But In
Entering, He Touched On The Point Of The Island Where He Broke His Helm,
And Was In Great Danger Of Being Lost; But By Good Providence He Got Off
With No Farther Injury.
He now found the bar was quite safe, and got into
the harbour, where he anchored two cross-bow shots from the town, which
is in fifteen degrees towards the south[28].
The harbour is very good,
the town is plentifully supplied with such provisions as the country
produces, the houses being constructed of straw, and the inhabitants
Moors, who trade to Sofala in large vessels that have neither decks nor
nails, their planks being sewed together with _cayro_ or twine, made from
the fibres of the cocoa nut rind, and their sails of mats made of the
leaves of a species of palm. Some of these vessels use compasses of Genoa,
and regulate their voyages by means of quadrants and sea charts. With
these Moors the Moors of India trade, as likewise do those from the Red
Sea, because of the gold which is to be had here. On seeing our people,
the Moors of Mozambique thought the Portuguese had been Turks, whom they
knew of from the Moors who dwell on the Red Sea; and those who were first
at our ships carried intelligence to the xeque, or sheik, which is the
title of the governor of this island for the king of Quiloa, in whose
territories it is situated.
"Though we shall afterwards have occasion to investigate this eastern
coast of Africa more fully, in editing particular voyages to its shores,
some notices seem here to be proper[29]. Owing to his keeping at a
distance from, the shore for security, the present voyage gives little
knowledge of the eastern coast of Africa, and it is even difficult to
assign the many stations at which De Gama touched between the Cape of
Good Hope and Mozambique. We have already noticed the river of Good Signs,
as being probably the northern mouth of the Delta of the Zambeze, now
called _Quilimane_, from a fort of that name on its banks. The mouth of
this branch runs into the sea in lat. 18 deg. 25' S. In his passage from the
_Terra de Natal_, or Christmas Land, so named from having been discovered
on Christmas day, and named, in this account of De Gamas voyage, _the
Land of Good People_, De Gama missed Cape Corientes, forming the S.W.
point of the channel of Mozambique, or _Inner Passage_, as it is now
called, and overshot Sofala, the southern extremity of Covilhams
discoveries, at which he was probably directed to touch, as Covilhams
chart might have been of some use to direct his farther progress to Aden,
and thence to Calicut or Cananor, on the Malabar coast.
"The eastern coast of Africa is hitherto very little known to geography,
its trade being entirely confined to the Portuguese, who have
settlements at Sofala, the river Zambeze, Mozambique, Quiloa, and Melinda,
and conceal all the circumstances respecting their foreign possessions
with infinite jealousy. It is said to have once been in contemplation by
the British government, to employ Sir Home Popham to make a survey of
this coast, but this design was never executed. Commodore Blanket
remained on this station for a considerable time, and much information
may be expected from his journal, some drawings of the coast having been
already made for charts, which are preparing, under the orders of the
Admiralty. About the year 1782, a great mass of geographical information
was collected on the continent of Europe and lodged in the British Museum,
from which information may probably be derived respecting this coast,
when that collection shall have been arranged and submitted to the
public. According to D'Apres, all the eastern coast of Africa, for a
great way south of the equinoctial, is lined by a range of islands,
whence shoals extend to the distance of a league. These islets form an
outer shore, with a winding channel within, and are in some places a
league from the coast of the continent, though very apt to be mistaken
for the real coast. Within this range the boats or almadias of the
country ply backwards and forwards in great safety, in the intervening
channel.
"Ptolemy places the _Prasum promontorium_, or Green Cape, the extreme
southern boundary of ancient knowledge of the east coast of Africa, in
lat. 15" 30' S. and the Portuguese universally assume Mozambique as
Prasum, by which classical name it is distinguished in the Lusiad of
Camoens, in reference to the voyage of De Gama, and the near coincidence
of situation gives great probability to this supposition. [Greek:
prason] signifies a leek, and is also used to denote a sea-weed of a
similar green colour, and the name may either have been derived from the
verdure of the point, or from the sea-weeds found in its neighbourhood.
At all events, Prasum cannot be farther south than Cape Corientes, or
farther north than Quiloa or the Zanguebar islands. The harbour of
Mozambique has seldom less than eight or ten fathom water, which is so
clear, that every bank, rock, or shallow can be easily seen.
"The Moors, so often mentioned, are supposed by Bruce to have been
merchants expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, who first fixed
their residence on the western coast of Africa, and extending themselves
eastwards, formed settlements in Arabia and Egypt, till the oppressions
of Selim and Soliman, the Turkish emperors, interrupted their commerce,
and obliged them to disperse along the coast of Abyssinia and eastern
Africa. Besides the impossibility, chronologically, for the assigned
causes having produced the supposed effect, there is no necessity for
having recourse to this improbable hypothesis. From being best acquainted
with their Moorish conquerors, the Spaniards and Portuguese have always
been accustomed to name all the Arabians Moors, wherever they found them,
and even gave at first the name of _black_ Moors to the Negroes, whence
our old English term _Black-a-moors_. It is well known that the Arabs,
especially after their conversion to Mahometanism, were great colonizers
or conquerors; even the now half-christian kingdom of Abyssinia was an
early colony and conquest of the pagan Arabs, and its inhabitants are
consequently _white_ Moors in the most extended Portuguese sense.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 130 of 219
Words from 132692 to 133752
of 224388
