406 
FIRES—THE KISAMAS. 
Chap. XX. 
that it would fall to pieces at the first shot; the fort of Prnigo 
Andongo is kept securely by cannon perched on cross sticks 
alone! 
Massangano was a very important town at the time the Dutch 
held forcible possession of Loanda and part of Angola; but when, 
in the year 1648, the Dutch were expelled from this country by 
a small body of Portuguese, under the Governor Salvador Correa 
de Sa Benevides, Massangano was left to sink into its present 
decay. Since it was partially abandoned by the Portuguese, 
several baobab-trees have sprung up and attained a diameter of 
eighteen or twenty inches, and are about twenty feet high. No 
certain conclusion can be draTO from these instances, as it is not 
known at what time after 1648 they began to grow; but their 
present size shows that their gro’wth is not unusually slow. 
Several fii’es occurred during our stay, by the thatch having, 
through long exj)osure to a torrid siui, become hl^e tinder. The 
roofs became ignited without any visible cause except the intense 
solar rays, and excited terror in the minds of the inliabitants, as 
the slightest spark carried by the wind would have set the whole 
town in a blaze. There is not a single inscription on stone visible 
in Massangano. If destroyed to-morrow, no one could tell where 
it, and most Portuguese interior villages, stood, any more than we 
can do those of the Balonda. 
During the occupation of this town, the Coanza Avas used for 
the purpose of navigation, but their vessels were so frequently 
plundered by them Dutch neighbom’S, that, when they regained 
the good port of Loanda, they no longer made use of the river. 
We remained here four days, in hopes of obtaining an observation 
for the longitude, but at tliis season of the year the sky is almost 
constantly overcast by a thick canopy of clouds of a milk-and- 
Avater hue; this continues until the rainy season (which was noAV 
close at hand) commences. 
The lands on the north side of the Coanza belong to the 
Quisamas (Kisamas), an independent tribe, which the Portuguese 
have not been able to subdue. The few who came under my 
observation possessed much of the Bushman or Hottentot feature, 
and Avere dressed in strips of soft bark hanging from the waist to 
the knee. They deal largely in salt, which their country pro- 
