having become deeply imbued with the belief that it was a suicidal act to
do so--replied "they did not wish to die too soon." There is also a
superstition even among the native Portuguese of Tette, that if a man
plants coffee he will never afterwards be happy: they drink it, however,
and seem the happier for it.

The Portuguese of Tette have many slaves, with all the usual vices of
their class, as theft, lying, and impurity. As a general rule the real
Portuguese are tolerably humane masters and rarely treat a slave cruelly;
this may be due as much to natural kindness of heart as to a fear of
losing the slaves by their running away. When they purchase an adult
slave they buy at the same time, if possible, all his relations along
with him. They thus contrive to secure him to his new home by domestic
ties. Running away then would be to forsake all who hold a place in his
heart, for the mere chance of acquiring a freedom, which would probably
be forfeited on his entrance into the first native village, for the chief
might, without compunction, again sell him into slavery.

A rather singular case of voluntary slavery came to our knowledge: a free
black, an intelligent active young fellow, called Chibanti, who had been
our pilot on the river, told us that he had sold himself into slavery. On
asking why he had done this, he replied that he was all alone in the
world, had neither father nor mother, nor any one else to give him water
when sick, or food when hungry; so he sold himself to Major Sicard, a
notoriously kind master, whose slaves had little to do, and plenty to
eat. "And how much did you get for yourself?" we asked. "Three thirty-
yard pieces of cotton cloth," he replied; "and I forthwith bought a man,
a woman, and child, who cost me two of the pieces, and I had one piece
left." This, at all events, showed a cool and calculating spirit; he
afterwards bought more slaves, and in two years owned a sufficient number