On the 15th there was a procession and service of the mass in the Cathedral; and, wishing to show my men a place of worship, I took them to the church, which now serves as the chief one of the see of Angola and Congo.  There is an impression on some minds that a gorgeous ritual is better calculated to inspire devotional feelings than the simple forms of the Protestant worship.  But here the frequent genuflexions, changing of positions, burning of incense, with the priests’ back turned to the people, the laughing, talking, and manifest irreverence of the singers, with firing of guns, etc., did not convey to the minds of my men the idea of adoration.  I overheard them, in talking to each other, remark that “they had seen the white men charming their demons;” a phrase identical with one they had used when seeing the Balonda beating drums before their idols.

In the beginning of August I suffered a severe relapse, which reduced me to a mere skeleton.  I was then unable to attend to my men for a considerable time; but when in convalescence from this last attack, I was thankful to find that I was free from that lassitude which, in my first recovery, showed the continuance of the malaria in the system.  I found that my men, without prompting, had established a brisk trade in fire-wood.  They sallied forth at cock-crowing in the mornings, and by daylight reached the uncultivated parts of the adjacent country, collected a bundle of fire-wood, and returned to the city.  It was then divided into smaller fagots, and sold to the inhabitants; and as they gave larger quantities than the regular wood-carriers, they found no difficulty in selling.  A ship freighted with coal for the cruisers having arrived from England, Mr. Gabriel procured them employment in unloading her at sixpence a day.  They continued at this work for upward of a month, and nothing could exceed their astonishment at the vast amount of cargo one ship contained.  As they themselves always afterward expressed it, they had labored every day from sunrise to sunset for a moon and a half, unloading, as quickly as they could, “stones that burn”, and were tired out, still leaving plenty in her.  With the money so obtained they purchased clothing, beads, and other articles to take back to their own country.  Their ideas of the value of different kinds of goods rather astonished those who had dealt only with natives on the coast.  Hearing it stated with confidence that the Africans preferred the thinnest fabrics, provided they had gaudy colors and a large extent of surface, the idea was so new to my experience in the interior that I dissented, and, in order to show the superior good sense of the Makololo, took them to the shop of Mr. Schut.  When he showed them the amount of general goods which they might procure at Loanda for a single tusk, I requested them, without assigning any reason, to point out the fabrics they prized most.  They all at once selected the strongest pieces of English calico and other cloths, showing that they had regard to strength without reference to color.  I believe that most of the Bechuana nation would have done the same.  But I was assured that the people near the coast, with whom the Portuguese have to deal, have not so much regard to durability.  This probably arises from calico being the chief circulating medium; quantity being then of more importance than quality.