218 APPENDIX. 
guese, or rather that to which they lay (a very shadowy) 
claim, consists of the valleys of the Congo, Coanza, and 
Cunene, on the west, and that of the Zambezi River, in the 
colony of Mozambique, on the east, with their respective and 
wide-spreading tributary streams. Discoveries made from 
time to time by Europeans and natives, from both these 
remote settlements into the interior, have, it is believed, con- 
nected them, and we have almost indubitable evidence that 
an overland communication has been established from one 
to the other. The western colonies extend inland from the 
coast to very unequal distances, that of Congo three hun- 
dred miles, Angola to seven hundred, and Bengula to two 
hundred : the force kept up at the latter place consists of 
one hundred infantry and fifty artillery, together with troops 
of the line. Each of the forts of Encoche, on the river 
Onzozo, Massangano, on a branch of the Coanza, and Ca- 
conda, (the last the most healthy, and farthest south; 
situated in lat. 14° 35’, and 17° each,) has one hundred in- 
fantry ; and the other forts, of which there are many, have 
each sixty, “ all recruited among the natives,” commanded by 
Portuguese officers of the line. Besides these regular troops, 
a militia of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, armed by 
the Government, and officered by Portuguese residents, is 
kept up at each establishment, “ both in the interior and on 
the coast. Withthis militia, which amounts to several thou- 
sands, conducted by officers of the line, and other contin- 
gencies of native force which the different states are bound 
to furnish, the Government carries on whatever wars it 
may be involved in against the Cassanges and other nations, 
who frequently bring into the hostile field armies of eighteen 
thousand men. 
*¢ The commercial establishments called Fairs; or Feiras, 
two of which are seven hundred miles within land, are 
under the superintendance of the Portuguese Resident, who 
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