compared with their breadth. Over the gate of the
building is an inscription, which neither the Moorish
traders (the Arabs of the coast) who were there, nor
others learned in inscriptions, could read, nor does
anyone know in what character it is written. On the
heights around the edifice stand O others in like manner
built of masonry without mortar; among them a
tower of more than twelve bracas (yards) in height.
All those buildings are called by the natives Zimbahe
—that is, the royal residence or court, as are all royal
dwellings in Monomotapa. Their guardian, a man
of noble birth, has here the chief command, and is
called Symbacao ; under his care are some of the
wives of Monomotapa, who constantly reside here.
When and by whom these buildings were erected is
unknown to the natives, who have no written
characters. They merely say they are the work of
the Devil (supernatural), because they are beyond
their powers to execute. Besides these, there is to
be found no other mason work, ancient or modern,
in that region, seeing that all the dwellings of the O ' O O
barbarians are of wood and rushes.’
De Barros further states that when the Portuguese
Governor of Sofala, Captain Vicento Pegado, pointed
to the masonry of the fort there, with a view to comparison
with the buildings up country, the Moors
(Arabs) who had been at the ruins observed that the
latter structure was of such absolute perfection that
. nothing could be compared to i t ; and they gave their
opinion that the buildings were very ancient, and
erected for the protection of the neighbouring gold
mines. Prom this, De Barros inferred that the ruins
must be the Agizymba of Ptolemy,1 and founded by
some ancient ruler of the gold country, who was
unable to hold his ground, as in the base of the city
of Axume, in Abyssinia.
In criticising this account, it is at once apparent
that it was written by a person who had never seen
the ruins; the fortress is round, not square; the blocks
of stone are all small and not of ‘ marvellous size ; ’ the
tower , is wrongly placed on the heights above instead
of in the ruin on the plain. But at the same time
De Barros is candid, and as good as tells us that his
account was gathered from ‘the Moorish traders who
were there,’ That is to say, all the wonders of the
upper country we get second hand from an Arabian
source. Legends of inscriptions on stone are common
to all mysterious ruins in every country.. Possibly
the decorated soapstone pillar gave rise to it, as it-
did to the subsequent account of the ‘ Zimbabwe
cryptogram,’ which ran through the papers shortly
after the visit of the first pioneers of the Chartered
Company. At all events, now there is no sign of
anything over any gateway or. any trace of such a,
stone having been removed.
Leo Africanus gives us an account even vaguer
than De Barros. The following is Pory’s translation,
published in London in 1600 : * Por here in Toroa
and in divers places of Monomatapa are till this day
1 According to Ptolemy, the Romans penetrated from the north
through the heart of Africa to a nation called Agizymba, south of the-
equator.