THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM 1505 TO 1700.

CHAPTER XIII.

DISASTROUS EXPEDITIONS UNDER BARRETO AND HOMEM.

Dona Catharina acted as regent of Portugal until 1562, when she retired and the cardinal Dom Henrique, younger brother of King Joao III, took her place. While he was head of the government nothing worthy of mention occurred in South-Eastern Africa. It was his intention to station at Mozambique an ecclesiastical administrator, with authority almost equal to that of a bishop, and a bull was obtained from the pope for the purpose. The archbishop of Goa gave his consent to the separation from his diocese of the territory from the Cape of Good Hope to Melinde. The licentiate Manuel Coutinho, one of the royal chaplains, received the appointment, with a salary of about £80 a year from the 1st of April 1563. But something occurred to prevent the plan being carried into execution, and it was not revived until half a century later.

In 1568 Dom Sebastiao, though only in his fifteenth year, was declared to be of age, and was crowned king of Portugal, then an absolute monarchy. His was a strange character : gloomy, but adventurous to the last degree, deeply religious according to the standard of his time, but wilful and vain, brave as any warrior who ever held lance in hand, but rash as the most imprudent of those crusaders whom in many respects he greatly resembled. He had hardly assumed the reins of government when he resolved to create a vast dominion in Africa south of the Zambesi, a dominion which in wealth and importance would rival that of Castile in the countries subjected to that crown by the daring of Cortes and Pizarro.

Ever since the establishment of the trading station at Sofala a quantity of gold had been obtained yearly in commerce, but that quantity was so small as to be disappointing. Compared with the wealth which flowed into Spain from Mexico and Peru it was almost as nothing. Yet the belief was general in Portugal that the mines of South Africa were as rich as those of America, and that if possession of them was taken, boundless wealth would be obtained.

Were not these the mines from which the queen of Sheba got the gold which she presented to King Solomon ? said the Portuguese enthusiasts. Was not Masapa the ancient Ophir ? Why even then Kalanga Kaffirs called the mountain close to the residence of their great chief Fura, and the Arabs called it Aufur, what was that but a corruption of Ophir ? There, at Abasia, close to Masapa and to the mountain Fura, was a mine so rich that there were seldom years in which nuggets worth four thousand cruzados (£1904 13s. 4d) were not taken from it. Then there were the mines of Manika and far distant Butua, worked only by Bantu, who neither knew how to dig nor had the necessary tools. Only by washing river sand and soil in pools after heavy rains, these barbarians obtained all the gold that was purchased at Sofala and the smaller stations : what would not be got if civilised Europeans owned the territory ? For it was to be borne in mind that the Bantu were extremely indolent, that when any one of them obtained sufficient gold to supply his immediate wants, he troubled himself about washing the soil no longer.

All this and more of the same nature was exciting the minds of the people of Portugal, and was reflected in the glowing pages of their writers. It was therefore a highly popular enterprise that the boy king was about to embark upon, one in which he could employ the best men and much of the wealth of the country without a murmur from any one. Before the necessary preparations were made, however, the pious sovereign submitted to a board termed the table of conscience the question whether aggressive warfare against the ruler of the coveted territory would be lawful and just. The reply must have been foreseen, but it would relieve the monarch of personal moral responsibility in the eyes of Christendom, probably even in his own, if his learned advisers favoured his views.

The board of conscience consisted of seven individuals, who took the circumstances of the case into consideration, and on the 23rd of January 1569 pronounced their opinion. They declared that as the monomotapa and his predecessors had been guilty of killing and robbing their own innocent subjects as well as several Portuguese traders, that one of them had ordered the father Dom Gonçalo da Silveira, a peaceful missionary, to be murdered, that by them two Portuguese ambassadors from the captain of Sofala had been robbed and detained as prisoners, that they sheltered in their dominions many Moors, the enemies of the Christian faith and instigators of evil, and that apostolic bulls were in existence conceding to the king all the commerce of the country from Cape Nun to India upon condition of his causing the gospel to be preached there, it would be right and proper to demand in moderate terms that the African ruler should receive and protect Christian missionaries, expel the Moors, cease tyrannical conduct towards his subjects, carry on commerce in a friendly manner, and make sufficient compensation for all damage done and expenses incurred ; and upon his failing to do so war might justly be made upon him. It would certainly be difficult to find better reasons for hostilities than those here given, if the true object had not been something very different.

The next step was the division of India into three governments. Complaints were unceasing that in places distant from Goa it was almost impossible to carry on business properly, owing to the length of time required to obtain orders and instructions, and it was evident that war on an extensive scale could not be conducted successfully in Eastern Africa if the general in command should be in any way hampered. The whole sphere of Portuguese influence in the East was therefore separated into three sections : the first extending from Cape Correntes to Cape Guardafui, the second from Cape Guardafui to Pegu, and the third from Pegu to China. As head of the first and commander in chief of the expedition about to be sent out the king's choice fell upon Francisco Barreto, an officer of experience in war, who had been governor-general of India from 1555 to 1558, and who was then in chief command of the royal galleys. The appointment was a popular one, for Barreto had the reputation of being not only brave and skilful, but the most generous cavalier of his day. He was instructed to enrol a thousand soldiers and was supplied with a hundred thousand cruzados (£47,616 13s. 4c?.) in ready money, with a promise of an equal sum in gold and a reinforcement of five hundred men every year until the conquest should be completed. All Lisbon was in a state of excitement when this became known, and so great was the enthusiasm with which the project was regarded that from every side cadets of the best families pressed forward and offered their services. The recruiting offices were so crowded that only the very best men were selected, and those who were rejected would have sufficed for another expedition.

Three ships were engaged to take the troops to Mozambique. One of these — the Rainha — was a famous Indiaman, and the largest in the king's service. In addition to the crew, six hundred soldiers, of whom more than half were of gentle blood and two hundred were court attendants, embarked with Barreto in this ship. In each of the others two hundred soldiers embarked. One was commanded by Vasco Fernandes Homem, the other by Lourenço Carvalho. The viceroy at Goa was instructed to forward supplies of provisions and military stores to Mozambique, and to procure horses, asses, and camels at Ormuz for the use of the expedition. A hundred negroes were sent out to take care of the animals when they arrived. As chaplains of the expedition four fathers of the Company of Jesus were selected, one of whom — Francisco Monclaros by name — wrote an account of it which is still in existence.

On the 16th of April 1569 the expedition, that was supposed to have a brilliant career before it, sailed from Belem amidst the roar of artillery and a great sound of trumpets. Almost immediately the first trouble was encountered, in the form of a gale which caused so much damage to the ship commanded by Lourenço Carvalho that she was obliged to return to Lisbon, where she was condemned. The other two took seventy-seven days to reach the equator, and then separated, Vasco Fernandes Homem proceeding to Mozambique, where he arrived in August, and the captain general steering for the bay of All Saints on the coast of Brazil to procure water and refreshments. The Rainha dropped anchor in this bay on the 4th of August, and remained until the end of January 1570, waiting for the favourable monsoon. During this time sixty of the soldiers died, but as many others were obtained in their stead.

At the bay of All Saints Francisco Barreto received information of a destructive plague that had broken out in Lisbon, and that his wife, Dona Beatriz d'Ataide, had died of it only two days after his departure. Having sailed again, the Cape of Good Hope was passed in safety, but on the banks of Agulhas a storm was encountered which drove the ship so far back that she was thirty-six days in recovering her position. In consequence of this, Mozambique was not reached until the 6th of May 1570, where Vasco Fernandes Homem was found with his men all ill and having lost many by death, among them his own son Antonio Mascarenhas. None of the requisite supplies or animals had yet arrived from India. Pedro Barreto, a nephew of the commander in chief, had been captain of Sofala and Mozambique, but upon hearing of the new arrangement in a fit of jealousy had thrown up his appointment and embarked in a ship returning to Europe. This is the man whose shabby treatment of Luis de Camoes has blackened his name for ever in Portuguese history. He died on the passage to Lisbon. His affairs in Africa were wound up by his agent, from whom Vasco Fernandes Homem, who assumed the government, demanded the proceeds of his property, amounting to about thirty-three thousand pounds sterling. This money was transferred to Francisco Barreto upon his arrival, who made use of it in defraying some of the expenses of the expedition.

The town of Mozambique at this time contained about a hundred Portuguese residents and two hundred Indians and Kaffirs. The Mohamedan village on the island was in a ruinous condition. The construction of Fort Sao Sebastiao was progressing, and some heavy artillery brought out in the Rainha was landed to be mounted on its walls.

Francisco Barreto appointed Lourenço Godinho captain of Mozambique provisionally, and in October sent Vasco Fernandes Homem with three hundred soldiers to the ports along the coast to the northward to obtain provisions and then take possession of the Comoro islands. A few weeks later he followed himself in pangayos with the remainder of his force who were in health, and overtook Homem at Kilwa, which was then a place of very little importance. From Kilwa he proceeded to Mafia, and after a stay there of two or three days, to Zanzibar. At this island some Kaffirs who were in insurrection were reduced to order. After this Barreto visited Mombasa, Melinde, Cambo, and Pate. At the place last named the inhabitants were more hostile to the Portuguese than at any other settlement on the coast, and on that account it was intended to destroy the town ; but it was found almost deserted, and the few people left in it begged for mercy and were spared on paying five thousand seven hundred and fourteen pounds sterling, partly in gold and partly in cloth and provisions. They avenged themselves after the expedition sailed, however, by robbing and murdering several Portuguese traders. As many of the soldiers had died along the coast and others were very ill, Barreto here abandoned his design against the Comoro islands, and from Pate returned to Mozambique with the tribute money and provisions he had obtained.

Upon his arrival at the island he found a small vessel under command of Manuel de Mesquita Perestrello, that had been sent from Portugal to his assistance. The Rainha was lying a wreck on the coast of the mainland, having been driven from her anchors in a hurricane, but her cargo had previously been taken on shore. Two ships which the viceroy Dom Luis d'Ataide had sent from India with munitions of war, stores of different kinds, horses, and other animals for the use of the expedition, had just made their appearance. With these, however, Barreto received information that a powerful hostile force was besieging Chaul, so he called a council of his officers and put the question to them whether it would not be more advantageous to the king's service to defer the African conquest for a time, and proceed to the relief of that place. The council was of opinion that they should first force the enemy to raise the siege of Chaul, and then return and take possession of the gold mines, so preparations for that purpose were at once commenced.

Before Barreto could sail for Chaul, Dom Antonio de Noronba, the newly appointed viceroy of India from Cape Guardafui to Pegu, arrived at Mozambique with a fleet of five ships having on board two hundred soldiers to reinforce the African expedition. His appearance put a different aspect upon affairs. He was very ill when he reached the island, but after a few days he recovered sufficiently to be present at a general council, which was attended by a large number of officers of high rank and more than twenty fathers of the Company of Jesus and the order of Saint Dominic, when it was unanimously resolved that the African expedition should at once be proceeded with. With one exception, the members of the council were of opinion that Sofala should be made the base of operations, the father Francisco Monclaros alone holding that the route should be up the Zambesi to a certain point, and then straight to the mountain where the paramount chief of the Kalanga tribe resided, in order to punish that despot for the murder of the missionary Dom Goncalo da Silveira.

Barreto accepted the decision of the majority of the council, and commenced to send his stores to Sofala in small vessels, but after a time his mind misgave him. He had been specially commanded by the king on all occasions of importance to follow the advice of Father Monclaros, who was in high favour at court. After another consultation with him, the captain general suddenly recalled the pangayos from Sofala, and in November 1571 left Mozambique for Sena with twenty-two vessels of different sizes conveying his army and stores. Two years and seven months had passed away since he sailed from Lisbon, many of the men who had embarked there in high hope of glory and wealth were no more, and most of those who remained alive were enfeebled by the long sojourn on that unhealthy coast. It is creditable to them that at last, when the time of action appeared to have arrived, they were still found eager to press forward.

On the way down the coast the flotilla put into several ports before reaching the Kilimane, where Barreto procured a number of luzios or large boats ; but finding that mouth of the Zambesi not then navigable into the main stream, he proceeded to the Luabo. At Kilimane only two or three Portuguese were residing. The Bantu chief, whose name was Mongalo, had a distinct remembrance of Vasco da Gama's visit seventy-five years before.

Sixteen days were required to ascend the river from the bar of the Luabo to Sena. Sometimes the sails were set, at other times the vessels were towed by boats, and where the current was very strong warping was resorted to. Barreto resolved to make Sena his base of proceedings. Ten Portuguese traders were living there in wattled huts, but there was no fort or substantial building of any kind. The troops were landed, and were found to number over seven hundred arquebusiers, exclusive of officers, slaves, and camp attendants of every description. Their supply of provisions was ample. They had horses to draw the artillery and mount a respectable company, a number of asses to carry skin water-bags, and some camels for heavy transport. As far as war material was concerned, the expedition was as well equipped as it could be. But this first campaign of Europeans against Bantu in Southern Africa was opened under exceptional difficulties, for the locality was the sickly Zambesi valley, and the time was the hottest of the year.

Agents were at once sent out to purchase oxen, and the work of building a fort was commenced without delay. Stone for the purpose was drawn to the site selected by cattle trained to the yoke, the first ever so employed in South Africa, which caused great astonishment to the Bantu spectators. The beginning of trouble was occasioned by thirst. The river, owing to heavy falls of rain along its upper course, was so muddy and dirty that its water could not be used without letting it settle, and the only vessels available for this purpose were a few calabashes. Then sickness broke out, and men, horses, and oxen began to die, owing, as the captain general supposed, to the impurities which they drank. Father Monclaros, however, was of a different opinion. He believed that the Mohamedans who resided at Sena were poisoning the grass to cause the animals to perish, and were even practising the same malevolence towards the men, when opportunities occurred, by putting some deadly substance secretly in the food. He urged Barreto to expel them, who declined to do so, and to ascertain whether purer water could not be obtained, caused a well to be dug. The excavation was made, and stone was being brought to build a wall round it, when one Manhoesa, a man of mixed Arab and Bantu blood, went to Barreto privately and told him that there was a plot to put poison in it.

The Mohamedan residents of the place were traders who purchased goods from Portuguese and paid for them in gold and ivory. Some of them owned many slaves, whom they employed as carriers in their bartering expeditions and agents in pushing their traffic far into the interior. They were governed by their own sheik, and were quite independent of other control. Most of them could speak the Portuguese language sufficiently well to be understood, and after the expedition arrived professed to entertain friendship for the members of it, though at heart it was impossible for the two races at that time to be really well disposed towards each other. Apart from the wide gulf which religion caused, the Christians had come to destroy the commerce with the Bantu by which these mongrel Arabs lived, how could there then be friendship between them ?

Barreto believed Manhoesa's statement, and caused the well to be filled up. The horses were now dying off at an alarming rate, — just as would happen today, for in that locality they cannot long exist, — and upon the bodies being opened, the appearance of the lungs convinced the Portuguese that they had been poisoned. The grooms were arrested, and as they protested that they were innocent, the captain general commanded them to be put to the torture. Under this ordeal some of them declared that they had been bribed by a Moorish priest to kill the horses, and that he had supplied them with poison for the purpose.,

Upon this evidence Barreto ordered his soldiers to attack the Mohamedans suddenly and put them to the sword. The country around was thereupon scoured to a considerable distance, and all the adult males were killed except seventeen, who were brought to the camp as prisoners. Their property of every kind was seized, most of which was divided among the soldiers as booty, though gold to the value of over £6700 was reserved for the service of the king. The prisoners were tried, and were sentenced to death. They were exhorted to embrace Christianity, in order to save their souls, but all rejected the proposal except one, who was baptized with the name Lourenço, and was accompanied to the scaffold by a priest carrying a crucifix. This one was hanged, some were impaled, some were blown from the mouths of mortars, and the others were put to death in various ways with exquisite torture. Of the whole adult male Mohamedan population of Sena and its neighbourhood only Manhoesa was left alive. Such dreadful barbarity inflicted upon people innocent of the crime with which they were charged was regarded by Father Monclaros as a simple act of justice, and he recorded the horrible event without the slightest recognition of the infamy attached to it.

Shortly after he reached Sena Barreto sent Miguel Bernardes, an old resident in the country, to the monomotapa ; but he was drowned on the way by the overturning of his canoe in the river. Another was then despatched on the same errand. A messenger went in advance to ascertain whether he would be received in a manner becoming the representative of the king of Portugal, because in that capacity he would not be at liberty to lay aside his arms, to prostrate himself upon the ground, and to kneel when addressing the chief, as was the ordinary custom when blacks or strangers presented themselves. Some Mohamedans were at the great place when the messenger arrived, and they tried to induce the monomotapa not to see the envoy except in the usual manner. They informed him that the Portuguese were powerful sorcerers, who, if permitted to have their own way, might bewitch and even kill him by their glances and their words. The chief was alarmed by their statements and therefore hesitated for some days, but in the end he promised that the envoy on his arrival might present himself in the Portuguese manner, and would be received with friendship.

Barreto's agent then proceeded to the monomotapa's kraal. He had several attendants with him, and before him went servants carrying a chair and a carpet. The carpet was spread on the ground in front of the place where the monomotapa was reclining with his counsellors and great men half surrounding him, the chair was placed upon it, and the Portuguese official, richly dressed and armed, took his seat on it, his attendants, also armed, standing on each side and at his back. The European subordinate and the greatest of all the South African chiefs were there in conference, and the European, by virtue of his blood, assumed and was conceded the higher position of the two.

After some complimentary remarks from each, the envoy, through his interpreter, introduced the subject of his mission, which he said was to obtain the grant of a right of way to the gold mines of Manika and Butua, and to form an alliance against the chief Mongasi — (variously written by the Portuguese Omigos, Mongas, and Monge), — the hereditary enemy of the Makalanga. The real object of Barreto's expedition, the seizure of the gold mines in the Kalanga country itself, was kept concealed. The monomotapa, as a matter of course, was charmed with the proposal of assistance against his enemy. The tribe of which Mongasi was the head occupied the right bank of the Zambesi at and above the Lupata gorge, and during several preceding years had committed great ravages upon its neighbours. Its territory was small compared with that over which the Kalanga clans were spread, but its men were brave and fond of war, and to the Portuguese it was not certain which of the two was really the more powerful, Mongasi or the monomotapa himself. The condition of things indeed was somewhat similar to that in the same country three centuries later, except that Mongasi and his fighting men were in power far below Lobengula and the Matabele bands. The chief had given the Portuguese cause for enmity by robbing and killing several traders, and on one occasion sending a party to Tete who, finding no white men there at the time, murdered about seventy of their female slaves and children.

The monomotapa was so pleased that he readily agreed to everything that the envoy proposed. He offered to send a great army to assist against Mongasi, and he said that a way through his territory to the mines beyond would be open to the Portuguese at all times. This was very satisfactory from Barreto's point of view, though he did not avail himself of the offer of assistance, as he wished to avoid any complications that might arise from it.

After a detention of seven months at Sena, the return of the envoy enabled the captain general to proceed towards his destination. The fort which he had nearly completed, named Sao Marçal, gave the Portuguese at least one strong position on the great river, though the country about it was not subdued, and the Bantu were left in absolute independence there. He had lost by fever at that unhealthy place a great many of those who had accompanied him from Portugal with such high hope, among them his own son Ruy Nunes Barreto, and of the men who were left some were barely able to walk. At the end of July 1572 he set out. A flotilla of boats containing provisions and stores of all kinds ascended the river, and along the bank marched the army accompanied by twenty-five waggons drawn by oxen, and the camels, asses, and a few horses that had recently arrived from India. The troops, about sis hundred and fifty in number, including eighty Indians and mixed breeds, were divided into five companies, commanded respectively by Barreto himself, Antonio de Mello, Thomé de Sousa, Jeronymo d'Aguiar, and Jeronymo d'Andrada. Vasco Fernandes Homem, who had the rank of colonel, filled an office corresponding to that of quarter master general. Over two thousand slaves and camp attendants were with the army.

A whole month was occupied in marching from Sena to the confluence of the Mazoe and the Zambesi above the Lupata gorge. Frequently a soldier became too ill to walk, and he was then placed on a waggon until nightfall, when the camp was pitched on the margin of the river and he was transferred to one of the boats. The expedition was now to ascend the Mazoe to Mongasi's great place, so near its mouth Barreto formed a camp on a small island, and left there his sick with the boats and all the superfluous baggage and stores, for there was no possibility of proceeding with a heavily encumbered column. An officer named Buy de Mello, who had been wounded by a buffalo, was placed in charge of this camp. On the northern, or Bororo side of the Zambesi, there was a tribe of considerable strength living under a chief named Tshombe, who was an enemy of Mongasi and therefore as soon as he ascertained the object of the expedition professed to be a friend of the Portuguese. He supplied two hundred men to assist in carrying the baggage and to act as guides.

With his force now reduced to five hundred and sixty arquebusiers, twenty-three horsemen, and a few gunners with five or six pieces of artillery, Barreto turned away almost due south from the Zambesi. In this direction the column marched ten days, the men and animals suffering greatly at times from want of water. How the slaves and camp attendants fared is not mentioned by either De Couto or Father Monclaros, but the soldiers lived chiefly on scanty rations of beef, which they grilled on embers or by holding it on rods before a fire, though often they were so exhausted with the heat and fatigue that they were unable to eat anything at all. Their spirits revived, however, when on the eleventh day they came in sight of Mongasi's army, which was so large that the hillsides and valleys looked black with men.

Barreto immediately arranged his soldiers in a strong position resting on a hill, and awaited an attack, but none was made that day. All night the troops were under arms, getting what sleep they could without moving from their places, but that was little, for the blacks at no great distance were shouting continuously and making a great noise with their war-drums. At dawn the sergeant-major, Pedro de Castro, was sent out with eighty picked men to try and draw the enemy on. This manoeuvre succeeded. The whole host rushed forward in a dense mass, led by an old female witch-finder with a calabash full of charms, which she threw into the air in the belief that they would cause the Portuguese to become blind and palsied. So implicitly did the warriors of Mongasi rely upon these charms, that they carried riems to bind the Europeans who should not be killed. Barreto ordered one of his best shots to try to pick the old sorceress off, and she fell dead under his fire. The warriors, who believed that she was immortal, were checked for an instant, but presently brandishing their weapons with great shouts, they came charging on.

Then, with a cry of Sao Thiago from the Portuguese, a storm of balls from cannons and arquebuses and unwieldy firelocks was poured into the dense mass, which was shattered and broken. Barreto now in his turn charged, when the enemy took to flight, but in the pursuit several Portuguese were wounded with arrows. Fearing that his men might get scattered, the general caused the recall to be sounded almost at once, so that within a few minutes from its commencement the action was over.

The horsemen were then sent out to inspect the country in front. They returned presently with intelligence that there was a large kraal close by, belonging to Kapote, one of Mongasi's sub-chiefs, so the general resolved to set it on fire as soon as the men were a little rested and had broken their fast. About ten o'clock the expedition reached the kraal, which was nearly surrounded by patches of forest, and it was burned, but immediately afterwards the warriors were seen approaching. There was just time to form a kind of breastwork at the sides of the field guns with stakes and bushes when Mongasi's army, arranged in the form of a crescent with its horns extended to surround the position, was upon the invading band. It was received as before with a heavy fire, which was kept back until the leading rank was within a few paces, and which struck down the files far towards the rear. The smoke which rolled over the Europeans and hid them from sight was regarded by the Bantu with superstitious fear, it seemed to them as if their opponents were under supernatural protection, and so they fled once more. They were followed some distance, and a great many were killed, among whom was the chief Kapote, but the Portuguese also suffered severely in the pursuit, for when Barreto's force came together again it was found that more than sixty men were wounded, some indeed only slightly but not a few mortally, and two were dead. Of the enemy it was believed that over six thousand had perished since dawn that morning, though very probably this estimate was much in excess of the actual number.

The progress of the expedition was now delayed by the necessity of establishing a hospital. Fortunately the site of the captured kraal was a good one, and water was plentiful close by. But at daylight on the sixth day after their arrival Mongasi's bands attacked them again. On this occasion the Europeans were protected with palisades, which the Bantu were unable to pass, though they continued their efforts to force an entrance until an hour after noon. Their losses under these circumstances must have been very heavy, and they were so disheartened that they accepted their defeat as decisive and sent a messenger to beg for peace.

Barreto's position at this time was one of great difficulty. He was encumbered with sick and wounded men, the objective point of his expedition was far away, his supply of ammunition was small, and his slaughter cattle were reduced to a very limited number. Yet he spoke to Mongasi's messenger in a haughty tone, and replied that he would think over the matter : the chief might send again after a couple of days, and he would then decide. A present of fifty head of cattle and as many sheep, a little gold, and a couple of tusks of ivory, was sent to him, and he gave in return some iron hoes, but no terms of peace were arranged. The animals were of the greatest service, so small was his stock of food.

In less than a week from this time a council of war was held, when there was but one opinion, that the only hope of safety was in retreating without delay. The expedition therefore turned back towards the Zambesi, and so great were the sufferings of the men for want of food on the way that they searched for roots and wild plants to keep them alive. At length, at the end of September, the bank of the river was reached, and a canoe was obtained, with which a letter was sent to Buy de Mello, who was in command of the camp on the island. That officer immediately despatched six boat loads of millet and other provisions, and thus the exhausted soldiers and camp attendants were saved. They had not penetrated the country farther than seventy-two kilometres in a straight line from the river.

There were more than two hundred men either wounded or too ill to be of any service, and the losses by death had been large, so Barreto resolved to return to Sena, where a reinforcement of eighty soldiers who had recently arrived was awaiting him. The sick were sent down the river in boats after the remainder of the expedition had crossed to the Bororo side with the animals and baggage, and the waggons, now useless, had been burned. On the march provisions were obtained from the subjects of Tshombe, and two kraals hostile to that chief were destroyed.

A few days after crossing the river Barreto received information that his presence was urgently needed at Mozambique. When he sailed from that island he left there as captain a man eighty years of age, named Antonio Pereira Brandao, and assigned to Lourenco Godinho the office of factor. Brandao was under the deepest obligation to him. In the Moluccas he had committed crimes for which he was tried and condemned to confiscation of all his property and banishment to Africa for life. He threw himself upon the compassion of Barreto, who obtained permission from the king to take him with the expedition, and made him captain of Mozambique purposely that he might acquire some property to bestow upon his daughter. In return he acted with such treachery towards his benefactor that he planned the detention of supplies forwarded from Goa, in order to ruin him.

Upon learning this Barreto left Vasco Fernandes Homem in command of the retreating force, and proceeded down the river in a luzio. At Sena he found an embassy from the monomotapa, who brought a message expressing good will and desiring friendship with the king of Portugal and commerce with the white people. The captain general mentioned three conditions as requisite to a compact between them : first that the Mohamedans should be expelled from the country, secondly that Christian missionaries should be received, and thirdly that a number of gold mines should be ceded. He added that if these conditions were agreed to, upon his return from Mozambique he would deal with other obstacles in the way of friendly commerce as he had dealt with Mongasi. The principal man in the embassy replied that the conditions were acceptable, and it was then arranged that some Portuguese should return with the party to learn from the monomotapa himself whether he would agree to them.

For this purpose Barreto appointed three gentlemen named Francisco de Magalhaes, Francisco Rafaxo, and Gaspar Borges, whom he sent in company with the Kalanga embassy on its return home with a valuable present of cloth and other articles to the monomotapa. It was afterwards learned that Francisco de Magalhaes died on the journey, and that the two others were very well received. The monomotapa, as was natural under the circumstances, was profuse in friendly sentiments. He promised to expel the Mohamedans from his country, to receive Christian missionaries with friendship, and to give some gold mines to the Portuguese to work ; but probably he had no intention of literally carrying out the first and the last of these concessions. He sent back a present of gold, though it was of trifling value compared with what he had received.

As soon as the remnant of the army reached Sena the captain general instructed Vasco Fernandes Homem to complete the construction of Fort Sao Marçal and the necessary buildings connected with it, and then with Father Monclaros and a few attendants he proceeded to the mouth of the Luabo and embarked in a pangayo for Mozambique. Shortly after his arrival at that island a ship arrived from India with stores for the expedition, and in her came Joao da Silva, a natural son of Barreto, who delivered to his father a number of defamatory letters which Antonio Pereira Brandao had written concerning him to the king, and which Dom Jorge de Menezes, his relative by marriage, had intercepted. With this new proof of Brandao's treachery in his possession the captain general dismissed him from office, but was too generous to punish him further. Lourenco Godinho was appointed captain of Mozambique in his stead.

With his son, all the recruits he could obtain, a good supply of ammunition and other material of war, and a large quantity of calico with which to purchase provisions and meet other expenses, on the 3rd of March 1573 Francisco Barreto sailed again from Mozambique with a fleet of pangayos, intending to invade Manika from Sena. But misfortune still pursued him. Contrary winds were encountered, which compelled him to put into several ports, and two of the pangayos, laden with ammunition and provisions, were lost. At Kilimane intelligence was received of fearful mortality among the troops at Sena. The captains Jeronymo dAguiar and Antonio de Mello with all the inferior officers of the several companies and most of the soldiers had died, and Vasco Fernandes Homem and the Jesuit fathers were very ill. All hope of being able to invade Manika was thus lost, but Barreto felt that it would be disgraceful to abandon his people in such a time of distress, and so he pressed forward. On the 1st of May 1573 he left the mouth of the river, and on the 15th arrived at Sena.

At the landing place about fifty soldiers, all that were able to stand, were waiting to receive him with banners displayed, but there was not an officer with them until Vasco Fernandes Homem was brought down in a state of great debility. The captain general and the priest passed on to the hospital, where the sick tried to welcome them, but only one man was able to discharge an arquebus. The sole remaining physician was dying. It was a pitiful sight, this terrible end of an expedition entered upon with such enthusiasm and such unbounded hope of success.

Some of the sick improved in iealth owing to the medical comforts Barreto had brought with him, but the whole of the recruits just arrived were struck down almost at once. The captain general, eight days after he reached Sena, had an angry altercation with Father Monclaros, in which the priest reproached him for not having abandoned the enterprise long before and told him that God would bring him to account for all the lives lost. Immediately after this the unfortunate commander took to his bed, and after a brief period of exhaustion died in great distress of mind, though apparently free of fever. In India and in his native country he had been regarded as a man of high ability, but South Africa destroyed his reputation, like that of many others since. He was buried in the newly erected church within the fort Sao Marçal, but his remains and those of his son Buy Nunes Barreto were subsequently removed to Portugal, where by order of the king a pompous state funeral was accorded to them. His natural son, Joao da Silva, was taken by his servants from Sena to Mozambique, prostrate with illness, and died there. He had been wealthy, but his father had borrowed all he possessed to pay the soldiers and defray the other expenses of the army, as he had done from many others, so that Francisco Barreto's executors found that he not only left no property, but that he was responsible for a hundred and twenty thousand cruzados (£57,140) thus raised.

Upon opening the first of the sealed orders of succession which had been given by the king to the late captain general, the name of Pedro Barreto was found ; but he had long been dead. The second order of succession was then opened, which contained the name of Vasco Fernandes Homem, who thereupon assumed the title of governor and captain general of the African coast from Cape Guardafui to Cape Correntes. Acting upon the advice of Father Monclaros, the new governor retired to Mozambique as speedily as possible, taking with him all the material of war and men except sufficient for a small garrison that he left in Fort Sao Marçal at Sena.

Shortly after he reached the island, an officer named Francisco Pinto Pimentel, who was his cousin, arrived there from India on his way home. This officer expressed the utmost astonishment at his having abandoned an enterprise which the king had resolved should be carried out, and for which reinforcements were even then being sent from Portugal. In his opinion it was gross dereliction of duty, and he reminded his relative that a high official had not long before lost his head for an act which might be regarded as similar. The advice of Father Monclaros, he said, would not serve as an excuse, because a priest could not be supposed to be a guide in military matters. The father had already embarked in a ship returning to Lisbon, so Pimentel's reasoning was not counteracted by his influence.

The captain general therefore resolved to resume the effort to get possession of the gold mines, and to make his base of operations the port that had been recommended by the council of officers and clergy in 1571. As many recruits as could be obtained from ships that called were added to the remnant of Barreto's force and the fresh soldiers just arrived from Europe, a flotilla of coasting vessels was collected, provisions were procured, and an army of some strength, well provided with munitions of war, was conveyed to Sofala. The date of its arrival cannot be given, as no Portuguese chronicler or historian mentions it, and the original manuscript of Father Monclaros terminates with the death of Francisco Barreto. The Kiteve and Tshikanga tribes were found to be at variance with each other, a circumstance that was favourable to the captain general's views. As soon as his soldiers were on shore, who mustered five hundred in number, exclusive of attendants and camp followers, he sent presents to the Kiteve chief, and requested a free passage to the Tshikanga territory, but met with a refusal. The Bantu rulers always objected to intercourse between white people and the tribes beyond their own, because they feared to lose their toll on the commerce which passed through their territories, and they were also apprehensive of strangers forming an alliance with their enemies.

Homem made no scruple in marching forward without the chief's permission, and when the Kiteves attempted to oppose him with arms, a discharge of his artillery and arquebuses immediately scattered them. They had not the mettle of the gallant warriors of Mongasi. After several defeats the whole tribe fled into a rugged tract of country, taking their cattle with them, and leaving no grain that the invaders could find. Homem's line of march was from Sofala to the Busi river, and thence westward along that stream, his provisions and baggage being conveyed in canoes as far as there was sufficient water. This brought him to the principal kraal or great place of the Kiteve, which was found abandoned, and to which he set fire. The wattled huts, covered with thatch, were burned to the ground, so that the kraal was completely destroyed.

Two days later he reached the territory of the Tshikanga, which included a small tract of land on the seaward side of the great range that bounds the interior plain. There, at or near Masikesi, messengers from the Tshikanga met him, with professions of friendship and a present of cattle and millet from their chief, who was greatly pleased with the reverses that his enemy had sustained. Homem sent him assurances of good will and a valuable present in return.

A description of the country is not given in the Portuguese accounts of the expedition, but it can only have been along the gorge through which the Revue river descends to the coastlands that Homem and his band went up to Manika. Somewhere near the village of Umtali of our times the Tshikanga then resided, and when the Portuguese force drew near he went out to meet it and give it a welcome. A camp was formed at his kraal, where provisions in abundance were supplied, and the intercourse between his people and the white men was most friendly as long as the expedition remained there.

After a short rest Homem and some of his principal men visited the nearest mines, but were greatly disappointed. They had expected to find the precious metal in such abundance that they could take away loads of it, instead of which a number of naked blacks carrying baskets of earth from a deep cavity were seen, with some others washing the earth in wooden troughs and after long and patient toil extracting a few grains of gold. They at once concluded that it could be of no advantage for them to hold the country. An agreement was therefore made with the Tshikanga that he should do everything in his power to facilitate commerce with his people, and for that purpose should allow Portuguese traders or their agents to enter his country at any time, in return for which the captain of the fort of Sofala was to make him a yearly present of two hundred rolls of cotton cloth.

The expedition went no farther in the Manika country, the point reached being the place now known as Umtali, or somewhere near it. As soon as his people were refreshed, Homem set out again for the coast, without attempting to penetrate to the territory of the monomotapa. On the way messengers from the Kiteve met him, and begged for peace, so an agreement was made with them similar in terms to the one concluded with the owner of Manika.

It was at this time believed that silver was plentiful somewhere on the southern hank of the Zambesi above Tete, — the exact locality was uncertain, — and as the Bantu tribes in that direction were too weak to offer much resistance, the captain general resolved to go in search of it and endeavour to retrieve the pecuniary losses he and his predecessor had sustained. Accordingly he proceeded by sea from Sofala to the Zambesi, and having ascended that river to Sena he disembarked and marched upward along it. It was a difficult country to traverse, for there were no roads in it such as are found in Europe, but there were well beaten footpaths along which the soldiers could march in single file, and the baggage was carried by blacks whose services were obtained from the petty chiefs on the route on payment of pieces of calico and beads. The men had become accustomed in the Kiteve's territory to travel in this way, still those who were attacked by fever suffered much, and in some places water was not easy to be had. How long they were on the journey from Sena to Tshikova is not mentioned in any of the records now in existence, but it must have been many weeks, and it cannot be doubted that their ranks were greatly thinned by death on the way.

At first the inhabitants were friendly, and there was no difficulty in purchasing provisions, but on approaching Tshikova Homem found that the people abandoned their kraals and fled, so he built a fort of wood and earth, and searched the country around for silver without discovering any. There were no competent miners or mineralogists with the expedition. Finding it impossible to maintain so large a party at Tshikova any longer, the captain general then left two hundred men under Antonio Cardoso dAlmeida in the fort to continue the search, and with the remainder of the force he returned to Mozambique.

The inhabitants now went back to their kraals, but kept away from the fort. After a time provisions began to fail, so d'Almeida sent out a raiding party that secured a quantity of millet and a few cattle. Some of the inhabitants after this asked for peace, and terms were agreed upon, but when a band of soldiers left the fort to explore the country, it was attacked, and only a few men got back again. The place was then surrounded, and the siege was maintained until the provisions were exhausted, when the Portuguese tried to cut their way out, but were all killed.

Thus ended the expeditions under Francisco Barreto and Vasco Fernandes Homem, undertaken to get possession of the mineral wealth of South-Eastern Africa. Nothing more disastrous had happened to the Portuguese since their first appearance in Indian waters. The original army and all the reinforcements sent from Lisbon had perished, excepting a few score of worn out and fever-stricken men who reached Mozambique in the last stage of despondency. To com- pensate for the large expenditure that had been incurred, there was nothing more than the fort Sao Marcal at Sena and the few buildings within it. The extent of the disaster was realised by the king, and after a short and uneventful term of office by Dom Fernando de Monroy, who succeeded Vasco Fernandes Homem, an end was put to the captain generalship of Eastern Africa, which thereupon reverted to its former position as a dependency of the viceroyalty of India.

CHAPTER XIV. EVENTS TO THE CLOSE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.