sharp, black reef and "diabolito," and bearing on the summit a
plateau well grown with grass and tree. We then opened a deep
bight, which has the honour of being entitled the longest
indentation from Cape Lopez to Great Fish Bay, some 17deg. or a
thousand miles of coast. A gap in the cliff line and darker
vegetation showed the Zenza River, generally called Bengo from
the district (Icolo e Bengo) which it traverses. Here was once a
busy settlement much frequented by shipping, which thus escaped
harbour dues. The mosquito-haunted stream, clear in the dries,
and, as usual, muddy during the rains, supports wild duck, and,
carried some ten miles in "dongos" or flat-bottomed boats,
supplies the capital of Angola with drinking water and dysentery.

As we glide towards the anchorage two features attract my
attention: the Morro or hill-ridge on the mainland, and the
narrow strip which forms the harbour. The escarpment, sweeping
from a meridian to a parallel, juts westward in the bluff Cape
Lagostas (Lobsters), a many-coloured face, in places not unlike
the white cliffs of Dover; it then trends from north-east to
south-west, bending at last in a picturesque bow, with a shallow
sag. The material is the taua or blood-red marl of the Brazil,
banded with white and brown, green, chocolate, and yellow; huge
heaps of "rotten earth," washed down by the rains, cumber the
base of the ruined sea-wall north of the town; in front is a
pellucid sea with the usual trimmings, while behind roll the
upland stubbles of autumn, here mottled black with fire, there
scattered with the wild ficus and the cashew, a traveller from
the opposite hemisphere.

The Ilha de Loanda, which gave its name to the city, according to