30" S., longitude 15d 2' E. A few days' rest with
this excellent young man enabled me to regain much of my strength, and
I could look with pleasure on the luxuriant scenery before his door. We
were quite shut in among green hills, many of which were cultivated
up to their tops with manioc, coffee, cotton, ground-nuts, bananas,
pine-apples, guavas, papaws, custard-apples, pitangas, and jambos,
fruits brought from South America by the former missionaries. The high
hills all around, with towering palms on many points, made this spot
appear more like the Bay of Rio de Janeiro in miniature than any scene
I ever saw; and all who have seen that confess it to be unequaled in the
world beside. The fertility evident in every spot of this district was
quite marvelous to behold, but I shall reserve further notices of this
region till our return from Loanda.

We left Golungo Alto on the 24th of May, the winter in these parts.
Every evening clouds come rolling in great masses over the mountains in
the west, and pealing thunder accompanies the fall of rain during the
night or early in the morning. The clouds generally remain on the hills
till the morning is well spent, so that we become familiar with morning
mists, a thing we never once saw at Kolobeng. The thermometer stands at
80 Degrees by day, but sinks as low as 76 Degrees by night.

In going westward we crossed several fine little gushing streams which
never dry. They unite in the Luinha (pronounced Lueenya) and Lucalla. As
they flow over many little cascades, they might easily be turned to good
account, but they are all allowed to run on idly to the ocean. We passed
through forests of gigantic timber, and at an open space named Cambondo,
about eight miles from Golungo Alto, found numbers of carpenters
converting these lofty trees into planks, in exactly the same manner as
was followed by the illustrious Robinson Crusoe. A tree of three or four
feet in diameter, and forty or fifty feet up to the nearest branches,
was felled. It was then cut into lengths of a few feet, and split
into thick junks, which again were reduced to planks an inch thick by
persevering labor with the axe. The object of the carpenters was to make
little chests, and they drive a constant trade in them at Cambondo. When
finished with hinges, lock, and key, all of their own manufacture, one
costs only a shilling and eightpence. My men were so delighted with
them that they carried several of them on their heads