SOFA'LA, or, as the old geographers sometimes wrote it, CEFOLA., is the name given rather indefinitely to that portion of the s.e. coast of Africa extending from tile delta of the Zambezi (Quaina of old geographers) as far s. as the Rio Maned or Delagoa bay, or from lat. 18' to 26' s. although some modern geographers consider cape Corrientes as its southern limit. This stretch of coast now comprehends the Portuguese captaincies of Rio de Senaa, Tete, Sofala, and Inhambane, besides the regions round Delagoa bay, nominally under the control of the crown of Portugal, the extent inland being generally Emile' by the mountain region which runs parallel to the coast of southern Africa, and forming a belt of low country about 150 in. wide, full of swamps, densely wooded, and genentlly unfavorable to European life.
Sofala, in common with the remainder of the coast of eastern Africa, was conquered by the Araks between the 8th and 12th c.; it was visited in 1480 by 'Pedmo Cavalho, a Portuguese captain, from Abyssinia, before the route by sea to India was discovered. In 1500 the Portuguese, under Albuquerque, commenced making settlements on this coast, and built a strong fort on an island in the mouth of the Rio de Sofala, near a town which was founded 200 years before by the Arabs, and which still exists, although in very decayed state. The inland region at the back of the coast district, now occupied by the Transvaal Boers toward the s., or by Moselikatse and his Amatabele to the n., and stretching away northward for an indefinite distance, formed the celebrated though mythical empire of Monomotapa, the accounts of which by the early travelers are per fectly marvelous. Sofala was considered by the old geographers as a very rich, gold producing country, and was judged by some to be the Golden Ophir to which king Solo mon every three years sent a fleet of ships: and, indeed, it seems to have derived its name from the Greek sophira, by which Ophir is translated in the Septuagint. Lopez tells us that in his dine the inhabitants related that the gold-mines of Sofala afford yearly two millions of metrigals—every metrigal accounted for a ducat. Whatever may have been its former reputation, Sofala has long ceased to he a gold-producing country to any considerable extent.
An old writer says: " Great wild elephants overspread the country, which the natives neither know how to tame nor manage; nor are lions, bears. stags. or harts and boars fewer; besides, sea-horses sport. themselves in the Quanta." This description is pretty accurate, even at the present day, if we omit the bears, and call the stags antelopes; for the elephants, rhinoceroses. and other large game, driven away from the highlandsin the
interior by the pursuit of the cape hunters, have descended into the coast lowlands, where the dense bushy nature of the country, and its extreme unhealthinvss, protect them from extermination, although such keen sportsmen as McCabe, Chapman, and Ed wards have not feared to follow theni there.
The most northern regions of Sofala are the captaincies of Rio de Senna and Tete, formerly called Matuka, yrbleb include the country on the right bank of the Zambezi, sloping down from the Malappo mountains, which hound its basin on the south. The principal places are Tete, in let. 16' 12' s., long. 31'50' e.; and Senna, in lat. 17° 30', long. 34' 40'. The middle region comprises the captaincy of Sofala, the scat of government being at the town or fort of that name, in the bay of Massangane; ]at. 20° 12', long. 34' 40'. Inhambane is the name of the most southerly captaincy, in hit. 23° 51', and long. 35° 20'. There are other inconsiderable, Portuguese factories along the coast of Tinhorn poora, s. of Inhambane, Mambone, and Lorenco Marquez, in Delagoa bay, where a Portuguese governor resides.
Although nominally under Portuguese rule, yet the authority of that government rarely extends outside of the walls of the miserable forts held by its agents. It is corn. putcd that on the whole of the Portuguese settlements on the e. coast of Africa there are not more than 500 colonists of European birth. Trading-parties of Dutch Boers from the Transvaal territory occasionally visit the factories of Inhambane, Sofala, and Lorene() Marquez, to purchase articles of European manufacture in exchange for ivory, wax, timber, etc. The natives, generally, are of the negro type, gradually approximat ing to the more intellectual Zulu Kaffir as we proceed from the Zambezi to Delagoa bay.
The principal exports from this region arc ivory, beeswax, hides, and rhinoceroses' horns, while a considerable clandestine traffic is said to be carried on in slaves. Con siderable amounts of gunpowder, lead, coffee, and European clothes find their way up from the coast to tile Boer settlements iu the highlands of the interior. The coast-line is generally low and sandy, and dangerous on account of shoals and sand-banks. A group of islands, called Bazaruta, lie off the coast n. of cape St. Sebastian, in 'lat. 22° s. The best harbor is that of Inhambane, and ships may ascend to the town, about S m. from the mouth of the river. The harbor at the mouth of the Rio de Sofala is difficult of access on account of its bar.