42 PORTUGUESE ACQUIREMENT OF ENGLISH. 



from prodigious indulgence of their appetites for 

 flesh, they become round and sleek. Their attenuated 

 appearance has led to the standing joke amongst 

 sailors, that if you want a Portuguese crew, all you 

 have to do is to run close in to one of the Western 

 Islands, heave a hook and line overboard baited with 

 fat pork, and in a few minutes you will catch as 

 many as you want. To tell the Portuguese this is 

 considered by them as a bitter affront, they always 

 magnifying their position ashore, I do not know how 

 many times, making everything grand, as they ex- 

 press it. To illustrate their passion for meat, I shall 

 not go into figures as regards the consumption, as 

 few, if an}', would credit my bare assertion ; but I 

 will state that one of the boys gained sixty pounds 

 in weight during the first five mouths he was with us. 



If there be only one or two of this race aboard, 

 and they are separated in different parts of the ship, 

 and not allowed too frequently to converse with each 

 other, they soon acquire English and become useful ; 

 but if there are half a dozen together in the fore- 

 castle, they jabber and chatter their unmusical jargon 

 from morning until night, and will go a three years' 

 voyage, knowing at the end of it little more English 

 than is embraced in the technical terms of the service, 

 which, being impressed on their memory with a kick 

 or blow by way of injunction, they are apt to retain. 



These people are, or profess to be, devoted to their 

 padres or fathers in the church, and from my light 

 observation of them and their peculiarities, I should 

 be inclined to give it as my opinion that they are 

 totally under the sway of their Jesuitical advisers ; 

 but I must about ship and resume the thread of my 

 narrative. 



