Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

JOACHIM JOHN MONTEIRO,
ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES, AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. II.
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1875.
All Rights Reserved.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
ANGOLA AND THE RIVER CONGO.
The distance from Ambriz to Loanda is about sixty miles, and the greater part of the country is called Mossulo, from being inhabited by a tribe of that name. These natives have not yet been reduced to obedience by the Portuguese, not from any warlike or valorous opposition on their part, but entirely from the miserable want of energy of the latter in not taking the few wretched towns on the road. Incredible as it may appear, it is nevertheless a fact that to the present day the Mossulos will not allow a white man to pass overland from Libongo (about half-way from Loanda) to Ambriz, although this last place was occupied in 1855, and several expeditions have since been sent to and from Ambriz to Bembe and San Salvador. Nothing could have been easier than for one of these to have passed through the Mossulo country and to have occupied it, at once doing away with the reproach of allowing a mean tribe to bar a few miles of road almost at the gates of Loanda, the capital of Angola.
One of these expeditions, on its return from chastising the natives of a town on the road to Bembe for robbery, was actually sent to Loanda by road. The Governor-General (Amaral) was then at Ambriz, and being unacquainted with the negro character, and having mistaken humanitarian ideas, gave strict orders that the natives of Mossulo, who had committed several acts of violence, should not be punished, but that speeches should be made to them warning them of future retribution if they continued to misconduct themselves. Their towns and property were not touched, nor were hostages or other security exacted for their future good conduct.