however imperfectly, to elevate the position and character of
our fellow-men in Africa. This knowledge makes me doubly
anxious to render my narrative acceptable to all my readers;
hut, in the absence of any excellence in literary composition,
the natural consequence of my pursuits, I have to offer only a
simple account of a mission which, with respect to the objects
proposed to be thereby accomplished, formed a noble contrast
to some of the earlier expeditions to Eastern Africa. I believe
that the information it will give, respecting the people
visited and the countries traversed, will not be materially
gainsaid by any future commonplace traveller like myself,
who may be blest with fair health and a gleam of sunshine
in his breast. This account is written in the earnest hope
that it may contribute to that information which will yet
cause the great and fertile continent of Africa to be no longer
kept wantonly sealed, but made available as the scene of
European enterprise, and will enable its people to take a
place among the nations of the earth, thus securing the
happiness and prosperity of tribes now sunk in barbarism or
debased by slavery; and, above all, I cherish the hope that it
may lead to the introduction of the blessings of the Gospel.
The first expedition sent to East Africa, after the Portuguese
had worked a passage round the Cape, was instituted
under the auspices pf the Government of Portugal, for the
purpose, it is believed, of discovering the land of Ophir,
made mention of in Holy Scripture as the country whence
King Solomon obtained sandal-wood, ivory, apes, peacocks,
and gpld. The terms used by the Jews to express the first
four articles had, according to Max Müller, no existence in
the Hebrew language, but were words imported into it from the
Sanscrit. I t is curious then, that the search was not directed
to the Coast of India,—more particularly as Sanscrit was
known on the Malabar Coast,-—and there also peacocks and
sandal-wood are met with in abundance. The Portuguese, like
some others of more modern times, were led to believe that
Sofalla, because sometimes pronounced Zophar by the Arabs,
from being the lowest or most southerly port they visited,
was identical with the Ophir alluded to in Sacred History.
Eastern Africa had been occupied from the most remote
times by traders from India and the Bed Sea. Yasco da
Gama, in 1497-8, found them firmly established at Mosam-
bique, and, after reaching India, he turned with longing
eyes from Calicut towards Sofalla, and actually visited it in
1502. As the Scriptural Ophir, it was expected to be the
most lucrative of all the Portuguese stations; and, under
the impression that an important settlement could be established
there, the Portuguese conquered, at great loss of
both men and money, the district in which the gold-washings
were situated; but, in the absence of all proper machinery,
a vast amount of labour returned so small an amount of
gain, that they abandoned them in disgust.
The next expedition, consisting of three ships and a
thousand men, mostly gentlemen volunteers, left Lisbon in
1569 for the conquest of the gold mines or washings of the
Chief of Monomotapa, west of Tette, and of those in Manica,
still further west, but in a more southerly direction; and also
to find a route to the west coast. In this last object they
failed; and to this day it has been accomplished by only
one European, and that an Englishman. The expedition
was commanded by Francisco Barreto, and abundantly supplied
with horses, asses, camels, and provisions. Ascends
ing the Zambesi as far as Senna, they found many Arab
and other traders already settled there, who received the
strangers with great hospitality. The horses, however,
B 2