A Trip to Calumbo. 
37 
ply cooling fruit and distilled waters; limes and 
bitter oranges. The most remarkable growth is 
the kaju or cashew nut: an old traveller quaintly 
describes it “as like St. John’s apple with a 
chestnut at the end of it.” M. Valdez (“ Six 
Years of a Travellers Life,” vol. ii. 267), calls 
it “ a strange kind of fruit,” though it was very 
familiar to his cousins in the Brazil, of which it is 
an aborigine. Here it is not made into wine as at 
Goa: “ Kaju-brandy ” is unknown, and the gum, 
almost equal to that of the acacia, is utterly 
neglected. A dense and shady avenue of these 
trees, ten paces apart, leads from the river to 
the parish church of S. Jose, mentioned by Carli 
in 1666 : an inscription informs us that it was 
rebuilt in 1850, but the patron is stored away 
in a lumber-room, and the bats have taken the 
place of the priest. Portugal has perhaps gone 
too far in abolishing these church establishments, 
but it is a reaction which will lead to the golden 
mean. 
The site of Calumbo is well chosen, command¬ 
ing a fine view, and raised above the damps of the 
cold Cuanza, whose stagnant lagoon, the Lagoa do 
Muge on the other side, is divided from the main 
branch by a low islet with palms and some culti¬ 
vation. At the base of Church Hill are huts of 
the Mubiri or blacksmiths, who gipsy-like wander 
away when a tax is feared ; they are not despised, 
