Chap. XX... FEVER AFTER WESTERLY WINDS. 293 



native traders to Matiamvo. It consisted of great quantities of 

 cotton cloth, a large carpet, an arm-chair with a canopy and 

 curtains of crimson calico, an iron bedstead, mosquito curtains, 

 beads, &c, and a number of pictures rudely painted in oil by 

 an embryo black painter at Cassange. Matiamvo, like most 

 of the natives in the interior of the country, had a strong 

 desire to possess a cannon, and had sent ten large tusks to 

 purchase one ; this, being government property, could not be 

 sold, but he was furnished with a blunderbuss, mounted as a 

 cannon, which would probably please him as well. 



Feb. 20th. — On the day of starting from Cassange the 

 westerly wind blew strongly, and on the day following we 

 were brought to a stand by several of our party being laid up 

 with fever. Captain Neves, who possesses an observing turn 

 of mind, had noticed that whenever the west wind blows 

 fever immediately follows. The only explanation to be 

 offered for this phenomenon is that the malaria is carried 

 down by this wind from the elevated land of Tala Mungongo 

 into the valley of Cassange. The banks of the Quango, 

 though much more marshy, and covered with ranker vegeta- 

 tion, are comparatively healthy ; but the westerly wind does 

 not seem to convey the noxious agent so far. Unhealthiness 

 is the only serious drawback Angola possesses : in every 

 other respect it is an agreeable countiy, and admirably 

 adapted for yielding a rich abundance of tropical produce. 

 Indeed I have no hesitation in asserting that, had it been in 

 the possession of England, it would now have been yielding 

 as much of the raw material for her manufactures as an equal 

 extent of territory in the cotton-growing States of America. 

 A railway from Loanda to this valley would secure the trade 

 of most of the interior of South Central Africa. 



As soon as we could move towards the Quango we did so, 

 meeting in our course several trading parties, both native and 

 Portuguese. Two of the latter were carrying a tusk weighing 

 126 lbs., and the owner afterwards informed us that its fellow 

 weighed 130 lbs., though the elephant was rather a small one. 

 Some idea may be formed of the strength of his neck when it 

 is recollected that he bore a weight of 256 lbs. The ivory 

 which comes from the east and north-east of Cassange is 

 very much larger than any to be found further south. A 



