Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/47

 On the following day, the Governor very obligingly made me an offer of rooms, either on the Island, or at Mesuril, which latter I accepted, and on the evening of the 5th I went over and took up my abode there. The dawn of day, which is in all countries exhilarating, was here perculiarly delightful; the refreshing coolness of the air, the still calmness of the water, and the unclouded serenity of the sky, opposed to the oppressive heat, heavy atmosphere, and hot winds that often prevail after midday in this climate, produce from contrast a sensation of pleasure not easily to be conceived by those who have never visited a tropical country.

During the time that I stayed at Mesuril, I amused myself by making excursions into different parts of the peninsula, and in gaining information respecting the native tribes, and I generally found those I conversed with, who were chiefly native soldiers, not only willing, but anxious to gratify my curiosity. They are so unaccustomed to be treated with common attention by Europeans, that the poor fellows were grateful for the slightest civility I shewed them, and I often observed their eyes glisten with satisfaction, at any little inquiry I made respecting their mode of living, or their families: I must however remark, in this instance, to the honour of the Portuguese, that the situation of this class of men is generally comfortable; their pay, though not large, is amply sufficient for all their wants, and the duty which they have to perform is never laborious. The greater part of them were by birth Makooa, who had been made slaves in early youth.

The Makooa, or Makooana, as they are often called, comprise a people consisting of a number of very powerful tribes, lying behind Mosambique, which extend northward as far as Melinda, and southward to the mouth of the river Zambezi, while hordes of the same nation are to be found in a south-west direction, perhaps almost to the neighbourhood of the Kaffers, bordering on the Cape of Good Hope. A late traveller in that settlement, mentions them as a tribe of Kaffers, and says the name is derived from the Arabic language, signifying "workers in iron." In this he is surely mistaken, as the