240 
A SOLDIER-GUIDE. 
we parted with the feeling in my mind that I should never 
forget their disinterested kindness. They not only did 
every thing they could to make my men and mo comfort- 
able during our stay, but, there being no hotols in Loanda, 
they furnished me with letters of recommendation to their 
friends in that city, requesting them to receive me into 
their houses, for without these a stranger might find him- 
self a lodger in the streets. May God remember them in 
their day of need ! 
The latitude and longitude of Cassange, the most easterly 
station of the Portuguese in Western Africa, is Iat. 9° 37' 
30" S and long. 17° 49' E.; consequently wo had still about 
three hundred miles to traverse before we could reach the 
coast. We had a black militia-corporal as a guide. He was 
a native of Ambaca, and, like nearly all the inhabitants of 
that district, known by the name of Ambakistas, could both 
read and write. He had three slaves with him, and was 
carried by them in a “tipoia,” or hammock slung to a pole. 
Having left Cassange on the 21st, we passed across t&® 
remaining portion of this excessively-fortilo valley to the 
foot of Tala Mungongo. We crossed a fine little stream 
called the Lui on the 22d, and another named the Luare on 
the 24th, and then slept at the bottom of th? height, which 
is from a thousand to fifteen hundred feet. 
Situated a few miles from the edge of the descent, we 
found the village of Tala Mungongo, and wero kindly 
accommodated with a house to sleep in, — which was very 
welcome, as wo were all both wot and cold. Wo found 
that the greater altitude and the approach of winter 
lowered the temperature so much that many of my ® 0D 
suffered severely from colds. At this, as at several other 
Portuguese stations, they have been provident enough to 
erect travellers’ houses on the same principle as khans or 
caravanserais of the East. Thoy aro built of the usual 
wattle and daub, and have benches of rods for the way 
farer to mako his bed on; also chairs, and a table, and * 
Urge jar of water. These benches, though far from l uxU 
