Chap. XIX. PORTUGUESE CURIOSITY. 251 



himself commenced the aggression, and they wished to avoid 

 the necessity of punishing those who had shed Portuguese 

 blood against their own will. This indicates a much greater 

 impartiality than we have shown in our own dealings with 

 the Caffres, for we have engaged in most expensive wars with 

 them without once inquiring whether the fault may not have 

 lain with our frontier colonists. The Cassange traders seem 

 inclined to spread along the Quango, in spite of the desire of 

 their government to concentrate them for purposes of mutual 

 protection. 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 cha- 

 racter, as missionary, I was an object of curiosity to the^e 

 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 observations of 

 latitude and longitude, and the questions put were rather 

 amusing: "Is it common for missionaries to be doctors?" 

 " Are you a doctor of medicine and a ' doutor mathematico ' 

 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, but they were sorely 

 puzzled at the anomaly of my being a " sacerdote," with a 

 wife and four children ! 



On the 16th I witnessed the celebration of the anniversary 

 of our Lord's Resurrection. The coloured population dressed 

 up a figure representing Judas Tscariot, and paraded it on a 

 riding-ox about the village, amidst the sneers and maledic- 

 tions of the spectators. The natives, whether slaves or free, 

 dressed in their gayest clothing, made visits to the principal 

 merchants to wish them " a good feast," and to get a present 

 in return. At ten a.m. we went to the residence of the Com- 

 mandant, and at a given signal two brass guns commenced 

 firing, 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 prin- 

 cipal inhabitants of the place, and feasted them in princely 



