It is lucky that the negro is unaware that those who are so anxious for his welfare and conversion from a comparatively innocent condition, come from a country where a state of ferocity, poverty, and vice exists of which he has happily no conception, or it would make him look upon us with horror and surprise.
Amongst the pleasant remembrances of the years I have spent in Angola, the hospitality of the Portuguese often recurs. Many a time in travelling I have had my hammock hidden, and have been obliged to stay for two or three days with strangers, in all but name, or friends perhaps of persons I knew at other places. At any time of the night that a traveller may arrive, he is made welcome, and the cook is instantly told to prepare coffee or kill a fowl and make a “canga,” as fowl-soup thick with rice, and flavoured with ham, &c., is called.
I have been especially grateful to the officers commanding the districts in the interior, and to all, without exception, whether civilians or military, that I have met with in my long travels, I have to offer my thanks for their great kindness and hospitality—doubly pleasing from its disinterestedness and spontaneity.
I have hardly alluded to the wonderful safety and absence of all risk or danger in travelling over almost any part of Angola, especially in those parts in the occupation of the Portuguese. The natives are everywhere civil if well treated; and if only good humour exists on the part of the traveller, and due allowance be made for the laziness and procrastination of the negro, no great inconvenience need ever be felt in going anywhere through the country. A knowledge of Portuguese is of course almost essential, as, with the exception of some places on the River Congo, and as far south of it as Ambriz, where some of the natives speak English, a great number speak only Portuguese besides their own language.
Money of most nations passes in Angola, the English sovereign being perhaps the most useful of any, and at those places where goods of various kinds are principally required for payments of carriers, provisions, &c., they can be readily obtained at moderate rates from the traders.
I have now, to the best of my ability, described the customs and productions of this wonderful and beautiful country, and I shall be glad if the perusal of these pages should induce others to explore more fully the rich field it presents to the naturalist and geographer.
APPENDIX.
The habit of the negro, when employing European languages, of using an absurd and inflated style is well known, and I cannot help attributing this peculiarity to the effect of the specifically constituted mind of the race. The natives of Angola are no exception to this rule, and I have often been amused at their writings in Portuguese.
I cannot better illustrate this very curious characteristic than by transcribing the following pamphlet, written by a highly educated native of Sierra Leone:
“The Athletic Sports at Falcon Bridge Battery, Freetown, Sierra Leone, June 4, 1869, graphically sketched.