m 
on the Countries of Congo and Lomigo. 
very agreeable and well tasted. They have also a pleasant odo- 
riferous pepper, with which, along with Cayenne, they season 
their meats. Cotton, Cayenne pepper, and Palma Christi (the 
shrub from which castor-oil is extracted), grow spontaneously, 
and may be collected in any quantity. 
Minerals. — Of these I can say nothing, having been at no 
pains to collect specimens ; but if we may judge from the pom- 
pous names of Mountains of the Sun, and Mountains of Crys- 
tal, given by travellers to some of the high ranges of land, a 
great variety of these might be obtained. At Malemba, the na- 
tives brought me a cubical piece of blue shining ore : it was 
heavy, and notunlike lead-ore; but on examining it a month 
afterwards, I found that the action of the air had reduced it to 
a grey powder, which makes me suppose it was manganese. 
Some of the rocks in the Congo have a greenish cast, resem- 
bling pyrites. 
Scenery. — The whole of the coast between Mavumba in 3®^ 
30', and Benguela Nova in 12° 30' south latitude, affords the 
most delightful prospect from the sea that can be imagined. 
Perpendicular red cliffs in many places skirt the shore, wliile the 
back ground consists of mountains, here, receding faf inland, there, 
approaching the sea. Several of these mountains are crowned 
with lofty semicircular precipices, set, as it were, in fringes of trces 
and shrubs ; one of these to the southward of Benguela, from 
its resemblance to a hat, has been called Hat hill by voyagers. 
In other parts, they are studded with pinnacles of single rock, 
like monuments of Roman or Egyptian grandeur. On the sum- 
mit of a high hill seen from Embomma, there is a rock of this 
description, called by the natives, Soanna. Another hill to 
leeward of Ambrize, has a rock of prodigious length and bulk 
lying across its summit. The intermediate space between the 
ridge of mountains and the sea, is beautifully diversified with 
I’ising grounds, and ornamented with clumps of lofty trees. The 
effect of the whole is magnificent, and has no doubt led the 
Portuguese to apply the names of many of their most romantic 
and picturesque scenes in Portugal, such as the Cascais, &c., to 
certain views of this fairy landscape. Immense lawns and pas- 
ture-grounds compose the greatest part of the fore ground. 
E- 2 
