652 
DEATH AND FUNEKAL OF A LADY. Chap. XXXI. 
convey me down the river. Many more wonld have come, hut 
we were informed that there had been a failure of the crops at 
Kilimane from the rains not coming at the proper time, and 
thousands had died of hunger. I did not hear of a single effort 
having been made to relieve the famishing by sending them food 
down the river. Those who perished were mostly slaves, and 
others seemed to think that their masters ought to pay for their 
relief. The sufferers were chiefly among those natives who 
inhabit the delta, and who are subject to the Portuguese. They 
are in a state of slavery, but are kept on farms and mildly 
treated. Many yield a certain rental of grain only to their 
owners, and are otherwise free. Eight thousand are said to have 
perished. Major Sicard lent me a boat which had been built on 
the river, and sent also Lieutenant Miranda to conduct me to the 
coast. 
A Portuguese lady who had come with her brother firom 
Lisbon, having been suffering for some days fl’om a severe attack 
of fever, died about 3 o’clock in the morning of the 20th of 
April. The heat of the body having continued unabated till 
6 o’clock, I was called in, and found her bosom quite as warm 
as I ever did in a liviug case of fever. This continued for 
three hours more. As I had never seen a case in which fever- 
heat continued so long after death, I delayed the funeral until 
unmistakeable symptoms of dissolution occurred. She was a 
widow, only twenty-two years of age, and had been ten years in 
Africa. I attended the funeral in the evening, and was struck by 
the custom of the country. A number of slaves preceded us, and 
fired off many rounds of gunpowder in front of the body. Wlien 
a person of much popularity is buried, aU the surrounding cliiefs 
send deputations to five over the grave. On one occasion at 
Tete, more than thirty barrels of gunpowder were expended. 
Early in the morning of the 21st the slaves of the deceased 
lady’s brother went round the village making a lamentation, and 
drums were beaten all day, as they are at such times among the 
heathen. 
The Commandant provided for the journey most abundantly, 
and gave orders to Lieutenant Miranda that I should not be 
allowed to pay for anything all the way to the coast, and sent 
messages to his fr’iends Senhors Eerrao, Isidore, Ase^vedo, and 
