368 
ARRIVAL AT CASSANGE. 
Chap. XIX. 
to wliicli we were accustomed in Londa, is not to be found very 
extensively in this fertile valley. May is the beginning of winter, 
yet many of the inhabitants were busy planting maize; that 
which we were now eating was planted in the beginning of 
r ebruary. The soil is exceedingly fertile, of a dark red colour, 
and covered with such a dense hea^y crop of coarse gvass, that 
when a marauding party of Ambonda once came for plunder 
while it was in a dried state, the Bangala encncled the common 
enemy with a fire which completely destroyed them. This, which 
is related on the authority of Portuguese who were then in the 
country, I can easily believe to be true, for the stalks of the 
grass are generally as tliick as goose-quills, and no flight could be 
made through the mass of grass in any direction where a foot¬ 
path does not exist. Probably, in the case mentioned, the direc¬ 
tion of the wind was such, as to drive the flames across the paths, 
and prevent escape along them. On one occasion I nearly lost 
my waggon by fire, in a valley where the grass was only about 
three feet high. We were roused by the roar, as of a torrent, 
made by the fire coming from the windward. I immediately set 
fire to that on our leeward, and had just time to drag the 
waggon on to the bare space there, before the windward flames 
reached the place where it had stood. 
We were detained by rains, and a desire to ascertam our 
geographical position, till Monday the 10th, and only got the 
latitude 9° 50' S.; and after three days’ pretty hard travelling 
tlnough the long grass, reached Cassange, the farthest inland 
station of the Portuguese in Western Africa. We crossed several 
fine little streams running into the Quango; and as the grass 
contmued to tower about two feet over our heads, it generally 
obstructed our view of the adjacent country, and sometimes 
hung over the path, making one side of the body wet with the 
dew every morning, or when it rained kept me wet during the 
whole day. I made my entrance, in a somewhat forlorn state as 
to clothing, among our Portuguese alHes. The first gentleman I 
met in the village asked if I had a passport, and said, it was 
necessary to take me before the authorities. As I was in the same 
state of mind, in which individuals are, who commit a petty de¬ 
predation, in order to obtain the shelter and food of a prison, 
I gladly accompanied him to the house of the Commandant or 
