652 DEATH AND FUNERAL OF A LADY. Chap. XXXI. 



convey me down the river. Many more would have come, but 

 we were informed that there had been a failure of the crops at 

 Kilimane from the rains not coming at the proper time, and 

 thousands had died of hunger. I did not hear of a single effort 

 having been made to relieve the famishing by sending them food 

 down the river. Those who perished were mostly slaves, and 

 others seemed to think that their masters ought to pay for their 

 relief. The sufferers were chiefly among those natives who 

 inhabit the delta, and who are subject to the Portuguese. They 

 are in a state of slavery, but are kept on farms and mildly 

 treated. Many yield a certain rental of grain only to their 

 owners, and are otherwise free. Eight thousand are said to have 

 perished. Major Sicard lent me a boat which had been built on 

 the river, and sent also Lieutenant Miranda to conduct me to the 

 coast. 



A Portuguese lady who had come with her brother from 

 Lisbon, having been suffering for some days from a severe attack 

 of fever, died about 3 o'clock in the morning of the 20th of 

 April. The heat of the body having continued unabated till 

 6 o'clock, I was called in, and found her bosom quite as warm 

 as I ever did in a living case of fever. Tins continued for 

 three hours more. As I had never seen a case in which fever- 

 heat continued so long after death, I delayed the funeral until 

 unmistakeable symptoms of dissolution occurred. She was a 

 widow, only twenty-two years of age, and had been ten years in 

 Africa. I attended the funeral in the evening, and was struck by 

 the custom of the country. A number of slaves preceded us, and 

 fired off many rounds of gimpowder in front of the body. When 

 a person of much popularity is buried, all the surrounding chiefs 

 send deputations to fire over the grave. On one occasion at 

 Ttte, more than thirty barrels of gunpowder were expended. 

 Early in the morning of the 21st the slaves of the deceased 

 lady's brother went round the village making a lamentation, and 

 drums were beaten all day, as they are at such times among the 

 heathen. 



The Commandant provided for the journey most abundantly, 

 and gave orders to Lieutenant Miranda that I should not be 

 allowed to pay for anything all the way to the coast, and sent 

 messages to his friends Senhors Ferrao, Isidore, Asevedo, and 



