48 MESURIL. 
the Bishop, where he generally resides, belonging to the order 
of St. John de Deos, which has a monastery on the Island of 
Mosambique, now used as an hospital. It is a singular ordi- 
nation imposed on the order, that the superior of it must be 
chosen out of the serviteurs. There were at this time only two 
monks in the monastery. 
In the afternoon of the 9th we crossed the isthmus of Soue 
Souah, and visited a village bearing the same name, where two 
Arabs, styled princes, were in waiting to pay their compliments 
to the Governor. The little respect paid to these royal personages, 
together with their want of attendants, shews the degradation to 
which they are now reduced, and strongly evinces the folly of the 
Portuguese in having ever conferred such titles. We returned 
in the evening by torch light, through a wild jungle, and as 
the bearers of our palanquins tossed their torches carelessly about 
they set fire in many places to the long grass underneath, which, 
burning like a stream of wild-fire, threw a bright glare of light 
among the trees, that produced a very singular and striking effect. 
After our return the Banians gave a nautch to the Governor, 
performed by two Indian girls, which seemed to afford amuse- 
ment to the spectators, perhaps from their not having witnessed 
the superior mode in which these dances are conducted in India. 
On the 10th I paid a visit to the Bishop early in the morning, 
who, on my arrival at his house, was absent on a shooting excur- 
sion : the furniture of his rooms in the mean time afford ed me no 
slight entertainment. Four cages containing different species of 
singing birds were fixed to the walls, and over the doors of the 
bed-rooms two beautiful prints of St. Cecilia were suspended 
