Chap. XYI. 
FEETILITY OF SOIL. 
295 
man ; then all the company joined in the response by clapping 
of hands too. 
After the more serious business was over, I ashed if he had 
ever seen a white man before. He replied, Never ; you are 
the very first I have seen with a white skin and straight hair ] 
your clotliing too is different from any we have ever seen.” 
They had been visited by native Portuguese and Mambari 
only. 
On learning from some of the people that Shinte’s mouth 
v/as bitter for want of tasting ox-flesh,” I presented liim with an 
ox, to his great delight; and as his country is so well adapted 
for cattle, I advised him to begin a trade in cows with the Mako- 
lolo. He was pleased with the idea; and when we returned 
from Loanda, we found that he had profited by the hint, for he 
had got three, and one of them justified my opinion of the coun¬ 
try, for it was more lilie a prize heifer for fatness than any we 
had seen in Africa. He soon afterwards sent us a basket of 
green maize boiled, another of manioc-meal, and a small fowl. 
The maize shows by its size the fertility of the black soil of all 
the valleys here, and so does the manioc, though no manure is 
ever applied. We saw manioc attain a height of six feet and 
upwards, and tins is a plant which requu-es the very best soil. 
During tliis time Manenko had been extremely busy with all 
her people in getting up a very pretty hut and court-yard, to be, 
as she said, her residence always when wliite men were brought 
by her along the same path. Wlien she heard that we had given 
an ox to her uncle, she came forward to us with the air of one 
wronged, and explained that Tins wlnte man belonged to her ; 
she had brought liim here, and therefore the ox was hers, not 
Shinte’s.” She ordered her men to bring it, got it slaughtered 
by them, and presented her uncle with a leg only. Shinte did 
not seem at all annoyed at the occurrence. 
19th .—I was awakened at an early hour by a messenger from 
Sliinte, but the thfrst of a raging fever being just assuaged, 
by the bursting forth of a copious perspfration, I declined going 
for a few hours. Violent action of the heart aU the way to the 
town, did not predispose me to be patient with the delay which 
then occurred, probably on account of the divination being unfa¬ 
vourable : They conld not find Shinte,” Wlien I returned to 
