RECEPTION AT SENNA. 339 



igated affliction, to say the least of it. Besides this annoyance, 

 they had already found their precious steamer quite defective in 

 many respects. The furnaces were badly constructed, and she 

 moved along so slowly and heavily that the natives with their 

 canoes would pass easily by her, and looked back in wonder 

 and pity on the slow puffing " Asthmatic," as she came to be 

 called. 



At Senna they received a most friendly reception. They 

 were, however, under the necessity of landing at Nyamka, a 

 small hamlet of rocks six miles below, and walking up to the 

 village, as the steamer could not go up the channel along which 

 Senna stands. From the hamlet they walked along a narrow 

 winding path in Indian file, through a succession of gardens and 

 patches of thorny acacias. The clouds veiled the sun softly, 

 and the cool morning air seemed peculiarly fitted for the sweet, 

 strange songs which the little birds poured forth in their charm- 

 ing foreign accent. There were many natives passing to and 

 fro — the women with hoes going to their work, but the men all 

 carried spears or bows and arrows, except those who had old 

 Tower muskets. Senna looked no more inviting for the two 

 years of wear and neglect and oppression and war — a dull, 

 dilapidated place, where " one is sure to take fever the second 

 day." But the presence of a single really generous and hospita- 

 ble man, claiming the miserable village as his native place, 

 measurably redeemed it in the estimation of Englishmen who 

 had been trained to appreciate those nobler qualities which' so 

 seldom distinguished the claimants of the country. Senhor H. 

 A. Ferraro's benevolence was unbounded. No stranger, how- 

 ever black, was turned away from his door hungry or weary. 

 He had long been the almoner of the people in time of famine. 

 There was found a bit of history in connection with him which 

 illustrates the Lisbon policy as hardly kinder to its own people 

 than to those whom they are taught to oppress. The father of 

 Senhor Ferraro had been the Portuguese Governor of Senna, 

 and being a man of superior attainments and untarnished honor, 

 acquired by the most unquestionable methods very large pos- 

 sessions in land south of the village. The "home" govern- 

 ment, asserting that it would never do for an individual to 

 possess more land than the crown of Portugal, took possession 



