remaining rnanie huge and ancient buildings of timber,
lime and stone being singular workmanship, the like
whereof are not to be found in all the provinces
thereabout. Heere is also a mightie wall of five-
and-twenty spannes thick, which the people ascribe
to the workmanship of the divell, being accounted
from Sofala 510 miles the nearest- way.’
Pigafetta copies this account in pretty much the
same strain, as also does Dapper, whose account
of this country is a tissue of exaggerations. He
says: ‘In this country, far to the inland on a plain
in the middle of many iron mills, stands a famous
structure called Simbace, built square like a castle
with hewn stone, but the height is not answerable.
Above the gate appears an inscription which cannot
be read or understood, nor could any that have seen
it know what people used such letters. . . . The
inhabitants report it the work of the devil, themselves
only building in wood, and aver that for strength it
exceeds the fort of the Portuguese at the seashore,
about 150 miles from hence.’
We could quote several other allusions to the
ruins from Portuguese, Dutch, and English sources,
copied one from the other, and all bearing the stamp
of having come from the same fountain-head, namely,
the Arabians, who told the Portuguese about them
when they first arrived at Sofala. Our examination
of the ruins confirms this in every respect. In our
excavations we found Celadon pottery, Persian pottery,
and Arabian glass, similar to the things found
at Quiloa, where the Arabs also had a settlement.
These objects represent the trading goods brought
by the Arabians and exchanged with the inhabitants
who lived in and around these ruins in the middle
ages ; but at the same time we found no trace whatsoever
of the Portuguese, which would have been the
case, as in other places occupied by them in Arabia
and the Persian Gulf, had they ever been there.
Prom these facts I think it is certain that we may
remove from the Portuguese the honour claimed by
them of being the modern discoverers of the ruins,
an honour only claimed in the face of recent events,
for De Barros is candid enough in telling us that his
information came ‘ from the Arabs who were there.’
Clearly to settle this question it is only necessary to
quote a letter which I saw in the library at Lisbon,
dated April 17, 1721, from the Governor of Goa,
Antonio Eodrigue da Costa, to the king. East Africa
was included then in the province of India, and the
governor wrote as follows
‘(1) There is a report that in the interior, of
these countries many affirm there is in the court
of the Monomatapa a tower or edifice of worked
masonry which appears evidently not to be the work
of black natives of the country, but of some powerful
and political nations such as the Greeks, Pomans,
Persians, Egyptians, or Hebrews ; and they say that
this tower or edifice is called by the natives Simbaboe,
and that in it is an inscription of unknown letters, and
because there is much foundation for the belief that
this land is Ophir, -and that Solomon sent his fleets in
company with the Phoenicians; and this opinion could