KINDNESS OF PORTUGUESE 419 



which shook the doors and windows and made the glasses 

 jingle. Both Tete and Senna have hot springs in their 

 vicinity, but the shocks seemed to come, not from them, 

 but from the east, and proceed to the west. They are pro- 

 bably connected with the active volcanoes in the island of 

 Bourbon. 



Having waited a month for the commencement of the 

 healthy season at Kilimane, I would have started at the 

 beginning of April, but tarried a few days, in order that the 

 moon might make her appearance and enable me to take 

 lunar observations on my way down the river. A sudden 

 change of temperature happening on the 4th, simultane- 

 ously with the appearance of the new moon, the command- 

 ant and myself, with nearly every person in the house, 

 were laid up with a severe attack of fever. I soon re- 

 covered by the use of my wonted remedies ; but Major 

 Sicard and his little boy were confined much longer. 

 There was a general fall of 4° of temperature from the 

 middle of March, 84° at 9 a.m., and 87° at 9 p.m., — the 

 greatest heat being 90° at mid-day, and the lowest 81° at 

 sunrise. It afforded me pleasure to attend the invalids in 

 their sickness, — though I was unable to show a tithe of the 

 gratitude I felt for the commandant's increasing kindness. 



The commandant provided for the journey most abun- 

 dantly, and gave orders to Lieutenant Miranda that I 

 should not be allowed to pay for any thing all the way to 

 the coast, and sent messages to his friends Senhors Ferrao, 

 Isidore, Asevedo, and Nunes, to treat me as they would 

 himself. From every one of these gentlemen I am happy 

 to acknowledge that I received most disinterested kind- 

 ness, and I ought to speak well forever of Portuguese hos- 

 pitality. I have noted each little act of civility received, 

 because, somehow or other, we have come to hold the Por- 

 tuguese character in rather a low estimation. This may 

 have arisen partly from the pertinacity with which some 

 of them have pursued the slave-trade, and partly from the 

 contrast which they now offer to their illustrious ancestors, 



