Whilst Loanda has improved in climate since Captain Owen's day
(1826), this has become deadly as Rome in 1873. The raw mists in
early morning and the hot suns, combined with the miasmas of the
retreating waters, sometimes produce a "carneirado" (bilious
remittent) which carries off half the inhabitants. Dysenteries
are everywhere dangerous between the Guinea Coast and Mossamedes,
the cause being vile water. All the people looked very sickly;
many wore milongos, Fetish medicines in red stripes, and not a
few had whitewashed faces in token of mourning. I observed that
my Portuguese companions took quinine as a precaution. Formerly a
few foreign merchants were settled here, but they found the hot
seasons fatal, and no wonder, with 130deg. (F.) in the shade! The
trade from the upper river, especially from the Presidio das
Pedras Negras de Pungo Andongo,[FN#2] consists of hides, cattle
tame and wild (cefos); saltpetre washed from earth in sieves,
mucocote or gum anime (copal), said by Lopes de Lima to be found
in all the forests of Pungo Andongo; wax, white and yellow; oil
of the dendem (Elais Guineensis) and mandobim, here called
ginguba (arachis); mats, manioc-flour, and sometimes an ivory.
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