current; but is a succession of deep holes connected by periodical streams.

The great inequality of the summit of the Roggeveld gives it the appearance of a chain of mountains rising out of the general summit of a mountain. Of these, the Kom, or Cup mountain, which is five thousand feet above the Karroo plains, is the highest. For several months in the year the Roggeveld is entirely under snow; the inhabitants then descend to the Karroo, with all their cattle, and live in temporary huts of rushes or straw till the spring.

On the Roggeveld I broke the wing of a condor that measured ten feet one inch from wing to wing. This bird, before it was dispatched, kept three dogs at bay, till having torn a piece of flesh out of the thigh of one of them with its claws, they all retreated.

I travelled twelve days along the summit of the Roggeveld, when I fell into the track of my journey from the Cape to Graaff Reynet: I then descended into the Karroo plains, which, in this place, I crossed in three days.

Bordering on these arid plains on the west, are several clusters of high mountains, that are called the Little and the Cold Bokveld. These are ramifications of the great chain, and inclose meadows and valleys with springs and swamps, which produce good grass and good harvests.

I crossed the great chain of mountains that runs north and south, through the ravine called Eeland's Kloof, which was much the best of the four passes by which I had now crossed them. On the west of the chain lies the division of the Four-andtwenty rivers, which, with Zwaartland, forms a

wide extended plain, fertile in corn, grass, and fruits, well watered and well inhabited. The water in Zwaartland is so strongly impregnated with salt, that it can scarcely be drank by a stranger. The inhabitants think fresh water insipid, and say it does not quench their thirst.

Crossing the Berg river, I entered Zwaartland, and from thence taking my route across the Tiger Berg, I arrived at the Cape; thus concluding my third and last journey from that place.

I had now traversed the greater part of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and it appeared to me remarkable, not that an industrious Hollander should have become indolent in Africa, but that a nation of traders should have become exclusively agriculturists. Except Cape Town there is not one town in the territory; the capitals of the other districts being villages, of which Stellenbosch, the largest, and only twenty-six miles from the Cape, does not contain more than about. seventy houses. There is no market for the produce of the land but Cape Town; and, except at Cape Town, there is not, I believe, a merchant or a trader in the colony.

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I

CHAPTER XV.

WESTERN AFRICA.

BENGUELA, ANGOLA, CONGO.

Now bade adieu to Caffers, Hottentots, Bosjesmans, and Dutch farmers, and prepared to visit a people who are considered as the revenue of their sovereigns, and the riches of their traders; who are regularly bartered and shipped off to every part of the civilized world in which their labour is required; I mean the Negroes. Having hired a sloop at the Cape, I engaged five European attendants, and purchased a negro, a native of Congo, whom, after he had discharged the office of my interpreter, I designed to restore to his family. I then went on board the vessel, and di, rected my course to the northward.

The Portuguese have settlements in Benguela and Angola; but as I could not understand that any modern traveller had visited these countries, or would be suffered to penetrate into them if he were to make the attempt, I passed them. I shall however give such an account of them, as I have been able to collect from ancient authors.

The bay of Benguela is in about 12° 45′ south latitude, and about 13° 20′ east longitude. On the northern side of the bay stands the fort of Benguela, built in a square form, with trenches and palisades, and surrounded by houses, shaded by banana, orange, lemon, pomegranate and bakoven trees. There are seven villages in the neighbourhood of Benguela, which pay a tribute to the

Portuguese, consisting of a tenth of all they possess. The largest of these, which is called Mani Kimsomba, can bring into the field 3,000 men. Formerly this village contained some Portuguese, but they were driven from hence by the negroes.

The air of Benguela is exceedingly unhealthy, the Portuguese who reside there looking more like spectres than men. In 1666 the town was said to contain about 200 white inhabitants, and a great number of black.

Angola is so called by the Portuguese from the title of its sovereign; the original name of the country being Donga. It lies between the river Danda on the north, and the river Coanza, which divides it from the country of Benguela, on the south. The city of Loanda San Paolo, the capital of the Portuguese, is situated near the sea, on the side of a hill, in about latitude 9° south, and nearly the same longitude as Benguela. It was built in 1578 by Paul Dias de Nevaiz, who was the first Portuguese governor of the country, and was probably the saint from whom the town took its name. It occupies a great extent of ground, and contains many good houses, churches, and monasteries. The houses of the Portuguese are built with stone and lime, and covered with tiles; those of the negroes are of mud and straw. Loando contains about 3,000 white inhabitants, and a prodigious number of black, who are slaves to the others; some of whom have fifty, some a hundred, and even to three thousand slaves. The fraternity of the Jesuits have twelve thousand. Slaves, both male and female, kneel when they speak to their masters. When a Portuguese appears in the street, he is attended by a negro, who carries an umbrella

over his head, and is followed by two others, carrying his hammock of net. The ladies seldom go from home. When they do, they are never attended by fewer than twelve slaves; two men, who carry the lady in the net; two, who carry each an umbrella; four women, who each hold a corner of a carpet that is thrown over their mistress; and four walk before to render any service which may be requisite.

The white women of Loanda usurp a degree of authority over their husbands that assuredly did not take its rise from the general manners of Africa. If they do not behave according to their wishes, they either drive them from home, or will not suffer them to go out. Some of these ladies carry this prerogative so far as to detain their husband's cloaths, on pretence that they are the property of his family. The fortune of the mother descends to the daughters.

The mulattoes are very numerous at Loanda. They hate the negroes mortally, even the mothers who bore them, and endeavour to put themselves upon an equality with the white people, though they are not allowed to sit in their presence. When they travel, they exact the services and provisions of the negroes, without making any compensation. Such of them as are Pombeiros, have frequently children by the women of the interior part of the country; and, returning to the same place some years after, they carry back their own offspring for sale..

The negroes of Loanda frequently exchange wives for a limited time. The women buy and sell, while their husbands sit at home, spinning or weaving cotton. When a considerable person