The military band plays twice a week. There are no places of public amusement except the theatre, which is a fine one for so small a place as Loanda, but only amateur representations are given. It was once closed for a considerable length of time on account of a difference of opinion amongst the inhabitants as to whether only the few married and single ladies should be admitted, or whether the many ladies living under a diversity of arrangements should be on equal terms with the rest. This very pretty quarrel was highly amusing, and gave rise to most lively scandal and recrimination between the two contending parties, but the latter and more numerous and influential section carried the day, and ever since the doors have been open to all classes of the fair sex, and the boxes on a gala night may be seen filled with the swells of the place, accompanied by the many black, mulatto, and white lady examples of the very elastic state of morals in fashion in Angola.
There is a well attended billiard-room and café, and lately an hotel was opened. There is not much society in Loanda, as but few of the Portuguese bring their wives and families with them, and there are but few white women.
An official Gazette is published weekly, but it seldom gives any news beyond appointments, orders, and decrees, movements of shipping, &c.; a newspaper was attempted, but owing to its violent language it was suppressed for a time and its editors imprisoned. There are at present two newspapers, but they indulge abundantly in scurrilous language and personalities. There is no doubt that a well-conducted newspaper, exposing temperately the many abuses, and ventilating the questions of interest in the country, would be of great benefit.
CHAPTER III.
DIVISION OF ANGOLA—WRETCHED PAY OF OFFICIALS—ABUSES BY AUTHORITIES—EVILS OF HIGH IMPORT DUTIES—SILVER MINES OF CAMBAMBE—JOURNEY TO CAMBAMBE—EXPLORATION—VOLCANIC ROCKS—HORNBILL—THE PLANTAIN-EATER—HYENAS.
The province of Angola is divided by the Portuguese into four governments, viz., Ambriz (or Dom Pedro V.), Loanda, Benguella, and Mossamedes. These are again subdivided into districts, each ruled by a military “chefe” or chief subordinate to the governors of each division, and these in their turn to the Governor-General of the province at Loanda. In this great extent of country under Portuguese rule, from the difficulty and delay in the communications with the central head of military and civil government at Loanda, and from the fact that the “chefes” combine both military and civil functions, the tyrannical injustice and spoliation the natives have so long suffered at their hands can be easily imagined.
Other causes also concurred to produce this disgraceful state of things in Angola. The wretched pay of the Portuguese officers almost obliged them to prey upon the utterly defenceless population. The great bribery and corruption by means of which places that bled well or yielded “emoluments,” as they were called, were filled; the ignorant and ordinary class of officers, as a rule, who could be forced to serve in Angola; and the knowledge that scarcely any other future was open to them than the certainty of loss of health after years of banishment in Africa—must be mentioned as causes of the despotic oppression that crushed the whole country under its heel, depopulating it, and stifling any attempt at industrial development on the part of the natives. That this is a truth, admitting of no denial or defence, is at once shown by the fact that the sources of the great exports of native produce are all places removed from the direct misrule of the Portuguese.
The pay of the Governor-General of Angola is 1333l. per annum. That of the Colonial Secretary is 444l. A major’s pay is now 10l. per month; that of a captain, 6l. 13s. 4d.; a lieutenant’s, 5l. 12s. 1d.; a sub-lieutenant’s, 4l. 8s. 11d. Some few years ago the pay was actually, incredible as it may appear, thirty-seven and a half per cent. below the above amounts: the present pay is only the same as in Portugal. When in command, a major and captain have thirty per cent., and a lieutenant and sub-lieutenant twenty-five per cent. in addition.
For the above mean and miserable pay Portugal sent, and still continues to send, men to govern her extensive semi-civilized colonies. Can any one in his senses be astonished at the result? Not a penny more did a poor officer get when perhaps sent miles away into the interior, where the carriage of a single load of provisions, &c., from Loanda would cost half a sovereign or more, and where even necessaries were often at enormous prices.
In the fifteen years that I have principally lived in, and travelled over a great part of Angola, and passed in intimate intercourse with the natives and Portuguese, I have had abundant opportunities of witnessing the miserable state to which that fine country has been reduced by the wretched and corrupt system of government. This state is not unknown to Portugal, and she has several times sent good and honest men as governors to Loanda to try to put a stop to the excesses committed by their subordinates, but they have been obliged to return in despair, as without good and well-paid officials it was no use either to change, or to make an example of one or two where all were equally bad or guilty. There is, of course, but little chance of any change until Portugal sees that it is to her own advantage that this immensely rich possession should be governed by enlightened and well-paid officials. Let her send to Angola independent and intelligent men, and let them report faithfully on the causes that have depopulated vast districts, that have destroyed all industry, and that continually provoke the wars and wide dissatisfaction among tribes naturally so peaceable and submissive, and amenable to a great extent to instruction and advancement.
A few instances will give an idea of the persecution that the natives were subject to in Angola from the rapacity of their rulers, and from which no redress was possible.