Afterwards
Still Greater Numbers Came From The Ports About The City Of Lazah, Forty
Leagues From The Island Of Baharem[70] In The Persian Gulf, Who Settled
First Magadoxa And Afterwards Brava.
The first Arabs separated from
these, new comers, and mixing with the Kafrs became Bedouins, or Badwis,
signifying people of the desert.
Those Arabs who first possessed
themselves of the gold trade of Sofala were from Magadoxa, and
discovered the gold mines by accident. From thence they spread
themselves farther towards the south, but durst never venture to
navigate beyond Cape Corrientes, which is opposite to the
south-wester-most part of the Island of St Lawrence or Madagascar. Along
this coast the Arabs had possessed themselves of Quiloa, Mombaza,
Melinda, and the islands, of Pemba, Zanzibar, Monfia, Comoro, and
others; Quiloa being the principal of their settlements, from whence
many others had been formed, particularly on the coast of Madagascar.
Quiloa had been originally a peninsula, but by the encroachments of the
sea it had become an island. The soil produces many palms and thorn
trees, and various herbs and plants; and the wild beasts, cattle, and
birds resemble those of Spain. The buildings in the places possessed by
the Arabs resemble those in Spain, having flat roofs, with gardens and
orchards behind.
[Footnote 70: More properly Bahrayn, which signifies the two seas,
being the Arabic dual of Bahr, the sea. - Astl. I. 59. e.]
SECTION II.
Voyage of Don Francisco de Almeyda from Lisbon to India, in quality of
Viceroy, with an account of some of his transactions on the Eastern
coast of Africa, and Malabar.
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