346 PORTUGUESE AND THE NATIVES. 



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 Atnerica, butter from Cork, 

 and beer from England, were displayed, and no expense 

 spared in rendering the entertainment 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 couufoy, 

 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 among thousands 

 of blacks ; but nowhere else in Africa is there so much 

 goodwill between Europeans and natives as here. If 



