from new sources were so much needed at
home.

It is common to cut down cotton-trees as a nuisance, and cultivate
beans, potatoes, and manioc sufficient only for their own consumption.
I have the impression that cotton, which is deciduous in America, is
perennial here; for the plants I saw in winter were not dead, though
going by the name Algodao Americana, or American cotton. The rents paid
for gardens belonging to the old convents are merely nominal, varying
from one shilling to three pounds per annum. The higher rents being
realized from those in the immediate vicinity of Loanda, none but
Portuguese or half-castes can pay them.

When about to start, the horse which the governor had kindly presented
for Sekeletu was seized with inflammation, which delayed us some time
longer, and we ultimately lost it. We had been careful to watch it when
coming through the district of Matamba, where we had discovered the
tsetse, that no insect might light upon it. The change of diet here may
have had some influence in producing the disease; for I was informed by
Dr. Welweitsch, an able German naturalist, whom we found pursuing his
arduous labors here, and whose life we hope may be spared to give his
researches to the world, that, of fifty-eight kinds of grasses found
at Loanda, only three or four species exist here, and these of the most
diminutive kinds. The twenty-four different species of grass of Golungo
Alto are nearly all gigantic. Indeed, gigantic grasses, climbers,
shrubs and trees, with but few plants, constitute the vegetation of this
region.

NOVEMBER 20TH. An eclipse of the sun, which I had anxiously hoped to
observe with a view of determining the longitude, happened this morning,
and, as often took place in this cloudy climate, the sun was covered
four minutes before it began. When it shone forth the eclipse was
in progress, and a few minutes before it should (according to my
calculations) have ended the sun was again completely obscured. The
greatest patience and perseverance are required, if one wishes to
ascertain his position when it is the rainy season.

Before leaving, I had an opportunity of observing a curious insect,
which inhabits trees of the fig family ('Ficus'), upward of twenty
species of which are found here. Seven or eight of them cluster round
a spot on one of the smaller branches, and there keep up a constant
distillation of a clear fluid, which, dropping to the ground, forms a
little puddle below.