sive bodies of their brethren, the
missionaries spread over the neighbouring countries of Lundi, Pango,
Concobella and Maopongo, many tracts of which were rich and populous,
although the state of society was extremely rude. Everywhere their
career was nearly similar; the people gave them the most cordial
reception, flocked in crowds to witness and to share in the pomp of
their ceremonies; accepted with thankfulness their sacred gifts, and
received by thousands the rite of baptism. They were not, however, on
this account prepared to renounce their ancient habits and
superstitions. The inquisition, that _chef d'ouvre_ of sacerdotal
guilt, was speedily introduced into their domestic arrangements, and,
as was naturally to be supposed, caused a sudden revulsion, on which
account the missionaries thenceforth maintained only a precarious and
even a perilous position. They were much reproached, it appears, for
the rough and violent methods employed to effect their pious
purposes, and although they treat the accusation as most unjust, some
of the proceedings, of which they boast with the greatest
satisfaction, tend not a little to countenance the charge. When, for
example, they could not persuade the people to renounce their
superstitions, they used a large staff, with which they threw down
their idols and beat them to pieces; they even stole secretly into
the temples, and set them on fire. A missionary at Maopongo, having
met one of the queens, and finding her mind inaccessible to all his
instructions, determined to use sharper remedies, and seizing a
whip, began to apply it lustily to her majesty's person: the effect
he describes as most auspicious; every successful blow opened her
eyes more and more to the truth, and she at last declared herself
wholly unable to resist such forcible arguments in favour of the
catholic doctrine. She, however, hastened to the king, with loud
complaints respecting this mode of mental illumination; and the
missionaries thenceforth lost all favour with that prince and the
ladies of his court, being allowed to remain solely in dread of the
Portuguese. In only one other instance were they allowed to employ
this mode of conversion. The smith, in consequence of the skill,
strange in the eyes of a rude people, with which he manufactured
various arms and implements, was supposed to possess a measure of
superhuman power, and he had thus been encouraged to advance
pretensions to the character of a divinit