Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

by Joachim John Monteiro

In the mornings, the rising generation may be seen assembled in groups squatted on the ground, wrapped up in a cotton cloth manufactured in the country, and with a printed alphabet in their hands lazily learning their letters. No inducement that I could offer of pay or anything else, whilst I was exploring in Cambambe, would make them work, and as their style of living is exactly the same as that of other blacks, the plantations, tended by their women and female slaves, suffice them for their daily wants. I lived on beans for a week on that occasion, as I would not pay half a sovereign in money or cloth for a single fowl, and sheep and goats in proportion. When the tax-gatherer came round with the soldiers, and they had not the wherewithal to pay him, I had my revenge, and bought a large number of fowls at a penny each, goats and sheep at about a shilling a head, and fat oxen at five to ten shillings each, from the very blacks who a day or two before had refused to sell oxen at any price, and fowls, &c., only at such exorbitant prices.

I had to provide food for the forty or fifty blacks who were with me, and an ox was generally killed every day for them, but not being used to so much animal food it did not agree with them. One morning they came to me headed by an old native of Ambaca, who presented me with a petition written in high-flown language, praying that I would not give them any more meat, but that I would order beans and “infundi” to be cooked for their rations instead. Of course, I assented to the desired change, which, moreover, was more economical.

The natives of Pungo Andongo are the most deceitful, and the worst generally. Those of the district of Ambaca, contiguous to Cazengo and Golungo Alto, are a very extraordinary set of blacks. They are distinguished by a peculiar expression of countenance, manner, and speech, which enables them to be at once recognised as surely as a raw Irishman or Scotchman is with us. They are the cleverest natives of Angola, speak and read and write Portuguese best of any, are the greatest cheats of all, and are well described by the Portuguese as the Jews and gipsies of Angola. They are the greatest traders in the country, and collect and deal in all manner of hides, skins, and other articles, for which they travel great distances and amongst other tribes. They will least of all work at any manual labour; trade and roguery are their forte, and they have often suffered at the hands of other tribes for their cupidity.

During a famine, a few years back, in the Quissama country, which the Ambaquistas (as the natives of Ambaca are called) used to visit with farinha, &c., for the purpose of purchasing rock-salt to trade with in other places, they bought a large number of the Quissamas as slaves, at the rate of a small measure of meal each; but the succeeding season, on a number of Ambaquistas going to Quissama, they were robbed, flogged, branded with hot irons, and otherwise tortured and punished, and finally put into canoes and started down the river, arriving at Muxima in a lamentable condition, and only a few recovered from their ill-treatment. This revenge was taken by the Quissamas because the Ambaquistas took advantage of their dire necessity for food to buy their sons and daughters as slaves for small portions of meal. To the present day, to vex an Ambaquista, it is sufficient to ask him if he has any Quissama rock-salt for sale!

Of course they have never been to Quissama since; and should the Portuguese desire to conquer that country, as yet not reduced to submission, they could count upon a large contingent of volunteers from Ambaca. Ambaca is said to be comparatively flat, but very fertile, and it has lately been sending a large quantity of ground-nuts to the River Quanza.

In Cazengo and Pungo Andongo the largest gourds I have ever seen are grown, which when dried are employed by the natives as vessels to carry oil, water, “garapa,” or other liquids; or, the top being cut off, are used as baskets for meal, beans, &c. I have seen them so large that they were enclosed in a rope-net, and when full of “garapa” or water were a good load for two men to carry, slung to a pole on their shoulders. The plants are generally trained up the sides and on the grass roofs of the huts, on which they produce a plentiful crop of flowers and fruit. I have also seen the gourds supported on a kind of nest of dry straw or grass, placed in the fork of a three-branched stick stuck in the ground.

Cotton is grown sparingly everywhere. It is picked from the seeds and beaten on the ground with a switch to open it out, and then spun by hand. This was the constant employment of the natives, particularly of the women and girls, but quite lately this industry has greatly fallen off, owing to the greater importation of Manchester goods. The cotton-thread was woven by the natives into strong thick cloths, but these are now not easy to obtain for the same reason.

Food is most abundant:—mandioca, maize, beans, massango (a kind of millet), ground-nuts, &c., growing with the greatest luxuriance in the fertile ground and lovely climate. Beautiful and tame cattle are easily reared, as well as sheep, goats, and poultry; but, as usual, the great indolence of the natives prevents them from availing themselves of the wonderful capabilities of the soil and climate to any but an infinitesimal degree.

It is rare to see any stores of food, so that if, as sometimes happens, especially in the littoral region, the rains should fail, a famine is the result, and hundreds die.

When a little indian-corn or other seed is kept, it is enclosed in large, smooth, spindle-shaped masses of long straw, and these are hung to the branches of the trees. The straw keeps the wet from entering to the corn, and it also keeps out rats, as, should they run down the short rope, they slip off the straw and tumble to the ground.