294 MAKOLOLO OPINION OF THE PORTUGUESE. Chap. XXII. 



weight of 1 20 lbs. is by no means uncommon ; and occasionally 

 they reach even 158 lbs. 



Before reaching the Quango we were again brought to a 

 stand by fever in two of my companions, close to the residence 

 of a Portuguese who rejoiced in the name of William Tell, 

 and who lived here, in spite of the prohibition of the govern- 

 ment. This gentleman, having come to invite me to dinner, 

 Irank a little of the water of a pond close by, and caught 

 fever in consequence. If malarious matter existed in water 

 itself, it would have been a wonder had we escaped; for, 

 travelling in the sun, with the thermometer from 96° to 98° 

 in the shade, we generally partook of every water we came 

 to. My men were busy collecting a better breed of fowls 

 and pigeons than those in their own country, and Mr. Tell 

 presented them with some large specimens from Eio Janeiro. 

 Of these they were wonderfully proud, and bore the cock in 

 triumph through the countiy of the Balonda, as evidence of 

 having been to the sea. At the village of Shinte, however, a 

 hyaena came into our camp when we were all sound asleep, 

 and carried off the giant, to the great grief of my men. The 

 anxiety these people have always shown to improve the breed 

 of their domestic animals is, I think, a favourable point in 

 their character. Observing the common bleed of cattle in the 

 possession of the Portuguese, and their practice of slaughtering 

 both heifer-calves and cows, and of abstaining from any use 

 of the milk, they concluded that the Portuguese must be an 

 inferior race of white men. They never ceased remarking on 

 the fine soil over which we were passing ; and when I hap- 

 pened to mention that most of the flour which the Portuguese 

 consumed came from another country, they exclaimed, " Are 

 they ignorant of tillage ? " " They know nothing but buying 

 and selling : they are not men ! " 



On reaching Cypriano's village on the 28th we found that 

 his step-father had died after we had passed, and that he had 

 spent more than his patrimony in funeral orgies. He in- 

 formed us that the source of the Quango is one hundred miles 

 to the south of this, in a range called Mosamba, in the country 

 of the Basongo. We could see from where we were a break 

 in the high land to the south, through which the river comes. 

 In crossing the Quango the ferrymen demanded thirty yards 



