An immense cistern stands in the middle of the parade, which is filled by the annual rains. The inhabitants are supplied from this cistern, whenever the rainy season fails, as well as the shipping; the latter being obliged to pay one dollar per cask. Ships-of-war, of all nations, are furnished from it gratis. Our little squadron was supplied from it by means of pipes, made of condemned iron guns, which lead outside the gate. The fort and two water-batteries adjoining it, on the extreme point, mount one hundred and thirty guns, of all calibers, of brass and iron, in all stages of decay, and apparently of all ages, excepting the modern. Some of the large brass ones are highly ornamented, and of a handsome mould. Two of the heaviest enfilade the entrance, and throw each a hundred and five pounds of stone shot, which I should only have expected to meet with at the Dardanelles. The oldest chapel on the island, fronts the grand parade. It is now in a state of dilapidation, being rent through the centre of the stone roof by an earthquake. A small new chapel has been built outside the walls, within a water battery, on the northern side.
In consequence of the death of the governor, the government is now administered by a junta, consisting of the civil, ecclesiastical, and military orders.
Joaquim Xavier Dinir Costa is the acting-governor, although second in the council. Trei Antonio da Maià, bishop, being the first member, and Colonel Francisco Heririquer Ferraò, being the third. We visited the acting-governor, who offered every assistance in his power, and sent us very generously, out of a scanty supply, as well as the commandant, fruit, vegetables, &c.
A council, consisting of such heterogenous materials, never did and never will amalgamate well together. It is like an attempt to combine vinegar with oil, which has never yet been effected, and so it was with these gentlemen; no two could ever agree upon any essential point, excepting always, to find “ways and means” to obtain their salaries. I omitted to state, that, in examining the magazines within the castle, they showed us a great number of flying-artillery, &c. Our curiosity was highly gratified by the sight of some ancient armour, consisting of helmets, cuirasses, and lances, which were deposited there in bygone days, soon after the fort was built, being brought by Juan de Castro from Portugal. There are two fortifications built at the other extremity of the island, to protect the southern and western passages. The officers in these forts are Canaveens, or natives of Goa and of East Africa, born of Portuguese parents, who, in the lapse of several generations, have become black, although they have no wool or negro features. A more deadly affront could not be offered them than to say they are not white. In the castle, they are from Portugal and Brazil. The island has a coral foundation, and is covered with white sand. It is about a mile and a half in length, and averages less than half a mile in width; it is almost wholly unproductive of vegetation: the inhabitants depending on Cabaceira and Mesuril, on the main, for their daily supplies of fruits, and vegetables, and meat.
PRODUCTS.
The harbour abounds with fish; but they are nearly destitute of boats, (although not from the want of wood or workmen.) Not a single fish was offered us for sale, although the inhabitants have become wretchedly poor, and are overburdened with slaves whose present low rate, from three to eight dollars, and often at half the price I name, holds out a temptation to purchase; although they have but a scanty meal for themselves, and yet, a quarter of a mile from their doors, the waters swarm with food. Such is the curse of the indolent habits produced by slavery. But as a happier day is dawning on them slowly, agriculture is taking place of this vile traffic. It is now said, that coffee, cotton, sugar, &c., may be cultivated from Da Lagoa bay to cape Delgado, with the utmost facility; and that tens of thousands of cattle, and sheep, and goats, may be raised, where the forest occupies the ground, and the wild beasts roam at large. Instead of being dependant upon foreign supplies for almost their daily food, they may become exporters to an enormous amount, in the various products of the forest, the field, the ocean; in timber, in ivory, in cotton and coffee, sugar, drugs, salt, rice. Cocoa-nut oil might be made in any quantity along their coast, yet not a gallon is exported. Already the beneficial efforts made, begin to develop themselves, in the increased quantity of various articles from the interior, more particularly in elephant’s tusks, which have amounted this year to upward of ten thousand Portuguese arrobas, equal to four hundred and thirty thousand pounds; besides the ivory from hippopotami, which is in great abundance. A large proportion of the ivory from elephants, comes from the country of the Majonas, at a distance of about fifty days journey inland. Since slavery has been abolished, the natives come to the seacoast with little fear of being kidnapped. Their confidence is daily gaining ground; and a brisk and praiseworthy trade will take the place of villany and barbarity. I observed previously that they were almost dependant upon foreign supplies for the necessaries of life. It is a fact, that a fortnight previous to our arrival, not a pound of flour, wheaten bread, coffee, sugar, salted beef or pork, or a bottle of wine or foreign spirits, could be purchased in the place; but the very fortunate arrival of several Brazilian and Lisbon vessels, laden with every variety of articles (put up in small packages,) relieved them from great distress.
The landing place is in front of the palace square, having the government-house and a church adjoining, on one side, and the custom-house on the other. This last is a building, which reflects great credit upon the place, being neat, commodious, and substantial. The pier is built on arches of faced stone, and extends to low-water mark, and is, at all times, an excellent landing. The streets are narrow, but the principal ones are chunamed on the sides, and some entirely, where the banyans (the principal traders) inhabit. Many of the houses are lofty and flat-roofed; but the larger portion of them are only one story. They show that the inhabitants were once opulent, but are now fast sinking into poverty and distress. The moral and religious character of the people is at the lowest ebb possible. It wants the besom of destruction to pass over the land, to clean out this Augean stable from the filth and pollution which characterize this modern Sodom, giving the innocent a warning, which shall be heard in a voice of thunder. And such is the character of the people, in the present day generally, from Portugal and Macao. The colony in East Africa has been entirely neglected by the parent-country for the last three years, owing to its distressed situation, being wholly unproductive to the crown of Portugal. Hundreds of unhappy exiles are dragging out a miserable existence in this most destructive climate, banished for supposed political offences, without means to live, excepting by a precarious and scanty subsistence, picked up from day to day; separated from their distressed families, denied the solitary comfort of writing, to inform them they are still dragging out a lengthening chain, or receiving a line from them, if, by chance, they ascertain where they are to be found; and as if the diabolical malice of the government knew no bounds, they are banished from the seacoast to the interior, to prevent their escape, or engaging in insurrections. I was informed that there are innumerable instances of persons being taken from their beds at midnight, in Lisbon and elsewhere, hurried on shipboard, and sent to the Portuguese possessions in East and West Africa, without a form of trial, or knowing any cause for this outrage on justice and humanity. Many hundreds have died on the passage from sickness, brought on by distress of mind; others have been obliged to beg their daily bread, and finally died of starvation; while hundreds of others have fallen victims to a destructive climate.
HISTORY OF MOZAMBIQUE.
A gentleman, now residing at Mozambique, told me, that he and his brother were taken from their beds at midnight, without being suffered to hold any communication with their families, with nothing but their clothes on their backs, and hurried on board two different vessels, one to West Africa, to Benguela, and the other to East Africa, to Mozambique; and to make it the more heart-rending, all near relations were separated in this manner. We heard similar distressing accounts, when at the Cape de Verd islands and at Macao. The bitter curses which have ascended to Heaven, against the Braganza family, for the last three hundred years, from the exiles of Portugal, to South America, Africa, and India, from aged parents, heart-broken wives, and fatherless children, will shortly sweep from the earth this destructive scourge, and leave on record but a small part of the vile doings of the most heartless, worthless, lascivious, and diabolical monarch, which ever disgraced the face of the earth. When this place was first visited by Vasco de Gama, in the latter part of the fourteenth century, the crescent was flying instead of the cross, and he was welcomed by the Arabs with music and dancing. But the attempt to plant, rather too abruptly, the standard of our holy religion, was received with disgust; and the followers of the prophet flew to arms, but were discomfited by their more warlike foes. In fact, they at length submitted to the conquerors, who then made great exactions of provisions and of every thing else, of which they stood in need. It is stated, that at that time, every part of the country, capable of cultivation, was well attended to; that their flocks and herds were peacefully grazing upon the plains; that the slave-trade had barely a name; and that the people were trading to various parts of the coast, to Zofar, or Zofal, the Sofala of modern days—supposed by some to be the land of gold—the Ophir of King Solomon, to the Red and to the Erythrean sea, or Persian gulf.
From the time the Portuguese took possession of it, till the suppression of the slave-trade, a short time since, peace was banished from the land. The Mocouas, their immediate neighbours, were seized and sold, like beasts of the forest; the lands were made desolate, the palm, the mango, the casheu, (alia acajou,) soon covered the fields; and the wild elephants, the hippopotami, the rhinoceros, and the tiger, were to be seen roaming at large, as they are at this day, where peace, and happiness, and contentment had taken up their abode. The cross, the emblem of our holy religion, instead of proving a blessing, carrying with it, as it does, when duly propagated, a balmy influence, and bearing healing on its wings, has proved calamitous in its tendency. It has blasted the hopes of millions, confirmed the superstition of idolaters, and fixed more deeply the rooted prejudices of the Moslem. Thus the cross has, unfortunately, proved in the Brazil, in East and West Africa, in Arabia, in the East Indies, in China, and Japan; so that the name of Christian has become a by-word and a curse, whereever its doctrines have been propagated by the Portuguese or Spaniards. Every engine, which brutal force could apply, has been used without the slightest compunction. Humanity appears to have had no place in their adamantine breasts, and the mild and peaceful doctrines, expressly laid down by our Saviour, have never been inculcated; but fire and the sword, assisted by a detestable and horrible inquisition, have been preferred in their place, and oppression, fraud, and cruelty have been resorted to in every shape, to answer the most nefarious purposes of the government and its religion, and the sordid views of unprincipled individuals. What might not have been the state of things, if the liberal views of the founder of the Roman Catholic religion, in Maryland, had been propagated, and they had been blessed with a government founded on just and equitable principles! Look at Maryland, and the Roman Catholic religion, as it exists in our own blessed country, and behold the contrast!!! Look at our political institutions, and the happy and prosperous situation of a settlement, begun upward of one hundred years after the Portuguese took possession of their present miserable colonies, by a noble, but persecuted band of English settlers—and see the present situation of Portugal and its conquests. With the exception of Brazil, which has just slipped her leading strings, what can be more wretched? To prove the unappeasable hostility of the nations, in East Africa, towards their oppressors, and every one who wears straight hair, it is a fact well known by all who are well acquainted with the state of things here, and substantiated by the Portuguese themselves, that they dare not go half a dozen miles into the country, without an armed guard. And this is the state of things, from Da Lagoa bay (alias Lorenzo Marques) to cape Delgado, after having had possession of the coast upward of three hundred years; and so it is at Bissaõ, Saint Paul de Loando, Benguela, &c., in West Africa. The Portuguese, under a liberal form of government, unshackled by a state religion, known to be corrupt beyond measure, would prove themselves to be, as they once were, a noble people, zealous in all good works.