Blow on the Beard—­Attacked in a Forest—­Sudden Conversion of a fighting Chief to Peace Principles by means of a Revolver—­No Blood shed in consequence—­Rate of Traveling—­Slave Women—­Way of addressing Slaves—­Their thievish Propensities—­Feeders of the Congo or Zaire—­Obliged to refuse Presents—­Cross the Loajima—­Appearance of People; Hair Fashions.

January 1, 1855.  Having, through the kindness of Colonel Pires, reproduced some of my lost papers, I left Pungo Andongo the first day of this year, and at Candumba, slept in one of the dairy establishments of my friend, who had sent forward orders for an ample supply of butter, cheese, and milk.  Our path lay along the right bank of the Coanza.  This is composed of the same sandstone rock, with pebbles, which forms the flooring of the country.  The land is level, has much open forest, and is well adapted for pasturage.

On reaching the confluence of the Lombe, we left the river, and proceeded in a northeasterly direction, through a fine open green country, to the village of Malange, where we struck into our former path.  A few miles to the west of this a path branches off to a new district named the Duke Braganza.  This path crosses the Lucalla and several of its feeders.  The whole of the country drained by these is described as extremely fertile.  The territory west of Braganza is reported to be mountainous, well wooded and watered; wild coffee is abundant, and the people even make their huts of coffee-trees.  The rivers Dande, Senza, and Lucalla are said to rise in one mountain range.  Numerous tribes inhabit the country to the north, who are all independent.  The Portuguese power extends chiefly over the tribes through whose lands we have passed.  It may be said to be firmly seated only between the rivers Dande and Coanza.  It extends inland about three hundred miles to the River Quango; and the population, according to the imperfect data afforded by the census, given annually by the commandants of the fifteen or sixteen districts into which it is divided, can not be under 600,000 souls.

Leaving Malange, we passed quickly, without deviation, along the path by which we had come.  At Sanza (lat. 9d 37’ 46” S., long. 16d 59’ E.) we expected to get a little seed-wheat, but this was not now to be found in Angola.  The underlying rock of the whole of this section is that same sandstone which we have before noticed, but it gradually becomes finer in the grain, with the addition of a little mica, the farther we go eastward; we enter upon clay shale at Tala Mungongo (lat. 9d 42’ 37” S., long. 17d 27’ E.), and find it dipping a little to the west.  The general geological structure is a broad fringe of mica and sandstone schist (about 15 Deg.  E.), dipping in toward the centre of the country, beneath these horizontal and sedimentary rocks of more recent date, which form an inland basin.  The fringe is not, however, the highest in altitude, though the oldest in age.