50 The Granite Pillar of Kinsembo. 
are common upon this coast, and were paddled 
over the Kinsembo River. Eleven miles off, it 
issues from masses of high ground, and at this 
season it spreads out like the Ambriz in broad 
stagnant sheets, bordered with reeds and grass 
supplying fish and crabs, wild ducks and mos¬ 
quitoes. Presently, when the Cacimbo ends in 
stormy rains and horrid rollers, its increased 
volume and impetus will burst the sand-strip which 
confines it, and the washed-away material will re¬ 
cruit the terrible bar. 
Leaving the* ferry, we mounted the “ tipoias,” 
which Englishmen call “ hammocks ” after the 
Caribs of Jamaica, and I found a strange contrast be¬ 
tween the men of Kinsembo and of Sao Paulo. The 
former are admirable bearers, like their brethren 
of Ambrizette, famed as the cream of the coast : 
four of them carried us at the rate of at least six 
miles an hour; apparently they cannot go slowly, 
and they are untireable as black ants. Like the 
Bahian cadeira-men, they use shoulder-pads, and 
forked sticks to act as levers when shifting; the 
bamboo-pole has ivory pegs, to prevent the ham¬ 
mock-clews slipping, and the sensation is some¬ 
what that of being tossed in a blanket. 
Quitting the creeper-bound sand, we crossed a 
black and fetid mire, and struck inland to a higher 
and drier level. The vegetation was that of the 
Calumbo road, but not so utterly sunburnt: there 
