ard the Quango we did so, meeting in our
course several trading-parties, both native and Portuguese. We met two
of the latter carrying a tusk weighing 126 lbs. The owner afterward
informed us that its fellow on the left side of the same elephant was
130 lbs. It was 8 feet 6-1/2 inches long, and 21 inches in circumference
at the part on which the lip of the animal rests. The elephant was
rather a small one, as is common in this hot central region. Some idea
may be formed of the strength of his neck when it is recollected that
he bore a weight of 256 lbs. The ivory which comes from the east and
northeast of Cassange is very much larger than any to be found further
south. Captain Neves had one weighing 120 lbs., and this weight is by no
means uncommon. They have been found weighing even 158 lbs.

Before reaching the Quango we were again brought to a stand by fever
in two of my companions, close to the residence of a Portuguese who
rejoiced in the name of William Tell, and who lived here in spite of the
prohibition of the government. We were using the water of a pond, and
this gentleman, having come to invite me to dinner, drank a little of
it, and caught fever in consequence. If malarious matter existed in
water, it would have been a wonder had we escaped; for, traveling in the
sun, with the thermometer from 96 Degrees to 98 Degrees in the shade,
the evaporation from our bodies causing much thirst, we generally
partook of every water we came to. We had probably thus more disease
than others might suffer who had better shelter.

Mr. Tell remarked that his garden was rather barren, being still, as
he said, wild; but when more worked it would become better, though no
manure be applied. My men were busy collecting a better breed of fowls
and pigeons than those in their own country. Mr. Tell presented
them with some large specimens from Rio Janeiro. Of these they were
wonderfully proud, and bore the cock in triumph through the country
of the Balonda, as evidence of having been to the sea. But when at the
village of Shinte, a hyaena came into our midst when we were all sound
asleep, and picked out the giant in his basket from eighty-four others,
and he was lost, to the great grief of my men. The anxiety these people
have always shown to improve the breed of their domestic animals is, I
think, a favorable point in their character. On looking at the common
breeds in the possession of the Portuguese, which are merely native
cattle