SDL_ttf 1.2.2 and SDL 1.1.5

Hello,

Another day, another problem. Tried to run
showfont (a demo for SDL_ttf), modified
slightly to use alpha-blended rendering. It
didn’t work too well: my text was pale
brown-ish on black. After I tweaked SDL_ttf.c
a bit (specifically, the piece where it sets
the appropriate palette array depending on the
version of SDL) by forcing it to use pre-SDL-1.1.5
palette, I got black text on that weird pale
yellow brown background. Closer to the truth, but
still not what I expected.

I was using SDL_ttf 1.2.2, SDL 1.1.5 and
Freetype 1.3.1. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?
Maybe I used an incorrect version of something?

Royally confused,
M.C.