He Was Obliged,
However, To Pay Heavy Fines To The Banyai And Other Tribes, In The
Country Which Is Coolly Claimed In Europe As Portuguese.
During this
trip of six mouths 200 pieces of cotton cloth of sixteen yards each,
besides beads and brass wire, were paid to the different chiefs, for
leave to pass through their country.
In addition to these
sufficiently weighty exactions, the natives of THIS DOMINION have got
into the habit of imposing fines for alleged milandos, or crimes,
which the traders' men may have unwittingly committed. The
merchants, however, submit rather than run the risk of fighting.
The general monotony of existence at Tette is sometimes relieved by
an occasional death or wedding. When the deceased is a person of
consequence, the quantity of gunpowder his slaves are allowed to
expend is enormous. The expense may, in proportion to their means,
resemble that incurred by foolishly gaudy funerals in England. When
at Tette, we always joined with sympathizing hearts in aiding, by our
presence at the last rites, to soothe the sorrows of the surviving
relatives. We are sure that they would have done the same to us had
we been the mourners. We never had to complain of want of
hospitality. Indeed, the great kindness shown by many of whom we
have often spoken, will never be effaced from our memory till our
dying day. When we speak of their failings it is in sorrow, not in
anger. Their trading in slaves is an enormous mistake.
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