Next day’s journey was through pretty undulating country, covered principally with high grass, and after passing a couple of small towns we arrived, early in the afternoon, at the River Luqueia, which we passed over on a very good plank bridge, just built by the Portuguese officer commanding the small detachment at Bembe. Here our carriers stopped for about an hour, bathing in the river, and dressing themselves in their best cloths and caps, that they had brought with them carefully packed—so as to make their appearance in a dandy condition on entering Bembe, which we did in about half-an-hour’s time, having to walk up a stiff hill, too steep to be carried up in our hammocks.
We had thus travelled the whole distance from Ambriz to Bembe, which, as I have before stated, is certainly not less than 130 miles, in eight travelling days. This will give some idea of the endurance of the Ambriz natives, as, from having to take down and pack the tent every morning, and make hot tea or coffee before starting, it was never before seven or eight o’clock that we were on the move. Moreover, from the rain and heavy dew at night, the high grass was excessively wet, and it would not do to start till it had somewhat dried in the morning sun. In going through woods we generally got out of our hammocks in the grateful, cool shade, and collected butterflies, the finest being found in such places. In rocky and hilly places my wife, of course, could not get over the ground on foot so quickly as a man might have done.
A description of the dress she adopted may be useful to other ladies who may travel in similar wild countries, as she found it exceedingly comfortable and convenient for going through wet grass and tangled bush, and through the excessively spiny trees and thorny bushes of the first thirty or forty miles of the road. It was very simple and loose, and consisted of one of my coloured cotton shirts instead of the usual dress-body, and the skirt made short and of a strong material, fastening the shirt round the waist; either or both could then be easily and promptly changed as required.
Plate VIII.
BEMBE VALLEY.
To face page 189.
CHAPTER VII.
BEMBE—MALACHITE DEPOSIT—ROOT PARASITE—ENGONGUI—MORTALITY OF CATTLE—FAIRS—KING OF CONGO—RECEPTIONS—CUSTOMS—SAN SALVADOR—FEVERS—RETURN TO AMBRIZ.
Bembe is the third great elevation, and it stands boldly and cliff-like out of the broad plain on which we have been travelling, and at its base runs the little river Luqueia.
Approaching it from the westward, we see a high mountain to the right of the plateau of Bembe, separated from it by a narrow gorge thickly wooded that drains the valley, separating in its turn the table-land of Bembe from the high flat country beyond, in a north and easterly direction. This valley, in which the great deposit of malachite exists, is about a mile long in a straight line and runs N.N.W. by S.S.E. ([Plate VIII.]).
It is a cul-de-sac at its northern end, terminating in a beautiful waterfall which the waters of a rivulet have worn in the clay slate of the country. This rivulet, after running at the bottom of the valley, takes a sudden bend at its southern end, and escapes through the narrow gorge described above as separating the peak or mountain from the table-land of Bembe. The side of the valley next to Bembe is very steep along its whole length, and shows the clay slate of the country perfectly; the other side, however, is a gradual slope, and is covered by a thick deposit of clayey earths, in which the malachite is irregularly distributed for the whole length of the valley.
The malachite is often found in large solid blocks;—one resting on two smaller ones weighed together a little over three tons, but it occurs mostly in flat veins without any definite dip or order, swelling sometimes to upwards of two feet in thickness, and much fissured in character from admixture with dark oxide of iron, with which it is often cemented to the clay in which it is contained.