Colonel Pires is a good example of what an honest industrious man in this country may become.

He came as a servant in a ship, and, by a long course of persevering labor, has raised himself to be the richest merchant in Angola.

He possesses some thousands of cattle; and, on any emergency, can appear in the field with several hundred armed slaves.
While enjoying the hospitality of this merchant-prince in his commodious residence, which is outside the rocks, and commands a beautiful view of all the adjacent country, I learned that all my dispatches, maps, and journal had gone to the bottom of the sea in the mail-packet "Forerunner".

I felt so glad that my friend Lieutenant Bedingfeld, to whose care I had committed them, though in the most imminent danger, had not shared a similar fate, that I was at once reconciled to the labor of rewriting.

I availed myself of the kindness of Colonel Pires, and remained till the end of the year reproducing my lost papers.
Colonel Pires having another establishment on the banks of the Coanza, about six miles distant, I visited it with him about once a week for the purpose of recreation.