274 THE QUISAMAS. Chap. XJL 



unfortunately inaccessible to steam-navigation in oonaoquence 

 of the bar at the mouth of the Coanza. It is probable that 

 the canal from Calumbo to Loanda was designed not merely 

 to supply that city with fresh water, but to afford facilities 

 for transportation. At all events, the remains of it show it 

 to have been made on a scale suited for the Coanza canoes. 

 The Portuguese began another on a smaller scale in 1811, 

 and, after three years' labour, had finished only 6000 yards. 

 The country between Massangano and Loanda being compa- 

 ratively flat, a railroad might be constructed at small ex- 

 pense, and might then be prolonged inland along the north 

 bank of the Coanza to the edge of the Cassange basin, thus 

 forming a cheap means of transit for the products of the rich 

 districts of Cassange, Pungo Andongo, Ambaoa, Cambambe, 

 Golungo Alto, Cazengo, Muchima, and Calumbo, — in short, for 

 the whole of Angola and the adjacent tribes. 



The lands on the north side of the Coanza belong to the 

 Quisamas (Kisam-as), an independent tribe, which the Por- 

 tuguese have not been able to subdue, in consequence of the 

 scarcity of water in the district, the supply, which is usually 

 kept in reservoirs formed in the trunks of baobab-trees, having 

 been purposely exhausted before the invading army. The 

 few members of this tribe who came under my observation 

 possessed much of the Bushman or Hottentot feature, and 

 were dressed in strips of soft bark hanging from the waist 

 to the knee. They deal largely in salt, which their country 

 produces in great abundance. Is is brought in crystals of 

 about 12 inches long and 1£ in diameter, and is hawked about 

 everywhere in Angola, forming, next to calico, the most 

 common medium of barter. The country lying near to Mas- 

 sangano is low and marshy, but becomes more elevated in 

 the distance, and is backed by the lofty mountain-ranges 

 of the Libollo, another powerful and independent people. 

 Near Massangano I observed what seemed to be an effort 

 of nature to furnish a variety of domestic fowls capable of 

 bearing with comfort the intense heat of the sun. Their 

 feathers were curled upwards ; thus giving shade to the body 

 without increasing the heat. They are here named " kisafu " 

 by the natives, and " arripiada," or shivering, by the Por- 

 tuguese. There seems to be a tendency in nature to afford 



