Joachim John Monteiro

“ A large plantation of ground-nuts is a very beautiful sight: a rich expanse of the most luxuriant foliage of the brightest green, every leaf studded with diamond-like drops glittering in the early sun. The ground-nut is an important part of the food of the natives, and more so in the country from Ambriz to the River Congo than south at Loanda and Benguella. It is seldom eaten raw, but roasted, and when young and green, and roasted in the husks, is really delicious eating. ”

“ One is inspired with awe and a feeling of puny insignificance before the irresistible march of the flames that are rapidly destroying the enormous extent of the dense, nearly impenetrable mass of vegetation covering the surface of the country, leaving it perfectly bare with the exception of a few charred root stumps of grass, and a few stunted, scorched shrubs and trees. At night the effect is wonderfully fine: the vast wall of fire is seen over hill and valley, as far as the eye can reach ”

“ There is a most picturesque little town of huts stuck on a rocky ledge, and the natives use the water from the hot springs to drink, but first allow it to stand a day to cool. It has a very pleasant taste when cold, with just the slightest ferruginous flavour. From this range of mountains magnificent views are obtained, the scenery and vegetation reminding me strongly of Cazengo; and there can be no question that it is likewise capable of growing the coffee-plant to perfection. ”

“ I have seen the surface of a large pool of water thickly covered with a layer of purple pea-shaped flowers, fallen from the large Wistaria-like bunches of blossom of a creeper overgrowing a mass of trees standing at the edge: it seemed as if Nature, loth that so much beauty should fade quickly, had kept for some time longer the fallen flowers fresh and lovely on the cool still water of the shady lake. This abundance of creeping plants is more or less preserved till at about sixty miles farther inland we arrive at Bembe and the comparatively level country stretching away to the interior ”

“ It is a very strange feeling when travelling in a hammock, to be forced through grass so dense and so high that nothing but the sky above can be seen,—a wall of dry rustling leaves on each side shutting out all view sometimes for mile after mile, and so intensely hot and breathless as to be almost unbearable, causing the perspiration to run in drops off the wet, shining, varnished skins of the almost naked blacks. ”

“ From the mental constitution of the race, and the impossibility of ameliorating the climate, I can see no hope of the negro ever attaining to any considerable degree of civilization, owing to his incapacity for spontaneously developing to a higher or more perfect condition, and the impossibility of the white race peopling his country in sufficient numbers to enforce his civilization; consequently, should science not discover a means for the successful combating of the African climate, the negro must ever remain as he has always been, and as he is at the present day. ”

“ It is a pity that philanthropy should blindly put so sudden a stop to a custom that has existed from time immemorial, and of which the evils are, in a country like Angola, exceedingly slight. The effect of this measure will be to destroy its nascent industry, the only means for its progress and development, and will plunge a great part of its population into helpless misery for years to come. ”

“ The women when at work on the plantations generally place them on a heap of grass or on the ground, and are not at all particular to put them in the shade, and I have often seen them naked and filthy, and covered with a thick mass of large buzzing flies over their faces and bodies, fast asleep, with the sun shining full on them. The women, in carrying them tied behind their backs, seldom include their little heads in the cloth that secures them, but leave them to swing and loll about helplessly in every direction with the movement of walking. ”

“ Amongst uneducated men, I have found that Portuguese, Spaniards, and Italians enjoy better health than Englishmen or Germans, and have vastly more endurance and pluck in sickness than the latter. A Portuguese working man, soldier, or convict, will roll himself up and shiver and groan under a strong attack of fever or ague, and as soon as it is over will quickly go about his occupation without making any fuss or complaint, whereas the English miners, strong and powerful as navvies when well, were, as I have said before, pitiable sights under even a slight attack. ”

“ I have never seen a negro put his arm round a woman’s waist, or give or receive any caress whatever that would indicate the slightest loving regard or affection on either side. They have no words or expressions in their language indicative of affection or love. Their passion is purely of an animal description, unaccompanied by the least sympathetic affections of love or endearment. It is not astonishing, therefore, that jealousy should hardly exist; the greatest breach of conduct on the part of a married woman is but little thought of. ”

“ All the public buildings are in an efficient state, a large extent of flat, stinking shore has been filled up and embanked, ruins of churches and monasteries cleared away, walks and squares laid out and planted, a large new market is being built, and good shops and stores are now abundantly supplied with every description of European goods; and if a good supply of water were brought to the city from the River Bengo, there would certainly not be a finer place to live in on the whole Western Coast of Africa. ”

“ The natives have not been spoilt as yet by contact with the evils of an ignorant and oppressive occupation, as in Portuguese Angola, or, as on the British West Coast on the other hand, by having been preached by a dozen opposed and rival sects into a muddled state of assumed and insolent equality with the white race, whom they hate in their inmost hearts, from the consciousness of their infinite inferiority. ”

“ Our blind philanthropists crowd to hear the stereotyped tale of the missionary in Africa, and the greatest interest is taken in the efforts to ameliorate the assumed unhappy state of the much-pitied negro—who is lying in perfect enjoyment and nakedness under a magnificent sky, surrounded by exquisite scenery, supplied by nature with food without any work or trouble, and insensible alike to physical suffering and hardship, or mental worry and vexation. ”

“ A grove of banana-trees thus growing luxuriantly in a forest clearing is one of the most beautiful sights in nature;—the vast leaves, reflecting the rays of the hot sun from their bright-green surface, contrast vividly with the dark-hued foliage of the trees around, and show off the whorls of flowers with their fleshy, metallic, purple-red envelopes and the great bunches of green and ripe yellow fruit. ”

“ I cannot help having a feeling of reverent affection and admiration for this family of birds, whose exquisite plumage has most likely been evolved through ages of the greatest tropical beauty, of dazzling sunshine, bright flowers, and luxuriant vegetation in lovely valley and mountain chain. ”

“ It is not my intention to deprecate any efforts for the benefit of the negro race, but simply to show that the good seed in Africa will fall on bare and barren ground, and where weeds will rise and choke it; and I must warn philanthropy that its bounty is less productive of good results on the negro of tropical Africa than perhaps on any other race. ”

“ The natives of south Europe also make great use of two vegetable products, which I consider to be of great benefit in preserving health—the common tomato and garlic. The former, apart from what I believe to be its valuable medicinal properties, gives a delicious zest to every kind of cooked food from its slightly acid taste, often transforming an uninviting dish of cold meat, fowl, or fish, into a savoury mess, the very smell of which is sufficient to make one’s mouth water, and raise the enfeebled appetite. ”

“ If one man is killed or wounded it is considered a very great war indeed, although a great deal of powder may have been burnt in mutual defiance at a safe distance. The Portuguese were engaged in war on several occasions on the road to Bembe, and punished, by burning, a number of towns where robberies had been committed, and where, from the thickness of the bush and forest, the ridiculously small force at their command would have been quickly massacred, had not the natives been such craven cowards, and so incapable of using their firearms. ”

“ It appeared that the lion had chased a cat on to the roof from an outhouse, and the roof being of a frail nature, had given way under his weight, but luckily the cries of the man and his wife so frightened the astonished beast, that he forced himself through the slender walls of the hut and ran away. ”

“ Repugnant and wicked as is the idea of slavery and dealing in human flesh, philanthropy must be debited with an amount of unknowing cruelty and wholesale sacrifice of life perfectly awful to contemplate, as a set-off against its well-intentioned and successful efforts to put a stop to slavery and the known horrors of the middle passage, and subsequent ill-treatment at the hands of the planters. ”

“ The natives of Angola are specially fitted for the introduction of habits of industry and usages of civilization, as they are naturally of a peaceable, quiet, and orderly disposition. The difference between them and the natives of Sierra Leone and the rest of the West Coast is very striking and pleasing. They have none of the disgusting swagger, conceit, or cant of the former, but are invariably civil and kindly, and under a firm and enlightened policy they would become more really civilized and industrious than any other natives of the West Coast. ”

“ Africa, as the number and variety of sounds to be heard at night. Every square foot of ground or marsh, every tree, bush, or plant, seems to give out a buzz, chirp, or louder noise of some sort. With the first streak of daylight these noises are suddenly hushed, to be quickly succeeded by the various glad notes of the awakened birds, and later on, when the sun’s rays are clear and hot, the air is filled with the powerful whirr of the cicads on every tree. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In no part of Angola or among tribes to the interior have slave-hunts ever existed as in the north; there are no powerful or more civilized [Pg 57] nations making war on weaker tribes for the purpose of obtaining slaves, and devastating the country by fire and sword. There is very little cruelty attending the state of slavery among the natives of Angola, I believe I may say even in the greater part of the rest of tropical Africa, but I will restrict myself to the part of which I have an intimate knowledge. ”

“ Towards the end of the rainy season the white ant attains its perfect form, and on a still, warm evening, generally after a shower of rain, a wonderful sight presents itself when the perfect winged insects issue forth in countless myriads from the ground. ”

“ It can only have been by countless ages of battling with malaria, that they have been reduced physically and morally to their present wonderful state or condition of withstanding successfully the climatic influences, so fatal to the white and more highly organized race—the sun and fevers of their malignant and dismal mangrove swamps, or the mists and agues of their magnificent tropical forests, no more affecting them than they do the alligators and countless mosquitoes that swarm in the former, or the monkeys and snakes that inhabit the latter. ”

“ Those of a light-hearted and happy disposition, naturally disposed to make the best of circumstances, and whom no inconveniences or annoyances can rob for long of their good humour, are almost certain to enjoy their health on the South-West Coast, whilst those difficult to please, who worry themselves about every little unpleasantness, and who are irritable and unhappy under difficulties, are soon attacked by fever and ague, although apparently just as strong and healthy as the former. ”

“ A black dearly loves his drop of drink; he will very often do for a bottle of rum, what he would not even think of stirring for, for three times the value in any other article, and yet they are not great drunkards, as we shall see, when describing their customs; they so divide any portion of spirits they can obtain, that it does them no harm whatever. The rum and gin, though of the very cheapest description, is pure and unsophisticated, the only adulteration being an innocent one practised by the traders, who generally mix a liberal proportion of water with it. ”

“ The vendors, here again, are mostly women, and, as no booths are allowed to be put up, they wear straw hats with wide brims, almost as large as an ordinary umbrella, to shade themselves. Every kind of delicacy to captivate the negro palate and fancy is to be had here:—wooden dishes full of small pieces of lean, measly-looking pork; earthen pots full of cooked beans and palm-oil, retailed out in small platters, at so much a large wooden spoonful, and eaten on the spot ”

“ In Angola, the attempt to take a white man’s life by his slaves, for ill treatment or cruelty to them, is extremely rare. If any amount of bad treatment is not resented, no benefit or good, however great, done to a negro, is appreciated or recognised by him: such a thing as gratitude is quite unknown to him; he will express the greatest delight at receiving a present or any benefit, but it is not from thankfulness; he only exhibits the pleasure he feels at having obtained it without an effort on his part. ”

“ In the mornings, the rising generation may be seen assembled in groups squatted on the ground, wrapped up in a cotton cloth manufactured in the country, and with a printed alphabet in their hands lazily learning their letters. No inducement that I could offer of pay or anything else, whilst I was exploring in Cambambe, would make them work, and as their style of living is exactly the same as that of other blacks, the plantations, tended by their women and female slaves, suffice them for their daily wants. ”

“ Very beautiful are the long lines of spoonbills, flamingoes, and herons of different species, standing peacefully in these shallow marshes, their snow-white plumage and tall graceful forms brightly reflected on the dark unruffled surface of the water.
The marshes on this coast are fortunately not extensive enough to influence much the health of the white residents; they are all perfectly salt, and free from mangrove or other vegetation, and generally dry up completely (with rare exceptions) [Pg 150] in the dry season, when sometimes the stench from them is very perceptible. ”

“ It stands in a small, triangular, level plain surrounded by hills on all sides, the base of the triangle being the River Quanza and the low line of hills on its southern bank. From the configuration of the ground, shut in on all sides from winds, it is perhaps, as might be imagined, the hottest corner of Angola. The heat in a calm summer’s day is almost stifling, and the nights, generally cool everywhere else, are not less oppressive. Formerly the town was on the high land above, at Cambambe, as the town itself was called, but the exigencies of trade have peopled the present town of Dondo. ”

“ Creepers of all kinds, attaining a gigantic size, here almost monopolize the vegetation, clasping round the biggest trees, and covering them with a mass of foliage and flower, and forming most exquisite festoons and curtains as they web, as it were, one tree to another in their embrace. ”

“ If one of these birds should perch on a hut or on a tree within the enclosure of a town and sing, it is thought such a bad omen that the inhabitants vacate it and remove to another place. When the natives bring them in cages from the interior for sale on the coast, they never take them into the towns on the road for fear they should sing whilst in them, and at night the carrier, for the same reason, sleeps with his birds at some little distance from any town. ”

“ In the daytime the line of fire is marked by a long cloud of beautiful white steam-like smoke curling slowly up, dense and high in the breathless air, in the most fantastic forms against the clear blue sky. ”

“ The negro is capable of being acted upon to a certain extent by the desire for something more than the absolute necessaries of life, to satisfy which he is willing to work a little. The country is so extensive, and the soil and natural productions so rich, that a very little exertion on the part of the population suffices to bring forth a considerable amount of produce; but another and more industrious race will have to take the place of the negro in Africa if its riches and capabilities are to be fully developed. ”

“ The little mites would take a grass flower in their beaks, and perform quite a hoppy dance on any little stick or bush, bobbing their feathery heads up and down, whilst their tiny throats swelled with the sweetest little song-notes and trills imaginable. ”

“ One great bar to their civilization in Angola, is that no tribe on the coast can be induced to work for wages, except as servants in houses and stores, and even these are mostly slaves of other natives, or work to pay off some fine or penalty incurred in their towns. For some years that I have been collecting the inner bark of the Adansonia digitata, or Baobab tree (the application of which to paper-making I discovered in 1858, and commenced working as a commercial speculation in 1865) , I have been unable to induce one single native to hire himself to work by day or piecework ”