Once I took a long solitary walk into the country to see whether I could meet with slaves that had been brought from our district. I saw several Anyasa and Walolo tatoos. After marching till I was tired I sat down at a village to rest. Here I found a lad that could speak Chinyasa. As we talked he stumbled on a characteristic Yao word, and this led to his finding for me two people that had come from the Blantyre district long ago. They were charmed with an opportunity of speaking their mother tongue, which they had not used for many years, but which they said they would never forget. As a group gathered round they took a pride in shewing their Quilimane companions that they could converse with a European in an unknown language. But they were far behind in the history of their country, and were taking for granted the existence of chiefs and headmen that had long been gathered to their fathers. I could not but think of the touching picture that Homer gives of Helen looking from the Trojan wall and trying to see Castor and Pollux, not knowing that the grave “already possessed them in their dear native land”. I could perceive that one especially looked back fondly to olden days, while his breast filled with thoughts of the friends of his youth. ‘Perhaps his mother was yet alive.’ ‘Had his brothers and sisters gone into slavery like himself, or would they still send a thought after him as they lingered about the scenes of bygone days?’ He could not tell. He had formed new ties now, and was quite happy, enjoying under the Portuguese a security that he could not have found beside his own mountains. Still, in spite of the treatment he had received in his native land, there was a poetry about the past that prompted a ‘lingering look behind’. He made an errand to Quilimane in order to accompany me back. His use of his native tongue was considerably ‘generalized’ by some twenty years’ disuse. He would often hesitate for a word and employ general terms where his countrymen would have given the special one. He complained of the sun “killing” the corn: the time was when he would have said “scorching”. We passed a Portuguese churchyard where each tombstone was ornamented with a large cross, but he said he had no idea what was the meaning of the symbol. Many Portuguese think that the natives are worse off since the abolition of slavery. Formerly, masters were at great pains to give their slaves personal comforts and ornaments, which they do not think of giving now, because “the negro might make off with the gift next day”. Wages is but little motive to work in a land where there is no difficulty in getting the necessaries of life. But under the Portuguese the natives may store up property to an extent that would be dangerous in the interior. There the possession of wealth makes a man’s life worth taking.