They Had The Village At Their Mercy,
Yet Could Have Been Driven Off By Half A Dozen Policemen.
The commandant
could only look on with bitter sorrow.
He had soldiers, it is true,
but it is notorious that the native militia of both Senna and Kilimane
never think of standing to fight, but invariably run away,
and leave their officers to be killed. They are brave only among
the peaceable inhabitants. One of them, sent from Kilimane
with a packet of letters or expresses, arrived while I was at Senna.
He had been charged to deliver them with all speed, but Senhor Isidore
had in the mean time gone to Kilimane, remained there a fortnight,
and reached Senna again before the courier came. He could not punish him.
We gave him a passage in our boat, but he left us in the way
to visit his wife, and, "on urgent private business," probably gave up
the service altogether, as he did not come to Kilimane all the time
I was there. It is impossible to describe the miserable state of decay
into which the Portuguese possessions here have sunk.
The revenues are not equal to the expenses, and every officer I met
told the same tale, that he had not received one farthing of pay
for the last four years. They are all forced to engage in trade
for the support of their families. Senhor Miranda had been actually engaged
against the enemy during these four years, and had been highly lauded
in the commandant's dispatches to the home government, but when he applied
to the Governor of Kilimane for part of his four years' pay, he offered him
twenty dollars only.
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