Chap. VI. A NEGRO GENTLEMAN. 397 



near neighbours, but they took offence at me after the 

 first few days, because I would not join them in their 

 drinking bouts, which took place about every third day. 

 They used to begin early in the morning with Cashaca 

 mixed with grated ginger, a powerful drink which used 

 to excite them almost to madness. Neighbour Geraldo, 

 after these morning potations, used to station himself 

 opposite my house and rave about foreigners, gesticu- 

 lating in a threatening manner towards me, by the 

 hour. After becoming sober in the evening, he usually 

 came to offer me the humblest apologies, driven to it, I 

 believe, by his wife, he himself being quite unconscious 

 of this breach of good manners. The wives of the St. 

 Paulo worthies, however, were generally as bad as their 

 husbands ; nearly all the women being hard drinkers, 

 and corrupt to the last degree. Wife-beating naturally 

 flourished under such a state of things. I found it 

 always best to lock myself in-doors after sunset, and 

 take no notice of the thumps and screams which used 

 to rouse the village in different quarters throughout 

 the night, especially at festival times. 



The only companionable man I found in the place, 

 except Jose Patricio, who was absent most part of the 

 time, was the negro tailor of the village, a tall, thin, 

 grave young man, named Mestre Chico (Master Frank), 

 whose acquaintance I had made at Para several years 

 previously. He was a free negro by birth, but had had 

 the advantage of kind treatment in his younger days, 

 having been brought up by a humane and sensible 

 man, one Captain Basilio, of Pernambuco, his padrinho, 

 or godfather. He neither drank, smoked, nor gambled, 



