He knew that I had not a slave in my house, and that the only means of communication which I had with him was in writing, by way of his palace at Messuril. To get a letter there, I had to fee a negro well, for he ran the risk of being flogged for having any communication with my house; and, on his arrival at Messuril, he was obliged to fee the sergeant of the guard to send the letter to Mozambique. The Governor-general had promised to provide a house for me on the island, and in the city of Mozambique, but he found he could not procure one—at least, so he said. His Excellency had asked me to wait for some servants until the “Charles et Georges” was condemned, and that then he would place under my protection as many of the slaves comprising her cargo as I was willing to take charge of, knowing, as he said, that they could not be in kinder hands, until it was decided what was to be done with them. But here I found that he had otherwise arranged, for, it having been represented to him that if those slaves got into my hands I should be able to learn who their masters were, and also who were the owners of the other slaves on board of that vessel, it was decided that they should be returned to their owners in the city of Mozambique.
On being apprized of this distribution of the slaves, it became more certain that the state of imprisonment in which I was held on the mainland was decided to continue.
Fortunately for me, at this juncture, the crew of the British cutter “Herald,” which had been illegally seized by the Portuguese, when trading with the natives in the Manakusi river, arrived at Mozambique, and the Governor-general, now that I had some more witnesses to testify to the treatment to which I was subjected by the officials and slave-dealers, attended to my requisition for a government boat to communicate with him relative to the cutter “Herald.” The Superintendent of the Dock-yard, a notorious slave-dealer, sent this boat over for me without an awning, in the mid-day sun, although, at all other times, the boat was fitted with an awning. The object which he contemplated by this arrangement was to give me fever by exposure to the sun. He succeeded in this. The government slaves, who rowed the boat, were ordered by this officer not to carry me into the boat, so that I would be compelled to walk through the water up to my knees. The coxswain of the boat was made drunk, so as to be excessively insolent to me.
On this occasion I was accompanied by the late Mr. G. W. Duncan, the captain of the “Herald,” who, from having been in the Brazils some five years, spoke Portuguese fluently. I had cautioned him not to speak a word but English on the passage across to the town; and, on my arrival at the palace, I complained to the Governor-general of the conduct of the coxswain of the boat, and of his not allowing the crew to carry me through the water into the boat; also, of his insolence on the passage across. The Governor-general apologized for the absence of an awning, which he said must have been accidental. He sent for the coxswain of the boat, when he was satisfied of his not being sober. When asked for an explanation of his conduct, he at first denied everything in toto, and, of course, said that I had entirely mistaken his meaning. The Governor-general hoped that I was satisfied, when I informed him that I was by no means satisfied by the explanation given to him by the drunken coxswain of the boat, and requested Mr. Duncan to explain to His Excellency the nature of the language made use of by the Portuguese coxswain.
Hereupon Mr. Duncan pulled out a small pocket-book; and to the consternation of His Excellency, the coxswain, and the negroes, read out of it some of the oaths made use of by the coxswain on the passage across; and, commencing with our arrival on the beach, he, in the purest Portuguese, described everything that had occurred until our arrival at the palace, particularly dwelling upon the curses heaped upon the British consul and the English nation by this Portuguese felon.
The Portuguese coxswain, finding the tables completely turned upon him, informed the Governor-general that in all he had done he was only obeying the orders of his superior, who took the awning out of the boat with his own hands, and directed him not to allow the crew to carry me into the boat.
The slaves, interrogated by the Governor-general, confirmed the statement of the coxswain, while they stated that every word uttered by Mr. Duncan in recounting the passage across was perfectly true. The Governor-general made a most abject apology, and begged that I would make great allowances for him when I saw him surrounded by such people.
Mr. Duncan and I now proceeded through the city, and prevailed upon some of the Banyans to allow their slaves to come and serve in my house. By this means we were enabled to collect a crew for my boat, which had been lying idle, for want of hands, on the beach in front of my house for many weeks.
Mr. Duncan took the boat in hand, and employed her between the house and the city until we laid in a large stock of fire-wood, fowls, ducks, two sheep, a goat, and two cows.