CHAPTER VII.
TOWN OF BENGUELLA—SLAVE-TRADE—MUNDOMBES—CUSTOMS—COPPER—HYENAS—MONKEYS—COPPER DEPOSIT—GYPSUM—HORNBILLS—BIRDS—FISH—LIONS.
The town of Benguella is situated on a level plain near the sea, and backed, at a distance of about six miles, by a line of hills. The appearance of the town from the sea is rather picturesque; to the north, at a distance of little more than a mile, is seen the green belt of forest marking the course of the River Cavaco, a white sandy bed in the dry, and a broad, shallow, running stream in the rainy season.
The town is large, consisting of good houses and stores, irregularly distributed over several fine squares and roads; the custom of the houses having large walled gardens and enclosures for slaves, in former times, stamping it with a wide straggling character.
In the wet season the squares and roads are all covered with a luxuriant growth of grass and weeds in flower, giving the town the appearance of a wild garden.
The soil of Benguella is very fertile, and all kinds of fruit and vegetables grow splendidly. The trade is large and increasing yearly, particularly in beeswax, of which a great quantity is exported. There is, of course, the usual incubus of the custom-house, with its high duties and vexations weighing heavily on all enterprise and commerce. Not far from the beach is a large fort, garrisoned with a force of soldiers that supplies detachments to the districts of Dombe Grande, Egito, Novo Redondo, Catumbella, Caconda, and Quillengues.
During the time of the slave-trade Benguella was one of the principal shipping ports of Angola, many thousands of slaves being sent off from it to the Brazils and Cuba. The last two or three shipments took place whilst I was working the copper deposits near Cuio Bay and at Quileba, near Benguella. They were principally brought for sale by the natives of Bihé; and I once saw a caravan of nearly 3000 blacks arrive, of whom 1000 were slaves for sale. The whole caravan was loaded with beeswax and other produce for barter.
Of these and other slaves that constantly arrived only a few were shipped; the rest were then in great demand for extensive cotton-plantations from Benguella to Mossamedes. The average price of a full-grown, healthy man or woman was about three pounds in cloth or other goods, and as low as five shillings for a little nigger. I must do the traders at Benguella the justice to say that they never separated mother and child; as for other ties of relationship, they did not seem to exist amongst the slaves brought down for sale, and I never heard of any being claimed by them. There was no cruelty whatever in the manner the slaves were brought in the caravans from the interior, and they were never bound or coerced in any way.
The last shipments of slaves took place from “Bahia Farta,” a few miles south of Benguella. Every one in Benguella, from the governor of the district to the lowest employé, knew of the transaction, and received the regular scale of fees for shutting their eyes to it.
I am happy to say, however, that every one of the shipments turned out a total loss to the shippers, though they stood to gain enormous profits, the price of the raw article being, say three pounds, and worth some thirty pounds each on arrival at Cuba. The slave-trade in the district of Benguella died out entirely from the activity of the cruisers off the coast of Cuba, and from the Spanish authorities capturing the slaves after they were landed on the island. The Spanish slave-dealers also no longer sent cash and vessels to Angola for the purchase and shipment of slaves, and the consequence was that the proceeds of several cargoes shipped at the expense of the Portuguese traders on the coast were entirely appropriated by the Spaniards, who did not even vouchsafe an acknowledgment of the cargoes, but left the captains and supercargoes to think themselves lucky that they escaped with their lives.
Only a very large number of cruisers on the Angolan coast could have prevented the shipment of slaves, as every man and woman, white or black, was interested in the trade, and a perfect system of communication existed from all points, overland and by sea. The few foreigners who, like myself, were not interested in the slave-trade, knew better than to risk their lives by meddling with what it was absolutely impossible they could prevent. Other foreigners and Englishmen were indirectly interested in the trade, such as the traders at Ambriz and farther north, who, as already mentioned, received hard cash in Spanish gold, at a profit of two to three hundred per cent. for the goods of pious Manchester and Liverpool, with which almost every one of the thousands of slaves shipped were bought.