt, to his sorrow, that his 

 despatches, maps and journal had gone to the bottom of 

 the sea, in the mail -packet that was to convey them from 

 Loanda to England. He rejoiced, however, to find that 

 his friend Lieutenant Bedingfield (to whom they had been 

 entrusted) had escaped with life in the hour of peril: and 

 with characteristic energy, he immediately set to work to 

 re-write his journal; and as far as possible to replace his 

 loss. He remained, therefore, to the end of the year with 

 Colonel Pires; and nowhere in Angola could he have found 

 a better resting-place. 



On the 1st of January, 1855, having re-produced some 

 of his lost papers, he resumed his journey. They halted at 

 a dairy-establishment of Colonel Pires ; and then through 

 rich green pastures they went on to Malange, where they 

 struck upon the track by which, in the previous year, they 

 had entered the province of Angola. While continuing their 

 way, they met a half-caste slave-dealer bringing his gang of 

 sixty slaves and many elephants' tusks from the interior. 

 They also met several carriers bearing ivory and large cakes 

 of bees' wax for the markets of Loanda. On the 15th of 

 January they again crossed the heights of Tala Mungongo; 

 and after approximating to the elevation of these mountains 

 by experiments on the temperature of boiling water, our 

 author and his followers descended once more among the 

 tributaries of the Quango. With untiring labour he con- 



