THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM 1505 TO 1700.

CHAPTER Xi.

OCCUPATION OF SOFALA AND MOZAMBIQUE.

From the date of Vasco da Gama's return from his first voyage to India rumours concerning the gold of Sofala had fascinated the minds of all classes of men in Portugal. Those rumours greatly exaggerated the quantity of the precious metal actually obtainable, and all the difficulties of acquiring it were lost sight of. It was believed that nothing needed to be done except to replace the Mohamedans with Christian traders, when enormous wealth would flow into the national treasury. Different efforts, as has been related, were made from time to time not only to acquire accurate information, but also to get possession of the gold trade; and Sancho de Toar and Da Gama himself on their visits to Sofala had obtained much knowledge, though before 1505 all attempts to secure the commerce of that place had failed.

Dom Francisco d'Almeida was to have erected a fortress there, but Pedro d'Anaya, who bad been selected as its captain by the king, lost the ship in which he was to have sailed by her sinking in the Tagus, and was thus unable to accompany the fleet. After its departure the original design was enlarged, and it was determined to make ready a squadron of six ships with which he should proceed to Sofala. When the fortress was completed three of these were to be sent on to India, and the other three, under Francisco d'Anaya as commodore, were to be kept to guard the African coast. On board these ships everything was laden that could be needed for the equipment of the fortress, as well as a stock of merchandise for the purpose of barter, and on the 18th of May 1505 they sailed from the Tagus. Pedro d'Anaya was in command of the Santo Espirito, the largest in the squadron. The other captains were his son Francisco d'Anaya, Pedro Barreto de Magalhaes, Joao Leite, Joao de Queiroz, and Manuel Fernandes, the last of whom was appointed factor at Sofala.

On the passage, when off Sierra Leone, Joao Leite, while endeavouring to harpoon a fish, fell overboard and was drowned. The crew then elected Jorge Mendes to be their captain. In heavy weather some of the ships got separated from the commodore, who ran so far south to make sure of passing the Cape of Good Hope with a westerly wind that the men could not work the sails on account of the cold, but he was soon in warm latitudes again, and early in September arrived off the bar of Sofala with the ships com- manded by his son and Manuel Fernandes. There he anchored, and awaited the appearance of the remainder of his squadron before entering the river.

The next to arrive were the Santo Antonio, under command of Jorge Mendes, and the Sao Paulo, of which Joao de Queiroz was captain when she left Portugal. They brought word that De Queiroz, after parting from the others in a storm, put into a curve on the South African coast then named Bahia das Vacas, now Flesh Bay, and being in want of meat, proceeded three or four kilometres inland with twenty of his people in search of cattle. Antonio do Campo, when returning from India, had touched at the same place, and though treated in a friendly manner by the inhabitants, had seized several of them and carried them away, so that De Queiroz found them hostile. They attacked him, and in a skirmish he and fifteen of his party, including the sailing master and the pilot of his ship, were killed. Only the secretary, Antao de Ga, who was badly wounded, and four others escaped. There was no one left who could navigate the ship, but fortunately she fell in with the Santo Antonio, and Jorge Mendes sent on board his sailing master and as captain a gentleman named Joao Vaz d'Almada, who conducted her to Sofala.

The last to arrive was the ship commanded by Pedro Barreto de Magalhaes. She anchored near Cape Saint Sebastian, and as her pilot was unacquainted with the shoal of Sofala and would not venture upon it, Antonio de Magalhaes, brother of the captain, was sent in a boat to seek assistance from any vessel that might have reached her destination. On the way he put into a river, where he found five half famished Portuguese, who had a doleful story to tell.

They had belonged to the ship of Lopo Sanches, which had sailed from the Tagus with Dom Francisco dAlmeida. South of Cape Correntes stormy weather was encountered, and the ship became so leaky that she could not be kept afloat, so she was run ashore to save the lives of her people An abundance of provisions was saved, and also ample material to build a caravel, but discord arose, and the authority of Lopo Sanches was completely disregarded. After a time sixty men set out to travel overland to Sofala, where they hoped to find a Portuguese fort in course of erection, and the others remained at the wreck constructing a caravel. Of these last nothing was ever heard again. Those marching overland suffered so terribly from hunger that they became scattered, and most of them perished The five found by Antonio de Magalhaes had been living for twenty days upon raw crabs alone. They were taken into the boat, and conveyed to the flag ship anchored outside the bar of Sofala.

Pedro d'Anaya at once sent the vessel under Joao Vaz d'Almada with the pilot of the Sao Joao, Francisco d'Anaya's ship, to the assistance of Pedro Barreto de Magalhaes, with whose arrival some days later the squadron was complete. He then made arrangements for entering the river. The two largest ships were left outside, and with the four smallest he crossed the bar and cast anchor in front of the lower Mohamedan village. The real condition of things there at the time seems to have been unknown to him. In point of fact, the true owner of the land was a Bantu chief, and the Mohamedans were living at the port on sufferance and payment of tribute in the form of yearly presents, but he regarded Isuf as the sovereign proprietor whose consent alone was necessary to enable him to build a fort without the use of arms.

As soon as he had dropped anchor some of the principal inhabitants went on board, and desired to know the object of his visit, to which he replied that he wished to have a conference with the sheik. To this they at first raised many objections, such as the distance to his residence, the great age and infirmity of the sheik, and the impossibility of the ships going farther up the narrow river ; but at last they consented, and went in advance to prepare for the captain's reception. DAnaya followed them with a large number of armed attendants, in boats decorated with flags and with trumpeters sounding their instruments.

Having arrived at the upper village, he landed and pro- ceeded to the sheik's residence, where he was courteously received. In the large hall were gathered the leading men of the place, clothed from the waist downward with calico wrappers, with silken turbans on their heads, and scimitars with ornamented ivory handles at their sides. In a recess hung with cloth of silk at the upper end of the hall, Isuf, a man of large stature, but infirm, blind, and about seventy years of age, reclined on a cushioned couch, or as it would be termed in South Africa a katel, made by stretching thongs of hide across a frame of wood. He was more richly-dressed than the others, and frail as he was, had still a stately and commanding appearance. D'Anaya, leaving his soldiers in the courtyard, which was enclosed with a thick thorny hedge, with the officers entered the hall. The men there, who were seated on low three-legged stools, rose and bowed to salute him, and he passed through to the couch of the sheik.

The people of Sofala had heard of the occurrences at Kilwa and Mombasa, and were divided in opinion as to how they should act. Mengo Musaf, a son-in-law of Isuf, was at the head of a party that wanted to resist the Christians by force, but another party was filled with fear, and the old sheik thought it wiser to rely upon the effects of the climate rather than upon arms. He therefore greeted DAnaya apparently in a most friendly manner, and when the captain spoke to him of the advantages to be gained by the establishment of a Portuguese fort and trading station, and by his coming under the protection of the king of Portugal, taking care to draw his attention to the fact that his villages had often been pillaged by Bantu clans in the neighbourhood, he professed to agree with what was said, and gave his consent to the erection of the proposed buildings. He stated that he was a friend of Europeans, and as a proof twenty Portuguese whom he had rescued from starvation were brought forward by his order and restored to the society of their countrymen. They were the only remaining survivors of the sixty who had left the wrecked ship of Lopo Sanches, and who had gone through almost incredible suffering in their overland journey.

There were feuds between nearly all the Mohamedan settlements on the coast, and not only that, but in each of them there were jealousies among the principal inhabitants, which made them an easy prey to the Portuguese. It was so at Sofala. At this place there was living a man named Acote, an Abyssinian by birth, who had been made a captive when he was only ten years of age, and who had embraced the Mohamedan faith from necessity rather than choice. He had come to occupy a position of influence, and was at the head of a party at variance with Mengo Musaf, Lsuf's son-in-law. As the one advocated armed resistance to the Portuguese, the other acted as their friend, and now Acote offered his services to the Christians. Through him DAnaya engaged a number of Bantu who were at Sofala, and on the 21st of September 1505 set about building a fort on a sand-flat on the northern bank of the river near its mouth. It was in the form of a square, large enough to contain barracks for the garrison, storehouses, a warehouse for goods, and quarters for the officers. No stone was pro- curable near at hand, so a moat, a hundred and twenty paces long on each side, was dug, and the earth taken out was formed into a wall, which was supported by stakes and beams of mangrove wood. The structure was thus of the roughest description, but it was regarded as sufficiently strong for defence until time and favourable circumstances would permit of something better taking its place.

After three months' labour the fort and the buildings within it were completed. The heaviest work, such as carrying wood from the mangrove swamps, was performed by the blacks, though on one occasion they were induced by Mengo Musaf to desert for several days. Acote continued to assist, and the Portuguese, who were spared as much as possible from severe toil, were not as yet stricken with much sickness. In the mean time the vessel commanded by Goncalo Vaz de Goes, which Dom Francisco d'Almeida had sent from Mombasa with a cargo of calico, part of the spoil of that town, arrived in the river. Her lading together with the stores and merchandise brought from Portugal was then taken on shore, and the three largest ships were made ready to proceed to India. Goncalo Alvares, previously chief pilot, was appointed captain of the Santo Espirito, and sailed with Joao Vaz d'Almada and Pedro Barreto de Magalhaes, the latter acting as commodore. They were to report themselves to the viceroy, under whose directions they were to take in cargoes of pepper and return to Lisbon. On crossing the bar of Sofala the commodore's boat was lost with most of the men in her and the chest of money intended for the purchase of the pepper, and in leaving Kilwa, where he put in, he had the further misfortune of losing his ship.

A few days after the departure of this squadron Francisco d'Anaya was sent with the Sao Joao and the Sao Paulo to cruise along the coast, and with him the vessel under Goncalo Vaz de Goes and the remaining one that had come from Portugal went to Mozambique. On his passage north- ward he captured a ship from India laden with calico, and having sixty Mohamedans on board. This ship was subsequently wrecked, when he caused all the prisoners to be put to death, through fear of their rising against him. A zambuco laden with ivory also fell into his hands, and her crew shared the fate of the others. But his ruthless barbarity was soon checked. Both the Sao Joao and the Sao Paulo were lost, one at Mozambique and the other a little farther north, and the commodore, on arriving at Kilwa in the captured zambuco, was put under arrest by Pedro Ferreira Fogaga on a charge of carelessness in the king's service. He was permitted, however, soon afterwards to proceed to India to be tried there.

At Sofala fever, which had not been very prevalent at first, now began to spread to an alarming extent, and at the close of the year the greater number of the men composing the garrison were laid up with it. A more wretched condition than that in which they were, on the border of a mangrove swamp, in a hot and pestilential atmosphere, drinking the impure water of wells, and cut off from all companionship, can hardly be imagined. Their mental and bodily suffering must have been so great that death, which was stalking among them, would be regarded as a relief. Trade was carried on, for the factor Manuel Fernandes seemed to be fever proof, but the quantity of gold obtained in barter was small compared with their earlier expectations or those of the king. They had not even the satisfaction therefore of knowing that their suffering was productive of pecuniary profit to the treasury of their country.

While they were in this state, early in January 1506 Acote informed Pedro d'Anaya that the faction of Mengo Musaf with Isuf's concurrence had come to a determination to wait no longer for fever to do its work, but to drive away the Christians at once ; and as they were afraid to make war themselves, they had persuaded a Bantu clan to assist them in attacking the fort. That they had good cause to oppose the Portuguese, who were striving to wrest the commerce of the country from them, is evident. But perhaps there was another and stronger reason for openly assuming a hostile attitude. In the Legends of India Gaspar Correa states that the treatment of the people of the country by the Christians was the cause of it, and on such a question his evidence is certainly of great weight. He says they were treated worse than slaves, and though the captain Pedro d'Anaya punished some of the offenders when complaints were made to him, the disorderly conduct of the soldiers went on increasing until at length it caused hostilities. By none of the historians, it is true, is there any reference made to immoral or overbearing behaviour by the white men, but they were not given to finding fault in such matters when only Mohamedans or heathens were affected.

There was a Bantu clan in the neighbourhood of Sofala, under a chief named Mokonde, who was induced by the prospect of plunder to ally himself with the Mohamedans. The two parties joined, and advanced against the fort, armed with scimitars, assagais, and bows and arrows. There were at the time only thirty-five Portuguese capable of bearing arms inside, and even most of these were weak with fever; but Acote had come to their assistance with about a hundred men, and they were enclosed within walls on which artillery was mounted. The assailants filled the moat with wood, and then endeavoured to scale the wall, at the same time pouring in a shower of arrows and assagais. Some of these weapons were burning, the object being to set fire to the roofs of the buildings, but Pedro d'Anaya had provided against this by removing the thatch from the houses that were most exposed and laying in a good supply of water. Very little harm was done therefore beyond wounding a few of Acote's people. On the other side the defenders with their artillery and crossbows caused such execution that the enemy, finding their efforts useless to break down or get over the wall, after a time began to withdraw discomfited. Pedro dAnaya with fifteen of the healthiest Portuguese and some of Acote's followers then sallied out and attacked them with swords and lances, putting them completely to flight.

During three days, however, they frequently renewed the attack, though always with the same result. Their camping ground was a palm grove at no great distance, within easy range of the artillery, where some damage was caused to them not only by the balls but by splinters of wood from shattered trees. D Anaya had two powerful dogs, which were of such use in keeping watch by day and night and attacking the enemy in sallies that he attributed his preservation largely to them. In the end the Bantu, upon whom the principal part of the fighting fell, were suddenly seized with a conviction that the Mohamedans had brought them there purposely to ensure their destruction, and under this impression they fled homeward, plundering Isuf's village on their way.

That evening Pedro dAnaya mustered as many men as he could, and in a large boat that he had went up the river. His spies had informed him that Isuf's residence was poorly guarded, as no attack was expected from the fort on account of the sickness there. He proceeded straight to it, and met little resistance as he forced his way in ; but the old sheik, though blind, seized an assagai from a bundle that he always kept beside him, and hurled it in the direction of the advancing footsteps. The captain was slightly wounded by it in the neck, but in another instant Isuf's head was rolling on the ground, severed from his body by the sword of Manuel Fernandes. With it as a trophy the Portuguese returned to the fort, where it was set up on the point of a lance upon the wall to strike awe into those who had been his subjects.

On the morning following this daring raid the slain sheik's sons raised as large a force as they could and attacked the fort again. But their efforts were fruitless, as they could not get over the wall, and the defenders kept up a deadly fire upon them, by which many were killed and wounded. Even the sick assisted with their crossbows, danger acting upon them more powerfully than medicine. Having failed in this attempt, the Mohamedans began to quarrel among themselves as to who should be their ruler, and they actually applied to the Portuguese to settle the question. Both Damiao de Goes and Fernao Lopes de Castanheda state that Pedro d'Anaya made Acote sheik, in return for the services performed by him, and the friar Joao dos Santos confirms this account and relates that in 1586 he found people still living at Sofala who remembered the building of the fort and the events that followed it. But Joao de Barros says that through Acote's influence a son of Isuf named Soleiman was made sheik, and that he lived at peace with the Portuguese and in obedience to them until 1507, when he was deposed by Vasco Gomes d'Abreu, captain of Sofala, who selected one of his brothers to succeed him. This brother and some of the principal Mohamedans of the place, it is added, were subsequently banished, as their presence was considered prejudicial to Portuguese interests, and they all died in exile.

Such conflicting statements make it difficult to arrive at the truth, and there are no original documents relating to the transaction to refer to. Very likely, however, Acote was made sheik of the Emozaidi, as he is stated to have been of that sect, and Soleiman sheik of the other Mohamedans ; and as the nominal authority of the sons of Isuf was lost so soon afterwards, their names were speedily forgotten. However this may be, Portuguese supremacy was so firmly established that the Mohamedans never again ventured to dispute it.

A few days after these occurrences Pedro d'Anaya was stricken with fever, of which he died. It was a custom at a later date for every officer in command of a remote and secluded station to carry with him a sealed letter from the king, in which temporary successors were named in rotation, so that in case of his death or disability some one would be legally in charge until a new appointment could be made. There being no one at Sofala with such authority, the factor Manuel Fernandes, who was the highest in rank of the officials at the fort, assumed the vacant position. He was a man of great energy, and with only the few sick and enfeebled soldiers under his command he managed to build a strong stone tower at one of the corners of the fort. Carved and dressed blocks for doors and windows had been brought from Portugal, so only the plain work had to be done, but the execution of this was regarded as so meritorious under the circumstances that the king granted him as a reward a coat of arms with a tower emblazoned on it surmounted by a sheik's head, in remembrance of his having killed Isuf.

A few months after Pedro d'Anaya left Lisbon a ship and a caravel were fitted out to take supplies to Sofala and also to search along the South African coast for the crew of Pedro de Mendonca's wrecked vessel and for one in which Francisco d'Alboquerque had sailed from India and that had not since been heard of. Cyde Barbudo was in command of the ship, with authority as commodore, and Pedro Quaresma was in command of the caravel. The principal pilot had acted in the same capacity under Lopo d'Abreu, and had seen Pedro de Mendonca's ship in the position where she was supposed to have been lost, consequently he knew what part of the coast should be examined.

These vessels left the Tagus on the 19th of November 1505, and ran down to thirty-seven degrees and a half south latitude, when they turned to the north-east expecting to make the land beyond the Cape of Good Hope, but so far out were they in their calculations that they reached the western coast more than thirteen hundred kilometres north of Table Bay. Even at the beginning of the sixteenth century there were few such instances of error in navigation. Steering again to the south, on the 18th of April 1506 they cast anchor at the watering place of Saldanha, where they remained eight days. Cyde Barbudo now removed to the caravel, taking his pilot with him, in order to examine the coast, and Pedro Quaresma assumed command of the ship. After sailing from Table Bay they counted the pillars, as the expression then was, that is they kept so close to the land during daylight that they could see everything along it, and on the 2nd of May they reached the watering place of Sao Bras, which they recognised by the hermitage built there by Joao da Nova.

As they had passed the coast some distance to the westward by night, Cyde Barbudo now tried to run back along it in the caravel, but was unable to do so owing to a strong head wind. He therefore again dropped anchor in Mossel Bay, and sent a convict and a ship's boy to search along the shore. After travelling three days along the beach they returned, and stated that they had found a man's skeleton and part of a mast, beyond which no information was ever obtained concerning the lost ship of Pedro de Mendonca. Her crew must have perished, like many others in later years, in a land inhabited only by barbarians. It was never known either what was the fate of Francisco d'Alboquerque and those with him, whether tbey went down at sea, or were wrecked on some desolate coast and died there.

On the 16th of May the two vessels left the watering place of Sao Bras, and keeping close to the shore whenever possible, on the 10th of June Cyde Barbudo arrived at Sofala and Pedro Quaresma on the following day. They found the fortress in the last stage of distress. The captain Pedro d'Anaya, as has been already related, had died of fever, as had also the magistrate and seventy-six of the soldiers, and the provisions were nearly exhausted. Cyde Barbudo reinforced the garrison and replenished the stores, and then sailed for India, leaving Pedro Quaresma in the caravel to assist Manuel Fernandes. This vessel was after- wards employed for a time in plying between Sofala, Mozambique, and Kilwa, taking provisions and goods from one place to another as they were needed.

On his passage to India Cyde Barbudo touched at Kilwa, where he found matters in a state of confusion. King Manuel had issued instructions prohibiting barter by private persons with Kaffirs for gold, in order to secure the whole trade for the royal treasury, and Pedro Ferreira Fogaca had fitted out a couple of small vessels to assist in suppressing the traffic that had thus become illegal. Among other prizes made by them was one on board of which was a son of the sheik of a small settlement near Kilwa, and as he was a relation of the former emir Abraham, the Portuguese captain kept him and his family prisoners. Mohamed Ankoni, who wished to gain the goodwill of his neighbours, hereupon ransomed the young sheik at his own expense, made him presents of rich clothing, and sent him and his family to their home. The young man's father was profuse in expressions of gratitude, and invited Mohamed to visit him, suggesting marriages between their children. The king of Kilwa accepted the invitation, and was murdered while he was lying asleep in the zambuco in which he went. The treacherous sheik, by whose order the deed was committed, excused himself by saying that the duty of avenging the emir Abraham, whose blood relative he was, was more binding upon him than gratitude for a favour conferred by such a man as Mohamed Ankoni.

At once there was a dispute as to the succession. A few of the inhabitants of Kilwa and most of the Portuguese officers were in favour of Hadji Husain, son of Mohamed Ankoni ; but Pedro Ferreira Fogaca and the great majority of the Mohamedan people desired that Micante, the legitimate heir of the ancient rulers, should be appointed. The dispute aroused strong feeling on both sides. The cessation of commerce caused by King Manuel's order and the capture of their vessels under any pretence by the Portuguese threatened ruin to the mercantile class, so that from one cause or the other large numbers of people were leaving the town with the intention of settling somewhere else, and it appeared as if Kilwa would soon be uninhabited. This was the condition of things when Cyde Barbudo put into the harbour, and which he reported to the viceroy as soon as he arrived in India.

Dom Francisco d'Almeida immediately appointed a new staff of officials for Sofala. He selected Nuno Vaz Pereira, a man of generally recognised ability, to be captain, and gave him in addition large powers as commissioner to settle affairs at Kilwa. Ruy de Brito Patalim accompanied him as chief alcaide of the fortress, and Antonio Baposo and Sancho Sanches as notaries. A number of gentlemen without office, who were attached by friendship to the new captain, also went with him. Among these were Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos, Antonio de Sousa, and Fernao Magalhaes who afterwards entered the service of Castile and discovered the strait which still bears his name. Francisco d'Anaya at the same time returned to Sofala to look after the property left by his father. In order that Pereira might appear in a manner befitting his dignity, the viceroy sent two ships under his flag, the one in which he sailed himself and another commanded by his nephew.

At the end of November 1506 he reached Melinde, where the Portuguese were always well received. The dependent position of the ruler of that town is shown, however, by his receiving as a favour on this occasion permission to send under twenty kilogrammes weight of Indian beads to Sofala to be exchanged for gold. At Melinde Nuno Vaz Pereira learned all particulars of the condition of things at Kilwa. He saw at once that King Manuel's order regarding trade was causing the depopulation of the two places on the coast — Sofala and Kilwa — where it could be enforced, owing to the presence of Portuguese garrisons ; and that elsewhere it was having little effect beyond exasperating the Mohamedans. In their light zambucos the people of all the other settlements could run close along the shore, and enter the rivers, particularly the Zambesi, where they could carry on commerce without fear of capture. It appeared to him that if the ocean was so guarded that supplies of goods could not be obtained by sea from India, the traffic would be diverted into a route mainly overland : it could not be destroyed by any force which Portugal could furnish. On the other hand, by permitting private trade the people of Kilwa would remain there, and the king's treasury would be benefited, for they would purchase goods wholesale at the Portuguese factory and pay for them in gold, ivory, and other produce of the country. Nuno Vaz Pereira therefore took upon himself the responsibility of suspending the king's order as far as Kilwa was concerned, and announced that its people might carry on trade again in exactly the same manner as in the time of the emir Abraham until further instructions should be received from Lisbon.

This course of action had the desired effect. In the middle of December the commissioner arrived at Kilwa, and with him were more than twenty zambucos filled with emigrants returning to their homes. He caused Micante and Hadji Husain to appear before him and state their cases, and with them he summoned all the principal men of the town to express their opinions and wishes. The general voice was in favour of Micante, but to make it plain that the Portuguese had the right of appointing any one they chose, as Hadji Husain produced the patent granted by Dom Francisco d'Almeida to his father, decision was given in his favour, and he was proclaimed king of Kilwa. The inhabitants, who were elated with the privilege of being able to carry on trade again, submitted without open remonstrance, though they were by no means satisfied.

Nuno Vaz Pereira, after thus arranging matters at Kilwa, appointed his friend Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos to a vacant office in the fortress, and then sailed for Sofala, where he took over the captaincy from Manuel Fernandes. This officer, feeling aggrieved that after his display of so much zeal and energy he had not received the fixed appointment to the first position in the place, declined to resume the duty of factor, and proceeded to India when the ships that brought Pereira returned.

In the meantime intelligence of the death of Pedro d'Anaya had reached Lisbon, and the king, not knowing that the viceroy had sent a successor, appointed Vasco Gomes d'Abreu captain of Sofala. Ever since the first voyage of Vasco da Gama the island of Mozambique had been used as a place of refreshment by the Indian fleets both in going and returning, but as yet no establishment of any kind had been formed there. Sofala was not adapted for a port of call, being dangerous to approach with large vessels, and not having sufficient depth of water on the bar to enable them to enter the inner harbour. It was considered advisable therefore to form such an establishment at Mozambique that the fleets should always be able to obtain whatever they needed, that if they were obliged to wait on the coast for a change of monsoon they might have a good and easily accessible port to lie at anchor in, and that a properly furnished hospital might be ready for the reception of scurvy stricken soldiers and sailors arriving from Europe. For these purposes Vasco Gomes d'Abreu was instructed by the king to erect the necessary buildings, and a competent staff was provided to perform the duties. It was not intended that Mozambique should be a separate government, but a dependency of Sofala, one captain having command of both places. He was to reside at the island, whenever possible, during the months in which the Indian fleets usually arrived there, and during the remainder of the year at Sofala, leaving a subordinate officer at each place to carry out his orders during his absence. Duarte de Mello was appointed factor of the new establishment, and Ruy Varella notary.

Vasco Gomes d'Abreu sailed from the Tagus on the 20th of April 1507 as commodore of seven ships. The one in which he sailed and four others, commanded respectively by Lopo Cabreira, Pedro LourenÇo, Ruy GonÇalves de Valadares, and Joao Chanoca, were to remain as a fleet of war to guard the African coast south of Melinde and suppress the ocean traffic of the Mohamedans, and the other two, under Martim Coelho and Diogo de Mello, were to join the naval force commanded by Affonso d'Alboquerque on the coast of Arabia. At Cape Verde Joao Chanoca's ship ran on shore at night and was lost, but the people on board got safely to land, and after being plundered by the negroes, were rescued by the commodore.

The new captain arrived at Sofala on the 8th of September 1507, and the government was immediately transferred to him by Nuno Vaz Pereira, who embarked in the ship under Ruy Goncalves de Valadares, that was to be sent on to Mozambique. On the 19th she and the vessels under Martim Coelho and Diogo de Mello sailed, and soon afterwards fell in with a ship under command of Jorge de Mello Pereira that had left Portugal for India before them. The greater number of her crew were helpless with scurvy, so they kept her in company and gave her as much assist- ance as they could. On the 24th of October they all reached Mozambique, where they found they could go no farther until the change of the monsoon, and there they were joined in a few days by three other ships on the way to India, commanded by Fernao Soares, Filippe de Castro, and Henrique Nunes de Liao. Duarte de Mello and the other officers appointed by the king to the Mozambique establish- ment had been sent on with Ruy Goncalves de Valadares to prepare stone for the buildings to be erected, and Vasco Gomes d'Abreu sent with them the plans that had been prepared in Portugal and letters to the commanders of any ships that might be there, requesting them to assist in the work, as it was for the service of the king, and he would be unable for some time to leave Sofala to direct it in person.

One and all, the captains of the various ships at anchor in the harbour entered with enthusiasm into the matter. The stone was soon quarried, lime was prepared, and then, as Vasco Gomes d'Abreu did not make his appearance, they set about building. They had plans of all that was to be done, and the parts of the structures that required skilled workman- ship or foreign materials had been brought from Portugal, so that rapid progress could be made. They first erected a large and comfortable hospital with its necessary appurtenances, which would have been of the greatest advantage if the climate of the island had not been so unhealthy that serious illness was almost invariably followed by speedy death. Men afflicted with scurvy, however, arriving there during the least insalubrious months, might hope to escape the deadly fever and dysentery, and to recover from that complaint. And scurvy, it must be remembered, was in those days of long voyages and no other diet than salted provisions the disease most dreaded by Europeans frequenting the eastern seas.

A church, dedicated to Saint Gabriel, was the building next taken in hand. It is said by the early historians to have been large and well finished and ornamented, but it is probable that most of the ornamentation was done at a later date, and that little more than the walls and roof was completed at this time. A large space around it was enclosed for a cemetery, and here the graves were soon more numerous than in any other churchyard of the Portuguese out of Europe, so great was the mortality among the sick landed from the outward bound Indian fleets, notwithstanding the care and attention bestowed upon them in the hospital.

Lastly a fort, with magazines and quarters for the officials and the garrison, was commenced. The fort was on the site of the present residence of the governor, and was nothing more than a square two-storied building, though it answered the purpose for which it was intended for more than half a century. The warehouses were large, as the king had resolved to make Mozambique a depot from which goods should be distributed to all parts of the African coast, and to which the gold, ivory, ambergris, wax, gum, and other products of the continent should be sent to be forwarded to India or Europe. Here also were to be stored everything needed for the repair of damaged ships and supplies of provisions for such as should he in want of them. These buildings were commenced in 1507 by the men of the ships detained in the harbour by the unfavourable monsoon, and were completed after their departure by those stationed on the island, with such assistance as could be obtained from fleets that called.

Thus the island of Mozambique, which today is the principal seat of government of the Portuguese on the eastern coast of Africa, was taken in possession without any opposition on the part of its Mohamedan occupants. Vasco Gomes d'Abreu, to whom the task of forming the establishment there was en- trusted, never saw the work that had been done. After strengthening the garrison of Sofala and landing supplies of provisions, he erected a new hall and improved the buildings in the fort, and while this was being done a caravel of forty tons burden was put together, the timber for which had been brought from Portugal ready prepared. Then having generally arranged matters at that place, he left the chief alcaide Ruy de Brito Patalim in command during his absence, and set sail with the three ships of his squadron and the caravel. Whether he intended to proceed to Mozambique or to cruise along the coast was not known, and some persons even suspected that he designed to explore the island of Madagascar, where it was rumoured that valuable spices were to be found. Some time after he set out the fringe of one of those terrible cyclones that occasionally cause widespread destruction in the islands of the Indian sea passed over Sofala, and it was supposed that he perished in it. Nothing but a broken mainmast, which drifted on shore at Kilwa, was ever seen of any of the three ships or the caravel again.

Ruy de Brito Patalim remained in command until September 1509, when Antonio de Saldanha, whom the king appointed captain of Sofala and Mozambique when the death of Vasco Gomes dAbreu was no longer doubtful, arrived at the gold port and took over the government. At the same time Duarte Teixeira assumed duty there as factor. It had been ascertained by experience that goods of European manufacture were not in demand by the Bantu, so that henceforward only Indian wares — chiefly calico and beads — were sent to Sofala to be bartered for gold and ivory. The calico was of a coarse but strong kind, and was usually sold in squares, though sometimes in pieces about three metres and a half in length and one in width, to be used as loin cloths. The beads were of various sorts, as the fashion in colour and size was constantly changing. These articles and some others in smaller quantities were brought from India to Mozambique in Portuguese ships, and were there stored in the king's warehouses until requisitions were sent from Sofala, Kilwa, and other trading stations, to which they were forwarded in the caravels employed on the coast.

Kilwa did not long remain a garrison town. Hadji Husain, who had been made its king by Nuno Vaz Pereira, turned his whole thought to avenging the death of his father, and by means of large gifts obtained the assistance of a powerful Bantu tribe under a chief with the high-sounding name of Munhamonge, that is Lord of all. This chief with a strong army marched by land, while Hadji Husain with as many Mohamedans as he could muster by devotion, pay, or force proceeded by sea, and together they attacked the settlement of the treacherous sheik and completely destroyed it. Munhamonge and his followers were rewarded with most of the captives and the spoil, and Hadji Husain was satisfied with revenge, though the sheik himself escaped.

Everywhere on the coast the Mohamedans were indignant that a man who had gained the distinction of being a hadji by making a pilgrimage to Mecca should have called in the aid of Kaffirs against people of his own faith, and should have left disciples of the koran as slaves in the hands of infidels. This indignation was increased by the haughty attitude assumed by Husain, who, relying upon Portuguese protection, wrote to the different sheiks in the country in a tone of superiority, and by the heavy taxation which he imposed upon his subjects to make good the personal losses he had sustained by his gifts to Munhamonge. To all Mohamedans, subjects and strangers alike, he became an object of detestation. The friendly ruler of Melinde and the vassal ruler of Zanzibar, who was believed to be thoroughly loyal to King Manuel, wrote to the viceroy that if he wished for peace in the land he should deprive Husain of power, and Dom Francisco d'Almeida, to put an end to the disturbance, in- structed Pedro Ferreira Fogaga to depose the king of Kilwa and substitute another. This was accordingly carried into effect. Hadji Husain, who feared assassination if he re- mained in his native town, merely begged to be sent to Mombasa, and there shortly afterwards he ended his days in extreme poverty and distress.

The vacant situation was first offered to the fugitive emir Abraham, whose acceptance of it would have satisfied every one ; but he distrusted the Portuguese so much that he declined the overture. It was then given to Micante, the former rival of Hadji Husain. This man's habits were those of a licentious drunkard, and he soon became as much despised by the Portuguese as hated by his subjects on account of his cruelty and his lawless amours. The consequence was that numbers of the people of Kilwa abandoned the place and joined Abraham, who was living at some distance on the mainland.

The three years term of office of Pedro Ferreira FogaÇa having expired, he was succeeded by Francisco Pereira Pestana as captain of Kilwa. This officer found affairs in great disorder, and depression ruling among the people owing to the trading regulations that were again being enforced by order of King Manuel. Foreign commerce by sea was entirely cut off, and intercourse with the Bantu was restricted as much as possible, because the king and his advisers feared that Mohamedan influence might prevent the reception of Christianity by these people. Nuno Vaz Pereira's opinion that the treasury would not suffer by allowing the inhabitants of Kilwa to barter gold as in olden times might be correct, but the pious king had the propagation of the Christian faith also at heart, and could not permit it to be endangered. And so the largest, best built, and most famous town on the East African coast, the town that once had dominion from Melinde to Cape Correntes, was dwindling away to an insignificant village.

Things were in this condition when Micante declared war against Abraham, of whom he was extremely jealous. The emir had a strong body of followers, and he obtained powerful Bantu allies, with whom he not only drove back the army sent against him, but made a descent upon Kilwa in his turn. There were at the time only forty Portuguese soldiers in the fort capable of bearing arms, all the others being ill with fever. The healthy men went to Micante's assistance, but were defeated in an engagement, and several of them were killed, though the fort was not taken. After this there were many incursions on both sides, in one of which Abraham's party suffered heavy losses as they were crossing the strait between the island and the mainland, and one of his nephews was made prisoner. Still nothing decisive occurred, and hostilities went on with no other result than destruction of property and loss of life. Micante indeed gained some respect from the Portuguese by his personal valour, and he was as submissive to them as could be desired, but otherwise there was little or no improvement in his conduct.

When information of this reached King Manuel he determined to withdraw the garrison from Kilwa, which was no longer a place of any importance either for strategic or commercial purposes. Affonso dAlboquerque was then governor-general of India, and cared nothing about the retention of a stronghold established by Dom Francisco dAlmeida, so took no steps to change the king's decision. Orders were issued to Francisco Pereira Pestana to dismantle the fort, remove the king's property of every kind to ships provided for the purpose, and retire to Socotra with the men under his command. As Micante was entirely dependent upon the Portuguese, this order deprived him of all power and influence. He fled to Querimba, where he died in poverty and obscurity. Negotiations were opened with the emir Abraham, who at first suspected treachery, but when the Portuguese had embarked and were ready to set sail he consented to an interview on the water with Francisco Pereira Pestana, and was recognised by him as ruler of Kilwa in vassalage to King Manuel. Abraham accepted the position, and kept his agreement faithfully as long as he lived. The fugitives from the town returned, and order was restored under the emir's prudent management, but the importance and glory of the place were gone for ever. Under the stringent commercial regulations that were in force it sank almost out of sight within a very few years. Thus the first fort built and occupied by the Portuguese on the border of the Indian sea was the first abandoned by them, and that while they were still in the full career of conquest and under the direction in the east of the great Affonso d'Alboquerque.

Sofala was now the station where it was hoped the greatest profit from trade would be gained, as it was the port from which the Mohamedans had sent away all the gold and much of the ivory obtained in South-Eastern Africa. But the Portuguese were as yet without experience of the only way of obtaining these articles, and imagined that if they could prevent the former itinerant dealers from going inland and could keep up a good supply of merchandise in their factory, everything that the country produced would be brought to them for sale at their own prices. The Mohamedan mixed breeds, living like Kaffirs and caring little whether they were one month or twelve on an expedition, travelled about the country with a few slaves carrying their wares, and if gold and ivory were not at hand, were content to wait till they were collected, all the time tempting the blacks by a display of articles that they coveted most. The Portuguese, on the contrary, sat still and waited for what never came.

Among the officers who accompanied Pedro d'Anaya when he went to build the fortress and establish the factory was one named Diogo d¡Alcaçova, who remained there long enough to learn the condition of affairs in the country, but as he suffered much from fever, was sent to India by an early opportunity. He professed to have made a special study of the gold barter, and sent to the king a long report upon it, which is still in existence. In it he stated that in former times from four hundred and forty-six thousand eight hundred and seventy-five to five hundred and eighty thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven pounds sterling worth of gold was exported from Sofala every year. This was certainly far beyond the real quantity, for considering the relative value of gold to other merchandise then and now, such an amount would have represented a trade vastly greater than the appearance of Sofala when first visited by Europeans would warrant one in believing it possible to have been carried on there. That little or none was brought to the Portuguese factory while he was resident in it he attributed to wars between different sections of Bantu, which made the country unsafe to travel in. Peace was not concluded between the different factions, he thought, because the Mohamedan rulers of Kilwa and Sofala, who could bring it about, were unwilling to do so, as they did not wish the Christians to obtain the profits of the trade.

In September 1508 Duarte de Lemos, an officer of ability who was then in charge of a ship, wrote to the king from Mozambique that only £894 to £1341 worth of gold had been obtained at Sofala from the departure of Vasco Gomes d'Abreu to that time. He believed that it was plentiful in the country, and there was an abundance of merchandise in the factory, still it was not brought for barter. In his opinion the reason was that the Mohamedans along the coast south of Mozambique were all engaged in a smuggling trade, which could not be prevented, as they conveyed the gold and their goods in little boats and fishing canoes that it was not possible for the caravels guarding the sea to capture. Merchants from Arabia and Persia resorted to secluded places, and maintained this clandestine trade, providing the retail dealers with goods and receiving the gold from them in return. Even in Mozambique he believed there were some merchants from the north engaged in this traffic, so detrimental to the king's treasury. Certain it was that they purchased from the crews of ships arriving there calico which the men had for sale on their own account, and which they obtained for a mere trifle. There was but one remedy for the evil in his opinion, and that was to expel every Mohamedan from the whole country south of Mozambique. Sofala, he was assured, was not an unhealthy place, for during the preceding year not a single individual had fallen ill there. The only article of European manufacture that could be used in commerce in the county was Flemish linen, which would need to be broad enough to be used for loin cloths.

That a considerable trade was carried on by the Mohamedans with the Bantu in defiance of the Portuguese is highly probable, but that it amounted to a very large sum in gold yearly is not at all likely. The difficulty of getting goods into the country must have prevented that. The Mohamedans had always lived by commerce, and no doubt were shrewd and wary dealers, they knew the country and its people and could easily escape observation by the Christians, but without a source of supply, now that their ships were destroyed and their connection with India entirely cut off, they could not traffic to the extent the Portuguese believed they were doing. Possibly they may have dealt in a very small way in native made cloth, but even that would have necessitated their possession of beads and bangles, which they could only obtain at great risk by means of zambucos coming down from the north. According to Duarte Barbosa they were reduced to such straits that they began to cultivate cotton and manufacture loin cloths themselves, but this, if correct at all, can only have been on a very limited scale.

In October 1512 Antonio de Saldanha, who had then served the full term of three years as captain of Sofala, was succeeded in that office by Simao de Miranda de Azevedo, with whom came as factor a very intelligent man named Pedro Vaz Soares. When the captain was absent on his periodical visits to Mozambique, the factor acted as commandant of the fort, and in that capacity on the 30th of June 1513 he wrote to the king a long and interesting report upon the condition of things there, which, unlike most of the documents of that period, has fortunately escaped destruction. Before this report was written a slight change had taken place in respect to commercial transactions with Mohamedans. From those at Sofala gold was now bartered in exchange for merchandise, though they could only obtain it by going inland and dealing with the Bantu, thus to that extent at least the earlier regulations had been relaxed. Mohamedans were also employed by the Christians in various capacities, though only to a limited extent, and under circumstances where no other persons could perform the same service.

Soares reported that during the eight months of his residence at Sofala he had only obtained in barter gold to the value of from £2905 to £3128, the greater part of which was procured from the Mohamedan residents. Bantu traders from the interior he had seen so seldom that from them he had not bartered £223 worth. The country was in a state of perfect peace, and every one was free to come and go in security, for the captain had made agreements to that effect with numerous Bantu chiefs and was paying them fixed subsidies every six moons to keep the trading routes open. There was gold in various parts of the country, but no one possessed a sufficient quantity to make it worth his while to bring it to Sofala for sale, therefore the Mohame- dans went inland with merchandise and established fairs at suitable places. These Mohamedans secretly prejudiced the Christians in the eyes of the Bantu, whom they discouraged from proceeding to the factory by telling them that goods were dearer there than in the interior as offered for sale by them. The gold that was procured was mostly in very small pieces made into tiny beads, only a trifling proportion being melted into nuggets, such as were obtainable on the western coast of Africa.

The receipts of the factory were not more than sufficient to cover the cost o£ its maintenance and that of the caravels employed on the coast below Mozambique, and on one occasion the captain was even obliged to make use of the property of deceased persons to meet current expenses. Soares was of opinion that under these circumstances retrenchment was advisable, as a smaller and less expensive establishment would serve the purpose now that the land was at peace and the Portuguese perfectly secure. The Mohamedans at the islands of Angosha and on the lower banks of the Zambesi, he asserted, drew away the greater portion of the trade, on which account they ought to be expelled, when matters would improve.

The captain Simao de Miranda de Azevedo had endeavoured to establish a trading station on the Zambesi and explore the river upward, and for that purpose had sent an embassy to a Bantu chief residing on a large island between two mouths of the stream to propose friendship and alliance with him. A favourable reply was received, upon which a caravel was despatched to the river with a quantity of merchandise and a factor and secretary. Some respectable Mohamedans of Sofala were engaged to go in her to be the means of communication with the chief, to whom presents of some value were forwarded. Upon her arrival the resident Mohamedans induced the chief to ask that her captain with the factor and secretary should visit him to ratify his agreement with the Portuguese, and when they with a bombardier who acted as interpreter went on shore for the purpose without suspicion of danger, all were immediately murdered. The Sofala Mohamedans, who were on land at the time, swam off to the caravel, which was soon afterwards attacked by a number of zambucos containing men armed with bows and arrows. Her crew defended themselves with their crossbows and bombs, and were fortunate enough to be able to cut their cables and escape.

Soares reported that a considerable quantity of ivory was procurable, and that a very large profit was to be made on it. Since his arrival he had bartered for articles of trifling value about three thousand kilogrammes, which had been sent to India to meet the cost of merchandise that had been applied for.

Of the affairs of Sofala during the time that Christovao de Tavora was captain, that is from 1515, when he succeeded Francisco Marecos who acted for a few months after the death of Simao de Miranda de Azevedo, to 1518, when Sancho de Toar assumed the command, nothing is known. The original reports are no longer in existence, and the early historians are silent about the place, from which, how- ever, it may be assumed that nothing of consequence occurred. Sancho de Toar, the same officer who was sent by Pedro Alvares Cabral to gather information about the locality and the gold trade, became captain of Sofala in September 1518, and at the same time Francisco de Brito took over the duties of factor. In circumstances similar to those under which Pedro Vaz Soares reported to King Manuel six years earlier, De Brito on the 8th of August 1519 addressed to the same monarch a long letter, which is still preserved in the archives at Lisbon.

At that time trade and even communication with the interior was cut off, owing to internecine wars among Bantu clans or tribes. A powerful chief named Inyamunda, who resided at no great distance from Sofala, was engaged in hostilities with the monomotapa, the people of Manica, and others farther inland ; and the trading routes were closed, as travellers were liable to be robbed and murdered. At the factory therefore the outlay was as usual, while there was hardly any income, a condition of things which was very dispiriting to the officials. A vessel from India bringing merchandise for Sofala had arrived at Tshiloane, an island about fifty-six kilometres distant, and had discharged her cargo, consisting of calico of different qualities, beads, pieces of tin, and small coins. The cost price of these articles is stated by the factor, and also the price at which they were bartered in Sofala when any trade was being done, from which it is seen that the smallest profit on any thing was four hundred per cent, and that on some things it rose to two thousand eight hundred per cent. The pieces of tin and the coins that were not required to pay salaries were evidently disposed of as ornaments, for money was not in use by the Bantu, all transactions with them being by barter. During the eleven months that De Brito had been factor he had obtained gold to the value of a little over £358 and eight thousand four hundred kilogrammes of ivory, of which the cost is not given.

Sancho de Toar had resolved to establish a trading outpost on the southern bank of the Zambesi about fifty-six kilo- metres above its mouth, and for that purpose had caused a square timber tower to be constructed, which could be taken to pieces and conveyed in caravels to its destination, there to be put together again. The completion of the plan had been delayed, however, as one of the caravels had recently been wrecked at Tshiloane, and another, which had been built at Mozambique to assist in guarding the coast, had been lost on the bar when bringing a cargo of millet for the use of the fort. She had not long previously taken a prize, but had left part of the spoil at Mozambique, and the remainder was on board when she was wrecked. This had happened only a few days before the letter was written. Sancho de Toar had immediately resolved to have another caravel built, as well as a smaller vessel to be stationed at the Kuama mouth of the Zambesi to prevent the entrance of zambucos with merchandise for the Mohamedan traders. Francisco de Brito's chief desire was to get away from a place where neither honour nor profit was to be had, and he earnestly begged the king to transfer him to some other post in India.

In neither of the reports from the factors of Sofala which are still in existence is any mention made of ambergris or pearls, though Duarte Barbosa, who wrote about the same time, states that both were articles of trade among the Mohamedans. Probably the Portuguese had not yet an opportunity to obtain them in barter, as they could so easily be concealed and removed from place to place. The pearls, obtained at the Bazaruta islands, were said to be greatly damaged and discoloured by the method used in extracting them, which was by placing the oysters in embers until the flesh was dried away. The pearl fishers were nearly all Mohamedans or slaves, as the Bantu did not engage in the occupation unless compelled to do so by extreme want.

With the report of Francisco de Brito, the substance of which has been given, direct and indirect information alike ceases concerning Sofala until some time after the death of King Manuel the Fortunate, which took place on the 13th of December 1521, and the accession of his son, Joao III, to the throne of Portugal. That matters there remained without much change as successive captains and factors came and went and the graves of the victims of malarial fever and dysentery grew ever more numerous is, however, certain, for the next clear view given by either historian, chronicler, or manuscript records reveals a state of things differing little from that described.

CHAPTER XII. INTERCOURSE OF THE PORTUGUESE WITH THE BANTU.