This coast had been known to the Arabs, and its ports frequented by their traders, for centuries before its discovery by Europeans ; and all the information pos sessed by the latter on the subject, was chiefly drawn from the vague accounts of Ptolemy, and the Periplus of the Erythrean sea. It was first discovered by the Portuguese in the year 1497, who found the whole of the coast in the possession of the Arabs ; but the fame of its gold mines, and the convenience of its ports, as resting places for the Indian trade, led them to attempt the ex pulsion of the original settlers. This was easily accom plished by their superiority in arms ; and, in 1508, they had conquered Quiloa, gained a footing in Sofala, and built the fort which still stands on the island of Mosam bique. They gradually encroached on the Mohammedan possessions in the river Zambezi; and, about the year 1569, they completely cleared that part of the river of the Arabs, by putting the whole of them to death. In the attempts of the Portuguese to reach the gold mines of the interior, they were not very scrupulous as to the means which they employed ; and have furnished, in the history of the East, a parallel to the atrocities of their Spanish neighbours in the West. But theirs was a harder task ; and the natives of Africa maintained a no bler struggle for the independence of their country, than the feebler South American race. Though compelled to abandon their fields and habitations to the rapacious invaders, they embraced every opportunity of harassing the enemy in their progress, or of taking them by sur prise in their settlements. The most celebrated of these expeditions was undertaken at the command of Sebastian I. in 1570, and conducted by Francis 13aretto, who had been purposely appointed governor-general of Mosambique. They penetrated the country of Mono motapa, and burnt its capital; but, after losing a great number of men, they were obliged to retreat with no other fruit of their victories, than permission to pass through the territories of Monomotapa, upon condition of paying an annual tribute of :00 pieces of cloth. An other attempt was soon after made through the country of the Mongas or Monjou ; and, after a hard fought battle with the natives, the armament passed the forest of Lo pata, and then, marching eastward along the line of the Zambezi, made every exertion to reach the silver mines of Chieova ; but all their researches proved fruitless ; and a detachment, which had been left behind to prose cute the object, was cut of by an ambuscade. Since
this event, the Portuguese have contented themselves with acting on the defensive, occupying the coast along the line of the river Zambezi, and maintaining their in fluence in the country, by exciting the native powers against one another. Even in these limited views, they had many hard contests with the natives, and particularly in 1589 and 159'2, they were attacked on the northern bank of the last mentioned river, by a wandering and ferocious tribe named Aluzimbaj, who afterwards pass ed eastwards, and are conjectured to have belonged to the tribes of Galla, who penetrated to the frontiers of Abyssinia. The Portuguese were not more successful in attempts to convert the natives to the Catholic faith ; and, though one of their most zealous missionaries, Gonzalvo de Sylva, gained access to the court of the Prince of Monomotapa, and made a favourable impres aion on his mind, the Mahomedan: traders afterwards acquired the ascendancy, and effected the destruction of the Portuguese teachers. their other converts, as has too ofen been the case in catholic missions, were merely nominal, and little benefited by the appellation of Christians. The value of this colony to Portugal has always been greatly overrated, but was probably greater in former times than it can be at present. It furnished large supplies of gold and ivory, and enriched at least a number of private individuals, whose wealth ultimately proved beneficial to the state. It afforded in the earlier voyages to the east an important resting place, and sup plied most of the Portuguese colonies with slaves. Its trade and importance have naturally declined with that of the mother country, and especially with the loss of het eastern possessions ; but the impolitic manner in Which it 11.1s lor a lung time been governed, has farther reduced it to a state of weakness and insignificance which can :scarcely withstand the attacks of the sur rounding savages. During the war with France, and before the capture of the Mauritius by the British, it suffered greatly from the French privateers, and has re cently keen exposed to miens depredations from the tribe cf pirates called Marati, who occupy the north-east point :of Madagascar. See Purchas's Pilgrim ; Salt's Voyage to ?lbyssinia ; and Histoire de 1' Ethiojae Orient. par C. Jean des Seines. (q.)