NO PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR. 399 



dresses, was occasionally refused, but the rebuff did not much af- 

 fect the petitioner. 



At ten A.M. we went to the residence of the commandant, and 

 on a signal being given, two of the four brass guns belonging to 

 the government commenced firing, and continued some time, to 

 the great admiration of my men, whose ideas of the power of a 

 cannon are very exalted. The Portuguese flag was hoisted and 

 trumpets sounded, as an expression of joy at the resurrection of 

 our Lord. Captain Neves invited all the principal inhabitants of 

 the place, and did what he could to feast them in a princely 

 style. All manner of foreign preserved fruits and wine from Port- 

 ugal, biscuits from America, butter from Cork, and beer from En- 

 gland, were displayed, and no expense spared in rendering the en- 

 tertainment joyous. After the feast was over they sat down to 

 the common amusement of card-playing, which continued till elev- 

 en o'clock at night. As far as a mere traveler could judge, they 

 seemed to be polite and willing to aid each other. They live in a 

 febrile district, and many of them had enlarged spleens. They 

 have neither doctor, apothecary, school, nor priest, and, when taken 

 ill, trust to each other and to Providence. As men left in such 

 circumstances must think for themselves, they have all a good 

 idea of what ought to be done in the common diseases of the 

 country, and what they have of either medicine or skill they free- 

 ly impart to each other. 



None of these gentlemen had Portuguese wives. They usually 

 come to Africa in order to make a little money, and return to Lis- 

 bon. Hence they seldom bring their wives with them, and never 

 can be successful colonists in consequence. It is common for 

 them to have families by native women. It was particularly grat- 

 ifying to me, who had been familiar with the stupid prejudice 

 against color, entertained only by those who are themselves be- 

 coming tawny, to view the liberality with which people of color 

 were treated by the Portuguese. Instances, so common in the 

 South, in which half-caste children are abandoned, are here ex- 

 tremely rare. They are acknowledged at table, and provided for 

 by their fathers as if European. The colored clerks of the mer- 

 chants sit at the same table with their employers without any em- 

 barrassment. The civil manners of superiors to inferiors is prob- 

 ably the result of the position they occupy — a few whites among 



