2,72 DEPARTURE FROM I.OAXDA, 



and sent forward orders to all the commandants of the 

 districts through which we were to pass, to render me 

 every assistance in their power. Being now supplied 

 with a good new tent made by my friends on board the 

 " Philomel," we left Loanda on the 20th September, 1854, 

 and passed round by sea to the mouth of tlie river Bengo. 

 Ascending this river, we went through the district in 

 which stands the ruins of the convent of St. Antonio ; 

 thence into Icollo i Bengo, which contains a population 

 of 6530 blacks, 172 mulattoes, and 11 whites, and is so 

 named from having been the residence of a former native 

 king. The proportion of slaves is only 3*38 per cent, 

 of the inhabitants. The commandant of this place, 

 Laurence Jose Marquis, is a frank old soldier and a most 

 hospitable man ; he is one of the few who secure the 

 universal approbation of their fellow-men for stern 

 unflinching honesty, and has risen from the ranks to be 

 a major in the army. We were accompanied thus far 

 by our generous host, Edmund Gabriel, Esq., who, by 

 his unwearied attentions to myself, and liberality in 

 supporting my men, had become endeared to all our hearts. 

 My men were strongly impressed with a sense of his good- 

 ness, and often spoke of him in terms of admiration all 

 the way to Linyanti. 



While here we visited a large sugar manufactory be- 

 longing to a lady, Donna Anna da Sousa. The flat 

 alluvial lands on the banks of the Senza or Bengo are well 

 adapted for raising sugar-cane, and this lady had a sur- 

 prising number of slaves, but somehow the establishment 

 was far from being in a nourishing condition. It presented 

 such a contrast to the free-labour establishments of the 

 Mauritius which I have since seen, where, 'with not one- 

 tenth of the number of hands, or such good soil, a man of 

 colour had, in one year, cleared £5,000 by a single crop, 

 that I quote the fact in hopes it may meet the eye of Donna 

 Anna. 



The water of the river is muddy, and it is observed 

 that such rivers have many more mosquitoes than those 

 which have clear water. It was remarked to us here 

 that these insects are much more numerous at the period 

 of new moon than at other times ; at any rate, we were 

 all thankful to get away from the Senza and its insect 

 plagues. 



The whole of this part of the country is composed of 



