Shortly before we arrived off the port, a large vessel had gone into the harbour, partly laden with coals. While going in, it appears she struck on the reef, and suffered considerable damage.
I was afterwards favoured with the history of this vessel by the Governor-general of the province of Mozambique. His Excellency’s statement was as follows:—
That a large three-masted vessel, under Spanish or English colours—he was not certain which—had loaded with a cargo of coals at Cardiff, in South Wales, in 1856, and had cleared for the Philippine Islands. As soon as the master of the vessel found himself to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, he commenced throwing the coals overboard, and arrived at Inhambane with only sufficient coals to serve as ballast. On his arrival in the harbour, he endeavoured to repair the damage sustained while entering it, and for this purpose he placed the vessel on the beach. While undergoing the necessary repairs, she was irreparably injured in consequence of not having been shored up properly, and the captain abandoned her. He had gone into Inhambane for the purpose of receiving a cargo of slaves, arrangements for which, it appears, had previously been made by parties in England.
I endeavoured to obtain the name of this vessel, in order to trace those connected with her; but I was told that the name had been carefully obliterated from her stern, and also from her main hatchway, where some said they had seen it. The different names given to me as belonging to the vessel were certainly English, but I was not able to satisfy myself fully as to the truth of her being an English vessel. The Governor-general told me that the captain said that he had destroyed all the papers before visiting Mozambique, where he repaired after the wreck of his vessel. The captain spoke English and Spanish fluently.
From the intimate acquaintance which some merchants in England have with notorious slave-dealers at Mozambique, I am inclined to credit statements which have been made relative to British capital being engaged in this horrid traffic in our fellow-beings.
It will be seen in subsequent pages that I have brought under the notice of the government that an English vessel was employed to seize natives in the Pacific, and convey them to the French island of Réunion, where they were sold at 40l. sterling per head.
The town of Inhambane consists of a few ill-built houses, thatched with the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, built along the margin of the harbour, or interspersed among the cocoa-nut and mango trees growing along the beach. Of these structures there are about one hundred and fifty, containing in all about seven hundred persons, including Portuguese, Canareens, Moors, and free blacks.
The governor is appointed by the King of Portugal or the Governor-general of Mozambique, for the time being, and is supposed to have a company of soldiers, numbering sixty, but he has seldom half that number for his protection. The soldiers are picked out of those who misbehave themselves at Mozambique; and as the garrison of that place consists of the refuse of the convict regiments at Goâ, who are sent to Mozambique as a further punishment, it may be imagined what a thorough set of scoundrels the Inhambane company are. They are, from time to time, reinforced by the natives, either degenerate Moors or Caffres, who are called upon to mount guard, while the veterans take care of a building styled a hospital, either as inmates, orderlies, or guards.
The malingerers and the recruits, forming the force called “the garrison,” are commanded by a captain, lieutenant, and alfares, or ensign; while the most thorough-going and boldest villain among the convicts is picked out for a non-commissioned officer to awe and outwit his comrades. Some of these Portuguese soldiers have outraged every law, human and divine; on this side of the grave there is no hope for them. Banished from their country to Goâ, they have there, in that sink of iniquity, committed fresh crimes, for which they have been sent, as an additional punishment, to Mozambique. Reckless of all consequences, condemned to carry a musket for the remainder of their lives, on a miserable pittance which, unaided, will not support life, they break out of the fort at night, and continue the course of robbery and crime which they had commenced many years previously in Portugal, until their excesses deprive them of life, or lead to their detection; when they are drafted off to Lourenço Marques, Inhambane, Killimane, or some other of the Portuguese settlements on this coast. When corporal punishment is inflicted, it is very severe, and usually with the intention of depriving the culprit of life. The particulars are too revolting to be communicated.