262 COFFEE ESTATE. Chap. XU. 



South America by the former missionaries. The high hills, 

 dotted with towering palms, reminded me strongly of the bay 

 of Eio cle Janeiro, the scenery of which is allowed by all who 

 know it to be quite unrivalled. 



We left Golungo Alto on the 24th of May, which falls in 

 the winter in these parts. Every evening, clouds came 

 rolling in great masses over the western mountains, and 

 descended in heavy showers, accompanied by constant peals 

 of thunder, during the night or early morning. The clouds 

 hung over the hills till the morning was well spent, so that 

 we became familiar with morning mists, which we never saw 

 at Kolobeng. The thermometer stood at 80° by day, but sank 

 as low as 76° by night. In going westward we crossed 

 several fine gushing streams which unite in the Luinha 

 (pronounced Lueenya) and Lucalla. As they frequently 

 form cascades, they might easily be turned to good account. 

 We passed through forests of gigantic timber, and at an open 

 space named Cambondo found numbers of carpenters con- 

 verting the trees into planks in the manner adopted by the 

 illustrious Eobinson Crusoe. A tree of three or four feet in 

 diameter, and forty or fifty feet up to the nearest branches, 

 having been felled, was cut into lengths of a few feet, and 

 split into thick junks, which again were reduced to planks 

 an inch thick by a persevering use of the axe. The object of 

 the carpenters was to make little chests to sell at Cambondo. 

 When finished with hinges, lock, and key, all of their own 

 manufacture, they cost twenty pence a-piece. My men were 

 so delighted with them that they carried several on their 

 heads all the way to Linyanti. 



At Trombeta we were pleased at the taste displayed by 

 the Sub-Commandant in laying out his grounds and adorning 

 his house with flowers. This was the more pleasing as it 

 was the first attempt at neatness I had seen since leaving the 

 establishment of Mozinkwa in Londa. Rows of trees, with 

 pine-apples and flowers interspersed, had been planted along 

 each side of the road. This gentleman had now a fine estate, 

 which but a few years ago was a forest, and cost him only 161 

 He had planted about 900 coffee-trees upon it; and as these 

 begin to bear in three years, and attain perfection in six, ] 

 have no doubt that ere this his 161 yields him sixty-f)ld. 



