18 To Sao Paulo de Loanda. 
while behind roll the upland stubbles of autumn, 
here mottled black with fire, there scattered with the 
wild ficus and the cashew, a traveller from the 
opposite hemisphere. 
The Ilha de Loanda, which gave its name to 
the city, according to Mr. W. Win wood Reade 
(“ Savage Africa,” chapter xxv.), is derived from 
a native word meaning bald:” I believe it to be 
the Angolan Luanda, or tribute. Forming the 
best harbour of the South African coast, it is made 
by the missionaries of the seventeenth century to 
extend some ten leagues long. James Barbot’s 
plan (a.d. 1700) shows seven leagues by one in 
breadth, disposed from north-east to south-west, 
and, in the latter direction, fitting into the “ Mar 
Aparcelado ” or shoaly sea, a curious hook-shaped 
bight with a southern entrance, the “ Barra de 
Curinba ” (Corimba). But the influences which 
formed the island, or rather islands (for there are 
two) have increased the growth, reducing the har¬ 
bour to three and a half miles by two in breadth, and 
they are still contracting it; even in the early nine¬ 
teenth century large ships floated off the custom 
house, and it is dry land where boats once rode. 
Dr. Livingstone (“ First Expedition,” chapter xx.) 
believes the causa causans to be the sand swept over 
the southern part of the island : Douville more 
justly concludes that it is the gift of the Cuanza 
River, whose mud and ooze, silt and debris are 
