110 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE, 
they were travelling, a still more serious alarm 
arose. A conflagration, kindled at some distance, 
drove towards them all the wild beasts of the dis- 
trict. The negroes immediately sprung to the tops 
of trees ; and the worthy fathers, little accustomed 
to such feats of agility, were with difficulty dragged 
up by ropes. There was no time to be lost ; for 
such a host immediately arrived, that the whole 
party " would scarcely have made one good meal 
" for them.'* He enumerates tigers, lions, wolves, 
pocasses, and rhinoceroses. These all looked up, 
and eyed them very earnestly ; but the fire behind, 
and the arrows which the negroes shot down upon 
them, speedily induced them to forbear any further 
pause. 
Besides the inhabitants of the libattes, or vil- 
lages, there is another class who wander in the 
fields, sleep under trees, and live almost in a state 
of nature. From among these, there was brought 
one day " a handsome young woman, stark naked,** 
for the purpose of baptism. The missionary, hav- 
ing very prudently caused her to be covered with 
a few leaves, gave her some instructions, and per- 
formed the ceremony. This event, from some un- 
known cause, excited the most extraordinary exul- 
tation throughout the village. All the musical in- 
struments were set in motion ; and the people, 
making a circuit round the fair convert, cried with 
their whole might, " Long live Anne, long live 
