BISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 107 
go. To qualify them for so arduous a situation, 
they were invested with some extraordinary pri- 
vileges, such as giving plenary indulgences, de- 
livering a soul out of purgatory, wearing secular 
clothes in case of necessity, and, we know not why, 
of reading prohibited books, except Machiavel. 
Thus furnished, they set sail, and after touching 
at Brasil and the Cape, proceeded to Congo. The 
first port at which Carli, the narrator, landed was 
Benguela, which he found inhabited by 300 Portu- 
guese, and a great number of negroes. He describes 
it as the most unhealthy place he ever knew ; he 
was even assured, and fully believed, that an Eu- 
ropean who, without being seasoned, eat any of the 
native productions, died instantly. He peremptorily 
refused to dine with the governor, till he had re- 
ceived solemn assurances, that every thing at table 
should be European. The people, he says, look as 
if dug out of the grave ; they are also the wicked- 
est and most deceitful of men ; which he accounts 
for, by their being chiefly convicts sent thither, as 
to a place of punishment. 
From Benguela our traveller sailed to Loanda. 
The port there appeared to him the finest and most 
beautiful he had ever seen. The town is situated 
on an island of the same name, and is the capital 
Vol. I. (London, 1704,) and has since been reprinted in the 
16th volume of Pinkerton's Collection. 
