*84 
TRADING P0MBEIR08. 
to the terrible charge of the light cavalry. The intense 
anxiety I felt to hear more may bo imagined by every 
truo patriot; but I was forced to brood on in silent 
thought, and uttor my poor prayers for friends who per- 
chanco wero now no moro, until I reached the other side 
of the continent. 
A considerable trade is carried on by tho Cassango mer- 
chants with all tho surrounding territory by means of 
nativo traders, whom they term “pomboiros.” Two of 
these, called in tho history of Angola “ the trading blacks,” 
(os l'cirantes protos,) Podro Joao Baptista and Antonio 
Jose, having boon sent by tho first Portuguese trader that 
lived at Cassangc, actually returned from some of tho Por- 
tuguese possessions in tho East with letters from tho 
governor of Mozambique in tho year 1815, proving, as is 
remarkod, “ tho possibility of so important a communica- 
tion between Mozambique andLoanda.” This is the only 
instanco of nativo Portuguese subjects crossing the conti- 
nent. No European ever accomplished it, though this 
fact has lately been quoted as if tho men had been 
“ Portuguese 
Captain Neves was now actively engaged in preparing 
a. present, worth about fifty pounds, to bo sent by pom- 
beiros to Matiamvo. It consisted of great quantities of 
oocton cloth, a largo carpet, an arm-chair with a canopy 
and curtains of crimson calico, an iron bedstead, mosquito- 
curtains, bonds, &c., and a number of pictures rudely 
painted in oil by an embryo black painter at Cassango. 
Matiamvo, like most of the natives in the interior of the 
country, has a strong desire to possoss a cannon, and had 
sent ten large tusks to purchaso one ; but, being Govern- 
ment property, it could not bo sold : ho was now furnished 
with a blunderbuss mounted as a cannon, which would 
proDably please him as well. 
Scnhor Gra^a and somo other Portuguese havo visited 
this chief at different timos: but no European resides 
beyond the Quango : indood, it is contrary to tho policy of 
