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 from Lisbon, having been suffering for some days from a severe attack of fever, died about three o’clock in the morning of the 20th of April.  The heat of the body having continued unabated till six o’clock, I was called in, and found her bosom quite as warm as I ever did in a living 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 unmistakable 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.  When a person of much popularity is buried, all the surrounding chiefs send deputations to fire 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 any thing all the way to the coast, and sent messages to his friends Senhors Ferrao, Isidore, Asevedo, and Nunes, to treat me as they would himself.  From every one of these gentlemen I am happy to acknowledge that I received most disinterested kindness, and I ought to speak well forever of Portuguese hospitality.  I have noted each little act of civility received, because somehow or other we have come to hold the Portuguese character in rather a low estimation.  This may have arisen partly from the pertinacity with which some of them have pursued the slave-trade, and partly from the contrast which they now offer to their illustrious ancestors—­the foremost navigators of the world.  If my specification of their kindnesses will tend to engender a more respectful feeling to the nation, I shall consider myself well rewarded.  We had three large canoes in the company which had lately come up with goods from Senna.  They are made very large and strong, much larger than any we ever saw in the interior, and might strike with great force against a rock and not be broken.  The men sit at the stern when paddling, and there is usually a little shed made over a part of the canoe to shade the passengers from the sun.  The boat in which I went was furnished with such a covering, so I sat quite comfortably.