cted here
as long ago as 1650, which must have been of good size, for they crossed
the ocean to Rio Janeiro.

Massangano district is well adapted for sugar and rice, while Cambambe
is a very superior field for cotton; but the bar at the mouth of the
Coanza would prevent the approach of a steamer into this desirable
region, though a small one could ply on it with ease when once in. It
is probable that the objects of those who attempted to make a canal from
Calumbo to Loanda were not merely to supply that city with fresh water,
but to afford facilities for transportation. The remains of the canal
show it to have been made on a scale suited for the Coanza canoes. The
Portuguese began another on a smaller scale in 1811, and, after three
years' labor, had finished only 6000 yards. Nothing great or useful will
ever be effected here so long as men come merely to get rich, and then
return to Portugal.

The latitude of the town and fort of Massangano is 9d 37' 46" S., being
nearly the same as that of Cassange. The country between Loanda and this
point being comparatively flat, a railroad might be constructed at small
expense. The level country is prolonged along the north bank of the
Coanza to the edge of the Cassange basin, and a railway carried thither
would be convenient for the transport of the products of the rich
districts of Cassange, Pungo Andongo, Ambaca, Cambambe, Golungo Alto,
Cazengo, Muchima, and Calumbo; in a word, the whole of Angola and
independent tribes adjacent to this kingdom.

The Portuguese merchants generally look to foreign enterprise and to
their own government for the means by which this amelioration might
be effected; but, as I always stated to them when conversing on the
subject, foreign capitalists would never run the risk, unless they saw
the Angolese doing something for themselves, and the laws so altered
that the subjects of other nations should enjoy the same privileges in
the country with themselves. The government of Portugal has indeed shown
a wise and liberal policy by its permission for the alienation of the
crown lands in Angola; but the law giving it effect is so fenced round
with limitations, and so deluged with verbiage, that to plain people it
seems any thing but a straightforward license to foreigners to become
'bona fide' landholders and cultivators of the soil. At present the
tolls paid on the different lines of roads for ferries and bridges are
equal to the interest of large sums