Chap. YI. 
A NEGRO GENTLEMAN. 
397 
near neighbours, 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, gesticu- 
lating in a threatening manner towards me, by the 
hour. After becoming 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 in-doors 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 J ose 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. 
