Chap. XIX. 
A SOLDIER-GUIDE. 
375 
they could to make my men and me comfortable during our 
stay, but, there being no hotels in Loanda, they furm’shed me 
with letters of recommendation to their friends in that city, 
requesting them to receive me into their houses, for without these, 
a stranger might find himself a lodger in the streets. May Grod 
remember them in their day of need! 
The latitude and longitude of Cassange, the most easterly 
station of the Portuguese in Western Africa, is lat. 9° 37' 30" S., 
and long. 17° 49' E.; consequently we had still about 300 miles 
to traverse before we could reach the coast. We had a black 
militia corporal as a guide. He was a native of Ambaca, and, hke 
nearly all the inliabitants of that district, known by the name of 
Ambakistas, could both read and write. He had tliree slaves with 
him, and was carried by them in a “ tipoia,” or hammock slung 
to a pole. His slaves were young, and unable to convey him far at 
a time, but he was considerate enough to walk except when we 
came near to a village. He 4hen mounted his tipoia and entered 
the village in state; his departure was made in the same manner, 
and he continued in the hammock till the village was out of sight. 
It was interesting to observe the manners of our soldier-guide. 
Two slaves were always employed in carrymg his tipoia, and the 
third carried a wooden box, about three feet long, containing his 
writiug materials, dishes, and clothing. He was cleanly in all liis 
ways, and, though quite black himself, when he scolded any one 
of his own colom’, abused him as a negro.” When he wanted 
to purchase any article from a village, he would sit down, mix a 
little gunpowder as ink, and write a note in a neat hand to ask 
the price, addressing it to the shopkeeper with the rather pom¬ 
pous title, ‘HUustrissimo Senhor” (Most Illustrious Sir). Tliis 
is the hivariable mode of address throughout Angola. The 
answer returned would be hi the same style, and, if satisfactory, 
another note followed to conclude the bargain. There is so 
much of this note correspondence carried on in Angola, that a 
very large quantity of paper is annually consumed. Some other 
peculiarities of our guide were not so pleasing. A land of slaves 
is a bad school for even the free; and I was sorry to find less 
truthfulness and honesty in him, than in my own people. We 
were often cheated through his connivance with the sellers of 
food, and could perceive that he got a share of the plunder from 
