252 COUNTRY AROUND CASSANGE. Chap. XIX 



stylo. All manner of foreign preserved fruits and wine from 

 Portugal, American biscuits, Cork butter, and English beer 

 were displayed, and no expense was spared in trie entertain- 

 ment. After the feast card-playing commenced and continued 

 till eleven o'clock at night. 



As far as a mere traveller could judge, the Portuguese 

 seemed to be sociable and willing to aid each other. They 

 have neither doctor, apothecary, school, nor priest. Fevers 

 are prevalent, and, when taken ill, they trust to each other and 

 to Providence : they have however a good idea of what ought 

 to be done in such cases, and they freely impart to each other 

 whatever medicinal skill they possess. None of these gentle- 

 men had Portuguese wives. They come out here in order 

 to make a little money, and then return to Lisbon. They 

 frequently have families by native women, and it was parti- 

 cularly gratifying to me to view the liberality with which 

 people of colour were treated by the Portuguese. Instances 

 of half-caste children being abandoned, so common in the 

 south, are here extremely rare. They are acknowledged at 

 table, and provided for by their fathers, as if they were 

 European. The coloured clerks of the merchants sit at the 

 same table with their employers, ^ f thout any embarrassment. 

 This consideration is probably the result of the position the 

 whites occupy — being only a handful among thousands of 

 blacks ; but however this may be, nowhere else in Africa is 

 there so much goodwill between Europeans and natives as 

 here. 



From the village of Cassange we had a good view of the 

 surrounding country, which consists of a gently undulating 

 plain covered with grass and patches of forest. The western 

 limit of the Quango valley, twenty miles distant, looks like a 

 range of lofty mountains, and passes by the name of Tala 

 Mungongo, u Behold the range." The valley, as I have before 

 remarked, is fertile in the extreme. My men could never 

 cease admiring its capability for raising their corn (Holcus 

 sorghum), and despising the comparatively limited cultivation 

 of the inhabitants. The Portuguese informed me that manure 

 is never needed, and that the more the ground is tilled the 

 better it yields, and, judging from the size of the maize and 

 manioc in the old gardens, I can readily believe the statement. 



