conveyances, this new system of compulsory carriage of ivory and beeswax to the coast was resorted to by the government of Loanda.  A trader who requires two or three hundred carriers to convey his merchandise to the coast now applies to the general government for aid.  An order is sent to the commandant of a district to furnish the number required.  Each head man of the villages to whom the order is transmitted must furnish from five to twenty or thirty men, according to the proportion that his people bear to the entire population of the district.  For this accommodation the trader must pay a tax to the government of 1000 reis, or about three shillings per load carried.  The trader is obliged to pay the carrier also the sum of 50 reis, or about twopence a day, for his sustenance.  And as a day’s journey is never more than from eight to ten miles, the expense which must be incurred for this compulsory labor is felt to be heavy by those who were accustomed to employ slave labor alone.  Yet no effort has been made to form a great line of road for wheel carriages.  The first great want of a country has not been attended to, and no development of its vast resources has taken place.  The fact, however, of a change from one system of carriage to another, taken in connection with the great depreciation in the price of slaves near this coast, proves the effectiveness of our efforts at repressing the slave-trade on the ocean.

The latitude of Golungo Alto, as observed at the residence of the commandant, was 9d 8’ 30” S., longitude 15d 2’ E. A few days’ rest with this excellent young man enabled me to regain much of my strength, and I could look with pleasure on the luxuriant scenery before his door.  We were quite shut in among green hills, many of which were cultivated up to their tops with manioc, coffee, cotton, ground-nuts, bananas, pine-apples, guavas, papaws, custard-apples, pitangas, and jambos, fruits brought from South America by the former missionaries.  The high hills all around, with towering palms on many points, made this spot appear more like the Bay of Rio de Janeiro in miniature than any scene I ever saw; and all who have seen that confess it to be unequaled in the world beside.  The fertility evident in every spot of this district was quite marvelous to behold, but I shall reserve further notices of this region till our return from Loanda.

We left Golungo Alto on the 24th of May, the winter in these parts.  Every evening clouds come rolling in great masses over the mountains in the west, and pealing thunder accompanies the fall of rain during the night or early in the morning.  The clouds generally remain on the hills till the morning is well spent, so that we become familiar with morning mists, a thing we never once saw at Kolobeng.  The thermometer stands at 80 Degrees by day, but sinks as low as 76 Degrees by night.