Chapter III.

The Festival--a Trip to Calumbo--portuguese Hospitality.



My first step after reaching S. Paolo de Loanda was to call upon
Mr. Commissioner Vredenburg, who had lately taken up the
undesirable appointment, and who, moreover, had brought a pretty
French wife from Para. I had warned him that he was risking her
life and that of her child; he bravely made the attempt and
nearly lost them both. I have reason to be grateful to him and to
Mr. Vice-consul E. H. Hewett for hospitality during my stay at
the Angolan capital. There is a place called an hotel, but it is
in the Seven Dials of the African city, and--nothing more need be
said.

Fortunately for me, as for herself, Loanda had got rid of Mr.
Vredenburg's predecessor, who soon followed the lamented Richard
Brand, first British Consul, appointed in 1844. The "real whole-
hearted Englishman" was after that modern type, of which La
Grundy so highly approves. An honest man, who does not hold to
the British idea that "getting on in the world" is Nature's first
law, would be sorely puzzled by such a career.

The day after my arrival was the festival which gives to Sao