Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

by Joachim John Monteiro

I left him to the care of the “chefe,” asking him to send him on to me at Benguella as soon as he should be able to walk. A week after he came to me there quite recovered. Another case of scorpion-bite was described to me by a Portuguese officer (a mulatto) who was “chefe” of the district of Dombe Grande, to the south of Benguella. The man, a tall, stout, powerful and healthy fellow, whilst sitting one evening outside his house, smoking and talking with his family, chanced to drop one of his slippers while crossing one leg over the other; on rising after some time and putting his foot into the slipper, a scorpion that had taken refuge in it stung him in the big toe. He did not think much of the occurrence, but he gradually became worse, and next day could not rise from his bed; his legs and arms were completely paralysed, but without any pain, and his tongue being but little affected he could speak and swallow without difficulty. His mind was perfectly clear, and he only felt a certain degree of numbness and cold. Not expecting to survive he dictated his will, and remained thus paralysed for five or six days, when he gradually recovered, and was well in about a fortnight’s time and without the least inconvenient after-effect.

The view from the top of the valley of Egito was one of the grandest sights I have ever seen. The river was visible for a considerable distance inland, fringed by a dark band of palm forest. The level spaces between it and the high rocky sides of the valley in which it ran were filled with luxuriant cultivated fields, and as the vast rolling mists were dissipated by the morning rays of the sun, presented a panorama of peaceful pastoral beauty that I have never seen surpassed.

The Portuguese have here a pretty little fort on an eminence, a small garrison being necessary as the natives from the interior sometimes give considerable trouble, by coming down and attacking the plantations farthest removed from the town, but without doing any great damage beyond keeping the inhabitants in a state of alarm.

From Egito I continued my journey, sleeping the next night at the valley of the River Anha, where I had been warned against an attack of the natives, several Portuguese traders having been robbed there. I did not take any goods with me, and provided myself with a few bottles of rum as a present for the “soba,” feeling convinced that no harm would be done me by them.

On arriving at the river, a small stream flowing through a valley of lovely forest scenery, I crossed and encamped under a tree on the southern bank. I then sent one of my blacks, who knew the “soba,” with a bottle of rum and a request that he would come and have a drink with me. When he arrived, with about a dozen of the old men of the town, I was just sitting down to my dinner. Being well up in the customs of the blacks of Angola, I made him sit down on my portmanteau, and asked him through one of my men who acted as interpreter, how he and his wives and sons were, and if his country “was well,” to which he duly answered, and asked me in my turn where I had come from, and where I was going? Proper answers being given, I filled a tumbler with wine, and after drinking a portion (to show that there was no “fetish” in it) I handed the rest to him, and a couple of bottles of rum for his old men. I then gave him some of my dinner, which happened to be boiled fowl, rice, and sweet potatoes, a portion of all which, with biscuit or bread, must be given, put on the plate, and a spoon to eat it with. There is a significance in all these minutiæ to which great importance is attached by the blacks, and by which they know if the white man is a gentleman or a common man. My seating him on my portmanteau was considered equivalent to a chair, because it was part of my furniture, and a “soba” must not sit on the ground if there is a chair or stool to be had.

If I had nothing else then I should have had to provide a mat for him to squat upon. Giving him my own wine to drink, and rum to the rest, was equal to showing him a special regard as distinguished from that shown to them; the plateful of every part of my dinner, that I considered him as an equal; and the spoon, that I also believed him to be a big chief who did not eat his food with his fingers.

After finishing his plateful he retired with his old men, and shortly after sent me a couple of fowls and a basket with fresh mandioca-roots for my blacks; I returned the compliment with a few yards of cotton cloth, and went to sleep knowing that I should not be disturbed in any way. He could not attack or rob me after drinking my wine and eating my dinner, as it would have been great “fetish,” according to the customs of the blacks in Angola.

They would, besides, have been afraid of the consequences, not only of having committed “fetish,” but also of the heavy fine that I could have made the “soba” and his people pay, through any other neighbouring tribe to whom I might have complained of such a crime having been perpetrated in their country. Had I been molested, any accident or ill luck, want of rains, sickness or death that might have happened to his tribe, would be at once attributed to the “fetish” committed by the “soba” and his council of old men.

I started again early next morning, and at noon arrived at the bay of Lobito, a beautiful and singular natural dock with a narrow deep mouth, and large enough to hold a great fleet. This would be an invaluable site for a city, the only disadvantage being the absence of a stream of fresh water in the immediate vicinity. In the evening I arrived at Catumbella, after passing through a thick jungle of a shrub (Sesbania punctata, Pers.) bearing bright yellow pea-like flowers thickly spotted with purple, and always found growing in swamps and marshy places in Angola, both near the sea and inland.

Catumbella is an important place, and is about nine miles to the north of the town of Benguella. The Portuguese have there a fine little fort on a hill, a commodious “residencia” of the “chefe,” and a small detachment of soldiers from Benguella.