436 
FEVEE AFTEE WESTEELY WINDS. Chap. XXII. 
bedstead, mosquito curtains, beads, &c., and a number of pictures 
rudely painted in oil by an embryo black painter at Cassange. 
Matiamvo, bke most of the natives in the interior of the 
country, has a strong desire to possess a cannon, and had sent 
ten large tusks to purchase one; but being government property, 
it could not be sold: he was now furnished with a blunderbuss, 
mounted as a cannon, which would probably please him as well. 
Senhor Gra^a and some other Portuguese have visited this chief 
at different times; but no European resides beyond the Quango ; 
indeed, it is contrary to the pohcy of the government of Angola, 
to allow their subjects to penetrate further into the interior. The 
present would have been a good opportunity for me to have visited 
that chief, and I felt strongly inclined to do so, as he had expressed 
dissatisfaction respectmg my treatment by the Cliiboque, and even 
threatened to punish them. As it would be improper to force my 
men to go thither, I resolved to wait and see whether the propo¬ 
sition might not emanate from themselves. Wlien I can get the 
natives to agree in the propriety of any step, they go to the end of 
the affair without a murmur. I speak to them and treat them as 
rational beings, and generally get on well with them in consequence. 
I have already remarked on the unhealthiness of Cassange; and 
Captain Neves, who possesses an observing turn of mind, had 
noticed that always when the west wind blows, much fever imme¬ 
diately follows. As long as easterly winds prevail, aU enjoy good 
health; but in January, February, March, and April, the winds 
are variable, and sickness is general. The unhealthiness of the 
westerly winds probably results from malaria, appearing to be 
heavier than common afr, and sweeping down into the vaUey of 
Cassange from the western plateau, somewhat in the same way as 
the carbonic acid gas from bean-fields is supposed by colhers to do 
into coalpits. In the west of Scotland, strong objections are made, 
by that body of men, to farmers planting beans in their vicinity, 
from the belief that they render the mines unhealthy. The gravita¬ 
tion of the malaria from the more elevated land of Tala Mungongo 
towards Cassange, is the only way the unhealthiness of this spot on 
the prevalence of the westerl)^ winds can be accounted for. The 
banks of the Quango, though much more marshy, and covered 
with ranker vegetation, are comparatively healthy; but thither 
the westerly wind does not seem to convey the noxious agent. 
