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By Bennet Burleigh, War Correspondent to the Daily Telegraph. 50 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, 16s. The Africander: A Plain Tale of Colonial Life. By E. Clairmonte. Illustrated. Crown Svo, cloth, 6s. Dream Life and Real Life. By Ralph Iron (Olive Schreiner). Third Edition. Being Vol. XXXII. of The Pseudonym Library. Paper, is 6d ; cloth, as. Three Great African Chiefs (Khirn^, SebeU, and Bathoeng). By the Rev. E. Lloyd (Lond. Mis. Soc). and Edition, revised and enlarged and brought up to date. 4 Portraits. Crown Svo, cloth, 3s. 6d. Dreams. By Olivb Schreiner ("Ralph Iron")- 7th Edit. Demy lamo, cloth, as. 6d. Kafir Stories. By W. C. Scully. Being Vol. X. of The Autonym Library, Paper, is. 6d. ; cloth, as. Tales of the Transvaal. By Luscombe Sbarelle. Illus- trated by P. Franzeny, and after Photographs. Svo, cloth, as. 6d. Madagascar and the Malagasy. By James Sibree. Illustrated. With Map. Demy Svo, cloth, 21s. Mr Magnus. By F. Reginald Statham. Crown Svo, cl, 6s. South Africa. By George McCall Theal, LL.D. Being Vol. XXXVIII. of The Story of the Nations. Large crown Svo, cloth, ss. The Story of the Expansion of South Africa. By the Hon. A. WiLMOT, Member of the Legislative Council, Cape of Good Hope. Second and Enlarged Edition. With Map, cloth, ss. Monomotapa (Rhodesia). Its Monuments and its History from the most Ancient Times to the Present Century. By the Hon. A. Wilmot. With Preface by H. Rider Haggard. With Maps and Plates. London: T. FISHER UNWIN. FOR, C THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA wrrn a description of the native races BETWEEN THE RIVER ZAMBESI AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY BV GEORGE M'CALL THEAL, LL.D. OK THE (queen's UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, CANADA FORBIGN MEMBER OK THE ACADEMY OP ARTS AND SCIENCES, UTKECHT, HOLLAND COKRESI'ONUING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY, LONDON, ENGLAND HONORARY MEMBER OK THE LITERARY ASSOCIATION, LEIDEN OF THE COMMISSION FOR PREPARING A HISTORY OK THE WALLOON CHURCHES, AND OK THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF UTRECHT FORMERLY KEEPER OF "HE ARCHIVES OF THE CAPE COLONY AND AT PRESENT COLONIAL HISTORIOGRAPHER WITH MAPS T. LON DON FISHER UN WIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1896 {All tights reset-ved.'] PREFACE A VERY few years ago, when I prepared my large History, the expression "South Africa" meant Africa south of the Limpopo. Mainly through the ability of one man — the Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes — that expression to-day means Africa south of the Zambesi. The event which I took as an initial point — the arrival of Van Riebeek in Table Valley in April 1652 — has thus come to be incorrect for that purpose, the true starting-point now being the arrival of Da Nhaya in Sofala in September 1505. I have therefore written this volume, in ord r to rectify the beginning of my work. As Bantu tribes that w ot encountered by the Dutch, and that differed in several respects from those south of the Limpopo, came into contact with the Portuguese, it was necessary to enlarge and recast the chapters in my other volumes descriptive of the South African natives. I need not give my authorities for what I have now written concerning these people, for I think I can say with truth that no one else has ever made such a study of this subject as I have. 8 The Portuguese in South Africa are not entitled to the same amount of space in a history as the Dutch, for they did nothing to colonise the country. I think that in this little volume I have given them their just pro- portion. In another respect also I have treated them differently, for I expended many years of time in research among Dutch archives, and I have obtained the greater part of my information upon the Portuguese by the comparatively trifling labour of reading and comparing their printed histories. I should not have been justified, however, in issuing this volume if I had not been able to consult the important documents which the Eight Honourable C. J. Rhodes caused to be copied at Lisbon for his own use. With this explanation I commit the volume to the good will of those who are interested in South African affairs. GEO. M. THEAL. Cai'ETOWX, Januanj, 1896. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. KAKJ-IEST INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AND HOTTENTOTS AFRICA : BUSHMEN Proof of the antiquity of man in South Africa afforded by the position in which atone implcnienta are sometimes found — Physical features of the country — Condition of the eailiest inhabitants — Later arrivals — Geographical position of the differ- ent races — Skull measurements of the Bantu, Hottentots, and Bushmen — Earliest observations upon the three races. Bushmen : Language — Habitations — Food — Weapons — Stone implements— Clothing — Orna- ments — Method of producing fire — Disposition — Want of government — Superstitions — Powers of mimicry — Artistic ability — Sense of locality — Ordinary mode of life — Practical incapability of improvement. Hottentots : Difference in appearance from Bush- men — Language — Division into tribes — Weakness of government — Domestic animals— Food — Cloth- ing — Ornaments — Habitations — Weapons — Know- ledge of iron— Use of horn, bone, and stone imple- ments — Possession of copper — Earthenware manu- factures — Superstitions — Disposition — Destruction of infirm persons — Marriage customs — Position of PA(il CONTENTS. women —Mode of initiation into manhood — Powers of imaj^ination — Evening amusements — Favourite game — Scale of happiness — Capability of improve- ment. CHAPTER II. PAdK DESCRIPTION OF TUB BANTU TllIBBS OF SOUTH AFllICA Necessary classification in groups — Inferiority of those west of the Kalahari — Appearance of those of the interior and the eastern coast— Disposition — Hardihood — Cause of rapid increase — Languaf^c — Tribal divisions — Tribal names — Mode of govern- ment—Order of succession to chieftainship — Laws — Tribunals of justice — Trials on charges of dealing iu witchcraft — Privileges of members of ruling families — Religion — Mode of interment of chiefs — Belief in 'demons — Witchfinders — Seers — Rain- makerp — Herbalists — Bel ief in ' charms — Mode of reckoning time — Traditional knowledge — Folklore — Rites of circumcision — Marriage customs — Food — Land tenure — Kraals — Huts — Domestic cattle — Descent of property — Weapons — Clothing — Manu- factures — Ordinary mode of life — Cattle-lifting — Comparison between the interior and the coast tribes — Want of veracity — Powers of deception — Practice of slavery — Comparison with Europeans. 35 CHAPTER III. ASIATIC SKITLEMKNTS AND PORTUOUESK CONC^UKSIS IN SOUTH AFRICA ....... Relics of the occupation of part of South Africa in ancient times by a race of gold miners — Occupa- 75 CONTENTS. XI TAOE tion by Arabs of the East African coast as far down as Sofala — Exploration of tlie western coast of Africa by 'he Portuguese — Discovery of the Cape of Good ; )pe by Bartholomeu Dias — Information upon the trade route between India and Eaat Africa obtained by a Portuguese traveller — First voyage of Vasco da Gama from Portugal to India — Voyage of Cabral— Discovery of the island of St Helena — Second voyage of Vasco da Gama — Dis- covery of Delagoa Bay — Submission of the ruler of Kilwa to the Portuguese — Causes of the .superiority of the Portuguese over the Arabs — Discovery of Table Bay — Naming of Table IMountain — Famous cruise of P»,uy Louren^o Eava.sco — First shipwreck on the South African coast — Occupation of Kilwa by the Portuguese — Sack of Mombasa — Occupation of Sofala by the Portuguese — Revolt of the Aiabs at Kilwa — Destruction of Kilwa— Occurrences at Sofala — Establishment of a refresh- ment station at Mozambi([ue — Sack of Oja and Brava — Appearance of a strong Egyptian fleet in the Arabian sea — Defeat of a Portuguese squadron and death of the commander Louren^o d' Almeida — Destruction of the Egyptian fleet by the viceroy Francisco d'Almeida — Selection of Goa as the capital of Portuguese India — Monopoly of the eastern trade by the Portuguese — Slaughter of Fran- cisco d'Almeida and sixty-four other Portuguese by Hottentots in Table Valley — Portuguese names of places on the South African coast. CHAPTER TV. TRANSACTIONS OF THE POFITUGUESK SOUTH OF THE ZAMBK8I KliOM THE DEATH OF FRANCTSCO d'aLMEHJA TO TUB FAILUflE OF FRANCISCO BAKRETO's EXPEDITION 1 1 7 Commerce of Sofala— Condition of the Mohanie- I I Xll CONTENTS. dans at Sofala — Description of the Kalanga tribe of Bantu — Explanation of the title Monomotapa — Cause of errors in early maps of South-Eastern Africa — Knowledge of the ruins now termed Zimbabwe — Collection of gold by the Makalanga — Exploration of the lower course of the Limpopo river and of Delagoa Bay by Lourengo Marques and Antonio Caldeira — Change of names of places — Commerce between Mozambique and the bay of Louren9o Marques — Commerce with Inhambane — Establishment of forts and trading stations at Sena and Tete on the southern bank of the Zambesi — Rapid degeneration of the Portuguese in South- Eastern Africa — Separation of the East African coast from the viceroyalty of India — Appointment of Francisco Barreto as captain general of the East African coast — Establishment of Mozambique as ihe centre of the Portuguese government in Eastern Africa — Belief of the Portuguese in the richness of the South African gold-fields — Resolution of the king to take possession of the gold-fields — En- thusiasm in Lisbon on this becoming known — Account of the force sent out until its arrival at Sena — Barbarous treatment of the Mohamedans at Sena — Disastrous expedition of Francisco Barreto in the Zambesi valley — Death of Francisco Barreto — Assumption of the government by Vasco Fer- nandes Homem — Division of the Kalanga people into four independent tribes — Expedition of Vasco Fernandes Homem to Manika — Arrangements with the Tshikanga and Kiteve chiefs concerning trade. PAGE CHAPTER V. EVENTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN AFRICA FROM THE FAILURE OF BARRETO'S EXPEDITION TO THE APPEARANCE OP THE DUTCH IN THE EASTERN SEAS .... First Mission to natives of South Africa — Retire- 153 CONTENTS. xm ment of the missionaries from the Tonga country — Re-establishment of the mission — Baptism of the monomotapa — Murder of the father Gon9alo da Silveira — Arrival of friars of the Dominican order — Occupation of various stations by the Dominicans — Establishment of hospitals by the order of St John of God — Small impression made on the Bantu by missionary teaching — Loss of the galleon S. Jodo — Terrible suft'erings of the shipwrecked people — Death of Dona Leonor de Sepulveda — Loss of the ship S. IViome— Devotion to duty of the friar Nicolau do Rosario — Wreck of the ship Santo Alberto in Algoa Bay — Friendly conduct of a Hottentot chief — Overland journey of the ship- wrecked people to Delagoa Bay — Account of the native tribes along the south-eastern coast of Africa — Condition of the Portuguese factories at the close of the sixteenth century— Trading stations in the Kalanga country — Devastations by savage hordes north of the Zambesi — Destruction of Tete and Sena by the Mazimba — Murder of the friar Nicolau do Rosario — Defeat of a Portuguese army under Pedro de Sousa — Conclusion of peace with the Mazimba — Condition of Portugal at the close of the sixteenth century — Effect of the introduction of slaves — General corruptio i in the eastern govern- ments — Construction of Fort S. Sebastiuo at Mozambique. PAGE CHAPTER VI. APPEARANCE OP THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND DUTCH IX THE EASTERN SEAS 101 First voyages of the French to India — Circum- navigation of the globe by Sir Francis Drake — Travels of Ralph Fitch in India — Voyage of Thomas Candish — First Visit of Englishmen to XIV CONTENTS. South Africa — Efforts of the Dutch to find a new route to the East— Journey of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten — First voyage of Dutch ships past the Cape of Good Hope — Renaming of several places on the South African coast — Creation of the Nether- lands East India Company — Destruction by the Dutch of the Portuguese power in the Indian islands — Unsuccessful siege of Mozambique by Steven van der Hagan — Unsuccessful siege of Fort S. Sebastiao by Paulus van Caerden — Destruction of the town of Mozambique by Van Caerden — Use made of Table Bay by Dutch fleets — Creation of the English East India Company — Use made of Table Bay by English fleets — Proceedings of the commo- dores Fitzherbert and Shillinge in Table Valley — Efforts to unite the English and Dutch East India Companies — Murder of Europeans by Hottentots in Table Valley— Visit of the Hottentot Cory to England— Landing of English criminals in Table Valley. CHAPTER VII. PRINCIPAL KVENT3 IN PORTUGUESE SOUTH AFRICA FROM THE EARLY YEARS OP THE SEVENTEENTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY . Pompous instructions issued by the king — Want of means to carry them into execution — Method of conducting the ' administration — Expedition in search of silver mines — Hostility of the monomo- tapa Kapranziue — Civil war in the Kalanga tribe — Assistance given by the Portuguese to the chief Manuza — Terms of the agreement entered into by Manuza — Murder of the friars Joao da Trindade and Lurz do Espirito Santo — Final defeat of Kapranzine — Establishment by the Dominicans of missions at many new centres — Baptism of the PAGE 229 CONTENTS. XV Kiteve chief — Baptism of the monomotapa Pedro — Conversion of the monomotapa Domingos — Strange life of the chief Miguel — Decay of the Dominicans in Eastern Africa — Census of Christians at the beginning of the nineteenth century — Impossibility of colonising the coast region — Quality of Portuguese troops — Commencement of the East African slave trade with Brazil — Changes in the commercial system — Description of the prazos of the crown — Contraction of the Portuguese possessions on the coast — Interminable wars among the Bantu — Destruction of the Kalanga tribe — Description of Sena in 1830 — Conquest of the country south of the Zambesi river by the Abagaza — Description of Inhambane in 1834 — Destruction of the inhabitants of that post — Description of Sofala in 1836 — Annihilation of the Portuguese force there — Occupation of the islands Chiloane and Santa Carolina — Description of Sena in 1855 — Separation of the East African government from that of Goa — Introduction of municipal institutions and of a provincial council — Scanty knowledge of the interior of the continent possessed by the Portuguese — Various journeys of exploration and transits from coast to coast. PAOK chaptp:r VIII. REVIVAL OF ACTIVITY IN PORTUGUESE SOUTH AFRICA DURING THE LAST HALF OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY , . Cause of the importance of Delagoa Bay — Inspec- tion of the bay by a Dutch vessel in 1688 — Occupa- tion of the western shore of the bay by the Dutch — Inspection of the bay in 1757 — Occupation of the southern and eastern shores of the bay by an Austrian expedition in 1776 — Expulsion of the 269 : li '■<^^- I h- XVI CONTENTS. Austrians by the Portuguese — Conscruction of a fort on the Espirito Santo by the Portug'iese in 1787— Occurrences at the fort until 1822— Visit of the English surveying expedition under Captain Owen — Destruction of the Portuguese fort by the Abagaza — Annexation of Inhaka and Elephant islands to Natal — Dealings with the chief Umziia — Treaty of 1869 between Portugal and the South African Republic — Arbitration concerning the claims of (Ireat Britain and Portugal to the southern and eastern shores of Delagoa Bay — Decision in favour of Portugal — Construction of a railway inland from Louren§o Marques — Present condition of Lourengo Marques — Importance of the harbour of Beira — Claim of Portugal to the whole interior of the continent — Negotiations between the British and Portuguese governments — Occupation of the interior plateau by the British South Africa Company — Arrangements with the chief Umtasa — Occurrences at Umtasa's kraal — Collision between British and Portuguese forces — Treaty of 1891 between Great Britain and Portugal — Construction of a railway to connect Beira with the interior — Account of the Chartered Mozambique Company — Method of administration by this Company — Description of Inhambane — Insurrection of Nyande and Bonga — Description of Tete — Recent Disturb- ances — Present condition of the country. if' 1 ^AOE SOURCES OF INFORMATION INDEX . 305 . 317 1 I CHAPTER I. EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS. i J W HB » I irwjii^^i— .^ n i m ]» ■ i»»- ■ w «» * -•» i ' 1 ;• : I i I Chapter I. — Contents. Proof of the antiquity of man in South Africa afforded by the position in which stone impleraents are sometimes found — Physical features of the country — Condition of the earliest inhabitants — Later arrivals — Geographical position of the different races — Skull measurements of the Bantu, Hottentots, and Bushmen — Earliest observations upon the three races. Bushmen : Language — Hal'itations — Food — Weapons — Stone implements — Clothing — Orpauients — Method of producing fire — Dis- position — Want of government — Superstitions — Powers of mimicry — Artistic ability — Sense of locality — Ordinary modd of life — Practical incapability of improvement. Hottentots : Difference in appearance from Bushmen — Language — Division into tribes — Weakness of government — Domestic animals — Food — Clothing — Ornaments — Habitations — Weapons — Enow- ledge of iron — Use of horn, bone, and stone implements — Possession of copper — Earthenware manufactures— Superstitions — Disposition — Destruction of infirm persons — ^Marriage customs — Position of women — Mode of initiation into manhood — Powers of imagination — Evening amusements — Favourite game — Scale of happiness — Capability of improvement. i' CHAPTER I. EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA : BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS. In the present condition of geological knowledge it is impossible to determine whether South Africa has been the home of human beings as long as Europe has been, but it is certain that men have roamed over its surface from an exceedingly remote period. Stone implements shaped by human hands have been found in situations where they must have lain undisturbed for a very long time if reckoned by years. None of these implements — whether arrowheads, scrapers, knives, axes, or digging weights — were ground or polished, as chipping and drilling comprised all the labour that wp.h bestowed upon them. They were the products of the skill of man in the lowest stage of his existence. Work- shops where they were manufactured have been found in various places, and to some of these the raw material, or unchipped stone, must have been brought from a considerable distance. The artisans may have lived there permanently, or, what is more probable, some superstition may have been connected with the localities. At these factories a quantity of stone from which flakes have been struck, some raw material, a very few finished jirticles, and a great many broken : ) ii 4 THE PORTUGUESE ones usually lie wholly or partially hidden by drift sand or mould, and it is generally by accident that they are discovered. The most ancle''*' ' -^ements were as skilfully made as those in use by j. section of the inhabitants — the Bushmen — when Europeans first visited the country, showing that at least in the mechanical arts there had been no advance during many centuries. This is not surprising if the physical condition of South Africa be considered. The land rises from the ocean level in terraces or steps, until a vast interior plain is reached. Deep gorges have been worn by the action of water, in some places internal forces have caused elevations, in other places depressions, and everywhere along the margins of the terraces distortions may be seen. There are no navigable rivers, and the coast is bold and unbroken. The steep fronts of the terraces, which from the lower side appear to be mountain ranges, and the absence of running water in dry seasons over large surfaces tended likewise to prevent inter- course, not only with the outer world, but between the different parts of the country. Th.. rude people were left to themselves, without that stimulus to improve- ment which contact with strangers gives. There was no necessity to exert the mind to provide clothing or habitations, for the climate is mild, and even on the elevated interior plain, though the nights in winter are sharp and cold, snow never lies long on the ground. Like the wild animals, man on occasions of severe weather could retire from exposed situations to sheltered and warmer localities. At length, however, anothqr clasg of human beings IN SOUTH AFRICA. o appeared on the western and southern coasts. Where they came from no one can say, nor how they reached South Africa. Completely isolated, few in number, in many respects differing greatly from Bushmen while in others closely resembling those people, their presence here is as yet an unsolved mystery. That their occupa- tion is only modern is, however, tolerably certain : that is the time that has elapsed since their arrival is but short compared with the long period that Bushmen have been living in the country. The probability seems to be that a party of intruding males of some light-brown or yellow race took to themselves women of Bushman blood, and thus gave origin to the people whom Euro- peans term Hottentots. There are difficulties to be encountered by this supposition, as, for instance, the possession of oxen and sheep by the Hottentots ; but, upon the whole, it offers a more likely solution of the mystery than any other conjecture yet made. At a period still later than the coming of the Hottentots, a gradual pressure of the Bantu tribes of Central Africa into the southern part of the continent began to take place. When they crossed the Zambesi cannot be determined, but probably it was earlier than the commencement of the Christian era by some hundreds of years. They did not extend beyond the Limpopo, however, until a much later date. The tradi- tions of all the tribes south of that river, none of which can be more than a few centuries old, point to a distant northern origin, and in some instances particulars are given which prove the traditions to be in that respect correct. Towards the close of the fifteenth century of our era 6 TitE PORTtTOtESE III !!l , when Europeans first had communication with natives of South Africa, the belt of land comprising the lowest and the second terrace along the western coast from about Cape Cross southward to the Cape of Good Hope, and thence eastward to the Bashee river, was occupied — though thinly — by Hottentot tribes. The same people were to be found about the lower courses of the Vaal and Modder rivers and along the banks of the Orange from the junction of the Vaal to the sea. They were not known either on the eastern side of the con- tinent or elsewhere in the interior. The Bantu at that time occupied the choicest parts of the country north of a straight line from Cape Cross to Port Natal, and extended south of that line into the territory now known as Basutoland and also along the eastern coast as far as the Bashee river. They were not to be found in the remaining portion of South Africa. Bushmen roamed over the entire country south of ! *e Zambesi from sea to sea, and were the only inhabitants of the rugged mountains and arid plains between the Hottentot and Bantu borders. As they could hold their own fairly well against the Hottentots, they were more numerous along the western and southern coasts than along the eastern, where the Bantu had better means of exterminating them. The skull measurements show great differences in the three races, though the number — especially of Hottentot skulls — carefully examined by competent men is as yet too small for an average to be laid down with absolute precision. What is termed the horizontal cephalic index, that is the proportion of the breadth of a skull to its length, k. IN SOUTH AFttlCA. is given by Professor Flower, conservator of the museum of the royal college of surgeons of England, from thirteen Bantu specimens as 73 to 100. The highest in this series is 768, and the lowest 684. Dr Gustaf Fritsch, from thirteen specimens, gives the average as 72 to 100. The highest in this series is 78, and the lowest 64"3. M. Paul Broca, the French authority, gives the average of his measurements as 72. Thus the Bantu are dolichocephali, that is people whose skulls average in breadth less than three-fourths of their length. The average horizontal cephalic index of white people is 78'7. Of Hottentots, only four that are certainly genuine specimens are given in Professor Flower's volume. The average horizontal cephalic index of these is 72*7, the highest being 75, and the lowest 70-3. Dr Fritsch had also only four skulls which were certainly those of Hottentots. The average horizontal cephalic index of these he found to be 72*6, the highest being 77, and the lowest 6 5 9. M. Broca gives this index from his measurements as 72. The Hottentots are thus certainly true dolichocephali. Of genuine Bushman skulls, Professor Flower gives the measurements of five. The average horizontal cephalic index is 76'6, the highest being 784, and the lowest 757. Dr George Rolleston, professor of ana- tomy in the university of Oxford, in an appendix to Gates' Matabeleland, gives the measurements of six Bushman skulls in the museum of the university. The average horizontal cephalic index he found to be 75-7, the highest being 81, and the lowest 70. Dr Fritsch measured five Bushman skulls, and found the 8 The PORTUGUESE average horizontal cephalic index 74*2, the highest being 78'5, and the lowest 69*5. M. Broca found the average of his measurements as low as 72, but it is doubtful whether his specimens were not Hottentot skulls. It would appear that the Bushmen are on the border line separating the dolichocephalic from the mesaticephalic races, the breadth of skulls of the latter averaging between three-fourths and four-fifths of the length. The cranial capacity, or size of the brain of each, is given by Professor Flower as : Bantu 1485, Hottentot 1407, and Bushman 1288 cubic centimetres. The average brain of a European is 1497 cubic centimetres in size. Dr RoUeston found the average cranial capacity of his six Bushman specimens as low as 1195 cubic centimetres, and all other recorded measure- ments place these people among the extreme micro- cephalic or small-skulled races. The Hottentots in this classification are mesocephali, a name applied to races whose average cranial capacity is between 1350 and 1450 cubic centimetres, and the Bantu, like Europeans, are megacephali or large-skulled. The alveolar index, index of prognathism, or the slope of a line from the top of the forehead to the point in the upper jaw between the insertion of the front teeth, is an important characteristic. According to the angle which this line makes with the horizontal plane of the skull, races are classified as orthognathous, mesognathous, or prognathous. In this classification the Bushman comes nearest the European, his face being much more vertical than that of either of the others. Between the Hottentots and the Bantu there is scarcely any difference. 1I ■ I'i ■:ll m i IN SOUTH AFRICA. 9 A very marked feature of the Bushman skull is the smallness of the lower jaw and the want of prominence of the chin. In this respect he is among the least advanced of all races. The lower jaw of the Hottentot is much better formed, but is not by any means as massive as that of a member of the Bantu family or a European. The skulls of these South African races also differ from each other and from those of Europeans in many particulars which are only intelligible to pro- fessional anatomists. This subject can be studied in special works, and it is not necessary therefore to enter more deeply into it here. The greatest differences between the three divisions of people who lived in South Africa in ancient times are now believed to be in the constitution of their minds, but early observers did not detect these. The variations which they noticed were chiefly the following : Bushmen: frame dwarfish,^ colour yellowish brown, face fo.K-like in outline, eyes small and deeply sunk, head dotted over with little knots of twisted hair not much larger than peppercorns, ears without lobes, stomach protuberant, back exceedingly liollow, limbs slender ; weapons bow and poisoned arrow ; pursuits those of a hunter ; government none but parental ; habitations caverns or mats spread over branches of trees ; domestic animal the dog ; demeanour that of perfect independence ; language abounding in clicks and in deep guttural sounds. ^ Occasionally among the Masarwa, or Bushmen of the Botshuana country, individuals over five feet and a half in height are found, but these are to a certainty mixed breeds. They show Buntu blood in their darker colour aa well as in their general form and size, 1^ il ! E < \ ! » ■ I? i 10 THE PORTtJGtJESE Hottentots: frame slight but sometimes tall, better formed than Bushmen, but back hollow, head scantily covered with little tufts of short crisped hair, cheeks hollow, nose flat, eyes far apart and often set obliquely, hands and feet small, colour yellow to olive ; weapons assagai, knobkerie, bow and poisoned arrow, shield ; pursuits pastoral and to a very limited extent metal- lurgic; government feeble; habitations slender frames of wood covered with skins or reed mats; domestic animals ox, sheep, and dog; demeanour inconstant, marked by levity ; language abounding in clicks. Bantu : frame of those on the coast generally robust and as well formed as that of Europeans, of those in the interior somewhat weaker, head covered closely with crispy hair, cheeks full, nose usually flat but occasionally prominent, hands and feet large, colour brown to deep black; weapons assagai, knobkerie, shield, and among the northern tribes battle-axe and bow and arrow; pursuits agricultural, pastoral, and metallurgic ; govern- ment firmly constituted, with perfect system of laws : habitations strong framework of wood covered with thatch; domestic animals ox, goat, sheep, dog, bara- yard poultry ; demeanour ceremonious, grave, respectful to superiors in rank; language musical, words abounding in vowels and inflected to produce harmony in sound. THE BUSHMEN, TERMED BY THE HOTTENTOTS SANA, BY THE BANTU ABATWA. The pigmy hunters, who were the oldest inhabitants of South Africa, received from the first European colonists the name of Bushmen, on account of their IN SOUTH AFRICA. 11 preference for places abounding in bushes, where they had a wonderful faculty of concealing themselves. Their language has not been examined very carefully, except by the late Dr Bleek and by Miss L. Lloyd whose researches have only partly been published. It is known, however, to be very low in order as a means of expressing any but the simplest ideas, and to be divided into a great number of dialects, some of which vary as widely as English from German. Many of its apparent roots are polysyllabic, but there is a doubt whether some of these are not really composites. It is so irregular in its construction that the plural of nouns is often formed by reduplication, as if we should say " dog dog " instead of " dogs," and sometimes a plural idea is expressed by a word which has nothing in common with the one which expresses the singular. Yet there is an instance of a dual form in the first personal pronoun. In none of the dialects has any word for a numeral higher than three been discovered. Dr Bleek and Miss Lloyd found that the language could be represented in writing, though to the ear it sounds like a continuous clattering combined with hoarse sounds proceeding from the depths of the throat. The Bushmen inhabited the mountains and deserts, and carried on incessant war with the Hottentot and Bantu tribes. A cave with its opening protected by a few branches of trees, or the centre of a small circle of bushes round which skins of wild animals were stretched, was the best dwelling that they aspired to possess. Failing either of these, they scooped a hole in the ground, placed a few sticks or stones round it, and spread a mat or a skin above to serve as a roof. i ii' ».: ii fir I i ! 12 THE PORTUGUESE A little grass at the bottom of the hole formed a bed, and though it was not much larger than the nest of an ostrich, a whole family could manage to lie down in it. The ordinary food of these people consisted of roots berries, wild plants, locusts, larvse of ants — now com- monly called Bushman rice by European colonists — reptiles, birds, and mammalia of all kinds. No chance of plundering the pastoral tribes of domestic cattle was allowed to escape them. They were capable of remain- ing a long time without food, and could then gorge immense quantities of meat without any ill effects. They were careless of the future, and were happy if the wants of the moment were sup})lieu. Thus, when a large animal was killed, no trouble was taken to preserve a portion of its fiesh, but tiie time was spent in alternate gorging and sleeping until not a particle of carrion was left. When a drove of domestic cattle was stolen, several were slaughtered at once and their carcasses shared with birds of prey, while if their recapture was considered possible, every animal was killed. Such wanton destruction caused them to be detested by all other dwellers in the land. Their weapons were bows and arrows. The bows were nothing more than pieces of saplings or branches of trees about four feet in length, scraped down a little, and strung with a thong of raw hide or a cord formed by twisting together the sinews of animals. The arrows were from twenty to thirty inch^^s in length, made of reeds pointed generally with bone, but some- times with sharp stone flakes, and with triangular iron heads whenever these were taken from Hottentot enemies. The arrowhead and the lashing by which it IN SOUTH AFRICA. 13 was secured to the reed were coated with a deadly poison, so that the slightest wound caused death. The arrows were carried in a quiver made of the bark of a species of euphorbia, which is still called by Europeans in South Africa the kokerboom or quiver tree. They were formidable solely on account of the poison, as they could not be projected with accuracy to any *T[reat distance, and had but little force. Tn after years the colonists considered their clothing ample protection at fifty yards distance. The Bushmen made pits for entrapping game, and also poisoned pools of water, so that any animal that drank perished. They used stone flakes for various purposes, but took no trouble to polish them or give them a neat appear- ance. Their knives, scrapers, and awls for piercing skins were commonly made of horn or bone. There was a stone implement, however, which was in general use. It was a little spherical boulder, from three to six inches in diameter, such as may be picked up in abundance all over the country, through the centre of which the Bushman drilled a hole large enough to receive a digging-stick, to which it gave weight. With the tools at his disposal, this must have required much time and patience, so that in his eyes a stone when drilled undoubtedly had a very high value. On it he depended for food in seasons of drought, when all the game had fled from his part of the country. Drilled stones from an inch to three inches in diameter have occasionally been found in tracts of country once inhabited by Bushmen, but from which those savages have long since disappeared. None so small as these have been noticed in use in recent times, It is u THE PORTUGUESE conjectured that they were intended as toys for children. There is no record of a European having ever seen a Bushman manufacturing stone implements, and no one appears to have made inquiry into the matter until it was too late to derive any information from the people themselves. When they were first met, they had such implements in use, and wherever they lived such implements are still to be found, hence it is assumed that they made them. But a few weapons of stone much larger than those ordinarily used by Bushmen have been picked up in South Africa in situations where it is supposed they cannot have been left by individuals of the stronger Hottentot race, though not in places indicating that they were of great age, and these have given rise to an opinion that the country may once have been occupied by more robust savages. Traditional stories have been gathered from Bushmen themselves, in which they speak of an older race. But weapons made by Hottentots for their own use could have been taken from them and removed to a great distance by their puny enemies, and the traditions probably refer to the supplanting of one horde by another in a particular locality. There is no other evidence that the Bushmen were not the earliest inhabitants of South Africa, and this seems altogether too slight a foundation to build a theory upon. People in a low condition of society do not use clothing for purposes of modesty, but to protect them- selves against inclement weather. And as the Bush- pien were hardly affected by any degree of either heat it m IN SOUTH AFRICA. 15 or u:>ld that is experienced in this country, whether on the plams in midsummer or on the mountains in mid- winter, the raiment of the males was usually of the scantiest, and in the chase was thrown entirely aside. At the best it consisted merely of the skin of an animal wrapped round the person. Adult females wore a little apron, and fastened a skin over their shoulders in such a way that an infant could be carried on their backs. Both sexes used belts, which in times of scarcity they tightened to assuage the pangs of hunger, and whenever they had the means they rubbed their bodies with grease and clay or soot, which made them even more ugly than they were by nature. When the men expected to meet an enemy, they fastened their arrows in an erect position round their heads, in order to appear as formidable as possible. But they never exposed themselves unnecessarily to danger, and tried always to attack from an ambush or a place that would give them the advantage of striking the first blow before their adversaries were aware of their presence. A poisoned arrow, shot from a little scrub in which a Bushman was lying concealed, often ended thejcareer of an unwary Hottentot traveller. The Bushmen wore few ornaments, not because they were careless about decorating their persons, but because it was very difficult to obtain anything for the purpose. They were without metal, and in the vast interior, as they knew nothing of commerce, they could not obtain sea-shells. Yet some of them contrived to make neck- laces, which were worn by the men and women, not by the children. They cut little circular disks of tor- toise and ostrich egg shells, drilled holes in them, an4 ■ ■'■li'^MWlfc I 13 THE PORTUGUESE ill Hi I! ; strung them on thongs. It requires some reflection to realise the amount of patient labour expended upon a single ornament of this kind, manufactured with stone implements. In other cases they made grooves round the teeth of animals, and then strung a number together. A consideration of how much value such a simple implement as a tinder-box would have had to theoo people may aid in enabling a European to comprehend the life that they led. They knew how to procure fire by twirling a piece of wood round rapidly in the socket of another piece, but the preparation of the apparatus took much time, and a considerable amount of labour was needed to produce a flame. Under these circrm- stances, it was a task of the women to preserve a fire when once made, and as they moved their habitations to a large animal when it was killed, instead of trying to carry the meat away, this was often a very difficult matter. Sometimes it necessitated carrying a burning stick fifteen or twenty miles, or when it was nearly consumed, kindling a fire for the sole purpose of getting another brand to go on with. No small amount of labour would therefore have been saved by the posses- sion of a flint and a piece of steel. These wild people lived in small societies, often con- sisting of only a couple of families. They were vin- dictive, passionate, and cruel in the extreme. Human life, even that of their nearest kindred, was sacrificed on very slight provocation. They did not understand what quarter in battle meant, and as they never spared an enemy who was in their power, when themselves surrounded so that all hope of escape was gone, they ■'V. IN SOUTH AFKICA. r reflection to ided upon a 1 with stone •ooves round a number ' ^« ch a simple ad to the?e comprehend procure fire n the socket ie apparatus ^ nt of labour lese circrm- jserve a fire ' habitations ^d of trying || ^ery difficult g a burning was nearly '^ se of getting ''a amount of ^ the posses- s, often con- IS jy were vin- «,m ae. Human as sacrificed understand .i'M lever spared % themselves ■'- m s gone, they fought till their last man fell. Their manner of living was such as to develop only qualities essential to hunters. In keenness of vision and fleetness of foot they were surpassed by no people on earth, they could travel immense distances without taking rest, and yet their frames were so feeble as to be incapable of labour. They possessed an intense love of liberty and of their wild wandering way of life. Hereditary chieftainship was not recognised by them. It sometimes happened that the bravest or most expert of a party became a leader in predatory excursions, but his authority did not extend to the exercise of judicial control. Each man was independent of every other. Even parental authority was commonly disregarded by a youth as soon as he could provide for his own wants. They were firm believers in charms and witchcraft, and were always in dread of violating some custom — as for instance avoiding casting a shadow upon dying game — which they believed would cause disaster. A Bushman would not make a hole in the sandy bed of a river in order to obtain water, without first offering a littl'3 piece of meat, or some larvae of ants, or an arrow if he had nothing else, to propitiate the spirit of the stream. And so with every act of his life, something had to be done or avoided to avert evil. Their reasoning power was very low. They under- stood the habits of wild animals better than anything else, yet they believed the different species of game could converse with each other, and that there were animals and human beings who could exchange their forms at will, for instance that there were girls who could change themselves into lions and baboons that B 18 TttK PORTUGUESE I ;■ could put on the appearance of men. The moon, accord- ing to the ideas of some of them, was a living thing, according to the notions of others it was a piece of hide which a man threw into the sky. In the same way the stars were once human beings, or they were pieces of food hurled into the air. As well might one attempt to get reasons for their fancies from European children five or six years of age as from Bushmen : the reflective faculties of one were as fully developed as of the other. Dr Bleek and Miss Lloyd obtained from several individuals prayers to the moon and to stars. But everything connected with their religion — that is their dread of something outside of and more powerful than themselves — was vague and uncertain. They could give no explanation whatever about it, and indeed they did not all hold the same opinions on the subject. It is difficult to conceive of a human being in a more degraded condition than that of a Bushman. In some respects, however, he showed considerable ability, and there was certainly an enormous gulf between him and the highest of the brute creation. He possessed extra- ordinary powers of mimicry. Enclosed in a framework covered with the skin of an ostrich, he was in the habit of stalking game, and, by carefully keeping i:is prey to windward, was able to approach within shooting distance, when the poison of his arrow completed the task. He could imitate the peculiarities of individuals of other races with whom he came in contact, and was fond of creating mirth by exhibiting them in the drollest manner. He was also an artist. On the walls of caves and the sheltered sides of great rocks he drew rude pictures in IN SOUTH AFRICA. 19 profile of the animals with which he was acquainted. The tints were made with difi'erent kinds of ochre hav- ing considerable capability of withstanding the decay of time, and they were mixed with grease, so that they penetrated the rock more or less deeply according to its porousness. There are caves on the margins of rivers containing paintings which have been exposed to the action of water during occasional floods for at least a hundred years, and the colours are yet unfaded where the rock has not crumbled away. In point of artistic merit, however, the paintings were seldom superior to the drawings on slates of European children eight or nine years of age, though there were occasional instances of game being delineated not only in a fairly correct but in a graceful manner, showing that some of the workmen possessed more skill than others. In none of them was any knowledge of perspective or of shading displayed. Two colours were sometimes used, as, for instance, the head or legs of an animal might be white, and the remainder of the body brown, but each colour was evenly laid on as far as it went. In short, the paintings might have been mistaken for the work of children, but for the impres- sions of the hands often accompanying them, and the scenes being chiefly those of the chase. In some places, where the face of the rock was very dark, the Bushman drew an outline of a figure, and then chipped away ths surface within it. The labour required for such a task, without metallic implements, must have been great, and the workman was un- doubtedly possessed of much patience. He was a sculptor in the elementary stage of the art. II, ^ I i''i I I' ' U iiij ill { 20 THE PORTUGUESE These wild people possessed too a faculty — it might almost be termed an additional sense — of which Euro- peans are destitute. They could make their way in a straight line to any place where they had been before. Even a child of nine or ten years of age, removed from its parents to a distance of over a hundred miles and without opportunity of observing the features of the country traversed, could months later return unerringly. They could give no explanation of the means by which they accomplished a task seemingly so difficult. Many of the inferior animals, however, have this faculty, as notably the dove, so that it is not surprising to find the lowest type of man in possession of it. The life led by these savages was in truth a wretched one, judged from a European standard. They had no contact with people beyond their own little com- munities, except in war, for they were without a con- ception of commerce. If a pestilence had swept them all from the face of the earth, nothing more would have been left to mark where they had once been than the drilled stones, rudely shaped arrowheads, rock paint- ings, and crude sculp!.. .res. Their pleasures were hardly superior to those of dumb animals. They had a musical instrumei. " like a bow, with a piece of quill attached to the string, but the sounds produced from it could hardly be termed harmonious. Their dancing was a mere quivering of the body and stamping of the feet. The games that they practised were chiefly — if not entirely — imitation hunts, in which some or all of them represented animals. In this pastinte they dis- played much cleverness, whether they acted as men or as lions in pursuit of antelopes. But it was not often ^\j IN SOUTH AFRICA. 21 that they engaged in play, for the effort to sustain existence was with them severe and almost constant. At early dawn the Bushman rose from his mat or bed of grass in a cavern on the side of a hill, and scanned the valley or plain below in search of game. If any living thing was within range of his far-seeing eye, he grasped his bow and quiver of arrows, and with his dog set off in pursuit. His wife — he had but one, for he was a strict monogamist — and his children followed, carrying fire and collecting bulbs and any- thing else that was edible on the way. At nightfall, if they were fortunate, they collected about the body of an antelope, and there they remained till nothing that could be consumed was left. And so from day to day and year to year life passed on, without anything of an intellectual nature to ennoble it. It can now be asserted in positive language that these people were incapable of adopting European civilisation. During the first half of the present century agents of various missionary societies made strenuous efforts for their improvement, many persons who were not missionaries tried during long years to induce them to abandon their savage habits, and there were even experiments in providing parties of them with domestic cattle, in order to encourage a pastoral life, but all were without success. To this day there has not been a single instance of a Bushman of pure blood having permanently adopted the habits of a white man. They could not even exist in presence of a high civilisation, but dwindled away rapidly, and have now nearly died out altogether. It would seem that for them progress was possible in no other way than 22 THE PORTUGUESE by exceedingly slow development and mixture of blood in successive stages with races always a little more advanced. THE HOTTENTOTS, TERMED BY THE BANTU AMALAWU. The Hottentots termed themselves Khoikhoi, men of men, as they prided themselves upon their superiority over the other race with which they were best acquainted, and in fact they were considerably more advanced towards civilisation than the Bushmen, though a stranger at first sight might not have seen much difference in personal appearance between the two. A little observation, however, would have shown that the Bushmen were not only much smaller and uglier, but that their faces were broader, their eyes not nearly as full and bright, their lobeless ears rounder in shape, and their chins much less prominent. Their wild expression also was not observed in the Hottentot face. The investigations of the late Dr Bleek have shown that the languages of these two classes of people were not only different in the words, but that they varied in construction. That spoken by the Hottentots was free of deep guttural sounds, and though it was accompanied by much clapping of the tongue, the clicks were not so numerous as in Bushman speech. Some words were composites, but most were monosyllables, as were all the roots. The liquid consonant / was wanting. There were many dialects, but these did not vary more than tlie forms of English spoken in different counties. It was inflected by means of affixes only, which placed it IN SOUTH AFRICA. 23 U AMALAWU. in contrast with the Bantu language, as this was inflected chiefly by prefixes. It had three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. Its system of notation was decimal, and was perfect at least up to a hundred. No difficulty has been experienced by European missionaries during the present century in reducing this language to writing, and some religious literature has been printed in it. Words to express ideas unknown before were formed from well-known roots according to its grammatical structure, and were at once understood by every one. This is sufficient to show that it was of a high order. It is now, however, rapidly dying out, as the descendants of the people who once used it have long since learned to converse in Dutch, and by force of circumstances nearly all hav>3 forgotten their ancestral speech. The Hottentots were divided into a number of tribes each of which was usually composed of several clans loosely joined together. The tribes were frequently at war with each other. Every clan had its own chief, whose authority, however, was very limited, as his subjects were impatient of control. The succession was from father to son, and in the absence of a son to brother or nephew. The several heads of clans recog- nised the supremacy in rank of one of their number, who was accounted the paramount chief of the tribe, but unless he happened to be a man of more force of character than the others, he exercised no real power over them. The petty rulers were commonly jealous of each other, so that they could only unite in cases of extreme danger to all. The government was thus particularly frail, and a very slight shock was sufficient 11'/ U,f 24 THE PORTUGUESE to break any combination of the people into frag- ments. The principal property of the Hottentots consisted of horned cattle and sheep. They had great skill in training oxen to obey certain calls, as well as to carry burdens, and bulls were taught not only to assist in guarding the herds from robbers and beasts of prey, but to aid in war by charging the enemy on the field of battle. The milk of their cows was the chief article of their diet. They did not kill horned cattle for food, except on occasions of feasting, but they ate all that died a natural death. The ox of the Hottentot was an inferior animal to that of Europe. He was a gaunt, bony creature, with immense liorns and long legs, but he was hardy and well adapted to supply the wants of his owner. He served instead of a horse for riding pur- poses, being guided by a riem or thong of raw hide attached to a piece of wood passed through the cartilage of his nose. The sheep were covered with hair instead of wool, were of various colours, and had long lapping ears and tails six or seven pounds in weight. The milk as well as the flesh was used for food. Children were taught to suck the ewes, and often derived their whole sustenance from this source. The only other domestic animal was the doj.". He was an ugly crea- ture, his body being shaped like that of a jackal, and the hair on his spine being turned in the wrong direction ; but he v/as a faithful, serviceable animal of his kind. In addition to milk and the meat of oxen and sheep, of which they rejected no part except the gall, the food of the Hottentots consisted of the flesh of game obtained in the chase, locusts, and various kinds of IN SOUTH AFRICA. 25 wild plants and fruits. Agriculture, even in its simplest forms, was not practised by them. They knew how to make an intoxicating drink of honey, of which large quantities were to be had in the season of flowers, and this they used to excess while it lasted. Another powerful intoxicant with which they were acquainted was dacha, a species of wild hemp, and whenever this was procurable they smoked it with a pipe made of the horn of an antelope. That its effects were pernicious was admitted by themselves, still they could not refrain from making use of it. Their women were better clothed than those of the Bushmen, but the men were usually satisfied with very little covering, and had no sense of shame in appearing altogether naked. The dress of both sexes was made of skins, commonly prepared with the hair on. When removed from the animal, the skin was cleansed of any fleshy matter adhering to it, was then stretched and dried, and was afterwards rubbed with grease till it became soft and pliable. The ordinary costume of a man was merely a piece of jackal skin suspended in front, and a little slip of prepared hide behind. In cold weather he wrapped himself in a kaross or mantle of furs sewed together with sinews. The women wore at all times a headdress of fur, an apron, and a wrapper or a girdle of leather strings suspended from the waist. In cold weather, or when carrying infants on their backs, they added a scanty kaross. Children wore no clothing whatever. Eound their legs the females sewed strips of raw hide, like rings, which, when dry, rattled against each other and made a noise when they moved. 26 THE PORTUGUESE Both sexes ornamented their heads with copper trinkets, and hung round their necks strings of shells, leopards' teeth, or any other glittering objects they could obtain. Ivory armlets were worn by the men. From earliest infancy their bodies were smeared with grease and rubbed over with clay, soot, or powdered buchu, and to this partly may be attributed the stench of their persons. The coat of grease and clay was not intended for ornament alone. It protected them from the weather and from the vermin that infested thefr huts and clothing. Their dwellings were oval or circular frames of light undressed wood, sometimes covered with skins, but usually with mats made of rushes. They were not more than five feet in height, and had but one small opening through which the inmates crawled. In cold weather a fire was made in a cavity in the centre. The huts of a kraal were arranged in the form of a circle, the space enclosed being used as a fold for cattle. They could be taken to pieces, placed on pack-oxen, removed to a distance, and set up again, with very little labour and no waste. The weapons used by the Hottentots in war and the chase were bows ard arrows, sticks with clubbed heads, and assagais. They usually covered the head of the arrow with poison, so that a wound from one, however slight, was mortal. The assagai could be hurled with precision to a dis- tance of thirty yards. The knobkerie, or clubbed stick, was almost as formidable a weapon. It was rather stouter than an ordinary walking cane, and had a round head two or three inches in diameter. Boys were •/i V IN SOUTH AFRICA. 27 trained to throw this with so accurate an aim as to hit a bird on the wing at twenty or thirty yards dis- tance. It was projected in such a manner as to bring the heavy knob into contact with the object aimed at, and antelopes as large as goats were killed with it. The bow was a weapon of little force, and the arrows would have been harmless to large game if they had not been poisoned. The Hottentots were acquainted with the art of smelting iron, but were too indolent to turn their knov - ledge to much account. Only a few assagai and arrow- heads were made of that metal. Horn and bone were ready at hand, were easily worked, and were commonly used to point weapons. Stone was also employed by some of the tribes for this purpose, but not to any great extent, though the weights for digging sticks were the same with them as with the Bushmen. Masses of almost solid copper were obtained in Nama- qualand, and this metal was spread over the neighbour- ing country by means of barter and war, but was never used for any other purpose than that of making orna- ments for the person. It is thus noticeable that in South Africa there were no intermediate stages between the use of unpolished stone implements and implements of iron, as there were in Europe, where polished stone and bronze inter- vened. "Whether the Hottentots acquired from another race a knowledge of the manner of smelting iron, or whether they made the discovery themselves, is doubt- ful. The same difficulty arises here as with their possession of oxen and sheep. If, as has been supposed by some writers — notably by Dr Bleek on the ground i 131; '^ 28 THE PORTUGUESE ■it I f il ! ( 1' I '>i >^ k of affinity of language, — one branch of their ancestors was of North African origin, they could have obtained their domestic cattle and have learned how to smelt iron from the Bantu tribes through whose territories they passed ; but as they occupied no other part of South Africa than the margin of a lengthy coast and the interior banks of a single river, if this theory is correct they must have moved downward close to the sea, and then, instead of expanding inland as they increased in number, they must gradually have taken possession of the shore for a distance of over fifteen hundred miles. This is certainly possible, but as they cared so little for the sea that they never made even a rough canoe it does not seem very probable. These peo^ d manufactured earthenware pots for cooking purposes, which, though in general clumsily shaped and coarse in appearance, were capable of with- standing intense heat. Milk was kept in skin bags or in large bowls made by hollowing out blocks of wood. Ostrich egg shells and ox horns were used for carrying water and other domestic purposes. Some small and weak clans of Hottentots who had lost their cattle in war or 1/ disease lived along the shore, and depended for existence upon the produce of the sea. They had neither boats nor hooks, but they managed to catch fish by throwing spears from rocks standing out in deep water and by making stone walls across gullies in order to enclose considerable spaces which were nearly dry at low tide. Shell-fish also formed a portion of their food, and occasionally a dead whale would drift ashore and furnish them with a feast. Shell and ash heaps made by these people are found in IN SOUTH AFRICA. 29 many places along the coast from Cape Cross to the Kei river. They contain ordinary implements, in rare instances human skeletons, and generally bones of animals obtained in the chase, always broken in order that the marrow might be extracted. In this respect they resemble the kitchen middens of Europe, but nothing indicative of great antiquity has yet been found in any of them. On the contrary, they all appear to be quite modern, that is their age seems to be only of hundreds, not of thousands of years. Hottentots were found living in the manner here indicated when Europeans hrst came to the country, and on the coast of Namaqualand there were some existing in a similar state after the middle of the present century. As far as food, clothing, and lodging were concerned, they were in no better condition than Bushmen, but there was always the hope before them of acquiring cattle by a successful raid, in which case they would at once revert to the ordinary mode of living of their race. All the shell-heaps found on the South African coast, however, were not made by impoverished Hottentots. A few — possibly a good many — were made by Bush- men, as is proved by the paintings on rocks overhang- ing the deposits. There must also have been mixed breeds along the coast in olden times, as there are to-day in the territory about the lo./er Vaal river, and some of the remains may be due to them. These mixed Leeds arose from the union of Hottentot men with captured Bushwomen, for though the races were constantly at war, young females were generally spared by the less savage of the t\/o. •5^' 30 THE PORTtJGUESE 1'; I ' V I fl I 'll ir i; ,1 The Hottentots were a superstitious people, who placed great faith in the efficacy of charms to ward oft evil. They believed that certain occurrences foreboded good or ill luck, that a mantis alighting on a hut brought prosperity with it, and many other absurdities of a like nature. They lived in dread of ghosts and evil spLits. They invoked blessings from the moon, to whose praise they sang and danced when it appeared as new. They also invoked blessings from dead ances- tors, to whose shades sacrifices were offered by priests on important occasions, and they implored protection and favour from a mythical hero named Heitsi-eibib, whose worship consisted in throwing a bit of wood or an additional stone upon a cairn. Cairns of consider- able size raised in this manner are to be found at the present day within territory occupied by Bantu tribes, showing, like many other indications, that the Hotten- tots once occupied a larger area than when Europeans became acquainted with them. They made off'erings also to a powerful evil spirit, with a view of averting his wrath. Their system of religion could not be ex- plained by themselves, what they understood being little more than that the customs connected with it had come down to them from their ancestors. They had not the faintest expectation of their own resurrection or conception of a heaven and a hell. A more improvident, unstable, thoughtless people never existed. Those among them who had cattle were without care or grief, and usually spent the greater part of the day in sleeping. They delighted, however, in dancing to music, which they produced from reeds. Active in this exercise and in hunting, in all other In south afbica. 31 respects they were extremely indolent. Their filthiness of person, clothing, and habitation was disgusting. They enjoyed eating food that would have turned the stomach of the least delicate of Europeans, for the sense of smelling with them — as with all people of a low type — was extremely dull. They were in the habit of abandoning aged and helpless persons as well as sickly and deformed chil- dren, whom they allowed to perish of hunger. But they regarded this as mercy, not as cruelty. Better that a helpless wretch or a cripple should give up life at once than linger on in misery. For the same reason, when a woman giving suck died, the child was buried with its parent. The Hottentots were polygamous in the sense that their customs admitted of a wealthy man having more wives than one, but the practice was by no means general. There were many kraals in which there was not a single case of polygamy. It was customary with some, perhaps with all, to take wives not from their own but from another clan. The marriage customs required that cattle should be given by the bridegroom to the nearest relatives of the bride, but temporary unions were common, and indeed a system almost as bad as that of free love prevailed, for chastity on both sides was very lightly regarded. The women were more nearly the equals of the men, and were permitted to exercise much greater freedom of speech in domestic disputes, than among most savages. Tliey were mistresses within the huts. The stores of milk were under their control, not under that of their husbands, as was the case with the Bantu tribes. The f 32 ill 60 THE PORTUGUESE f. I , •M,}/, tions. A woman was a dradge, upon whom the cultivation of the ground and other severe labour fell, she could inherit nothing, and she was liable to castigation from her husband, vvithout protection from the law. Wealth was estimated by the number of wives and cattle that a man possessed, and the one was always made use of to increase the other. The husband was head or lord of the establishment, and the wives were required to provide all the food except meat and milk. Each had a hut of her own, which she and her children occupied, and the husband used his caprice as to which of them he associated with at any time. Yet the women were quite as cheerful as the men, and knew as well as Europeans how to make their influence felt. In times of peace, after working in her garden a great part of the day, towards evening a woman collected a bundle of sticks, and with it on her head and a child on her back, trudged homeward. Having made a fire, she then proceeded to grind some soaked millet upon a quern, humming a monotonous tune as she worked the stone. When sufficient was ground, it was made into a roll, and placed in the hot ashes to bake. Meantime curdled milk was drawn by the head of the household from the skin bags in which it was kept, and the bags were refilled with milk just taken from the cows. The men made a hearty meal of the milk and the bread, with sometimes the flesh of game and different vegetable products, and after they had finished the women and children partook of what was left. Then the men gathered round the fire and chatted together, and the young IN SOUTH AFRICA. 61 people sat and listened to the stories told by some old woman till the time for sleep arrived. Different games were also played occasionally, but as the only artificial light was that of burning wood, they were usually carried on in the daytime. Chastity in married life was exceedingly rare among the coast tribes. By custom every wife of a poly- gamist had a lover, and no woman sank in the esteem of her companions on this becoming publicly known. The law allowed the husband a fine from the male offender, and permitted him to chastise the woman, provided he did not maim her ; but in the opinion of the females the off'ence was venial and was not attended with disgrace. Favoured guests had female companions — who were, however, generally widows — allotted to them. Still, chastity had a value in the estimation of the men, as was proved by the care with which the harems of a few of the most powerful chiefs were guarded. It might be thought that the framework of society would fall to pieces if domestic life were more immoral than this, but in point of fact a kraal on the coast was a scene of purity when compared with one in some parts of the interior. There it was a common occurrence for a chief to secure the services and adherence of a young man by the loan of one of his inferior wives either temporurily or permanently. In either case the children belonged to the chief, who was regarded by the law as their father. Another revolting custom among them was that of polyandrous marriages. A man who had not the requisite number of cattle to procure a wife, and whose father was too poor to help him, obtained (, \ ' ! 'I I!: '' i'.' I' 1 . ( 1 !;■' 1' !'' ;! ■ ) 1 1 62 THK PORTUGUESE assistance from a wealthy individual on condition of liaving joint marital rights. In some of the tribes women used for many purposes diflerent words from those used by every one around them. This arose from a custom which prohibited females from pronouncing the names of any of their husband's male relatives in the ascending line, or any words whatever in which the principal syllables of such names occurred. The violation of this custom was considered as showing a want of proper respect for connections by marriage. Women avoided meeting their husband's male relatives in the ascending line, whenever it was possible to do so, and never sat down in their presence. The Bantu were agriculturists. A species of millet, now called by the European colonists kaffir-corn, was the grain exclusively grown. They raised large quanti- ties of this, which they used either boiled or bruised into a paste from which bread was made. They were acquainted with the art of brewing, and in good seasons turned much of their millet into beer. Among the coast tribes a supply of grain sutticient to last until the next season was preserved from the attacks of weevil by burying it in air-tight pits excavated beneath the cattle-folds. "When kept for a long time in these granaries, the grain lost the power of germinating, and acquired a rank taste and smell, but it was in that condition none the less agreeable to the Bantu palate. The interior tribes preserved their grain either in earthenware crocks or in enormous baskets, which were perfectly watertight, and which could be exposed to the air without damage to their contents. Pumpkins, IN SOUTTT ArRlCA. 63 a species of gouril, a caiie coutuininj? saccharine matter in large quantities, and a sort of ground nut were the other products of their gardens. As food they had also milk and occasionally flesh. Milk was kept in skin bags, where it fermented and acquired a sharp acid taste. As it was drawn off, new milk was added, for it was only in the fermented state that it was used. The art of making butter and cheese was unknown. Two meals were eaten every day : a slight breakfast in the morning, and a substantial repast at sunset. Anyone passing by at that time, friend or stranger, provided only that he was not inferior in rank, sat down without invitation or ceremony, and shared in the meal. So great was the hospitality of the people to equals and superiors that food could almost have been termed common property. Boys before being circumcised were permitted to eat any kind of meat, even wild cats and other carnivora, but after that ceremony was performed the flesh of all unclean animals was rejected. In the south-east they did not use lish as food, though with some of the tribes elsewhere it was an ordinary article of diet. The Bantu had an admirable system of land tenure. The chief apportioned to each head of a family sufficient ground for a garden according to his needs, and it remained in that individual's possession as long as it was cultivated. He could even remove for years, with the consent of the chief, and resume occupation upon his return. He could not lend, much less alienate it. But if he ceased to make use of it, or went away for a long time without the chief's permission, he lost his right. Under the same conditions he had possession of ' 64 THE PORTUGUESE « t- i'ii the ground upon which his huts stood, and of a yard about them. All other ground was common pasture, but the chief had power to direct that portions of it should be used in particular seasons only. No taxes of any kind were paid for land, air, or water. Kraals were usually built in situations commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country, and always on ground with good natural drainage. The brow of a hill, with a clear flowing stream at its base and fertile garden ground beyond, was the site most favoured. Sanitary arrangements, even of the simplest kind, were unknown and uncared for, as the sense of smell was much duller with these people than with Europeans, and an impure atmosphere did not afifect their health. Their superstition too required them to remove their residences whenever a man of importance died, so that kraals seldom remained many years on the same site. The huts of the tribes along the coast were shaped like beehives, and were formed of strong frames, thatched with reeds or grass. They were proof against rain or wind. The largest were about twenty-live feet in diameter, and seven or eight feet in height at the centre. They were entered by a low, narrow aperture, which was the only opening in the structure. A hard and smooth floor was made of antheaps, moistened with water and then kneadeil with a round stone. When this had set, it was painted with a mixture of cowdung and water, which was the material used ever afterwards for keeping it in good order. In the centre of the floor a flrcplace was made, by raising a band an inch or two in height ind three or four feet in diameter, and slightly ■« IN SOUTH AFRICA. 66 hollowing the enclosed space. Many women Ijestowed a great deal of attention upon their fire-circles, often enclosing them with three bands, u large one in the centre and a smaller one on each side of it, diflerently coloured, and resembling a coil of large rope lying between con^ontric coils of less thickness. Against the wall of the hut were ranged various utensils in common use, the space around the fire-circle being reserved for sleeping on. Here in the evening mats were spread, upon which the inmates lay down to rest, each one's feet being towards the centre. Above their heads the roof was glossy with soot, and vermin swarmed on every side. It was only in cold or stormy weather that huts were occupied during the day, for the people spent the greater portion of their waking hours in the open air. The habitations of the people of the interior were much better than tliose of the people of the coast. With them the hut had perpendicular walls, and con- sisted of a central circular room, with three or fuu.r small apartnients outside, each being a segment of a circle. It was surrounded with an enclosed courtyard, but was dcHtitute of chimney or window. On the coast no efl'ort was made to secure privacy. Horned cattle constituted the principal wealth of the liantu, and formed a convenient medium of exchange tliroughout the country. (Jreat care was taken of tliem, and mucli skill was exliibited in their training. They were taught to (»bey sigiuils, as, fur instance, to run home upon a certain call or whistle being givi-n. Every man of note had his racing oxen, and prided himself upon their good qualities as much as an Knglish i squire did upon his blood horses. Ox racing was con- nected with all kinds of festivities. The care of cattle was considered the most honourable employment, and fell entirely to the men. Tliey milked the cows, took charge of the dairy, and would not permit a woman so mucli as to touch a milksack. The other domestic animals were goats, large tailed sheep in the north, dogs, and barnyard poultry. The descent of property was regulated in the .same manner as the succession to the chieftainship. liut the distribution of wealth was more equal than in any Kuroj)ean society, for each married man had a plot of garden ground, and younger brothers had a recognised claim upon the heirs of their father for assistance in setting ti;em up in life. The Bantu of tlie south-eastern coast belt were war- like in disposition and b'-ave in the field. Their weapons of ollence were wooden clubs with heavy heads and assagais or javelins, and they carried shields made of ox-hide, which vuried in size and i)attern among the tribes. The assagai was a slender wooden shaft or rod, with a long, thin, iron head, having both edges sharp, attached to it. Poising tliis first in his uplifted hand, and imparting to it a quivering motion, the warrior hurled it fortli with great force and accuracy of aim. The clul) was used at close (puirters, and could also be thrown to a considerable distance. IJoys were trained from an early age to the use of both these wea})ons. The dress of these people was composed of skins of animals formed into a H([uare mantle the size of a large blanket, which they wraitped about their persons. Tiie skin of the leopard was reserved for iiuid, lirrior aim. Uo be mned is. Iskins Ize of Uieir il for IN SOUTH AFRICA. 67 chiefs and their principal councillors, but any other could be used by common people. Married women wore a leather petticoat at all times. In warm weather men and little children usually went quite naked. They were fond of decorating their persons with ornaments, such as necklaces of shells and teeth of animals, arm-rin<,'s of copper and ivory, head plumes, etc. They rubbed themselves' from head to foot with fat and red clay, which made them look like polished bronze. Their clothiiig was greased and coloured in the same manner. Their manufactures were not of a very hi'^h order. Foremost among them must be reckoned metallic wares, which included imi)lem('nts of war and husbandry and ornaments for the person. In many ])arts of the country iron ore was al)Uiidant, and this they smelted in a simjde manncfr. Forming a furnace of clay or a boulder with a ludlow surface, out of which a groove was made to allow the liijuid metal to escape, and into which a hole was i)ierced for the purj»ose of introduc- ing a current of air, tlu^y i>iled up a heap of charcoal and virgin ore, which they afterwards covered in such a way as to prevent the escape of heat. The bellows by which air was introduced were made ol" skins, tlio mouthpieci' being the horn of a large antelojie. The moltt'U iron, escaping from the cruile yet elVectivo furnace, ran into clay moulds prepared to receive; it, which wen; as nearly as possible of the same dimensions as the implements they wished to make. These were never of great size, the largi^st being the picks or heavv hoes reouirecl for ''ardenin''. The smith, using a boulder for an anvil and a i 111 1^, < ^r: 68 THE POUTUGUKSE bumraer of stone, next proceeded t^ shape ;,lii3 la np of metal into an ussa^Mii Iiead, an axe. a pu.'k, or whatever was wanted. The occupation of the worker in iron was hereditary in certain families, and was carried on with a «j[ood deal of mystery, the common belief being that it was necessary to employ cluir ns unknown to those not initiated. But the arts ol' the founder and tlie blacksmith had not advanced be oiid the elementary stage. Instead of an opening for inserting a handle in the hoe, it termiiiati.'d in a spike which was driven into a hole burnt througli tho. knob of a lieuvy shaft of wood. T!ie as^nigai was everywhere in use, and in addition the interior tribes made crescent-shaj)ed battle-axes, wliich were fastened to handles in the same manner as the hoes. On these implements of war they bestowed all their skill, and really produced neatly tiuished articles. 'J h.y worked the metal cold, and were unable to ^ , eld two pieces together. In the manufaclure of wooden articles, such ns spoons, bowls, tighting-sticks, head-rests, etc., they were tolerably expert. Each article was made of a single block of wood, re([uirlng much time and patience to complete /, and up( v. i^ was frequently carved some sinitple pattern. Skins for clothing were prepared l)y rubbing them for a length of time witli grea^^e, by which means they were made nearly as soft and pliable as cloth. The int<3rior tribes excelled in the art of dressing skins, and were able to make beautiful fur robes, whicli they stitched with sinews hy the help of an awl. 1 IN BOUTII AFRICA. e9 lilil* In theiv department tlie women weic t^ijUiilly skilful. Eaitiienwr.rc vessels " ^ntaininp; from half a pint to fifty gallons were constructed by them, some of which were almost as perfect in form as if they had been turned on a wheel. Thouj;h they were frecpiently not more than an eighth of an inch in tiiickness, they were so finely temi)ered that the most intense iieat did not damage them. These vessels were used for beer-pots, grain-jars, and cooking utensils. IJaskets for holding corn, rush nuits, and grass bags were nuide by the women. Tlie bags were so carefully and strongly woven that they were used to hold water or any other liquid. Of the use of stone for building purposes, the coast tribes knew nothing, and the interior tribes very little. None of them ever dressed a block, but the cattle-folds, which along tlu; coast were constructed of branches of trees, in })arts of the interior were made of round stones roughly lainy led illy lief eat. But there was one member which the coast native could not entirely control, and while witli a counten- «ance otherwise devoid of expression he related the grossest falsehood or the most tragic event, his lively eye often betrayed the passions lie was feeling. When falsehood was brought home to him unanswerably, he cast his glances to the ground or around him, but did not meet the eye of the nuiu he had been attempting to deceive. The native of the interior, on the contrary, had no conception whatever of shame attached to falsehood, and his comparatively listless eye was seldom allowed to betray him. The native of the coast was brave in the field: his inland kinsman was in general an arrant coward. The one was modest wlien speaking <»f his exjjloits, the other was an intolerable boaster. The diflerence between them in this respect was very great, and was shown in many ways, but u single illustration from an occurrence of the )>resent g«;ueratit>M will give an idea of it. Faku, son of (Jungushe, chief of the Pondos, by no means the best specimen of a coast native, once wished to show his regard for a white man who was residing with him. He < ollectcd a large herd of cattle, which he presented with Ibis expression : " You have no food to eat, and we desire to show our good will towards you, take this basket of corn from the children of Uungushe." An iidaiul chief about the .same time presented a half-starved old goat to his guest, with the expression *' Ueliold an o.\ ! " There was a very important diflerence in their marriage customs. A man of the coast tribes W(jnld ': ■ * V. I ' n (I 72 THE PORTUGUESE not luariy a ^'irl wlioso njlationship by blood to himself could be traced, no matter how distantly connected they might be. So scrupulous was he in this respect that lie would not even marry a {,'irl who belonged to anotlier tribe, if she had the same family name as him- self, though the relationship could not be traced. He regp.fdad Jiimself as the protector of those females whom we would term his cousins and second cousins, but fcr whom he had only the same name as for the daughters of his own parents, the endearing name of sister. In his opinion union with one of tliem would hcve been incestuous, something horrible, something unutterably disgraceful. The native of the interior almost us a rule married the daughter of his 'ather's brother, in order, as he said, to keep j>roperiy from being lost to his family. Tliis custom more than any- thing else created a disgust and contempt for them by the peoi)le of the coast, who termed such intermarriages the union of dogs, and attriljuted to them the insainty and idiocy wliich were prevalent among the inland tribes. Among the coast tribes the institution of slavery did not exist, but there could be no njoro heartless slave- owners in the world tlian some of the people of the interior. Their bondsmen were the descendants of those who had been scattered by war, and who had lost everything but life. Of all human beings probably they were the most miserable. Tliis was the condition of the Hantu at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Europeans betamo acquainted with a section of the race, and it is the condition of the great majority of them to-day. except (I ' ^ ■ .• IN SOUTH AFRICA. 73 where tlieir customs have been modified by the authority of white people. The opinion of those who have most to do with them now — four hundred years after their first contact with Caucasian civilisation — is that an occasional individual is capable of rising to a high standard, but that the great mass shows little aptitude for European culture. In mission schools children of early age are found to keep pace with those of white parents. In some respects, indeed, they are the higlier of the two. Deprived of ail extraneous aid, a IJantu child is able to devise means for supporting life at a nuich earlier age than a European child. But while the European youth is still developing his powers, the liantu youth in most instances is found unable to make furtlier ])rogress. His intellect has become sluggish, and he exhibits a decided repugnance, if not an incapacity, to learn anytliing more. The growth of his mind, which at first promised so much, has ceased just at thnt stage when the mind of the European begins to display the greatest vigour. Numerous individuals, however, have emerged from the mass, and have shown abilities of no mean order. A score of ministers of religion might now be named equal to the average European in the kind of intellect required in their calling. Masters of pirimary schools, clerks, and interpreters, fairly well qualified for their duties, are by no means rare. One individual of this race has translated lUinyan's Filgrim's Progress into the dialect of the Xosa tribe, and the translation is as faithful and expressive as any that have been made in the languages of Europe. Plaintive tunes, such as the converts at mission stations love to sing, have been 1 m Ff I:;. t ■: 74 THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. composed by another for a considerable number of hymns and son<»s in the same dialect. Still another edits a newspaper, and shows that he lias an intelligent grasp of i)olitical questions. As mechanics they do not succeed so well, though an individual here and there shows an aptitude for work- ing with iron. No one among them has invented or improved a useful implement since white men tirst became acquainted with them. And the strong desire of much the greater number is to live as closely like their ancestors os the altered circumstances of the country will permit, to make use of a few of tlie white man's simplest conveniences and of his protection against their enemies, but to avoid his habits and shut out his ideas. Compared with Europeans, tlieir adults are commonly children in imagination and in simplicity of belief, though not unfrequently one may have the mental faculties of a full-grown man. I < :il Mil I CHAPTER rij. ASIATIC SETTLEMENTS AND PORTUGUESE CONQUESTS IN SOUTH AFRICA. I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) h /, A f/. LO I.I I4i£ 12.8 ■so "^B 1^ 1^ IIIIM 11:25 lllll 1.4 1.6 V] <^ /a ^/: ^m /; ^^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NV. i4S80 (7t6) 872-4503 wreck on the South African coast — Occupation of Kilwa by the Portuguese — Sack of Mombasa — Occupation of Sofala by the Portuguese — Revolt of the Arabs at Kilwa — Destruction of Kilwa — Occurrences at Sofala— Establishment of a refreshment station at Mozambique — Sack of Oja and Brava — Appearance of a strong Egyptian fleet in the Arabian sea — Defeat of a Portuguese squadron and death of the commander Louren^o d' Almeida — Destruction of the Egyptian fleet by the viceroy Francisco d'Almeida — Selection of Goa as the capital of Portuguese India — Monopoly of the eastern trade by the Portuguese — Slaughter of Francisco d'Almeida and sixty-four other Portuguese by Hottentots in Table Valley — Portuguese names of places on the South African coast. U CHAPTER III. ASIATIC SETTLEMENTS AND POKTUGUESE CONQUESTS IN SOUTH AFRICA. At some unknown period in the past people more civilised than the Bantu, but still very far from reach- ing the level of modern Europeans, made their appear- ance on the central tableland of Africa south of the Zambesi. They were almost certainly Asiatics, and they must have come down in vessels to some part of the coast, and then gone inland, for no traces of them have been found in the north. They constructed build- ings of dressed stone withuul cement or mortar, some of considerable size, the ruins of which remain to the present day, and they were gold miners on a very extensive scale. They carved rude figures of birds and other animals in a soapstone which when quarried was almost as soft as moistened clay, but which hardened upon exposure to the air. Their abandoned mines — often of considerable size — are found throughout a vast extent of territory, so that they must not only have been numerous, but must have occupied the country a very long time. Their civilisation was not of a high order, however, as their buildings, though circular in form, were not perfectly round, nor were any of the walls absolutely perpendicular. They knew how to cut \ .'»' ;]., Ill P h M 71 THE PORTUGUESE stone, to sink deep pits, to run underground galleries ard remove gold-bearing quartz, but they were not sufficiently refined to appreciate mathematical correct- ness of form. In all probability these people mixed their blood with that of the African natives, and lost their separate existence in course of time by the amalgamation becom- ing complete. Written records and tradition alike are silent concerning them. About the middle of the eighth century of our era an Arab tribe that had been defeated in a civil war fled southward and settled on the coast below the gulf of Aden. Their race was at that time in its highest vigour, and the fugitives, whose leader claimed to be a direct descendant of Mohamed, were full of energy and enterprise. They opened up a trade with all the countries bordering on the Arabian sea and Persian gulf, and within a couple of centuries extended their settlements down the African coast as far as Sofala. Each of these settlements was governed by a sheikh or chief of its own, but on the mainland the native tribes were not as a rule interfered with. The strangers appeared as traders, and only needed sufficient ground to live upon, which the Bantu made no objection to their taking. Thereafter each party was subject to its own rulers and its own laws, just as two native clans would be whose kraals were intermingled. On the islands, however, the Arabs became supreme. They built mosques and stone houses with flat roofs, planted groves of palm trees, and made large and beautiful gardens. They introduced the cultivation of rice and various kinds of fruit unknown before in V , iii IN SOUTH AFRICA. 79 Africa. Because the Bantu did not profess the Mohamedan faith, they termed those people Kaffirs, that is Infidels, an epithet which was adopted in later years by Europeans, and is still in use. Soon after their settlement on the African coast they began to deteriorate in blood, through taking native women into their harems, and, although they were con- stantly receiving accessions of strength from the lands bordering on the Eed sea, as time went on their decline became ever more rapid. At the commencement of the sixteenth century many of those who called themselves Arabs were undistinguishable in colour and in features from the ordinary liantu, and a pure Asiatic who was not a recent immigrant was rarely met with except in the islands. The majority were of every shade between black and light brown. It followed, too, that while those in whom the Asiatic blood was predominant were strict Mohamedans, the others were almost indifferent in matters concerning religion. They still lived, however, chiefly from commerce. Taking advantage of the monsoons, they sailed to and fro between Africa and India in their clumsy vessels, and visited all the ports on the northern coast. Their trade indeed was small compared with that which passed from India either up the Persian gulf and thence by caravans to the shore of the Mediterranean, or up the lied sea and then overland to Cairo, where the pro- duce of the East was obtained by the Venetians to be distributed throughout P^urope ; but it was regularly carried on, and was not subject to nmch fluctuation. Tliere was thus a well-established route across the Ara- bian sea before a European ship was seen in its waters. a 'ii H il H!1 I I l> i^ ^K i 1' 11 i ) ,■ j 't .! I I! ■: n^^'^ii 80 THE PORTUGUESE In the early years of the fifteenth century the Chris- tian nations were little acquainted with distant coun- tries, America and Australia were entirely unknown, Eastern Asia was very imperfectly laid down on the maps, and the greater part of Africa had nevei been explored. This continent might have terminated north of the equator, for anything that the most learned men in Europe knew to tlie contrary. The Portuguese were at this time the most adventurous seamen of the world, and they were the first to attempt to discover an ocean highway round Africa to the East. Under direction of a justly celebrated prince of their royal family, Henrique by name — known to us as Henry the Navigator — fleets were fitted out which gradually crept down the western coast until the shores of Senegambia were reached. In 1434 Cape Bojador was passed for the first time, in 1441 Cape Blanco was seen by Europeans, and in 1445 Cape Verde was rounded by Diniz Dias. Then, until after the death of Prince Henrique — 13th of November 1460 — discovery practically ceased. The lucrative slave trade occupied the minds of the sea captains, and ships freighted with negroes taken captive in raids, or purchased from conquering chiefs, frequently entered the harbours of Portugal. The commerce in human flesh was regarded as highly meritorious, because it brought heathens to a knowledge of Christianity. Bat never hxz a mistake or a crime led to more disastrous results, for to the introduction of negroes as labourers in the southern provinces of Portugal the decline of the kingdom in power and importance is mainly due. The exploring expeditions which Prince Henrique never ceased to encourage, but which the greed of those 1 1 f !l IN SOtJTH AFRICA. 81 who were in his service had turned into slave hunting voyages, were resumed after his death. In 1461 the coast of the present republic of Liberia was reached, and in 1471 the equator was crossed. King Jouo II, who ascended the throne in 1481, was as resolute as his grand-uncle the Navigator in endeavouring to discover an ocean road to India. In 1484 he sent out a fleet under Diogo Cam, which reached the mouth of the Congo, and in the following year the same officer made a greater advance than any previous explorer could boast of, for he pushed on southward as far as Cape Cross, where the marble pillar which he set up to mark the extent of his voyage remained standing more than four hundred years. In August 1486 two vessels of fifty tons each and a storeship still smaller, fitted out by the king's order, sailed from Portugal towards the south. The chief in authority was named Bartholomeu Dias, Joao Infante was captain of the second vessel, and Pedro Dias, a brother of the commander, was captain of the storeship. The last, which was unfit for a long voyage, was left with nine men to take care of her at a place on the western coast not far from the equator. The other two kept on their course, and passed the farthest point reached by Diogo Cam. Sailing along a barren shore covered the greater part of the time with a thick haze, Dias came to an inlet or small gulf with a group of islets at its entrance. There he cast anchor, and for the first time Christian men trod the soil of Africa south of the tropic. The inlet was the one known ever since as Angra Pequena or Little Bay. A more desolate country than F ( 1^ I n H 82 THE PORTUGUESE ii I »- «i that on which the weary seamen landed could hardly be, and there was no sign of human life as far as they wandered. Refreshment there was none, except the eggs and flesh of sea-fowl that made their nests on the islets. It was no place in which to tarry long. IJefore he left, Dias set up a marble cross some six or seven feet in height, as a token that he had taken possession of the country for his king. For more than three hundred years that cross stood there above the dreary waste, just as the brave Portuguese explorer planted it. The place where it stood so long is called Pedestal Point. From Angra Pequena Dias tried to keep the land in sight as he sailed southward, but for the first five days the wind was contrary, which caused him to tack about without making much headway. Owing to this circum- stance he named an opening in the coast, Angra das Voltas. There is no gulf in the position indicated, but the latitude given (29° S.) is not to be depended upon, and the expedition may have been far from the point at the mouth of the Orange river called by modern geographers Cape Voltas, in remembrance of thai event. The wind now veered round and the sea jjv>came rough, so that Dias stood away from the land under shortened sail, and when after thirteen days the breeze moderated and he steered eastward, the coast was not to be found. Then he turned to the north and reached a bay which he named Angra dos Vaqueiros, owing to the numerous herds of cattle which he saw grazing on its shores. The position of this bay cannot be fixed with certainty, and it may ha\ e been any of the curves in the coast between Cape i^gulhas and the Knysna. The natives gazed with astonishment upon the I • strange ! 1 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 83 apparition coming over tlie sea, and then tied inland with their cattle. It was not found possible to have any intercourse with the v/ild people. Sailing east^vard again, Dias reached an islet upon which he erjcted another cross, and where lie obtained a supply of fresh water. Tlie islet is in Algoa Bay as now termed — the Bahia da Lagoa of the I'ortuguese after the middle of the sixteenth century, — and still bears in the French form of St Croix the name llheo da Santa Cruz, which he gave it. By some of hiw people, however, it was called Penedo das Fontes — the liock of the Fountains — because two springs of water were found on it, and by this name it is often mentioned in ancient books. It may serve to show liow defective the instrument for determining latitudes was in those days to state that while the position of this islet was placed by Dias in o3|° S., by a later navigator it was stated to be in o2|°. Here the seamen protested against going farther. They complained that their supply of food was running short, and the storeship was far behind, so that there was danger of perishing from hunger. They thought they had surely done sufficient in one voyage, for they were fourteen hundred miles beyond the terminus of the preceding expedition, and none had ever taken such tidings to Portugal as they would carry back. Further, from the trending of the coast it was evident there must be some great head- land behind them, and tlierefore they were of opinion it would be better to turn about and look for it. Dias, after l^earing these statements, took the prin- cipal officers and seamen on shore, where they joined in. the rites of religion, after which he asked their advice 84 THE PORTUGUESE ;: , i fii ^1 ' as to what was the best course to pursue for the service of the king. They replied with one voice, to return home, whereupon lie caused them to sign a document to that effect. He then he^'ged of them to continue only two or three days' sail farther, and promised that if they should find nothing within that time to encourage them to proceed on an easterly course, he would put about. The crews consented, but in the time agreed upon they advanced only to tlie mouth of a river to which the commander gave tlie name Infante, owing to JoHO Infante, captain of the S. Fantelcdo, being the first to leap ashore. The river was probably either the Kowie or the Fish, as known to us. Its mouth was stated to be twenty-five leagues from Penedo das Pontes, and to be in latitude 32?/ S., which would have required a course almost due north from the islet, instead of a little to the northward of east. But now, notwithstanding their error as to their correct position, there should have been no doubt in any mind that they had reached the end of the southern seaboard, which in a distance of five hundred miles does not vary ninety miles in latitude. The coast before them trended away to the north-east in a bold, clear line, free of the haze that almost always hung over the western shore. And down it, only a short distance from the land, liowed a swift ocean current many degrees warmer than the water on either side, and revealing ituelf even to a careless eye by its deeper blue. That current could only come from a heated sea in the north, and so they might have known that the eastern side of Africa had surely been reached. ^ IN SOUTH AFRICA. 85 Whether the explorers observed these signs tlie Portuguese writers who recorded their deeds do not inform us, but from the river Infante the expedition turned back. At Santa Cruz Dias landed again, and bade farewell to the cross which he had set up there with as much sorrow as if he were parting with a son banished for life. In returning, the great headland was discovered, to which the commander gave the name Cabo Tormentoso — the Stormy Cape — afterwards changed by the king to Cabo de Boa Esperanc^a — Cape of Good Hope — owing to the fair prospect which he could now entertain of India being at last reached by this route. After nine months' absence the store- ship was rejoined, when only three men were found on board of her, and of these, one died of joy upon seeing his cc antrymen again. The other six had been murdered by negroes with whom they were trading. During the remainder of the reign of Joao no ships were sent out to follow u\ the discovery of the southern point of the continent, but court attendant named Pedro de Covilluio was d d to proceed overland to India by the way of Egypt, ah . endeavour to learn some- thing about the countries bordering on the Arabian sea. He was conversant with the Arabic language, and was able to travel over a vast extent of territory with which his countrymen were previously unacquainted. Covilhao visited Calicut, Cannanor, and Goa on the Malabar coast, from Goa he crossed over to Sofala, and touched at IMozambique, Kilwa, Mombasa, and Melinda on the way to Aden. Then, after sending information of his discoveries to Portugal, he proceeded r m 86 THE POUTUGUESE '•rn 1 : 5 ■•: ^ :i^ i-t> !f ) I to Abyssinia, and died there many years later.^ There now remained untraversed little more than a thousand miles between the farthest point of ])ias and the most southern point of Covillifio, and it was almost certain that there was an uninterrupted ocean way between the two. King Joao died in 1495, and was succeeded by his cousin Manuel, duke of ]>eja, who possessed a full measure of that fondness for prosecuting maritime discoveries which for three-quarters of a century had distinguished the princes of Portugal. Soon after the accession of Manuel the subject of making another attempt to reach India by sea was mooted at court, but met with strong opposition. There were those who urged that too much public treasure had already been thrown away in fitting out discovery ships, that no adequate return had yet l)een made, and that even if a route to India should be opened, it would only bring powerful rivals into the field to dispute or at least to share its possession. Those of the nobles, however, who were anxious to please the king favoured the design, and at length it was resolved to send out another expedition. For this purpose four vessels, the largest of which was about one hundred and twenty-five tons burden, were made ready, Bartholomcu Dias giving all the assist- ance which his experience enabled hiin to afford. Vasco ^ In an account of Covilhao's journeys written after hi3 death by his confessor, it is stated tliat he went from Goa to Ormuz and thence to Toro and Cairo, but farther on it is alKrmed tliat he had also been in Sofala. It is not easy to reconcile this route with that given by the early Portuguese historians, but all agree that he visited Sofala and transmitted a report to the king before he went to Abyssinia. « ,■ I j < IN SOUTH AFRICA. 87 da Gama, a man of proved ability, was placed in chief command. Under him in the S. Gahricl were Pedro d'Alanquer, who had been with the precedinj^ expedition, and as journalist Diogo Dias, a brother of IJartholomeu ; in the S. Rafael^ Paulo da Gama ; in the Bcrrio, Nicolao Coelho ; and in the stoniship Gon(^:alo Nunes. The crews comprised one hundred and seventy men, all told. The king showed a very warm interest in the undertaking, and when the preparations for sea were comi)leted, he bade farewell to the principal otHcers with unusual ceremony and marks of regard. On the 8th of July 1497, not quite five years after Columbus sailed from Palos to discover a new continent in the west, Vasco da Gama put to sea from the Tagus. In his company was a fleet bound to the coast of Guinea, in which Bartholomeu Dias was a captain. After fifteen days they reached St Jago, where they procured some refreshment. Dias then pursued his course to S. Jorge da Mina, and Da Gama sailed southward until he reached a curve in the African coast about one hundred and twenty English miles north of the Cape of Good Hope, to which he gave the name St Helena Bay. Here he landed to seek water and measure the altitude of the sun at noon, in order to ascertain the latitude. In those days the instrument for measuring vertical angles could not be used at sea, as it required to be mounted on a tripod. While Da Gama was busy measuring the sun's altitude, two natives were observed, who appeared to be gathering herbs, and as he was desirous of learning something about the country, he caused them to be quietly surrounded, when one was made captive. His 88 THE PORTUGUESE W i ! i languafije vvas unintelligible, and as he was greatly terrified, two boys, one of whom was a negro, were brought from the ships and placed in his company. These offered him food, and shortly succeeded in removing his fear. Da Gama understood from signs which he made that there was a kraal of his people at the foot of a mountain at no great distance. Some trinkets were given to him, and he was then allowed to return to his friends, signs being made that he should bring them to receive like presents. Next day about forty natives with their families made their appearance. They were well received, and when they left, a soldier named Fernuo Veloso accom- panied them, with a view of obtaining a better know- ledge of the country. The crews of the vessels were then employed in collecting fuel, and in catching crayfish, which were found in great abundance. Some fish were also secured with the hook, and a whale was harpooned, which in its struggles nearly caused the loss of a boat's crew. Veloso kept with the natives till they reached their first resting place, when, being disgusted with some food which they oHered him, and probably concluding that they were cannibals, he suddenly began to retrace his steps. The natives hereupon returned with him, and ho, not knowing whether their intentions were friendly or hostile, but fearing the latter, made all possible speed towards the beach, at the same time calling loudly fur help. The Portuguese hud gone on board, when Veloso was seen coming hastily over a hill, whereupon some men went ashore to bring him off, Da Gama accompanying il t li i i' IN SOUTH AFRICA. 89 them. Springing from the boat to the relief of their countryman, whom they believed to be in danger, the Europeans attacked the natives, and a skirmish took place in wliic^' Da Gama and three others were wounded witii assagais.^ The commander then embarked with his men, and directed the sliips' artillery against the savages on shore. Such was the first intercourse between Europeans and Hottentots. On the 17th of November 1497 Da Gama set sail from St Helena Bay, and three days later doubled the Cape of Good Hope without difficulty. Turning east- ward, he ancliored next within a bend of the coast which he named Agoada de S. liraz, the present Mossel liay. There he found a great number of natives similar in appearance to those he had first seen, but who showed so little symptom of alarm that they crowded on the beacli and scrambled for anything that was thrown to them. From these people some sheep were obtained in barter, the trade being carried on by means of signs, but they would not part with any horned cattle. Tlie Portuguese listened with pleasure to the tunes wliich they played with reeds, and took as much notice as was possible of their manner of living. At this place the voyagers remained three days, and then, liaving taken on board the fresh meat obtained, they again set sail. A storm on the 6th of December greatly terrified * This word, now coiiiinonly used by all Europeans in South Africa, has been adopted from the Portuj^uese. Latin heisia, Portuguese azagaya, a javelin or dart. ThoHo used by the Hottentots in this encounter were pointed with norn. 90 THE PORTUGUESE 1 ! ■I I the seamen, but did no damage to the ships. Keeping within sight of the shore, the striking contrast between the tree-clad mountains and grassy hills on the eastern side and the sterile wastes on the western side of the continent must have been noticed by all on board. To the beautiful land that they passed by on the 25th Da Gama gave the name Natal, in memory of the day when Christian men first saw it. On the 6th of January 1498 the fleet reached the mouth of a river to which the name Kio dos Keys, or Eiver of the Kings, was given, the day being the festival of the wise men or kings of the Roman calendar. It is uncertain what river this was, for the early Portuguese maps are very incorrect and the description of it in the narratives of the voyage is vague, but most probably it was the Limpopo. Here the Portuguese landed, and found a friendly people, who brought copper, ivory, and provisions for sale. From the Hottentots previously met they differed greatly in appearance and in speech. One Martini Affbnso visited a kraal, and was very well treated by the residents. About two hundred men, dressed in skin mantles, returned with him, a.id shortly afterwards their chief followed to see the ships and the strangers. During the five days that the expedition remained at this place, nothing occurred to disturb the friendly inter- course between the Portuguese and the Bantu. Sailing again, Da Gama next put into a river which he named Kio dos Bons Sinaes, or River of the Good Tokens, because he found there clothing of Indian manufacture, vessels with mat sails, and a man who could converse in broken Arabic. Both banks of the IN SOUTH AFRICA. 91 river were thickly peopled, and among the inhabitants were many who appeared to have Arab blood in them. The river is the one now called the Kiliraanc^ or Quilimane, which bounds the delta of the Zambesi on the north. The people acted in a friendly manner towards the Portuguese. One of the ships, which was somewhat damaged, was here repaired, but the crews suffered much from sicknyss, and many cases ended fatally. Da Gama had with him ten men sentenced to death in Portugal, but whose lives had been spared on condition that they could be set ashore anywhere, and when the fleet sailed two of them were left behind to learn something of the country and its people. On the 1st of March the fleet reached Mozambique, where were found trading vessels and a town of Arabs and blacks governed by an Arab named Zakoeja. At first the Portuguese were well received, and one of them, who could speak Arabic, gathered a great deal of infor- mation concerning the Indian trade, of Sofala away to the south, and of the gold that was to be obtained in commerce there. Without any difficulty Da Gama engaged two pilots to taks him to Calicut. But when the Arabs became acquainted with the fact that the strangers were Christians and the hereditary enemies of their race, all friendliness disappeared. The pilots, who were on board, made their escape, quarrels arose, some skirmishing took place, and though a nominal peace was made with Zakoeja, a bitter feeling remained. An Arab who wished to go to Mecca, however, went on board, and under his guidance on the 7th of April the fleet sailed. The next place visited was Mombasa, an important ■■I: 92 THE PORTUGUESE 5' 4i town containing some good stone houses. There the crews were refreslied, and peace was maintained, though the strangers were regarded with jealousy. Hostages were offered by Da Gama as assurances of his friend- ship, and under tliis pretence two of the convicts were delivered to the authorities of the place. The day after leaving Mombasa an Arab vessel was captured, out of which some men were taken, who piloted the fleet to Melinda. There everything went on well, vessels with Nestorian Christians on board were found, and an Indian pilot was engaged. It is not necessary to follow Da Gama to Calicut, nor to relate what transpired at that place. When re- turning to Portugal he touched at Magadoxo, and as the Arabs there showed themselves hostile, he bom- barded the town and destroyed the shipping. At Melinda he was well received, as before. His brother's ship, the S. Rafael, was here condemned as unseaworthy, and was destroyed, her crew being divided between the others. Taking on board an envoy from the ruler of Melinda to the king of Portugal, Da Gama sailed again, and touching at Mozambique and Agoada de S. Braz on the passage, without anything of importance occuriing, he reached Lisbon in August 1499. Of the hundred and seventy men who left that port with him, only fifty-five saw their homes again. The ocean highway to the rich lands of the East had now at last been traversed from end to end, and great was the satisfaction of King Manuel, his courtiers, and his people. It was indeed something to rejoice over, though at this distance of time the exploit of Da Gama does not seem more meritorious than that of Dias. ?t '' i .4 I ;* IN SOUTH AFRICA. 93 The earlier navigator had uncertainty always before him, yet he traced fully fourteen hundred miles of previously unknown coast, and he doubled the southern cape. From his farthest point to the Kilimane river. Da Gama sailed over twelve hundred miles of unexplored sea, but he could be tolerably certain that tliere were no impedi- ments in his way, he was going towards a land that was known, and he had more and larger ships. From the Kilimane his voyage was as easy and as free from uncertainty as if he had been in the Mediterranean. But he reached the object sought for so long, and so he became a hero in the eyes of his countrymen. Honours were heaped upon him, and his name was made to occupy a large and proud place in the history of Portugal, while Dias was left almost unnoticed and entirely ur ire warded. Preparations were commenced almost at once for sending out another fleet, and in March of the year 1500 thirteen ships sailed under Pedro Alvares Cabral as captain-general. In one of them was Nicolao Coelho, who had been with Da Gama, and in another was Bartholomeu Dias, who was instructed by the king to make an inspection of Sofala. The sailors and soldiers were twelve hundred in number, and there were no fewer than seventeen ecclesiastics on board, eight of whom were Franciscan monks who were to remain in India and endeavour to make converts to Christianity. After discovering the coast of Brazil and encounter- ing a great storm in which four ships were lost — one being that of which Bartholomeu Dias was captain, — Cabral doubled the Cape, and did not anchor until he reached Mozambique. Before his arrival there he cap- i i '- ■'!• I A ' h 94 THE PORTUGUESE tured an Arab vessel from Sofala with a quantity of gold on board, but upon learning that his prize belonged to a near relative of the ruler of Melinda, he rele.'^sed her, in consideration of the friendship shown by that individual to Da Gama. At Mozambique Cabral was well treated, and there he obtained a pilot who took the fleet to Kilwa, or Quiloa as the Portuguese wrote the word. This town was the oldest Arab settlement on that part of the coast, and was then governed by a man named Ibrahim, whose ancestors had acquired great wealth by trading for gold at Sofala. On this account he was regarded as the first in rank and most powerful of all the poten- tates for a considerable distance north and south, the sheikh of Mozambique, with others, being among his dependents. Ibrahim received the Portuguese in friendship, and supplied them with provision?' ; but when after a time Cabral requested him to adopt the Christian faith and to give up a portion of the gold trade at Sofala, his conduct changed. He collected his forces, fortified his town, and showed such a feeling of hostility that he was regarded thereafter as an enemy. Cabral, however, did not attack him, and left without any blood being shed. The fleet next touched at Melinda, where the Por- tuguese were very well received. The Arab chiefs on the coast were frequently at war with each other, and there was a strong feeling of jealousy among them, otherwise the strangers could not have accomplished what they did. The ruler of Melinda at this time was at war with the sheikh of Mombasa, and was anxious If r i IN SOUTH AFRICA. 95 to secure the alliance of the Christians against men of his own faith. A declaration of close friendship was mado between them, but no actual aid was given by Cabral. Two convicts were set ashore here, with instructions to try to find their way to Prester John — a mythical personage who had long been sought for, — and large rewards were promised to them if they succeeded. Two Indian pilots were then engaged, and the fleet sailed for Calicut. When returning from India Cabral touched at Mozambique to refit his ships, and from tliat place sent one of his captains named Sancho de Toar in a small vessel to execute the task that the king had confided to Bartholomeu Dias. Do Toar explored the coast to Sofala, and then kept on his course to Lisbon, where he arrived about the same time as the captain-general. In 1501 a fleet of four ships, under command of Joao da Nova, sailed from Portugal to India, but nothing of any importance connected with South Africa occurred in this voyage, except that when returning home Da Nova discovered the island of St Helena. Vasco da Gama sailed from Portugal on the 30th of January 1502 on his second voyage, with twenty ships. When off' Cabo das Correntes one of these, which was commanded by Antonio do Campo, got separated from the others, and in a disabled condition drifted south- westward until she was able to put into a deep and capacious bay. Three large rivers flowing from differ- ent directions, — known now as the Maputa, the Espirito Santo, and the Manic^a, — discharge their waters in this inlet, and as it was incorrectly understood that the central one of these, or rather the central of the tribu- h i ^i 96 THE PORTUGUESE I'll' I: ! taries now called the Tembe, the Umbelosi, and the Matola, which have as their estuary the Espirito Santo, had its source in a great lake far in the interior, the Umbelosi and Espirito Santo were named Ilio da Lagoa and the bay was termed Bahia da Lagoa, or Alagoa as the word was often written in the olden times when it had the same meaning that lago (lake) has now. After being treated in a friendly manner by the natives, Do Canipo kidnapped several men and took them away with him. He was detained so long on this part of the coast that by the time he reached Melinda t^^e north- east monsoon was setting in, — it often commences there as early as the middle of September and continues until the middle of April, — so that he could not proceed to India, and was obliged to remain for the season at that friendly port. When Da Gama reached the latitude of Sofala off the East African coast he sent the greater part of his Heet to Mozambique to refit and to put together a caravel which was brought in pieces from Portugal, and with four of the smallest ships he proceeded himself to visit the port of gold.^ He was aware, from the descriptions * This is the. principal occasion oii which I have related anything concerning the early voyages to the East that is not corroborated by Barros. The particulars of the visit of Da Gama to Sofala and the loss of ( ne of his vessels on the bar are drawn from Osorius. Barros merely states that Da Gama with four small vessels went there by order of the king, and that he purchased some gold from the Mohamedan residents. His account is very brief; *'Na qucd U o parcel dc Sofala tevc alguiis tcmporacs, que Ihe desapparelhdram algumas ndos ; e chegado dquellc 2)arcel na paragem della, mandou a Viceide Sodri seu tio que se, fosse a Mo(;ambiq'ue com todalas ndos grossas, em quaiUo clle hia dar huma vista a Sofala com quatro tiavios 1:1 Li , t IN SOUTH AFRICA. 97 of Pedro de Covilhao and Saiicho de Toar, of the shoals that extend along this coast for many miles out to sea, aiid which, on account of the shallowness of the water on them at low tides, make navigation dangerous for any but small vessels. He knew also that the town was situated on the northern bank of a river, not far from its mouth ; but beyond that his only informa- tion was what had been gathered from Arabs at Mozambique and elsewhere. He found the entrance to the estuary more than half a league .vide, but across it was a shifting bar of sand, and inside were so many shoals that a vessel under sail was always in danger. The land to a great distance was low and swampy, and the banks of the estuary were fringed with belts of mangrove. Farther in the interior the stream was of no great size, but it was always bringing down material to add to the deposits of sand and mud above the bar. Such was the port of Sofala, famous throughout the eastern world for the gold which passed through it, but a hotbed of fever and dysentery. Its sole redeeming feature was a high rise of tide, often nearly twenty feet at full moon, so that when the wind was fair it was accessible for any vessels then used in the Indian sea. The Arabs who occupied the town gave the strangers a friendly reception, for they were behind no people in hospitality, provided their rights and their customs were respected. The information that was needed con- cerning the trade was obtained, and everything went pcqucnos, par Iho ElBey maiidar cm seu Jiegimcnto. Na qual ida elle Almiranto nao fez tnais que algum resgate dc ouro com os Mouros, que estavam no pov\.acSo." 98 THE POUTUGUESE W' I'. well, except that when leaving one of the vessels ran agrov.nd on the bar and was so much damaged that it became necessary to abandon her. After a brief stay at Mozambique, Da Gama con- tinued his voyage. .le 12th of July 1502 he anchored in the grana narbour between the mainland and the island on which Kilwa was built, and demanded from Ibrahim submission to the crown of Portugal and a hostage of rank as security for good faith, on account of the enmity displayed towards Cabral. His force was too great to be resisted, so the Arab professed to submit, and sent one Mohamed Enkoni on board as a hostage. This man was the second highest in rank in the place, but it was soon discovered that Ibrahim was jealous of him and would have been pleased if the Portuguese had put him to death. He was therefore released when the first instalment of the tribute, which was fixed at a certain sum yearly, was paid. In this manner the Portuguese dominion on the eastern coast of Africa began. The force which the Christians brought into the Indian sea appears so small as to be altogether in- adequate for the destruction of the Arab power; but the men were accustomed to war, their arms were superior to those of their opponents, and they were full of religious seal, believing that the Almighty was with them in warfare against infidels. Deeds that to us look like piracy and murder were to them heroic and glorious acts. Thus when Da Gama after leaving the African coast met a great ship owned by the sultan of Egypt with pilgrims on board, he regarded it as praiseworthy not only to plunder the vessel, but IN SOUTH AFRICA. 99 to put to death every man on board, over three hundred in number. The Arabs, too, were divided into little parties always quarrelling with each other, most of them were of mixed blood and without much enterprise, and their ships were not armed for battle. A Portuguese vessel could discharge cannon at them, and was herself perfectly safe if she could keep their boats from boarding her. They left the coast of India richly laden, and with no other instrument than a compass crossed over before the monsoon, offering prizes which the adventurous Portuguese regarded as rewards given by the Most High. In 1503 three fleets, each of three ships, were sent out, respectively under Francisco d'Albuquerque, Affonso d'Albuquerque, and Antonio de Saldanha. The last named was instructed to cruise for some time off the entrance to the Red sea, and destroy all the Arab commerce that he could before proceeding to India. When near the Cape of Good Hope Saldanha's ship got separated from the other two, and as the commander did not know where he was, he entered a deep bay and cast anchor. Before him rose a great mass of rock, nearly three thousand six hundred feet in height, with its top making a level line more than a mile and a half in length on the sky. This grand mountain was flanked at either end with less lofty peaks, supported by buttresses projecting towards the shore. The recess was a capacious valley, down the centre of which flowed a stream of clear sweet water. The valley seemed to be without people, but after a while some Hottentots made their appearance, from 100 THE PORTUGUESE i- ;■ ! 1 i it whom a cow and two sheep were purchased. The natives were suspicious of the strangers, however, for on another occasion some two hundred of them suddenly attacked a party of Portuguese who had gone on shore, and Saldanha himself received a slight wound. Before this affray the commander, who was in the full vigour of early life and filled with that love of adventure which distinguished his countrymen in those days of their glory, had climbed to the top of the great flat rock, to which he gave the name Table Mountain, the ravine in its face pointing out the place of ascent then, as it does to-day. From its summit he could see the Cape of Good Hope, and so, having found out where he was, he pursued his voyage with the first fair wind. The bay in which he anchored was thenceforth called after him Agoada de Saldanha — the Watering Place of Saldanha — until a century later it received its present name of Table Bay. The commander was still behind when a ship of his fleet, under the captain Ruy Lourengo Ravasco, an utterly fearless adventurer, reached the latitude of Zanzibar, and in a cruise off that island captured and destroyed a great number of Arab vessels. Ravasco even ventured to attack the coast, and won a battle in which among others the heir to the government of the island was killed. The ruler then begged for peace, and agreed to pay tribute yearly to the king of Portugal. Ravasco next relieved the friendly town of Melinda from a Mombasau army which was besieging it, and afterwards attacked Brava and compelled it to become tributary to Portugal. While his captain was performing these exploits, IN SOUTH AFRICA. 101 Saldanha himself was not idle. He too destroyed a great quantity of Arab shipping, but he made peace with Mombasa without subverting the independence of its ruler. He then proceeded to India. A fleet of thirteen ships was sent out in 1504 under command of Lopo Soares d'Alber^ifaria. The only event of any importance connecting this fleet with South Africa was that one of the ships, commanded by Pedro de Mendoza, when returning home ran ashore at night some distance west of the Watering Place of S. Braz, and was lost. The wreck was seen the follow- ing day by the people of another vessel, but no help could be given, and the crew were left to perish. In 1505 a fleet of twenty-two ships was sent out under Francisco d'Almeida, who had the title and authority of viceroy of India. D'Almeida anchored before Kilwa, and sent a friendly message to Ibrahim as a vassal of Portugal. But the Arab ruler, who was in arrear with his tribute, declined to meet the viceroy, and the evidences of his hostility were so plain that preparations were made to take possession of the town by force. Upon the Portuguese landing, however, the place was found almost abandoned, for Ibrahim with the most devoted of his people had fled to the main- land, and had taken the greater part of their treasure with them. But slight resistance therefore was made, and the town was occupied with no loss on the part of the invaders. Mohamed Ankoni was appointed governor by D'Almeida, and it was arranged that he should rule his people in his own way, without inter- ference as long as he acted in a friendly and loyal manner and paid the tribute punctually. A fort was built — the U:l 102 THE PORTUGUESE H«. i't first occupied by the Portuguese on the East African coast, — and as soon as it was completed D' Almeida sailed, leaving Pedro Ferreira Fogaza with a garrison of one hundred and fifty men and two small vessels of war behind. The viceroy next appeared before Mombasa, 13th of August 1505. The ruler of that place was summoned to declare himself a vassal of Portugal, but instead of doing so, he prepared for defence, and set the Christians at defiance. Thereupon a strong force was landed, and after a desperate resistance by the Arabs, who contested every inch of ground and hurled weapons upon the invaders from their flat-roofed houses until the last one was stormed, the town was taken. Fifteen hundred of its defenders perished. Mombasa was plundered and given to the flames, but as no force was left to occupy it, the Arabs resumed possession of the ruins as soon as the Christians retired. Then, after calling at Melinda and greeting its friendly ruler, the viceroy proceeded to India. Kumours concerning the gold of Sofala were at this time fascinating the minds of men in Portugal. Those rumours greatly exaggerated the quantity of the pre- cious metal actually obtainable, and in them all the difficulties of acquiring it were lost sight of. It was believed that nothing needed to be done except to replace the Arabs with Christian traders, when enor- mous wealth would flow into the national treasury. Accordingly a fleet of six ships was fitted out to take possession of Sofala and to establish a fort and factory there. This fleet, in which the first European occupiers of any part of Africa south of the Zambesi IX SOUTH AFRICA. 103 embarked, was under command of Pedro da Nhaya, and sailed from Lisbon on the 18th of May 1505. On the passage out the ships got scattered, and two of them, commanded by Francisco da Nhaya and Manuel Fernandes, reached their destination some time before the others, so they anchored off the port and waited for their companions. One of the missing ships, of which Joao de Queiros was master, put into Delagoa Bay in distress. De Queiros with twenty of his officers and men landed on an island to endeavour to obtain some provisions, and as the natives immediately fled, they followed, making signs of peace. But they had not proceeded far when the natives turned and attacked them, and only four or five badly wounded men managed to escape. Thus was avenged the treacherous act of Antonio do Campo three years before. The ship was left without officers capable of directing her, but fortunately one of her consorts put into the bay and supplied that want. Before reaching Sofala these vessels picked up a boat containing five half-famished men, who had a tale of terrible suffering to tell. They were part of the crew of a ship that had been lost at Cape St Sebastian, and their boat had been built of materials saved from the wreck. As many men as she could contain had then embarked in her in hope of reaching Kilwa, and the others — sixty in number — had at the same time left the scene of the disaster to try to march overland to some port in the north. Of those in the boat all had perished but themselves. At length the four laggards of Da Nhaya's fleet reached Sofala, and the commander made his final i^ : . 104 THE PORTUGUESE I < arrangements. Leaving the two largest ships outside on the 4th of September 1505 with the others he crossed the bar into the inner harbour, and with a strong body of men landed at some distance from the Arab town. This consisted of a large building con- taining many spacious chambers occupied by the rulei* of the place, several small flat-roofed houses, and about a thousand beehive-shaped huts close behind. The sheikh was a venerable-looking Arab, of brown com- plexion, over seventy years of age, and quite blind. His name was Yusuf. The people of Sofala had heard of the occurrences at Kilwa and Mombasa, and were divided in opinion as to liow they should act. Mengo Musaf, a son-in-law of Yusuf, 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 chief thought it wiser to rely upon the climate rather than upon arms. The Portuguese were therefore received in an appar- ently friendly manner by Yusuf, who was reclining on a couch in a room hung with silk tapestry. Most of the so-called Arabs who clustered round were dark- skinned men, naked to the waist, with calico girdles and silk or calico turbans, and were armed with ivory- handled sabres ; but a few of higher rank were lighter in colour, and were better clothed. Da Nhaya spoke to the chief of the advantages to be gained by the estab- lishment of a Portuguese 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 town had often been pillaged by Bantu clans in the neighbourhood. Yusuf professed to agree with what ( h . r . i ^^n i I • IN SOUTH AFRICA. 105 was said, and gave his consent to the erection of a factory. 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 survivors of the sixty who had left the wrecked ship at Cape St Sebastian, and who had gone through almost incredible suffering in their overland journey. Da Nhaya immediately engaged a number of Bantu who were at Sofala, and on the 21st set about building a fort on a sand -flat on the northern bank of the river near its mouth. A moat was dug, and the earth taken out was formed into a wall, which was supported by stakes and beams of mangrove wood. A tower at each corner completed the defensive works. Inside a store and dwelling-houses were built, and the merchandise, munitions of war, and necessary provisions were then landed. When all was completed, which was within three months after his arrival, Da Nhaya sent the three largest ships to India, and kept the three smallest to cruise along the coast and support the garrison. There was living at Sofala at this time a man named Yakote, an Abyssinian by birth, who had been made a captive when he was only ten years of age, and who bad embraced the Mohamedan faith from necessity rather than choice. He was now possessed of much influence, and was regarded with jealousy by Mengo Musaf, Yusuf's son-in-law. Early in January 1506 he informed Da Nhava that the Arabs 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 106 THE PORTUGUESE fi f i^'. ^mli: m 'f 1 they were afraid to make war themselves, they had persuaded a Bantu clan to attack the fort. This information proved correct, for shortly after- wards a horde of savage warriors appeared, and tried to take the place by storm. They filled up the moat on one side, and then attempted to scale the wall, all the time pouring in a shower of arrows and assagais. Fever had laid most of the Portuguese low, and at this time there were only thirty-five men capable of bearing arms, but Yakote came to their aid with a hundred of his people, and they had two powerful dogs, to which animals next to divine providence they afterwards mainly attributed their preservation. The storming party was beaten off with heavy loss. During three days, however, the blacks continued their attacks occasionally, but then, suddenly imagining that the Arabs had incited them to this contest purposely to destroy them, they turned upon Sofala, plundered the town, and marched homeward with their booty. Da Nhaya now sallied out with some of his men, and proceeded to the residence of Yusuf, where in a skirmish he received a slight wound in the throat. Immedi- ately afterwards the blind chief's head was struck off by a soldier, and the Arabs then fled in dismay. On the following morning they attacked the fort, but were beaten off, and as they began to contend among them- selves conceiuing a leader, nothing more was to be feared from them. One of Yusuf 's sons. Sole' man by name, offered to become a Portuguese vassal, and as he was a friend of Yakote, who warmly recommended him. Da Nhaya appointed him ruler of the Arab com- IX SOUTH AFRICA. 107 munity. He proved faithful to his engagement, and thereafter did good service for the Europeans. On the 19th of November 1505 two ships sailed from Lisbon, commanded by Cyde Barbudo and i'edro Quaresma, who had orders from King Manuel to endeavour to ascertain the fate of Pedro de Mendoza and his crew, to search along the South African coast for traces of the missing ship in which Francisco d' Albuquerque had left India, and to take supplies to Sofala. They put into the Watering Place of Saldanha, where they obtained refreshment, and then continued their course until they arrived off the part of the coast where Mendoza's ship was wrecked. The weather was fine, so they cast anchor, and sent two convicts on shore to make a search. The convicts were away seven days, Then they returned, and reported that they had se^-^i traces of the wreck, which had been set on fire by the natives to get the iron, but they had learned nothing of the lost crew. They had encountered a band of Hottentots, who had robbed them of their clothing, but had not otherwise harmed them. The missing ship of Francisco d'Albuquerque was not seen, nor was she ever afterwards heard of. Upon arriv- ing at Sofala, Barbudo and Quaresma found the remnant of the garrison in the last stage of distress. Pedro da Nhaya and the greater number of his people had died of fever, and Manuel Fernandes, who had taken command of the few sick men who were left, was dependent for existence upon the friendship of Yakote and the good faith of Soleiman. As many men as could be spared were therefore landed, supplies of food and munitions of war were conveyed to the fort, Vi ' . f ■ i |. : • i 108 THE PORTUGUESE and Pedro Quaresma with his ship remained for further security. In July 1506 Barbudo proceeded from Sofala to Kilwa. There he found that Mohamed Ankoni had been murdered by a nephew of Ibrahim, and that the Arabs were besieging the Portuguese fort. Fogaza, the commander, managed to convey intelligence to him that the garrison could hold out for a good while, so, as lie could render no assistance, he hastened to India, and reported the condition of affairs to the viceroy. D'Almeida immediately sent a sufficiently strong force under Nuno Vas Pereira to suppress the revolt at Kilwa and to relieve Sofala. Upon the arrival of this officer at the first-named place, he found the Arabs divided into parties quarrelling with each other, so he had no difficulty in restoring Portuguese supremacy and in setting up a puppet ruler over the Mohamedau community. Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos was placed in command of the fort. Kilwa, not being in the territory treated of in this history, need not be referred to again. It will be sufficient to say here that its civil wars broke out afresh, that the town — once the best built and most wealthy on the coast — was completely destroyed, and that the Portuguese, after severe losses from fever, abandoned it in 1512 as being no longer of importance for either military or commercial purposes. In September 1507, shortly after Pereira's arrival at Sofala, a fleet of four ships commanded by Vasco Gomes d'Abreu appeared there. D'Abreu was commissioned by the king to cruise against the Arabs on the East African coast, and also to act as commander-in-chief of P' [ 1 I I IN SOUTH AFRICA. 109 Sofala, At Cape Verde on the passage out he had lost cie of the live ships with whicli ho left Portugal. As soon as he made his commission known, Pereira trans- ferred the government to him and left for Mozambique. D'Abreu provisioned the fort, placed a strong garrison in it, put everything in order, and then sailed with his four ships on a cruise. Not one of them was ever heard of again. When all hope of the safety of the fleet was lost, Ruy de Brito Patalim took command at Sofala until the pleasure of the king could be ascertained. In 1509 Duarte Teixera arrived as factor, or chief trader, and thereafter vessels were sent yearly from India with coarse calico, beads, and other articles for sale. Antonio de Saldanha, who was appointed captain of Sofala by the king when it was known that D'Abreu had perished at sea, arrived in September 1509, and remained there three years. In 1512 he was relieved by Simao de Miranda de Azevedo, to whom ChristovHO de Tavora succeeded in 1515. Sofala, however well adapted for a trading station, was of no use as a port of refreshment for ships passing to or from India. Sometimes fleets were detained on the African coast for mouths together, waiting for the change of the monsoon, and often ships dc uaged in storms were abandoned or destroyed because there was no place where they could be repaired. The king therefore, acting on information supplied to him by the most experienced seamen, selected Mozambique as a suitable place for a naval station, and sent out a strong force to occupy it. Mozambique is a low flat coral island lying in the centre of a deep bay, and has an excellent harbour easy of access. The locality is l! wm ;. 110 THE PORTUGUESE t t. • ' subject to violent hurricanes, but their devastating effects are only experienced at distant intervals, often of many years. In September 1507 the expedition, which was commanded by Duarte de Mello, arrived, and at once set about the construction of a fortress on the site now occupied by the governor's residence. This was completed in March 1508, and though it was of no great strength, it answered its purpose for more than half a century. As soon as it was finished, a church, dedicated to S. Gabriel, and a commodious hospital were built. The position was an excellent one, but it had the great disadvantage of being so unhealthy that after a few years it was said to be the principal grave- yard of the Europeans in the East. In 1506 the Arabs suffered some crushing defeats from the Portuguese on the eastern coast of Africa. There was a feud between Oja and Melinda, and Tristao da Cunha, who was on his way to India with a fleet of fourteen ships, to please the friend of Portugal took Oja by storm, plundered it, and burnt it. The people of Brava, who were in arrear with their tribute, fortified their town anew, and bade the Christians defiance. Da Cunha attacked them, and after a desperate resistance, in which forty-two Portuguese were killed and over sixty wounded, Brava was taken. The spoil was immense. The plunder of the houses had not ceased when the town was set on fire, and several of the Christians perished in the flames. At that time the rules of war permitted a gencjral massacre after a town was taken by storm, but did not allow the mutilation of female prisoners. In this instance the -, I IN SOUTH AFRICA. Ill commander was unable to restrain his men from acts of the most barbarous cruelty, and they even cut oft' the hands of the Arab women to get the silver arm-rings which those unfortunate females wore. The pious journalist who recorded the events of the conquest, and who regarded the butchery of defenceless Mohamedans as meritorious, did not doubt that the loss of a boatload of goods and the drowning of a number of soldiers was a manifestation of God's wrath upon the evil doers for their excesses in mutilating the females. Fortunately for the Portuguese, the great Mohamedan powers of the day — Turkey, Egypt, and Persia — were at variance with each other, and were therefore unable to give efiectual assistance to the Arab communities on the shores of Africa and Hindostan. The sultan of Egypt, however, made an effort to recover the trade through his dominions which the Christians were destroying. He fitted out a great war fleet, which he placed under command of an able naval officer, the emir Husein, who sailed down the Ked sea, and thence to the Indian coast. The viceroy instructed his son LourenQO d'Almeida, who was in command of a Portuguese squadron, to prevent the junction of Husein's fleet with the fleet belonging to the Mohamedan ruler of Diu, but this could not be done. Lourengo d'Almeida then attacked the combined force, which proved too strong for him, and his squadron was defeated and captured. The young commander — he was not twenty-one years of age — was killed in the battle. At the commencement of the action one of his legs was badly hurt by a cannon ball, but he caused it to be hastily bandaged, and then took II'' ^""Vi in, ,'i * n V 112 THE PORTUGUESE a seat by the main mast of his ship and continued to issue orders until he was struck in the breast by another ball, when he fell back dead. For a short time the Egyptian Hag was supreme, but the viceroy collected all his ships of war, and with a much stronger force than his gallant son had com- manded, he sailed against his foe. On the 2nd of February 1509 a great naval battle was fought off Diu, which ended in the complete destruction of the Mohamedan fleet. Thereafter the supremacy of the Portuguese in the Indian ocean was assured, for until the appearance of other Europeans there they never again had an enemy so powerful at sea to contend with, though in 1538 the sultan of Turkey sent a strong fleet against them. Affonso d'Albuquerque, who succeeded D'Aimeida as viceroy, in 1510 made Goa the capital of Portuguese India, in which the eastern coast of Africa was included. And now for nearly a century the commerce of the East was as much a monopoly of the monarchs of Portugal as it had previously been of the Arabs. It was carried on by the state, and private individuals were not permitted to take part in it. Lisbon became the centre from which spices and silks, cotton cloths and ivory, with many other articles of value were distributed over Europe, and into the treasury there was poured all the gold collected in South-Eastern Africa. In returning homeward with the fleet which left India towards the close of the year 1509, the retired viceroy D'Aimeida put into the Watering Place of Saldauha for the purpose of refreshing his people. "PWP *A IN SOUTH AFRICA. 113 When the ships came to anchor some natives appeared on the beach, and a party of Portuguese was sent ashore to endeavour to barter cattle from them. The traffic was successful, bits of iron and pieces of calico being employed in trade, and it was carried on in such a friendly manner that several of the Portuguese did not fear to accompany the natives to a kraal at no great distance. But unfortunately a quarrel arose between the parties, and two of the white men were severely beaten. As soon as this was known by the officers of the fleet there was a clamour for vengeance, in order to insure respect for Europeans thereafter, and D'Almeida was persuaded to attempt to punish the savages. At daybreak next morning, 1st of March 1510, he landed with one hundred and fifty of his people, armed with swords and lances. They marched to the kraal and seized the cattle in the fold, which they were driv- ing away when the Hottentots, supposed to be about one hundred and seventv in number, attacked them. The weapons of the Portuguese were found to be useless against the fleet-footed natives, who poured upon the invaders a shower of missiles. A panic followed. Most fled towards the boats as the only means of safety ; a few, who were too proud to retreat before savages, attempted in vain to defend themselves. D'Almeida committed the ensign to Jorge de Mello, with orders to save it if possible, and immediately afterwards was struck down with knobbed sticks and stabbed in the throat with an assagai. Not far from him fell Antonio do Campo, the first European that entered Delagoa Bay. Sixty-five of the best men in the fleet, including twelve H ! 114 THE PORTUGUESE A i I ' ^1 1 11 ' captains and several of noble blood, perished on that disastrous day, and hardly any of those who reached the boats escaped without wounds. Jorge de Mello succeeded D'Almeida in the command of the fleet. "When the natives retired he landed and buried the slain, whom he found stripped of clothing, and as soon as this duty was performed he set sail. In 1512 Christovao de Brito, when returning home- ward, put into the Watering Place of Saldanha to visit the grave of his brother, who had fallen with D'Almeida. An officer who had witnessed the disaster was with him, and pointed out the place where the bodies were buried. De Brito raised a mound of earth and stones over it, and placed a wooden cross at the top, the only monument that it was in his power to erect. It would be interesting to know the exact site, but the descrip- tion of the locality given by the Portuguese writers is so defective that it cannot be identified. It was pro- bably somewhere between the sloping ground at the foot of the Devil's peak and the sandy beach near the mouth of Salt River. By this time all the pr: linent capes and many of the bays on the coast had been named by Portuguese captains, but these cannot all be identified now. There were then no means known for determining longitudes, and the instrument commonly used for measuring vertical angles required to be firmly fixed on shore, so that the latitudes given by seamen who did not land to take observations were usually very incorrect. On this account it cannot be stated with certainty, for instance, whether the river Infante was the present Kowie or the Fish, for its inland course as laid down IN SOUTH AFRICA. 115 on the maps was purely imaginary. And so with many other names. Still a considerable number can be determined with exactitude, and remain in use to the present day, though generally in an English form. Such are the following: Cape Cross, Angra Pequena, St Helena Bay, Cape St Martin, Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope, False Bay, Cape Agulhas, St Sebastian's Bay, Cape St Francis, Cape Recife, Natal, St Lucia Bay, Cabo das Correntes, and Cape St Sebastian. Besides these, a good many corrupted Portuguese words are found on most modern maps of South Africa, but they do not always represent names given by the Portuguese to the places indicated. ' ■ ;, > (': •n (I I 1 1 ill ™ )!', i ! ^%^ ■ L CHAPTER IV. TRANSACTIONS OF THE PORTUGUESE SOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI FROM THE DEATH OF FRANCISCO D'ALMEIDA TO THE FAILURE OF FRANCISCO BARRETO'S EXPEDITION. ' Chapter IV. — Contents. \ 1 I Commerce of Sofala — Condition of the Mohamedans at Sofala — Description of the Ealanga tribe of Bantu — Explanation of the title Monomotapa — Cause of errors in early maps of South-Eastern Africa — Knowledge of the ruins now termed Zimbabwe — Collection of gold by the Makalanga — Exploration of the lower course of the Limpopo river and of Delagoa Bay by Louren(;o Marques and Antonio Caldeira — Change of names of places — Commerce between Mozambique and the bay of Louren^o Marques — Commerce with Inhambane— Establish- ment of forts and trading stations at Sena and Tete on the southern bank of the Zambesi — Rapid degeneration of the Portuguese in South- Eastern Africa — Separation of the East African coast from the viceroyalty of India — Appointment of Francisco Barreto as captain- general of the East African coast— Establishment of Mozambique as the centre of the Portuguese government in Eastern Africa — Belief of the Portuguese in the richness of the South African gold- fields — Resolution of the king to take possession of the gold-fields — Enthusiasm in Lisbon on this becoming known — Account of the force sent out until its arrival at Sena — Barbarous treatment of the Mohamedans at Sena — Disastrous expedition of Francisco Barreto in the Zambesi valley — Death of Francisco Barreto —Assumption of tlie government by Vasco Fernandes Homem — Division of the Kalanga people into four independent tribes— Expedition of Vasco Fernandes Homem to Manika — Arrangements with the Tshikanga and Kiteve chiefs concerning trade. CHAPTEK IV. TRANSACTIONS OF THE PORTUGUESE SOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI FROM THE DEATH OF FRANCISCO D'aLMEIDA TO THE FAILURE OF FRANCISCO BARRETO'S EXPEDI- TION. For a long time the only place occupied by the Portuguese south of the Zambesi was the fort and trading station at Sofala. They had no inducement to make a settlement anywhere on the coasts of the present British and German possessions, because nothing was to be obtained in commerce there, and the Hottentots, after the slaughter of D'Almeida and his people, were regarded as the most ferocious of savages, with whom it was well to have as little inter- course as possible. The wealth of India was theirs to gather, and on it all their thoughts were bent. They had no surplus population with which to form colonies in South Africa, and so it was only accident, or stress of weather, or want of water, that brought their ships to any of the curves in the coast below Delagoa Bay after the refreshment station at Mozam- bique was established. Sofala was a very unhealthy post, for the country about it was low and swampy and the air was hot and close, ■nwN 120 THE PORTUGUESE 1^- ^t ^'1 : '].. U^ it !i I SO that fever carried off a large proportion of the garrison every year; but the profits in trade were great. To it were brought all the ivory collected over a vast territory west, south, and north, all the gold gathered by the Bantu in the same region, a few slaves made prisoners in intertribal wars, and all the pearls found in the oyster beds at the Bazaruto islands and along the coast north of Cape St Sebastian. The Arabs did the retail trading still, thf;y went inland and bartered the ivory and gold and slaves for Indian calico and glass beads and other wares, they directed the pearl fishing and searched the coast for ambergris, which was much more plentiful then than now, but their Portuguese lords required everything that had value to be brought to the king's warehouse, for the factor there was the only wholesale merchant in the land. He it was who fixed the price of everything, under instructions from his government, and it was so fixed as to leave an enormous profit on his side. Sometimes the Asiatic blood would show its pride and give trouble for a season, but it was so diluted as to be very weak, and the Portuguese power in com- parison was enormously strong. The fort was governed by an ofl&cer appointed by the king, but who usually received his instructions from the viceroy of India. His direct authority, however, extended only over the Christians. The Mohamedans who lived in the houses and huts close by paid tribute, and were permitted to take only a subordinate part in trade, but in most matters they were ruled according to their own laws by an individual whose appointment was confirmed by tha Portuguese authorities. When 1. 1: IN SOUTH AFRICA. 121 they did anything to offend the Europeans, however, they were summarily tried and punished by the captain of the fort. The Bantu were absolutely inde- pendent, and the Portuguese, in order to keep on friendly terms with them, found it necessary to make yearly presents to the chiefs, as with their good will that of their followers also was secured. These presents usually consisted of beads, bangles, squares 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 w^s often worth as much as what they received. The predominant people in the country between the rivers Sabi and Zambesi were at that time 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 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 net Makalanga by blood, and who were independent of each other. South of the Sabi river lived a tribe named the Batonga, whose outposts extended beyoi d the cape das Corrences. 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 to-day I !l 122 THE POfiTUGUESBJ I. r 'i I. ■ Y ■ il{ ['' that bears the same title, has the same relative power, and occupies the same ground, as its ancestors three hundred years ago. The people we call Mashona are indeed descended from the Makalanga of the 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. Internal dissension, subjec- tion, and merciless treatment from conquerors have destroyed most of what was good in their forefathers. This tribe — the Makalanga — was the one with which the Portuguese had most to do. Its paramount chief was called by them the monomotapa, which word, their writers state, meant emperor, but in reality it was only oiie of the h'^reditary titles originally given by the official praisers > the great chief, and meant either master of the mountain or master of the mines. The Portuguese were not very careful in the orthography of Bantu names, and in those early days they had not discovered the ru'ies which govern the construction of the language, so that probably monomotapa does not represent the exact sound as spoken by the natives, though most likely it approximates closely to it. About the first part of the word ^here is no uncertainty. In one of the existing dialects mong means master or chief, in another omuhona has the same meaning. The plural of mong is leng, and one of the Portuguese writers gives the word as henoniotaya, evidently from having heard it used by natives in a plural form. Another Portuguese writer, in relating the exploits of a chief named Munhamonge, says that word meant master of the world, and his statement is perfectly correct. ' 4 m SOUTH AFRICA. 123 Thus monomotapa meant chief of something, but what that something was is not so certain. It seems on analysing it to be chief of the mountain, and there are other reasons for believing that to be its ' correct signification. The great place, or residence of the monomotapa, was close to the mountain Fura, which he .vould never 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 natives, when going to the great place, most likely used the expression going to the mountain, for the Portuguese soon began to employ the words d serra in that sense, without specially defining what mountain was meant. In our own times one of the titles given by the official praisers to the Basuto chief Moshesh was chief oi the mountain, owing to his possession of Thaba Bosigo, and the Kalanga chief probably had his title of monomotapa from his possession of Fura. But there is another possible explanation of the word, which would give it a much more romantic origin. It may have meant chief of the mines, for the termination, slightly altered in form, in one of the Bantu dialects signifies a large hole in the ground. In this case the title may have come down from a very remote period, and may have originated with the ancient gold- workers who mixed their blood with the ancestors of the Kalanga people. This is just possible, but it is so un- lik''y that it is almost safe to translate the word monomotapa, manamotapa, or m^nom^tdpa, — as different Portuguese writers spelt it, — chitf of the mountain. In K 124 THE PORTUGUESE ri '\ * ',•!■ Mill I {'. any case it signified the paramount or great chief of the Kalanga tribe, and was applied to all who in succes- sion 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 civilisa- tion, 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. Headers 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 Monomo- tapa, a question that can be so easily answered by reading the books of De Barros, De Couto, and Dos Santos, and analysing the Kalanga 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 \\ IN SOUTH AFRICA. 125 deal of English literature of the nineteenth 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 mean-i as the others, that is principally by the religious awe with which the paramount chief was regarded, as repre- senting 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 conquest, cannot be ascertained, but 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 govern- ment. There was one peculiar custom however, that prevented them from forgetting it : a custom that most likely had a foreign origin. 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 ! I 126 THE PORTUGUESE ■ h 1 1' ■< ' ; ( from the spreading of one kindled by the Monomotapa himself. The chiefs of the principal branches married their near reutives, even t' eir nieces, and when they died these women were obliged to accompany them to the spirit world. The custom of slaughtering great numbers of people at the death of a powerful chief, in order to provide him with a suitable retinue, was not altogether unknown among the tribes south of the Sabi, but was rarely practised there, though north of that river it was generally carried out. It showed that the religion common to all was more developed in the north, and there were other circumstances that proved this as well. Thus there was a yearly sacrifice to the shades of the dead, performed with much ceremony at the burial places of the chiefs, instead of an occasional sacrifice in time of trouble, as was the practice in the south. The form of trial by ordeal in criminal cases was common among the Makalanga, where the accused were required to prove their innocence by licking hot iron or swallowing poison, the supposition being that if they were free of guilt they would suffer no harm. This also indicates an advance beyond the southern tribes. Another proof of a slightly higher degree of progress was shown in their manufacture of a coarse kind of cloth. In the south the fibre of bark was used to make cords to fasten the reeds of mats together, but the Makalanga converted the same material into clothing, though of a very rough kind. With these exceptions, their customs, mode of living, and religious observances, as described by the early ir^ IN SOUTH AFRICA. 127 Portuguese writers, were the same as those mentioned in the second chapter of this book. Of the various Bantu tribes south of the Zambesi they appeared to have a larger proportion of Asiatic blood in their veins than any of the others, 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. But they were neither so robust nor so courageous as many of their neighbours. Like their near kindred the Basuto and Bapedi of to- day, they were capable of making a vigorous defence in mountain strongholds, 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. The residence of each important chief was called his Zimbabwe, which the Portuguese 7:riters say meant the place where the court was held, though the buildings were merely thatched huts with wattled walls covered with clay. The word was equivalent to " the great place " as now used, though the roots from which it was derived are not absolutely certain. The ruins now called Zimbabwe were known to the Makalanga, who had no traditions, however, of their origin. Some Arabs, too, had seen them in their trad- ing journeys inland, and there was a report among these people that above a gateway certain characters — evidently of the nature of writing — were traced, but which could not be deciphered. They believed the ruins to be the place where the workmen of either V'l I ■: / " if „. 128 THE PORTUGUESE ;<'• Solomon the king or the queen of Sheba lived, and they knew that gold was found not far off. But their accounts were either incorrectly given, or incorrectly written down by the Portuguese, for the largest building was described by them as square, and the tower and numerous small buildings were mentioned separately. When the Portuguese in 1505 first came in close contact with the Makalanga, the tribe had been engaged in civil war for twelve or thiitoen 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 heredi- tary 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 monomotapa's mind that he was a sorcerer and was compassing the death of his benefactor. There- upon 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 Kesarinuto or Kesarimyo, returned and collected a force which defeated the usurping monomotapa's army. Tshikanga then took the field IN SOUTH AFKICA, 129 *5 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 dispersed, and Kesarimyo became monomotapa. But Tolwa, 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. In course of time the war was reduced to a permanent feud, Tolwa's clan became an independent tribe, and Manika was lost to the monomotapa for ever.^ Throughout the greater part of the territory oc'pied by the Makalanga gold was found, and particularly in the district of Manika. No other mode of obtaining it was known — at least as far as the Portuguese and the jl^rabs oould ascertain — than by washing ground either in the rivers or in certain localities after heavy rains. Extracting quartz from reefs and crushing it was not heard of by the traders, and if practised at all could only have been carried on in remote localities and to a very limited extent. The gold, unless it was in nuggets of some size, was not wrought by the finders, as they were without sufficient skill to make any except the roughest ornaments of it. For a very long time, however, its value in trade had been known. It was ^ The particulars of Tshikanga's revolt are not given by Barros, but are contained in a long report from Diogo de Alca^ova to the king, dated 20th of November 1506. Alcaijova went to Sofala with the expedition under Pedro da Nhaya, and obtained his information there. I II s , { ■] d' !! ( ♦^ r 130 THE PORTUGUESE kept in quills, and served as a convenient medium of exchange until the Arabs got possession of it. Copper and iron were also to be had from the Makalanga. The iron was regarded as of superior quality, so much so that a quantity was once sent to India to make firelocks of. Though the smelting fur.idces were of the crudest description, this metal was obtainable in the greatest abundance, just as it is to-day among the Bapedi farther south. Before the middle of the sixteenth century the Portuguese had effected their principal conquests in the East, and the valour which distinguished them when iljij first appeared in the Indian sea was rapidly giving place to a boundless greed for wealth. They were extending their commerce into regions unfre- quented by traders before, but unfortunately corrup- tion was becoming rife in all their forts and factories. On the eastern coast of Africa they were particularly active. Tn 1544 the factory of Quilimane was founded on the northern bank of the river of Good Tokens, about fifteen niiles from the sea. In the same year the captnin of Moi-ambique sent two men named Lourencjo Marques and Antonio Caldeira on an exploring */oyage to the southward in a pangaio, that is a vessel of which the woodwork was sewed together, such as the Arabs commonly used. They inspected the lower course of the Limpopo river, and ascertained that copper in considerable quantities was to be obtained there from the natives. Then they sailed to the Espirito Santo, and examined that stream. On the banks of the Umbelosi, whicli flows into the Espirito Santo, they I i I 1 \l IN SOUTH AFRICA. 131 saw a great number of elephants, and purchased tusks of ivory from the natives at the rate of a few glass beads for each. In the neighbourhood of the Maputa river, wliich 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 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 the governor Garcia de Sii, they gave him that official's name. We shall meet him again in the course of this narrative, and shall find that his friendship for white people was not a mere passing whim. The inspection of the country around the bay of the Lake was followed by a change of names. The Umbelosi river was thereafter termed by the Portu- guese Rio de Louren(;-o Marques, though geographers of other nations continued to term it the river da 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 Lourenc^o Marques, though to all other Europeans it remained known as Delagoa Bay, and it is still so called. Tlie old name was transferred to the curve in the coast now called Algoa Bay, but the exact date of the transfer, by what individual it was made, and the cause that prompted it, cannot be ascertained.^ ' In the Esmeraldo dc Situ Orbis, of Duarte I'acheco, writtcu boforo the death of King Manuel, a ha,y named Alagoa is nicntionud, vhich 132 THE PORTUGUESE 'I' I'f .1 .*. I From this time forward a small vessel was sent every year from Mozambique to the bay of Loureu^o Marques to obtain ivory. During their stay the traders usually resided on the island of Inhaka, on the eastern side of the bay, where some rough huts were built for their accommodation, and as soon as all the tusks that had been collected by the natives were purchased, they returned to Mozambique. No per- manent factory or fort was built at this place until a much later date. At Inhambane, or Nyimbana as termed by the natives, which is about two hundred and thirty miles farther up the coast, a similar trade was carried on. This is one of the best ports on the Indian seaboard for all but very large ships. There is good anchorage in the bay or estuary, but the Portuguese were accustomed to sail ten or twelve miles up the river, which has always for that distance a deep channel, though there are many sandbanks bordering it. Where the village of Inhambane now stands, on the right bank of the stream, they built a hut for a temporary trading station, and bartered beads and trinkets and coarse calico for ivory. This place has always been regarded as the healthiest station in the Portuguese possessions in Eastern Africa, but the country around it is not very productive. is said to have been so called on account of a lake which was there in a marsh. It is described as having a small ibiand in it, covered with seals and seabirds, but its position is given as fifteen leagues east of the Watering Place of S. Braz, that is the locality of the Knysna inlet. This designation for that particular sheet of water was probably lost soon afterwards, as no other trace of it is to be found, and it does not appear to have had any connection with the naming of the present Algoa Bay. IN SOUTH AFRICA. 133 At this time also two permanent trading stations were established on the southern bank of the Zambesi river, at each of which a small fort was built and garrisoned by a few soldiers for the protection of the factor. The first of these, named Sena, was about one hundred and forty miles from the mouth of the river, but the site was low and unhealthy. The second, Tete, was over three hundred miles from the sea, and was on much higher ground, though it could be reached by small vessels from Mozambique. At both Sena and Tete gold and ivory, which might not have been taken to Sofala, were obtained from the natives.^ 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 native 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 'M ^ The exact date of the foundation of Tete and Sena is unknown, though it is likely that records of the event are in existence in Mozambique. Bordalo sought in vain for papers on the subject in the archives at Lisbon. In De Couto's great work the first mention of these places represents them in 1569 as established posts, and in the life of Qon^alo da Silveira they appear in 1560 as factories well known in the Indian trade. In 1531 Vi9ente Pegado, captain of Sofala, made regulations for holding fairs on the southern bank of the Zambesi, so that Tete and Sena were not then in existence. In all probability they originated in the fairs, but it does not do to make sure where there is no positive proof. ^2 ^ I i .■ , 134 THE PORTUGUESE malaria, no lives led by Europeans anywhere could be more miserable than theirs. The natives termed them Bazunga, — singular, Mozunga, — and were generally well disposed towards them. Individual white men often gained the confid- ence of chifis, and exercised great influence over them. Instances were not wanting of such persons abandoning their formei associates, and going ^o reside permanently either on tracts of land presentee io them, where they became petty rulers, or at native kraals, where they held authority of some kind under the chiefs. There- after they were regarded as renegades, though their mode of living was little worse than that of jany of their countrymen at the forts and trading stations. For upwards of half a century nothing of any consequence occurred, except what has been related. A list of the successive captains of Sofala might be made, but it would be of no interest to anyone now. And of the changes that took place in the native tribes, which might br of some importance to know, the writers of the time made no mention. In 1569 King Sebastiao cut off two great tracts of territory from the viceroyalty of India. Complaints were unceasing that in places di.stant from Goa it was almost impossible to carry on business properly, owing to the length of time required to obtain orders and instructions. Under the new system, all the settle- ments and trading stations from Pegu to China were placed under a governor independent of the viceroy, and the whole East African coast from the cape das Correntes to the cape Guardafui was similarly placed under another. i' IN SOUTH AFRICA. 135 The officer selected by the king to be the head of the East African stations was Francisco Barreto, who had been jrovernor general of India from 1555 to 1558. He had the title of governor and captain general, and was instructed to make Mozambique his lieadquartors. The object of the king in selecting for this post a man who had once held higher rank was that Barreto should have the command and guidance of an expedi- tion then regarded as or the first importance. Ever since 'Va establishment of the trading station at Sofala a quantity of gold had been obtained yearly in commerce, but that quantity was so s aall as to be disappointing. Compared with the wealth which flowed into Spain from Mexico and Peru it was almost as nothing. Yet the belief was general in Portugal that the mines of South Africa were as rich as those of America, and that if possession of them was taken, boundless wealth wc Jd be obtained. Were not these the mines from which the queen of Sheba got the gold which she presented to King Solomon ? said the Portuguese enthusiasts. Was not Masapa the ancient Ophir ? Why even then the Kalanga Kaffirs called the mountain close to the residence of their great chief Fura, and the Arabs called it Aufur, what was that but a ccimption of Ophir ? There, at Abasia, close to Masapa and to the mountain Fura, was a miue so rich that there were seldom years in which nuggets worth four thousand cruzados (£550) were not taken from it. Then there v'sre the mines ^f Manika and far distant Butua, worked only by Bantu, who neither knew how to dig nor had the necessary tools. Only by washing river sand and soil in pools m: 1 N •, ) il' 136 THB PORTUGUESE kl i< r ' after heavy rains, these barbarians obtained all the gold that was purchased at Sofala and the smaller stations : what would not be got if civilised Europeans owned the territory ? For it was to be borne in mind that the Bantu were extremely indolent, that when any one of them obtained sufficient gold to supply his immediate wants, he troubled himself about washing the soil no longer. All this and more of the same nature was exciting the minds of the people of Portugal, and was reflected in tho glowing pages of their writers. And now the young and enthusiastic king Sebastiao had resolved that the mines should be his, and selected the experienced administrator Francisco Barreto to lead the expedition which was to take possession of them. Barreto was instructed to enrol a thousand soldiers, and was supplied with a hundred thousand cruzados (£13,750) in ready money, with a promise of an equal sum in gold and a reinforcement of five hundred men every year until the conquest should be completed. All Lisbon was in a state of excitement when this became known, and so great was the enthusiasm with which the project was regarded that from every side cadets of the best families pressed forward and offered their services. The recruiting offices "ere so crowded that only the very best men were selected, and those who were rejected would have sufficed for another expedition. Three ships were engaged to Lake the troops to Mozambique. One of these — the JRainha — was a famous Indiaman, and the largest in the king's service. In addition to the crew, six hundred soldiers, of whom more than half were of noble blood, and two hundred were •• it IN SOUTH AFRICA. 137 court attendants, embarked with Barreto in this ship. The other vessels were of two hundred and fifty tons burden, and in each of them two hundred soldiers embarked. One was commanded by Vasco Fernandes Homem, the other by Lourengo Carvalho. The viceroy at Goa was instructed to forward supplies of food to Mozambique, and to procure horses and other animals at Ormuz for the use of the expedition. A hundred negroes were sent out to take care of the animals when they arrived. Towards the close of April 1569 the expedition, that was supposed to have a brilliant career before it, sailed from the Tagus. Almost immediately the first trou})le was encountered, in the form of a gale which separated the ships, and caused so much damage to the one under Lourengo Carvalho that she was obliged to return to Lisbon, where she was condemned. The Rainha put into the bay of All Saints, on the coast of Brazil, and was detained there some months effecting repairs. The other ship arrived safely at Mozambique in August. Pedro Barreto, who was then captain of Mozambique, no sooner heard of the new order of things than in a fit of jealousy he threw up his appointment and em- barked for Europe. Consequently when the Ilainha arrived some time later, everything was found in con- fusion, and the supplies of provisions were short. The governor appointed Lourenqo Godinho provisional captain of Mozambique, and then proceeded up the coast as far as Melinda, purchasing food at the various stations and collecting the tribute due to the king. Upon his return, he found a ship, commanded by i i i ,'1 I 1 T-_,-if»p.k*r'fl 138 THE PORTUGUESE >il I. fe'!., kii Manuel de Mesquita, which had been sent from Portugal to survey the coast onward from the Cape of Good Hope, and to convey men and material of war for his assist- ance. Some ships which the viceroy had sent from India with munitions of war, stores of different kinds, liorses, and other animals for the use of the expedition had also arrived. With these, however, Earreto received information that Chaul was being besieged by a very strong force, so he called a council of his officers and put the question to them whether it would not be more advantageous to the king's service to defer the African conquest for a time, and proceed to the relief of that fortress. The council was of opinion that they should first force the enemy to raise the siege of Chaul, and then return and take possession of the gold mines, so preparations for that purpose were at once commenced. Before Barreto could sail for Chaul, Antonio de Noronha, the newly appointed viceroy of India, arrived at Mozambique with a strong force. His appearance put a different aspect upon affairs, and in a general council, which was attended by all the officers and more than twenty Dominican friars, it was unanimously resolved that the African expedition should at once be proceeded with. With one exception, the members of the council were of opinion that Sofala should be made the base of operations, the friar Francisco de Mon- claros alone holding that the route should be up the Zambesi to a certain point, and then straight to the mountain where the paramount chief of the Kalanga tribe resided. Barreto accepted the decision of the majority of the council, and commenced to send his stores to Sofala in IN SOUTH AFRICA. 139 coasting vessels, but after a time his mind misgave him. He had been specially commanded by the king to con- sult the father De Monclaros, who was a prelate of the Dominican order and a man held in very high esteem. After another conversation with this friar, the governor suddenly abandoned the Sofala route, and in November 1569 sent his whole force — which had been strengthened by the viceroy De Noronha — to Sena by way of the Kilimane and Zambesi rivers. On the right bank of the Zambesi, close to the fort at Sena, a camp was formed. There a thousand Euro- pean soldiers were mustered, with many slaves, and a contingent of Arab mixed breeds who knew the country and could act as interpreters. Their supplies of pro- visions were ample. They had horses to draw the artillery and mount a respectable company, a number of asses to carry skin water-bags, and some camels for heavy transport. As far as war material was concerned, the expedition was as well equipped as it could be. But this first campaign of Europeans against Bantu in Southern Africa was opened under exceptional diffi- culties, for the locality was the sickly Zambesi valley, and the time was the hottest of the year. The first trouble encountered arose from bad water. The river, owing to heavy falls of rain, was so muddy and a.rty that its water could not be used without first letting it settle, and the only vessels available for this purpose were a few calabashes. Sickness broke out, and men and hoises began to die, owing, as was sup- posed, to the impurities which they drank. Barreto caused a well to be dug in front of the camp, and stones were brought for building the wall, when a man named if Oh? m 1 C-T*"^*' •%,A»--*-. fW m^iiams!;^jsrffmmmfi^f^mi^mmm 140 THE PORTUGUESE I I -1 H i 'i i Manhocsa, an Arab mixed breed, came to him privately and told him that there was a plot to put poison in it. The Mohamedan settlement in which Manhoesa lived was only a cannon shot from the camp. The people who resided in it were traders an:^ dependents of the Portuguese at Sena, but were governed by their own sheikh. Most of them could speak the Portuguese language sufficiently well to be understood, and after the expedition arrived professed to entertain friendship for the members of it, though at heart it was impossible for the two races at that time to be really well disposed towards each other. Apart from the wide gulf which religion caused, the Christians had come to destroy the commerce with the Bantu by which these mongrel Arabs lived, how could there the*, be friendship between them ? Barreto believed Mauhoesa's statement, and caused the well to be filled up. The horses were now dying off at an alarming rate, and upon the bodies being opened, the appearance of the lungs convinced the Portuguese that they had been poisoned. The grooms were arrested, and as they declared that they were innocent, the general commanded them to be put to the torture. Under this ordeal some of them admitted that they had been bribed by the sheikh of the Arab village to kill the horses, and that he had supplied them with poison for the purpose. Upon this evidence the captain general caused the village to be surrounded, and directed his soldiers to rush in and put all but the principal men to the sword. There was even a search for Mohamedans along the lower course of the river, and a wealthy individual who IN SOUTH AFRICA. 141 lived at fi distance in the other direction was also arrested. The prisoners were tried, and were sentenced to death. They were exhorted to embrace Christianity, in order to save their souls, but all rejected the proposal except one, who was baptized with the name Lourenqo, and was accompanied to the scaffold by a priest carry- ing a crucifix. This one was hanged, some were blown from the mouths of cannons, and the others were put to death with exquisite torture. Only Manhoesa was left living of all the men that were captured. From Sena Barreto sent one of the Portuguese resid- ents to the monomotapa to propose an alliance. A mes- senger went in advance to ascertain whether he would be received in a manner becoming the representative of the king of Portugal, because in that capacity he would not be at liberty to lay aside his arms, to prostrate him- self upon the ground, and to kneel when addressing the chief, as was the ordinary custom when natives or strangers presented themselves. Some Mohamedans were at the great place when the messenger arrived, and they tried to induce the monomotapa not to see thg envoy except in the usual manner. They informed him that the Portuguese were powerful sorcerers, who, if permitted to have their own way, might bewitch and even kill him by their glances and their words. The chief therefore hesitated for some days, but in the end he promised that the envoy might present himself in the Portuguese manner, and would be received with friendship. Barreto's agent then proceeded to the monomotapa's kraal. He had several attendants with him, and before him went servants carrying a chair and a carpet. The W ! 142 THE PORTUGUESE I . I ' * f P I , I M ; i ! ', carpet was spread on the ground in front of the place where the monomotapa was reclining with his council- lors and great men half surrounding him, the chair was placed upon it, and the Portuguese official, richly dressed and armed, took his seat in it, his attendants, also armed, standing on each side and at his back. The European subordinate and the greatest of all the South African chiefs were there in conference, and the Euro- pean, by virtue of his blood, assumed and was conceded the higher position of the two. After some complimentary remarks from each, the envoy, through his interpreter, introduced the subject of his mission, which he said was to obtain the grant of a right of way to the gold mines of Manika and Butua, and to form an alliance against the chief Mongasi — (variously written by the Portuguese Omigos, Mongas, and Monge), — the hereditary enemy of the Makalanga. The real object of Barreto's expedition, the seizure of the gold mines in the Kalanga country itself, was kept concealed. The monomotapa, as a matter of course, was charmed with the proposal of assistance against his enemy. The tribe of which Mongasi was the head occupied the right bank of the Zambesi from above Tete nearly down to Sena, but did not reach quite to the river through all that distance. Its territory was small compared with that over which the Kalanga clans were spread, but its men were brave and fond of war, and to the Portuguese it was not certain which of the two was really the more powerful, Mongasi or the monomotapa himself. The condition of things indeed was somewhat similar to that in the same country three centuries later, except that Mongasi and his fighting i IN SOUTH AFIITCA. far below Lobeiigule 143 and the men were in power Matabele bands. The monomotapa was therefore ready to agree to everything that the envoy proposed. He promised to put a great army in the field against Mongasi, and ho said that a way through his territory to the mines beyond would be open to the Portuguese at all times. Upon the return of the envoy, Barreto proceeded up the river from Sena. He had lost by fever at that place a great many of those who had come from Portugal with such high hope less than a year before, among them his own son, and of the men with him some were barely able to walk. When he reached the point where he was to turn towards the mountain of the monomotapa, he found himself obliged to form a camp on an island in the river, and to leave there his sick and all the superfluous baggage and stores, for there was no possibility of proceeding farther with a heavily encumbered column. An officer named Ruy de Mello was placed in charge of this camp. With his force now reduced to five hundred and sixty infantry, twenty-three horsemen, and a few guniiers with five or six pieces of artillery, Barreto turned away from the river. His baggage was borne by camels and asses. The column marched onward for ten days, the men and animals suffering greatly at times from want of water. The soldiers lived chiefly on beef, which they grilled on embers or by holding it on rods before a fire, but often they were so exhausted with the heat and fatigue that they were unable to eat anything at all. Their spirits, however, revived when on the eleventh day 144 THE PORTUGUESE I .' If' fl ir il .-1' '* i they came in sight of Mongasi's army, which was so large that the hillsides and valleys looked black with men. Barreto immediately arranged his soldiers in a strong position resting on a hill, and awaited an attack, but none was made that day. All night the troops were under arms, getting what sleep they could without moving from their places, but that was little, for the natives at no great distance were shouting continuously and making a great noise with their war drums. At dawn the sergeant-major, Pedro de Castro, was sent out with eighty picked men to try and draw the enemy on. This manoeuvre succeeded. The natives rushed forward in a dense mass, led by an old female wituhfinder with a calabash full of chjirms, which she threw into the air in the belief that they would cause the Portuguese to become blind and palsied. So implicitly did the warriors of Mongasi rely upon these charms, that they carried riems to bind the Europeans who should not be killed. Barreto ordered one of his best shots to try to pick the old sorceress off, and she fell dead under his fire. The natives, who believed that she was immortal, were checked for an instant, but presently brandishing their weapons with great shouts, they came charging on. Then, with a cry of Saut lago from the Portuguese, a storm of balls from cannons and arquebuses and unwieldy firelocks was poured into the dens« mass, which was shattered and broken. Barreto now in his turn charged, when the enevny took to flight, but in the pursuit several Portuguese were wounded with arrows. Fearing that his men might get scattered, the general caused the recall to be sounded almost at once, so that i' t ■ IN SOUTH AFRICA. 145 within a few miuutes from its commencement the action was over. The horsemen were then sent out to inspect the country in front. They returned presently with intelligence that there was a large kraal close by, so the general resolved to occupy it as soon as the men were a little rested and had broken their fast. About ten o'clock the expedition reached the kraal, which was nearly surrounded by patches of forest, but possession was hardly taken when the natiyes in great numbers were seen approaching. There was just time to tear out some stakes and bushes from the cattle fold and form a kind of breastv/ork at the sides of the field guns, when Mongasi's army, arranged in the form of a crescent with its horns extended to surround the position, was upon the little European band. It was received as before with a heavy fire, which was kept back until the leading rank was within a few feet, and which struck down the files far towards the rear. The smoke which rolled over the Europeans and hid them from sight was regarded by the Bantu with superstitious fear, it seemed to them as if their opponents were under supernatural protection, and so they fled once more. They were followed some distance, and a great many were killed, but the Portuguese also suffered severely in the pursuit, for when Barreto's force came together again it was found that more than sixty men were wounded and two were dead. Of the enemy it was believed that over six thousand had perished since dawn that morning, though very probably this estimate was much in excess of the actual number. The progress of the exj)edition was now delayed by 3J 1 H Hi If' ^BJjH fi 1 1 R. » 146 THE PORTUGUESE tff' «| the necessity of establishing a hospital. Fortunately the site of the captured kraal was a good one, and water was plentiful close by. But at daylight on the sixth day after their arrival the natives att-cked them again. On this occasion the Europeans were protected with palisades, which the Bantu were unable to pass, though they continued their efforts to force au entrance until an hour after noon. Their losses under these circumstances must have been very heavy, and they were so disheartened that they accepted their defeat as decisive and sent a messenger to beg for peace. Barreto's position at this time was one of great difficulty. He was encumbered with sick and wounded men, the objective point of his expedition was far away, his supply of ammunition was small, and his slaughter cattle were reduced to a very limited number. Yet he spoke to Mongasi's messenger in a haughty tone, and replied that he would think over the matter : the chief might send again after a couple of days, and he would then decide. In less than a week from this time a council of war was held, when there was but one opinion, that the only hope of safety was in retreating without delay. The expedition therefore turned back towards the Zambesi, and so great were the sufferings of the men for want of food on the way that they searched for roots and wild plants to keep them alive. At length the bank of the river was reached, and a canoe was obtained, with which a letter was sent to liuy de Mello, who was in command of the camp on the island. That officer immediately despatched six boat loads of millet md I'l IN SOUTH AFRICA. 147 for d war it the |delay. the jn for roots Ih the lined, LO was lofficer t (^n ' I 152 THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA, in wooden troughs and after long and patient toil extracting a few grains of gold. They at once con- cluded that it could be of no advantage for them to hold the country. An agreement was therefore made with the Tshikanga chief that he should do everything in his power to facilitate commerce with his people, and for that purpose should allow Portuguese traders or their agents to enter his country at any time, in retiuin lor which the captain of the fort at Sofala was to i;ja\.B / i-n a yearly present of two hundred squares of cot .»n ckib The expedition went no farther. As soon as his people were refreshed, Homem set out again for the coast, without attempting to penetrate to the territory of the monomotapa. On the way messengers from the Kiteve chief met him, and begged for peace, so an agreement W4JS made with them similar in terms to the one concluded with the owner of Manika. The value of tiie two hundred squares of cloth which each of the chiefs was to receive yearly was estimated at £5 12s. 6d. of our money. There was no other return for the large expenditure that had been incurred. Homem retired to Mozambique with his force considerably reduced by fever, and the survivors in a state of despondency. Nothing more disastrous had yet happened to the Portuguese in the East than these unsuccessful attempts to get possession of the South African gold fields. 11' It f I CHAPTER ^ EVENTS IN SOUTH- EASTEiN AFRICA FROM THE FAILURE OF BARRFTO'S EXPEDITION TO THE APPEARANCE OF THE DUTCH IN THE EASTERN SEAS. ■X ^ f^ \iA Chapter V. — Contents. V !j I'M ' i First mission to natives of South Africa — Retirement of the mission- aries from the Tonga country — Re-establishment of the mission — Baptism of the monomotapa — Murder of the father Gongalo da Silveira — Arrival of friars of the Dominican order — Occupation of various stations by the Dominieans — Establishment of hospitals by the order of St John of God — Small impression made on the Bantu by missionary teaching — Loss of the galleon S. Jodo — Terrible sufferings of the shipwrecked people — Death of Dona Leonor de Sepulveda —Loss of the ship S. Thome — Devotion to duty of the friar Nicolau do Rosario— Wreck of the ship Santo Alberto in Algoa Bay — Friendly conduct of a Hottentot chief — Overland journey of the shipwrecked people to Delagoa Bay — Account of the native tribes along the south- eastern coast of Africa — Condition of the Portuguese factories at the close of the sixteenth century — Trading stations in the Kalanga country — Devastations by savage hordes north of the Zambesi — Destruction of Teto and Sena by the Mazimba — Murder of the friar Nicolau do Rosario — Defeat of a Portuguese army under Pedro de Sousa — Conclusion of peace with the Mazimba — Condition of Portugal at the close of the sixteenth century — Effect of the introduction of slaves — General corruption in the eastern governments— Construction of Fort S. Sebastioo at Mozambique. ^j I \l CHAPTER V. e\t:nts in south-eastern Africa from the failure of barreto's expedition to the appearance of the dutch in the eastern seas. The Portuguese occupation of South-Eastern Africa during the sixteenth century might be arranged under three headings : the period of conquest, the period of expansion of commerce, and the period of missionary enterprise, as these events were successively the lead- ing features for a time. Tlie state carried on wars after the close of the first of these periods, and we shall yet see a few individuals of the nation engaged in a conflict as venturesome as any of former days, but the famous exploits of the fleets and armies were ended when the century was still young. The commerce, too, of the Portuguese nation had passed its zenith before that fatal day in August 1578 when their young and gallant king Sebastiao was killed in battle with the Moors. And now a time of intense religion o zeal had set in, and the enterprise of missionaries surpassed that of either soldiers or traders. It is true that the conversion of the heathen to Chris- tianity was from the very beginning of the Portuguese conquests kept in view by the authorities of the Koman catholic church, but India offered a larger and more lEW m 19 Vi ' 'ik Sj \m I 1 ll I ; r ■i r Ill H -1,1 I! If 156 THE PORTUGUESE promising field to the Franciscans, Dominicans, and other long-established orders, and there were no men to spare for the enlightenment of the barbarous tribes between the Zambesi and the bay of Louren(jo Marques. Even the garrison of Sofala was very irregularly pro- vided with a chaplain, and Sena and Tete were left altogether without one. At this time, however, the Society of Jesus, the greatest and most zealous of all the missionary orders of the Roman catholic church, was rapidly rising in importance. In 1541 its first agents — the celebrated Francisco Xavier, the father Micer Paulo, and the lay brother Francisco de Monsilhas — proceeded to India, and very shortly they were followed by many others. In the Jesuit college at Coimbra in 1543 a young man of noble parentage, named Gon(^alvo da Silveira, a native of Almeirim on the Tagus, sought admission for the purpose of completing his education. Shortly after- wards 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 S. Thomd was built in the capital of Portuguese India. On one of the voyages of the little vessel that went yearly from Mozambique to Inhambane to purchase ivory, a son of the Tonga chief was induced to visit the principal settlement of the Faropeans in Eastern Africa. 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 1 1 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 157 was possible in the church of S. Gabriel, the captain of Mozambique being one of liis godfathers. When the vessel made her next voyage ho returned to Inhambane, and induced his father to send a request to the Tortuguese authorities that he might be supplied with missionaries. This request was forwarded to Goa, which since 1538 had been provided with a bishop, in whose spiritual jurisdiction Mozambique was included until January 1612, when by a bull of Pope Paul V it was created a separate see. The matter was referred to the Provincial of the Jesuits at Goa, with the result that the fathers Gon(;alvo da Silveira and Andrei Pernandes, with the lay brother Costa, were directed to proceed to South- Eastern Africa, and attempt to convert the natives there to Christianity. Da Silveira was the head of the party, and was intrusted by the viceroy with friendly messages and presents for the Tonga chief and the monomotapa. On the loth of January 1560 the missionaries sailed from Chaul. They reached Mozambique safely, and just as the yearly vessel was about to leave for Inhambane. Two interpreters were secured, who went on with them. They had hardly landed at Inhambane when Silveira had a severe attack of fever, which compelled him to remain with the trading party for a time, but he sent liis companions on to the Tonga chief's great place, which was near the mouth of a river about thirty leagues to the northward. As soon as he was able to travel he followed. Upon their arrival, the mission party — the first in South Africa — witnessed a striking instance of tlie nature of the heathenism they had come to destroy. Ill < [ I \ i i< r. , I y^ ii 1 |i V 1 t 158 THE PORTUGUESE 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, where- upon the man accused was tortured and killed, Tliey found, too, people in the last stages of sickness aban- doned by every one, even their nearest relatives, who feared that death — the invisible tlestroycr — miglit 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 mi'^sionuries were very well treated. Huts were given to them to live in, and they were supplied with abundance of food. They com- menced therefore without delay to exhort the people to become Christians. There is a custom of the liantu, wii/l. which they were of course unacquainted, not to dispute with honoured guests, but to profess agreement witli whatever is stated. This is regarded by those l)eople as politeness, and it is carried to such an absurd extent that it is often diflicult to obtain correct informa- tion 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 cbse by. The questioner, by using the word far, is supposed to be under the impression that it is at a di.stauce, 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 ho is told of it, though he may not once have thought of the subject before, I \ IN SOUTH AFRICA. 159 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 the whole of the residents of the krnal. The chief received the name Constantino, his principal wife Catherina, and his sons and councillors thi; names of leadinji IN »rtu.i,'uesi; nobh'.s. It is not easy to analyse the thouj^hts of those uncultured barbarians, but cer- tainly what they understood l»y this ceremony must have been something very diti'ercnt from what the missionaries understood by it. After a sojourn of only seven weeks at the Tonga chief's kraal, Silveira returned to Inhambane, leaving behind him the other members of the mission and what he believed to be an infant Christian community. From Inhambane he proceeded to Mozambique in the trading vessel, preparatory to visiting the monomotapa. Soon after his departure, however, Father Fernandes and the lay brother Costa came to learn that the con- verts were altogether indisi)osed to lay aside their old customs. They would not abandon polygamy, and were greatly oll'ended with the preaching of the mission- aries against it. They had a custom also — which still exists — that when a man died leaving childless wives, his brothers should take those women and raise up a family for him, and this the missionaries denounced tu their great annoyance. At length matters reached a climax. There was a drought in the country, and the chief Constantino, who was the rainmaker of the tribe, went through the ordinary ceremonies to obUiin a downpour. For doing tliis Father Fernandes openly and fearlessly rebuked him before his people, witii thg ■Ml »;-i V r 160 THE PORTUGUESE ::> : . result that an order was issued for no one to have any further communication with the white men. From that moment tliey were utterly isolated. People would talk at them, but not to them, they heard themselves spoken of as .sorrerers and their prayer-books termed bewitching matter, but none would listen to them, or answer questions, or sell them food. Under these circumstances the only thing to be done was to retire. They made their way as best they could to Inhambane, and thence to Mozambique, where they took passage to India. And thus, in less than two years from its commencement, the first mission to natives in South Africa was broken up. It was resumed a lew years later by other members of the Society of Jesus, but no permanent conquests for Christianity were made by it. On the 18th of September 1560 Gon(jalo da Silveira left Mozambique for the Kalanga country. He was accompanied by six Portuguese, one of whom, Antonio Dias by name, was a competent interpreter. The vessel in which he was a passenger touched at the mouth of the Kilimane, and then proceeded to the southern branch of the Zambesi, up wliich she sailed to Sena. The Portuguese and Indian Cliristians at this place were without a resident clergyman, so the missionary stayed some weeks to minister to them. Here an additional interpreter was engaged, and was sent in advance to the mont)m()tapa to ask permission for the party to visit the j^reat i)lace. Upon his return with a favourable reply, they embarked in boats going up the river, for they wished to touch at Tete on the way. Here also, as there wa? no resident clorgy- ! ' IN SOUTH AFftlCA. 161 man, Father Silveira ministered to the Christian residents. Tete was the real point of departure for the Kalanga chiefs kraal. Native carriers were engaged here, and the party then proceeded onward, all on foot, but forming quite a little caravan. The road was long, and food became so scarce that they were glad to get any kind of edible wild plants, but on the 2Gth of December they reached their destination in safety. At the kraal of the great chief there was living at this time a Portuguese adv:jnturer named Antonio Coiado, one of a class of me'.i met with then as now, who, while retaining alfectioii for the country of their birth, were perfectly at home among barbarians. Coiado had ingratiated liimself with the mononiotapa, and was a councillor of rank |ind principal military authority in the tribe. Ho was deputed by the chief to wait upon the guests, 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. Silveira declined the present, but in such a way as not to give offence, and shortly afterwards the great chief admitted him to an inter- view. He was received with all possible honour as an ambassador from the viceroy of India, who, from accounts of the Portuguese that had previously visittMl the great place, was believed to be a potentra*; of enormous wealth and power. The message of friend- ship and the present which lie brought gave great satisfaction. Food and huts for himself and his retinue were offered and accepted with thunks, but the African ■Vj f > I! ' i '■hi 162 THE POliTUGUEs:-: r chief was surprised when the iii.'JBioiiiar)' f"' M.^like all other white men he had met, '^ouiUjoorly declined to receive the gold and female companions pressed upon him. The same mistake was made here jus at the Tonga kraal, the missionary addressed the people, they professed to believe whaii he said, and forthw-th he baptized them. Within one month from the (iate of his arrival all this happened. The monomotapa received the name Seliastiao, and his principal wife Maria. Some three hundred of his councillors, attendants, and followers were baptized at the same time. The chief evidently thought his visitor*^ 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 ho began to got weary of their presence. Some Mohamedan refugees from Mozatnbirjue, whj wera staying with liim, took advantage of his growing coldness towards the white peo})le to persuade him that Silveira was a mighty sorcerer. They reminded him of the loss of the presents which the A-^b sheikh of Sofala had made to his j)re(ie.M.'ssors hi i< the arrival of Da Nhaya, and tlicy told him e.xagg(rraled tales of the ill treatment \/lii(h tiu! blacks on the Mozambi(iue coast had sus- tained from the I'orttigueso. In the end they so workcil ui)on his credulity and his fear that he sent an order to Silveira to leave the countrv. Ihit this the missionary refused to do, though he must have realised that by remaining there his life would bo in danger, for ho gave some articles that ho h 't1 t. 'I !N SOUTH vrRir\. 1^:; II 1)0 Hfo It he r«.garded a^ sacred to Coiado, with an injunction to preserve them fro injury. In tliu belief that he wr.s making converts he was willing to face death, and presently he baptized fifty individuals who expressed a desire to become Christians. This was regarded bv the monomotapa as a defiance of his authority, and in his wrath he issued orders to a party of men who strangled Silveira and the whole of the newly baptized, 16th «tf March 1501. The dead body of the missionary was cast into a river. A drought of some duration occurred not long after- wards, and was followed l)y a great i)lague of locusts. Coiado and other Portuguese now jjersuadud the clucf that these evils were conse(iuences of the murder of Silveira, so he cau.sed the Mohamedans who had poisoned his mind towards the missionary to be put to death. The Jesuits were not the men to be disheartened by the ill success of their first eflbrt to convert the bar))arians of South-Eastern Africa. Tliey did not attempt to re-occupy the Kalanga country foi !upny years after this date, because the Domiuicais »,' '^!;- lislied missions there, but farther north and sot' 'ihry were very active. From their college in the oid fo't at Mozambique they went forth, and in course ot tivna visited every kraal from tiio Snbi river to Ht Luciu Bay. They did not build stone cinirches, wb' *' woulc^ have been of little service among clan wl seldom occupied any locality longer than a few years, but structures that could easily be removed, like the huts of the people among whou; they were labouring. 'I'hat they endured hardships and privations of every kind, I l''\ '. !(t.! ; I ! 164 THE PORTUGUESE hunger, thirst, exposure to hoat, fnti^^ue, and fever, need hardly be said : it was the initial part of their duty, as they understood it, to suffer without complaint. But the condition of the southern Bantu tribes was sucli that anythinjjf like improvement was well nigh impos- sible. Wars and raids were constant, for an individual to abandon the faith and customs of his forefathers was rej^arded as treason to his chief, and sensuality had attractions too stronj» to be set aside. Some friars of the Dominican order entered the country south of the Zambesi with Barreto's expedition. They found the Europeans and mixed breeds at the factories witliout the ministrations of cha])lains, and sadly ignomnt in matters spiritual. In the little build- ing at Sena which the inhabitants bad put up to be used as a place for prayer, the friars were shocked to see a picture of the Koman matron Lucretia, which had been hung over the .shrine in the belief that it was a |)ortrait of St Catherine, and they ol served with much surprise that no one made any distinction between fast and feast days. The fuiiiirc of liarreto's attempt to get posses, ion of the gold mines threw missionary enterprise, as well as everything ahw, back for a time in the country along the Zambesi. But the Dominican order, which was doing '■. large work in India, now resolved to add South Africa t.) its Held of labour. In 1577 two of its inuHxbers — Jercuynu) do Couto and Pedro Usus Maris --• came from Goa to Mu. ;imbique, and founded a i:oi>vent, in which six or seven of the brethren at'ter- warvis usually resided. This was the centre from which their missious were gradually established along ! / i ■ IN SOUTH AFRICA. 165 the East African coast. South of the Zambesi the stations of Sofala, Sena, and Tete were occupied. The friars turned their attention first to the nominal Christians, and succeeded in efl'ectinjT some improve- ment in the condition of that class of the inhabitants, most of whom, liowever, continued to live in a way that ministers of religion could not approve of. They next applied themselves to the conversion of the Bantu, but did not meet with the succlss which they hoped for, though they baptized a good many individuals. It was hardly possible for them to make converts except among tiiose who lived about the forts as dependents of the white people, and who were certainly not the best specimens of their race. The work of the Dominicans was thereafter so bound up with the political history of the country that we shall presently meet with them again. These two orders — the Jesuits and the Dominicans — continued their labours in Southern Africa througliout the seventeenth and during the Krst half of the eigh- tee!ith century. Towards tlu^ close of this period they had the assistance of other workers. In 1540 St John of (fod, a Spaniard, established in Granada an order for attending upon the sick. In 1G82 this order took upon itself tlie care of the ho.spital at Mozambiciue, and half a (;entury later founded several establish- ments of its (iwn along the Zambesi. It provided the best medical attendance and the most careful nursing for the sick, combined with religious instruction and consolation. lint notwithstanding all these efforts, and instances — as wo shall hereafter see— of individuals being raised I-* h ' . ' i! '. ,« m 166 THE PORTUGUESE [ii ! lill^! i\\^ \ from barbarism to a level with Europeans, little or no impression was made on the great mass of the people. With the decay of the missionary orders they were left without pastors to look after them even before 177.'^, when by Ji pupal brief the .Fcsuits W(ue suppressed, find then it was proved that the moat advanced of the i»:intu were not able to stand alone. In the terribly ilestructive wars which swept over the country, a great many professing Christians must have ])erished, and those that remained alive fell back to the belief of tlieir remote ancestors. In the middle of the present c(!ntury a traveller came to a kraal on one of tlie streams that flow into the Zambesi, and was informed by the occupants that they were Christians. But excepting a few perverted ceremonies which they observed, there was nothing to show that they differed in any way from others of their race, and they were absolutely ignorant of the doctrines of Christianity. Within a hundred years from tlie time when European teachers left them, they had lost a'.l knowledge of what their ancestors had acquired during nearly two centuries of training. Of the southern Bantu tribes a good deal of know- ledge was obtained during the sixteenth century by persons whose vessels were lost on the coast, some of whom underwent almost incredible suflering before tlieir restoration to the societv of civilised men. The most notable shipwrecks south of Sofala were those of the S. Jodo, the *S'. TkoiiU, and the S. Alberto, and in all the records of naval disasters none will be found to surpass the Hrst of these in the hardsh^s endured by the uut'orlunutc people. IN SOUTH AFniCA. 167 The S. Jodo was a fjreat galleon laden witli a very valuable cargo, which left India early in 1552 to return to Portugal. She had nearly five hundred souls on hoard, exclusive of her crew, and, as was usual at that time, an otticer of high rank who was going hoin(! wa-< in comniund. The master «tf the ship directed the working, and the |)ilot pointed out the course, hut tlit; captain — in this instance Manuel de Sousade SiqmlvtMla — gave instructions in such matters as what ports they were to put into and when they were to sail, and he preserved discipline and exercised general control. The captain l)e Sepulveda was accompanied by his wif(!, Dona Leonor, a y< ung and amiable lady of noble blood, two little sons, and a large train of attendants and slaves, male and female. On the 12th of March, when oidy seventy-five miles from the Cape of Good Hope, the galleon encounten'd ji furious gale, and soon a very heavy sea" was running, as is usually the case when the wind and the Agulhas current oppose each other. All sail was taken in, and as the ship would not lie to, she was put before the wind under bare poles. The upper pintles of the rudder now broke, so that she would not steer, but broached to, and rolled her ma^ts overboard. For many days the gale continued, and those on boanl every moment expected death. At last the wind moderated, the sea became calmer, and a spare yard was set up as a jury musi. The intention of the captain was to try to reach Sofala or Mozambique. Before long, however, another gale came on, the rudder, which had been repaired, was lost altogether, and great waves broke over the galleon, tliat lay in the ?f i ' i; I; ; I 163 THE POUTUGUESE * M 'h^''h r :' trough of the sea like a helpless log of wood. She waj drifting towards the coast, from which there were no moans of keeping her. On the 18th of June she was close to the land somewhere near the month of the Umtamvuna river, when an anchor, which was let go, held her from striking. The officers now resolved to get all the people and as much food as possible to land, to save the cargo, and break from the ship materials for building a largo boat, which could be sent to Mozambique for aid. Only two little skiffs were left on board the galleon. These were got out, and during three days some people and pro- visions were conveyed to the shore in them. But on the- third day they were swamped and lost, when the ]K'opl(3 in the wreck, in utter despair, cut the cable, and let her drift till she struck. In less than an hour the >V. Jodo broke into fragments. Over a hundred men and women were lost in the surf, and nuiny of those who reachc:' the land alive were badly bruised. All hope of getting timber and tools to build a boat was now lost, and only a small quantity of food was secured. As soon therefore as the bruised people were sufficiently recovered to travel, the whole party set out to try to walk along the shore to the liver of Louren(jo Marques. To that place a small vessel was sent every year from Mozambique to barter ivory, and the only faint chance of preserving their lives that remained to the shipwrecked people was to reach the river and find the trading party. They had seen some Kaffirs on the hills before they set out on that terrible journey, and had heard those barbarians shouting to each other, mi.-. t*/. IN SOUTH AFRICA. 169 but had not been able to get near or to communicate with them. It was the 6th of July when they left the scene of the wreck. At the end of the month tliey were only ninety miles from it, for they had been oblijijed to make many detours in order to cross tlie rivers. Their sutler- ings from thirst were at times greater than from cold, hunger, and weariness combined. Of all tlu^ party Dona Leonor was the most cheerful, bidding the others take heart, and talking of the better days that were to come. They eked out their little supply of food with oysters and mussels, and sometimes they found quite an abun- dance of fish in pools among the rocks at low tide. And now every day two or three fell behind exhausted, an J perished. To add to their troubles, bands of Kallirs hovered about them, and on several occasions they were attacked, thougli as they had a few firelocks and some annnunition, they were easily able to drive their assail- ants back. At the end of three months those who were in advance reached the territory of the old chief of Inhaka, whom Louren^o Marques aiid Antonio Cal- deira had named Garcia de Sii, and whose principal kraal was on the bank of the Umfusi river, which Hows into Delagoa Bay. This chief received them in a friendly manner, supplied them with food and lodging, and sent his men out to search for those wlio were straggling on behind. In return, he asked for assist- ance against a neighbouring tribe with wliich he was at war. De Sepulveda sent an otlicer and twenty men to help him, with whose aid he won a victory. Garcia de Sjt wished the white people to remain with him, and he warned them against the chief Ofumo, wlio 'II i>i Til IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) h /. '/ ^ 1.0 I.I l^|28 no ™^= 1^ L25 i 1.4 2.5 22 18 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. M580 (716) 8>2-4S03 i x\ ■ n .\ 4 •.U 1i| 1 1 i*' lili if ' ; 1 ffrtlfl' ,! I ■ -1 t; ' 1 'f 170 THE PORTUGUESE lived in front, but as soon as they were well rested and had recovered their stren,G;th, they resolved to push on. They had crossed the Maputa river when some natives who had bartered ivory with the Portuguese traders informed them that the vessel had sailed for Mozambique a few days previously. The intelligence caused the captain Manuel de Sousa de Sepulveda to become demented, and his brave wife, Dona Leonor, who had borne all the troubles of the journey so cheer- fully, was plunged by this new misfortune into the greatest distress. They should now have turned back and remained with the friendly Inhaka chief until the following year, but for some unassigned reason — possibly because they may have hoped that the vessel would put into the river Manisa — they pushed on. They were reduced to one hundred and fifty souls, all told, when they crossed the Lourengo Marques, and entered the territory of the chief Ofuma, of whom Garcia de Sa had warned them. The chief professed to regard them with favour, and promised to supply them with food, but said they must entrust him with the care of their arms while they were in his country, as that was one of his laws. Dona Leonor objected to this, but the mal 's of the party complied with the chief's demand, in the belief that by doing so they would secure his friendship. As soon as they were in a defenceless condition he caueed them to be robbed of everything tliat they had, even of their clothing, and drove the whole party away, absolutely naked, from his kraals. Dona Leonor, who had fought like a tigress when the savages were tearing her garments from her, sat down •■^ — .* «...,—■• IN SOUTH AFRICA. 171 on the ground with her two little boys, her elemented husband, and a few faithful slaves beside her. One of the children was the first to die. They scraped a hole in the ground and buried the body, and soon afterwards the other child and the sorely atliicted mother also died. The two corpses were in the same manner committed to the earth, and then the party separated. I)e Sepul- veda was never seen again. Three of the slave women wandered away until they came in contact with people v/lio had dealings with tlie Portuguese ivory traders at Inhambane, and by them they were helped to reach that station. There they found eleven other slaves and eight Portuguese of their party, and as tlie boat that was sent yearly from Mozambique arrived about the same time, the twenty-two survivors of all those that had sailed in the S. Jodo were saved. They reached Mozambique on the 25t]i of May 1553. Diogo de Mesquita, who was then captain of the settle- ment, sent a little vessel to searcli along the coast, but no trace of any of the lost people could be found. In January 1589 the ship >S^. Thomd sailed from Cochim for Portugal. No vessel so richly laden had left the Indian seas for many years, but so widespread was corruption among the officials of all classes that she was very insufficiently furnished with tackling, though an ample supply was charged for in the accounts against the royal treasury. The captain, Paulo de Lima, had his wife with him, and tliere was a lady passenger on board, Dona Joanna de Mendoza, a widow, who was taking her only child, a little girl eight years of age home to be educated in a convent. The officers were desirous of reaching the island of St Helena before any ' u. ''H I ^ ■t 172 THE PORTUGUESE '4 s ■ (si- ,i. 1 of the other vessels which left Cochim at the same time, and so they pressed on sail, even in a heavy sea which was encountered off the coast of Natal. The result was that the ship sprang a leak, and was seen to be "oing down. There was a boat of unusual size on deck, and this was provisioned and got into the water. Then a scramble took place, each man striving to fight his way to the boat, until she was pushed off" from the ship's side and drifted to a distance. It was found that a hundred and ten individuals were in her. Her gunwales were almost level with the water, so a number of men were thrown out to lighten her. The captain's wife and the widow De Mendoza found themselves in the boat, they scarcely knew how, but the agony of the widow was intense, for her child was in the sinking ship, and rescue was impossible. There was a Dominican friar, Nicolau do Eosario by name, on board the >S^. ThcviS, and those in the boat shouted to him to jump overboard and swim to them, when they would pick him up, but he would not leave the ship until he had attended to the spiritual needs of those who were about to die. When that was done, he sprang into the sea, swam to the boat, and was taken in, just as the S. Thomi went down. The boat reached the coast of the territory now called Tongaland, which was then occupied by the Makomata tribe. The weather being fine and the wind fair, there was no difficulty in running up to Elephant Island on the eastern side of the bay of Lourenqo Marques, where were found the huts used by the traders when they came to the bay to obtain ivory. The island was without inhabitants at the time. Here the ^* mmm IN SOUTH AFRICA. 173 boat was destroyed by fire, and the unfortunate people were attacked by fever, of which many of them died. The whole party would have perished if some natives on the mainland had not seen the smoke from a fire and gone across the bay to ascertain who made it. The Inhaka chief was then communicated with, and he sent canoes to take the Portuguese to his kraal, where he treated them very kindly. Most of them went from Delagoa Bay overland to Sofala, but some, among whom were the two ladies, remained nearly a year at the chief's kraal, waiting for the coming of the trading vessel from Mozambique. At length they heard that she was in the Maputa river, so they pro- ceeded to that locality in canoes furnished by the chief, and found the trader Jeronymo Leitao with his companions bartering ivory. Their troubles were now over, for they had been accustomed to discomfort so long that the accommodation afforded by the pangaio appeared to them luxurious. The Santo Alberto, on her homeward passage from India, sprang a leak and became waterlogged, in which condition on the 24th of March 1594 she went ashore on the African coast near Penedo das Pontes, or the island of St Croix, in Algoa Bay. Of those on board one hundred and twenty-five Portuguese and one hundred and sixty slaves got safely to land,and twenty-eight Portuguese and thirty-four slaves were drowned. Fortunately abund- ance of stores of all kinds, arms, ammunition, metal plates, and other articles were saved from the wreck. On the same day some sixty natives made their appearance, and called to the shipwrecked people in a friendly tone. Their chief, a merry-faced man, quite ' 1 I' 'I t J rT ' :, liili i' '■'k 174 THE PORTUGUESE light in colour, stepped t'orvvfird fearlessly, and presented two large-tailed sheep like those of Ormuz. This chief's name, as given by the Portuguese, was Luspance. He and his followers were covered with fur karosses. Among the slaves that accompanied the Europeans from India were many Africans, and one of them must have belonged to some tribe living on the Hottentot border, for he could make himself understood by Luspance, and he also spoke the language of the Bantu of Mozambique. Another slave spoke the last-named language and also Portuguese, so that through two intermediary interpreters the Europeans could make their wants known to the Hottentot chief. And throughout one of the most remarkable journeys ever made in South Africa slaves of the party could always converse with the natives, a circumstance which tended greatly towards the safety of all. The shipwrecked people resolved to proceed to the bay of Lourengo Marques, but instead of keeping along the shore as those of the ^S*. Jodo had done, they thought it better to turn inland in order to cross the rivers more easily. On the 3rd of April they commenced their journey. Luspance provided them with guides until they should reach the kraals of the next chief, and he sold them two cows and two sheep to take with them. They were well provided with arms and ammunition, and with suitable merchandise to purchase food. Everything was properly packed for carrying, and the party was arranged in the same manner as a trading caravan. There were two ladies with them, for whose use two light hammocks were taken, so that they could be carried by slaves when they were too fatigued to walk. I' ,'■ .r ■L\ IN SOUTH AFIUCA. 175 In this way the shipwrecked people travelled through several divisions of the present Cape Colony and the territories now termed Transkei, Tembuland, Griqua- land East, Natal, Zululand, and Tongaland, until they came to Delagoa Bay. Not only had they suthcieiit food all the time, but they had one hundred and nine head of cattle when their long march was over. In three months they travelled over a thousand miles, though in a straight line the southern shore of Delagoa Bay is only seven hundred and fifty miles from the Eock of the Fountains, for the distance was greatly increased by detours. On the way they lost nine Europeans and ninety-five slaves, most of the latter from desertion. This wonderful success was due to its being the best time of the year for travelling, to their being too strong and too well armed to provoke attack, to their being provided with means to purchase food, and to their having slaves who could make themselves understood by the Bantu along the route. At Delagoa Bay they found the trading vessel from Mozambique. She was not large enough to contain them all, but her Arab crew consented for payment to walk overland to Sofala, and with them went the slaves and twenty-eight Portuguese. Most of the Europeans of this party perished on the way. Eighty-eight Portuguese, including the two ladies, embarked in the trading vessel, and reached Mozambique in safety. In all the region traversed by the crews of these three ships there was not a single tribe of the same name as any now existing. The people were of the same race, spoke dialects of the same language, had the same customs, but were differently grouped together. ,1 f f I /: * . i A ; '.I' i 1 ■ I I I 'A i hi i I .1^ - \ ■i t' t. ' T 'A 1 1 !;n 176 THE PORTUGUESE :'• i% lU ih'< On the banks of the lower Limpopo lived the fierce and cruel Barumo tribe, one of whose clans had broken away from the paramount chief and settled on the northern bank of the river Louren(^,o Marques. It was by this clan that the unfortunate people of the S. Jodo were so shamefully ill treated. There was a tribe called the Manisa along the river which yet bears that name, on the northern side of Delagoa Bay, and several of its clans lived farther westward. South-east of Delagoa Bay was the friendly Inhaka tribe. Joining them on the south were the Makomata, under a chief called Viragune by the Portuguese, whose kraals were scat- tered over the country from the coast ninety miles inland. Then came the Makalapapa, who lived on the northern side of St Lucia lagoon. South of them was a tribe termed the Vambe by the Portuguese, which was to a certainty the Abambo of Hlubi, Zizi, and other traditions, from whom Natal is still called Embo by the Bantu. All the paramount chiefs of these tribes were termed kings by the Portuguese, and the territories in which they lived were described as kingdoms. In the same way the heads of kraals were designated nobles. Phraseology of this kind, so liable to lead readers into error, ended, however, with the so-called Vambe kingdom, as farther south there were no tribes of any importance, no chiefs with more than three or four kraals under their control, and to these a high-sounding title could not be given. The Pondo, Pondomisi Tembu, and Xosa tribes of our day were either not yet in existence as separate communities, or were little insignificant clans too feeble to attract notice. \ -!! I IN SOUTH AFRICA. 17^ Shortly before the close of tiio. sixteenth century the Portuguese reached the Summit of their power in AMca south of the Zambesi, but even then their actual possessions were very limited, though their influence was felt over an area of great extent. An account of the country at that time was given by the Dominican friar Joilo dos Santos, who lived at Sofala from Decem- ber 1586 to August 1590 and again for a few months before April 1595, and who spent the time from August 1590 to July 1591 at Sena and Tete. Sofala was the principal military and trading station. The number of white people living there was very small, and consisted merely of the officers and some of the soldiers of the garrison, the factor who conducted the trade, two or three private individuals who were favourites of the native chief, another friar of the Dominican order, — Joao Madeira byname, — and himself. Garcia de Mello was then in command of the fort, which was the structure ei acted by Pedro da Nhaya, but repaired and strengthened in 1558, when Dona Catherina was regent for the child king Sebastiao. There were two churches, the principal one — dedicated to Nossa Senhora do Eosario — ^Just built. Dos Santos himself went with a party to the Pungwe river to cut the timber needed in its construction. The white people were leading very immoral lives, and the number of persons of mixed blood was considerable. These regarded themselves as Christians, but they were almost ignorant of the ft iSt principles of the faith, and so indifferent that it was very difficult to instruct them. There were some Indians also, who had been sent to Africa in the Portuguese service, and there were some M 4 . w 'i ,' ♦irM ^ ■■ 178 TKE PORTUGUESE I ■■ fi/ :) .« I ■! llifi Ifi!;! i;; 1» I :r,, I Bantu converts. These nationalities combined num- bered from three to four thousand souls, and beyond them direct jurisdiction by the Portuguese did not extend. The condition of the Mohamedans has been de- scribed elsewhere. The Kiteve tribe was absolutely independent, and presents were frequently made to the chief to secure his favour. Sofala was very seldom visited by a Portuguese ship. The coasting trade was carried on in vessels built by the so-called Arabs, and manned by black crews, who claimed to be Mohamedans, but really knew and cared very little about religion. These vessels brought goods from Mozambique, the centre of the East African trade, and took back whatever was procured in barter. Dos Santos found that the Bantu were not disposed to embrace Christianity. They worshipped the spirits of their ancestors, and regarded their chief as a deity, further they had a confused belief in a great God whom they termed Molungo, but to whom they never prayed, and in a devil, whom they termed Musuka. These latter ideas they might have derived from the Arabs, still they had not shown a greater inclination towaiJs Mohamedanism than towards Christianity. The friars, however, must have expected too mv ch from these people, for the number who professed to be converted to the white man's faith was really large. Within four years they baptized seventeen hundred individuals at Sofala, and the great majority of these must have been Bantu. Tete, at the head of the navigation of the Zambesi, one hundred and eighty miles from Sena, was the settle- ment next in importance to Sofala. It was built on t I: ■■ I IN SOUTH AFRICA. 179 ground five hundred feet above the level of the sea, but it was not a healthy place. It contained a stone fort, a church — dedicated to Sant lago, — and a warehouse. The Portuguese residents, all told, numbered forty, but there were some six hundred Christians, chiefly Bantu converts, with a few Indians and mixed breeds. The captain of Tete still had authority over those eleven little Bantu clans that had been conquered by the monomotapa and then placed under his government. They brought all their cases of importance to the fort to be tried, and were in every respect submissive. Thus the captain of Tete was credited with having a native force of two thousand men under his command. This was the only place in Africa south of the Zambesi where the Portuguese actually exercised direct authority over any Bantu beyond the precincts of their factories. Tete was the station from which the inland trade was carried on. From it goods were conveyed by native carriers to three places in the Kalans. i territory, namely Masapa, Luanze, and Bukoto, at each v^hich a Portu- guese resided, who had charge ot Li local barter. Masapa was on the river Mansovo — now Mazoe, — about one hundred and fifty miles by road from Tete. Luanze was one hundred and five miles almost due south of Tete, between two little rivers which united below it and then flowed into the Mansovo. Bukoto was thirty miles from Masapa, thirty-nine miles from Luanze, and one hundred and twenty miles from Tete. It also was situated between two forks of a river. The trader at Masapa was a diplomatic agent with the monomotapa, and had the title of Capitao das Portas. Through him passed the annual presents made by the 180 THE POllTUGUESE m'.a w Ufi Portuguese to the great chief in return for the privilege of carrying on commerce with his people, when messen- gers were not sent specially for them to one of the forts. Masapa was close to the mountain called Fura, from the top of which there was believed to be a very extensive view over the Kalanga country, but no Portu- guese was allowed to go up it, because, as they under- stood, the monomotapa did not wish his territory to be narrowly inspected. Bukoto was a mere retail trading station, with nothing particular to note about it. The trader at Luanze held a commission from the captain general, giving him authority over any white men who might appear in the country, and he was regarded also as a sub-chief of the monomotapa, who appointed him captain over a few natives. At Sena there was a small fort, a church, and a ware- house from which itinerant traders among the Bantu were supplied. Including the garrison, this place had about fifty Portuguese residents. There were also some Indians, mixed breeds, and native converts, so that the Christians altogether numbered over eight hundred souls. The clans around were all Makalanga, and the Portuguese had no control whatever over them. The monomotapa at this time, who bore also the title Mambo, was well disposed towards the Portuguese. He gave the Dominicans leave to establish missions in his country, and they had already put up three little build- ings for places of prayer, at Masapa, Luanze, and Bukoto. They had not as yet, however, men to occupy these places permanently, but the friar who resided at Tete occf^sionally visited them. The white people never IN SOUTH AFinCA. 181 made a request from Mambo without accompanying it with a present — usually a piece of coarse dyed calico — for himself and for his principal wife, whose name was Mazarira. This was the custom of the country, for no native could obtain an audience unless he presented an ox or a goat. The form of oath used by the Makalanga was Ke Mambo, just as all Bantu still swear l)y their chief. This monomotapa had a great number of wives, and his children were distinguislied from other natives by tlie term Manambo. Dos Santos, in describing the country, spealcs of a kingdom called Biri, which adjoined Manika, and of another kingdom called Sakumbe, which lay along the Zambesi west of Tete, but these were nothing more than the territories of chiefs of no great importance, though independent of the monomotapa. He mentions that while he was living at Sofala the Sedanda chief com- mitted suicide, on account of his being atliicted with leprosy. West of the country occupied by the Makalanga Bushmen were very numerous, consequently the territory there was vaguely termed Batua or Butua (Batwa), the Bantu name of those wild people. Little or nothing was really known of that part of Africa, how- ever, for neither white man nor Arab had ever pene- trated it. One circumstance shows tliat Bushmen were not its only inhabitants. When Dos Santos was living at Sofala some Portuguese cloth was brought from Angola by Bantu travellers to Manika, where a white man purchased it as a curiosity, and afterwards showed it to the friar. At that time the head waters of the 1? ] '.^ i i V ■«■*»«•»."-»» mm mm ^ ! I'l i .. ?l^ 182 THE PORTUGUESE Zambesi were quite unknown, though the Portuguese were fairly well acquainted with the principal features of the interior of the continent farther north, through accounts obtained from natives. Owinct to this circum- stance tlieir maps of Central Africa were tolerably correct, while those of South Africa were utterly mis- leading. During more than twenty years the country north of the Zambesi had been a scene of widespread pillage and devastation. A vast horde of savages had made its appearance from somewhere in the interior of the con- tinent, no one knew exactly where, and had spread like locusts over the territory along the coast. A small party of them crossed the Zambesi, and appeared near Tete, but Jeronymo de Andrade, captain of that fort, had no difficulty in driving them back, as the savages were so amazed at the effects of the fire from a few arquebuses that they fled without resistance. A little later the same captain drove away another party that had attacked a chief friendly to the Portuguese, and with the assistance of a baud of Batonga warriors, slaughtered a large number of them. The country as far north as Melinda was laid waste by the invading horde. At that place a large band made its appearance, but was almost exterminated by a force of thirty Portuguese and three thousand Bantu warriors that Mattheus Mendes de Vasconqellos, head of tlie trading station, got together to aid the Arab ruler. In 1592 two sections of these savages were found on the uorthern bank of the lower Zambesi, One was called by the Portuguese the Mum bos, the other was the far-dreaded Mazimba. l)os Santos says the Mazimba I ii'' 1\l m SOUTH AFRICA. 183 were cannibals, and there is no reason to doubt his assertion, for traditions concerning them are still current all over Southern Africa, in which they are represented as inhuman monsters, a .d their name is used generally to imply eaters of human flesh. The men were much stronger and more robust than Makalanga. They carried immense shields made of oxhide, and were variously armed with assagais, battle-axes, and bows and arrows. One of the chiefs of the Mumbos, named Kizura, attacked a clan friendly to the Portuguese, and plundered the people. Thereupon Pedro Fernandes de Chaves, captain of Tete, called out his warriors, marched against Kizura, and killed him. Just after this event, in 1592, a band of Mazimba crossed the Zambesi, and fell upon a kraal near Sena. Andrd de Santiago, captain of the fort, with all the men he could muster proceeded to chastise the Mazimba, but found them so strong that he was obliged to entrench himself hastily on the northern bank of the river, and send to Tete for help. De Chaves with a hundred Portuguese and mixed breeds and his eleven vassal chiefs with their followers went at once to aid the Sena force. The Dominican friar Nicolau do Eosario, whose name has been mentioned before in connection with the wreck of the S, Thomi, accompanied the party as a chaplain. The Portuguese and mixed breeds were some distance in advance of the Bantu contingent, when they were surprised by the Mazimba, and everyone except the friar was killed. He, badly wounded, was taken prisoner, and was then fastened to a tree and made a target of till death came to his relief. The eleven Bantu chiefs, on ascertaining what had happened, immediately returned to Tete. i\ ' : i v^,;. < ;f(i 184 THE PORTUGUESE . (i;t r'i On the following day the Mazimba appeared before Andr^ de Santiago's entrenchment. Their chief was dressed in the murdered friar's robes, and they dis- played in triumph the head of De Chaves and the limbs of the Portuguese who fell with him. De Santiago, who believed he could not maintain his position long, tried to get across the river to Sena, but was killed in the attempt with nearly all his followers. The two captains, the priest of Tete, and oiKf hundred and thirty white men and mixed breeds had now perished. The Portuguese power on the Zambesi was for the time destroyed. Pedro de Sousa, who was then captain general at Mozambique, made an attempt to restore the supremacy of the Europeans. With two hundnid Portuguese, five hundred friendly blacks, and some artillery, he appeared at Sena in 1593, and, after forming a camp there, crossed the river to attack the Mazimba. But these savages had profited by the lessons learned from the white man, and had constructed a kind of fort, which, though rude, was strong enough to defy the assaults of the Portuguese. De Sousa tried to open an entrance into it with his cannon, but failed. Then he endea- voured to take it by storm, but when his men were crowded together close to it, the Mazimba hurled their barbed assagais and threw boiliii<>' water and burninn fat upon them, till they fell back discomfited. The captain general was two months beyond the Zambesi without effecting anytliing. Intelligence now reached him that the camp at Sena was in danger, so he set out to return to it. On the way the Mazimba attacked him, and, after killiug many of his men, took k' IN SOUTH AFRICA. 185 his artillery and the greater part of his baggage. He and the remnant of his army escaped to Sena with difficulty. There he was gladdened by receiving a message from the victorious chief, with an offer of peace upon condition that the Portuguese should not again interfere in matters that only concerned Bantu tribes. The Mazimba, he was informed, had no desire to quarrel witli the white people, and had acted in self defence throughout the war. The captain general was only too pleased to accept tlie proposal. He returned to Mozambique, and the stations at Sena and Tete were again occupied as before the disturb- ances. As the monopoly of the connnerce of the East which Portugal had now enjoyed for a century was about to be wrested from her, a brief account of the condition of the country at this time is necessary. The dynasty of Avis had passed away. Joao III, son of Manuel the Fortunate, died in 1557, leaving as his heir his grandson Sebastiao, a boy three years of age. Dona Catherina, widow of the deceased king, became regent, but live years later retired to her native Spain, which she had always loved better than Portugal. The car- dinal Dom Henrique, younger brother of Jouo III, then became regent until 15GS, when Sebastiao, though still a mere child, being under fifteen years of age, assumed the government as an almost absolute monarch. The boy king was chivalrous and brave, but obstinate and rash to the last degree, and during his short reign the kingdom rapidly declined in military strength. In August 1578, in an ill planned and worse conducted \ I; i' •' if ! iihfii M •■ . is 1! ■I ■( i'Mi jtii 1 ll ' tl 186 THE PORTUGUESE expedition against the Moors of Northern Africa, which he commanded in person, he fell in battle, and his whole army — the entire force of the country — perished. His successor was the cardinal Dom Henrique, an imbecile old man, who died in January 1580, and with him the house of Avis became extinct. The succession to the throne was disputed, but in April 1581 Filippe II of Spain added Portugal to his dominions, nominally as an independent kingdom with all its governmental machinery intact as before, really as a subordinate country, whose resources he drew upon for his wars in the Netherlands. To outward appear- ance Portugal might seem to occupy a more impregnable position after such a close union with her powerful neighbour, but it was not so in reality. The enemies of Spain now became her enemies also, her factories and fleets were exposed to attack, and she received no assistance in defending them. The little kingdom had been drained of men, and was completely exhausted. It must be remembered that she never was in as favourable a condition for conducting enterprises requiring large numbers of sailors and soldiers as the Netherlands were at a later date. She had no great reservoir of thews and muscles to draw from as Holland had in the German states. Spain was behind her, as the German states were behind the Netherlands, but Spain found employment for all her sons in Mexico and Peru. Portugal had to depend upon her own people. She was colonising Brazil and Madeira too, and occupying forts and factories on the western coast of Africa as well as on the shores of the eastern seas. Of the hosts of men — I IN SOUTH AFRICA. 187 the very best of her blood — that went to India and Africa, few ever returned. They perished of fevers or other diseases, or they lost their lives in wars and shipwrecks, or they made homes for themselves far from their native land. To procure labourers to till the soil of her southern provinces slaves were introduced from Africa. In the year 1441 Antao Gonqalves and Nuno Tristao brought the first home with them, and then the doom of the kingdom was sealed. No Europeans have ever treated negroes so mildly as the Portuguese, or been so ready to mix with them on equal terms. But even in Estremadura, Alemtejo, and the Algarve it was impossible for the industrious European and the indolent African to labour side by side, and so all of the most enterprising of the peasant class moved away. The slaves, on embracing Christianity, had various privileges conferred upon them, and their blood became mixed with that of the least energetic of the peasantry, until a new and degenerate stock was formed. To find the true descendants of the Portuguese heroes of the sixteenth centurj'-, one must not look among the lower classes of the southern and larger part of the country now. Further, corruption of the grossest kind was prevalent in the administration everywhere. The great offices, including the captaincies of the factories and forts, were purchased from the favourites of the king. Such offices were held for three years, and the men who obtained them did their utmost to make fortunes within that period. They were like the monomotapa of the Kalanga tribe, no one could approach them to i 11 li I ; ' T, 188 THE PORTUGUESE !v' w. '- y ; ) obtain anything without a bribe in his hand, every commercial transaction paid them a toll. They had not yet sunk in the deep sloth that characterised them at a later date, but they lived in a style of luxury undreamed of in the early days. Oftentimes the people in their governments were in insurrection against them, as was the case at Sena in 1601, when the inhabitants rose in revolt against the magistrate Louren^o de Brito. In India many of the fortresses had fallen into partial decay, and commerce was declining. With a strange fatality, instead of keeping up the strength of places which were of real value, the principal military expenditure during recent years had been upon a new fort of the first class at Mozambique. It was evident that sooner or later other Europeans would try to make their way to the East, and the Portuguese seemed to think that if they vere impreg- nable at their refreshment station, they would be able to block the road. They did not consider that another station could be formed to outrival theirs, nor did they realise that by a bolder course of navigation, such as some of their own sea captains had already adopted, Mozambique would be left far out of the Indian route. The captain of this island still had authority over thft other factories on the African coast, but, as before Barreto's time, he had again become subordinate to the viceroy of India. The new fortress, named S. Sebastiao, was commenced in 1558, but was not com- pleted until towards the close of the century. It was erected on the eastern extremity of the island, to n i I H: IN SOUTH AFRICA. 189 command the anchorage and ships passing to and from it. The stronghold was quadrangular in shape, of great height, and on its ramparts from eighty to a hundred guns could be mounted. The want of fresh water was its principal defect, but this was remedied in course of time by the construction of enormous cisterns within the walls, which contained an ample supply to last from one rainy season to another. This was the condition of matters in Portugal, in India, and on the East African coast, when other and hostile flags appeared beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and the gigantic commercial monopoly was menaced with destruction. Si :'l . ! I ! i mi E 11 ' 8 „; ' I I 1 1 [ ilf';s CHAPTER VI. APPEARANCE OF THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND DUTCH IN THE EASTERN SEAS. •^ fi 1 1 ii I lit 1, I. i 1 ■ '1 1 1 19 ^'• .n CHAPTEK YL— Contents. First voyages of the French to India — Circnmnavigation of the globe by Sir Francis Drake — Travels of Ralph Fitch in India — Voyage of Thomas Candish — First visit of Englishmen to South Africa — Efforts of the Dutch to find a new route to the East — Journey of Jan Huyghen van Liuschoten — First voyage of Dutch ships past the Cape of Good Hope — Renaming of several places on the South African coast — Creation of the Netherlands East India Company — Destruction by the Dutch of the Portuguese power in the Indian islands — Unsuccessful siege of Mozambique by Steven van der Hagen — Unsuccessful siege of Fort S. Sebastiao by Paulus van Caerdcn — Destruction of the town of Mozambique by Van Caerden — Use made of Table Bay by Dutch fleets — Creation of the English East India Company — Use made of Table Bay by English fleets — Proceedings of the commodores Fitzherbert and Shillinge in Table Valley — Efforts to unite the English and Dutch East India Companies — Murder of Europeans by Hottentots in Table Valley — Visit of the Hottentot Cory to England — Landing of English criminals in Table Valley. 1 'I ; I CHAPTER VI. APPEARANCE OF THE FKENCH, ENGLISH, AND DUTCH IN THE EASTERN SEAS. The French were the first to follow the Portuguese to India. The earliest known ship under their flag that passed round the Cape of Good Hope was one fitted out at Dieppe, which reached Diu in July 1527. She had a crew of forty Frenchmen, but was commanded by a Portuguese named Estevao Dias Brigas d'Alcuna, who had fled from his native country on account of misdeeds committed there, and had taken service with the strangers. The captain of Diu regarded this ship with great hostility, and as he was unable to seize her openly, he practised deceit to get her crew into his power. Professing friendship, he gave D'Alcuna permission to trade in the Portuguese territory, but took advantage of the first opportunity to arrest him and his crew. They were handed over as captives to a neighbouring Mohamedan ruler, and all who did not embrace Islam came to an evil end. A little later three French ships, fitted out by merchants of Eouen, reached India, but avoided the Portuguese settlements, and nothing was known at Goa of their proceedings except what was told by a i '■■' m ih il i;i 194 THE PORTUGUESE 111 ; hi i (;• ;H. Ill liiiltr 5 'ii V I. • i sailor who was left behind at Madagascar and was afterwards found there. This expedition was almost as unsuccessful as the preceding one. The ships were greatly damaged in violent storms, and with difficulty got back to Europe. From that time until 1601 there is no trace of a French vessel having passed the Cape of Good Hope. Then two ships were sent out by a Bretagne company, and reached the Maldives safely, but were subsequently lost, and their commander was unable to return home until ten years had gone by. In 1617 the first successful expedition to India under the French flag sailed from a port in Normandy, and from that date onward ships of this nation were frequently seen in the eastern seas. But the French made no attempt to form a settlement in South Africa, and their only connection with this country was that towards the middle of the seventeenth century a vessel was sent occasionally from Rochelle to collect a cargo of sealskins and oil at the islands in and near the present Saldanha Bay. The English were the next to appear in Indian waters. A few individuals of this nation may have served in Portuguese ships, and among the missionaries, especially of the Society of Jesus, who went out to convert the heathen, it is not unlikely that there were several. One at least, Thomas Stephens by name, was rector of the Jesuit college at Salsette. A letter written by him from Goa in 1579, and printed in the second volume of Hakluyt's work, is the earliest account extant of an English voyager to that part of the world. It contaius no iuforniation of importance, IM SOUTH AFRICA. 195 • n- , cargo the udian have )naries, out to were le, was letter in the ccount world. The famous sea captain Francis Drake, of Tavistock in Devon, sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of December 1577, with the intention of exploring the Pacific ocean. His fleet consisted of five vessels^ carry- ing in all one hundred and sixty-four men. His own ship, named the Pelican, was of one hundred and twenty tons burden. The others were the Elizabeth, eiglity tons, the Marigold, thirty tons, a pinnace of twelve tons, and a storeship of fifty tons burden. The last named was set on fire as soon as her cargo was transferred to the others, the pinnace was abandoned, the Marigold was lost in a storm, the Elizabeth, after reaching the Pacific, turned back through the straits of Magellan, and the Pelican alone continued the voyage. She was the first English sliip that sailed round the world. Captain Drake reached England again on the 3rd of November 1580, and soon afterwards was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth on board his ship. The Pelican did not touch at any part of the South African coast, but there is the following paragraph in the account of the voyage : — "We ran hard aboard the Cape, finding the report of the Portuguese to be most false, who affirm that it is the most dangerous cape of the world, never without intolerable storms and present danger to travellers who come near the same. This cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth, and we passed by it on the 18th of June." In 1583 four English traders in precious stones, acting partly on their own account and partly as agents for merchants in London, made their way by the Tigris and the Persian gulf to Ormuz, where at that time people of various nationalities were engaged 'i I ^U\: <1 ' :- K 196 THE PORTUGUESE ',' w I 1] I f m io in commerce. John Newbery, the leader of the party, had been there before. The others were named Ralph Fitch, William Leades, and James Story. Shortly after theii arrival at Ormuz they were arrested by the Portufjuese authorities on the double charj^c of being heretics and spies of the prior Dom Antonio, who was a claimant to the throne of Portugal, and under these pretences they were sent prisoners to Goa. There they managed to clear themselves of the first of the charges, Story entered a convent, and the others, on finding bail not to leave the city, were set at liberty in December 1584, mainly through the instrumentality of the Jesuit father Stephens and Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, of whom more will be related in the following pages. Four months afterwards, being in fear of ill-treatment, they managed to make their escape from Goa. After a time they separated, and Fitch went on a tour through India, visiting many places before his return to England in 1591. An account of his travels is extant in Hakluyt's collection, but there is not much information in it, and it had no effect upon subseciuent events. Thomas Candish sailed from Plymouth on the 21st of July 1586, with three ships — the Desire, of one hundred and twenty tons, the Content, of sixty tons, and the Hugh Gallant, of forty tons — carrying in all one hundred and twenty-three souls. After sailing round the globe, he ar lived again in Plymouth on the 9th of September 1588, having passed the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of May. The first English ships that put into a harbour on the South African coast were the Penelope, Merchant i; t' IN SOUTH AFRICA. 197 Royal, and Edward Bonavenlurc, which sailed from Plymouth for India on the 10th of April 1591, under command of Admiral George Raymond. This fleet put into the Watering Place of Saldanha at the end of July. The crews, who were suffering from scurvy, were at once sent on shore, where they obtained fresh food by shooting wild fowl and gathering mussels and other shell-fish along the rocky beach. Some natives had been seen when the ships sailed in, but they appeared terrified, and at once moved inland. Admiral Raymond visited Robben Island, where he found seals and pen- guins in great numbers. One day some hunters caught a native, whom they treated kindly, making him many presents and endeavouring to show him by signs that they were in want of cattle. They tlien let him go, and eight days afterwards he returned with thirty or forty others, bringing forty oxen and as many sheep. Trade was at once commenced, the price of an ox being two knives, that of a sheep one knife. So many men had died of scurvy that it was considered advisable to send the Merchant Royal back to England weak handed. The Penelope, with one hundred and one men, and the Edward Bonaventure, with ninety-seven men, sailed for India on the 8th of September. On the 12lli a gale was encountered, and that night those in tlie Edward Bonaventwre, whereof was captain James Lancaster — who was afterwards famous as an advocate of Arctic exploration, and whose name was given by liylot and Batlin to the sound which terminated their discoveries in 1616 — saw a great sea break over the admiral's ship, which put out her lights. After that she was never seen or heard of again. iV M 1 ■■ ' ;i 1 '.\ ■■ I I I: 198 THE PORTUGtESil ,i:'-ifi> tmt !. V, ' It was not by Englishmen, however, though they visited India at this early period, but by the Dutch, that the Portuguese power in the East was overthrown. That power was like a great bubble, but it required pricking to make it burst, and our countrymen did not often come in contact with it. Sir Francis Drake indeed, who was utterly fearless, went wherever he chose, and opened fire upon all who attempted to inter- fere with him, but his successors, whose object was profit in trade, were naturally more cautious. The Indies were large, and so they avoided the Portuguese fortresses, and did what business they could with native rulers and people. The merchants of the Netherlands had been accus- tomed to obtain at Lisbon the supplies of Indian products which they required for home consumption and for the large European trade which they carried on, but after 1580, when Portugal came under the dominion of Filippe II of Spain, they were shut out of that market. They then determined to open up direct communication with the East, and for that purpose made several gallant but fruitless efforts to find a passage along the northern shores of Europe and Asia. "When the first of these had failed, and while the result of the second was still unknown, some merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a fleet of four vessels, which in the year 1595 sailed to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Before this date, however, a few Nether- landers had visited the eastern seas in the Portuguese service, and among them was one in particular whose writings had great influence at that period and for more than half a century afterwards. . IN SOUTH AFHICA. 19d Jan Huyglien van Linschoten was born at Haarlem, in the province of Holland. He received a good general education, but from an early age he gave himself up with ardour to the special study of geography and history, and eagerly read such books of travel as were within his reach. In 1579 he obtained permission from his parents, who were then residing at Enkhuizen, to proceed to Seville, where his two elder brothers were pushing their fortunes. He was at Seville when the cardinal king Henrique of Portugal died, leaving the succession to the throne in dispute. The duke of Alva with a strong Spanish army won it for his master, and suuitly afterwards Linschoten removed to Lisbon, where he was a clerk in a merchant's office when Filippe made his triumphal entry and when Alva died. Two years later he entered the service of a Dominican friar, by name Vicente da Fonseca, who had been appointed by Filippe primate of India, the see of Goa having been raised to an archbishopric in 1557. In April 1583, with his employer he sailed from Lisbon, and after touching at Mozambique arrived at Goa in September of the same year. He remained in India until January 1589. When returning to Europe in the ship Santa Cruz from Cochim, he passed through a quantity of wreckage from the ill-fated >S^. Thom4, which had sailed from the same port five days before he left, and he visited several islands in the Atlantic, at one of which — Terceira — he was detained a long time. He reached Lisbon again in January 1592, and eight months later rejoined his family at Enkhuizen, after an absence of nearly thirteen years. From this f I H ,. I .i < M I If. 200 THE PORTUGUESE t' <■ 1(1 . date his name is inseparably connected with those of the gallant spirits who braved the perils of the polar seas in the effort to find a north-eastern passage to China. Early in 1595 the first of Linschoten's books was published, in which an account is given of the sailing directions followed by the Portuguese in their navi- gation of the eastern waters. This was followed in 1596 by a description of the Indies, and by several geographical treatises drawn from Portuguese sources, all illustrated with maps and plates. These were collected in a single large volume, and the work was at once received as a text-book, a position which its merits entitled it to occupy. The most defective portion of the whole is that icferring to South Africa : and for this reason, that it Mas then impossible to get any correct information about the interior of the continent below the Zambesi. Linschoten himself saw no more of it than a fleeting glimpse of False Cape afforded on his outward passage, and his description was of necessity based upon the faulty maps of the geographers of his time, so that it was full of errors. But his account of India and of the way to reach its several ports was so correct that it could serve the purpose of a guide-book, and his treatise on the mode of navigation by the Portuguese was thus used by the commander of the first Dutch tleet that appeared in the eastern seas. The four vessels which left Texel on the 2nd of April 1595 were under the general direction of an officer named Cornel is Houtman. In the afternoon of the 2nd of August the Cape of Good Hope was seen, and next day, after passing Agulhas, the fleet kept IN SOUTH AFRICA. 201 close to the land, the little Duifke sailing in front and looking for a harbour. On the 4th the bay called by the Portuguese Agoada de S. Braz was discovered, and as the Duifke found good holding ground in nine or ten fathoms of water, the Mauritius, Hollandia, and Amsterdam entered and dropped their anchors. Here the fleet remained until the 11th, when sail was again set for the East. During the interval a supply of fresh water was taken in, and some oxen and sheep were purchased from natives for knives, old tools, and pieces of iron. The Europeans were surprised to find the sheep covered with hair instead of wool, and with enormous tails of pure fat. No women or habitations were seen. The appearance of the Hottentots, their clothing, their assagais, their method of making a fire by twirling a piece of wood rapidly round in the socket of another piece, their filthiness in eating, and the clicking of their language, are all correctly described; but it was surmised that they were cannibals, because they were observed to eat the half raw intestines of animals, and a fable commonly believed in Europe was repeated concerning their mutilation in a peculiar manner of the bodies of conquered enemies. The intercourse with the few natives seen was friendly, though at times each suspected the other of evil intentions. A chart of the inlet was niade,^ from which it is seen to be the one now called Mossel IJay. A little ^ It is attached to the original journals, now in tho archives of the Netherlands. I made a copy of it on tracing linen for the Cape government, as it diifers considerably from the chart in the printed condensed journal of the voyage. I' ni ' i. n < I ^ ''■!!? !'.'"./ &•-■{ ;•*, niii '.I ' ! i,' c p^ .ri '^ ii t 202 THE PORTUGUESE island in it was covered with seals and penguins, some of each of which were killed and eaten. The variation of the compass was observed to be so trifling that the needle might be said to point to the north. From the Watering Place of S. Braz Houtman continued his voyage to India, but it is not necessary to relate occurrences there. After his return to Europe several companies were formed in different towns of the Netherlands, with the object of trading to the East and wresting from the Portuguese that wealth which they were then too feeble to guard. In the Leeuw, one of the ships sent out in 1598, and which put into the Watering Place of Saldanha for refreshment, the famous English seaman John Davis was chief pilot. He wrote an account of the voyage, in which he states that the Hottentots in Table Valley fell by surprise upon the men who were ashore barter- ing cattle, and killed thirteen of them. In his narrative Davis says that at Cape Agulhas the magnetic needle was without variation, but in his sailing directions, written after another voyage to India, he says: "At False Cape there is no variation that I can find by observing south from it. The variation of Cape Agulhas is thirty minutes from north to west. And at the Cape of Good Hope the compass is varied from north to east five and twenty minutes." No frefSh discoveries on the African coast were made by any of the fleets sent out at this time, but to some of the bays new names were given. In December 1599 four ships fitted out by an association at Amsterdam calling itself the New Brabant Company sailed from Texel for the Indies, under ^' '1 I' In south afhtca. 203 commaiid of Pieter Both. Two of them returned early in 1601, leaving the Vereenigde Landcn and the Hof van Holland under charge of Paulus ran Caerden to follow as soon as they could obtain cargoes. On the 8th of July 1601 Van Caerden put into the Watering Place of S. Braz on the South African coast, for the purpose of repairing one of his ships which was in a leaky condition. The commander, witli twenty soldiers, went a short distance inland to endeavour to find people from whom he could obtain some cattle, but though he came across a party of eight natives he did not succeed in getting any oxen or sheep. A supply of fresh water was taken in, but no refreshment except mussels could be procured, on account of which Van Caerden gave the inlet the name Mossel Bay, which it has ever since retained. On the 14th, the Hof van Holland having been repaired, the two ships sailed, but two days later, as they were making no progress against a head wind, they put into another bay. Here natives were found, from whom the voyagers obtained for pieces of iron as many horned cattle and sheep as they could consume fresh or had salt to preserve. For this reason the commander gave it the name Flesh Bay. On the 21st sail was set, but the Hof van Holland being found leaky again, on the 23rd another bay was entered, where her damages were repaired. On account of a westerly gale the ships were detained here until the 30th, whei they sailed, but finding the wind contrary outside, they returned to anchor. No natives were seen, but the commander visited a river near by, I ,! i . 'ii ■'('■■X m ■1 '11 \ i m 1^1 I .fi '■»i« f ; !• i ': 1 t *: Ti I i m V% 'Vi i; 1', 204 THE PORTUGUESE where he encountered a party from whom he obtained five sheep in exchange for bits of iron. In the river were numerous hippopotami. Abundance of fine fish having been secured here, the commander gave the inlet the name Fish Bay. On the 2nd of August the ships sailed, and on the 27th passed the Cape of Good Hope, to the great joy of all on board, who had begun to fear that they would be obliged to seek a port on the eastern side to winter in. On the 5th of May 1601 a fleet of three vessels, named the Mam, the Schaap, and the Lam, sailed for the Indies from Vere in Zeeland, under command of Joris van Spilbergen. On the IStli of November the fleet put into St Helena Bay, where no inhabitants were seen, though many fires were observed inland. The only refreshment procurable was fish, which were caught in great quantities. On the 20th Spilbergen sailed from St Helena Bay, and beating against a head wind, on the evening of the 28th he anchored off an island, to which he gave the name Elizabeth. Four years later Sir Edward Michelburne termed it Cony Island, which name, under the Dutch form of Dassen, it still bears. Seals in great numbers, sea-birds of difierent kinds, and conies were found. At this place he remained only twenty -four hours. On the 2nd of December he cast anchor close to another island, which he named Cornelia. It was the Kobben island of the present day. Here were found seals and penguins in great numbers, but no conies. The next day at noon Spilbergen reached the Watering Place of Saldauha, the anchorage in front fi IN SOUTH AFRICA. 205 of great of Table Mountain, and gave it the name Table Bay, which it still bears. The sick were conveyed to land, where a hospital was established. A few natives were met, to whom presents of beads were made, and who were understood to make signs that they would bring cattle for sale, but they went away and did not return. Abundance of fish was obtained with a seine at the mouth of a stream which Spilbergen named the Jacqueline, now Salt Eiver ; but, as meat was wanted, the smallest of the vessels was sent to Elizabeth Island, where a great number of penguins and conies were killed and salted in. The fleet remained in Table Bay until the 23rd of December. When passing Cornelia Island, a couple of conies were set on shore, and seven or eight sheep, which had been left there by some previous voyagers, were shot, and their carcases taken on board. Off the Cape of Good Hope the two French ships which were afterwards wrecked at the Maldive islands were seen. Spilbergen kept along the coast, noticing the formation of the land and the numerous streams falling into the sea, but was sorely hindered in his progress by the Agulhas current, which he found setting so strong to the south-westward that at times he could make no way against it even with the breeze in his favour. On the 17th of January 1602, owing to this cause, he stood off from the coast, and did not see it again. The fleets sent out by the different small companies which had been formed in the chief towns of the Free Netherlands gained surprising successes over the n; m n ', t ?' '' i i ■Ml,' \\ ■■A I §u ''I'ltl'i 206 THE PORTUGUESE Portuguese in India, but as they did not work in concert no permanent conquests could be made. For this reason, as well as to prevent rivalry and to conduct the Indian trade in a manner the most beneficial to the people of the whole republic, the states-general resolved to unite all the small trading associations in one great Company with many privileges and large powers. The charter, or terms upon which the Company came into existence, was dated at the Hague on the 20th of March 1602, and contained forty-six clauses, the principal of which were as follow : — All inhabitants of the United Netherlands had the right given to them to subscribe to the capital in as small or as large sums as they might choose, with this proviso, that if more money should be tendered than was needed, those applying for shares of over two thousand five hundred pounds sterling should receive less, so that the applicants for smaller shares might have allotted to them the full amounts asked for. The chamber?, or offices for the transaction of business, were to participate in the following pro- portion: that of Amsterdam one-half, that of Middelburg in Zeeland one-quarter, those of Delft and Eotterdam, otherwise called of the Maas, together one-eighth, and those of Hoorn and Enkhuizen, other- wise called those of the North Quarter or sometimes those of North Holland and West Friesland, together the remaining eighth. The general directory was to consist of seventeen persons, eight of whom were to represent the chamber pf Amsterdam, four that of Middelburg, two those of IN SOUTH AFRICA. 207 might the Maas, two those of the North Quarter, and the seventeenth was to be chosen alternately by all of these except the chamber of Amsterdam. The place of meeting of the general directory was fixed at Amsterdam for six successive years, then at Middel- burg for two years, then at Amsterdam again for six years, and so on. The directors of each chamber were named in the charter, being the individuals who were the directors of the companies previously established in those towns, and it was provided that no others should be appointed until these should be reduced by death or resigna- tion : in the chamber of Amsterdam to twenty per- sons, in that of Zeeland to twelve, and in those of Delft, Eotterdam, Hoorn, and Enkhuizen each to seven. After that, whenever a vacancy should occur, the remaining directors were to nominate three qualified individuals, of whom the states of the province in which the chamber was situated were to select one. To qualify an individual to be a director in the chambers of the North Quarter it was necessary to own shares to the value of £250 sterling, and double that amount to be a director in any of the other chambers. The directors were to be bound by oath to be faithful in the administration of the duties entrusted to them, and not to favour a majority of the shareholders at the expense of a minority. Directors were prohibited from selling anything whatever to the Company without previously obtaining the sanction of the states pro- vincial or the authorities of the city in which the chamber that they represented was situated. All inhabitants of the United Provinces other than (1 ij !■ . ■ ■]■ i I! >• ' U ^i .. ' i& i?» I ' u 'i ' ,! f r' 1 !, m. ', ilii m n I 208 THE PORTUGUESE this Company were prohibited from trading beyond the Straits of Magellan, or to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, during the period of twenty-one years, for which the charter was granted, under penalty of forfeiture of ship and cargo. Within these limits the East India Company was empowered to enter into treaties and make contracts in the name of the states- general, to build fortresses, to appoint governors, military commanders, judges, and other necessary officers, who were all, however, to take oaths of fidelity to the states -general or high authorities of the Netherlands, who were not to be prevented from making complaints to the states-general, and whose appointments were to be reported to the states-general for confirmation. For these privileges the Company was to pay £12,500 sterling, which amount the states-general subscribed towards the capital, for the profit and at the risk of the general government of the provinces. The capital was nominally furnished in the following proportions : Amsterdam one-half, Zeeland one-fourth, the Maas one-eighth, and the North Quarter one-eighth ; but in reality it was contributed as under : — Amsterdam Zeeland The Maus | The North Quarter Delft Rotterdam f Hoorn \ Enkhuizen Total working capital The share of the statea-general Total nominal capital ^307,202 10 106,304 10 38,880 3 4 14,546 16 8 22,369 3 4 47,380 3 4 ^£536,683 6 8 12,500 .^549,183 6 8 IN SOUTH AFUICA. 200 '\) The capital was divided into shares of £250 sterling each. The shares, often subdivided into fractious, were negotiable like any other property, and rose or fell in value according to the position of the Company at any time. The advantage which the State derived from the establishment of this great association was apparent. The sums received in payment of import dues would have been contributed to an equal extent by individual traders. The amounts paid for the renewal of tlie charter — in 1647 the Company paid £133,333 6s. 8d. for its renewal for twenty-tive years, and still larger sums were paid subsequently — might have been derived from trading licenses. The Company frequently aided the liepublic with loans of large amount when the State was in temporary need, but loans could then have been raised in the modern method whenever necessary. Apart from these services, however, there was one supreme advantage gained by the creation of the East India Company which could not have been obtained from individual traders. A powerful navy was called into existence, great armed fleets working in unison and subject to the same control were always ready to assist the State. What must otherwise have been an element of weakness, a vast number of merchant ships scattered over the ocean and ready to fal? a prey to an enemy's cruisers, was turned into a bulwark of strength. In course of time several modifications took place in the constitution of the Company, and the difi'erent provinces as well as various cities were granted the privilege of having representatives in one or other of the chambers. Thus the provinces Gelderland, Utrecht, ,V': :( r ' ;-'l !>' i 210 THE PORTUGUESE iV w i, I 't 4 > ti ii III ''■' <'•! . ■ !" and Friesland, and the cities Dordrecht, Haarlem, Leiden, and Gouda had each a representative in the chamber of Amsterdam ; Groningen had a representative in the chamber of Zeeland ; Overyssel one in the cham- ber of Delft, etc. The object of this was to make the Company represent the whole Eepublic. Notwithstanding such regulations, however, the city of Amsterdam soon came to exercise an immoderate influence in the direction. In 1672 it was estimated that shares equal to three-fourths of the whole capital were owned there, and of the twenty-live directors of the local chamber, eighteen were chosen by the burgo- masters of the city. Fortunately, the charter secured to the other chambers a stated proportion of patronage and trade. Such was the constitution of the Company which set itself the task of destroying the Portuguese power in the East and securing for itself the lucrative spice trade. It had no difficulty in obtaining as many men as were needed, for the German states — not then as now united in one great empire — formed an almost inexhaustible reservoir to draw soldiers from, and the Dutch fisheries furnished an adequate supply of excellent seamen. It sent out strong and well armed fleets, capable of meeting any force the enemy had to oppose them, and of driving him from the open seas. The first of these fleets consisted of three large ships, commanded by Sebald de Weert, which sailed on the 31st of March 1G02, and it was followed on the 17th of June of the same year by eleven large ships and a yacht, under command or Wybrand van Waerwyk. The Company soon wrested from the Portuguese their ».»..: IN SOUTH AFRICA. 211 [aarlem, 1 in the entative le cham- lake the the city noderate stimated e capital ectors of e burgo- ' secured )atronage irhich set vei in the ce trade, as were w united austible fisheries men. It Dable of lem, and of these nded by )f March ne of the it, under lese their choicest possessions in the East, besides acquiring other valuable territory from native owners. Its dividends to the shareholders were enormous, owing largely to the spoil captured by its fleets. In one year they rose to seventy- five per cent of the paid-up capital, and for upwards of a century they averaged above twenty per cent. But the Dutch, though they were soon in almost undisputed possession of the valuable Spice islands, were never able to eject the Portuguese from the com- paratively worthless coast of South-Eastern Africa. That coast would only have been an encumbrance to them, if they had secured it, for its commerce was never worth the cost of its maintenance until the highlands of the interior were occupied by Europeans, and the terrible mortality caused by its malaria would have been a serious misfortune to them. It was out of their ocean highway too, for they steered across south of Madagascar, instead of keeping along the African shore. But they were drawn on by rumours of the gold which was to be had, and so they tried to make themselves masters of Mozambique, and with that island of all the Portuguese possessions subordinate to it. On the 18th of December 1603 Steven van der Hagen left Holland for India with a strong armed fleet, consisting of the Vereenigdc Provincien, Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Hoorn, and West Fricsland, each of three hundred and fifty tons burden, the Gelderland and Zee- laTidia, each of two hundred and fifty tons, the Ilof van Holland, of one hundred and eighty tons, the Delft and Enkhuizen, each of one hundred and fifty tons, the Medenhlik, of one hundred and tventy-five tons, and a despatch boat named the Dui/ken, of thirty tons burden. 'i :!f U 'i-i 1 I Mi r' < !i I 1 1!-" ! k » I (>. ' ' ;/»! ;|.« ' k l'>'. «,]^ .'^ i'i I; i MM ,i ■•, >' . i H INI 212 THE PORTUGUESE In tliose days such a Heet was regarded as, and actually was, a very formidable force, for though there were no ships in it of the size of the great galleons of Spain and Portugal, each one was much less unwieldy, and had its artillery better placed. There were twelve hundred men on board, and the equipment cost no less than £184,947 6s. 8d. Van der Hagen arrived before Mozambique on the 17th of June 1604. Fort S. Sebastifio contained at the time only a very small garrison, but it was considered too strong to be attacked, and the Dutch therefore pro- ceeded to blockade the island. There was a carrack at anchor under the guns of the fort, waiting for some others from Lisbon to sail in company to Goa, The boats of the Dutch fleet cut her out, in spite of the heavy fire of the fort upon them. She had on board a quantity of ivory collected on the East African coast, but nothing else of much value. On the 30th of June a small vessel from one of the factories, laden with rice and ivory, came running up to the island, and was too near to escape when she dis- covered her danger. She was turned into a tender, and named the Mozambique. Then, for five weeks, the blockade continued, without any noteworthy incident. On the 5th of August five pangaios arrived Jaden with rice and maize, and were of course seized. Three days later Van der Hagen landed on the island with one hundred and fifty men, but found no sign of hunger among the people, and saw that the prospect of their surrender was remote. He did no other damage than setting fire to a single house, and as night drew on he returned on board. He was now anxious to proceed to India, so on the i i'l citually ere no in and id had imdred IS than on the I at the :sidercd )re pro- rack at •r some I. The of the board a 1 coast, of the ig up to he dis- ier, and ks, the ncident. vith rice lys later lundred ong the ider was tire to a in board. on the IN SOUTH AFRICA. 213 12th of August he set fire to the captured carrack, and sailed, leaving the Delft, Enkhuizen, and Duifkcn, to wait for the ships expected from Lisbon. These vessels rejoined him, but without having made any prizes, before he attacked the Portuguese at Amboina and Tidor, and got possession of the Spice islands. In this manner the first siege of Mozambique was conducted, and failed. The next attempt was in 1607. On the 29th of March of that year a Dutch fleet of eight large ships, carrying one thousand and sixty men, commanded bj' Paulus van Caerden, appeared before the island. The fortress was in a better condition for defence than when it was blockaded by Van der Hagen, as it had recently received from Goa an ample supply of munitions of war and a reinforcement of a hundred and fifty soldiers. Estevao de Ataide was in command. Van Caerden, in the Banda, led the way right under the guns of the fortress to the anchorage, where two carracks and the Sofala packet were lying. A heavy fire was opened on both sides, but, though the ships were slightly damaged, as the ramparts of S. Sebastiao were of great height and the Portuguese guns could not be depressed so as to command the Dutch position thoroughly, no one except the master of the Ceylon was wounded on that or the next day. The three Portuguese vessels were made prizes, after their crews had escaped to the shore. On the 1st of April Van Caerden landed with seven hundred men and seven cannons, in order to lay siege to Fort S. Sebastiao. He took possession of the town, and made the Dominican convent his headquarters, lodging I- ! ^i '1 i if ■ 4' ii I I- I.- n ii ■' . ^ ■< i 11' ' \ ■I '. It 214 THE PORTUGUESE 1/ • ' ■J ;! km ;. ! I, U iWB 'I ■ his people in the best houses. On the 6th his first battery was completed. All but the able-bodied blacks being considered an encumbrance by both combatants, the Dutch commander caused those who were living in the town to be transported to the mainland, and Ataide required those who were in the fort to leave it. At this time a great galleon approached the island so close that the ships in the harbour could be counted from her deck, but put about the moment the Dutch flag was distinguished. Van Caerden sent four of his ships in pursuit, and she was soon overtaken. Her captain, Francisco de Sodre Pereira, a man worthy of a leading place in the history of naval heroes, made a gallant stand for the honour of his flag. The galleon was poorly armed, but he fought till his ammunition was all expended, and even then would not consent to surrender, though the ship was so riddled with cannon balls that she was in danger of going down. He pre- ferred, he said to those around him, to sink with his colours flying. The purser, however, lowered the ensign without orders, and a moment afterwards the Dutch, who had closed in, took possession. The prize proved to be the Bo7ii Jesus, from Lisbon, which had got separ- ated from a fleet on the way to Goa, under command of the newh appointed viceroy, the count De Feira. During the night of the 17th some of the garrison made a sortie, with the object of attempting to destroy the Dutch works, but were driven back after doing no more damage than wounding one man. And now fever and dysentery attacked Van Caerden's people. From his three completed batteries and his ships a fire was kept up on the fort, without any eii'ect whatever, and '\'i IN SOUTH AFRICA. 215 during the night of the 29th in a sortie five of his men were killed and many were wounded. A few days later, therefore, he resolved to raise the siege, and on the 6th of May he removed his cannon. War in those days was carried on in a merciless manner. The Dutch admiral sent to the fort to ask if the Portuguese would ransom the town, and received for reply that they would do nothing of the kind. They were too proud to redeem a portion of their property by purchase from their enemies. Van Caerden then burned all the boats, canoes, and houses, cut down all the cocoa-nut trees, sent a party of men to the mainland, who destroyed everything of value that they could reach there, and finally, just before embarking, he set fire to the Dominican convent and the church of S. Gabriel. On the morning of the 16th of May, before daylight, the Dutch fleet set sail. As the ships were passing Fort S. Sebastiao, every gun that could be got to bear was brought into use on both sides, when the ZiericJczee had her tiller shot away, and ran aground. Her crew and the most valuable effects on board were rescued, however, by the boats of the rest of the fleet, though many men were woundv^d by the fire from the fort. The wreck was given to the flames when it was aban- doned. In the second attempt to get possession of Mozam- bique the Dutch loat forty men, either killed by the enemy or carried off by fever, and they took many sick and wounded away. But there can be little question that defeat was more advantageous to them than victory would have been, for if their design had succeeded a r •}!■• I , ' -ili. 'i! \ V 216 THE PORTUGUESE ^'^''i'yM''l • I ) •■ ) i): I !t| very heavy tax upon their resources and their energy would have been entailed thereafter. They did not realise this fact, however, and fifty-five years later another unsuccessful attempt was made to acquire the coveted East African possessions. Their ships con- tinued to keep the factories on the coast in alarm and to capture Portuguese vessels trading along it, though, after the experience gained, they avoided attacking Fort S. Sebastiuo. In the eastern seas they were by this time the dominant power, and were fast building up a commerce greater by far than the Portuguese had ever carried on. They distributed their spices and silks over Europe, whereas their pi idecessors were satisfied with making Lisbon a market, to which jurchasers of other nations might come for whatever uiey needed. On the 21st of November 1609 Pieter Both was appointed first governor-general of Netherlands India. He left Texel with the next fleet, which sailed in the following January. In a great storm offthe Cape his ship got separated from the others, so he put into Table Bay to repair some damages to the mainmast and to refresh his men. In July 1610 Captain Nicholas Down ton called at the same port in an English ves,-iel, and found Governor-General Both's ship lying at anchor and also two homeward bound Dutch ships taking in train oil which had been collected at Robben Island. In May 1611 the Dutch skippei Isaac le Maire, after whom the straits of Le Maire are named, called at Table Bay. When he sailed, he left behind his son Jacob and a party of seamen, who resided in Table Valley for several months. Their object was to kill >t :'l I"' IN SOUTH AFRICA. 217 seals on Robben Island, and to harpoon whales, which were then very abundant in South African waters in the winter season. They also tried to open up a trade for skins of animals with the Hottentots. In 1616 the assembly of seventeen resolved that its outward bound tlpts should always put into Table Bay to refresh the crews, and from that time onward Dutch ships touched there almost ever}'" season. A kind of post office was established by marking the dates of arrivals and departures on stones, and burying letters in places indicated. But no attempt was made to explore the country, and no port south of the Zambesi except Table Bay was frequented by Netherlanders, so that in the middle of the century nothing more con- cerning it was known than the Portuguese had placed on record. In England an East India Company was also estab- lished, whose first fleet, consisting of the Dragon, of six hundred tons, the Hector, of three hundred tons, the Ascension, of two hundred and sixty tons, and the Susan, of two hundred and forty tons burden, sailed from Torbay on the 22ud of April 1601. The admiral was James Lancaster, the same who had commanded the Edivard Bonaventure ten years earlier. The chief pilot was John Davis, who had only returned from the Indies nine months before. On the 9th of September the fleet came to anchor in Table Bay, by which time the crews of all except the aumiral's ship were so terribly affiicted with scurvy that they were unable to drop their anchors. The admiral had kept his men in a tolerable state of health by supplying them with a small quantity o.' limejuice daily. After 1: t i •».»*<•-■ I 218 THE PORTUGUESE W' i;'^ ■ 1^ ; li'lili^, si' k \ i I ■ m m I it his ship was anchored he was obliged to get out his boats and go to the assistance of the others. Sails were then taken on shore to serve as tents, and the sick were landed as soon as possible. Trade was commenced with the natives, and in the course of a few days forty-two oxen and a thousand sheep were obtained for pieces of iron hoop. The fleet remained in Table Bay nearly seven weeks, during which time most of the sick men recovered. On the 5th of December 1604 the Tiger — a ship of two hundred and forty tons — and a pinnace called the Tiger's Wlielp set sail from Cowes for the Indies. The expedition was under command of Sir Edward Michel- burne, and next to him in rank was Captain John Davis. It was the last voyage that this famous seaman was destined to make, for he was killed in an encounter with Japanese pirates on the 27th of December 1605. The journal of the voyage contains the following paragraph: — " The 3r(l of April 1605 we sailed by a little islaii'l which Captain John Davis took to be one that stands some five or six leagues from Saldanha. Whereupon our general, Sir Edward Michelburne, desirous to see the island, took his skiff, accompanied by no more than the master's mate, the purser, myself, and four men that did row the boat, and so putting off from the ship we came on land. While we were on shore they in the ship had a storm, which drove them out of sight of the island ; and we were two days and two nights before we could recover our ship. Upon the said island is abundance of great conies and seals, whereupon we called it Cony Island." On the 8th of April they anchored in Table Bay, where they remained until the 3rd of the following month refreshing themselves. From this dace onward the fleets of the English East 1 ii' I ■!, |i k'1 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 219 days India Company msJe Table Bay a port of call and refreshment, and usually procured in barter from the natives as many cattle as they needed. In 1614 the board of directors sent a ship with as many spare men as she could carry, a quantity of provisions, and some naval stores to Table Bay to wait for the homeward bound fleet, and, while delayed, to carry on a whale and seal fishery as a means of partly meeting the expense. The plan was found to answer fairly well, and it was continued for several years. The relieving vessels left England between October and February, in order to be at the Cape in May, when the homeward bound fleets usually arrived from India. If men were much needed, the victualler — which was commonly an old vessel — was then abandoned, otherwise an ordinary crew was left in her to capture whales, or she proceeded to some port in the East, according to circumstances. The advantage of a place of refreshment in South Africa was obvious, and as early as 1613 enterprising individuals in the service of the East India Company drew the attention of the directors to the advisability of forming a settlement in Table Valley. Still earlier it was rumoured that the king of Spain and Portugal had such a design in contemplation, with the object of cutting off thereby the intercourse of all other nations with the Indian seas, so that the strategical value of the Cape was already recognised. The directors dis- cussed the matter on several occasions, but their views in those days were very limited, and the scheme seemed too large for them to attempt alone. In their fleets were officers of a much more enter- 9 220 THE PORTUGUESE ■^i 1 !' V- rl ill ^11 prising spirit, as they were without responsibility in regard to the cost of any new undertaking. In 1620 some of these proclaimed King James I sovereign of the territory extt' ding from Table Bay to the dominions of the nearest Christian prince. The records of this event are interesting, as they not only give the particu- lars of the proclamation and the reasons that led to it, but show that there must often have been a good deal of bustle in Table Valley in those days. On the 24th of June 1620 four ships bound to Surat, under command of Andrew Shillinge, put into Table Bay, and were joined when entering by two others bound to Bantam, under command of Humphrey Fitzherbert. The Dutch had at this time the greater part of the commerce of the East in their hands, and nine large ships under their flag were found at anchor. The English vessel Lion was also there. Commodore Fitzherbert made the acquaintance of some of the Dutch officers, and was informed by them that they had inspected the country around, as their Company intended to form a settlement in Table Valley the following year. Thereupon he consulted with Commo- dore Shillinge, who agreed with him that it was advis- able to try to frustrate the project of the Hollanders. On the 2oth the Dutch fleet sailed for Bantam, and the Lion left at the same time, but the Schiedam, from Delft, arrived and cast anchor. On the 1st of July the principal English officers, twenty-one in number, — among them the Arctic navig- ator William Baffin, — met in council, and resolved to proclaim the sovereignty of King James I over the whole country. They placed on record their reasons IN SOUTTT AFHTCA. 221 for this decision, which were, that they were of opinion a few men only would be needed to keep possession of Table Yalley, that a plantation would be of great service for the refreshment of the fleets, that the soil was fruitful and the climate pleasant, that the natives would become willing subjects in time and they hoped would also become servants of God, that the whale fisliery would be a source of profit, but, above all, that they regarded it as more fitting for the Dutch when ashore there to be subjects of the king of England than for Englishmen to be subject to them or any one else. " Kule Britannia " was a very strong sentiment, evidently, with that party of adventurous seamen. On the 3rd of July a proclamation of sovereignty was read in presence of as many men of the six ships as could go ashore for the purpose of taking part in the ceremony. Skipper Jan Cornelis Kunst, of the Schiedam^ and some of his officers were also present, and raised no objection. On the Lion's rump, or King James's mount as Fitzherbert and Shillinge named it, the flag of St George was hoisted, and was saluted, the spot being afterwards marked by a mound of stones. A small flag was then given to the natives to preserve and exhibit to visitors, which it was believed thev would do most carefully. After going through this ceremony with the object of frustrating the designs of the Dutch, the English officers buried a packet of despatches beside a stone slab in the valley, on which were engraved the letters O^C, they being in perfect ignorance of the fact that those symbols denoted prior possession taken for the Dutch East India Company. On the 25th of July the \Sl 'i „!!'' • ■»!' 222 THE PORTUGUESE '' f m m& Surat fleet sailed, and on the next day Fitzherbert's two ships followed, leaving at anchor in the bay only the English ship Bear, which had arrived on the 10th. The proceeding of Fitzherbert and Shillinge, which was entirely unauthorised, was not confirmed by the directors of the East India Company or by the govern- ment of England, and nothing whatever came of it. At that time the ocean commerce of England was small, and as she had just entered upon the work of colonising North America, she was not prepared to attempt to form a settlement in South Africa also. Her king and the directors of her India Company had no higher ambition than to enter into a close alliance with the Dutch Company, and to secure by this means a stated proportion of the trade of the East. In the Netherlands also a large and influential party was in favour of either forming a federated company, or of a binding union of some kind, so as to put it out of the power of the Spaniards and Portuguese to harm them. From 1613 onward this matter was frequently discussed on both sides of the Channel, and delegates went backward and forward, but it was almost impossible ■ o arrange terms. The Dutch had many fortresses which they had either built or taken from the Portuguese in Java and the Spice islands, and the English had none, so that the conditions of the two parties were unequal. In 1617, however, the kings of France and Denmark sent ships to the eastern seas, and there was a possibility that one or other of them might unite with Holland or England. Accordingly each party was more willing IN SOUTH AFRICA. 223 the of it. u was '^oi'k of than before to make concessions, tand on the 2n(l of June 1619 a close alliance was entered into. The Englisli Company was to bear half the cost of offensive and defensive operations in the Indian seas, and was to have one-third of the trade of the Moluccas, Banda, and Amboina, the remaining eastern commerce to be free for each party to make the most of. The rivalry, however, — bordering closely on animosity — between the servants of the two Companies in distant lands prevented any agreement made in Europe being carried out, and though in 1623 another treaty of alliance was entered into, in the following year it was dissolved. Thereafter the great success of the Dutch in the East placed them beyond the desire of becoming partners with competitors. "While these negotiations were in progress, a proposal was made from Holland that a refreshment station should be estab'ished in South Africa for the joint use of the fleets of the two nations, and the English directors received it favourably. They undertook to cause a search for a proper place to be made by the next ship sent to the Cape with relief for the returning fleet, and left the Dutch at liberty to make a similar search in any convenient way. In 1622 a portion of the coast was inspected for this purpose by Captain Johnson, in the Hose, but his opinion of Table Bay and the other places which he visited was such that he would not recommend any of them. The tenor of his report mattered little, however, for with the failure of the close alliance between the two Companies, the design of establishing a refreshment station in South Africa was abandoned by both. : fVA !.-. 1 ! 1 224 THE PORTUGUESE K II U I? t ' Perhaps the ill opinion of Table Bay formed by Captain Johnson may have arisen from an occurrence that took place on its shore during the previous voyage of the Bose. That ship arrived in the bay on the 28th of January 1620, and on the following day eight of her crew went ashore with a seine to catch fish near the mouth of Si. t Eiver. They never returned, but the bodies of four were afterwards found and buried, and it was believed that the Hottentots had either carried the other four away as prisoners or had murdered them and concealed the corpses. This was not the only occurrence of the kind, for in March 16?"? twenty-three men belonging to a Dutch ship that pi;t into Table Bay lost their lives in conflict witii the natives. The cause of these quarrels is not known with certainty, but at the time it was believed they were brought on by the Europeans attempting to rob the Hottentots of cattle. An experiment was once made with a view of trying to secure a firm friend among the Hottentots, and impressing.'- thuse people with respect for the wonders of civilisation. A savage named Cory was taken from the Cape to England, where he was made a great deal of, and received many rich and valuable presents. Sir Thomas Smythe, the governor of the East India Company, was particularly kind to him, and gave him among other things a complete suit of brass armour. He returned to South Africa with Captain Nicholas Downton in the ship New Year's Gi/t, and in June 1614 landed in Table Valley with all his treasures. But Captain Downton, who thought that he was over- flowing with gratitude, saw him no more. Cory t 4 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 225 returned to his former habits of living, and instead of acting as was anticipated, taught his countrymen to despise bits of copper in exchange for their cattle, so that for a long time afterwards it was impossible for ships that called to obtain a supply of fresh meat. It has been seen what use the Portuguese made of convicts when they were exploring unknown countries, or when there were duties of a particularly hazardous or unpleasant nature to be performed. The English employed criminals in the same manner. In January 1615 the governor of the East India Company obtained permission from the king to transport some men under sentence of death to countries occupied by savages, where, it was supposed, they would be the means of procuring supplies of provisions, making discoveries, and creating trade. The records in existence — unless there are documents in some unknown place — furnish too scanty material for a complete account of the manner in which this design was carried out. Only the following can be ascertained with certainty. A few days after the consent of the king was given, the sheriffs of London sent seventeen men from Newgate on board ships bound to the Indies, and these were voluntarily accompanied by three others, who appear to have been convicted criminals, but not under sentence of death. The proceeding was regarded as " a very charitable deed and a means to bring them to God by giving them time for repentance, to crave pardon for their sins, and reconcile themselves unto His favour." In June the Heet arrived in Table Bav, and nine of the condemned men were set ashore with their own free will. 226 THE PORTUGUESE 'H' I'X H W:) 1^1 V'V In one of the ships of this fleet Sir Thomas Roe, English envoy to the Great Mogul, was a passenger. A pillar bearing an inscription of his embassy was set up in Table Valley, and thirty or forty pounds weight of stone which he believed to contain quicksilver and vermilion were taken away to be assayed in England, but of particulars that would be much more interesting now no information whatever is to be had from the records of his journey. Again, in June 1616, three condemned men were set ashore in Table Valley, and a letter signed by them is extant, in which they acknowledge the clemency of King James in granting them their forfeited lives, and promise to do his Majesty good and acceptable service. There may have been other instances of the kind, of which no record is in existence now. How the criminals lived, what effect their residence had upon the native clans, and how they died, must be left to conjecture. The fate of only a very few of them is known. These made their way back to England, and were there executed for fresh offences. No further effort was made by the English at this time to form a connection with the natives of South Africa, though their ships continued to call at Table Bay for the purpose of taking in water and getting such other refreshment as was obtainable. They did not attempt to explore the country or to correct the charts of its coasts, nor did they frequent any of its ports except Table Bay, and very rarely Mossel Bay, until a much later date. A few remarks in ships' [ournals, and a few pages of observations and opinions :f .111 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 227 in a book of travels such as that of Sir Thomas Herbert, from none of which can any reliable information bo obtained that is not also to be drawn from earlie.' Portuguese writers, are all the contributions to a know- ledge of South Africa made by Englishmen during the early years of the seventeenth century. ■mm i% m U CHAPTER VII. PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN PORTUGUESE SOUTH AFRICA FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE SEVENTEENTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTUR.. ■''^ 'i 1 ■ '*„ ■ Chapter VII. — Contents. '?! Pompous instnictions issued by the king — Want of means to carry them into execution — Method of conducting the adminiytration — Expedition in search of silver mines — Hostility of the monomotapa Kapranzine — Civil war in the Kalanga tribe — Assistance given by the Portuguese to the chief Manuza — Terms of the agreement entered into by Manuza — Murder of the friars Joao da Trindade and Luiz do Espirito Santo— Final defeat of Kapranzine— Establishment by the Dominicans of missions at many new centres — Baptism of t*^« Kiteve chief— Baptism of the monomotapa Pedro— Conversion of the mono- motapa Domingos — Strange life of the chief Miguel — Decay of the Dominicans in Eastern Africa — Census of Christians at the beginning of the nineteenth century — Impossibility of colonising the coast region — Quality of Portuguese troops— Commencement of the East African slave trade with Brazil — Changes iu the commercial system — Descrip- tion of the prazos of the crown — Contraction of tlie Portuguese posses- siona on the coast — Interminable wars among the Bantu — Destruction of the Kalanga tribe — Description of Sena in 1830— Conquest of the country south of the Zambesi river by the Abagaza — Description of Inhambane in 1834— Destruction of the inhabitants of that post — Description of Sofala in 1836 — Annihilation of the Portuguese force there — Occupation of the islands Chiloane and Santa Carolina — Description of Sena in 1856— Separation of the £2ast African govern- ment from that of Goa — Introduction of municipal institutions and of s provincial council — Scanty Knowledge of the interior of the continent possessed by the Portuguese — Vario"« journeys of exploration and transits from coast to coast. ( t f \ ,1 r m 18 to carry stration — momotapa ren by the tered into Luiz do at by the •*'• Kiteve the mono- ay of the beginning >a8t region at African — Descrip- 386 posses- 'estruction uest of the cription of lat post — ^ese force [Jarolina — an govern - ons and of i continent ation and CHAPTER VII. PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN PORTUGUESE SOUTH AFRICA FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE SEVENTEENTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The power of the Portuguese in the East was irrecover- ably broken, and their possessions were falling one after another into stronger hands, but the individual who was most affected by the change could not, or did not, realise the extent of his loss. That individual was Filippe, the third of Spain, the second of Portugal, who among his numerous titles still retained that of Lord of the Conquest, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India. Perhaps he did not even know of all the disasters that had overtaken his subjects, for he heard nothing except through the ears of the duke of Lerma, and that all-powerful favourite was not the man to point out that his empire was crumbling away, or to suggest any efficient means of preserving what still remained of it. Accordingly in the royal orders to the viceroys of India, which commenced with the phrase "I, the king," instructions were given in as lofty language as if Filippe was still really lord of the East and in receipt of an ample revenue. With regard to the coast of Africa, Mombasa was to be strongly garrisoned, three iKi!;j - l!)' Il'l m .J I 232 THE PORTUGUESE vi !|>i K*:i hundred soldiers were to be stationed at Mozambique, Sofala was to be properly fortified and supplied with troops, Tete and Sena were to be made secure, and a fleet of armed vessels was to be kept cruising up and down, so as to make the whole line impregnable. But Y^here were the men and the ships and the money to come from ? That was left for the viceroy to say, and as the viceroy was of necessity dumb on these matters, of the orders here enumerated, all that could be carried into efifect was that twenty-five men were sent to Mozambique. The ordinary expenses of the different stations were supposed to be met in a way that made good govern- ment impossible. The captains contracted to defray them, and in addition to pay a small sum yearly into the royal revenue, in return for which they had a monopoly of the commerce of a prescribed area, every article of trade, however, being subject to import and export duties. The captains of Mozambique paid in this way about £2500 sterling a year for the trade of the territory south of the Zambesi, and undertook to keep up all the establishments.^ These officers were ^ Tlie following are the principal clauses of the contract entered into between the government at Lisbon and Ruy de Mello de Sampaio, captain of Mozambique, dated 17th of March 1614. The three years were to commence on the day that he took formal possession of the fortress. He was to pay annually 10,000 serafins of 300 reis each. All the expenses of the forts constructed for the defence of the trade, including the pay of the troops necessary for that purpose, were to be defrayed by him. The ordinary expenses of the fortress of Mozam- bique and of the hospital at that place were to be defrayed by him, but were to be deducted from the 40,000 serafins, and the balance was to bo sent to Goa. He was not to be present, personally or by representa- .* ;;■ i iwi . were IN SOUTH AFRICA. 233 said to be appointed on account of meritorious services, but in fact purchased their posts from the king's favourites. Reversions were secured in advance, often several in succession, and there were even instances of individuals obtaining the reversion of captaincies for their unnamed nominees. The term was three years. Under this system the sole object of the head of a station was to make all the money possible, and to lay out nothing that could by any means be spared. Im- provem'^nt or progress for Sofala, or Tete, or Sena was out of the question. Affairs were in this wretched condition when the attention of the Portuguese government was directed to South-Eastern Africa by some specimens of ore which were sent to Europe by Sebastiao de Macedo and Estevao de Ataide, successively governors of Mozam- bique, and which were found upon being assayed to contain sixty-six per cent of silver. The exact locality where this ore was obtained was unknown, but it was believed to be in the so-called kingdom of Chicova, the same tract of land along the northern bank of the Zambesi which Francisco Barreto had in vain tried to make himself master of. The time seemed opportune for securing this imagin- tivfl, when the duty of one per cent was being levied on his merchan- dise. All the usual presents to the chiefs of the interior were to be sent by him, at the proper times, at his own cost. He was to take over his predecessor's stock of goods. He was to have the sole right to trade upon the banks of the rivers Zambesi and Sofala (the whole country southward being included). He was authorised to seize and appropriate any merchandise taken into the country without his permission. II \ M 234 THE PORTUGUESE ary source of wealth. The Kalanga tribe was engaged in civil war, and one of the two individuals who claimed to be the legitimate monomotapa, having been defeated, fled to the neighbourhood of Tete and offered the Portuguese the mines in the Chicova territory if they would assist him against his rival, a chief whom the Europeans called the usurper Natuziane. Under any circumstances, nothing in the territory north of the Zambesi was a Kalanga ruler's to dispose of, but this was not taken into consideration, except that as a reasonable consequence it was believed the one assisted would be willing to cede the gold mines in his own country also. On the 21st of March 1608 royal instre "tions upon this subject were issued to Francisco Aleixo dt, Menezes, archbishop of Goa, who was then acting as governor- general of what was left of Portuguese India. Five hundred soldiers were to be sent to the aid of the petitioning chief, and to take possession of the mines. Four forts, which Estevao de Ataide had pointed out as necessary, were to be built and garrisoned, namely one on the bank of the Zambesi at the rapids which impeded the navigation of boats about ninety miles above Tete, one at Masapa, one at Bukoto, and one at Luanze. No ground except the actual mines was to be taken from the natives, nor was the government of the chiefs over their people to be in any way interfered with. The monomotapa was to be con- ciliated, and induced by means of presents to give his consent to the occupation of tho mines in his country. The general in command of the expedition was to be at the same time captain of Mozambique, igaged [aimed feated, td the f they )ia the er any of the )f, but that as le one ines in IS upon lenezes, >vemor- ,. Five . of the ! mines, ted out namely 3 which y miles md one nes was ernment ny way be con- to give in his :pedition ambique, m SOUTH AFftlCA. 238 so as to have a suitable base for his operations and a dep6t for his supplies. These instructions could not be carried out in their entirety. The archbishop did what he could, however, and sent a hundred men under command of Nuno Alvares Pereira to East Africa, with whose aid the fugitive chief was able to drive away his opponent and get possession of the great place. Before any- thing further was effected, Pereira was superseded by Estevao de Ataide, who had been appointed general of the expedition by the new viceroy Euy Loureni f i i 1 !• ■ iflv . (1 ": ; ■ll ''^l ''^' ii ' i ' ' iij^''/ wi'n il' ( ;w >:i 4 i: I r V ' I I * DC^i 236 THE PORTUGUESE a profession of Christianity, already a number of his adherents had been baptized, and his satisfaction was warmly expressed when he was provided with a body- guard of ten European soldiers. Intelligence of these good prospects reached the ears of the friar Joao dos Santos, who was then in India, and he begged his Provincial to send him back to Africa, where, from his experience, he might be useful in the conversion of the monomotapa. The Provincial consented, and the king, on the matter being reported to him, agreed to defray the expense from the royal revenue. All these prospects, however, were darkened by the fraud and folly of the commander Madeira, who sent to Lisbon a small quantity of silver which he falsely stated came from the mine at Chicova, at the same time representing that his means were not adequate to continue the enterprise, and asking for a supply of money and men. Assistance was given him, but as the silver was not followed by more, an investigation took place, and the fraud was discovered. Madeira was deprived of his command and was ordered to be tried, but instead of appearing before the court, he fled from European society and took refuge among the Makalanga. In 1619 Nuno Alvares Pereira, who had succeeded as captain of Mozambique and general of the Zambesi expedition, visitod the Chicova district, and searched fruitlessly for a silver mine or any traces of one. The expense of these protracted operations had been very heavy, and the royal treasury was ill able to afford it. In 1622 therefore orders were sent out that the pro- ject was to be abandoned, and all the men employed in it were withdrawn. IN SOUTH AFRICA. 237 From this date onward until our own times the Portuguese power in South Africa was almost as un- substantial as a shadow, and that it existed at all was due to the perpetual feuds of the Bantu clans, in which the aid of a few Europeans was usually sufficient to turn che scale of victory in favour of any chief whose cause they espoused. Some Jesuit missionaries had been sent from India by the archbishop De Menezes when the first expedition under Nuno Alvares Pereira was despatched to the Kalanga country, but the Dominicans, who occupied that field, objected to their rivalry. By order of the king, dated 23rd of January 1610, the Provincial of the Jesuits therefore recalled the missionaries of that order, and sent them to districts much farther north. Kapranzine, the successor of the monomotapa who had been aided by the Portuguese, showed himself unfriendly to the Europeans. One of his uncles, whose name is given by different writers as Manuza and Mavura, was possessed of much more intellect, and had incurred his extreme jealousy. This man, under the instruction of the Dominican friar Manoel Sardinha, made a profession of Christianity, and was baptized with as much pomp as possible by the vicar general of the order, the friar Luiz de Espirito Santo, who was then resident at Tete. He received the name Filippe, and from that time was made much of by the Portuguese. Shortly after this event Jeronymo de Barros, an agent of Nuno Alvares Pereira, who was then governor of Mozambique, arrived at the great place, bringing with him the annual present which was made to the ■ 'i < Hi : I' ( ■ 238 THE PORTUGUESE monomotapa in return for the privilege of trading in his territory. Whether Kapranzine was dissatisfied with this present or not is uncertain, at any rate imme- diately after receiving it he sent messengers through the country with orders that upon a certain day all the Portuguese and their friends were to be put to death. Andrd Ferreira, the capitSo das Portas, who was at the great place when this order was issued, was informed of it by some faithful servants, and that night with De Barros and the Bantu who were threatened he managed to get iiway to Masapa, where a small wooden fort was hastily constructed.^ Messengers were immediately sent to the other trading stations, and in a very short time all the Christians and their adherents — including the chief Manuza or Filippe — were collected either at Masapa or at Luanze, where another rude fort was built. The monomotapa despatched a great force against these places, but as the defenders fought desperately for their lives, the assailants were beaten back. Several Europeans fell, however, and among them De Barros. Meantime the Portuguese at Tete and Sena, having received intelligence of what was transpiring, raised an army of Batonga, and marched to Luanze to aeaist their countrymen. The defenders of the fort were reliev»^'i, and by advice of the friars in the camp a very decisive ptep was taken. Manuza was proclaimed monomotapa, * I in ' In Honie Portuguese books if, is asserted that in compliance with the order of the king Estevilo Je Ataide bitilt a fort at Masapa and stationed a garrison there. This can hardly have been the caae, as if it were so, the fort would still have been in existence, though the garrison would have been withdrawn when the search for the ailver mine* wfts %bandonod, IN SOUTH AFRICA. 239 the banner of the cross was raised, and under its pro- tection the army, with Manuel Gomes Serrao as com- mander-in-chief, marched against Kapranzine. The two forces met, and Kapranzine was defeated. The baffled monomotapa retired deeper into the country, and raised a still larger army, with which he returned and twice attacked the Christian camp, but on each occasion was beaten back. Then Manuza took possession of the Zimbabwe, or great place, and was acknowledged as paramount chief by most of the surrounding clans. On the 24th of May 1629 a docu- ment was drawn up, in which the new head of the Kalanga tribe took upon himself the responsibility for Kapranzine's misdeeds, and atoned for them by declar- ing himself a vassal of Portugal, and ceding a slip of territory to Tete. He further gave permission to the friars to go wherever they chose in his country, and build churches at any places that suited them. He undertook to receive white men without obliging them to go through the ordinary ceremonies, declared that commerce was free, and that traders should be protected, renounced all claim to the yearly presents made to his predecessors, engaged to drive Mohamedans out of his country, and threw open his mines of every kind for exploitation by Portuguese. The whole army was assembled, and the document having been read, Manuza was asked by Serrao if he agreed to these conditions. Naturally he replied that he did. The friar Luiz do Espirito Santo then drew the letters of his name, to which he affixed a cross with his own hand. The Portuguese who were present, nineteen in number, also signed the paper. .1. i jIv ■ n 'h ' . * ^ 1 1' \ ,\ - 240 THE PORTUGUESE Manuza, feeling himself tolerably secure, after this neglected to watch Kapranzine closely, and the result was a sudden surprise, in which several Portuguese and a great number of Bantu were killed, and the friars Luiz do Espirito Santo and Joao da Trin -ade were made prisoners. The latter was badly wounded, but the barbarians subjected him to torture, and finally before he was quite dead threw him over a precipice where he was dashed to pieces. Luiz do Espirito Santo, who was a native of Mozambique, was taken into Kapranzine's presence, and was ordered to make the usual obeisance. This he refused to do, as he said that to such homage God -ilone was entitled. He was then bound to the trunk of a tree, and stabbed with assagais till life was extinct. All the Bantu who were made prisoners were likewise put to death. Kapranzine appeared now to be master of the situa- tion. But the friar Manoel Sardinha, a man of great force of character, raised an army of twenty thousand warriors from the tribes along the Zambesi who were at feud with the Makalanga, and who were willing therefore to espouse the cause of Manuza. The friar who was the chronicler of these occurrences relates that while this army was marching towards the Kalanga great place, Filippe — as Manuza was called — looked up and saw a resplendent cross in the sky.^ Thereupon he sent for the father Manoel Sardinha, who was not with him at the time, but who also saw the cross on joining him. It was similar to that which appeared before the emperor Constantine, except that there were no words beneath it. ^ See Hiatoria de S. Domingos, por Fr. Luoos de Santa Catherina, IN SOUTH AFRICA. 241 It may have been that some fleecy white clouds drifting across the deep blue African sky appeared to the heated imaginations of the friar and the Kalanga chief to assume the form of a cross, for it is not likely that a deliberate untruth was placed on record by the Dominican missionary who reported this event. Be that as it may, the apparition is said to have given such courage to che whole body of warriors, all of whom saw it, that they marched on with confidence and won a great victory in the battle that followed, no fewer than thirty-five thousand of the enemy being slain. It will not do to be certain about the number of the killed, but the defeat of Kapranzine and his flight are assured facts. The hostile monomotapa, however, was not utterly overthrown. He still had the support of a very able chief named Makamoasha and many others of less no^e, and he gave a great deal of trouble before the war was ended. Let it be remembered that no force representing the Portuguese government was in the field. It was a contest between two members of the ruling family of the Kalanga tribe for the paramount chieftainship, and the weaker of the two was aided by a little band of Portuguese missionaries and other residents in the country. But these few white men and half-castes were able to turn the scale in favour of the chief whose cause they adopted, because they could obtain the service of warriors of other and braver tribes who would follow them out of a desire to wash their assagais in Kalanga blood, and because they could procure firelocks and gunpowder. In the final battle, which ended in complete victory for Q 'i'l! i 242 THE PORTUGUESE •^J' Manuza, as many as two hundred men on his side were armed with Portuguese weapons. The Dominican friars regarded the contest as a holy war, for it was certain that if Kapranzine was success- ful their work in the Kalanga country would cease. The part taken by Manoel Sardinha has been related. Another friar, Damifio do Espirito Santo, was equally active in raising men, and it was by a force of six thousand robust warriors brought into the field by him that Filippe — or Manuza — was at length firmly secured in the position of mouomotapa. The Portuguese laymen end the mixed breeds served their own interests when aiding him, because by that means alone was it possible for them to continue there as traders. This account of the Kalanga civil war may be taken as representative of all the contests in which the Portuguese south of the Zambesi engaged thereafter until recent times. The government at Lisbon had little or noLhing to do with matters affecting the natives, for it was powerless to supply either money or soldiers to enable it to have a really controlling voice in the affairs of the country. ^lanuza remained attached to the Europeans as long as he lived. A commencement was made with the erec- tion of a church at his j^'reat place in recognition of the lielp which he had received from the Almighty against his opponent, and he himself laid the foundation stone in presencf^ of a great assembly of people. The friar Alcixo dos Martyres took up his residence there, and nine others of the same order came from Goa and were stationed in different parts of the country. The vicar general, Manoel da Cruz, removed from Tete to Matuka s side a holy iiccess- cease. related, jqually of six by him secured laymen :s when possible )e taken ich the ereafter )on had the money itroUing as long le erec- n of the against on stone he friar lere, and nd were he vicar Matuka ing IN SOUTH AFRICA. in the district of Manika, in order to be nearer the others. The trading stations at Masapa, Luanze, Dambarare, and Chipirivivi were also occupied, as were Tete, Sena, and Sofala, as well as Umba and Chipangura in Manika. At Luanze a handsome church was built, but at the other new stations it was only possible to construct wicker-work buildings and cover them with clay. The Dominicans were naturally greatly affected by the prostration of the power and wealth of Portugal, but they had a reserve force which supported them for a time. The most intelligent individuals in the kingdom, looking with despair upon the apathy and feebleness that had taken hold of the great mass of their countiymen, sought refuge in convents, where a life of activity and usefulness was still open to them. General poverty alone prevented these institutions being more generally resorted to. At a little later date considerable numbers of Asiatics and Afri(?im8 were admitted into the Dominican order, under the mistaken idea that they would be able to exert more influence in their respective countries than Europeans could, and then a failure of energy set in ; but during the first half of the seventeenth century most of the missionaries south of the Zambesi were white men. There were complaints against some of them that they were practically traders, but as a whole they worked zealously for the conversion of the Bantu, though at times they suffered even from want of food. Their observations upon the people among whom they were living are highly interesting. They state, for instance, that the Makalanga did not object to a pro- r^. I' 1^1 !i •;. 244 THE PORTUGUESE ¥ '■ fW i I fession of Christianity, but could not be induced to follow its precepts, especially in the matter of not taking more wives than one. The slight regard in which chastity of females was held surprised them, and they were particularly astonished that the men seemed so indifferent to the misconduct of their wives that they often openly countenanced it. They noticed too that in war the men did not scruple to shield themselves behind their women, just as theBasuto often did in our own times in their conflicts with the Orange Free State. Seeing these things, they set their hopes chiefly upon the children, whom they took great pains to instruct. In 1644 there was a war between the Kiteve chief and another named Sakandemo, in which the Portu- guese took part on the side of the first named. The result was the defeat of Sakandemo, the baptism of the Kiteve chief with the name Sebastiao, and his promise to regard himself as a vassal of Portugal. But conversions of this kind, however gratifying to the vanity of the Europeans, were of no real value, and such promises of vassalage were not carried into practice. The monomotapa Manuza remained a professing Christian until his death, but his successor adhered to the old Bantu faith. He was, however, induced to declare himself a convert to the white man's creed by some Jesuit missionaries who visited the country in n^ ^ect of the arrangement with the Dominicans, and was baptized in 1643 with the name Pedro. He was promised a body-guard of thirty Portuguese soldiers, but his death very shortly afterwards gave a decent IN SOUTH AFRICA. 245 pretence for not carrying out the arrangement. His heir was apparently a determined opponent of the religion of the white people, and in consequence the Dominicans were in much distress, as their work seemed likely to be thrown back seriously. Great was the pleasure therefore which they felt when the new chief, under the teaching of the friar Aleixo do liosario, announced his conversion, and requested to be baptized. His example was followed by a multitude of the sub- chiefs and others. On the 4th of August 1652 these were all received into the church, the monomotapa taking tht name Domingos, his great wife Luiza, and his great son Miguel. The intelligence of this event created a joyful sensa- tion in Europe. At Home the master-general of the order caused special services to be held, and had an account of the baptism engraved on a bronze plate in the Latin language. At the Dominican convent in Lisbon there •'•. a grand thanksgiving service, which was attended in state by the king Joilo IV and all the court, for Portugal was again independent of Spain, and in August 1641 the duke of Braganza had ascended the throne. The young chief Miguel gave the most complete proof that his conversion was really sincere. He entered the Dominican order, and applied himself most assiduously to study, so that, according to the chronicler, he was by his example the most powerful preacher in the country. In 1670 the general of the order sent him the diploma of Master in Theology, equivalent to Doctor of Divinity. And this man, born a barbarian, lieir to the most important cliieftainship 1 V I I I: (: - I ll^ il h 246 THE PORTUGUESE f, \r'l ;t :i' l\U in Southern Africa, absolutely renounced his worldly position, and died as vicar of the convent of Santa Barbara in Goa. Fiction surely has no stranger story than his. At a later date two sons of the nionomotapa Pedro entered the same order, and proceeded to Goa, where one of them, known as the friar Constantino do Rosario, remained until his return to his native country at an advanced age with the captain JoJlo Fernai) ^es d' Almeida in 1702. Not "^ f '.liter the conversion of the monomotapa Doming*. trciJes sprang up in the mission field. In their time of pis •-; '^rity the friars did not display the great qualities which characterised them during the period of trial. Some of them fell into habits of indol- ence, and others into a spirit of indifference. Clearly the introduction of foreign blood and the condition of the mother country were producing their natural effects. The bishop of Mozambique,* who was ecclesiastical administrator of the whole eastern coast and adjoining territories, threatened to introduce some other order, and actually proceeded to Goa with that object. There, however, he was induced by the Provincial of the Dominicans to desist from his purpose, on condition that a commissary and visitor should be sent at once to the country south of the Zambesi, and that some active missionaries should accompany him. ^ His official title was not bishop of Mozambique, but bishop of sotnc ancient and long destroyed see, and ecclesiastical administrator of Mozambique, i.e. of the whole sphere nf Portuguese influence in Eastern Africa. To avoid confusion, I have used in the text the title ordinarily given to him. IN SOUTH AFKICA. 247 Friar Francisco da Trindarlo was appointed com- missary, and brought five associates with him. One of these, the father Joao d(i Santo Thomas, lie stationed at Sofahi, another, the father Damr so de Santa Rosn, be stationed witli the mononiotapa, tlie third, the father Diogo de Santa Rosa, he directed to renew the work that had been abandoned at Masapa, the fourth, the father Josepli de Santo Thomas, he directed to rlo the same at Ougwe, and the fifth, the father Miguel dos Archanjos, he sent to the Kiteve country to establish a mission. The commissary Francisco da Trindade was a man of great activity, and during the time that } h'»d the over- sight of the mission everything went o) well. He resided principally at Tete, and made liiUiseU master of the Bantu dialect spoken there, in which he prepared a catechism and another religious book termed a con- fessionario. He then proceeded tc Sena, studied the dialect used by the clans in that part of the country, and tranrdated his catechism into it.^ It was by him that the young chief, who afterwards became the friar Constantino do Rosario, was baptized and trained. This period of activity, however, did not last long. There were energetic men of the Dominican order in South Africa after that date, but the spirit of languor in which Portugal and her foreign possessions were steeped embraced the great body of the friars also. Henceforth there is nothing in the history of their missions that is * I have been unable as yet to obtain copies of these books, which would be of the greatest value for philological and historical purposes. Any one who can procure them for the Grey Librnry in Capetown would bo entitled to the gratitude of South African students. ^^ JSi 'i ■»: 248 THE PORTUGUESE 1 I ■'' I .; I worth relating. The interminable wars among the clans in course of time destroyed the stations — in 1692, for instance, Ongwe and Dambarare were swept out of existence, — and during the eighteenth century they dwindled away until only Inhambane, Sofala, Sena, and Tete were left. Even these were regarded, not as mission centres, but as parishes where services were maintained for the benefit of resident Christians. In 1759 the marquis of Pombal, prime minister of Portugal and a bitter enemy of the Jesuits, caused all the property of that order in Eastern Africa to be con- fiscated, and the missionaries themselves were expelled from the country. Their quarters at Mozambique were changed into a residence for the governor-general. Their usefulness as evangelists among the heathen was no longer recognised, and on the 21st of July 1773 a papal brief was issued which suppressed the once renowned Society. Two years later — in 1775 — the Dominicans were ordered to Goa, and were replaced by secular clergy, eight of whom were considered sufficient for the whole coast. Of these eight only three were white men, the others being Asiatic mixed breeds, with a great deal of conceit but very little ability. And so, between wars and want of competent teachers, Christianity declined in Portuguese South Africa, and among the Bantu quite died out. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were only twelve hundred and seventy-seven professing Christians in the whole region, and they comprised the white people and mixed breeds of both sexes and all ages. This was after an intercourse between the Caucasian and black races extending over three hundred years. il IN SOUTH \FRICA. 249 But it would not be correct to attribute such an utter failure to improve the country or its people either wholly to an incapacity of the Bantu to assimilate European thought, or entirely to a want of energy on the part of the Portuguese. Without colonisation on a sufficiently large scale to make the higher the ruling race, no part of Africa can be brought permanently within the domains of civilisation, and for settlement by Caucasians the portion of the continent north of Delagoa Bay was then not adapted. On the lower terraces facing the sea and on the banks of the Zambesi fever is endemic, and white children rarely grow up. On the highlands of the interior and in some localities on the third terrace upward from the ocean the climate is healthy, but under the conditions which existed before the middle of the nineteenth century it was not possible to plant colonies there. White people could only make their way gradually onward from the south, and even now, though there is a railroad through the fever and tsetse fly belt down to the nearest coast, the southern route is preferred by nearly every one. Portugal with her limited means could not do what the wealthiest and most populous country of Europe must have failed to accomplish if an attempt had been made. She only tried the experiment once, and then on a very small scale. In 1677 a few artisans and agricultural labourers, with eight reclaimed women (convertidas), were sent out to Mozambique and the stations on the Zambesi. A few years previously there had been such dissension among the white people at Tete and Sena, owing to jealousies concerning the trade with the natives, that they had fought with each other '■ 250 THE PORTUGUESE II i,.^ ^i as enemies. There was now peace, but no opening existed for the newcomers except in such pursuits as the former residents had followed. Nowhere in the world could an individual unfit for any other employment than that of an agricultural labourer have been more out of place than in Portuguese South Africa, and as for mechanics, half a dozen masons and carpenters would have been too many for all the building that was to be done. The few white people in the country after the commencement of the seventeenth century could hardly be termed colonists in the proper sense of the word. They led a precarious life among the natives, and those on the seaboard were exposed to be plundered by the enemies of Portugal. In 1633 they were in the last stage of despair through being harassed by Dutch fiy- boats, when a few soldiers and some munitions of war were sent to their aid. But Portuguese soldiers now were very different men from those of the time of the conquest of the Indies. The Europeans among them were taken out of prisons or were the scourings of the towns, from whom nothing good or creditable could be expected. A few mixed breeds from the southern provinces were the best of the whole fighting force. Very rarely, so rarely indeed that the word never could hardly be questioned, a hardy and intelli- gent peasant from Entre Minho e Douro, Tras os Montes, or Beira found his way into the military force abroad. Asiatics and Eurasians were there in plenty, and barbarous half-naked Africans formed much the larger proportion of the rank and file. Within a century and a half a Portuguese army on foreign opening rsuits as he world loyment 3n more and as rpenters bliat was Iter the d hardly le word. ad those d by the the last utch Hy- s of war ers now le of the ng them rings of 'editable rom the fighting he word intelli- Moutes, abroad. ty, and ich the nthin a foreign IN SOUTH AFRICA. 261 service sank from being a highly-disciplined, brave, and intelligent, body of men to a disorderly mbble of ill armed semi savages. And we have now arrived at a time when in dealing with the Portuguese in Southern Africa one is never certain whether he is relating the deeds of Caucasians, of Afjiatics, of Africans, or of mixed breeds. An in- dividual with the name of a European grandee was as likely as not to be a half-caste from Goa. That would not be a matter of much importance if the deeds performed were worthy of being related, but the history of any Bantu tribe is as eventful and as in- structive as the history of the Portuguese south of the Zambesi from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. It is a tale of decrepitude and decay. In 1645 the slave trade between Mozambique and Brazil was commenced. At that time the greater part of the western coast of Africa was dominated by the Dutch, and the South American planters were com- pelled to look elsewhere for a supply of labour. Until after the middle of the eighteenth century, however, the slaves exported from the country south of the Zambesi were few in number. It was not that the tribes there were averse to the sale of their captives on philanthropic grounds, for nowhere in the world were the vanquished and the feeble more harshly treated than by the interior Bantu tribes, as witness the Bakalahari of to-day, and as many as were needed for their own use were purchased by the residents of the various stations; but the slave markets farther north were more conveniently situated for the export <-.-*;>■ I i , r; 252 THE PORTUGUESE trade, and the negroes of the Mozambique coast, duller in intellect than the Batonga and the Makalanga though equally strong in frame, were regarded as preferable for plantation work. lUit during the latter half of the eighteenth and the early years of the present century, when the gold-washing and agricultural industries were destroyed by the wars that laid waste the country, a large proportion of the slaves that had previously been kept for their own service by the Portuguese residents were sold for exportation to Brazil. The system of carrying on commerce was frequently changed. At first a royal monopoly, administered by oflicers appointed by the crown, it next became, as has been already related, a monopoly contracted for by the governora. In IG74 on order was issuf^d by tlie king depriving the governors of the trade in ivory, which was placeil under control of a special junta or body of commissioners. In 1G80 the junta was abolished, and trade in general was thrown open to all Portuguese subjects, upon payment of customs duties, liut in the condition of the Portuguese people at that time, this was equivalent to a complete cessation of commerce e.Ycept by ollicials in the country, and there- fore in 1G96 an attempt wns made to form a strong u)ercantile company, and a monopoly of buying and selling was granted to it by the government. This also failed, and in 1701 the junta was restored. In 1710 another attempt was made to throw trade open, but the sale of wrappers, or pieces of calico about two yards in length, from whicli tiie ])rincipal profit was derived, was reserved for tlie government, and therefore Iff I ■! IN SOUTH AFRICA. 2.')?? as a matter of course the project fell through. What comuierce existed was carried on under control of the junta until 1739, when that body was found guilty of peculation, and was replaced in its duties and powers by a similar commission sitting at Goa. All this time the governors had been engaged in traffic under the control of the junta, and when free trade was permitted, every one else had to compete with them. On the 1st of April 1757, however, a royal order was issued that the governors should receive salaries for their services and should carry on trade no longer, and another order of the 7th of May 1761 made commerce free to every subject of the crown. But orders such as these could not be adequately enforced in Southern Africa. Corruption was general every- where, all who had power were bent upon the accumulation of wealtli by any means, and the only result of the new regulations was that the governors employed agents to trallic for them while they them- selves lived in indolence and debauchery. They never moved from their houses during the heat of the day, and when they went out in the evenings it was in a palanquin with silken awnings. Indoors they feasted on the richest viands, and their liarems were like those of the Arab sheikhs whom they had supi)lanted. Matters connected with commerce remained in this state until the 17th of October 18oi^, when trade was thrown open to the people of all nations. The government was always striving to raise a revenue from the country, but never succeeded 'in obtaining any considerable amount. Among the plans adopted during the eighteenth century was that of I if 1 m 254 THE PORTUGUESE fl ( ' if»f ' I 14 1 it. < 1; r , ^'iving out to individuals great tracts of territory, to which the crown had a shadowy claim arising from concessions by native chiefs, but over which it was not able to exercise real authority, A man — he might be a European or a Goanese or a half-breed of any kind — who had either acquired an extensive influence with the natives, or who had a large number of sl.ives, or who was sufficiently wealthy to employ a strong armed force, had a tract of land termed a prazo da coroa assigned to him on payment of a small sum yearly. Several of the prazos were of the size of English coun- ties, and at one time there were as many as tifty-four of them loosely attached to Tete, and thirty-one similarly connected with Sena. At the most prosperous period these eighty-five prazos brought in to the royal revenue about £500 sterling a year. There were a few also in the neighbourhood of Sofala and Inhambane. They were granted for three lives, with the condition that they were to descend to the eldest daughter of the first and second proprietor, who was to marry a Portu- guese born in Europe. The proprietor had considerable judicial power conferred upon him, and was free to make money in any way that he could. Sometimes a man who enjoy( d the confidence of the natives would amass great wealth and live in a kind of barbaric splen- dour on his prazo, but he was always exposed to the chances of war, for he received no protection from the nominal government. Properly speaking, such a man was as much a native chief as a Portuguese subject. He could even carry on hostilities with a neighbour without any notice being taken of it, while for the pay- ment of a few pounds yearly he retained all his former ii . TN SOUTH AFRICA. 255 rights in case he should at any time find it necessary to return to the country of liis birth. Prazos were often held by women, and one of the most considerable was granted to the Dominican order. On some of them large buildings were erected, with lofty rooms and thick walls to keep out the heat, and their proprietors were noted for the most profuse hos- pitality to the strangers and travellers who occasion- ally visited them. Their tables were spread with vegetables and fruit of almost all varieties, grown in their gardens, with the Hesh of domestic and wild animals, the costliest wines of Europe, and imported delicacies of every description. They were served by numerous slaves, and lived altogether in luxurious ease, the condition perhaps most respected by the natives around them. But such people were not colonistw, nor did they set an example of morality that was worthy of being followed by their dependents. In course of time one after another of the prazos south of the Zambesi were destroyed in the tribal wars of the country, until at length, when nearly all were overrun and in pos.session of hostile clans, on the 22nd of December 1854 a decree was issued abolishing the sys- tem. The decree was not enforced, however, by the local authorities, except that the method of inheritance was no longer observed, and prazos held by individuals who arrogated to themselves the rights of feudal lords, and v/ho regarded their people as mere serfs, continued in existence. During the eighteenth century the Tortuguese lost their possessions on the coast north of Cape Delgado. When th(iir decline was apparent to all the people of ^j I ' I! i\ 1, 256 THE POIITUGUESE i 'I'l f i f'f, ]■ tl f ! I 4 :«l the Efist, the Arabs took courage, and i' 1670 a^ta^'ki^o Mozambique, but failed in the attempt to got pos'efsion of S. Sebastiao. The next strongest fort on the coast was at Mombasa, and in 1700 it was wrested from its feeble garrison. In 1725 it was recovered, but four years later the blacks rose in insurrection against Alvaro Caetano de Mello e Castro, the last of tLe Portuguese governors, and drove him away. A little later the Arabs acquired the stronghold. Feeling its helplessness, the government at Lisbon then withdrew its representatives from Zanzibar and Pate, to prevent their forcible expulsion, and thereafter confined its claims to Pemba and tlie coast below Cape Delgado. During the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth almost interminable wars were carried on among the Bantu. In som? of them the Por» i^i^uese took part, but in general they were passive on! .okers, for they avoided interference whenever uiere was no certain object to be gained by espousing the cause of a combatant. The details of these wars wouid be value- less, even if they could be related with *^\*» utmost accuracy, which is not possible, as there are no accounts extant from the liuntu clam. A mere enumeration of the princii)fu events cinneAted with them is therefore all that need be given. In 1696 Sofala was attacked by a powerful clan, which was repulsed, but which kept a largo portion of the buck country closed against Europeans during the next thirty-three years. In 1701 Sena and Tete narrowly escaped destruction in a war which the Portuguese affirmed was provoked by the military commandant Joa^ da Fonseca Coutinho. I i.:eKsioi!i le coast from its ut four against of the A littie iling its Mthdrew prevent ined its ^ado. t half of e carried irtUjiuese nl'.okers, was no cause of )(i value- utmost accounts Iration of therefore Iful clan, lortion of liring the itruction )rovoked 'outinho. i IN KOUTTI AFRICA. ::57 In 1708 tlie capca'u Aiitonio Simoes Leitiio was killed in battle witli the en' ly, but his successor, Kafael Alvarcs da Silva, managed to arrange terms of peace. In 1722, in return for assistance against an enemy, the chief Masisa signed a cession of a tract of land sixty-five miles in length along the coast opjiosite tlie liazaruto islands. In the same way in 17C0 the chief Beve ceded a large tract of land near Tete, which was subsequently partitioned out as jirazos. A defeat of the Portuguese on the mainland near Mozambique in 170''), in wliicli about lialf of tlie whole military force tliey could muster at the time perished, prevented them from taking any pnrt in the civil wars among the Makalanga whicli disturbed the whole country almost innnediately afterwards, and wliich re- sulted in IToO in tlu; tribe being broken into fragments. One of the cliiefs retained tlie titlo of moncjuiotapa and the old Zimbabwe, but he and his successors were men of very little imi)ortance, and the reputation of the Makalanga was gone for ever. Henceforth each of the clans regarded itself as an independent tribe, and to(>!: a name different from tlie others. Jealousies and feuds prevailed among them, and left them at length belples*^ before ferocious invaders. In 1774 the Kiteve country was overrun by a honlu from the interior, and the only Portuguese trading station in it except Sufala was tlestroyeti. Little wars succeeded each other until IH.T wir n the tribes in the lower Zambesi valley were in gennral commotion, and Sena was for u time in gn^at danger. This place was veiy little laiger now than in the days of Francisco Parreto. It contained ten lMantu than through any resistance the inhabitants were capable of making. And now came the most terrible of all the invasions ,the country had ever witnessed. Two tribes that had tied from Zulu land settled near each other on the Sabi river, where they (luarrelled, and fought until one — the Angoni — pushed its way northward to the shore of LfUce Nyassa, to become a scourge to the >ibes residing there. Tlie other — the Abagaza — under the far famed chief Manikusa, remained behind to devastate the land from Uelagoa Day to tlie Zambesi river, and to subject all wiio were spared to continual plunder. The cajjtain of Inhambane was so rash as to attempt to assist :i frieudly clan against Maniku.sa, ]nhaml)ane, whicii Lad been pernuinently occupied since IToO, had th«Mi about twenty-live i'ortuguese residents, all told, and the garrison of the little fort S. .loAo da IWja Vista consisted of about a hundred negroes. Tlie village contained a church, detlicated to Noasa Senhora da Conrt ld\o, and a f"w houses built in the European stj'c, t)iOUgh none of great size, as the station was infen* >r \u iniportance to tho.se on the Zambesi. The iei. ,." ' " ■ '"iv .11 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 259 3rt. A ere not il three [ise had rily oil s called J of the Lruction, through luiUiiig. nviisioiis that had ou the rht until i to the e to the a — under hind to /iunV)esi continual attempt liuudmne, 17;;0, had all told, U)a Vista e village nhora da European lion was csi. The lie captain of Inhambane was the plunder of the village and the slaughter of the captain himself and all the inhabitants except ten individuals wlio managed to escape, 3rd of November 1834. Sofala had sunk to be a place of very little note. Its fort had fallen into decay, and its best houses were built of mud. Still it had a captain and a garrison of negroes. In 18l»6 it was attacked, when the fort managed to hold out, but all else was plundered and destroyed. The military commandant, Jose Manpies da Costa, then collected the friendly natives in tlie neighbourhood, and witli them and his negroes ventured to give the enemy battle, witli tlie result that every individual of las force perished. Sofala was occupied again, but never recovered its former position, insigui- ticant even as that was. From tliat date until quite recently the havoc created among the liantu between the Zambesi and the Limpopo by the Abagaza on the south, the Makololo on the north-west, and the Matabele on the west, was very great. Many of the ancient clans were quite extermin- ated, and of those that remain in existence few occupy the same ground that their ancestors did. In the years 1852 and 1853 especially tluty were scalttued and destroyed with no more compunction than if they had been vermin. There is a little island called Chiloane {Tshilwaiu'), off the coast about forty milt;s south of Sofala. It is nearly divided into two by a sluggish creek, and is not at all an attractive place, but it has a fairly good harbour, and it is secure against ravages by IJantu from the mainland. Some of the half breeds and VI > 1,1 'I 4\ I n '1 260 THE PORTUGUESE * Mil i!'<( 'i I Others who lived among the natives in the neighbour- hood of the ancifjnt gold port removed to this island, and since 1862 a military force has been stationed there to protect them. A lighthouse has also been built on Tshingani Point on the island, though the commerce of the place is very small. In 7.855 some of the refugees from the mainland went 1.0 reside on the island Santa Carolina, one of the Bazaruto group, and a small garrison was stationed there as an evidence that the Portuguese were the o«vners. Sena was then partly in ruins, but a few good houses were still standing, and were occupied by Europeans who sent out native traders to procure ivory in barter. The place was surrounded by a hedge of trees of recent growth, intended as a pro- tection agpinst sudden forays by 'jnemies. Tlie church was destroyed, and the fort, built chiefly of sun-dried bricks, was out of repair. Some time 'previously a body of natives from the south had overrun this part of the country, and after killing l.'fty-four of the Portuguese and half breeds, had driven the remaining inhabitants of the village to the islands in the Zambesi. An arrangement was then made tliat the traders should pay to tlie chief of the coiKiUcring horde a certain quantity of merchandise yearly, and on this condition they were allowed to return. By a royal decree dated lOtli of April 1752 the eastern coast of Africa was separated from the govern- ment at (ioa, as it luid been for u few years after 1569, and Franciscu de Mello e Castro was apjHiinted governor and captain general, with a salary of XtiOti K.ls. -id. a M/ IN SOUTH AFUICA. 261 year. He was to reside at Mozambique, and all the other officials from Cape Delgado to the bay of rx)uren(jo Marques were placed under his authority. These officers continued to be directly appointed by the king until October 1838, when the governor general was permitted to nominate the heads of tlio different stations for the royal approval. In 1763 municipal government was introduced into the little settlements. A delegate of the captain general went round, and with as much ceremony as possible inaugurated the new system. At Mozambique, Quilimane, and Zumbo, north of t lie Zambesi, and at Tete, Sena, Sofala, and Inhambane, south of that river, a magis- trate, a prosecutor who was also treasurer, a secnitary, and three aldermen were elected. But in most of these places municipal institutions were mere names. There was not a sufficient number of people competent to till the offices, much less an adequate body of electors. There was no revenue, nor any means of raising one. The only purpose served was to make a show on paper, for no object of utility could be gained by such parodies of European town governments. The same might be said of a much more recent measure, the formation in 1856 of a junta, or council, for the province of Mozambique, consisting of tldrteen mem- bers, in which Tete was allotted two representatives, and Sena, Sofala, Inhambane, and Lourem^io Marques each one. At the same time the term of office of the heads of the stations was extended from three to live years, in order to obtain the advantage of experience. The old trading and mission stations in the interior were now so completely lost that no one could even ^i. , .} .» : H li. ,1 u 2G2 THE PORTUGUESE point out their sites, and all vestiges of the influence once exercised by the Portuf^uese in that part of the country had disappeared. Their knowledge of the central regions of the continent, however, had been somewhat enlarged since the days of Barreto and Hoinem. It is impossible to ascertain exactly how far west- ward missionaries penetrated during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, because they had no means of determining longitudes, and no de- scriptions of their travels are extant from which their routes can be traced. As they could not erect sub- stantial buildings, there are no ruins to mark the limits of their wanderings, and the old names of the places where they laboured are known no more. About seventy miles north-east of Buluwayo, in some ruins called by the present natives Umtungala ka Mamba, which date from a time far earlier than the appearance of the Portuguese in South Africa, a seal has recently been found bearing the name Bernabe de Ataide en- circling the symbol IHS, but it is quite as likely to have been carried there as an ornament or charm by some native as to have been lost there by the missionary who once owned it. It is possible, however, that missionaries penetrated as far westward as Buluwayo. White traders may also have gone up the Zambesi farther than Zumbo and Dambaiare, though it is not very likely that they did. Tiieir custom was to remain at a central station, and to send out native agents to collect gold dust and ivory. In no case can it be said that the Portu- guese ever conquered, or ruled over, or owned any IN SOUTH AFUICA. 263 territory beyond the present boundary of their spliere of influence. The vassnlaj^e of the niononiotapa was only on paper, and even in that form ceased after a few years, owing to wars and revolutions, which were followed by the withdrawal of the Europeans. From very early days there was a desire on the part of the government at Lisbon to form a connection between the eastern coast and Angola by means of a caravan path, but it was impossible to open such a road. The tribes in the way were constantly at war, they spoke difrerent dialects, and each one was ready to strip a traveller who should attempt to pass through its territory. Trifling articles of merchandise, which probably changed hands many times in transit, passed over at long intervals from coast to coast, but no individual, white or black, is known to have accomplished the journey before the present century, nor was any reliable information obtained concern- ing the upper course of the Zambesi or the territory south of it. In May 1796 a man named Manuel Caetano Pereira left Tete for a journey inland, and ujion his return reported that he had reached the residence of the chief Cazembe, in about longitude 29° east of Green- wich, but his account was not relied upon. He accom- panied the expedition of 1798, and was found to have no knowledge of value. On the Ord of July 1798 a properly equipped expedi- tion, commanded by Dr Francisco Jose de Lacerda o Almeida, a man of scientific attainments and great general ability, left Tete with the object of trying to reach the western coast. After encountering all the V? i ■I I |*i h .%. ^ ^aj IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 4 // / :/ ^ V m:/. \ %0 1.0 I.I no 1^ IM 1^ 12.2 L25 III 1.4 2.0 1.8 1.6 Hiotogmphic Sciences Corporation n>' A <>^ # <> ^'.>^-. f^' )7, when )k them the 7th ved with liere was hern side (If on the hen with the site Idas, who a native isiderable iiich that But the ;es of the nded, and remained entirely that the t of the and the a wliale ask per- vereignty tried the le system lien were suits, and s, though IN SOUTH AFKICA. 277 they asserted that it was disregard of the value of time which prevented the Portuguese from maintaining their own agai'' t active competitors in this or any other enterprise . In November 1824 an exclusive monopoly of the commerce of this bay was granted to a Company, that did nothing, however, to increase the volume of trade, and in January 1835 its privilege was withdrawn. Towards the close of 1822 an English exploring and surveying expedition, under Captain Owen, of the royal navy, entered Delagoa Bay. It was provided with credentials from the government at Lisbon to the Portuguese officials on the coast, in which they were required to render all the assistance in their power, as the object was purely scientific. But when Captain Owen requested protection for his boats' people while they were surveying the rivers, he was informed by the commandant of the fort that the natives were not sub- ject to the Portuguese government, and that he must depend upon his own resources. That was the true condition of matters at the time. Accordingly the English officers acted thereafter as if Portuguese sovereignty did not extend beyond the range of the guns of the fort, and when Mazeta, the chief of the tribe along the Tembe river, offered to cede his country to Great Britain, Captain Owen accepted the cession. A document to that effect was drawn up and formally signed and witnessed on the 8th of March 1823. That the chief did not realise what he was doing is, however, certain, and this deed of cession was of no greater value, honestly considered, than the one covering the same ground made to the Portuguese in November 1794. On the 23rd of August 1823, Makasaue, cliief of the I ? f\A * ' ' kW. <... ,.»!J*»,1. ••««•»-••■-«.». # >- " 278 THE POUTUGUKSE m I I ■■ I ?! as ' Ji tribe occupying the territory between the Maputa river and the sea, that is the same tract of land that had once belonged to the friendly ruler Garcia de S/i, afhxed his mark to a document by which he placed himself and his country under the protection of Great liritain. Captain Owen's object in obtaining this declaration was to secure for England the two islands Inhaka and Elephant, which were regarded I as more healthy stations than any on the mainland, and behind which there was good anchorage for ships. But no force was left for Makasane's protection, and ])eyond the existence of tlie formal document there was nothing to show that Great Britain had obtained a foothold there. Some of the old names of the rivers were changed by this expedition into PiUglish ones. Thus the Manisa became the King George's, but the old designation of that stream near its mouth survives until to-day, and the new one is now seldom used, while the upper course is always known as the Komati. The Da Lagoa or Lourenco Marques becanu. the iJundas, but recently the Bantu name Umbelosi has driven all the others out. The estuary called the Espirito Santo was changed into the English river, and is still frequently so termed. After the departure of the English expedition the commandant of the Portuguese fort obtained from the chiefs who had allixed their marks to the documents a counter declaration, to the effect that they were subjects of the king of Portugal, as their fathers from time immemorial had been. The exact value of all these documents and declarations was very shortly III ^ ' It . •A ..-.a I IN SOUTH AFIIICA. 279 puta river that had a de Sj'i, he placed of Great [ling this ro islands as more id behind But no d l)eyond s nothing foothold ian<,'ed by 3 Manisa nation of ■day, and er course Lagoa or recently le others tito was equently tion the Toin the cuments ey were )rs from e of all shortly tested. Tlie ca])tain Lupe de Cardenas witli a junior officer and tliirty-nine blacks called soldiers made a show of hoisting the Portuguese flag on tlie banks of the Tembe river, whereupon Mazeta, the chief who was asserted to be a subject of Portugal as his ancestors had always been, attacked the party, killed Cardenas and twenty-six of his men, and obliged tlie ensign and the remaining thirteen negroes to surrender and submit to his mercy. There is no reason to believe that it would have fared differently witli an English officer under similar circumstances. In this precarious manner the fort or trading station continued to be held until 18.'>I», without authority of any kind over the neighbouring liantu clans being exer- cised. It was just the other way, for the tenure under which the Portuguese occupied the ground on which they lived was one of sufferance on conditicm of friendly behaviour towards the strongest of their neighbours. They were there at the mercy of the barbarians. For some years the country around Delagoa Bay had been devastated by war of an exceptionally ferocious cliaracter. The ruling section of the tribe now known as the Abagaza had broken away from the terrible destroyer Tshaka, and was spreading havoc among the less highly disciplined people of the north. Many of the clan s were exterminated, and others were reduced to the most al)ject condition, all their ])roperty being seized, and their serviceable children of b(jth sexes being taken away to swell the ranks of their conquerors. On the 22nd of October 1833 a strong body of warriors of the Gaza tribe appeared before the fort on the Kspirito Santo. They were provided with no other weapons ( v .* —*•»«'•>«».• ••» -M >».t*-«***^ ri ' 1 i h 1 ft ' ,. 4 r , '.ir I r1 ■ B< I J. [ Si ;i ., . 'i rf. Ill ' l|l|Jf| * : ■!• !> if I ! 280 THE PORTUGUESE than short-handled stabbing assagais, so they could not effect an entrance, but during the night of the 27th the captain Dionysio Antonio Ribeiro, seeing an opportunity to escape, evacuated the place, and with his men retired to the island Shefina, which lies close to the coast. On the following day the Abagaza destroyed the fort, and tlien pursued the Portuguese to the island and captured them all. The prisoners were brought back to their ruined habitation, and were there put to death. Again, however, as soon as the disturbances passed over, some men were sent from Mozambique, and the fort was rebuilt. In 1852 the independence of the farmers who had settled on the interior highlands was acknowledged by Great Britain, and the importance of the bay was realised in England, where the documents obtained by Captain Owen in 1823 were not forgotten, though no action beyond a little correspondence between the authorities at London and Lisbon had ever been taken upon them. Matters were left in abeyance^ however, until the 5th of November 1861, when Captain Bickford, commanding her Majesty's ship NarcissuSy planted the British flag on the islands Inhaka and Elephant, which he proclaimed British territory, and together with the adjoining roadstead he declared to be annexed to the colony of Natal. This action was pro- tested against by the Portuguese, and a lengthy corre- spondence between the two governments ensued. Captain Bickford had hardly set sail when a man, who was destined to occupy a prominent position thereafter in South-Eastern Africa made his appearance at the Portuguese fort on the Espirito Santo. His name was Umzila. He was a son of the recently deceased chief ) M'A * *^ t , im t. -,,. ■ :^ .Iti' I; I 282 THE PORTUGUESE was tlien afforded to Umzila. The war between the brothers lasted many months, but at length in two battles, fought on the banks of the Manisa on the 17th and the 20th of August 1862 Maweva's adherents were completely crushed. Umzila then became undisputed chief of the Gaza tribe, and until his death ruled over nearly all the Bantu in that large expanse of tenitory marked in the maps as Gazaland, extending from the Zambesi river on the north to the Manisa on the south, and from the fringe of the great interior plain down to the shore of the Indian sea. Throughout his life he remembered the assistance that had been given to him by the Portuguese, but did not always refrain from hostile actions towards them, and certainly never regarded himself as their subject. To control a tribe as powerful as his, the means to compel obedience to authority must be ever present, no matter what flag is supposed to wave over tixe territory, and the Portuguese at that time had no force in South-Eastern Africa that could command respect. They were, however, beginning to improve their position, which had already passed its lowest point of depression. A favourable turn in their affairs was tak- ing place in the lower Zambesi valley, as will presently be related, and on the Espirito Santo a much stronger and better fort than the one previously existing was constructed in 1864, which was strengthened three years afterwards by the addition of four small batteries. A few houses were built on the adjoining ground, and thereafter the site came to be generally called LourenQO Marques. On the 29th of July 1869 a commercial treaty was ii (lit <^ -—"^tHjji^trr- 'If' I IN SOUTH AFRICA. 283 concluded between the governments of Portugal and of the South African Eepublic, as the state established by the emigrant farmers from the Cape Colony was called, and in it a boundary line was fixed from the parallel of 26° 30' south latitude along the highest ridge of the Lebombo mountains to the centre of the lower poort of Komati, where the river of that name passes through the range, thence in a straight line about north by east to Pokioenskop on the northern bank of the Olifants river where it passes through the mountains, thence in a direction about north-west by north to the nearest point of the mountains of Chacundo on the Umvubu river, and thence in a straight line to the junction of the Pafuri and Limpopo rivers. Such a treaty could not be regarded with indifference by the British government, whose interests in South Africa were likely to be seriously affected by it. Accord- ingly the claim to the southern and eastern shore of Delagoa Bay, based on the documents obtained by Captain Owen, attracted greater attention, but naturally the Portuguese government refused to acknowledge it. Arbitration was then decided upon, and on the 25th of September 1872 a protocol was signed at Lisbon, by which the contending parties agreed to submit their respective claims to the decision of the president of the French Eepublic. The case for Portugal was well worked out, though many mere suppositions were made to appear as incon- trovertible facts, and numerous papers were put in which could easily have been proved to be of no weight whatever. Their records and ancient histories wer« searched, and everything that favoured their claim was W i H^ 1 ? '• :1 if!" '1 i 18 I lf\ it, ■ - :i •> 1 ( i ' f U- '<- I J' !"*» V'fW ' i; :' 1; 5 %. ^I"'" ': ■! l\ 11 284 THE I'ORTUGUESE brought forward, while all that opposed it was carefully held back. Among their documents was a treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, in which the territories of the latter on the East African coast were declared to extend from Cape Delgado to the bay of LourenQo Marques, which they reasonably interpreted as including that bay. Eeal effective occupation of any part of the country beyond the precincts of their fort they could not prove, nor could they show the exercise of sabstantial control over aay of the native clans living in the vicinity. But their discovery of the bay, their commercial dealings with the tribes on its shores, the cessions on paper made to them, and what more has been related in this chapter, they fully proved. The English case was less ca,refully prepared. It could not have been brought to appear as good as that of the Portuguese, but by a careful search in the archives of the Cape Colony, it might have been con- siderably strengthened. An attempt was made to show that the bay of LourenQo Marques mentioned in the treaty put in by the Portuguese really meant the estuary of the Tembe, Umbelosi, and Matola, that is the Espirito Santo or English Ptivgr. Some of the documents relied upon by the other side were explained away, but the fact that the territory in dispute had for centuries been within the sphere of influence of the Portuguese — though at irregular intervals and to a very limited extent only — could not be disturbed. If the Portuguese claim to the southern and eastern shores of the bay was weak, the English claim was wtaker still. ■<•♦. -•■-•• .: ^-J* - *7_.^^ »'i4a««»a£«,-. ,,»*^-:;;"3Rrif;- . ; —^fr **■-**. — ^t. , -**.'• carefully a treaty liich the oast were le bay of iterpreted ipation of J of their show the he native ^ry of the )fes on its and what they fully pared. It d as that h in the been con- ie to show ed in the neant the .a, that is le of the explained te had for Qce of the to a very d. If the 1 shores of IS weaker IN SOUTH AFUICA. 285 On the 24th of July 1875 Mt) .shal Macmahon, pre- sident of the French Republic, issued his award, which gave to Portugal the territory as far south as the parallel of latitude of 26° 30' from the ocean to the Lebombo mountains. That included the territory of Tembe, defined as bounded on the north by the Espirito Santo or English River and the Lourenc^o Marques, Dundas, or Umbelosi River, on the west by the Lebombo moun- tains and on the south and the east by the river Mapiita and the shore of Delagoa Bay. In it was also comprised the territory of Maputa, between the Maputa river and the sea, including the Inhaka peninsula and the islands Inhaka and Elephant. Various schemes for the construction of a railway between Lourenqo Marques and the capital of the South African Republic had been projected before the publi- cation of the award which secured the seaboard to I'ortugal, but all had fallen through. On the 11th of December 1875, less than five months after that event, a treaty was entered into between the governments of the two countries, which provided for the free inter- change of the products of the soil and industry of the republic and the Portuguese possessions, for tlie impor- tation free of customs duties through the port of Lourengo Marques of a great many articles destined for the republic and for the importation of all other articles thus destined upon payment of duty at the rate of three to six per cent of their value, as also for the construction of a railway from the harbour inland. Owing to poli- tical events in South Africa this treaty could not be carried ^nto effect for some years, but it was revived and ratified again on the 7th of October 1882. i i \ ' • ?!: 'A r n HR ^'- ■ iMuHi^ ' iif fliH^ 1 i|lP' ? y ^ »m!' ! ' mv.M \m-\4:A 'A 286 THE POIITUGUESE On the 14th of December 1883 the Portuguese government granted a concession for the construction of a railway about fifty-two miles in length, from Lourenqo Marques to , -i Poort, on the western boundary. The subsidy offered was ample, still it was only in March 1887 that a Company was formed in London to carry out the work. In November 1888 the line was opened to a point which was believed to be on the Portuguese boundary, though soon afterwards it was ascertained to be some distance short, and then, as it could not be completed within the stipulated time, the government took advantage of the opportunity and on the 24th of June 1889 confiscated the railway. This led to inter- ference by Great Britain and the United States on behalf of the shareholders, but after much negotiation the Portuguese authorities retained the line, and the amount of compensation to be awarded to the Company was referred for decision to three Swiss lawyers. Meantime on the republican side a railway was being constructed from the Portuguese border at Komati Poort towards the heart of the country. In July 1895 this was completed and joined to the great southern line through the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony, so that there is now complete communication between Capetown and LourenQo Marques. A large proportion of the commerce of the South African Eepublic finds its way to Delagoa Bay, and with the vast development of the gold fields within that republic during recent years, the traffic is as much as the line can carry. Louren^o Marques has thus become a place of con- siderable importance. A town of some size has sprung up, and is rapidly growing, though the death rate is IN SOUTH AFRICA. 287 exceedingly high. It is believed, however, that with the drainage of a great marsh adjoining it the place will become less unhealthy. The means of landing and shipping goods with facility are being provided, and a lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour has been built. The residents of the town are of various nationa- lities, a large proportion being English and Germans. There is no commerce of any consequence with the sur- rounding territory, which is, as of old, in possession of Bantu clans, the existence of Lourengo Marques as a town being due solely and entirely to the transit of merchandise and passengers between the shipping and the railway to the interior. Yet it is to-day much the most important place in the Portuguese possessions in South-Eastern Africa. Next to it comes Beira, a town unknown ten years ago, and which sprang into being as the ocean terminus of a road from a settlement — not Portuguese — in the interior. Beira is at the mouth of the Pungwe river, not far north of Sofala. It has an excellent harbour, capacious, with good depth of water, and easy of access. The Arabs had once a small settlement there, but the Portuguese never occupied the place in olden times, and when the Asiatics retired, it fell into such utter decay that for more than three centuries it was completely forgotten. Owing to negotiations with Germany and France relative to the partitioning of the continent, in 1887 Portugal advanced a claim to the whole territory between Angola and Mozambique down to the South African Ptepublic, but Great Britain immediately announced that her sovereignty would not be recog- I I *r. i 288 THE PORTUGUESE t- \X': ,.} '■ m m m fr I nised in places not occupied by a sufficient force to maintain order. There were no Portuguese at all at that time on the highlands north of the Limpopo, nor had a single individual of that nation, as far as is known, even visited the clans there within the preced- ing century. The Matabele chief Moselekatse had con- quered the greater part of the country in 1838 and subsequent years, had slaughtered most of its inhabi- tants, and ruled over the others with a ferocity unknown except among African tribes. The border of the Mata- bele raids on one side was the border of the Gaza raids on the other, and Lobengula, son and successor of Moselekatse, was the recognised lord of the interior plateau froni the Limpopo to the Zambesi, acknowledg- ing or pretending to acknowledge no superior. Gungu- nhana, son of Umzila and grandson of Manikusa, was the real lord of nearly all the territory between the edge of the interior plateau and the sea, and though the Portu- guese claimed him as a subject, he was to all intents and purposes independent of control. This condition of things was indisputable, yet the intense jealousy of many Portuguese was aroused when early in 1888 an agreement was made by a British commissioner with Lobengula, in which that chief bound himself to refrain from entering into correspond- ence or concluding a treaty with any other state or power, and the territory governed by him was declared to be within the British sphere of^ influence. That they had never occupied the country, and never could occupy it, was not taken into consideration, it was the background of a line of coast which their navigators had first dis- covered, and along which they had military and trading ^.l IN SOUTH AFRICA. 289 . stations, and that was sufficient in their opinion to justify their claim to it. Negotiations were opened between the governments of Great Britain and Portugal, but while they were proceeding subjects of both countries were busy securing rights from native rulers. Two Portuguese — Colonel Joaquim Carlos Paiva de Andrada and Lieutenant Cordon — with some black troops visited various petty chiefs, and induced them to accept flags and in some instances to allow a few of the so-called soldiers to be stationed at their kraals. At the same time several energetic Englishmen obtained from the Matabele chief various concessions, which were united in the hands of one strong Company, to which on the 29th of October 1889 a royal charter was granted. In August 1890 an agreement was entered Into by the governments of Great Britain and Portugal, in which the eastern limits of the British South Africa Chartered Company's territory were defined, but it was not ratified by the cortes, though it served as '^. ba'^is for a temporary understanding between all the parties whose interests or whose passions were involved. At this time a strong body of men, fitted out by the Char- tered Company, was on the way from the Cape Colony to the northern territory, and on the 11th of September 1890 reached the site of the present town of Salisbury, where the British flag was formally hoisted and the country taken in possession in the name of the Queen. On the way up the pioneer expedition had const' noted forts at Tuli, Victoria, and Charter. From Charter the Company's administrator, Mr Archibald Colquhoun, with Mr Frederick Courteney Selous and a small escort, T if I is Cj ! 71) : * 290 THE PORTUGUESE travelled eastward to the kraal of Umtasa, the principal chief of the Manika country. "With this chief, on the 14th of September, an arrangement was made, by which he placed himself under the protection of the British South Africa Company, to whom he granted a conces- sion of mineral and other rights in his country. He declared that he was not, and never had been, under subjection or vassalage to the Portuguese government, but that a trading station had with his consent been established by the Mozambique Company in 1888 at a place called Andrada in the M?sikesi district, some twenty miles to the south-east, and he knew that an agent of this Company — Joao de Eezende by name — was residing there. A policeman and a native interpreter were left with Umtasa to represent the British South Africa Company, and Mr Colquhoun then rejoined the pioneers at Salisbury. Mr Selous rode over to Masikesi to visit the Portu- guese station, and on the way met two officers with a party of black attendants, who were bearers of a protest against the arrangement just made with Umtasa, and who claimed a vast extent of territory to the westward as being in the dominions of their sovereign. In that territory not a single Portuguese was then resident, and there were not ten individuals of that nation in the whole of Manika. That they had a special claim upon the allegiance of Umtasa, resting chiefly upon the position in which he stood to a man named Gouveia, was afterwards brought forward. This Gouveia, or Manuel Antonio de Sousa as he was called by the Portuguese, was a native of Goa who had settled in Africa shortly > ^ M IN SOUTH AFRICA. 291 after the middle of the century. He was a man of considerable force of character, and had performed services of great importance for the crown. Having obtained a prazo, he armed and trained his dependents upon it, and then acted like a powerful feudal lord in mediaeval times in Europe, being in matters affecting his retainers and in disputes with his neighbours almost, if not quite, independent, though in everything else acknowledging the supremacy of the Portuguese govern- ment. He went to the aid of the people of Sena, drove away their Gaza oppressors, and released them from the ignominy of paying tribute. He recovered much of the territory that had formerly been prazos and that had been overrun by the subjects of Manikusa. Services so eminent were warmly acknowledged by the governor general at Mozambique and by the authorities in Lisbon, and Gouveia was appointed capita© mor of a great district and had the honorary title of colonel conferred upon him. For twenty years the body of men that he commanded, consisting entirely of his black dependents, was almost the only military force employed by the Portuguese in South-Eastern Africa at a distance from their stations. Under these circumstances war could not be conducted as if the combatants were European soldiers, and Gouveia's reputation among his neighbours was rather that of a daring and successful freebooter than of an official of a civilised government. In 1873 the chief of the largest clan in Manika died, and there was a quarrel concerning the succession. One of the claimants was Umtasa, but he was defeated I. i , ■ I i i 1 ii ,■ I'' ii m A mi imi ■> .1 r.ni.' <'\ \ 292 THE PORTUGUESE in battle and driven away. This was just such an opportunity as Gouveia was wont to take advantage of, so he went to the aid of Umtasa, whom he succeeded in establishing firmly in the chieftainship as a vassal of his own. At the same time, however, Umtasa necessarily became a dependent of Umzila, who was paramount over all the Bantu in that region. Thus he had two overlords, which meant that two individuals more powerful than himself claimed and exercised the right of levying tribute from him and his people at any time. And as both of these overlords were regarded as Portuguese subjects, it followed that he also was in the same position. In addition to this he had been invested with the office of chief by the commandant of Sena, and had received the appointment of sergeant-major of Manika. Further, in February 1888 Colonel De Andrada had hoisted the Portuguese flag at his kraal, and had left the flag in his keeping. On all these grounds, the Portuguese authorities claimed Umtasa as a subject and the district occupied by his people as part of the dominions of their crown. The British South Africa Company's officers, on the other hand, declined to take any notice of the Portuguese claim, because it was evident Umtasa himself did not recognise it, and because those who made it had no means of maintaining order or protecting life and property, the essential duties of sovereignty. They did not admit that Gouveia's followers constituted a force such as a civilised government had a right to employ. .Tn October a report reached Salisbury that Colonel Ii; \ IN SOUTH AFiaCA. 293 De Aiidrada and Gouveia with a band of followers were on tlie way from the east towards Umtasa's kraal. Mr Colquhoun at once sent a few policemen to support the chief, and soon afterwards increased the number to thirty and directed Captain Patrick William Forbes to take command. Captain Forbes arrived at Umtasa's kraal on the 5th of November, and formed a temporary camp at a short distance from it. He then sent a messenger to Masikesi, where Colonel De Andrada and Gouveia then were, with a protest against their proceeding fprther with an armed force. Colonel P*^ Andrada had no wish to precipitate matters. He was a highly educated and amiable man, who had resided ten or twelve years in South Africa, where he had held various offices under the govern- ment, besides being the occupant of a prazo at the mouth of the Zambesi. He knew perfectly well that any force which he and Gouveia could bring into the field would be unable to meet the British South Africa Company's police in battle. Besides he was a director of the Mozambique Company, and his interests were all on the side of peace. But he was also a Portuguese colonel of artillery, and his pride and patriotism revolted against being turned away from a place that he had more than once visited before, and that he regarded as Portuguese territory. His ostensible mission was to open a road to the interior from the head navigable water of the Pungwe and to arrange matters in connection with the exploita- tion of some mines, in the interests of his Company. He resolved therefore to proceed on his journey. On the 8th of November Gouveia arrived at Umtasa's Vi i t •"»....•" VV, '■ 294 THE PORTUGUESE iJ m i.-;i: kraal, and was foiiowed shortly afterwards by Colonel De Andrada and Joao de Eezende, when their whole following amounted to between two and three hundred men, including palanquin-bearers, carriers, and personal attendants. Captain Forbes now resolved upon decisive action. On the 14th of November with twelve troopers of his police he entered Uixitasa's kraal, and arrested Gouveia and the two Portuguese gentlemen, who had just re- tired from an interview with the chief. The natives looked oa with approbation, and were ready to assist if that had been necessary. Gouveia's men were encamped under some trees several hundred yards away, where they were surprised by the remainder of the British police, and were disarmed before they could make any arrangement for resistance. De Eezende was permitted to return to Masikesi, but Colonel De Andrada and Gouveia were sent as prisoners to Salisbury, and left that place under escort for Capetown. At Tuli, on the way, they met Dr Jameson going up to assume the administration of the British Chartered Company's territory, and by him were re- leased from further restraint. From Capetown Gouveia proceeded to Mozambique by steamer, and Colonel De Andrada took passage to Portugal to lay the matter before his government. After the arrest of their leader and the seizure of their arms, Gouveia's men fled homeward, and to prevent the Mozambique Company's trading station at Andrada in Masikesi from being plundered, Captain Forbes placed a temporary guard there. He then proceeded to visit various native chiefs living between IN SOUTH AFRICA. 295 the Busi and Pungwe rivers, with whom he entered into friendly arrangements, his object being to secure a road to the coast at Beira, a place which the Mozam- bique Company had recently made use of as a harbour. There was great excitement in Portugal when in- telligence of the events at Umtasa's kraal reached that country. Bands of students pressed forward as volunteers to defend the honour of their flag, and were sent with all haste to Beira. It seemed as if the ancient spirit of the people of the little kingdom had revived, and that they were ready to proceed to the last extremity in an attempt to get nominal possession of a territory that could be of no use whatever to them. The government, however, was not so far carried away with the prevailing excitement as to cease negot' lions for a friendly settlement with the British authorities. Upon the arrival of the first party of volunteers at Beira, they were sent forward with some negroes from Angola, under command of Major Cardas Xavier, to occupy Andrada. They arrived at that station on the 5th of May 1891. Not far distant was a camp of the British South Africa Company's police, fifty-three in number, commanded by Captain Heyrnan. On the 11th of May a Portuguese force, consisting of about a hundred Europeans and three or four hundred Angola blacks, was sent out to make a reconnaissance, and at two in the afternoon fell in with the English pickets, who retired upon the camp. The Portuguese followed, and an action was brought on, which resulted in their total defeat, with a heavy loss in killed and wounded. There were no casualties on the British side. Umtasa and his followers watched the engagement from the top 296 THE PORTUGUESE U rM 3 of a hill out of range of the shot, and expressed great satisfaction with the result, though probably they would have done the same if the position of the combatants had been reversed. The whole Portuguese force now fled precipitately to the seacoast, abandoning Andrada, which the British Chartered Company's men occupied on the following day. They found there some stores, of which they took possession as lawful spoil of war, but the most valuable part of the booty consisted of eleven machine guns that had been left behind. Meantime the negotiations between the two govern- t^% ments in Europe had been brought nearly to a close, and when intelligence of the collision arrived, they were quickly completed. On the 11th of June 1891 a treaty was signed at Lisbon, in which the boundary between the British and Portuguese possessions south of the Zambesi was declared to be a line starting from a point opposite the mouth of the river Aroangwa or Loangwa, running directly southward as far as the sixteenth parallel of south latitude, following that parallel to its intersection with the thirty-first degree of longitude east of Greenwich, thence running east- ward direct to the point where the river Mazoe is intersected by the thirty-third degree of longitude east of Greenwich, following that degree southward to its intersection by the parallel of south latitude of 18° 30', thence following the upper part of the eastern slope of the Manica plateau southward to the centre of the main channel of the Sabi, following that channel to its confluence with the Lunte, and thence striking direct to the north-eastern point of the frontier of I i 1\ •■i ▼•,.«&«** -~ r ..*i«M IN SOUTH AFRICA. 297 the South African Eepublic. It was agreed that in tracing the frontier along the slope of the plateau, no territory west of longitude 32° 30' east of Greenwich should be comprised in the Portuguese sphere, and no territory east of longitude 33" east of Greenwich should be comprised in the British sphere, except that the line should, if necessary, be deflected so as to leave TJmtasa's kraal in the British sphere and Masikesi in the Portuguese sphere. The treaty provided further that in the event of either of the powers proposing to part with any terri- tory south of the Zambesi assigned to its sphere of influence, the other should have a preferential right to the territory in question, or any portion of it, upon terms similar to those proposed. It provided for the transit of goods across the Portuguese territory during the following twenty-five years upon payment of a duty not exceeding three per cent of their value, for the free navigation of the Zambesi, for the construction of lines of telegraph, and for facilitating transit of persons and goods of every description over the waterways f the various rivers and over the landways which ^upply means of communication where the rivers are not navigable. A very important clause provided for the immediate survey and speedy construction of a railroad between the British sphere of influence and the navigable water of the Pungwe river, and for encouraging commerce by that route. And now, for tha first time, the Portuguese territory in South Africa was properly defined on all sides, and was secured from invasion by tribes beyond its border. ." 1 •■■ '1 11 •I I 'I fi Il ■ I M' h''. ^i 298 THE PORTUGUESE il' i ' ' %t vlv i: la It contained as great an area as its owners could by any possibility make beneficial use of, and as many natives as they had sufficient power to control. It would not have been to their advantage if the boundarv had been laid down farther westward. They could not colonise any of the land beyond it, and without colonisa- tion on a large scale, an addition of territory would have implied nothing more than additional expense and additional responsibility. Now, with ample scope for their commercial enterprise, with an assured revenue, and with two flourishing seaports — Loureneo Marques and Beira — in their possession, their prospects were brighter than ever before. This they owed to the settlement of other European nations on the highlands away from the coast, and their pride, which was wounded by seeing the vast interior of the continent in other hands, might be soothed by the reflection. In accordance with the terms of the treaty, the con- struction of a railroad has been commenced, and one hundred and eighteen miles have already been opened for traffic. The inland terminus is at present at Chimoio, about forty miles east of Andrada in Masikesi. The other terminus is at Fontesville, on the Pungwe river, some fifty or sixty miles by the course of the stream above Beira, the ocean port. The line was con- structed with capital furnished by the British South Africa and Mozambique companies, the former having a slightly larger number of shares than the latter. The gauge is only two feet and a half. From Beira goods are sent up the river in small steamers and lighters to Fontesville, and .are then transferred to the railway, IN SOUTH AFRICA. 299 tter. The icjhters to which passes through the belt of country infested by the tsetse-fly, so that transport by ox-waggons from the terminus at Chimoio to Salisbury and places beyond is comparatively easy. Beira is built on a tongue of sand extending into the river. The site is the healthiest on that part of the coast, and for this reason the railroad must ultimately commence there, instead of at Fontesville, which is a fever-stricken locality. The new town has advanced with rapid strides, and is already a place of consider- able importance. The whole of Portuguese South Africa between the Zambesi and Sabi rivers, except the district of which Tete is the centre, is now ruled by the Mozambique Company. This Company was formed in 1888 as a mining corporation, the acquisition of the gold-fields of Manika being the inducement to the shareholders to subscribe the capital. On the 11th of February 1891, however, the Company obtained a royal charter, which conferred upon it large administrative powers. The charter was followed on the 30th of July by a royal decree, and on the 28th of December of the same year by the publication of statutes, which documents combined form the present constitution. The Company has a monopoly of all mineral and commercial rights, which it may lease in detail to associations or individuals, it is under an obligation to introduce a limited number of colonists, and it has taxing and governing powers subject to the supreme authorities at Lisbon. The chief official of the Mozambique Company in the territory between the Zambesi and Sabi rivers has the title of governor, and resides at Beira. The country fi M i ii J'Vi 300 THE POKTUGUESE It] F Illil"-: I ) < is divided into districts, over each of which a commis- sioner, subordinate to the governor, presides. The officers who administer justice are appointed by the supreme government, and are not subject to the Chartered Company, but to the governor-general at Mozambique. There are courts at Beira, Sena, Andrada, Sofala, Chiloane, Gouveia, and Chupanga. Sena and Sofala have not recovered their old import- ance, small as that was, and are now insignificant places compared with Beira. Andrada and Chiloane have been described. Gouveia and Chupanga, recently the centres of prazos, can hardly yet be dignified with the name of hamlets. The last-named — Chupanga — on the southern bank of the Zambesi, is well known to English readers as the burial place of Mrs Livingstone, wife of the celebrated explorer, and of Mr Kilpatrick, a member of the surveying expedition under Captain Owen. It is one of the most beautiful localities in a land that abounds with charming scenery, but the deadly fever must for ever prevent it from becoming a place of note. The old system of giving out great tracts of country as prazos has been abolished, unless the whole territory be regarded as one great prazo in possession of the Chartered Mozambique Company. By that Company unoccupied ground is now allotted fo^ agricultural purposes on quit-rent tenure, but no area larger than five thousand English acres can be held by any individual or association. Occupation of ground and mining are open to people of all nationalities, upon condition of their submission to the laws of the country. The tract of land between the Limpopo and ]\Ianisa i^JCJ^^'-SMTT-^i^Ji I a commis- sides. The ted by the 3ct to the -general at eira, Sena, Chupanga. old import- nsignificant id Chiloane ga, recently gnified with Dhupanga — II known to Livingstone, ■ Kilpatrick, der Captain ocalities in ry, but the becoming a 5 of country »le territory ision of the it Company agricultural larger than Y individual mining are 3ondition of and ]\Ianisa IN SOUTH AFRICA. 301 rivers, from the border of the South African Republic to the sea, is held by another Company under a con- cession from the crown, dated 16th of November 1893, but nothing has yet been done to develop its resources. Inhambane, the port of the territory between the Limpopo and the Sabi, has made some progress of late years, though as it is dependent upon trade with the natives only, it is far less important than Louren^o Marques or Beira. The village consists of a church and a few houses and shops. There remains the territory of which Tete is the seat of government, between the Zambesi and the Anglo-Portuguese border west of the Mozambique Company's district. Early in the present century the greater number of the prazos there were almost denuded of people, so many were sent away as slaves to Brazil. Washing for gold ceased, and the larger part of the territory reverted to the condition in which it was when white people first saw it. The village of Tete sank to be a mere depot of the ivory trade. Thus long before 1853 Portuguese influence had been declining, and in that year it was completely lost bv the insurrection of a Goanese half breed named Nyande, who was the holder of an extensive prazo. This man armed and trained some four hundred bk'^k dependents, and then built a strong stockade at the confluence of the Luenya with the Zambesi, from which he exacted tribute upon all commerce passing up and down. Two of the neighbouring chiefs were induced by the authorities of Tete to attack him, but were repulsed, and their people were exterminated as a warning to others. ^iJ ^ '■■iii l\ 11 '•ku W 302 THE PORTUGUESE Nyande then sent a division of his force, under his son Bonga, or as called by the Portuguese Antonio Vicente da Cruz, against Tete, when the village was plundered and most of the buildings burned. The church and a few houses were spared, and the fort, into which the inhabitants retired, was not taken. In the following year, 1854, two hundred men were sent from Lisbon to suppress the revolt, but after suffering from hunger, fever, and other forms of misery, they were defeated by Bonga, and those who remained alive were obliged to retreat. In 1855 an amnesty was offered to Nyande, but he declined to accept it, and continued his career of robbery. The unfortunate inhabitants of Tete were reduced to great distress, but nothing could be done to relieve them, and no shadow of Portuguese author- ity remained beyond the range of the guns of the fort. A few years later Nyande died, and was succeeded by his son Bonga. Efforts were made to conciliate the new chief, who ,.as appointed sergeant-major of Ma- sangano, but he would not desist from plundering far and near, nor submit to control of any kind. Early in 1867 he massacred a number of people, and then a force eight hundred strong was raised at Mozambique and sent against him. On the 6th of August this force, when close to the stockade, was attacked by the robber captain, and was defeated with great slaughter. In 1869 Portugal made another effort to recover her authority. A hundred artillerymen and four hundred fusileers, well equipped with war material, were sent from Lisbon, and were joined by three hundred and M ; ij IN SOUTH AFRICA. 303 under his Antonio Uage was aed. The the fort, aken. In were sent r suffering sery, they lined alive rande, but , career of Tete were d be done sse author- ms of the succeeded iciliate the or of Ma- dering far Qd. Early and then ozambique this force, ;he robber recover her ir hundred were sent ndred and fifty soldiers from Goa and as many Africans as could be enlisted and armed along the Zambesi. But the campaign was so badly conducted that the men were suffering from want of food before they reached the scene of action, and the military movements were carried on with the utmost vacillation and want of skill. Bonga's stockade was bombarded with artillery for three days without a breach being effected, and the army was so distributed that the best section of it was surprised and annihilated. The failure of the expedition was complete, and those who escaped slaughter were few. From that time until 1888 Bonga's power — the power of an audacious and merciless ruffian — was supreme. Then Gouveia took the matter in hand, and not the least of the services which he performed for his govern- ment was the capture of the stockade and the dispersion of the robber band. Arrangements with various chiefs along the river followed, and the Portuguese influence was again restored. Tete has been rebuilt, and now contains the church which was spared when the village was plundered by Bonga and from twenty to thirty stone houses of European pattern, roofed with red tiles. It is protected by a small garrison of black troops with white officers, who occupy a quadrangular fort overlooking the river. The European residents, officials included, do not number more than twenty-five or thirty, for the com- merce of the place is small. A native town of ordinary huts stands close behind the European quarter. The government of Tete, as of all the Portuguese stations in South Africa except those under the administration of the Chartered Company, is military in form, and sub- !i / ;■ ■ 1 ir: 'W Mm fe 1 •: f'^ltil 304 THE PORTUGUESE ordinate to Mozambique. The Jesuits have recently established a mission here and also at a station a few miles distant. There are extensive coal fields in the neighbourhood, and it is possible that, owing to them, the village may some day become a thriving place. Throughout the whole territory from the Zambesi to LoureuQo Marques difficulties in controlling the Bantu clans have been experienced of late years, but Portugal has opened her eyes to the fact that it is necessary to employ other and better forces than convicts and uncivilised negroes, and she has succeeded in establish- ing her authority fairly well. In a war with a chief named Makombi in 1892 Gouveia lost his life, but his opponents were vanquished. More recently the great chief Gungunhana assumed an attitude which compelled the government to bring him to account by force of arms. With his defeat and capture as these pages are being written, it may be anticipated that the peace of the country has been secured, at least for some time to come. Lines of steamships now connect the various harbours with Europe by way of the Eed sea, and with the British settlements of Natal and the Cape Colony. The commerce of the territory has made rapid progress. Unfortunately a large proportion of it is in the hands of Indian traders, a class of people who do not con- tribute to the strength of a country, nor improve it in any way. But in all other respects the prospects of Portuguese South Africa seem brighter to-day than at any previous time since Pedro da Nhaya built the first fort on the river bank of Sofala. e recently ition a few Ids in the g to them, place. Zambesi to the Bantu it Portugal I necessary nvicts and 1 establish- ith a chief life, but his Y the great 1 compelled by force of hese pages it the peace r some time us harbours d with the )lony. The xl progress. 1 the hands do not con- iprove it in prospects of •day than at lilt the first li ■ ii' ' \\n i: ■ ' -■' ' ' ' , : -J ■ ' \ ' A i SOURCES OF INFOKMATION. 5 The books consulted by me when history were the followinsj : — writing this de Barros, Joao : da Asia, dos feitos que os Portugue:ies Jizeram no desciibrimento e conquista dos mares e terras do Oriente. Joao de Barros while he lived as well as after his death had the repu- tation of being a laithful historian, and his account of the deeds of his countrymen in the East bears evidence of great industry and care. He was born in 1496, and died on the 20th of October 1570. He held important offices under the crown of Portugal. From 1522 to 1525 he was captain of S. Jorge da Mina on the western coast of Africa, from 1525 to 1528 he was treasurer of the Indian department, and in 1532 he received the appointment of factor of the India house, which gave him the direction of all the Eastern trade. At this period of his life he spent hig days in business, and his nights with his books. De Barros had access to the journals, letters, and reports of the early discoverers and officers of all classes in India and Africa, and from these sources his information was derived. He was the author of a good many other books, none of which, however, have the permanent value of his great work here referred to. This is divided into four parts, each covering a decade, the first of which was published in 1552, the second in 1553, the third in 1563, and the fourth in 1613, long after the author's death. The edition which I have used was published at Lisbon in nine crown octavo volumes in 1778, and I have drawn very largely from it. Pacheco, Duarte : Esnu'riddi) de situ Orhis. This narrative of the Portuguese discoveries in Africa, with a geographical description of them, was written during the reign of King Manuel, and was !i J H ■ ' 1 * tt 3 '«!!'. i ' M )i 308 THE POETUGUESE first printed by the government in 1892. There were two manuscripts in existence : one in the public library at Lisbon and the other at Evora. For my knowledi^e of the work I am indebted to the Right Honourable Cecil J. Rhodes, prime minister of the Cape Colony, who had it translated into English, type-written, and bound in two volumes, for his own use, and who was kind enough to lend it to me. I have not taken much from it. A series of documents in the archives at Lisbon, relating to Eastern Africa, which commence on the 30th of September 1508 and end on the 9th of May 1752. These doc.iments include the letters and instructions of the king to the viceroys concerning African affairs. They were copied, translated into English, type- written, and bound in chronological order for and at the expense of the Right Honourable Cecil J. Rhodes, prime minister of the Cape Colony, to whom I am indebted for their use. The advantage of having a series of papers like these to refer to cannot be over estimated, as from them not only is information to be obtained which is not given by the Portuguese historians, but they fix dates, and furnish the means of testing the accuracy of the early narratives. Osorius, Hieronymus : J)e Echiis Emmanuelis Ecrjix Ludtiuiuv. This work has always been regarded as one of authority Its author, who was bishop of Silves, was a man of education, with a fondness for research and a graceful style of writing. He lived from 1506 to 1580, and his work, which covers a period of twenty -six years, the most glorious in the history of Portugal, was first published at Lisbon in 1571. I have not taken much from it, but I have carefully compared it with the chronicles of Barros, which for my purpose are more complete, Correa, Caspar : Lendas da India. I have not a copy of this work in the original, and for my knowledge of it am indebted to the volume published in London by the Hakluyt Society in 18G9, entitled The three Voyages of Vasco da Gama and his Vice- royalty, from the Lendas da India of Gaspar Correa, translated from the Portucjaese, nith Notes and an Introduction, by the Hon. Henry E. J. Stanley. As far as South Africa is concerned, Correa's account is certainly less trustworthy than the narratives of Barros and Osorius. His is legend, theirs are founded on docu- ments written by the explorers. I have therefore taken nothing K IN SOUTH AFKICA. 309 from this book, though I think it would be useful to anyone preparing a history of Portuguese India. de Couto, Diogo : da Asia, dos feitos que os Portuyuezes fizerani na conquista e descubrimento dcis terras e mares do Orientc. The author of this work was born in Lisbon in 1542, and was receiving a good education when the death of his father threw him at the early age of fourteen years upon his own resources. He went to India as a soldier, and spent ten years there in that capacity, when he returned to his native country. He was soon back in India, however, and busy in the study which fitted him for the great work that he afterwards took in hand. Only three decades of De Burros' history were then published, and De Couto's ambition was to bring that magnificent chronicle down to his own time. His writings attracted the notice of the king Filippe I of Portugal, who did this good deed, which historians should place to his credit, that he appointed Diogo de Couto Chronicler of the State of India and Principal Custodian of the Archives there. The first of De Couto's decades covers the same ground as the fourth of De Bairos, but there are eight others, so that between these two writers we have a chronicle covering a hundred and twenty years. Unfortunately a small portion of De Couto's manuscript was destroyed by fire when the work was being printed, and it could not be recovered. The author died on the 10th of December 1616, after witnessing the commencement of the disasters that happened to his country. The edition of De Couto's work used by me is in fifteen volumes, and was published at Lisbon in 1778-88. I have drawn very largely from it. dos Santos, Fr. Joao : Ethiopia Oriental, e rnna historia de coHsas notaveis do Oriente. A quarto vohime in two parts, together five hundred and forty-six pages in double columns, printed in the Dominican convent at Evora in 1609. This book is one of the chief sources of information upon the Portuguese and the Bantu tribes in Eastern Africa during tlie last years of the sixteenth century. Its author was one of a large party of Dominican fiiars, who went from Portugal to India at the same time. He left Lisbon on the 13th of April 1586 in the S. TJwm^, one of a fleet of five ships, and reached Mozambique on the 13th of August. Here some of the friars received instruc- tions from the vicar general to proceed to different stations in .'fl i" ; .J :, I \ It . ,1 310 THE PORTUGUESE Eastern Africa. Fr. Joiio dos Santos was sent to Sofala, Fr. Jeronymo Lopes to Sena, and Fr, Jofio Frausto to Tete. Dos Santos arrived at Sofala on the 5th of December 1586, where he was warmly welcomed by the captain Garcia de Mello and by the friar Jofio Madeira, of the same order, Avho had been some time resident there. He remained at this place until June 1590, when an order was received from the vicar general that he and his companion were to proceed to Mozambique. No vessels were at Sofala at the time, nor were any expected, so the two friars set out on foot to travel to Sena, where they thoup;ht there might be a boat going up the coast. They reached Sena on che 22nd of August 1590. The captain, Gongalo de Beja, received them in a friendly manner, and lodged them in his own house. There was at that time only one clergyman on the Zambesi, who spent most of his time at Tete, so, as they found no boat would be leaving for Mozambique until the change of the monsoon, they arranged that the father Madeira should remain at Sena and the father Dos Sant'^ " should go to Tete for six or eight months. Not until July 15£ ivere they able to leave the Zambesi for Mozambique. During the next six years Dos Santos was stationed at Quirimba, Mozambique, and once more — for several months in 1594 and 1595— at Sofala. On the 22nd of August 1597 by order of the vicar general he left Mozambique to proceed to India. In him we have therefore an eye-witness of the condition of affairs at the Portuguese stations south of the Zambesi at their very best period. He was proud of them as outposts of his fatherland, and he was disposed rather to overrate than to underrate the exploits of his countrymen. Yet the picture which he gives of fthe forts and trading stations seems t nything but grand at the present day. In the sixteenth volume of Pinkerton's General Collection of the best and most interesting Voyafjes and Travels in all Parts of the JVorld, London, 1808 to 1814, there is an abstract in the English language of Dos Santos' book, but it is so defective that it cannot be used for historical purposes. Some of the particulars which I have given of the early trans- actions of the English in South Africa I obtained from manu- scripts in the records of the India Office, London. The accounts of the first English voyages to the East 1 took from Tlie Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffics, and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by Sea or over Land, to tlie Houth and SotUh-east j^avts vfi IN SOUTH AFRICA. 311 of the World, by Richard Hakluyt, preacher, two quarto volumes, London, 1599 ; and Purchas his PilgrimeHy five large volumes, London, 1625. Hakluyt's work was the means of his obtaining the curatorship of the historical and geographical documents of the English East India Company. After his death these papers were entrusted to Purchas, by whom many of them were con- dnsed and published in hia work above named. The original manuscripts have perished. The dates are according to the old style. Eerste Schipvaert der Hollanders naer Oast Indien, met vier Schepen onder 't beleydt van Cornells Houtman xtyt Texel ghegaen, Aymo 1595. Contained in the collection of voyages known as Begin ende Voortgnngh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oast Indische Compagnie, printed in 1646, and also published separately in quarto at Amsterdam in 1648, with numerous subsequent editions. The original journals kept in the different ships of this fleet are still in existence, from which it is seen that the printed work is only a compendium. At the Hague I made verbatim copies for the Cape government of those portions of the original manuscripts referring to South Africa, aud I found that one or two curious errors had been made by the compiler of the printed journal. As an instance, the midshipman Frank van der Does, in the ship Hollandia, when describing the Hottentots states : " Haer haer opt hooft stadt oft affgeschroijt waer vande zonne, ende sien daer wyt eenich gelyck een dieff die door het langhe hanghen verdroocht is.'' This is given in the printed journal : " Het hayr op hare hoofden is als 't hayr van een mensche die een tijdt langh ghehanghen heeft," an alteration which turns a graphic sentence into nonsense. Begin ende Voortgangh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoc- troyeerde Oost Indische Compagnie, vervatende de voornaemste Beysen by de Inwoonderen derselver Provincicn denvaerts gedaen. In two thick volumes. Printed in 1646. This work contains the jour- nals in a condensed form of tl:^ fleets under Cornells Houtman, Pieter Both, Joris van Spilbergen, and others, as also the first charter of the East India Company. Journael van de Voyagie gedaen met drie Schejien, genaemt den Ram, Schaep, ende het Lam, gevaren mjt Zeelandt, van der Stadt Camp-Vere, naer d' Oost Indien, onder 'f hcleyt van den Heer Admirael Joi'is vin Spilbergen, ocdaen in dejaren ICOl, 1C( 2 1603 )| V' r. i 312 THE PORTUGUESE PI > I ' 1i' ! en 1G()4. Contained in the collection of voynses known as Begin ende Voortgangh van de Vercenighde Nedc.rlanhchc Geoctroyeerdc Oosf Indische Compagnie, printed in 1646, and also published separately in quarto at Amsterdam in 1648, with numerous editions thereafter. An account of the naming of Table Bay is to be found in this work. Loffehjcke Voyagie op Oost Indien met 8 Schrepen vyt Tesscl gevaren in 't Jacr IGOQ onder het heleyt van den Admirad Paulns van Caerden, haer ivech genomen hehbende tusschen Madagascar ende Ahimna deur. A pamphlet of forty-eight pages, published at Amsterdam in 1646. Bischri/vinghe van de tweede Voyagie ghedaen met 12 Schepen naer d' Oost Indien onder den Hecr Admirael Steven van der Hagen, v:acr inne verhaelt wert het veroveren der Portugrser Forten op Amhoyna ende Tydor. A pamphlet of ninety-one pages, printeil at Amster- dam in 1616. de Jonge, J. K. J. : De Ophomst van het Ncdedansch Gemg in Oost Indie. Verzameling van onuitgegeven Stukken nit het oudko- loniaal Archie/. Uitgegeven en hewcrkt door Jhr. Mr J. K. J. de Jonge. The Hague and Amsterdam. The first part of this valuable history was published in 18G2, the second pait in 1864, and the third part in 1865. These three volumes embrace the general history of Dutch intercourse with the East Indies from 1595 to 1610. They contain accounts of the several early trading associations, of the voyages and successes, of the fleets sent out, of the events which led to the establishment by the states- general of the great Chartered East India Company, and of the progress of the Company until the appointment of Peter Both as first governor-general. Kather more than half of the work is com- posed of copies of original documents of interest. The fourth part, publisheo de sua Magestade Fidelissima a Sen- :f' 314 THE PORTUGUESE '- i i ■. !■ ':! u' hora D. Maria 11, pnr Joso Joaquim Lopes de Lima e Francisco Maria Bordalo. Three voli'.mes were written before Sr. De Lima's death, and were published at Lisbon 1844 to 1846, but he did not reach as I'ar as Eastern Africa. The work was then entrusted to bi. Bordalo, who completed it in three more volumes. The first of Bordalo's volumes was published at Lisbon in 1859, and is devoted entirely to Eastern Africa. It has been most carefully written, and as its materials were drawn from orif^inal documents in the public records and from other trust- worthy sources, it is thoroughly reliable. The author treated his subject in a judicial manner, though, as a patriotic Portuguese, he was unable to detect the true causes of his country's want of success in Eastern Africa. No English writer has ever dealt more severely than he with the general corruption of the seventeenth century, or with the decline and fall of missionary enterprise. Livingstone, David, M.D. : A Pojmlur Aavunt of Missiovai-y Travels and Researches in South Afnca. An octavo volume of four hundred and thirty-six pages, published at London in 1861. de Lacerda, D. Jose : Exame das Viayens do Doutor Livingstone. An octavo volume of six hundred and thirty-five pages, published at Lisbon in 1867. Delagoa Bay. Correspondence respecting the claims of Hei' Majesty's Government. A bluebook of two hundred and fifty-one pages, printed at London in 1875, and presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. This bluebook con- tains all the documents and maps put in on both sides when the question of the ownership of the southern and eastern shores of Delagoa Bay was referred for decision to the president of the French Eepublic. The Portuguese submitted their case in their own language, with a French translation in parallel columns, and the latter only appears in the English bluebook. Those who desire to consult the former can do so in the Portuguese yellow- books entitled, Questao entre Portugal e a Grari'Bretanha sujeita d arhitragem do Presidente da Repuhlica Franceza, published at Lisbon in 1874. La Hollande et la Baie-Delagoa, par M. L. van Deventer, Ancien Consul General des Pays-Bas. An octavo pamphlet of eighty pages, published at the Hague in 1883. There is a great deal of accurate information in this pamphlet, which was prepared after much research in the archives at the Hague and elsewhere. IN SOUTH AFPJCA. 315 Edndos snhrc as Vrovinciax UUravinrinn.i, por Jofio de Andrade Corvo, Socio effeclivo du Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa. Four octavo volumes published at Lisbon, 1883 to 1887. The second volume of this carefully written and reliable work treats solely of the Portuguese possessions on tlie eastern coast of Africa, and the first and third also contain useful matter upoTi the same country. Manica : heimj a Rejjort oihlreiiaed to the Minister of the Manne and the Colonies of Portugal. By J. Paiva de Andrada, Colonel of Artillery. A crown octavo pamj)hlet of sixty-three pages, pub- lished at London in 1891. Bent, J. Theodore, F.S.A., F.Il.G.S. : Tlie Ruined Cities of Mashonalandy being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891, London (second edition), 1893. A crown octavo volume of four hundred and twenty -seven pages. Selous, Frederick Courteney : Travel and Adventure in Sonth- Ead Africa, heing the Nairative of the lad eleven years spent by the Author on the Zambesi and its Tributaries, with an Account of the Colonisation of Mashunaland and the Progress of the Gold Industnj in that Country. A royal octavo volume of five hundred and three pages, published at London in 1893. Matabeland : the War, and our Position in South Africa. By Archibald R. Colquhoun, First Administrator of Mashonaland. A crown octavo volume of one hundred and sixty-seven pages, published in London in 1894. i\ It J I lii 11 i t 1 1 If i ^ * '* ! ;■■, ' INDEX. i^ Ahambo tribe: mention of, 176 tl'Abreu, Vasco Gomes : in l.'iO? becomes commander at Sofala, 108 Af^oada de S. Rraz : see !Mosscl Bay Algoa Bay : in 1486 is entered by the Portuguese explorer Bartho- lomeu Dias, 83 ; receives its present name, 131 d'Almeida, Antonio Cordoso : with two hundred men perishes in the "iimbesi valley, 148 d'Almeida, Francisco : in 1505 becomes first viceroy of Portu- ^oiese India, 101 ; on the 2nd of February 1509 wins a great naval victory which establishes the Portuguese power in the Indian sea, 112 ; on the 1st of March 1510 is killed by Hotten- tots in Table Valley, 113 d'Almeida, Louren9o : is killed in battle at sea. 111 Andrada, station of: reference to, 290, 294, 300 do Andrada, Colonel J. C. P. : mention of, 207, 293, 294; pamphlet of, 315 Angra Pequana: in 1486 is visited and named by Bartholomeu Dias, 81 Arab settlements on the eastern coast : account of, 79 Arabs : deteriorate in Africa, 79 ; particulars con(;erning those of Sofala, 120 ; slaughter of those at Sena, 141 Asiatic occupation of part of South Africa in ancient times : refer- ence to, 77 Assagai : derivation of the word, 89 de Ataide, Estevao : in 1607 successfully do... ds Mozambique against the Dutch, 213 ; sends specimens of silver ore to Lisbon, 233 ; commands an expedition in South Africa, 235 Austrian occupation of Delagoa Bay : account of, 274 Baffin, William : in 1620 visits Table Bay, 220 Bantu : arrival ih South Africa, 5 belief in chai'ms, 54 belief in witchcraft, 47, 53 capabili ty of im provement , 73, 1G6 classification into groups, 38 clothing, 68 customs, 61, 69, 158, 244, 251 distinguishing character- istics, 10 division of tribes into clans, 42 domestic life, 60 dwellings, 65 education of boys, 56 extent of agricultural knowledge, 62 first intercourse of the south-eastern tribeswith Europeans, 90 318 INDEX. Bantu: folklore, 56 food, 63 form of government, 43 hospitable habits, 63 intellectual power, 73 land tenure, 63 language, 37, 41 laws and tribunals of justice, 44 manufactures, 68 mode of marriage, 59 names of tribes in 1594, 176 personal appearance, 39 personal ornaments, 68 plurality of wives, 59 practice of circumcision, 56 privileges of the ruling families, 43 prolific nature, 41 property in cattle, 65 religion, 51 skull measurements, 7 territory occupied by, 6 views with regard to cattle lifting, 70 weapons, 68 Uaptista, Pedro Joiio : crosses Africa for the first time, 264 Barrcto, Francisco : in 1569 is appointed captain genera! of East Africa, 135; conducts a disastrous expedition in the Zambesi valley, 136 ; dies at Sena, 148 de BarroF. book of, 307 Barumo tribe : reference to, 176 Batonga tribe: particulars concern- ing, 121 Beira: references to the town of, 287, 295, 299, 300 Bent, J. T. : book of, 313 Bom Jesus: capture of the ship, 214 Bonga : rebellion of, 303 Bordalo, F. M. : book of, 313 Botelho, S. X. : book of, 313 Both, Pieter : in 1609 is apyiointed first governor-general of Netber- lands India, 216 ; in 1610 visits Table Bay, 216 Boundary : of Portuguese South Africa, 285, 296 Boundary : between the Bantu and Hottentot tribes at the close of the fifteenth century, 6 Brava : references to the town of, 100, 110 British South Africa Chartered Company : formation of, 289 de Bucquoi, J. : book of, 312 Bukoto trading station : reference to, 180 Bushmen ; are monogamists, 21 clothing, 15 constant wars with Hot- tentots and Bantu, 11 disposition, 16 distinguishing charac- teristics, 9 dwellings, 11 earliest inhabitants of South Africa, 4 food, 12 games, 20 habits, 21 language, 11 ornaments, 15 paintings, 18 sculpture, 19 skull measurem nt, 7 stone implements, 13 superstitions, 17 territory occupied by, 6 want of power of im- provement, 21 weapons, 12 Cabral, Pedro Alvares : in 1500 commands the second fleet that reaches India from Portugal, 93 van Caerden, Paulus : in 1601 visits the southern coast of Africa, and names Mossel, Flesh, and Fish bays, 203 ; in 1607 unsuccessfully atta(!ks Mozambique, 213 Cam, Diogo : explorations of, 81 do Campo, Antonio : in 1502 visits Delagoa Bay, 96 ; in 1510 is killed by Hottentots in Table Valley, 113 INDEX. 319 Csndish, Thomas: in 1586 to 1588 coniniands the second English fleet which sails round the world, 196 Cape of Good Hope: in 1436 is uiscovered by the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias, who names it the Stormy Cape, 85; but the king, Joao II, changes that designation to Cape of Good Hope, 85. de Cardenas, Lupc : is killed at Delagoa Bay, 279 de Chaves, Pedro Fernandes, cap- tain of Tete : reference to, 183 Chiloane, island of : references to, 259, 300 Chipangura, mission station : re- ference to, 243 Chipiriviri, trading station : refer- ences to, 235, 243. Chupanga, station of : reference to, 300 Clothing: Bantu, 68 Bushmen, 15 Hottentot, 25 Coiado, Antonio : account of, 161 Colquhoun, A. : book of, 315 Commercial systems in Portuguese South Africa : description of, 252 Constantino, Tonga cnief: refer- ence to, 159 Copper : is used by the Makalaiiga, 130 Correa, Caspar : book of, 308 Corvo, J. de A. : book of, 315 Cory, a Hottentot : account of, 224 de Couto, Diogo : book of, 309 de Covilhao, Pedro : towards the close of the fifteenth century visits Sofala, 85 Crayfish : are found in great abund- ance in inlets around the south- western coast of Africa, 88 Dambarare, trading station : refer- ences to, 235, 243, 248, 262 Dassen Island : in 1605 is visited and named by Sir Edward Michelburne, 218 Davis, John : in 1598 visits Table Bay in a Dutch ship, 202 ; again in 1601 in the first fleet fitted out by the English East India Company, 217 ; and again in 1605 as second in command of Sir Edward Michelburne's expe- dition, 218 ; in December 1605 he is killed in an engagement with Japanese pirates, 218 Decline of the Portuguese : causes of, 185 Delagoa Bay : references to, 95, 103, 131, 173, 175, 271-273 van Deventer, M. L. : pamphlet of, 314 Dias, Bartholomeu : in August 1486 sails from Portugal in com- mand of an exploring expedition, 81 ; visits ana names the in- let Angra Pequeria, 81 ; passes round the southern point of the African continent without seeing it, 82 ; names the island Santa Cruz — or as now called St. Croix —in Algoa Bay, where he lands, 83 ; reaches the mouth of a river which he names the Infante, 84 ; at this place turns homeward, 86 ; when returning discovers a cape which he names Cabo Tor- mentoso, but which is afterwards called by the king Cabo de Boa Esperanga or Cape of Good Hope, 85 ; in 1497 assists in fitting out the next expedition sent from Portugal to search for an ocean route to India, 86 ; which he accompanies as far as St. Jago, 87 ; in 1500 perishes in a great storm at sea, 93 Doniiiiican missions in South Africa : account of, 163, 180, 238 et seq. 245, 248 DomingoB, Kalanga chief: refer- ence to, 245 Drake, Sir Francis : in 1577 to 1580 is the first Englishman to sail round the world, 195 ; sees and describes the Cape of Good Hope, 195 320 INDEX. i '.^M English : first voyage to the East of the, 195 English convicts : in 1615 and 1616 are landed and left in Table Valley, 225 English East India Company : in 1601 sends out its first fleet, 217 ; from 1614 to 1619 entertains various projects with regard tr a station of refreshment at the Cape of Good Hope, 219 do Espirito Santa, Luiz, Dominican friar : references to, 239, 240 Fernandes, Andre, Jesuit mission- ary : particulars concerning, 157 Filippe, Kalanga chief : reference to, 237 First shipwreck on the South African coast : particulars con- cerning, 101, 107 Fish Bay : in 1601 is visited and named by Paulus van Caerden, 203 Fitch, Ralph : from 1583 to 1591 travels in India, 196 Flesh Bay : in 1601 is visited and named by Paulus van Caerden, 203. Forbes, Captain P. W. : references to, 294 Francken, J. : book of, 313 French : first voyages to the East of the, 193 Fura : references to the mountain, 123, 135, 180. da Gama, Vasoo : in 1497 com- mands an expedition sent from Portugal to follow up the dis- coveries of Dias and search for an ocean road to India, 87 ; visits and names St Helena Bay, 87 ; where ho is wounded in a quarrel with Hottentots, 89 ; has friendly intercourse with Hottentots at Mossel Bay, 89 ; on the 25th of December 1497 passes by a beautiful country which he names Natal, 90 ; touches at the mouth of a river — probably the Limpopo, 90 ; where lie has friendly intercourse with people of the Bantu race, 90 ; touches at the Quilimane river, 91 ; reaches Mozambique, 93 ; reaches Mombasa, 91 ; and Cali- cut, 92 ; in 1499 returns to Portu- gal, 92 ; in 1502 sails for the second time to India, 95 ; and on the way visits Sofala, 96 Garcia de S;i, Bantu chief: refer- ences to, 131, 169 Gaza tribe : references to, 258, 259, 279 Goa : in 1510 becomes the capital of Portuguese India, 112 Gold raining : particulars concern- ing, 129, 135, 151 Gouveia, Portuguese oflicial : refer- ences to, 290, 294, 303 Gouveia, station of : reference to, 300 Gungunhana, Gaza chief : references to, 288, 304 Habitations : Bantu, 65 Bushmen, 11 Hottentot, 26 van der Hagen, Steven : in 1604 xmsuccessfully attacks Mozam- bique, 212 Homem, Vasco Fernandes : is second in command in the disastrous ex- ])e(lition under Francisco Barreto, 137 ; upon the death of Barreto succeeds as captain general, 149 Hottentots : are polygamists, 31 arts and manufactures, 27 capability of improve- ment, 34 clothing, 25 death of Eurojieans at the hands of, 113, 202, 224 disposition and habits, 30 distinguishing charac- teristics, 10 li of a river— w, 90 ; where jrcourse with tu race, 90 ; limane river, mbique, 93 ; )1 ; and Cali- urns to Portu- sails for the ia, 95 ; and on la, 96 11 chief: rofcr- is to, 258, 259, ics the capital a, 112 nilars concern- official : refer- , 303 : reference to, hief : references 65 nen, 11 ntot, 26 even : i" 1604 tacks I^Iozani- ndes: is second disastrous ex- ncisco Barreto, ath of Barreto general, 1'19 ^ganiists, 31 manufactures, t ty of iniprove- ,34 y, 25 f Euroi leans at ands of, 113, 24 ion and habits, Jiishing charac- [ics, 10 INDEX. 321 Hottentots : division into tribes and clans, 23 domestic animals, 24 dwellings, 26 early dealings with, 100, 107, 173, 197, 201, 203, 218 first intercourse with Europeans, 87 food, 24 form of government, 23 f;ames, 33 anguage, 22 personal ornaments, 26 property, 24 religion, 30 skull measurements, 7 superstitions, 30 territory occupied by,6 unknown origin of, 5 weapons, 26 Houtman, Comelis : in 1595 com- mands the first Dutch Heet that proceeds to India, 200 Husein, Egyptian emir : reference to, 111 Ibrahim, sheikh of Kilwa : refer- ences to, 94, 98, 101 Immigration of Europeans : solitary instance of, 249 Inhaka tribe : reference to, 176 Inhambane, port of : references to, 132, 156, 159, 171, 248, 258, 261, 301 Iron : is largely used by the Maka- langa, 130 Jesuit Missions in South Africa : references to, 156, 237, 244, 248, 304 Johnson, Captain : in 1622 inspects the South African coast, 223 Kalanga tribe : particulars con- cerning, 121, 125, 128, 142, 150, 234, 239-243, 257 Kapranzine, Kalanga chief: refer- ence to, 237 Kilwa, town of: references to, 94, 98, 101, 108 Kitchen middens : reference to, 28 Kiteve tribe: account of, 150,178 Kizura, Mumbo chief : reference to, 183 de Lacerda, D. J. : book of, 314 de Lacerda e Almeida, Dr Fran- cisco Jose : travels of, 263 Lancaster, Captain James : in 1591 visits Table Bay, 197 ; and again in 1601, 217 Language : Bantu, 37, 41 Bushman, 11 Hottentot, 22 Leprosy: references to, 181, 266 Livingstone, Rev. Dr : travels of, 265 ; book of, 314 van Linschoten, Jan Huyghen: from 1583 to 1589 resides in India, 199 ; in 1595 and 1596 publishes various works, 200 ; including a description of South Africa, 200 Linyanti, kraal of: reference to, 266 Lobengula, Matabele chief: refer- ence to, 288 Louren90 Marques: in 1544 ex- plores Delagoa Bay, 130 Louren^o Marques, bay of: see Delagoa Bay Luanze, trading station : references to, 180, 238, 243 Luspance, Hottentot chief : friendly conduct of, 174 Macmahon, Marshal : award of, 285 Madeira, Diogo SimSes : commands an expedition in South Africa, 235 ; acts fraudulently and is ruined, 236 le Maire, Isaac: in 1611 visits Table Bay, 216 le Maire, Jacob: in 1611 resides for some months in Table Valley, 216 Makalapapa tnbo : particulars con- cerning, 176 Makololo tribe : references to, 259, 266, 274 Makomata tribe : reference to, 176 322 INDEX. Ml Manika district : particulars con- cerning, 129 ; is visited by Vasco Fernaudes Homem, 152 Manikusa (or Sotshauf^ana), Gaza chief: references to, 258, 281 Manisa tribe : reference to, 176 Maps of South Africa : incorrect- ness of, 124 Masapa, trading station : references to, 179, 238,243, 217 Matabele tribe : reference to. 259 Matuka, mission station : reference ti; i42 Maweva, Gaza chief: referenc o, 281 2 Maziinba tribe : description of, 183 ; war with, 183 Meliuila, town of: references to, 94, 96, 100, 102, 110, 137, 182 Michelburne, Sir Edward : in 1605 visits and names Dassen Island, 218 Miguel, Kalanga chief: reference to, 245 Mombasa, town of: particulars con- cerning, 91, 101, 102, 256 Mongasi : war with, lii et seq. Monomotapa : explanation of the word, 122 Monomotapa, the: dealings with, 130 Monteiro, Major Jose Maria Cor- rcia : travels of, 265 Moselekatse, Matabele chief: re- ference to, 208 Mossel Bay : in 1497 is visited by Vasco da Gama, 89 ; in 1595 is visited by the first Dutch fleet that doubles the Cape of Good Hope, 201 ; in 1601 is visited and named by Paulus van Caer- den, 203 Mozambique Company : particulars concerning, 299 Mozambique : references to, 92, 94, 95, 109, 137, 156, 164, 165, 171, 178, 185, 213, 215, 232, 246, 248, 256, 257, 261, 299 Mumbos, the: reference to, 182 Municipal government : introduc- tion of, 261 Natal: is named by Vasco da Gama on the 25th of December 1497, aa he sails along the coast, 90 Netherlands East India Company : in March 1602 is established with very great powers, 206 ; rapidly wrests from the Portu- guese their choicest possessions in India, 210 da Niiaya, Pedro : on the 4th of September 1505 lands at Sofala, 104 ; on the 21st of the same month commences to build there the Hrst Portuguese fort south of the Zambesi, 105 ; dies at Sofala, 107. da Nova, Joao: in 1501 discovers and names the island of St. Helena 15 Nyande : .nsurreclion of, 301 Ofumo, Bantu chief: reference to, 169 Oja, town of: reference to, 110. Ongwe, trading station : references to, 235, 247, 248 Ornaments : Bantu, 68 Bushman, 15 Hottentot, 26 Osorius : book of, 308 Owen, Captain : transactions at Delagoa Bay of, 277 ; book of, 313 Pacheco, Duarte : book of, 307 Pedestal Pent : cause of its being so named, 82 Pedro, Kalanga chief: reference to, 244 Ponedo das Pontes : see St. Croix Penelope, the, English ship ; in 1591 is lost off the South African coast, 197 Pereira, B'rancisco de Sodre : makes a gallant defence of his ship against the Dutch, 215 Pereira, Nuno Alvarez : commands an expedition in South Africa, 235, 236 Physicil features of South Africa, 4 INDEXo 323 Bf : reference )uth Africa, 4 Portuguese : are the first to explore the western coast of Africa, 80 ; anti to reach Indi" by sea, 93 ; in 1502 take possesdiou of Kilwa, 9b ; alter 1506 are supreme on the East African coast, 110; in the early years of the seventeenth century are driven from most of their Indian possessions by the Dutch East India Company, 210 Prazos da coroa : description of, 254 Prior, James : book of, 31.3 de Queiros, ooao: in 1505 is killed at Delagoa Bay, 103 Quilimane : in 1544 is founded, 130 Quiloa : see Kilwa Railway : from Delagoa Bay in- land, 286 ; from Bcira inland, 298 Ravasco, Ruy Louren50 : famous cruise of, iOO Raymond, Admiral: in 1591 com- mands the first Liiglish fleet that puts into Table Bay, 197 ; is lost with his ship shortly after sail- ing from that port, 197 Ri'i/ciro, Dionysio Antonio : is killed at Delagoa Bay, 280 Rock ])ainting3 : reference to, 18 Roe, Sir Thomas, English envoy to the Great Mogul : in 1615 visits Table Valley, 226 do Rosario, Nicolau, Doninican friar : references to, 172, 183 Ruins of ancient buildings : refer- ence to, 78 de Saldanha, Antonio : in 1503 visits Table Bay, 99 ; is slightly wounded in a skirmish with Hottentots in Tabl.^ Valley, 100; ascends Table Mountain and gives it the name it still bears, 100 ; in 1509 becom<;s captain of Sofala, 109 terms refer- of da of. de Sampaio, Ruy de Hello : of agreement with, 232 Santa Carolina, island of : ence to, 260 de Santiago, Andre, captain Sena : reference to, 183 aS". Alberto : wreck of the, 173 St. Croix, island of : in 1486 is visited and named by Bartholo- meu Dias, 83. St. Helena Bay : in 1497 is visited and named by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, 87 St. Helena, island of: in 1501 is discovered and named by the Portuguese admiral Joao Nova, 95 S. Joao • wreck of the, 166 St. J an of God : order 166 S. Thomd: wreck of the, 172 dos Santos, Joao, Dominican friar : references to, 177, 236 ; book of, 309 SebastiiTo, Kiteve chief : reference to, 162, 244 Sebetuane, Makololo chief : refer- ence to, 266 Sekeletu, Makololo chief : refer- ence to, 266 Selous, F. C. : book of, 315 dena, town of : particulars concern- ing, 133, 139, 148, 160, 164, 165, 180, 183, 185, 184, 232, 238, 243, 247, 248, 249, 256, 260, 261, 291, 300 de Sepulveda, Dona Leonor death of, 171 ShilUn^e and Fitzherbert, maiiJers of English fleets 1620 proclaim English reignty over the country adjoin- ing Table Bay, 220 d'A Silvcira, Goiii;alo, Jesuit mis- iiionary : particulars concerning, r ■ j Silver mines : fruitless search for, 147, 236 Skull measurements of Bantu, Hottentots, and Bushmen, 6 Slavery : references to, 72, 251 257, : sad com- : in sove- 324 INDEX. !!):( i Sofala': is occupied by Arabs, 78 ; in 1520 is visited by Vasco da Gama, 96 ; in 1505 is occupied by the Portu^rnese, 105 ; after 1509 becomes the chief trading station on the coast, 109 ; par- ticulars concerning, 119, 135, 138, 150, 165, 177, 232, 243, 247, 248, 257, 259, 261, 300 de Sousa, Manuel Antonio : see Gouveia de Sousa, Pedro, captain general : is defeated by the Mazimba, 184 van Spilbergen, Joris : in 1601 visits Table Bay and gives it its present name, 205 Stephens, Thomas, an Englishman: in 1579 is a resident of Goa, 194 Stone implements : references to, 3, 13, and 27 Table Bay : in 1503 is visited by the Portuguese captain Antonio de Saldanna, 98 ; is thereafter called Agoada de Saldanha, 100 ; in IGOl receives its present name from Joris van Spilbergen, 205 ; after 1616 is the ordinary port of cal{ for outward bound Dutch fleets, 217 ; is made a port of call for the early fleets of the English East India Company, 219 Table Mountain : in 1503 is ascended and named by the Por- tuguese captain Antonio de Saldanha, 100 Tete, town of : particulars con- cerning, 133, 147, 160, 165, 179, 181, 185, 232, 239, 243, 247, 248, 249, 256, "61, 263, 264, 301, 303 de Toar, Sancho : explores the coast of Sofala, 95 Treaty : with the South African Republic, 285 ; with Great Britain, 296 da Trindade, Francisco, Dominican friar : reference to, 247 da Trindade, Joao, Dominican friar : is put to death by the Makalanga, 240 Tshikanga : revolt of, 129 Umba, mission station : reference to, 243 Umtasa, Bantu chief: references to, 290, 292, 295 Umzila, Gaza chief : references to, 281, 292 Variation of the magnetic needle at the Cape of Good Hope : re- ferences to, 202 Yoltas, Cape, at the mouth of the Orange nver : cause of its being so named, 82 Weapons : Bantu, 68 Bushmen, 12 Hottentot, 26 Whale fishery at Delagoa Bay : reference to, 276 Witchcraft : belief in, 47, 53, 158 Yusuf, sheikh of Sofala : references to, 104, 106 Zanzibar : references to, 100, 256 Zimbabwe : signification of the word, 127 )m\ <,■■» rXINTSD AT THK KDINBUKGH rRBSS, 9 AND IX YOUNC STRUT. explores the outh African with Great 9, Dominican 247 Dominican eath by the 129 >n : rererence ' : referencffs •eferences to, netic needle 1 Hope : re- aouth of the of its being 12 26 ilagoa Bay : 47, 53, 158 I : references ), 100, 256 [on of the EST.