ose of the Balonda.

During the occupation of this town the Coanza was used for the purpose
of navigation, but their vessels were so frequently plundered by their
Dutch neighbors that, when they regained the good port of Loanda, they
no longer made use of the river. We remained here four days, in hopes
of obtaining an observation for the longitude, but at this season of the
year the sky is almost constantly overcast by a thick canopy of clouds
of a milk-and-water hue; this continues until the rainy season (which
was now close at hand) commences.

The lands on the north side of the Coanza belong to the Quisamas
(Kisamas), an independent tribe, which the Portuguese have not been able
to subdue. The few who came under my observation possessed much of the
Bushman or Hottentot feature, and were dressed in strips of soft bark
hanging from the waist to the knee. They deal largely in salt, which
their country produces in great abundance. It is brought in crystals of
about 12 inches long and 1-1/2 in diameter. This is hawked about every
where in Angola, and, next to calico, is the most common medium of
barter. The Kisama are brave; and when the Portuguese army followed them
into their forests, they reduced the invaders to extremity by tapping
all the reservoirs of water, which were no other than the enormous
baobabs of the country hollowed into cisterns. As the Kisama country is
ill supplied with water otherwise, the Portuguese were soon obliged to
retreat. Their country, lying near to Massangano, is low and marshy,
but becomes more elevated in the distance, and beyond them lie the lofty
dark mountain ranges of the Libollo, another powerful and independent
people. Near Massangano I observed what seemed to be an effort of nature
to furnish a variety of domestic fowls, more capable than the common
kind of bearing the heat of the sun. This was a hen and chickens with
all their feathers curled upward, thus giving shade to the body
without increasing the heat. They are here named "Kisafu" by the native
population, who pay a high price for them when they wish to offer them
as a sacrifice, and by the Portuguese they are termed "Arripiada", or
shivering. There seems to be a tendency in nature to afford varieties
adapted to the convenience of man. A kind of very short-legged fowl
among the Boers was obtained, in consequence of observing that such
were more easily caught for transportation in their frequent removals
in search of pasture.