THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM 1505 TO 1700.

CHAPTER XII.

INTERCOURSE OF THE PORTUGUESE WITH THE BANTU.

When the European fort and trading station at Sofala was formed in 1505 the predominant people in the country between the rivers Sabi and Zambesi were the Mokaranga as termed by the Portuguese, or Makalanga as pronounced by themselves, a word which means the people of the sun. This tribe occupied territory extending from the shore of the Indian ocean to the interior of the continent far to the west, but just how far it is impossible to say. Along the southern bank of the Zambesi and scattered here and there on the sea coast were clans who were not Makalanga by blood, and who were independent of each other. South of the Sabi river lived a tribe named the Batonga, whose outposts extended beyond Cape Correntes.

There are people of this name in various parts of South Africa still, but it does not follow that they are descended from the Batonga of the sixteenth century. The country has often been swept by war since that time, and of the ancient communities many have been absolutely destroyed, while others have been dispersed and reorganised quite differently. There is not a single tribe in South Africa today that bears the same title, has the same relative power, and occupies the same ground, as its ancestors four hundred years ago. The people we call Mashona are indeed descended from the Makalanga of early Portuguese days, and they preserve their old name and part of their old country, but the contrast between their condition and that of the tribe in the period of its greatness is striking. Discord, subjection, and merciless treatment from conquerors have destroyed most of what was good in their forefathers.

This tribe — the Makalanga or Makaranga, the l and r being interchangeable — was the one with which the Portuguese in the territory south of the Zambesi had most to do. Its paramount chief was called by them the monomotapa, which word, their writers state, meant emperor, but it seems to have been unknown in the dialect spoken by the tribe itself. In the dialects of some other Bantu communities, however, it means ruler or possessor of the mountain as a stronghold or holy place, and from some of them the Portuguese may have adopted it. That at Kilwa it could have been used as lord of some mountain of note is certain from the fact that a Portuguese writer, in relating the exploits of a chief whose name or title was Munyamonge, says that word meant master of the world, and his statement is perfectly correct, for it is literally lord of all.

To the Makalanga of the present day the word monomotapa is entirely unknown, and a great many words in their dialect differ so much from those used by other South African tribes to signify the same things that in it such a name would have no meaning at all. Instead of mong or mone for ruler, as in the Sesuto monemotse, chief of the village, the Tshikalanga word is she. Instead of thaba or intaba, a mountain, as used by nearly all other Bantu tribes in South Africa, the Makalanga say igomo. These words may not have been in use by their ancestors four hundred years ago, but some trace of the title, monomotapa, which was retained by the Portuguese to a date more than two centuries later, would probably still remain if it had ever been employed by the Makalanga themselves.

The great place, or residence of the monomotapa, was close to the mountain Fura, now Mount Darwin, which, as long as he could prevent it, he would not permit a Portuguese to ascend, probably from some superstition connected with it, though they believed it was because he did not wish them to have a view over as much of his country as could be seen from its top. The Bantu, when going to the great place, most likely used the expression going to the mountain, for the Portuguese soon began to employ the words & serra in that sense, without specially defining what mountain was meant. In our own time one of the titles of the Basuto chief Moshesh was lord of the mountain, owing to his possession of the celebrated stronghold Thaba Bosiho, and the Kalanga chief probably had his title of monomotapa given to him by other tribes from his possession of Mount Fura.

Much of this is merely conjecture, but nothing absolutely certain can now be ascertained from old records or books, or from the Makalanga of the present day, concerning the word monomotapa. When, or in whatever manner it came into use, the Portuguese employed it to signify the paramount or great chief of the Kalanga tribe, and applied it to all who in succession held that office.

Some interest is attached to this word Monomotapa, inasmuch as it was placed on maps of the day as if it was the name of a territory, not the title of a ruler, and soon it was applied to the entire region from the Zambesi to the mouth of the Fish river. Geographers, who knew nothing of the country, wrote the word upon their charts, and one copied another until the belief became general that a people far advanced in civilisation, and governed by a mighty emperor, occupied the whole of South-Eastern Africa.

Then towns were marked on the chart, and rivers were traced upon it, and men of the highest standing in science lent their names to the fraud, believing it to be true, until a standard map of the middle of the seventeenth century was as misleading as it was possible to make it. Readers of Portuguese histories must have known this, but no one rectified the error, because no one could substitute what was really correct. And even in recent years educated men have asked what has become of the mysterious empire of Monomotapa, a question that can be so easily answered by reading the books of De Barros, De Couto, and Dos Santos, and analysing the Tshikalanga words which they repeat. Such an empire never existed. The foundation upon which imagination constructed it was nothing more than a Bantu tribe. The error arose mainly from the use of the words emperor, king, and prince to represent African chiefs, a mistake, however, which was not confined to the Portuguese, for it pervades a good deal of English literature of the nine- teenth century, where it has done infinitely more to mislead readers than those expressions ever did in times gone by.

The Kalanga tribe was larger and occupied a much greater extent of territory than any now existing in South Africa. It was held together by the same means as the others, that is principally by the religious awe with which the paramount chief was regarded, as representing in his person the mighty spirits that were feared and worshipped. There was always the danger of a disputed succession, however, when it might not be certain which of two or more individuals was nearest to the line of descent and therefore the one to whom fealty was due. How long the tribe had existed before the Portuguese became acquainted with it, and whether it had attained its greatness by growth or by con- quest, cannot be ascertained, but it cannot have occupied territory south of the Zambesi more than two or three centuries at the utmost, and very shortly afterwards it was broken into several independent communities.

The tribe belonged to that section of the Bantu family which in general occupies the interior of the country. It was divided into a great number of clans, each under its own chief, and though all of these acknowledged the monomotapa as their superior in rank, the distant clans, even with the religious bond of union in full force, were very loosely connected with the central government. Thus those near the coast were found by the Portuguese making war on their own account, and acting otherwise in a manner that among Europeans would be regarded as indicating perfect independence. There was one peculiar custom, however, that prevented them from forgetting their dependence upon the paramount chief. Every year at a certain stage of the crops a command was sent throughout the country that when the next new moon appeared all the fires were to be put out, and they could only be lit again from the spreading of one kindled by the monomotapa himself.

The Makalanga had developed their religious system and their industries more highly than any of the other tribes of Southern or Eastern Africa. Of all the Bantu they had the largest proportion of Asiatic blood in their veins, which will account for their mental and mechanical superiority. Almost at first sight the Europeans observed that they were in every respect more intelligent than the blacker tribes along the Mozambique coast. Their skulls more nearly approached those of Europeans in shape, many of them had the high nose, the thin lips, and the general features of the people of South-Western Asia. Even their hands and feet were in numerous instances small and well shaped, unlike those of ordinary blacks, which are large and coarse. Their appearance thus indicated a strong infusion of foreign blood, though not sufficient to denationalise them as Bantu. That blood may not have been Arab alone, it is likely that some was Persian, and possibly some Indian. But they were neither so robust nor so courageous as many of their neighbours. Like their near kindred the Basuto and Bapedi of today, they were capable of making a vigorous defence in mountain strong- holds, but were disinclined to carry on aggressive warfare, and could not stand against an equal number of men of a coast tribe in the open field. Their language was regarded by the Christians as being pleasanter than Arabic to the ear.

When the Portuguese in 1505 first came in close contact with the Makalanga, the tribe had been engaged in civil war for twelve or thirteen years, and was in a very unsettled condition. A monomotapa, Mokomba by name, had made a favourite of the chief Tshikanga, one of his distant relatives, who was hereditary head of the powerful clan which occupied the district of Manika. Some other chiefs became jealous of the privileges conferred upon this man, and took advantage of his absence on one occasion to instil in the naonomotapa's mind that he was a sorcerer and was compassing the death of his benefactor. Thereupon the monomotapa sent him some poison to drink, but instead of obeying, he made an offer of a large number of cattle for his life. The offer was declined, and then in despair he collected his followers, made a quick march to the great place, surprised Mokomba, and killed him.

Tshikanga then assumed the government of the tribe. He endeavoured to exterminate the family of his predecessor, and actually put twenty-one of Mokomba's children to death. Only one young man escaped. After four years' exile, this one, whose name is variously given as Kesariniito or Kesarimyo, returned and collected a force which defeated the usurping monomotapa's army. Tshikanga then took the field himself, adherents gathered on both sides, and a battle was fought which continued for three days and a half. On the fourth day Tshikanga was killed, when his army was dispersed, and Kesarimyo became monomotapa, But Tshikanga's son would not submit, and with his ancestral clan kept possession of the Manika district, and carried on the war. To this circumstance the Portuguese attributed the small quantity of gold that was brought to Sofala for sale from the interior of the country. In course of time the war was reduced to a permanent feud, Tshikanga's clan became an independent tribe, and Manika was lost to the monomotapa.

For many years after their occupation of Sofala the Portuguese lived on fairly good terms with the Makalanga, and after the failure to drive them from the fort in Isuf's time no attempt was made to expel them from the country. They paid subsidies in the form of presents to the nearest chiefs of note, and so secured their good will and freedom for trade. These presents usually consisted of beads, bangles, pieces of coarse calico, and other inexpensive articles, so that the value of the whole was trifling. In return the chiefs sent a tusk or two of ivory, which was often worth as much as what they received.

But even after the employment of the Mohamedans as agents to collect gold and ivory, the amount of commerce carried on was very far short of the earlier anticipations of the Europeans. Their next effort to increase it was by stationing individuals at outposts on the Zambesi, which at first were quite unprotected, and existed entirely by the favour of the people in whose lands they were situated. After various ineffectual attempts by other officials, in 1531 Vicente Pegado, the ablest and most enterprising of all the early captains of Mozambique and Sofala, who had then resided a year in the country, succeeded in establishing a fair at the place afterwards known as Sena, where there was a small Mohamedan village. The particulars of this event are not now on record in manuscript that can be found, and the historians of the time were so deeply engrossed with the stirring deeds of their countrymen in India that they altogether neglected transactions of comparatively little importance in South Africa, but no imagination is needed to understand how it must have taken place. The Bantu would certainly not object to the presence of unarmed traders, and the Mohamedans, who at an earlier date would have acted either as open or secret enemies, were then in a condition of dependence upon the Portuguese. The contraband trade, as the Europeans termed it, had been almost completely suppressed. There was but one place where foreign merchandise could be obtained, and that was the king's warehouse at Sofala. The factor there, acting under instructions from his government, fixed the price of every- thing and required an enormous profit on whatever he bought or sold, but a portion of the retail bartering with the Bantu was again in the hands of those who had once enjoyed a monopoly of it. So the Mohamedans at Sena would not object to getting their supplies at home, instead of going to Sofala for them, and besides it was to their interest not to offend their employers. Thus the fair or trading-post of Sena came into existence, and the quantity of ivory and gold obtained was so much increased that the captain Vicente Pegado was rewarded for his exertions by being retained in office for the unusual term of eight years.

The exact date of the formation of a similar outstation at Tete cannot be ascertained, but it was not long after the establishment of the fair farther down the river. At both these places for many years white men lived in the same precarious manner as the first English traders in the Xosa country three centuries later. Favoured by the chief one day, abused and robbed by him the next, nothing but the prospect of considerable gain could induce any others than missionaries to exist in such a condition. Those at Sena and Tete were of the class that accommodates itself readily to barbarian habits, and in morals at least were little above the Bantu with whom they associated.

In 1544 the factory of Kilimane was founded on the northern bank of the river of Good Tokens, about twenty-four kilometres from the sea. The object was partly to carry on commerce with the Bantu in the neighbourhood, but principally to command the route to the interior by that stream, which was then more used during several months of the year than the other outlets of the Zambesi. The station is still in existence, but as it is beyond the territorial limits dealt with in this narrative, it will not be referred to again.

Mr. F. C. Selous, the celebrated hunter, who visited it in 1889, describes it as quite a small place, but says the houses of which the town consists are well-built, and their red-tiled roofs look very pretty and picturesque amongst the palm trees and banana groves by which they are surrounded. The single street is lit on moonless nights with oil lamps.

In the same year the captain of Sofala and Mozambique sent two men named Lourenço Marques and Antonio Caldeira in a pangayo on an exploring voyage to the southward. They inspected the lower course of the Limpopo river, and ascertained that copper in considerable quantities was to be obtained there from the inhabitants. They then examined the great bay which before that time had been obscurely known as Da Lagoa. Three large rivers flowing from different directions, — known now to British geographers as the Maputa, the English, and the Manisa,— discharge their waters into this bay, and it was believed that the central one of these, or rather the central one of the streams now called the Tembe, the Umbelosi, and the Matola, which have as their estuary the English river, had its source in a great lake far in the interior, hence the Umbelosi and the English were named Rio da Lagoa, and the bay Bahia da Lagoa.

On the banks of the Umbelosi the explorers saw a great number of elephants, and purchased tusks of ivory from the inhabitants at the rate of a few beads for each. In the neighbourhood of the Maputa river, which they next visited, elephants were also seen, and ivory was plentiful. The chief of the tribe that occupied the country between this river and the sea, whose hereditary title was Inyaka, was very friendly to his European visitors. Though quite black, he was a fine looking old man, with a white beard, and as Marques and Caldeira fancied his features bore some resemblance to those of Garcia de Sá, then captain of Malacca, who was subsequently — 1548-9 — captain-general and governor of India, and one of whose daughters, Dona Leonor, wife of Manuel de Sousa de Sepulveda, in 1552 perished in a most pitiable manner on the shore of this very bay, they gave him that official's name. We shall meet him again, particularly in the account of the wreck of the galleon Sao Joao, and shall find that his friendship for white people was not a mere passing whim.

The inspection of the country around the bay was followed by a change of names. The Umbelosi — with its estuary the English river — was thereafter termed by the Portuguese Rio de Lourenco Marques, though geographers of other nations continued to call it the river De Lagoa, until the restoration in recent years of its Bantu name. The bay — previously Bahia da Lagoa — now took the name among the Portuguese of Bahia de Lourenço Marques, though to all other Europeans it remained known as Delagoa Bay, and it is still so called.

In 1546 King Joao III issued instructions that Lourenço Marques should be provided with a suitable vessel to complete the exploration of the coast and to open up a trade with the residents on the shores of the great inlet. This was done, and thereafter a pangayo was usually sent every year or every second year from Mozambique to obtain ivory. While they were engaged in bartering by means of boats manned by mixed breeds of Mohamedans that went up the different rivers, the traders resided on one of the islands Inyaka — so called by the Portuguese from the title of the chief Garcia de Sá, — Elephant, or Shefina, where some rough huts were built for their accommodation, and as soon as all the tusks that had been collected by the inhabitants were purchased, they returned to Mozambique. No permanent factory or fort was built at this place until a much later date. Lourenco Marques probably remained some years in charge of the trade at the bay which bore his name, as in 1557, in reward for his services there, he was appointed intendant at Cochin.

At Inhambane, or Nyambana as termed by the Bantu, which is about three hundred and seventy kilometres farther up the coast, a similar trade was carried on from this time forward by means of a pangayo sent every year or two from Mozambique. Temporary huts were erected on the site of the present village, off which the pangayo lay at anchor until the traders were ready to return. Neither here nor at Delagoa Bay, any more than at Sena or Tete, did the Portuguese authorities attempt to exercise the slightest control over the Bantu inhabitants. Their object at all these places was simply and solely to carry on commerce, and not by any means to involve themselves in difficulties. At times indeed the traders were subject to gross ill treatment from barbarous chiefs, which they were obliged to endure patiently, without any effort being made to retaliate or redress their wrongs.

After trade at these places was opened, from thirty to thirty-six thousand kilogrammes of ivory were usually collected at Mozambique and sent from that island to India every year until 1551, when only a little more than five thousand kilogrammes was obtained. The quantity subsequently rose again, but fluctuated greatly according to the condition of the country as regarded peace or war.

The Portuguese, whether soldiers or traders, were in South Africa so circumstanced that they degenerated rapidly. A European female was very rarely seen, and nearly every white man consorted with Bantu women. Fever, when it did not kill them outright, deprived them of energy, and there was nothing to stimulate them to exertion. Cut off from all society but that of barbarians, often until towards the close of the sixteenth century without the ministrations of the church, sunk in sloth, and suffering from excessive heat and deadly malaria, no lives led by Europeans anywhere could be more miserable than theirs.

The Bantu termed them Bazunga, — singular Mozunga, — and were generally well disposed towards them. Individual white men often gained the confidence of chiefs, and exercised great influence over them. Instances were not wanting of such persons abandoning their former associates, and going to reside permanently either on tracts of land presented to them, where they became petty rulers, or at kraals, where they held authority of some kind under the chiefs. Thereafter they were usually regarded as renegades, though their mode of living was little worse than that of many of their countrymen at the fort and trading stations.

This was the condition of affairs in South-Eastern Africa during the reign of King Joao III, a period far less glorious in the history of Portugal than that in which his father Manuel the Fortunate sat upon the throne. To outward appearance the country exhibited every mark of prosperity, and its com- merce and wealth were the wonder of Europe, but the zenith of its greatness was passed before the sixteenth century had run half its course. The king had many sons, but all died in childhood except the youngest, Dom Joao, who married the infanta Joana, daughter of the emperor Charles V. He died in early manhood, on the 2nd of January 1554, eighteen days before his widow gave birth to a boy, who received the name Sebastiao. On the 16th of June 1557 this child of little more than three years of age became by his grand-father's death sovereign of Portugal, and as his mother had retired to Spain, his grandmother, Dona Catharina, daughter of Philippe I of Castile and widow of the deceased monarch, became regent of the kingdom.

Corruption had by this time become so general among the Portuguese in India that even a virtuous viceroy such as Dom Joao de Castro was powerless to check it. They retained indeed the daring spirit of their fathers, so that military prowess was conspicuous still, but beyond that avarice had become their ruling passion. To collect wealth, whether honestly or dishonestly hardly mattered, had become the great object of their lives, and as power was theirs, under such circumstances good government was impossible. Even at this early period the rapacity of the officials was preparing Portuguese India for the fate that overtook it as soon as a rival European power dealt it a puny blow. Eastern Africa was included in India, and if a course of spoliation was not practised there, the reason was that no weak peoples other than the Mohamedans existed sufficiently wealthy to be despoiled.

Before 1545 Mozambique had been without other protection than the slight defensive works constructed when the island was first occupied. In that year Dom Joao de Castro put in there on his way to Goa to assume the government of India, and was struck with the weakness of a place of such importance. In his opinion the position of the so-called fort was not only bad in a military point of view, but was insanitary as well. He selected another site, gathered some materials, and during his short stay constructed a small outwork for temporary use. Upon his report of the condition of the island reaching Lisbon, the king gave orders for larger and better defensive works to be built, but the death of the eminent viceroy followed soon afterwards, and the matter was then allowed to fall out of sight.

The power that Portugal had to contend with now in the eastern seas was the Grand Turk, in the zenith of his pride, and aided always openly or secretly by one or other Mohamedan state. To put a fleet upon the waters of the Indian ocean, every part of the material, wood, iron, cordage, and canvas, had to be conveyed up the Nile to Cairo, and thence on the backs of camels to the shipyards of Suez, a seemingly impossible task. Yet that it could be done had been proved by the sultan Soleiman II in 1527, and still more conspicuously in 1538. On the 22nd of June of this year the faithless and ferocious pasha Soleiman, who had governed Egypt for the sultan at Constantinople, sailed from Suez with a great fleet built of materials so transported from European Turkey, having with him a powerful force of janizaries. His siege of the fort of Diu — 4th September to 5th November 1538 — and its heroic defence by Antonio da Silveira with only six hundred men, most of whom lost their lives before Soleiman withdrew discomfited to commit suicide rather than be put to death by his master for having failed in the enterprise, must be regarded as among the most memorable events in the history of India. This Antonio da Silveira who, with only forty men left capable of bearing arms, with his ammunition exhausted and his provisions consumed, saw from his battered and half destroyed fort the remnant of the Turkish fleet sail away, had been captain of Sofala and Mozambique from 1524 to 1527, but had there no opportunity of distinguishing himself in any way.

From the time of the pasha Soleiman's defeat onward Turkish subjects in smaller force were encountered, sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, allied with Indian princes; and it was apprehended that an attempt to secure the eastern commerce might again be made by them with a very powerful armament. To be prepared for such an occurrence, in 1558 among other measures the regent Dona Catharina resolved to construct a fortress of the first class at Mozambique, and to make the island the residence of the highest official in authority on the African coast. Previously there had been no permanent garrison, and the captain had resided during the greater part of the year at Sofala, which was regarded as the more important place of the two. Henceforth each was to have a captain, but the one at Sofala was to be subordinate to the one at Mozambique.

To plan the new fortress, an engineer architect was sent out who was a nephew of the archbishop of Braga, and had learned his profession in Flanders. He selected as the best site the eastern extremity of the island, off which ships passed to and from the anchorage, and there on the margin of the sea he laid the foundations of the massive walls that afterwards arose. The fortress was quadrilateral in form, with a bastion at each angle, and was so large that from eighty to a hundred guns could be mounted on its ramparts. The whole structure was termed Fort Sao Sebastiao, but the outwork at each angle had its own name, the one first passed when coming in from sea being called Nossa Senhora, the one nearest the anchorage Sao Joao, the landward one on the inner side of the island Sao Gabriel, and the landward one on the outer side Santo Antonio. The walls were of great height, which subse- quent experience proved to be disadvantageous. A work of such magnitude, though the heaviest labour was performed by slaves, required many skilled artisans, and could only be slowly carried on. The political condition of Portugal also retarded progress, so that the sixteenth century was nearly ended before the walls and the numerous buildings they enclosed were fully finished. The want of fresh water was at first regarded as its principal defect, but this was remedied in course of time by the construction of enormous cisterns, which contained an ample supply to last from one rainy season to another. From the mainland water was brought for the shipping.

1540] Establishment of the Company of Jesus.

After laying out the fortress at Mozambique and preparing plans for carrying on the work, the architect proceeded to Daman to perform a similar duty there. After that was done he returned to Europe and entered a religious order, when he was favoured by Philippe II of Spain, and from his designs parts of the Escurial were constructed. Thus in Fort Sao Sebastiao there exists a specimen of the highest skill of the sixteenth century.

The conversion of the heathen to Christianity was from the very beginning of the Portuguese explorations and settlements in Africa and India kept constantly in view by the king and by the authorities of the Roman catholic church, but the far East offered the most promising field to the Franciscans, Dominicans, and other long established religious orders, and there were no men to spare for the enlightenment of the barbarous tribes between the Zambesi and the bay of Lourenco Marques. The whole territory east of the Cape of Good Hope to Japan had formed a single see since March 1539, when Dom Joao d'Alboquerque assumed duty at Goa as first bishop of India. But even the Portuguese themselves were neglected in Africa, for the garrison of Sofala was seldom provided with a chaplain, and Sena and Tete were left altogether without one.

On the 27th of September 1540, however, a bull was issued by Pope Paul III, approving of the order founded by Ignatius Loyola, and the Company of Jesus, the greatest and most zealous of all the missionary associations of the Roman catholic church, came into existence. Within seven months, on the 7th of April 1541, the celebrated Francisco Xavier sailed from Lisbon for India, and he was soon followed by others into various parts of the heathen world. The first college of the order was founded at Coimbra by Joao III of Portugal in 1542, and speedily attracted within its walls many of the most religious and most energetic of the youth of the kingdom. Into this college in 1543 a young man of noble parentage, named Goncalo da Silveira, a native of Almeirim on the Tagus, sought admission for the purpose of completing his education. Shortly afterwards he entered the order, and in 1556 was sent to Goa. There he became conspicuous for his zeal and general ability, and it was mainly owing to his exertions that the magnificent church of Sao Thome was built in the capital of Portuguese India.

On one of the voyages of the little vessel that went occasionally from Mozambique to Inhambane to purchase ivory, a son of a chief of some importance was induced to return in her. It was the custom to treat such persons with much attention, in order to secure their friendship, and the young chief was greatly pleased with the favours that he received. In course of time he professed his belief in Christianity, and was baptized with all the pomp that was possible in the church of Sao Gabriel, the captain of Sofala and Mozambique being one of his godfathers. When the vessel made her next voyage he returned to Inhambane, and induced his father to send a request to the Portuguese captain that he might be supplied with missionaries. This request was forwarded to Goa, where it was referred to the provincial of the Jesuits, with the result that the fathers Goncalo da Silveira and Andre " Fernandes, with the lay brother André da Costa, were directed to proceed to South-Eastern Africa, and attempt to convert the natives there to Christianity. Dom Gonçalo was the head of the party, and was entrusted by the viceroy Dom Constantino de Braganca with friendly messages and presents for the chief who had made the application and for the paramount ruler of the Kalanga tribe.

On the 2nd of January 1560 the missionaries sailed from Chaul, and after a pleasant passage reached Mozambique on the 4th of February, where they found a trading vessel nearly ready to sail for Inhambane. She was only a zambuco, with so little accommodation that, as one of them wrote, they could neither lie down comfortably, stand erect, or exercise their legs in her, but on the 12th of February they embarked, together with two Portuguese — one of whom was to be their guide — and a black man who was well acquainted with the coast. The zambuco was to touch at Sofala on the way. At this place they arrived after a passage of twenty-seven days, and here they secured the service of a halfbreed born at the fort, named Joao Raposo, who spoke Portuguese and Tshikalanga with equal fluency, and who was a handy man in other respects, as he had travelled much in the country. After five days' stay at Sofala, the zambuco sailed again, and eight days later reached Inhambane, where five Portuguese were found trading for ivory.

Dom Gonçalo and the lay brother were suffering severely from fever, and landed in such a debilitated condition that for a time their lives were despaired of. Their countrymen, however, took such care of them that shortly they began to mend, and as soon as they were out of danger the father Andre" Fernandes was sent in advance to the kraal of the chief who had applied for missionaries, to announce their arrival and to request that carriers might be provided to convey the others in hammocks. The distance of the kraal from Inhambane is stated to have been thirty leagues, but as the father André Fernandes and those with him traversed it on foot in three days and a half, it can hardly have been so far. The name of the place is given by the missionaries as Otongwe, and of the chief as Gamba. He was the head of a clan of Makalanga that had been driven from its own country in a war with its neighbours, and had taken refuge in territory occupied by the Batonga, where it had acquired a right of possession by force of arms. This condition of things at once accounts for its desire to secure the friendship of the Portuguese. Father André Fernandes and Joao Raposo, who was with him, were provided with a hut to live in, and carriers were despatched who brought up the others seventeen days later. Dom Gonçalo and Andre da Costa arrived so weak that they could hardly stand, but the father soon became stronger, and the lay brother was sent back to the coast for a time to recuperate.

Shortly after their arrival the mission party — the first in South Africa — witnessed a striking instance of the nature of the heathenism they had come to destroy. A son of the chief had just died, and the witchfinder had pointed out an individual as guilty of having caused his death by treading in his footprints, whereupon the man accused was tortured and killed. They found, too, people in the last stages of sickness abandoned by every one, even their nearest relatives, who feared that death — the invisible destroyer — might seize them as well as the decrepit, if they were close at hand when he came.

Having delivered the complimentary message of the viceroy and his present, the missionaries were very well treated. Huts were given to them to live in, and they were supplied with abundance of food. They commenced therefore without delay to exhort the people to become Christians. There is a custom of the Bantu, with which they were of course unacquainted, not to dispute with honoured guests, but to profess agreement with whatever is stated. This is regarded by those people as politeness, and it is carried to such an absurd extent that it is often difficult to obtain correct information from them. Thus if one asks a man, is it far to such a place ? politeness requires him to reply it is far, though it may be close by. The questioner, by using the word far, is supposed to be under the impression that it is at a distance, and it would be rudeness to correct him. They express their thanks for whatever is told to them, whether the intelligence is pleasing or not, and whether they believe it or not. Then, too, no one of them ever denies the existence of a Supreme Being, but admits it without hesitation as soon as he is told of it, though he may not once have thought of the subject before.

The missionaries must have been deceived by these habits of the people, for they were convinced that their words had taken deep root, and within a very short time they baptized about four hundred individuals at the kraal, including the chief and his family. The chief received the name Constantino, his principal wife Isabel, and his sons and counsellors the names of leading Portuguese nobles. It is not easy to analyse the thoughts of those uncultivated barbarians, but certainly what they understood by this ceremony must have been something very different from what the missionaries understood by it.

After a sojourn of only seven weeks at Otongwe, Dom Gonçalo da Silveira returned to Inhambane, leaving behind him the other members of the mission and what he believed to be an infant Christian community. The little vessel had taken in the cargo obtained in barter, and the Portuguese traders, who were ready to go on board, were waiting for him. The missionary embarked with them, the sails were set, and he proceeded to Mozambique to prepare for a visit to the monomotapa.

Having made his arrangements with the assistance of the captain Pantaleao de Sá, on the 18th of September 1560 he left the island again with the Kalanga country as his destination. He was accompanied by six Portuguese, one of whom, Antonio Dias by name, was a competent interpreter. The zambuco in which he was a passenger touched at the mouth of the Kilimane, and then proceeded to the Kuama, up which she made her way to Sena. From ten to fifteen Portuguese and a few Indian Christians were found at this place, living in the most dissolute manner. There was no resident clergyman, so during the two months that he remained here waiting for a reply to a message that he sent to the monomotapa, he pursued his calling and induced some of his countrymen to amend their habits, besides which he baptized about five hundred Bantu, mostly servants and slaves of the Europeans. At Sena he was joined by a Portuguese resident of Tete, named Gomes Coelho, who was living on terms of friendship with the paramount Kalanga chief, and who was conversant with his language.

At length a reply was received from the monomotapa, inviting the missionary to visit him, so he and his attendants set out over land for Tete, sending their luggage and other goods up the river in boats. At Tete a stay was made only sufficiently long to engage more carriers, and the party then proceeded onward, forming quite a little caravan. Gomes Coelho remained at the river to attend to any forwarding business that was to be done, as he had ascertained that his presence with Dom Gonçalo would not be needed. The road was long, and food became so scarce that they were glad to get any kind of edible wild plants, but on the 26th of December they reached their destination in safety.

At the kraal of the great chief there was living at this time a Portuguese adventurer named Antonio Caiado, one of a class of men met with then as now, who, while retaining affection for the country of their birth, can make themselves perfectly at home among barbarians. Caiado had ingratiated himself with the monomotapa, and was a counsellor of rank and principal military authority in the tribe. He was deputed by the chief to wait upon the strangers, to bid them welcome as messengers from the viceroy of India, and to offer their leader a present of gold dust, cattle, and female slaves, as a token of friendship. The missionary declined the present, but in such a way as not to give offence, and shortly afterwards the great chief admitted him to an interview. He was received with all possible honour as an ambassador from the viceroy, who, from accounts of previous Portuguese visitors to the great place, was believed to be a potentate of enormous wealth and power. The message of friendship and the present which he brought gave great satisfaction. Food and huts for himself and his retinue were offered and accepted with thanks, but the African chief was surprised when the missionary, so unlike all other white men he had met, courteously declined to accept the gold and female companions pressed upon him.

The same mistake was made here as at Gamba's kraal, the missionary addressed the chief and his assembled people through an interpreter, they professed to believe what he said, and allowed themselves to be baptized. This took place within a month from the date of his arrival. The monomotapa was a mere youth, and one of his half brothers, Tshepute by name, was in revolt against him. The insurgent had taken the title of Kiteve, and was in possession of a broad tract of territory along the coast from Sofala to the Tendankulu river, in which he was quite independent. Under these circumstances it was evidently the interest of the monomotapa and his adherents to do nothing to offend any one who offered him friendship, especially one who represented a powerful, though distant ruler. Looking at the matter in this light, there is nothing strange in what occurred. The monomotapa received at his baptism the name Sebastiao, and his mother at hers Maria. Some three hundred of his counsellors, attendants, and followers were baptized with him.

The chief evidently thought his visitors would not make a long stay, and he was very willing to entertain them for a few weeks and please them to the best of his ability, but shortly after his baptism he began to get weary of their presence. He had no intention whatever of abandoning any of the customs of his race, and was irritated when the missionary urged him to do so. Some Mohamedan refugees from Mozambique, who were staying with him, took advantage of his growing coldness to persuade him that Silveira was a mighty sorcerer. They reminded him of the loss of the presents which the officials of Sofala had made to his predecessors, and that Dom Gonçalo had been in Tshepute's country, from which they inferred that he had left people behind him there and had come in advance as a spy to ascertain the condition of the land and bewitch the people in it. In the end they so worked upon his credulity and his fear that he resolved if the missionary would not leave to put him to death, with which resolution Dom Gongalo was made acquainted. He, however, declined to remove, and took no other precautions than to give some articles that he regarded as sacred to Caiado, with an injunction to preserve them from injury. In the belief that he was making converts he was willing to face death, and presently he baptized fifty individuals who expressed a desire to become Christians, probably for the sake of the beads and pieces of calico that he distributed among them This was regarded by the monomotapa as a defiance of his authority, and in his wrath he issued orders to a party of men, who strangled the missionary during the night of the 16th of March 1561 and cast his dead body into the river Monsengense. The newly baptized narrowly escaped the same fate.

A drought of some duration occurred not long afterwards, and was followed by a great plague of locusts. Caiado and other Portuguese now persuaded the chief that these evils were consequences of the murder of Silveira, so he caused the principal Mohamedans who had poisoned his mind towards the missionary to be put to death.

Father André Fernandes and the lay brother André da Costa had been left by Dom Gonçalo at Gamba's kraal Otongwe. Whether the lay brother died or left the country is unknown : in numerous letters written by Father Fernandes at a little later date neither he nor Joao Raposo is mentioned, and the father refers to himself as being quite alone. It was truly a wretched condition for a European to be in, especially as it soon became evident that the supposed converts were altogether indisposed to lay aside their old customs or to submit to ecclesiastical discipline. They would not abandon polygamy, or the belief in charms, or the practice of divination, or punishment of persons charged with dealing in witchcraft, and were greatly offended with the preaching of the missionary against their habits. They had a custom also — which still exists — that when a man died his brothers should take his widows and raise up a family for him, and this the missionary denounced to their great annoyance. At length matters reached a climax. There was a drought in the country, and the chief Gamba, who was also the rainmaker of his clan, went through the ordinary ceremonies to obtain a downpour. For doing this Father Fernandes openly and fearlessly rebuked him before his people, with the result that whatever influence he had before was now at an end. He had nothing left to buy food with, and at times was nearly starved. Neglected, often fever-stricken, regarded as a wizard to be avoided, after a residence of over two years at Otongwe he received instructions from his provincial to return to Goa, and so he left a country in which under the circumstances then existing he must have perished had he remained longer, without a chance of doing any good. Making his way as best he could to Inhambane, he proceeded to Mozambique in the trading vessel, and there embarked in a ship which conveyed him in an extremely debilitated condition to the convent of his order in Goa.

Thus ended the first mission to the Bantu of South Africa. It is possible that some traces of the doctrine of the teachers may have remained, for instance a belief in the existence of the devil ; but as far as the introduction of Christian morals is concerned the mission had no result whatever. Without something beyond natural agency it could not have been otherwise among people such as the Makalanga at that time, whose race instinct was exceedingly strong, and whose political and social system was based upon ideas utterly antagonistic to those of Europeans.

Note. — Though the word Makalanga or Makaranga is now always taken to mean the people of the sun, that cannot have been its early signification. The sun is called ilanga in many of the coast dialects, but not in Tshikalanga, in which the words used are izhuba and izwari. If ilanga had been used in ancient times the preposition ka would not have been inserted. The chief under whom the tribe was first formed may have been named Karanga, or the ancient siboko, before the migration of the tribe from the north, may have been the honey bird, the karanga of these people at the present day, or possibly the ground nut, which is called karanga by some of the northern clans. There is a small tribe called the Wakaranga living on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, but whether it was once closely connected with the Makaranga of the south I am unable to ascertain.

CHAPTER XIII. DISASTROUS EXPEDITIONS UNDER BARRETO AND HOMEM