"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.
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