MAK0L0L0 AT MASS. 253 



vanish at once, for they went forward among the men, 

 and the jolly tars, acting much as the Makololo would have 

 done in similar circumstances, handed them a share of the 

 bread and beef which they had for dinner. The com- 

 mander allowed them to fire off a cannon ; and, having 

 the most exalted ideas of its power, they were greatly 

 pleased when I told them, " That is what they put down 

 the slave-trade with." The size of the brig-of-war amazed 

 them. "It is not a canoe at all: it is a town!" The 

 sailors' deck they named " the kotla ;" and then, as a 

 climax to their description of this great ark, added, "And 

 what sort of a town is it that you must climb up into with 

 a rope ?" 



The effect of the politeness of the officers and men on 

 their minds was most beneficial. They had behaved with 

 the greatest kindness to me all the way from Linyanti, 

 and I now rose rapidly in their estimation ; for, whatever 

 they may have surmised before, they now saw that I was 

 respected among my own countrymen, and always after- 

 ward treated me with the greatest deference. 



On the 15th there was a procession and service of the 

 mass in the Cathedral; and, wishing to show my men a 

 place of worship, I took them to the church, which now 

 serves as the chief one of the see of Angola and Congo. 

 There is an impi*ession on some minds that a gorgeous 

 ritual is better calculated to inspire devotional feelings 

 than the simple forms of the Protestant worship. But 

 here the frequent genuflexions, changing of positions, 

 burning of incense, with the priests' back turned to the 

 people, the laughing, talking, and manifest irreverence of 

 the singers, with firing of guns, &c, did not convey to the 

 minds of my men the idea of adoration. I overheard 

 them. : n talking to each other, remark that "they had 

 seen the white men charming their demons;" a phrase 

 identical with one they had used when seeing the Balonda 

 Seating drums before their idols. 



In the beginnr g of August I suffered a severe relapse, 



22 



