BETWEEN ANGOLA AND THE ZAMBESI. 
455 
dinner-service was, I verily believe, like another sword 
of Damocles, suspended over the head of Pereira de 
Mello, when I appeared before him and obstinately 
determined to remain his guest. And yet he was quite 
wrong. The neatness and cleanliness which presided 
at his board made you quite forget that the glasses 
were cracked and the plates chipped and otherwise 
disfigured by time, and the simple but admirably cooked 
food was so appetising after exposure to the air of 
Africa that—though I have no wish to offend the cook 
at the Hotel Central in Lisbon—I must aver that 1 
have dined better in the Governor’s house at Benguella 
than ever I did oft' his savoury viands; and yet I will 
lay any odds that the negress Conceicao, who performed 
CHirrLO FROM TIIE RIVER CUCHIKI. 
such wonders of cookery, never even heard the name of 
that hero of pots and pans, the celebrated Brillat- 
Savarin. The very first day of my forcible entry on 
his privacy, Pereira de Mello opened to me his heart 
and entered into many details of his inner life. Three 
official notes addressed to the government of the pro¬ 
vince, wherein he begged for authority to make certain 
reforms in his household, had remained, he said, un¬ 
answered. 
How little novelty is there in human affairs ! On 
turning over the leaves of a copy letter-book, existing 
in the archives of the government of Benguella, I 
happened to fall upon certain official notes dated as far 
back as 1790, wherein the then governor made an 
appeal to the king in almost identical terms; averring 
that he had complained in vain to the governor-general 
