to make new 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 from Cork, and beer
from England, were displayed, and no expense spared in rendering the
entertainment 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 traveler could judge, they seemed to be polite
and willing to aid each other. They live 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 all a good idea of what ought to be done in the common
diseases of the country, and what they have of either medicine or skill
they freely impart to each other.

None of these gentlemen had Portuguese wives. They usually come to
Africa in order to make a little 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 color, entertained only by
those who are themselves becoming tawny, to view the liberality with
which people of color 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 colored 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 among thousands of blacks; but nowhere else in
Africa is there so much good