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The favourite passe-temps is to lie prone in sun or shade, chattering and smoking the cachimbo, a heavy clay pipe, with peculiar stem "to sleep supine," say the Arabs, "is the position of saints; on the dexter side, of kings; on the sinister, of learned men; and on the belly, of devils." The Festival a Trip to Calumbo portuguese Hospitality.
Their chief virtue lay in their violence and repulsiveness. Even to-day the tendency to regard mere bitterness or distastefulness as a medicinal property in itself has not entirely died out. This is the chief claim of quassia, gentian, calumbo, and the "simple bitters" generally, to a place in our official lists of remedies.
A narrow causeway connects with the gate, where blacks on guard lounge in fantastic uniform, and below the works are the coal-sheds. Here the first turf was lately turned by an English commodore this tramway was intended to connect with the water edge, and eventually to reach the Cuanza at Calumbo. So Portugal began the rail system in West Africa.
Calumbo is now a poor place, with a few dilapidated stone houses in a mass of wattle and daub huts, surrounded by large "arimos." The whole "Districto da Barra do Calumbo" contains only 444 hearths. A little stone pier, which Loanda wants, projects into the stream; the lime was formerly procured from shells, but in 1761 calcareous stone was found near the Dande stream.
I left early, for my companions had business at Calumbo; as they were no longer present to control the bearers, a race soft as putty, and I was not used to manage them, the gang became unbearable. The soldier sent to keep them in order did his best with his "supple-jack," and the consequence was that all bolted into the bush. At Cavua two men were forcibly enlisted, but I preferred walking in.
The level country is prolonged along the north bank of the Coanza to the edge of the Cassange basin, and a railway carried thither would be convenient for the transport of the products of the rich districts of Cassange, Pungo Andongo, Ambaca, Cambambe, Golungo Alto, Cazengo, Muchima, and Calumbo; in a word, the whole of Angola and independent tribes adjacent to this kingdom.
Formerly a few foreign merchants were settled here, but they found the hot seasons fatal, and no wonder, with 130deg. Calumbo was built as early as 1577 by the Conquistador Porcador and first Capitao Mor Paulo Dias II., a gallant soldier, who died in 1589 at Massangano, the "Presidium," which he had founded between 1580-83, and who was buried in the Church of Na.
This "leat" was left incomplete, the terminus being three miles from St. Paul's; the Governor-General Jose de Oliveira Barbosa, attempted to restore it, but was prevented by considerations of cost. Calumbo must be a gruesome place to all except its natives. Whilst Loanda has improved in climate since Captain Owen's day , this has become deadly as Rome in 1873.
Portugal has perhaps gone too far in abolishing these church establishments, but it is a reaction which will lead to the golden mean. The site of Calumbo is well chosen, commanding a fine view, and raised above the damps of the cold Cuanza, whose stagnant lagoon, the Lagoa do Muge on the other side, is divided from the main branch by a low islet with palms and some cultivation.
The Angolan orchilla was first sent to Lisbon by Sr. F. R. Batalha: it is a moss, like the tillandsia of the Southern United States, and I afterwards recognized it in the island of Annobom. Passing Pembe and other outlying hamlets, after nine hours of burning sun, we entered Calumbo Town, and were hospitably lodged by the Portuguese Commandant.
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