38 A Trip to Calumbo. 
but they are considered a separate caste. I was 
shown a little north of the town a place where the 
Dutch, true to their national instincts, began a 
canal to supply Loanda with sweet and wholesome 
drinking material and water communication; others 
place it with more probability near the confluence 
of the Cuanza and the Lucala, the first great 
northern fork, where Massangano was built by the 
Conquistadores. This “leat” was left incomplete, 
the terminus being three miles from St. Paul’s; 
the Governor-General Jose de Oliveira Barbosa, 
attempted to restore it, but was prevented by con¬ 
siderations of cost. 
Calumbo must be a gruesome place to all ex¬ 
cept its natives. Whilst Loanda has improved 
in climate since Captain Owen’s day (1826), this 
has become deadly as Rome in 1873. The raw 
mists in early morning and the hot suns, combined 
with the miasmas of the retreating waters, some¬ 
times produce a “ carneirado ” (bilious remittent) 
which carries off half the inhabitants. Dysenteries 
are everywhere dangerous between the Guinea 
Coast and Mossamedes, the cause being vile water. 
All the people looked very sickly ; many wore mi- 
longos, Fetish medicines in red stripes, and not a 
few had whitewashed faces in token of mourning. 
I observed that my Portuguese companions took 
quinine as a precaution. Formerly a few foreign 
merchants were settled here, but they found the 
