Chap. XIX. 
NO PEEJUDICE AGAINST COLOUE. 
371 
dresses, was occasionally refused, but the rebuff did not much 
affect the petitioner. 
At ten A.M. we went to the residence of the Commandant, and on 
a signal being given, two of the four brass guns belonging to the 
Government, commenced firing, and continued some time, to the 
great admiration of my men, whose ideas of the power of a cannon 
are very exalted. The Portuguese flag was hoisted and trumpets 
sounded, as an expression of joy at the resurrection of our Lord. 
Captain Neves invited all the principal inhabitants of the place, 
and did what he could to feast them in a princely style. All 
manner of foreign preserved fruits and wine from Portugal, 
biscuits from America, butter fi’om Cork, and beer from England, 
were displayed, and no expense spared in rendering the enter¬ 
tainment joyous. After the feast was over they sat down to the 
common amusement of card-playing, which continued till eleven 
o’clock at night. As far as a mere traveller could judge, they 
seemed to be pohte and willing to aid each other. They hve in a 
febrile district, and many of them had enlarged spleens. They 
have neither doctor, apothecary, school, nor priest, and, when 
taken ill, trust to each other and to Providence. As men left in 
such circumstances must think for themselves, they have aU a 
good idea of what ought to be done in the common diseases of 
the country, and what they have of either medicine or skfil, they 
freely impart to each other. 
None of these gentlemen had Portuguese wives. They usually 
come to Africa, in order to make a httle money, and return to 
Lisbon. Hence they seldom bring their wives with them, and 
never can be successful colonists in consequence. It is common 
for them to have families by native women. It was particularly 
gratifying to me, who had been familiar with the stupid prejudice 
against colour, entertained only by those who are themselves 
becoming tawny, to view the hberahty with which people of 
colour were treated by the Portuguese. Instances, so common in 
the south, in which half-caste children are abandoned, are here 
extremely rare. They are acknowledged at table, and provided 
for by their fathers, as if European. The coloured clerks of the 
merchants sit at the same table with their employers, without any 
embarrassment. The civil manners of superiors to inferiors is 
probably the result of the position they occupy ^—a few whites 
2 B 2 
