393 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 



and was thoroughly disgusted at the depravity of all 

 classes in this wretched little settlement, which he in- 

 tended to quit as soon as possible. When he visited 

 me at night, he used to knock at my shutters in a 

 manner we had agreed on, it being necessary to guard 

 against admitting drunken neighbours, and we then 

 spent the long evenings most pleasantly, working and 

 conversing. His manners were courteous, and his talk 

 well worth listening to, for the shrewdness and good 

 sense of his remarks. I first met Mestre Chico at the 

 house of an old negress of Para, Tia Rufina (Aunt 

 Rufina), who used to take charge of my goods when I 

 was absent on a voyage, and this affords me an oppor- 

 tunity of giving a few further instances of the excellent 

 qualities of free negroes in a country where they are not 

 wholly condemned to a degrading position by the pride 

 or hatred of the white race. This old woman was born a 

 slave, but like many others in the large towns of Brazil, 

 she had been allowed to trade on her own account, as 

 market-woman, paying a fixed sum daily to her owner, 

 and keeping for herself all her surplus gains. In a 

 few years she had saved sufficient money to purchase 

 her freedom, and that of her grown-up son. This done, 

 the old lady continued to strive until she had earned 

 enough to buy the house in which she lived, a consider- 

 able property situated in one of the principal streets. 

 When I returned from the interior, after seven years' 

 absence from Para, I found she was still advancing in 

 prosperity, entirely through her own exertions (being a 

 widow) and those of her son, who continued, with the 

 most regular industry, his trade as blacksmith, and 



