Chap. XIX. 
VEGETABLE PKODUCTIONS. 
369 
Chefe, SenHor de Silva Kego. Having shown my passport to this 
gentleman, he politely asked me to supper, and as we had eaten 
nothing except the farina of Cypriano from the Quango to this, 
I suspect I appeared particularly ravenous to the other gentlemen 
around the table. They seemed, however, to understand my 
position pretty well, from having aU travelled extensively them¬ 
selves ; had they not been present, I might have put some in my 
pocket to eat by night, for, after fever, the appetite is excessively 
keen, and manioc is one of the most unsatisfying kinds of food. 
Captain Antonio Kodrigues Neves then kindly invited me to 
take up my abode in his house. Next morning this generous 
man arrayed me in decent clotliing, and continued during the 
whole period of my stay to treat me as if I had been his brother. 
I feel deeply grateful to him for his disinterested kindness; he 
not only attended to my wants, but also furnished food for my 
famishing party free of charge. 
The village of Cassange (pronounced Kassanje) is composed of 
thirty or forty traders’ houses, scattered about without any regu¬ 
larity, on an elevated flat spot in the great Quango or Cassange 
valley. They are built of wattle and daub, and surrounded by 
plantations of manioc, maize, &c. Beliind them, there are usually 
kitchen gardens, in which the common European vegetables, as 
potatoes, peas, cabbages, onions, tomatoes, &c. &c., grow. Guavas 
and bananas appear, from the size and abundance of the trees, to 
have been introduced many years ago, while the land was still in the 
possession of the natives, hut pine-apples, orange, flg, and cashew- 
trees have but lately been tried. There are about forty Portuguese 
traders in this district, aU of whom are officers in the mflitia, and 
many of them have become rich from adopting the plan of 
sending out Pombehos, or native traders, with large quantities 
of goods, to trade in the more remote parts of the country. Some 
of the governors of Loanda, the capital of this, the kingdom of 
Angola, have insisted on the observance of a law which, from 
motives of humanity, forbids the Portuguese themselves from 
passing beyond the boundary. They seem to have taken it for 
granted, that, in cases where the white trader was killed, the 
aggression had been made by him, and they wished to avoid the 
necessity of punishing those who had been provoked to shed 
Portuguese blood. Tliis indicates a much greater impartiality 
2 B 
