HARBOUR AND CUSTOM-HOUSE. 369 



department is extremely well managed. All parties agree 

 in representing the Portuguese authorities as both polite 

 and obliging ; and if ever any inconvenience is felt by 

 strangers visiting the port, it must be considered the 

 fault of the system, and not of the men. 



The harbour is formed by the low sandy island of L,oanda, 

 which is inhabited by about 1300 souls, upwards of 600 

 of whom are industrious native fishermen, who supply the 

 city with abundance of good fish daily. The space be- 

 tween it and the mainland, on which the city is built, is the 

 station f»or ships. When a high south-west wind blows, 

 the waves of the ocean dash over part of the island, 

 and, driving large quantities of sand before them, gradually 

 fill up the harbour. Great quantities of soil are also 

 washed in the rainy season from the heights above the 

 city, so that the port, which once contained water suffi- 

 cient to float the largest ships close to the custom-house, 

 is now at low water dry. The ships are compelled to 

 anchor about a mile north of their old station. Nearly all 

 the water consumed in Loanda is brought from the river 

 Bengo by means of launches, the only supply that the 

 city affords being from some deep wells of slightly brackish 

 water ; unsuccessful attempts have been made by diffe- 

 rent governors to finish a canal, which the Dutch, while 

 in possession of Loanda during the seven years preceding 

 1648, had begun, to bring water from the river Coanza to 

 the city. There is not a single English merchant at 

 Loanda, and only two American. This is the more remark- 

 able, as nearly all the commerce is carried on by means 

 of English calico brought hither via Lisbon. Several 

 English houses attempted to establish a trade about 1845, 

 and accepted bills on Rio de Janeiro in payment for their 

 goods, but the increased activity of our cruisers had such 

 an effect upon the mercantile houses of that city, that 

 most of them failed. The English merchants lost all, 

 and Loanda got a bad name in the commercial world in 

 consequence. 



One of the arrangements of the custom-house may have 

 had some influence in preventing English trade. Ships 

 coming here must be consigned to some one on the spot ; 

 the consignee receives one hundred dollars per mast, and 

 he generally makes a great deal more for himself, by put- 

 ting a percentage on boats and men hired for loading and 

 unloading, and on every item that passes through his 



2 B 



