94 A VISIT TO THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



could oriler any person he chose to take his hat off in the 

 open streets T " To thb he said, ** ExatTtly so." 1 tlien 

 said that this altci'ed. the cme, and that I must now 

 request the iramecUate hlieration of Mi*. JSunimers, as I 

 could not consider that the alleged oifence, for which ho 

 was impnsoned, was any crime at all. I further added, 

 that I could hardly believe that I had heard now, in the 

 nineteenth ceutury, the Governor of a Portuguese settle- 

 ment assert that ho had imprisoned a British subject for 

 refusing to take his hat oif in the open streets, whoji 

 ordered by him through a soldier to do so ; I stated that, 

 flome five centuries baek^ a certain Gossier had placed a 

 cap on a pole, and, in trying to make one William Tell 

 bow to it, he had revolutionised Switiierland. — To this tlie 

 Governor replied, that I was not acquainted with Poitu- 

 guese law. I said, very likely not; but that I knew what 

 common justice was. I then bowed^ and retired. When 

 I had descended iialf way down the atepH, the Governor, 

 calling me by name, asked me if I ca.me to demand Mr* 

 Summera^s liberation as a right, or to it as a fevour, 

 I replied that, while I believed Mr. Summers hatl neglected 

 to take oE his hat, as was customary, on the passing of 

 one of the religious ceremonies of the country, I had 

 asked his liberation as a personal favour ; but, since His 

 Excellency had explained that Mn Summers was confined 

 for what I conceived to be no crime at all, I really eould 

 not, in the position I then occupied, ask for his liberatioii 

 03 a Favour. 



