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-will
between Europeans and natives as here.
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