TOSS AND WASTE OF COTTON. 387 



to the care of H. M. Commissioner at Loanda, probably 

 from having fallen into the hands of a few incorrigible 

 slave-traders, it never reached its destination. It was 

 most likely cast into the sea oft Ambriz, and my friends at 

 Gomngo Alto were left without the means of commencing 

 a new enterprise. 



Mr. Canto mentioned that there is now much more 

 cotton in the country than can be consumed ; and if he 

 had possession of a few hundred pounds, he would buy 

 up all the oil and cotton at a fair price, and thereby bring 

 about a revolution in the agriculture of the country. 

 These commodities are not produced in greater quantity, 

 because the people have no market for those which now 

 spring up almost spontaneously around them. The 

 above was put down in my journal, when I had no idea 

 that enlarged supplies of cotton from new sources were 

 so much needed at home. 



It is common to cut down cotton- trees as a nuisance, 

 and cultivate beans, potatoes, and manioc, sufficient only 

 for their own consumption. I have the impression that 

 cotton, which is deciduous in America, is perennial here ; 

 for the plants I saw in winter were not dead, though going 

 by the name Algodao Americana, or American cotton. 

 The rents paid for gardens belonging to the old convents 

 are merely nominal, varying from one shilling to three 

 pounds per annum. The higher rents being realized 

 from those in the immediate vicinity of Loanda, none but 

 Portuguese or half-castes can pay them. 



When about to start, the horse which the Governor 

 had kindly presented for Sekeletu was seized with in- 

 flammation, which delayed us some time longer, and we 

 ultimately lost it. We had been careful to watch it when 

 coming through the district of Matamba, where we had 

 discovered the tsetse, that no insect might light upon it. 

 The change of diet here may have had some influence 

 in producing the disease ; for I was informed by Dr. 

 Welweitsch, an able German naturalist, whom we found 

 pursuing his arduous labours here, and whose life we 

 hope may be spared to give his researches to the world, 

 that, of fifty-eight lands of grasses found at Loanda, 

 only three or four species exist here, and these of the 

 most diminutive kinds. The twenty-four different 

 species of grass of Golungo Alto are nearly all gigantic. 

 Indeed, gigantic grasses, climbers, shrubs, and trees, 



