On the 18th of July, 1857, H.M.S. “Hermes” arrived at Mozambique; the harbour master paid his visit; the Portuguese flag on the Fort was saluted with twenty-one guns; and the Governor-general’s aide-de-camp, a nephew of the Sa de Bandeira, came on board to inform me that His Excellency and his lady would receive myself and my lady at eleven o’clock the next day.
In order to be punctual, shortly before the appointed hour, Captain Gordon, Mrs. M’Leod, and myself, accompanied by Mr. Soares, who had kindly consented to act as interpreter, left the side of the “Hermes” in Captain Gordon’s gig. As soon as the boat was clear off the ship’s guns, the “Hermes” fired a consular salute, which was immediately taken up by Fort San Sebastian.
We landed on the handsome and substantially-built wharf, which will be referred to when describing the city of Mozambique, on which a large number of negroes were collected, and a few Portuguese.
In waiting, there was a description of palanquin, borne by four negroes, which the Governor-general had, with marked attention, sent “for the use of the English Señhora, to screen her from the gaze of the rude blacks.” Thanks were returned for the courteous offer, but my wife, preferring to walk with her husband, the palanquin was not put in requisition. While walking along the pier, on our way to the palace, the scabbard came off my sword, without being noticed by me, and the first intimation I had of the accident was on its being presented to me, in a very graceful manner, by a young slave. A trifle, which is not worth mentioning, but which the slave-dealers of Mozambique spoke of as an omen of what the British consul was going to do, and is simply alluded to as showing how the merest trifle is seized upon by these degraded men with superstitious dread.
At the inner end of the pier, on the right hand side, is a large square building, coloured pink, having a sentinel on guard in front of it: this is the Mozambique Custom-house, and from the thickness of the walls it is the coolest place in the whole town.
Passing the Custom-house, we approached the Palace, which was coloured on the outside partly white and partly pink, giving to it a very pleasing appearance, and entered by an archway which led us to a court-yard in the centre of the Palace, whence the entrance to the public rooms was approached by a double flight of steps, on ascending which we were received by the aides-de-camp, ushered into the reception-room, and requested to be seated.
In about five minutes’ time, a tall, thin, nervous-looking man, with intelligence stamped upon his brow, was ushered into the room by the aides-de-camp—this was Vasco Guedes e Carvel-Ihos de Menezes, Governor-general of Mozambique. We had evidently been too punctual; and His Excellency’s anxiety not to keep us waiting, together with his half-finished toilet, added much to the natural nervousness of his manner. He was accompanied by a gentleman, whose soft, cat-like motion, clean shaved face, white linen, neatly fitted garments, scrupulously clean hands, dark piercing eyes, and white teeth, so large and so even—so fully shown when he smiled—the whole completed by a voice whose tone was melody, spoke at once the polished gentleman and the self-possessed Jesuit. This gentleman was His Excellency’s secretary.
Having presented the Exequatur of Don Pedro the Fifth, by the Grace of God, King of Portugal and the Algarves, on this side and the other of the sea round Africa, Lord of Guinea, and of the Conquest, the Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and of India, &c., it was handed to the secretary for registration in the archives of the province, and we began to converse.
Captain Gordon at once stated the circumstances under which he had fired at the Portuguese schooner of war “Zambesi,” off the mouth of the Inhambane river, and expressed his regret that in consequence of the obstinacy of the commander of that vessel, in not heaving-to nor showing his colours, he was obliged to have recourse to measures which might have led to serious consequences. The Governor-general accepted the explanation most graciously, and the secretary smiled. That smile said, “I know all about it.” And I found afterwards that he was aware, even then when we were speaking, although the “Zambesi” had not arrived in harbour, that at the time the “Hermes” fired at the “Zambesi” Ex-Governor Leotti was a passenger in her, and was on his way to the Bazarutto Islands, after his unsuccessful attempt to usurp the government of Inhambane, for the purpose of supplying the “Minnetonka” slaver, under American colours, and bound for Havannah de Cuba with a cargo of slaves.