Coanza rises
considerably to the west of this, and has a comparatively short course
from its source to the sea.

The famous Dr. Lacerda seems to have labored under the same mistake as
myself, for he recommended the government of Angola to establish a chain
of forts along the banks of that river, with a view to communication
with the opposite coast. As a chain of forts along its course would lead
southward instead of eastward, we may infer that the geographical data
within reach of that eminent man were no better than those according to
which I had directed my course to the Coanza where it does not exist.

26TH. We spent Sunday on the banks of the Quilo or Kweelo, here a stream
of about ten yards wide. It runs in a deep glen, the sides of which are
almost five hundred yards of slope, and rocky, the rocks being hardened
calcareous tufa lying on clay shale and sandstone below, with a capping
of ferruginous conglomerate. The scenery would have been very
pleasing, but fever took away much of the joy of life, and severe daily
intermittents rendered me very weak and always glad to recline.

As we were now in the slave-market, it struck me that the sense of
insecurity felt by the natives might account for the circumstance that
those who have been sold as slaves and freed again, when questioned,
profess to like the new state better than their primitive one. They
lived on rich, fertile plains, which seldom inspire that love of country
which the mountains do. If they had been mountaineers, they would have
pined for home. To one who has observed the hard toil of the poor in old
civilized countries, the state in which the inhabitants here live is one
of glorious ease. The country is full of little villages. Food abounds,
and very little labor is required for its cultivation; the soil is so
rich that no manure is required; when a garden becomes too poor for good
crops of maize, millet, etc., the owner removes a little farther into
the forest, applies fire round the roots of the larger trees to kill
them, cuts down the smaller, and a new, rich garden is ready for the
seed. The gardens usually present the appearance of a large number of
tall, dead trees standing without bark, and maize growing between them.
The old gardens continue to yield manioc for years after the owners
have removed to other spots for the sake of millet and maize. But, while
vegetable aliment is abundant, there is a want of salt and animal food,
so that numberle