456 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
of the province about the state of the carriages of two 
brass guns, which urgently required looking to ;— 
application and appeal having been both, alas ! equally 
fruitless, as the pieces are carriageless at the present 
day ! These are the very pieces of ordnance alluded to 
by Cameron. He will be pleased, however, to know that 
the carriages have been ordered, and cannot be much 
longer delayed ; for as the order appears to have been 
given at some time in the said year, 1790, they must 
surely be nearly ready now. 
Benguella is a picturesque town which extends from 
the shore of the Atlantic to the very summit of the 
mountains which form the first steps of the lofty 
plateau of tropical Africa. It is surrounded by a 
dense forest, the Matta do Cavaco, even at the present 
day peopled with wild 1 leasts ; a fact, however, which 
should cause no particular astonishment, inasmuch as 
the Portuguese generally are not greatly given to 
sport. The residences of the Europeans cover a large 
area, for all the houses have vast gardens and depen¬ 
dencies. These gardens are well looked after; they 
produce all the known European vegetables, and a 
good many tropical plants besides. Extensive patios, 
or courts, surrounded by overhanging galleries, serve 
as shelter to the large caravans which descend from the 
interior to the coast for the purposes of traffic, and 
remain three days under cover in order to effect the 
barter. 
A river, which in the summer season, looks scarcely 
more than a broad ribbon of white sand running from 
the mountains to the sea through the forest do Cavaco 
constitutes nevertheless the great source or spring of 
Benguella, whose wells, that have been dug there, 
produce excellent water purified in its passage through 
calcareous sand. The broad and straight streets of the 
town are planted with two rows of trees, for the most 
part sycamores, but of no great age, and as yet therefore 
somewhat small. The squares or places are of vast size, 
and in a public garden are flourishing many fine plants 
that are very agreeable to the eye. The houses, which 
