Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/64

 foot of the hill rises a Christian church, which is regarded as a great "fetish" by all the inhabitants of the district, Catholics and pagans alike.

The trading station of Massangano, above the confluence of the Cuanza and Lu-Calla, owes its existence to the neighbouring coffee plantations of the Cazengo district. But here the chief centre of traffic is Dando, which lies at the head of the navigation of the Cuanza. It is a modern town, situated on the right bank of the river, in.a cirque surrounded by wooded hills, which prevent the free circulation of the air, The consequence is that the place is extremely unhealthy and from the local Portuguese traders has received the title of the "furnace," or "hell" of Angola. Here are manufactured porous earthenware vessels, and the native smiths employ European iron, although the neighbouring hills are very rich in ores of that metal. In the same district were formerly worked some silver

mines, which occur a little farther up near the cataracts of the Cuanza, and not far from the village of Cambanibé. The first attempt was made to secure possession of these mines in the year 1595, when the two hundred men forming the expedition were all massacred except seven, who escaped to report the disaster.

The most productive coffee district in Angola is the basin of the river Lu-Calla, which flows parallel with the Cuanza some distance above the confluence of both streams. The coffee-plant grows wild in the forests of this region, and in many places rich natural plantations are formed merely by the simple process of clearing the ground round about the trees. But the great plantations of the Cazengo, of Golungo-Alto, and neighbouring districts, have been created by the Portuguese and Brazilian settlers, originally employing the labour of slaves who have since become free labourers. The first fazendeiro who settled in the Cazengo territory came from Brazil in 1837. Eight years after beginning operations he