FREE NEGROES 



7 



stranger. After my return to England the death-like 

 stillness of summer days in the country appeared to me 

 as strange as the ringing uproar did on my first arrival at 

 Para. The object of our visit being accomplished, we 

 returned to the city. The fire flies were then out in great 

 numbers, flitting about the sombre woods, and even the 

 frequented streets. We turned into our hammocks, well 

 pleased with what we had seen, and full of anticipation 

 with regard to the wealth of natural objects we had come 

 to explore. 



During the first few days, we were employed in landing 

 our baggage and arranging our extensive apparatus. We 

 then accepted the invitation of Mr. Miller to make use of 

 his rocinha, or country-house in the suburbs, until we 

 finally decided on a residence. Upon this we made our 

 first essay in housekeeping. We bought cotton ham- 

 mocks, the universal substitute for beds in this country, 

 cooking utensils and crockery, and then engaged a free 

 negro, named Isidoro, as cook and servant-of-all-work. 

 Isidoro had served Englishmen in this capacity before, 

 and, although he had not picked up two words of English, 

 he thought he had a great talent for understanding and 

 making himself understood ; in his efforts to do which 

 he was very amusing. Having no other medium through 

 which we could make known our wants, we progressed 

 rapidly in learning Portuguese. I was quite surprised 

 to find little or no trace in Isidoro of that baseness of 

 character which I had read of as being the rule amongst 

 negroes in a slave country. Isidoro was an old man, 

 with an anxious, lugubrious expression of countenance, 

 and exhibited signs of having been overworked in his 

 younger days, which I understood had been passed in 

 slavery. The first traits I perceived in him were a certain 

 degree of self-respect and a spirit of independence : these 

 I found afterwards to be by no means rare qualities among 

 the free negroes. Some time after he had entered our 

 service, I scolded him one morning about some delay in 

 getting breakfast. It happened that it was not his fault, 

 for he had been detained, much against his will, at the 

 shambles. He resented the scolding, not in an insolent 

 way, but in a quiet, respectful manner, and told me how 

 the thing had occurred ; that I must not expect the same 

 regularity in Brazil which is found in England, and that 



