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nity must not pass a censure on this transaction: it was a happy 
purchase for the children; they were relieved from hunger and 
nakedness, and sent to an amiable mistress, who brought them up 
tenderly, and, on leaving India, provided for their future comfort; 
whereas, had I refused to buy them, they would assuredly have 
been sold to another, and probably have experienced a miserable 
bondage with some native Portugueze Christian, whom we do not 
reckon among the most merciful task-masters. 
A circumstance of this kind happened to myself: sitting one 
morning in my veranda, a young fisli-woman brought a basket of 
mullets for sale; while the servant was disposing of them, she asked 
me to purchase a fine boy, two years of age, then in her arms: on 
my upbraiding her want of maternal affection, she replied with a 
smile, that she expected another in a few weeks, and as she could 
not manage two, she made me the first offer of her boy, whom she 
would part with for a rupee. She came a few days afterwards, 
with a basket of fish, but had just sold her child to Signor Manoel 
Rodriguez, the Portugueze linguist; who, though a man of pro- 
perty and a Christian, had thought it necessary to lower the price 
to half a rupee. Thus did this young woman, without remorse, 
dispose of an only child for fifteen pence! 
The houses of the Nairs, and better sort of Malabars, are neat 
and clean; generally situated in a garden, with a few cocoa-nut 
and jac trees, betel plants, indigenous roots and vegetables: a small 
grove of areca, or a shady tamarind, and a well within the inclo- 
sure, furnish a Malabar habitation : the furniture seldom consists 
of more than a few mats, earthen pots, grind-stones, and utensils 
for cleaning the rice, with the swing already mentioned; where 
3 e 
