and have for armes small hatchets, arrowes, azagaies, and
great bucklers of wood,, lined with wild-beasts skins, with
which they cover their whole bodies.”
S e c t io n III.—Qf the Nations and Countries in the interior
of Southern Africa.
The interior of Southern Africa within the tropic is not
entirely a “ terra incognita.” The Portuguese^, colony of
Rios da Senna,* and the navigation of the Zambesi," has afforded
a way of access to the inland countries which have been
penetrated in this, direction by several Europeans, both in
former and in later times. One of the most intelligent of them
is the old friar Joaodos Sanctos, from whose quaint 'account^
translated by Purchas, I shall extract some particulars:
“ .The river Cuama, or Zambese,” which flows.thitougb the
Portuguese colony of Senna, “ rises-so farre within land that
none know of its head; but by tradition of their* progenitors-
they say it comes from a lake in the midst of 'th^, continent,
which yields also other great rivers divers ways visiting the seat
They call it Zambese, of a nation of Cafres dwelling neere
* Some information has been communicated by Mr, Bowdich from Portuguese
authorities on the history of the Portuguese colony of Rios da Senna. . It is said
to have been founded by Barreto, who in 1570 fitted out an expedition at Sofala,
in order to penetrate, by the Mongas, to the gold-mines of Manica, belonging to
the Quiteve, or sovereign, of Matapa. Barreto for the first time''traversed the
mountains of Lupata, denominated “ the spine of the world.” He founded the settlement
of Senna, and afterwards penetrated into the higher country to Chico va, in
quest of silver-mines, built the fort of Tete, and toot quiet possession of the banks
of the Cuama. Manica, another of the Portuguese stations, is twenty journeys
south-west of Senna. Here that people barter the cloths of Surat, with coarse silks
and iron, for gold, ivory, and copper. Zumbo, where there is another factory, is
on the Cuama, a month’s journey from Tete. Tete and Senna were lately visited
by the officers in the expedition of Captain Owen. (See Bowdich’s Account of the
Discoveries of the Portuguese in the interior of Angola and Mozambique, from original
MSS. p. 104, et seqq.) The relative positions of the Portuguese stations, according
to the information obtained by Captain Owen’s officers, at Tete and Senna,
are as follows:—The town of Senna is in latitude 17° 30 south, longitude 35° 38' 8".
Tete is sixty leagues higher up the Zambesi or Cuama. Chicova is fifteen days’
journey beyond Tete, and Zumbo eight days further. Manica is eight days from
Sofala.—Journal of Geog. Soc. vol.' ii. p. 108, &c.
that lake which are so called. It hath a strong current, and
is in divers~places more than a league broad. Twenty leagues
before it enters the sea if ,divides itself into two armes, each
daughter as- great as the mother, which thirtie leagues distant
pay their tribute to the father of waters. The principal of them
is called Luabo, which divides itself into two branches, one
called Old Luabo and the other Old Cuama. The other less
principal arme is called Quilimane, (the river DoS Bons Sinaes
of Vasco de Gama.) This river hath also another great arme
issuing from it, called the river of Linde, »%> that Zambese enters
the^sea with five mouths, or armes, very great.” Many
of these particulars have been confirmédby the officers attached
to the late expedition under Captain Owen. *
, “ They sail up'the Luabo^ésf-n orth-^west above two hundred
leagues,,,; t-©; the kingdoüïtbf Sacamba, where it makes a great
fall from the: rocks,-beyond which there is a-strong current
twenty leagues, to the kingdom óf Chicoua, where there are
mines of silver.” Here the highlands commence. “ Beyond
JSh^eouaitIs;again navigable, vbut how farre they know not.”
The forests of the Cuama are described by Dos Sanctos as
'abounding with ^elephants, rhinfeéëjSSSfeö, buffaloes, wild kinèj
hoEg.es,'r assesy.?zëuras made like mules, wild dojgs, and a kind
of worm©,as great as hogs, and fashioned somewhat like, with
feet ancHong naiÊ| thereon, which live in holés like conies, and
feed on afibji >
“ Midway from Sëna to Tete, ninety leaguès from the sea,!
are the mountains of Lupata, very high;' craggie, and extensive,
therefore by the Cafres calléd ! ‘ the backe-bonefl| the
world. ’ The river of Zambese/.’ continues the author, “ forceth
their stonie heart to yield him passage ; in some places^ as affrighted,
lifting themselvtes stebpe upright in theayre, in others"
with beetle over-hanging browes, expre^siHg their frowning tfi-
dignation, as if they would fall upon that piercing enémie,
which yet swiftly flieth and lightly es'éapeth.”
“ These hills traverse the kingdómfpf the Mongas, the most
warlike Cafres. The'Móngas have the Cuama on the south,
and reach to the land of Monamotapa. The. kingdom of
Monamotapa is situate« in Mocaronga, which was, in times
past, all subject toMonamotapa, but is now divided into four