On the morrow, as you take your leave, you
notice for the first time in the morning light that
your host’s house contains but three rooms, and is
surrounded by a slightly raised verandah, and that
the corrugated-iron roof is covered with thatch for
coolness, and also to deaden the thunder of the
summer rain-storms. As he accompanies you
courteously to the confines of his domain, reiterat-
ing perfectly sincere regrets that your stay with
him has been such a short one, you look back as
you leave him, and sympathy for a life so cut off
from its kind almost stifles the last vestige of repro-
bation of any lax principles which may by accident
have forced themselves upon your notice.
There is probably no more hospitable nation in
the world than the Portuguese ; and not only do
they practise this virtue themselves, but, in most
parts of the country, they impose it as a law upon
the natives also.
It would be well both for our natives and our
own reputation were we in some of our own
colonies to adopt the same excellent practice.
