500 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA 



the Indians. Geraldo and Ribeiro were my near neigh- 

 bours, but they took offence at me after the first few days, 

 because I would not join them in their drinking bouts, 

 which took place about every third day. They used to 

 begin early in the morning with Casha9a mixed with 

 grated ginger, a powerful drink which used to excite 

 them almost to madness. Neighbour Geraldo, after these 

 morning potations, used to station himself opposite my 

 house and rave about foreigners, gesticulating in a 

 threatening manner towards me, by the hour. After be- 

 coming sober in the evening, he usually came to offer 

 me the humblest apologies, driven to it, I believe, by his 

 wife, he himself being quite unconscious of this breach of 

 good manners. The wives of the St. Paulo worthies, 

 however, were generally as bad as their husbands ; nearly 

 all the women being hard drinkers, and corrupt to the 

 last degree. Wife-beating naturally flourished under such 

 a state of things. I found it always best to lock myself 

 indoors after sunset, and take no notice of the thumps 

 and screams which used to rouse the village in different 

 quarters throughout the night, especially at festival 

 times. 



The only companionable man I found in the place, 

 except Jose Patricio, who was absent most part of the 

 time, was the negro tailor of the village, a tall, thin, 

 grave young man, named Mestre Chico (Master Frank), 

 whose acquaintance I had made at Para several years 

 previously. He was a free negro by birth, but had had 

 the advantage of kind treatment in his younger days, 

 having been brought up by a humane and sensible man, 

 one Captain Basilio, of Pernambuco, his padrinho, or 

 godfather. He neither drank, smoked, nor gambled, and 

 was thoroughly disgusted at the depravity of all classes 

 in this wretched little settlement, which he intended to 

 quit as soon as possible. When he visited me at night, 

 he used to knock at my shutters in a manner we had 

 agreed on, it being necessary to guard against admitting 

 drunken neighbours, and we then spent the long evenings 

 most pleasantly, working and conversing. His manners 

 were courteous, and his talk well worth listening to, for 

 the shrewdness and good sense of his remarks. I first 

 met Mestre Chico at the house of an old negress of Para, 

 Tia Rufina (Aunt Rufina), who used to take charge of 

 my goods when I was absent on a voyage, and this affords 



