458 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
can aver that at the present day it is neither better 
nor worse than many other places in Africa. Cleanliness 
and plantations of trees must certainly have considerably 
modified its former hygienic conditions, and a small 
amount of goodwill would make it, sanitarily, far better 
than it is. This cannot fail to be done as time goes on, 
inasmuch as it is not likely that a place of so much 
importance, from a commercial point of view, and which 
is in such close contact with the rich lands in the 
interior, can remain neglected. 
The chief products which make up the trade of 
Benguella are wax, ivory, india-rubber, and orchilla 
weed, which are conveyed to the town by the caravans 
from the interior. These caravans are of two kinds. 
Some, under the guidance of agents of the trading 
7 o o o 
houses, carry back to the firms which despatch them 
the products of their trade with the interior; others, 
composed exclusively of natives, come over to trade on 
their own account, as being more profitable to them¬ 
selves. The trade with the natives is effected by direct 
exchange of their produce for cotton stuffs, white, 
striped, or printed. Other European products form the 
object of a second exchange for the stuffs already 
received ; and thus, after the first barter of the ivory 
or wax for cotton, the latter is given for arms, powder, 
rum, beads, &c., at the will of the buyer, because cotton 
stuffs are, so to speak, the current money of this traffic. 
The trade is in the hands of Europeans and creoles, and 
we fell in there, fortunately, with a good many of those 
adventurous young spirits who leave their homes and 
country to seek for fortune in these distant climes. A 
few convicts of minor importance also do some trade, 
either on their own account or as the employes of foreign 
houses. The greatest of the criminals of the mother 
country—those for instance who are transported for life 
—are sent to Benguella, and as a natural consequence a 
good number of rascals are to be met with there, to 
whom it is well to give a wide berth; taking care not 
to confound them with the many really honest and 
worthy folks who occupy the place. The police duties 
