FRUITS OF JESUIT TEACHING. 357 



He recommended wine for my debility, and here I took 

 the first glass of that beverage I had taken in Africa. 

 I felt much refreshed, and could then realize and meditate 

 on the weakening effects of the fever. They were curious 

 even to myself, for, though I had tried several times since 

 we left Ngio to take lunar observations, I could not avoid 

 confusion of time and distance, neither could I hold the 

 instrument steady, nor perform a simple calculation ; 

 hence many of the positions of this part of the route were 

 left till my return from Iyoanda. Often, on getting up in 

 the mornings, I found my clothing as wet from perspiration 

 as if it had been dipped in water. In vain had I tried to 

 learn or collect words of the Bunda, or dialect spoken in 

 Angola. I forgot the days of the week and the names of 

 my companions, and, had I been asked, I probably could 

 not have told my own. The complaint itself occupied 

 many of my thoughts. One day I supposed that I had 

 got the true theory of it, and would certainly cure the 

 next attack, whether in myself or companions, but some 

 new symptoms would appear, and scatter all the fine specu- 

 lations which had sprung up, with extraordinary fertility, 

 in one department of my brain. 



This district is said to contain upwards of 40,000 souls. 

 Some ten or twelve miles to the north of the village of 

 Ambaca, there once stood the missionary station of 

 Cahenda, and it is now quite astonishing to observe the 

 great numbers who can read and write in this district. 

 This is the fruit of the labours of the Jesuit and Capuchin 

 missionaries, for they taught the people of Ambaca ; and 

 ever since the expulsion of the teachers by the Marquis of 

 Pombal, the natives have continued to teach each other. 

 These devoted men are still held in high estimation 

 throughout the country to this day. All speak well of 

 them (os padres Jesuit as), and now that they are gone 

 from this lower sphere, I could not help wishing that these 

 our Roman Catholic fellow- Christians had felt it to be 

 their duty to give the people the Bible, to be a light to 

 their feet when the good men themselves were gone. 



"When sleeping in the house of the Commandant, an 

 insect, well known in the southern country by the name 

 Tampan, bit my foot. It is a kind of tick, and chooses 

 by preference the parts between the fingers or toes for 

 inflicting its bite. It is seen from the size of a pin's head 

 to that of a pea, and is common in all the native huts in 



