compelled him to
submit to such conditions as she saw fit to impose. The same year, she
abolished the cruel custom of immolating human victims on the tombs of
princes; and founded a new city, ornamented with a beautiful church and
palace.

She soon after sent an embassage to the Pope, requesting more
missionaries among her people. The Pontiff's answer was publicly read in
the church, where Zhinga appeared with a numerous and brilliant train.
At a festival in honor of this occasion she and the ladies of her court
performed a mimic battle, in the dress and armor of Amazons. Though more
than eighty years old, this remarkable woman displayed as much strength,
agility, and skill, as she could have done at twenty-five. She died in
1663, aged eighty-two. Arrayed in royal robes, ornamented with precious
stones, with a bow and arrow in her hand, the body was shown to her
sorrowing subjects. It was then, according to her wish, clothed in the
Capuchin habit, with crucifix and rosary.[AH]

[Footnote AH: See Biographie Universelle.]

The commandant of a Portuguese fort, who expected the arrival of
an African envoy, ordered splendid preparations, that he might be
dazzled with the idea of European wealth. When the negro entered the
richly-ornamented saloon, he was not invited to sit down. Like Zhinga,
he made a signal to an attendant, who knelt upon the floor, and thus
furnished him a seat. The commandant asked, "Is thy king as powerful
as the King of Portugal?" The colored envoy replied: "My king has a
hundred servants like the king of Portugal; a thousand like thee; and
but one like myself." As he said this, he indignantly left the room.

Michaud, the elder, says that in different places on the Persian Gulf,
he has seen negroes as heads of great commercial houses, receiving
orders and expediting vessels to various parts of India. Their
intelligence in business is well known on the Levant.

The Czar Peter of Russia, during his travels became acquainted with
Annibal, an African negro, who was intelligent and well educated. Peter
the Great, true to his generous system of rewarding merit wherever he
found it, made Annibal Lieutenant-General and Director of the Russian
Artillery. He was decorated with the riband of the order of St.
Alexander Nenski. His son, a mulatto, was Lieutenant-General of
Artillery, and said to be a man of talent. St. Pierre and La Harpe
were acquainted with him.

_Job Ben Solomon_, was the son of the Moham