In going westward we crossed several fine little gushing streams which never dry.  They unite in the Luinha (pronounced Lueenya) and Lucalla.  As they flow over many little cascades, they might easily be turned to good account, but they are all allowed to run on idly to the ocean.  We passed through forests of gigantic timber, and at an open space named Cambondo, about eight miles from Golungo Alto, found numbers of carpenters converting these lofty trees into planks, in exactly the same manner as was followed by the illustrious Robinson Crusoe.  A tree of three or four feet in diameter, and forty or fifty feet up to the nearest branches, was felled.  It was then cut into lengths of a few feet, and split into thick junks, which again were reduced to planks an inch thick by persevering labor with the axe.  The object of the carpenters was to make little chests, and they drive a constant trade in them at Cambondo.  When finished with hinges, lock, and key, all of their own manufacture, one costs only a shilling and eightpence.  My men were so delighted with them that they carried several of them on their heads all the way to Linyanti.

At Trombeta we were pleased to observe a great deal of taste displayed by the sub-commandant in the laying out of his ground and adornment of his house with flowers.  This trifling incident was the more pleasing, as it was the first attempt at neatness I had seen since leaving the establishment of Mozinkwa in Londa.  Rows of trees had been planted along each side of the road, with pine-apples and flowers between.  This arrangement I had an opportunity of seeing in several other districts of this country, for there is no difficulty in raising any plant or tree if it is only kept from being choked by weeds.

This gentleman had now a fine estate, which but a few years ago was a forest, and cost him only 16 Pounds.  He had planted about 900 coffee-trees upon it, and as these begin to yield in three years from being planted, and in six attain their maximum, I have no doubt but that ere now his 16 Pounds yields him sixty fold.  All sorts of fruit-trees and grape-vines yield their fruit twice in each year, without any labor or irrigation being bestowed on them.  All grains and vegetables, if only sown, do the same; and if advantage is taken of the mists of winter, even three crops of pulse may be raised.  Cotton was now standing in the pods in his fields, and he did not seem to care about it.  I understood him to say that this last plant flourishes, but the wet of one of the two rainy seasons with which this country is favored sometimes proves troublesome to the grower.  I am not aware whether wheat has ever been tried, but I saw both figs and grapes bearing well.  The great complaint of all cultivators is the want of a good road to carry their produce to market.  Here all kinds of food are remarkably cheap.