They heard of people who had formerly inhabited these countries, who were far advanced in civilization. And from the west coast of Africa, at the same time, the Portuguese priests were pushing into the interior, to the centres of kingdoms in a state of semi-civilization, where they were at first very successful in making proselytes to the Christian faith, but from which they were eventually banished in consequence of their endeavouring to get the government of those kingdoms into their own hands.
Besides the information thus obtained of the state of civilization then and formerly in that vast continent, rumours reached them of the remains of cities built of large blocks of well-hewn stone. Some of these cities remain until this day, like those in the desert east of the Haurán, and in the ancient land of Bashan, affording an interesting field for the explorer, and bearing inscriptions which neither European nor Arab has yet been able to decipher, but which may be of equal importance with the Adite inscription engraven on the rock at Hishen Goreb.
Feeling deeply interested in this matter, during my residence at Mozambique I did all in my power to obtain information about the Sofala district, which resulted in the Governor-general of the province publishing an official account of the mines known to the Portuguese in that and the surrounding districts, which have been so much neglected by the Portuguese residing there.
This account gives a long list of gold, silver, copper, and iron mines which have been worked, but are now entirely neglected, as the country is destitute of labour—the Portuguese having drained it to supply the slave-trade of the Brazils, Cuba, and America. Previous to which, that district was, as already stated, greatly depopulated by the invasion of the Lindens. These mines still have attached to them the names of the discoverers, and these names are supposed to be those of the kings who reigned there when the mines were first opened.
In this report it is stated that 500 leagues from Seña there are the remains of large edifices, which indicate that they were once inhabited, but by whom is not known.[2] This confirms the statement of Barros, in his description of the ruins of the city of Zimboë, who states that there are the remains of a fort built of well cut stones, having a surface of twenty-five palms in length, and a little less in height, in the joining of which there appears to have been no lime used. Over the door or entrance of this fort is an inscription which some Moors, well versed in Arabic, could not decipher, nor were they acquainted with the character of the writing.
Around this edifice there are other erections similar to it, having bastions of stone uncemented by lime, and in the middle of them there are the remains of a tower, at least seventy feet in height. These edifices are called, in the language of the country, Zimboë, which signifies a royal residence.
I was told at Mozambique that the Arabs could not decipher the inscriptions to be found at Zimboë.
Barros thinks that the country of Sofala ought to be that designated, by Ptolemy, Agyzimba. Zimboë, the name of the remains of the royal residences there, certainly offers some affinity to that of Agyzimba; and there is still the remnant of a once powerful nation, called the Zimbas, to be found on the banks of the Zambesi.
Bruce, in the third volume of his travels, tells us, when speaking of the celebrated Portuguese traveller, Covilham, who was detained in Abyssinia, and communicated thence with the King of Portugal, that “in his journal, Covilham described the several ports in India which he had seen; the temper and disposition of the princes; the situation and riches of the mines of Sofala. He reported that the country was very populous; full of cities, both powerful and rich; and he exhorted the king to pursue, with unremitting vigour, the passage round Africa, which he declared to be attended with very little danger, and that the Cape itself was known in India. He accompanied this description with a chart which he had received from the hands of a Moor in India, where the Cape, and cities all around the coast, were exactly represented.”