CHAPTER X.Kingdom of Mocoranga—Kotba for the Soudan of Cairo—Sultan of Kilwa—Kingdom of Algarves—Remains of Ancient Cities—Inscriptions Not Deciphered—Zimboë Bruce—Sofala, the Ancient Ophir—Productions—The Manica Gold Mines—Surrounding Region Adapted for Europeans—Industry of the Natives—The Priests Rob the Jewels from the Image of the Blessed Virgin.
Kingdom of Mocoranga—Kotba for the Soudan of Cairo—Sultan of Kilwa—Kingdom of Algarves—Remains of Ancient Cities—Inscriptions Not Deciphered—Zimboë Bruce—Sofala, the Ancient Ophir—Productions—The Manica Gold Mines—Surrounding Region Adapted for Europeans—Industry of the Natives—The Priests Rob the Jewels from the Image of the Blessed Virgin.
Captain Gordon having satisfied himself that the “Zambesi” was a Portuguese schooner of war—for from the number of negroes on board of her, and the confusion of Ex-governor Leotti, there were serious doubts entertained whether or not she were a slaver—we steamed away to the northward, keeping a bright look-out for the “Minnetonka,” and other slavers known to be on the coast.
Before proceeding further in a description of this interesting coast-line, perhaps it would be as well to explain that on the first arrival on this coast of the Portuguese discoverers, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, they found existing in the interior a large kingdom called Mocoranga, which reached to the coast, along which it extended from the northern portion of Delagoa Bay to the mouths of the river Zambesi, being bounded on the north by that river.
This kingdom was fast falling into decay, and appears to have been the remains of a much greater one, which was partially destroyed or broken up, at some remote period, by the invasion of a warlike people known as the Lindens.
At the principal places along the coast the Portuguese found Arab settlements established, which appeared to be under the dominion of a Sultan at Kilwa, to whom they all looked up as their common local head, while the Kotba, or prayer on Friday, was offered for the head of the Arab family, who at that time was Kansu-el-Ghauri, Soudan of Cairo, called also the Mamlook Sultan of Egypt.
The Sultan of Kilwa was immensely rich in consequence of the vast quantity of gold which he obtained from his dependency of Sofala, which from time immemorial had been the great gold field of the Hebrews and Phœnicians, and even at that time yielded gold in great abundance.
In the course of a few years the Portuguese made themselves masters of these Arab settlements, and thus the Portuguese kingdom of Algarves was formed.
The enterprising Portuguese of those days, having obtained a footing on the coast, soon pushed into the interior, for the purpose of discovering the gold and silver mines of the country; and the natives, instructed by the Arabs, did all in their power to baffle the enterprising Europeans.
During this struggle, the Portuguese made themselves acquainted with the country, and formed settlements on the Zambesi, such as Seña, Tete, and Zumbo, and indeed others, from some of which they were driven to the coast by the natives.
These discoverers and conquerors learned that the kingdom of Mocoranga was very powerful,and the neighbouring vast territory under the Monomotapa more powerful still.
They heard of people who had formerly inhabited these countries, who were far advanced in civilization. And from the west coast of Africa, at the same time, the Portuguese priests were pushing into the interior, to the centres of kingdoms in a state of semi-civilization, where they were at first very successful in making proselytes to the Christian faith, but from which they were eventually banished in consequence of their endeavouring to get the government of those kingdoms into their own hands.
Besides the information thus obtained of the state of civilization then and formerly in that vast continent, rumours reached them of the remains of cities built of large blocks of well-hewn stone. Some of these cities remain until this day, like those in the desert east of the Haurán, and in the ancient land of Bashan, affording an interesting field for the explorer, and bearing inscriptions which neither European nor Arab has yet been able to decipher, but which may be of equal importance with the Adite inscription engraven on the rock at Hishen Goreb.
Feeling deeply interested in this matter, during my residence at Mozambique I did all in my power to obtain information about the Sofala district, which resulted in the Governor-general of the province publishing an official account of the mines known to the Portuguese in that and the surrounding districts, which have been so much neglected by the Portuguese residing there.
This account gives a long list of gold, silver, copper, and iron mines which have been worked, but are now entirely neglected, as the country is destitute of labour—the Portuguese having drained it to supply the slave-trade of the Brazils, Cuba, and America. Previous to which, that district was, as already stated, greatly depopulated by the invasion of the Lindens. These mines still have attached to them the names of the discoverers, and these names are supposed to be those of the kings who reigned there when the mines were first opened.
In this report it is stated that 500 leagues from Seña there are the remains of large edifices, which indicate that they were once inhabited, butby whom is not known.[2]This confirms the statement of Barros, in his description of the ruins of the city of Zimboë, who states that there are the remains of a fort built of well cut stones, having a surface of twenty-five palms in length, and a little less in height, in the joining of which there appears to have been no lime used. Over the door or entrance of this fort is an inscription which some Moors, well versed in Arabic, could not decipher, nor were they acquainted with the character of the writing.
Around this edifice there are other erections similar to it, having bastions of stone uncemented by lime, and in the middle of them there are the remains of a tower, at least seventy feet in height. These edifices are called, in the language of the country, Zimboë, which signifies a royal residence.
I was told at Mozambique that the Arabs could not decipher the inscriptions to be found at Zimboë.
Barros thinks that the country of Sofala ought to be that designated, by Ptolemy, Agyzimba.Zimboë, the name of the remains of the royal residences there, certainly offers some affinity to that of Agyzimba; and there is still the remnant of a once powerful nation, called the Zimbas, to be found on the banks of the Zambesi.
Bruce, in the third volume of his travels, tells us, when speaking of the celebrated Portuguese traveller, Covilham, who was detained in Abyssinia, and communicated thence with the King of Portugal, that “in his journal, Covilham described the several ports in India which he had seen; the temper and disposition of the princes; the situation and riches of the mines of Sofala. He reported that the country was very populous; full of cities, both powerful and rich; and he exhorted the king to pursue, with unremitting vigour, the passage round Africa, which he declared to be attended with very little danger, and that the Cape itself was known in India. He accompanied this description with a chart which he had received from the hands of a Moor in India, where the Cape, and cities all around the coast, were exactly represented.”
These statements of Bruce are confirmed bywhat the Portuguese have reported of the state of the country when they first settled there: that the princes were pure Moors; that their form of worship was the same as that of the Arabs; and that they lived, more especially in the interior, in considerable state.
Among the learned it has been a subject of considerable dispute where the country of Ophir, abounding in gold, was situated.
After a display of great ingenuity and considerable research, in the endeavour to prove Ophir situated in Arabia, India, and even Peru, I think it will be at length allowed that Sofala, on the east coast of Africa, is indubitably the Ophir of Solomon.
“And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants. Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talants, and brought it to King Solomon.”[3]
“And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones. And the King made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the King’s house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.”[4]
“For the King had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.”[5]
Writers on this subject have endeavoured to prove that this Ophir, where Solomon obtained such immense quantities of gold, is Ofor, on the eastern side of the Arabian peninsula; and that the immense gold-field alluded to by the sacred writer is the adjoining very small extent of coast, known as thelittus Hammæum ubi auri metalla, or Gold Coast, mentioned by Pliny; asserting that this was the true term of the famous voyage, undertaken in the reign of Solomon, from Ezion-geber, or Akaba, at the head of the Gulf of Elah.
That the small district referred to may have contained a small quantity of gold (as no doubt it does at present, for it is stated to be highly metalliferous), I am not going to dispute.
But we know that Arabia does not contain elephants, and therefore it could not have produced ivory.
The coast line has the pearl oyster, in common with the whole of the Persian Gulf; but not in such abundance as to have been an article of commerce at that place.
Arabia contains no peacocks, nor the guinea-fowl, which is evidently intended by the Hebrew word in the original text.
It never contained apes at the time referred to; for they were introduced into Arabia by Dthoo’l-Adhàr, “the lord of terror,” or “the terrible one,” who received that epithet in allusion to the frightful animals he had introduced. He reigned in Yemen, during the invasion of Ælius Gallus, which took place in the year one of the Christian era.
The almug tree, supposed by the best authorities to be sandal wood, is not indigenous to Arabia.Some have gone as far even as Anam, or Cochin-China, for what they believe is this fragrant wood, called in ArabicA’llawwa, and in SanscritAguru.
Arabia has never produced precious stones in any quantity.
By the extract from the Book of Kings already given, we are told that the voyage to Ophir and back took three years to accomplish, which, if situated in Arabia, might be performed easily in one-third of that time.
It is evident that this Ophir of Solomon was theUltima Thuleof the Jews and Phœnicians in the East (or rather South); and if situated in Arabia, it would be approached by land, and not by sea, the latter being in those days a more difficult mode of travelling than the former; and commercial relations being, even at that date, established by land between the Persian Gulf and the Holy Land.
Now, on the other hand, we are distinctly told that “the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees and precious stones,” showing thatthese articles were all found at Ophir, and were not imported into that place.
And it will be seen when we describe the produce of Sofala, which we hold to be the Ophir of Solomon, that from time immemorial it has produced, in great abundance, gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, apes and monkeys, and also guinea-fowls, which is supposed, by some authorities, to be the true meaning of the word in the original text which has been translated in our version “peacock.”
With reference to the almug trees, I brought to England specimens of the woods to be found on the “Zambesi.” Among these specimens is sandal wood, which grows along the whole coast from Delagoa Bay to Mozambique, and is also to be found in great abundance on the opposite side of the Mozambique Channel, on the north-west end of the island of Madagascar, whence it is exported to China. Besides the common sandal wood, which is yellowish-white, I have a specimen of red sandal wood from the “Zambesi,” which is very beautiful, not unlike the handsomest specimens of Bermuda cedar, but still having the scentof the common sandal wood, both in the wood of the tree and also that of the root. This I look upon as the almug tree that Solomon made such great use of in the house of the Lord; a specimen of which may be seen at the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
Finally, we know how the Arabs constantly called places “after their own names,”—what so natural as to call this rich country after the name of their own land? This they positively did; for they call to this hour the river leading from the ocean to the Manica Gold Mines—which are the great mines of the country—the river Sabia; and the large district adjoining Sofala, lying between the rivers Sabia and Sofala, has been, ever since Europeans appeared on that coast, and is now called Sabia; which all persons versed in Arabian history are aware is synonymous with Saba, Sheba, or Yemen; names alike applied to the south part of Arabia, from which the Arabs would naturally start for Africa.[6]
The great empire of Monomotapa existing in these parts, on the arrival of the Portuguese inEastern Africa, was divided into two kingdoms, viz., Monomotapa, or Bonomotapa Proper, and the empire of Mocoranga, which latter comprehended eight kingdoms, as follows:—Carruro-Medra, Mujao, Mukuku, Turgeno, Gengir-Bomba, Manöemouges, Ruenga, and Bororo. Monomotapa Proper also consisted of eight kingdoms—viz., Chikova, Sacumbé, Iñabasé, Munare, Shiroro, Manica, Chingamira, and Sofala.
All these kingdoms were tributary to the Emperor of Monomotapa, except Sofala, which, nominally, belonged to the Portuguese.
The ancient kingdom of Sofala extended north to the Luavo mouth of the Zambesi; and to the south, as far as the river Sofala, formerly to the river Sabia; and west as far as the kingdom of Manica.
The kingdom of Sofala, like all those comprehending Monomotapa Proper, is rich in mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron; precious stones of every variety have been found in this region, and may be obtained in considerable quantities.
The sugar cane, coffee, and indigo are growingeverywhere, while wheat is grown on the uplands. All the products already described as appertaining to Inhambane are to be found here; while, if the surrounding district of Monomotapa is included, it may safely be said that there is nothing grown in the torrid and temperate zones which may not be produced in this extensive territory, reaching from the Indian Ocean to the crest of the Lupata Mountains, which are said to be covered with perpetual snow.
The Manica gold mines are situated in a valley, inclosed in an amphitheatre of hills, having a circuit of about 100 miles. The spots containing gold are known by the barren and naked aspect of the surface soil. The district is called Matouca, and the natives who obtain the gold are the Botongos. Although this country is situated between the equator and the tropic of Capricorn, in the cold season the mountains surrounding the mining district are covered with so great a quantity of snow, that, if the natives are caught there at that season, they perish from the cold; but in the hot season, the sides and summits of these mountains enjoy a serene, bracing, equabletemperature, while it is hot in the inclosed valleys.
These mountain heights afford at once a desirable residence for Europeans, and will doubtless be found similar in temperature to the upper terraces of Natal.
The natives dig in any small crevice made by the rains of the preceding winter, and there find the gold in dust. They seldom go deeper than one or two feet at the most from the surface, and on digging five or six feet deep, they reach the rock.
There are other mines still farther from Sofala, being about 400 or 500 miles distant, where the gold is found in solid lumps, or as veins in the rocks and stones.
In the still portions of the rivers, when they are low, the natives frequently dive to obtain the lumps of gold which have been washed down into these holes and gullies in the beds of the rivers. They will also sometimes join together in hundreds, and deflect a stream temporarily from its course, to drain these holes, and obtain the rich deposits which they contain. With such natives,what could the Portuguese not do if they would only exert themselves?—but they tell one that the natives are lazy and stupid brutes. On the other hand, the Moors induce the natives to work and obtain gold for them; and so it is very apparent who are deserving of the degrading epithets applied to them by the degenerate hybrid race of Canareens who lord it over them.
On this side of Africa I believe mercury has never been employed for the purpose of extracting the gold, the more valuable metal being so abundant. The natives do not value it, making their ornaments of copper in preference to gold.
The iron from Sofala has been long celebrated for its malleable qualities, and has been carried to India for many ages by the Arabs, where it has always found a ready market.
In the whole of this territory elephants are found; and it has been estimated, from the enormous quantity of ivory produced, that the natives at one time must have killed from three to four thousand of these animals every year.
Along the whole of this coast, the pearl-oyster is to be found. At Inhambane the natives obtainit along the beach without even going out of their depth; while the Bazarutto Islands, near the mouth of the Sabia river, have been long celebrated for the pearl fishery carried on there. It was from these islands that the pearls which accompanied the gold and ivory and precious stones to the court of King Solomon were doubtless obtained.
The Portuguese flag is kept flying at the Bazarutto Islands, but for what purpose, except to keep others from benefiting by the pearls which they neglect, one cannot imagine. From accounts which I have received, I am led to believe that the pearl-fishery at these islands, properly worked and protected, would rival that of Ceylon.
On both banks of the river Sofala, and from that river northwards to the southern bank of the Zambesi, the country is one mass of mineral wealth; gold, silver, copper, and, toward Tete, even iron and coal being found in abundance.
The town of Sofala, which is built at the mouth of the river of the same name, is divided into two portions, one of which contains the Moors, or labourers of the small settlement, and the otherthe Governor and his subordinates, together with their slaves, who may, collectively, be well styled the drones, for they live by taxes and duties levied on the more industrious Moorish community.
The houses are not unlike those already described at Inhambane, the exteriors by no means leading one to surmise the high-sounding titles of the occupants. That portion of Sofala which is known as Portuguese Town is dirty in the extreme, while the Moorish Town is but little better.
When the Portuguese first appeared on this coast, Sofala was one of those places of which they obtained possession; and Don Pedro da Nhaya built a remarkably fine fort at this place, which remains to this day, a monument of the bygone glory of the nation, and a reproach to the degeneracy of the present race.
At a short distance to the northward of this fort, is a church dedicated to “Our Lady of the Rozario,” the walls of which are built of rough stones, while it is roofed in with palm leaves. A covered porch leads to the entrance, on each side of which there is a chamber, one serving as a sacristy, while the other answers as a lodging forthe priests. The holy Fathers have no means of support, and are entirely dependent on the alms of the faithful.
Formerly the church was rich in gold and jewels of great value, which adorned the statue of the blessed Virgin; but the priests who sold their fellow-beings into slavery did not hesitate to rob the temple of their God.
There is a great want of water in the town, which might be easily supplied by a pure stream not more than a mile distant; but as there is a large cistern in the fort, built by Da Nhaya upwards of three hundred and fifty years since, they have recourse to this; and neither dig wells nor build an aqueduct.
Of labouring Moors, groaning slaves, and degenerate everybodies, there are said to be 1225 persons.
The military establishment of Sofala is from thirty to thirty-five soldiers, sent from Mozambique for some misdemeanour while serving in that garrison; to these are added a few Moors and Kaffirs, who are shut out of the fort at night, and do double duty by day.
Sofala is admirably situated for commerce; and nothing but the baneful influence of the slave-trade could have reduced it to its present state: a melancholy contrast to the flourishing Arab settlement which the Portuguese found there in 1505.