Chap. XIX. NO PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOUR. 371 



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

 affect 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 Portugal, 

 biscuits from America, butter from Cork, and beer from England, 

 were displayed, and no expense spared in rendering the enter- 

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

 common amusement of card-playing, which continued till eleven 

 o'clock at night. As far as a mere traveller 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 

 freely 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 

 Lisbon. 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 

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

 against colour, entertained only by those who are themselves 

 becoming tawny, to view the liberality with which people of 

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

 the south, in which half-caste children are abandoned, are here 

 extremely rare. They are acknowledged at table, and provided 

 for by their fathers, as if European. The coloured clerks of the 

 merchants sit at the same table with their employers, without any 

 embarrassment. The civil manners of superiors to inferiors is 

 probably the result of the position they occupy — a few whites 



2 b 2 



