The great forests on the slopes of the chains of mountains and valleys of the country about Golungo Alto and the Dembos are also full of coffee trees growing wild, and they are gradually being cleared of bush or underwood by the natives so as to enable them to collect the berry. I did not hear anywhere that they had taken to planting coffee, nor are they likely to do so as long as they can find it growing wild. As far as has been ascertained, wild coffee is only found growing in the forests of the country of the second elevation from the coast, nor does it grow well in the littoral region, where the air is much too dry: it is a plant requiring a moist heat and the shade of large trees; and a certain amount of elevation above the level of the sea may possibly have something to do with its proper growth.
The future production of coffee on the whole West Coast of Africa might be simply unlimited, as far as extent of ground eminently suitable for its cultivation is concerned: it becomes only a question of time and labour. The coffee plant is not the only one formerly introduced by the missionaries or Portuguese which has spread itself over a large extent of country in Angola, as I saw beautiful watercress growing wild most luxuriantly in several of the rivulets and wet places in Cazengo, and Dr. Welwitsch found parsley and fennel growing wild abundantly at Pungo Andongo.
Plate XI.
BELLOWS—MARIMBA—NATIVE SMITHS—RAT-TRAP.
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Cazengo has been celebrated from time immemorial for its iron, smelted by the natives, and the bellows ([Plate XI.]) employed in the process appears to date from the earliest times, being in fact identical with that used by the ancient Egyptians.
The object of the double arrangement is to obtain a constant current of air from the nozzle; there are no valves in it, and the tops of the cylinders are tightly closed with a peak-shaped cover of sheepskin in which there is no hole or aperture. They are worked alternately and very rapidly, and blow into a baked-clay tuyère about twelve inches long, of which the under end is much wider than the nozzle of the bellows that just rests inside it. The object of this is apparent, as, from the bellows having no valve for the admission of air, which therefore enters it through the nozzle, were this to fit tightly in the tuyère it would alternately blow into and draw air from the fire. For ordinary blacksmith’s work the forge is simply a small round cavity scooped out in the ground, the fuel being charcoal; and in this, with one bellows, a welding heat is obtained, and they are enabled to make hoes, &c., out of ordinary iron hooping or other waste scrap-iron.
Iron smelting from the ore is but little practised now in Angola, as the iron hooping from bales obtained from the traders nearly suffices for the few purposes for which this useful metal is required; but I once had the opportunity whilst travelling of seeing the operation of smelting going on at Cazengo, and of obtaining the following information on the process. There was no furnace proper, simply a somewhat larger excavation in the ground, with three pair of bellows hard at work at equal distances round it. There was neither cover nor chimney to the fire, which was fed with charcoal. The ironstone was a gossany-looking brown ore, and was broken into bits about the size of small walnuts.
I was informed that the first operation took some hours, and did not reduce the iron to the fused state, but only to an apparently metallic spongy condition, without much diminution in the size of the pieces. These reduced pieces are separated from those only imperfectly acted on, the latter being again submitted to the first process with fresh ore; the former are then raised to a high heat and welded together with a hammer, on a block of iron for an anvil, into a small bar.
In the management of the fire, and in welding, the natives employ water and sand in the same way that our smiths do. The bellows and the tuyère are slightly inclined downwards, and are secured to the ground by strong stakes driven into it on each side, to which are attached cross pieces passing over the bellows and tuyère ([Plate XI.]). I have seen these bellows in every part of Angola, and in Loango and Cabinda, north of the River Congo, among tribes speaking entirely different languages, but it is of exactly the same pattern everywhere.
The natives of the interior, like those of Loanda, that is to say, of the country comprised between the Rivers Dande and Quanza, speak the Bunda language. The division on the latter river is very marked, the Quissamas and the Libollos on the southern bank speaking a distinct language. The natives beyond the River Dande speak the Congo language, and its dialects of Ambriz and Mossulo.