he poison imbibed reaches the
abdomen, where it soon causes violent vomiting and purging. Where these
effects do not follow, as we found afterward at Tete, fever sets in; and
I was assured by intelligent Portuguese there that death has sometimes
been the result of this fever. The anxiety my friends at Tete manifested
to keep my men out of the reach of the tampans of the village made it
evident that they had seen cause to dread this insignificant insect.
The only inconvenience I afterward suffered from this bite was the
continuance of the tingling sensation in the point bitten for about a
week.

MAY 12TH. As we were about to start this morning, the commandant, Senhor
Arsenio, provided bread and meat most bountifully for my use on the way
to the next station, and sent two militia soldiers as guides, instead
of our Cassange corporal, who left us here. About midday we asked for
shelter from the sun in the house of Senhor Mellot, at Zangu, and,
though I was unable to sit and engage in conversation, I found, on
rising from his couch, that he had at once proceeded to cook a fowl for
my use; and at parting he gave me a glass of wine, which prevented
the violent fit of shivering I expected that afternoon. The universal
hospitality of the Portuguese was most gratifying, as it was quite
unexpected; and even now, as I copy my journal, I remember it all with a
glow of gratitude.

We spent Sunday, the 14th of May, at Cabinda, which is one of the
stations of the sub-commandants, who are placed at different points in
each district of Angola as assistants of the head-commandant, or chefe.
It is situated in a beautiful glen, and surrounded by plantations of
bananas and manioc. The country was gradually becoming more picturesque
the farther we proceeded west. The ranges of lofty blue mountains of
Libollo, which, in coming toward Ambaca, we had seen thirty or forty
miles to our south, were now shut from our view by others nearer at
hand, and the gray ranges of Cahenda and Kiwe, which, while we were in
Ambaca, stood clearly defined eight or ten miles off to the north, were
now close upon our right. As we looked back toward the open pastoral
country of Ambaca, the broad green gently undulating plains seemed in
a hollow surrounded on all sides by rugged mountains, and as we
went westward we were entering upon quite a wild-looking mountainous
district, called Golungo Alto.

We met numbers of Mambari on their way back to Bihe. Some of them h