CHAP. IV. FUNERALS — WEDDINGS. 101 



Mr. Thornton's companion, the trader, brought hack much 

 ivory, having found it both abundant and cheap. He was 

 obliged, however, to pay heavy fines to the Banyai and 

 other tribes, in the country which is coolly claimed in 

 Europe as Portuguese. During this trip of six months 

 200 pieces of cotton cloth of sixteen yards each, besides 

 beads and brass wire, were paid to the different chiefs, for 

 leave to pass through their country. In addition to these 

 sufficiently weighty exactions, the natives of this dominion 

 have got into the habit of imposing fines for alleged 

 milandos, or crimes, which the traders' men may have 

 unwittingly committed. The merchants, however, submit 

 rather than run the risk of fighting. 



The general monotony of existence at Tette is some- 

 times relieved by an occasional death or wedding. When 

 the deceased is a person of consequence, the quantity of 

 gunpowder his slaves are allowed to expend is enormous. 

 The expense may, in proportion to their means, resemble 

 that incurred by foolishly gaudy funerals in England. 

 When at Tette, we always joined with sympathizing- 

 hearts in aiding, by our presence at the last rites, to 

 soothe the sorrows of the surviving relatives. We are 

 sure that they would have done the same to us had we 

 been the mourners. We never had to complain of want of 

 hospitality. Indeed, the great kindness shown by many, 

 of whom we have often spoken, will never be effaced from 

 our memory till our dying day. When we speak of their 

 failings it is in sorrow, not in anger. Their trading in 

 slaves is an enormous mistake. Their Government places 

 them in a false position by cutting them off from the reist 

 of the world ; and of this they always speak with a 

 bitterness which, were it heard, might alter the tone of 

 the statesmen of Lisbon. But here there is no press, no 

 booksellers' shops, and scarcely a schoolmaster. Had we 

 been born in similar untoward circumstances — we tremble 

 to think of it ! 



