370 PORTUGUESE CURIOSITY. Chap. XIX. 



than has obtained in our own dealings with the Caffres, for we 

 have engaged in most expensive wars with them without once 

 inquiring whether any of the fault lay with our frontier colonists. 

 The Cassange traders seem inclined to spread along the Quango, 

 in spite of the desire of then* government to keep them on one 

 spot, for mutual protection hi case of war. If I might judge from 

 the week of feasting I passed among them, they are generally 

 prosperous. 



As I always preferred to appear in my own proper character, 

 I was an object of curiosity to these hospitable Portuguese. 

 They evidently looked upon me as an agent of the English 

 Government, engaged in some new movement for the suppression 

 of slavery. They could not divine what a " missionario " had to 

 do with the latitudes and longitudes, which I was intent on ob- 

 serving. When we became a little familiar, the questions j)ut 

 were rather amusing, "Is it common for missionaries to be 

 doctors ?" " Are you a doctor of medicine and a ' doutor mathema- 

 tico' too ? You must be more than a missionary to know how to 

 calculate the longitude ! Come ; tell us at once what rank you 

 hold in the English army." They may have given credit to my 

 reason for wearing the moustache, as that explains why men 

 have beards and women have none; but that which puzzled 

 many besides my Cassange friends was the anomaly of my 

 being a " sacerdote," with a wife and four children ! I usually 

 got rid of the last question by putting another, " Is it not better 

 to have children with a wife, than to have children without a 

 wife?" But all were most kind and hospitable, and as one 

 of their festivals was near, they invited me to partake of the 

 feast. 



The anniversary of the Eesurrection of our Saviour was ob- 

 served on the 16th April as a day of rejoicing, though the Portu- 

 guese have no priests at Cassange. The coloured population 

 dressed up a figure intended to represent Judas Iscariot, and 

 paraded him on a riding-ox about the village ; sneers and male- 

 dictions were freely bestowed on the poor wretch thus represented. 

 The slaves and free coloured population, dressed in then gayest 

 clotliing, made visits to all the principal merchants, and wishing 

 them " a good feast," expected a present in return. This, though 

 frequently granted in the shape of pieces of calico to make new 



