Mr. W. Winwood Reade ("Savage Africa," chapter xxv.), is "derived
from a native word meaning bald:" I believe it to be the Angolan
Luanda, or tribute. Forming the best harbour of the South African
coast, it is made by the missionaries of the seventeenth century
to extend some ten leagues long. James Barbot's plan (A.D. 1700)
shows seven leagues by one in breadth, disposed from north-east
to south-west, and, in the latter direction, fitting into the
"Mar Aparcelado" or shoaly sea, a curious hook-shaped bight with
a southern entrance, the "Barra de Curinba" (Corimba). But the
influences which formed the island, or rather islands (for there
are two) have increased the growth, reducing the harbour to three
and a half miles by two in breadth, and they are still
contracting it; even in the early nineteenth century large ships
floated off the custom house, and it is dry land where boats once
rode. Dr. Livingstone ("First Expedition," chapter xx.) believes
the causa causans to be the sand swept over the southern part of
the island: Douville more justly concludes that it is the gift of
the Cuanza River, whose mud and ooze, silt and debris are swept
north by the great Atlantic current. Others suppose that it
results from the meeting of the Cuanza and the Bengo streams; but
the latter outfall would be carried up coast. The people add the
washings of the Morro, and the sand and dust of the sea-shore
south of the city.

This excellent natural breakwater perfectly shelters the shipping
from the "calemas," or perilous breakers on the seaward side, and
the surface is dotted with huts and groves, gardens and palm
orchards. At the Ponta do Norte once stood a fort appropriately
called Na. Sa. Flor de Rosa; it has wholly disappeared, but
lately, when digging near the sea, heaps of building stone were