MOZAMBIQUE.

Lyons Mc. Leod, del. T. Picken, lith. London, Published by Hurst & Blackett, 1860. Day & Son, Lithrs. to the Queen.

TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA;
WITH
THE NARRATIVE OF A RESIDENCE IN
MOZAMBIQUE.

BY
LYONS McLEOD, Esq., F.R.G.S.,
HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
AND OF THE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, MAURITIUS
LATE H.B.M. CONSUL AT MOZAMBIQUE.

GRAVES OF BRITISH OFFICERS AT MOZAMBIQUE.

“Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.”—Psalm LXVIII. v. 31.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON:
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1860.

The right of Translation is reserved.

CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.

TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA.

CHAPTER I.

Governor-general of Mozambique Superseded for Slave-dealing, and Arrival of His Successor—Trick of Slave-dealers to cause an Early Misunderstanding between the New Governor-general and the British Consul—Polite Attentions of the New Governor-general—Decisive Measure adopted for the Suppression of the Slave-Trade—The Fort signalizes to a Slaver in the Offing—Seizure of the “Charles et Georges”—Arrival of H.M. Frigate “Castor,” and desertion by her of the British Consul—Combination of Slave-dealers to drive the British Consul from the Port.

On the afternoon of the 22nd September, 1857, the city of Mozambique was in a great state of excitement, for in the offing was the frigate “Don Ferdinand,” having on board the new Governor-general, sent by the government of Portugal to supersede Vasco Guedes de Carvalho e Menezes, for carrying on the slave-trade in the province of Mozambique.

Slowly the old frigate threaded her way into the harbour, and took up a berth, opposite the town, between Fort San Sebastian and the Palace of the Governor-general.

On the next day invitations were issued for the principal personages at Mozambique to attend the ceremony of the installation of the new Governor-general, on the following Saturday, the 29th, at eleven o’clock.

An invitation was sent to the British consul as a matter of course, but it was for Saturday the 30th, at half-past eleven o’clock. The object of wording his invitation in this manner was that it was hoped he would attend on the 30th instead of on the 29th, by which he would be “a day after the fair,” and by this means a misunderstanding might be at once created between the new Governor-general and the British consul. The consul found that he was evidently asked for the wrong day, but hoping that this might be a mistake, he proceeded to the palace at a few minutes before half-past eleven, as invited.

On his arrival, he found that the ceremony of presentation to his Excellency was almost finished; and, while elbowing his way through the reception-rooms of the palace, crowded with brilliant uniforms, the Jesuit secretary of Vasco Guedes met him, and informed him that he “regretted exceedingly that the British consul had arrived too late to be presented to the new Governor-general.” The British consul quietly replied by pulling the letter of invitation out of his pocket, and pointing out that by reading it in one way, he was just five minutes and a quarter before the time invited; and reading it another way, he was at the palace twenty-four hours, five minutes, and one quarter before the hour indicated in the letter. The secretary smiled, apologized, wished to explain, and, in fact, do anything to cause delay until the presentation was over. But the British consul at once requested him to present him to the new Governor-general; when this nephew of a cardinal positively declined, alleging, as an excuse, that it was too late. Hereupon the British consul produced his commission, and, politely bowing to the cardinal’s nephew, reminded him that the Exequatur of the King of Portugal, &c., gave access at all times to the Governor-general of Mozambique. The secretary smiled, showing all his white teeth, and bowed low in acknowledgment of his defeat. The consul passed on, and at last, just before the ceremony was over, reached the astonished Vasco Guedes, to whom, after paying the usual compliments of the day, he preferred a request that he would at once present him to his successor, Colonel Almeida, who was standing on his left hand.

The new Governor-general shook hands with the British consul, and requested him to take his proper place, on his left hand, and then inquired if he had brought over with him, from the mainland, a machilla, for the purpose of attending the ceremony, which was to take place in the principal church. A machilla, I ought to explain, is a sort of cot, or swinging sofa, with an awning over it, in which persons are carried by four slaves, bearing on their shoulders the large bamboo pole to which it is attached.

Finding that the British consul had no machilla with him, and would, consequently, have to walk in the sun, Colonel Almeida asked Vasco Guedes if a machilla could not be procured for the consul; to which the latter replying in the negative, his Excellency called a young aide-de-camp, a nephew of the Sa de Bandeira, and asked him to procure a machilla; but this the polite young aide-de-camp found impossible, for every one had made up his mind to make the British consul walk.

The ceremony being ended, and no machilla making its appearance for my use, the new Governor-general said, “Now, gentlemen, we will repair to the church; but, as Mozambique cannot provide a machilla for the use of the British consul, we must all accompany that gentleman on foot.”

I have been particular in mentioning the above, to show the animosity of the slave-dealers towards myself; and how it was at once perceived by the new Governor-general.

On the way to the church, Colonel Almeida insisted that I should take my place with himself and Vasco Guedes, under the large purple velvet umbrella, which, on state occasions, is held over the Governor-general of the province.

After the religious ceremony in the church was over, I was requested to repair to the palace, with the officers of H.M.S.V. “Geyser,” who were present at the ceremony, and there to await the return of the procession from Fort San Sebastian, to which the new Governor-general had to repair for the purpose of receiving the keys of the fort.

On his Excellency’s return, we were again presented, and congratulated him on his taking possession of the government of the province. In the evening there was a ball, where all the “beauty and fashion” of Mozambique attended.

On the following Monday I called the attention of the new Governor-general to some serious charges preferred by me against the Governor of Ibo, in being openly engaged in the slave-trade.

Vasco Guedes had told me that he could not supersede the Governor of Ibo for these practices, as he was appointed directly by the King, but Colonel Almeida made short work of it, by appointing another governor to Ibo, and requesting me to obtain a passage for him in H.M.S.V. “Geyser.”

This request I was not able to comply with, as an urgent order had arrived from the Cape of Good Hope, recalling the “Geyser.” At that time I had only just heard of the Indian mutiny. I expected that Sir George Grey would send every regiment and vessel on to India, and that he would be anxiously looking out for the “Geyser.” Although I saw hot work for the new Governor-general and myself, I hurried the “Geyser” to the Cape, where, I hoped, she would be useful to my country.

On the arrival of the new Governor at Ibo, he found a vessel under French colours lying there waiting for slaves, which his predecessor was about to supply. This vessel, called the “Marie et Caroline,” the new Governor, Lieutenant J. Romeiro, sent down to Mozambique; and there being a French Delegate on board, who stated that she had sailed from Réunion for the purpose of embarking free labourers from the east coast of Africa, he was informed by the Governor-general of Mozambique that this traffic in human beings was forbidden, and had to enter into a bond that he would not endeavour to carry on this species of slave-trade within the precincts of the province of Mozambique. The “Marie et Caroline” was then released; and another vessel, named the “Maria Stella,” under the French flag, being sent down from Ibo to Mozambique, was treated in the same manner.

The new Governor-general had thus shown himself determined to put an end to the slave-trade, and to carry out faithfully the treaties entered into by Portugal and Great Britain, for the suppression of the slave-trade in these seas.

In the middle of November I had received intelligence that slaves were to be shipped close to Mozambique, and had communicated this fact to the Governor-general, during an interview which I had with his Excellency.

On the evenings of the 17th, 18th, and 19th of November, I observed from my house that signals were being made from Cabaçeira Point, by means of fires, to some sail in the offing. On the last of those evenings the Fort San Sebastian was communicating with the vessel in the offing by means of lights; and I afterwards found that for these three days a large three-masted vessel was in sight from the fort. The commandant of the fort, an old colonel of artillery, I knew to be a notorious slave-dealer, and when he was telegraphing to the vessel in the offing I felt convinced that the rumour which I had heard relative to slaves being about to be shipped in the neighbourhood of the fort was but too true.

On the following day I received an intimation in writing from the city of Mozambique that a three-masted vessel was lying in Conducia Bay, shipping slaves; and having, on the 21st November, satisfied myself that two refractory slaves belonging to my neighbour, Brigadier Candido de Costa Soares, had been shipped on board a slaver in Conducia Bay, I no longer hesitated to address the Governor-general on the subject, simply writing to his Excellency “that I had received intelligence that a three-masted vessel was at anchor in Conducia Bay; and that there was reason to suppose that she was shipping a cargo of slaves.”

Now, this vessel was the celebrated “Charles et Georges,” and she was visible from the fort during the whole time that she was at anchor in Conducia Bay. Slaves were taken from the city of Mozambique, and put on board of her, and everyone in Mozambique was aware what trade she was engaged in.

No one moved in the matter until I addressed an official intimation to the Governor-general, and it is quite certain that if there had been no British consul at Mozambique she would never have been seized.

As soon as the Governor-general received my despatch, he sent a force overland, past my house, to Conducia Bay; and one of the obliging merchants of Mozambique offered his Excellency the use of the “Enigma” schooner to take the troops to Conducia Bay to seize the slaver. The troops embarked on board the “Enigma” at one o’clock in the afternoon, and that vessel did not raise her anchor until five in the evening. She dropped her anchor again in about an hour’s time, and remained in harbour until the next morning.

When the “Enigma” reached Conducia Bay, the slaver was gone; of course she was warned off, and the “Enigma” had been offered simply to detain the soldiers until the slaver escaped.

The Governor-general refitted the “Zambesi” schooner, already well known to the reader, and she was sent to sea in three days’ time.

The “Charles et Georges” had shipped some portion of her slaves, and as she left four thousand dollars on shore with the Portuguese official, the Sheik at Matabane, for the purchase of more slaves, it was natural that she should return.

Accordingly, while cruising off the coast, the “Zambesi” observed a strange three-masted vessel at anchor in Conducia Bay, and, bearing down on the stranger, boarded her on the 29th of November.

She was conveyed to Mozambique, and handed over to the judge, who condemned her, as he found that there were four thousand dollars on board of her, the handling of which he would of course have.

A small French war schooner was sent from Réunion to demand her restoration. The judge immediately represented that the slave barque “Charles et Georges” was improperly condemned, and advised the Governor-general to restore her.

The reason for the head of the law reconsidering his decision was that he was told he might retain the four thousand dollars found on board the “Charles et Georges,” and that one thousand more would be added if the vessel was restored.

The Governor-general was not to be trifled with in this manner, and decided that, as the judge had condemned her, he would send the “Charles et Georges” to Lisbon.

So far so good. The slave-trade was being effectually suppressed, as the British consul urged the Governor-general of Mozambique to do his duty. But another actor appeared on the scene, and soon altered the position of H.M. Consul at Mozambique.

On the 3rd of December H.M. frigate “Castor” called at Mozambique. The captain of that vessel, Henry Lyster, Esq., was quite astonished at the energy and determination displayed by the Governor-general of Mozambique, acting under the advice of the British consul. The day after his arrival he called upon the latter functionary, and remained with him about ten minutes.

In this short space of time H.M. Consul informed Captain Lyster, R.N., that on the night the “Charles et Georges” anchored in Mozambique harbour, the slaves belonging to the slave-dealers stoned the band of the Governor-general, while playing before the palace, and that he was obliged to flog a number of the slaves of the town, to prevent a repetition of this offence; that the slave-dealers, baffled in their attack on the Governor-general, twice attacked the consul’s house, through the medium of their slaves, whom they sent to stone the consul in his house; that he was served with a notice to quit the house he was then residing in, and that there was not one in the town which he could get to live in; that some short time previous, having gone to look at a house in the country, which he was told was to let, he was attacked by infuriated natives, who had been urged to this act by the slave-dealers, and that he escaped with his party by having been shown a road which led him from the natives to his own house.

He further showed Captain Henry Lyster, R.N., that he was without servants—all the slaves, with the exception of a child, which would not leave, having been taken from the house. He claimed his protection, and also asked him for a small boat by which he could communicate with the Governor-general.

To which Captain Lyster replied that he must immediately return to the Cape of Good Hope, and apprize the admiral of the serious state of affairs at Mozambique; and requested the consul to close his despatches, as his departure was immediate. He promised to send over in the evening for the consul’s despatches, if they did not reach him; and hurried out of the consul’s house, stating that he had to make arrangements for watering the ship at once.

The next morning at daylight, the “Castor” was observed, under her topsails, standing out to sea. It was imagined that H.M. frigate had gone in chase of some strange sail in the offing, but as day passed after day, the fearful and humiliating truth dawned on the inmates of the British consulate, that they had been abandoned to their fate.

The captain of H.M. frigate “Castor” left Mozambique without the consul’s despatches, either for the admiral at the Cape, or the British government. On the arrival of the “Castor” in England, Captain Lyster, R.N., was made superintendent of a naval dock-yard. Comment is needless, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Soon after the desertion of the British consul and the Governor-general of Mozambique by H.M. frigate “Castor,” a marked change took place in the conduct of the Governor-general of Mozambique; for he anticipated that the British government would not support Portugal in the struggle which he saw that weak power would have with France. Those who have studied this subject may pronounce their own opinion, but one thing is certain, that to the base desertion of the British consul at that critical period may be traced the subsequent insolence of the slave-dealers, the increase of the slave-trade, and the sufferings of H.M. Consul and family.

As long as Vasco Guedes remained at Mozambique, the slave-trade party felt that they had nothing to fear; but now that Colonel Almeida had arrived, and had published the Portarias of the King of Portugal, forbidding the French Free Labour Emigration, and his own declaration that it was his determination to persecute that traffic wherever he might find it in the province of Mozambique, the slave-dealers found that the British Consul and the Governor-general united were too much for them; they therefore determined to do all in their power to drive the former out of the colony, believing that afterwards they would be able to do as they pleased with the new Governor-general.

Three days after the sailing of H.M.S.V. “Geyser,” by which vessel Mr. Soares believed I had sent an application to England to have him appointed H.M. Vice-Consul at Mozambique, (but which I did not forward in consequence of learning to what extent he was engaged in the slave-trade, and by his own admission to me that he had been the principal person in establishing the French Free Labour Scheme at Mozambique):—Mr. Soares sent me a written intimation that he would require both his houses, the one on the island in twenty-four hours, and that on the mainland in a month or forty days. Until I received this intimation, I had not the slightest knowledge of anything of this sort which was going on, and, indeed, looked forward daily to getting into the house on the island.

I immediately called Mr. Soares to an account for treating me in this manner. His reply was, “They say, Mr. M’Leod, that I give you all the information about the slave-trade, and that I must leave the place, or that you must.” I asked him who they were, but he would not answer my question.

He told me that his father said that he must put me out of his house, to clear himself of the charge that had been brought against him by the Mozambique people. I asked him to tell me—if I was so foolish as to give up to him a house which I had taken for twelve months—where I could find another house vacant? He told me that there was not one in Mozambique; and that, if there was, the people had determined among themselves not to let me even have a room for an office, much less a house to live in.

I reminded him that he was differently treated at the Cape of Good Hope; he begged me, with tears in his eyes, not again to allude to what he could never forget; and stated that what he was doing he was compelled to do, and that if he left Mozambique it would be much worse for me.

Finding that he was quite insensible to reason, I gave him to understand that since, under numerous pretexts, he had prevented my taking absolute possession of that portion of the house on the island which was let to me, and that he was now in possession of it, why, I must submit to be deprived of it; but that, with regard to the house on the mainland, I intended to remain in it until the time agreed upon was completed, or until such time as I obtained another house. He got into a great rage, and told me that “he would remove all the slaves, and that I would be unable to live in the house then.” To which I replied “that then he would break his agreement with me.” This caused him to answer that he “did not care what he did to get me out of the house, for that his father said I must leave the place.”

From that day the slaves were gradually removed, until there was only one little child, called Azinte, left, who refused to leave.

Azinte was about eight years of age; she was a melancholy child, with intelligence far above her years. Her face was good, and there was a sweet resigned smile upon it, which interested the commonest observer.

She came especially under my wife’s notice in the following manner:—

The grown up slaves, while employed at their work, left one of the little ones always to watch their meal while it was cooking, and to keep a good fire under the pot.

On one of these occasions Azinte was left guardian; and, whether it was the pangs of hunger, or the curiosity inherent to her sex, and inherited from our common mother, Eve, which urged her, I know not, but she uncovered the pot to look at its contents, and, like many children of an older growth and a fairer skin, the temptation was too much for her, and she was caught in the act of helping herself to the old folks’ dinner. To the Mozambique negro mercy is never shown; and therefore, in the hour of his might, we cannot expect him to be merciful. Nay, cruelty for successive ages has made him cruel. Azinte’s little hand was seized by a powerful grasp, and held upon the burning faggots.

For three days and three nights she endured excruciating torments. Rosa, my wife’s maid, inquiring for her little favourite, found her hid away in an outhouse, neglected by all her companions, who would not even take her a drink of water. Rosa took the suffering child to her mistress. The little hand was in a frightful state; but by careful dressing and constant attention it was saved. The little Azinte was ever afterwards kept in the house. She would never point out the monster who had seared her hand. The little negress was very grateful, and loved my wife dearly. Many attempts were made to steal the child from us, but she escaped them all. At last, the hour of parting came; I asked Mr. Soares to give the child her freedom. He told me to buy it, and to name my own price. He would have sold me the child for one shilling; but not even to liberate could I buy a slave. Poor Azinte, you were sacrificed to a stern sense of duty. Here was a little being humanized, if not civilized; those who had raised her to that state had no control over her. She was a chattel belonging to a Portuguese of Mozambique descent, and was to be used as such. We often think what may be her fate!

When the slaves were removed from Mr. Soares’ house, in the hope of driving us away, I used every endeavour to hire some from persons in the city of Mozambique. A German merchant would have procured me the services of some, but as he could not hold slaves more than myself, he was dependent on the will of the Mozambique people, who hired their slaves to him on the express condition that he would not lend them to the British consul. On all sides, I was now beset with offers of slaves, cheap slaves to sell.

In this dilemma, I applied to the Governor-general for the loan of government slaves. At first he said he would, of course, give me what I required; but afterwards, he stated that he found it was impossible to supply me with a crew for my boat, or even one government slave.

Anticipating that things might come to this, when the Mozambique people found that what I did on my arrival to suppress the slave-trade, I continued during my sojourn among them, I had written to a Parsee house at Bombay to send me a suitable number of servants. Since my arrival in England, I have received a letter from the Parsee merchant, containing the envelope of my letter from Mozambique, to show me by the post-mark the date of its arrival at Bombay, and to prove that my order not being executed was no fault of his. The simple fact is that my letter was detained at Mozambique.

Being without any assistance in the house, if I except a sick Portuguese soldier, who used to oblige us occasionally by attending on table, I was obliged to face the work manfully. The Portuguese refused to light the fire, alleging that it was negroes’ work, and so the British consul had to do it. For months, I drew water from the well and cut up the fire-wood. The Portuguese said his arms were not strong enough to draw water from the well, and that cutting up fire-wood made his back ache; so, of course, this necessary work devolved upon me.

But there were some things I could not do—for example, cook our meals; this devolved on my wife and Rosa. Those who have a fancy to know what this was like must get some mangrove-wood, the arsenical fumes from which, after suffocating and blinding them, will render them unfit to eat anything for that day. Hard-earned was the morsel that was cooked for dinner; but the day came when we had no wood and no food, and God, in his mercy, sent our countrymen, who were the survivors of the crew of the unfortunate “Herald,” to save us.

At Mozambique, no one would wash our clothes; and for months this necessary work was performed by my wife and poor weak Rosa, with no assistance but the little Azinte, who, poor child, learned in the course of time to lay the clothes upon the grass. This necessary labour had to be performed by two delicate Englishwomen, with the thermometer ranging from 80° to 96° in the shade, and yet they are both alive at this moment.

All this had to be endured; we were in the hands of the Philistines, and we had to do battle with them; ours was the battle of patient endurance.

The Portuguese wished to degrade us in the eyes of the negroes; to show them what an inferior race the English were; that they could not keep one slave, whilst the Portuguese had hundreds.

After the severe toil of the day, we were all glad when night came, and thankful that health and strength were granted to us.

Such was the state of affairs in my house, when my German friend offered me a passage in one of the vessels belonging to his firm, which was then in port, and proceeding to Zanzibar.

Although resolved to remain at Mozambique, and maintain my post, despite all persecution, I reasoned with myself on the sinfulness of sacrificing the lives of two other persons, and, therefore, determined to avail myself of this opportunity of sending my wife and her maid to Zanzibar, to await my arrival there; as, in that case, I would have been able to find accommodation for myself on board some vessel or dhow in the harbour, until such time as the hour of deliverance arrived, by the presence of one of Her Majesty’s ships.

On proposing to my wife a visit to Zanzibar, her countenance revealed with what joy she hailed any change from that continued toil under which herself and her maid were rapidly failing. But, instantly divining that it was my intention to remain at Mozambique, and maintain my post, while she and her maid were expected to proceed to Zanzibar, with her eyes suffused with tears, she claimed, and successfully pleaded, her wife’s privilege to share her husband’s trials.

Soon afterwards my wife sent for her maid, and told her that there was a passage provided for her to Zanzibar, where arrangements would be made for her conveyance to the Cape of Good Hope, where her mother lived. But that noble girl, Rosa Smith, refused to desert her mistress; and, when this offer was again made to her, after the desertion of H.M. frigate “Castor,” she adhered to the same resolution.

From that evening, during our stay at Mozambique, in all our sufferings and privations, with sickness, hunger, and even death in my house, I never heard a murmur. Both these Englishwomen felt that they were called upon to perform a sacred duty. They suffered in a holy cause—that of the slave—and HE who “tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb” gave them strength to endure.

The following is an account of an act of brutality towards a domestic slave which came under my own eye, and the particulars of which I extract from my journal at Mozambique:—

“On Monday, the 15th of March, 1858, at 8.30 A.M., we were greatly distressed by screams, which proceeded from some fellow-being in the compound of the next house, the wall of which was about thirty yards distant from our own. Mrs. M’Leod was at the time slowly recovering from the effects of the fever, and the treatment she had received from Dr. Fonseca, and it may be easier imagined than described, what a serious effect this affair had on her system. The screams proceeding from that house were, on this occasion, more alarming than those that were heard from time to time, daily, when the female overseer was employed in punishing the slaves under her control. At last, they became so alarming that we came to the conclusion that the slaves had risen upon Portuguese Rosa, the overseer, and having succeeded in getting her into one of the outhouses, they were employed in avenging themselves for the gross and continued wrongs which they had suffered at her hands.

“Believing that this was the case, and urged by the entreaties of my wife and her maid to endeavour to save the woman from the fury of the negroes, I repaired to Mr. Soares’ house, in the court-yard of which the following revolting scene met my view:—

“Portuguese Rosa was lying on a native bed, or sofa, which was placed with its head about three feet from the doorway of an outhouse, in which cocoa-nuts were stored until required for the use of the house.

“This Portuguese woman was reclining at full length on the sofa, her chin supported by her hand, and contemplating, with evident pleasure, the disgusting scene of barbarity which was being enacted inside of the cocoa-nut house. A negro, one of the finest specimens of man I have ever looked upon, and one that an artist would have wished for a model of Apollo, was lashed up to a ladder by his hands and legs; two negroes were castigating him on his posteriors; two spare ones were waiting to relieve them, and one old negro stood by, who appeared to be a doctor, witnessing how much the sufferer could bear without being killed. The poor creature’s posteriors and thighs were covered with blood, and a pool of blood was around his feet. There lay the Portuguese woman, calmly enjoying this scene of blood, occasionally instructing the actors where to strike, when a cry of more thrilling anguish would testify to her refinement in torment.

“Anxious to put an end to this revolting scene, I asked—nay, I begged—this fiend in woman’s form to pardon and release the man.

“Instantly her dark eye was lighted up with the frenzy of intense hatred, and, turning to me, she said, ‘For anything with a white skin, I would pardon—but for you, thou champion of the slave!—never!’ Then turning to the executioners, she yelled, ‘Flog, sons of hell, flog! or else I’ll pour the boiling oil upon you.’ This drew my attention to a neighbouring fire, on which stood a pot, which, I afterwards learned, contained boiling oil. To have remained longer would have only added to the sufferings of the slave. This was a case of domestic slavery, in which, of course, I could not interfere. A late Portaria of the King of Portugal declares that this slavery shall cease in twenty years time; that is to say, continues it for that period. Subsequently, I heard that this slave was punished for disobedience of orders. Inquiring further into the matter, I learned that this noble black had refused to castigate his own mother. Women of England, and mothers of Portugal, hear me; and when you hear, speak—so that Don Pedro the Fifth, of Portugal, shall cause slavery to cease in his African dominions, and leave to his dynasty a name, the memory of which shall awaken prouder associations than those even of the Era of Conquest.”

A few days after witnessing the frightful atrocity just related, I had a letter sent to me from the master of the cruel Portuguese woman, and the owner of the godlike manly form, with a black skin, whose ignominious tortures I had witnessed, in which I was called a spy, and sundry other equally complimentary epithets, for having unfortunately witnessed a scene revolting to humanity, when I imagined I was bound on an errand of mercy, in an endeavour to save the life of a fellow-being. Of this I took no notice; but, from that moment, I felt convinced that my neighbours’ slaves were more rigorously dealt with than even before. With a refinement of devilment, during the remainder of my stay at Mozambique, the Sabbath of the Lord was set aside specially for the punishment of Mr. Soares’ negroes; and, as that Portuguese gentleman knew that the Consul of Protestant England performed the service of the Church of England, every Sunday, at eleven o’clock in the forenoon, that hour was chosen for the commencement of these harrowing tortures, which were continued until one P.M., when he imagined that the prayers of the heretic were ended. Where those cries of anguish ascended to the throne of the Omnipotent, the song of praise will, assuredly, be heard at no distant period.

The Portuguese, entirely devoted to slavery, have neglected the natives in religion, as in all other matters; and as the Makuas have not imbibed Mahometan principles from the Moors or Arabs, who do not here attempt any proselytism, there is an admirable opening at Mozambique for Protestant missionaries; but Moloch, in the shape of the slave-trade, must first be done away with, when a noble field for missionary labour will be laid open.

As a further example of the cruelty which Portuguese women perpetrate on their slaves, the following barbarity was related to me as having been inflicted in the city of Mozambique:—

A Mozambique lady, having been clearly convicted of some delinquency, by the evidence of one of her female slaves, adopted this method of punishment, which,—even among those who are in the habit of burning their slaves with red hot iron, pulling out the nails of the fingers and toes for punishment, and otherwise perpetrating, in that remote region, the horrors of the Inquisition—is spoken of with disgust. The unhappy girl was seized and firmly secured; an egg was boiled, and, on being removed from the pot, was forcibly placed in the mouth of the wretched slave. A sail-needle was then driven as a skewer through both lips, when the girl was released, and the lady owner viewed her torments. This she-devil, not yet satisfied with the punishment inflicted on her fellow-being, ordered the slave-girl to be struck on both cheeks until the egg was broken, and the scalding contents went down her throat.

The slave-trade thrives only in the African dominions of the King of Portugal; and the late Portaria of that monarch at once places His Majesty foremost among the advocates of slavery. Until slavery is entirely abolished in the African dominions of Don Pedro the Fifth, the slave-trade will flourish, while outraged humanity and the suffering Africans exclaim to that potentate, “Thou art the man!”

CHAPTER II

The Portuguese Merchant and the Governor-general—Arbitrary Measures adopted towards the Banyans—The Piratical seizure of the “Ari-passa”—Measures adopted for her Restoration—Comparison between Wellington’s Soldiers and Mozambique Soldiers—The “Ari-passa” is restored—Seizure of the British cutter “Herald.”

There being some misunderstanding as to what portion of the coast between Cape Delgado and Delagoa Bay has belonged to Portugal, and, as the British government has never been represented by any agent on that coast until within the last three years, it naturally devolved upon me, as the first British functionary employed by Great Britain in the province of Mozambique, to make myself thoroughly acquainted with the real state of the question of Portuguese possession in Eastern Africa, on which, in a great measure, hangs the future commercial development and civilization of Central Africa; and I now lay before the intelligent reader the result of my patient and impartial inquiries on the subject.

On referring to the accompanying chart of Eastern Africa, the reader will observe that the Portuguese territory consists of positions almost entirely insular—namely, Ibo, Mozambique, Killimane, Sofala, Bazarutto, Inhambane, Delagoa Bay, and Pemba Bay; at which last named place the Portuguese have made a settlement within the last year.

On the river Zambesi they also have the towns of Seña and Tete.

Some of these positions—Ibo, Mozambique, and Bazarutto—are beyond gun-shot distance of the coast, virtually exercising no authority whatever over the mainland; and, strictly speaking, from my own personal observation, the Portuguese authority, even nominally, does not extend five miles above high-water mark, nor more than that distance from any flag-staff erected by Portugal anywhere on the whole line of coast from Cape Delgado to Delagoa Bay.

Excepting at the points indicated in the accompanying chart, and already named, the Portuguese do not, and have never, even for a short period of time, held even nominal possession of the coast referred to, with the exception of what is known as the kingdom of Angoxa.

The kingdom of Angoxa, having a sea-board of ninety miles, and reaching into the interior 180 miles, is reigned over by an independent sultan, having under him from thirty to forty chiefs. It is rich in produce, which is fully described in the chapter on the “Resources of Eastern Africa.”

Soon after my arrival at Mozambique, my attention was called to the very arbitrary measures which the Portuguese authorities can adopt when it suits their purpose, showing that it is not want of power, but want of inclination, which prevents them stopping the slave-trade, and encouraging legitimate commerce. A merchant at Mozambique had a serious difference with the Governor-general, the subject of their quarrel being the French Free Labour Emigration. It appears that the merchant, having a high character for probity, had been entrusted by the French agents with the division of the head money, which was allowed to the authorities at Mozambique for the generous supply of slaves for this traffic.

The merchant acquitted his task to the satisfaction of all parties, retaining, for himself, a certain portion, to which he was entitled by agreement, as one of the promoters of this very successful scheme. During the absence of the merchant from Mozambique the Governor-general had divided the plunder, and he refused to account for the amount which was due to the merchant as his share of the transaction.

On the merchant’s return, he became again the person in whom all parties placed confidence, and he therefore re-imbursed himself from the Governor-general’s share in the next slave cargo which was supplied to a French Free Labour Emigration ship.

The Governor-general was furious, while every one applauded the justice of the merchant. Shortly afterwards, a vessel belonging to the merchant was about to sail; the Governor-general refused her permission to leave the harbour, and would assign no reason. The merchant threatened to sell the vessel to the English consul, much under her value, and to communicate the whole of the circumstances attending the transaction, unless the Governor-general allowed his vessel to sail. The Governor-general was obstinate, but at last relented. During his fit of obstinacy the uncontrollable rage of the other party caused him to make the circumstances of the case known to the English consul, who thus got a deeper insight into the slave-trade as carried on at Mozambique, and was timely prevented forwarding the application of the honest Portuguese merchant to the British government for the appointment of H.M. Vice-Consul at Mozambique, for which he had been strongly recommended to me, both verbally and in writing, by the officer commanding Her Majesty’s naval forces at the Cape of Good Hope. It requires a residence at Mozambique to unmask the slave-dealers there. One casually visiting the place is hospitably entertained, and those deepest engaged in the traffic are the loudest in their apparent denunciations of it. Thus our naval officers have been misled, and made to believe that parties there were opposed to the slave-trade when they were actually conversing with the prime movers of the whole scheme.

From the seizure of Mr. Sunley’s brig off Angoxa, and the tacit manner in which legal trade is carried on between Angoxa and Zanzibar by the Arabs, under the protection of their immediate dreaded neighbour, the Imâm of Muskat, it will be seen that a different policy is pursued by the Mozambique government towards a prince who has taught them to fear him, and the great English nation, whom they look upon as a good-natured people, inoculated with a Quixotic idea of improving the moral, intellectual, and physical condition of a race which they consider irreclaimable, and so degraded that they treat them as the brutes which perish. The sacrifices made by Great Britain in this cause are ever a subject of ridicule with the Mozambiquers; and they never lose an opportunity of retaliating in their own way upon those persons belonging to the English nation who may unfortunately fall into their power. Each individual is made answerable for the wrongs which they perseveringly assert have been heaped upon them by the suppression of the slave-trade, and even this feeling is carried out to the natives of India who may be under our rule or our protection.

I heard, from time to time, of some arbitrary measure adopted towards the Banyans, who are natives of India, trading in their sailing vessels called dhows, from various places on the Malabar coast to that of the coast of Africa. These men come over in their dhows from Goâ, which is a Portuguese settlement, and from the British settlement at Bombay, and also from Cutch, where there is a British resident, in the season of the N.E. monsoon, which blows from the month of April to that of September or October. They bring over to Mozambique what may be called the refuse of the European goods sent out to the Indian market, where they find a ready sale.

In exchange, they take back principally ivory, which, being resold in India, finds its way to Europe and America, as the best Indian transparent ivory, which is really obtained at Zanzibar and Mozambique. The profits derived from the trade which they carry on with Mozambique, to which place all the ivory of the province generally finds its way, are so considerable that the Banyans are induced to submit to great exactions and considerable injustice. They have no appeal, and must either put up with the robberies to which they are liable, or entirely abandon the trade.

It may be easily imagined that they rejoiced on seeing a British consul established at Mozambique; and they testified their satisfaction at my arrival in a variety of ways, more especially those who were sailing their dhows under the British ensign. They complained to me generally of the exorbitant tariff, and that they had been led to believe, year after year, that it would be altered. They complained of the unjust manner in which the duties were levied, and the robberies to which they had to submit from the officials in the Custom-house, against whom they dare not complain without incurring considerable delays in their business, and for which there was no redress; that the only means left to them was by bribing the officials, which was a great burden on their fair gains; and ended by saying, that if some protection was not afforded them, they would be compelled to abandon the trade altogether, as numbers had already done. These men were so intimidated by the Portuguese officials, that they feared to state even to me, their consul, the particulars of their losses, saying that, in the event of anything happening to me, they would be marked by the officials, and ruined; and they only prayed that I would generally supervise their affairs, and, in the event of any flagrant act of injustice occurring while at the port, that I would afford them that protection which they were always led to expect from a British functionary. It was with my mind thus prepared that the following piratical affair was brought under my notice:—

The Cutch dhow, “Ari-passa,” on a trading voyage, arrived at Zanzibar, in the African dominions of the Imâm of Muskat, in the month of July, 1857, which port she left on the 14th July, bound for Port Mozambique, with instructions to call at Ibo on the passage down. On leaving Zanzibar, her passport was duly visé by Colonel Hamerton, the British consul at that port, and all her papers were correct.

After going into the harbour of Ibo, the captain found that there was a great difficulty in obtaining his passport from the Governor; and as there was a considerable amount of money on board the dhow, he became alarmed for its safety, and also, I may add, for his own. However, after loudly complaining of the detention, and making some very strong observations on the cause of his detention, he was permitted to leave Ibo, and proceeded on his voyage to Mozambique. He found the wind south, or dead against him, and consequently, every night, he, as is customary with the dhows, stood in and anchored under the land, getting under weigh at daylight every morning.

It will be remembered that Vasco Guedes, then Governor-general of the province of Mozambique, had refused to supersede the governor of Ibo,[1] for supplying slaves to the “Minnetonka” American slaver, which left Ibo with a cargo of 1,200 slaves for Havannah de Cuba. The real reason for the Governor-general not superseding this delinquent governor was, that he kept his accounts properly—or, in other words, gave to the Governor-general a share of the head money for the slaves exported from Ibo, this share being (as I have already stated) six dollars for every negro shipped on board the French Free Labour ships, or the Spanish and American slavers.

We have seen these two officers, representing the King of Portugal, in defiance of all laws and commands to the contrary, engaged in the nefarious traffic in their fellow-beings.

One would imagine that this was bad enough, but the Governor-general had received an intimation that his successor had left Lisbon in the month of May, and there was no time to be lost—every opportunity must be seized for making money; so thought his worthy coadjutor at Ibo. He dare not take upon himself to plunder a vessel openly in the harbour of Ibo, but he wrote to the Governor-general of Mozambique, to inform him that this dhow was on its way to Port Mozambique, and he detained her at Ibo to give his superior time to act.

About the 20th of August, I heard that a Portuguese schooner of war, called “19 de Maio,” had left Port Mozambique, and was bound to the northward to intercept a dhow coming from Ibo, with a large quantity of bullion on board. At that time a number of extraordinary revelations were made to me relative to the slave-trade, and French Free Labour Immigration; and I naturally inquired if it was usual to intercept traders in this manner. I was told that it was not usual, but that such things did occasionally occur. I asked if the authorities had no fear of the matter being inquired into? I was answered with a laugh, and informed that “there was no one to inquire into these matters.” If inquiry was made, the reply was that the vessel had been seized for attempting to smuggle with the shore, or that it had been done to suppress the slave-trade. This was always satisfactory. But in making such a capture occasionally vessels were scuttled, when they gave no further trouble. It was evident that I was living in a nest of pirates. Let us come to the facts again.

The dhow “Ari-passa” had been gradually working down to Port Mozambique. On the 26th day of August, 1857, blowing fresh from the southward, she endeavoured to get into Conducia Bay (since celebrated by the “Charles et Georges” affair), but did not succeed in fetching it; she therefore bore up, and ran away before the wind to the entrance of Quicimajulo Bay, where she anchored, the wind still blowing fresh from the southward. Soon after she had anchored, the Portuguese schooner of war, “19 de Maio,” dashed alongside, and threw a party of soldiers on board of her. These soldiers, under the direction of their officer, forced open the hatches; and proceeded at once to the place where the boxes containing the bullion were stowed; evidently being well instructed from Ibo. They removed the money to the schooner, and then amused themselves by breaking open the boxes containing the cargo, after which the night was passed in scenes of revolting debauchery which cannot even be alluded to.

The captain and three of the crew were taken on board the schooner as prisoners; and, the next day, the schooner and her prize weighed, and after two days arrived at Mozambique.

As no house could be obtained for me in the city of Mozambique, I was obliged to live on the mainland; which had the object desired by the slave-dealers at Mozambique, who had all conspired not to let me have a house in the city, namely, to prevent my obtaining a knowledge of all their movements. In consequence of this, it was a day or two before the real state of the case came to my knowledge.

It appears that, on the arrival of the “Ari-passa” at Mozambique, the Banyans became very excited, and induced the captain to demand his release, and the immediate restoration of the vessel, asserting their intention of appealing to the British consul. The Governor-general, it appears, regretted the occurrence when he found the vessel had been brought into harbour, and had a British passport; but as the foolish captors had not sunk the vessel, it was necessary to put a bold face on the matter, and therefore a temporizing course was adopted. The prisoners were set at liberty, and vague promises made to them, with which not being satisfied, they asked permission to visit the British consul on the mainland; at first this was refused, but at length permission was granted, and a deputation waited upon me, and stated the case. The information which I had received relative to the destination of the Portuguese schooner, “19 de Maio,” came to my recollection, and I found that the “Ari-passa” was the vessel which she had been sent to capture.

The facts of the case were duly deposed before me by Hery, the captain of the dhow; and I made myself thoroughly master of the whole subject, by examining a number of the crew, and inquiry into the whole circumstances of the affair.

I then addressed the Governor-general in writing, and asked His Excellency to inform me, why the dhow “Ari-passa” had been seized, and her crew, under British protection, had been ill-treated and imprisoned? To which he replied that the “Ari-passa” was “found in communication with Quitangonha, which was forbidden, and in consequence she was seized, as being suspected of smuggling, and she was delivered to the tribunals according to law.”

Now, I knew that being delivered to the “tribunals according to law” meant that, having been plundered of the bullion by the Governor-general, she was then handed over to the judge, to see what he could make out of her in the way of a bribe, or fine, to release her and her cargo; and was only submitting to be further robbed. It was, therefore, necessary to adopt bold measures, and to let Vasco Guedes know that I was acquainted with the circumstances connected with her capture. And although I could not write and state what I knew about the Governor of Ibo writing to him relative to the “Ari-passa,” and the arrangements which were made in consequence, because I would then have to state who my informant was, still I addressed His Excellency in such a manner that he could not doubt that I was fully aware of all that had taken place. I particularly pointed out that the vessel was seized at anchor at the entrance of Quicimajulo Bay, which was, at least, twenty miles from Quitangonha; that she had simply anchored from stress of weather; that it was usual for dhows working along the coast to anchor every night, and that the vessel had not communicated with the shore. I then stated the manner in which the dhow had been boarded by the “19 de Maio,” by dashing alongside like a pirate, and throwing a party of armed boarders on to the deck of a peaceful trader, laying emphasis on the manner in which the soldiers had broken open the boxes containing money, and rifled the cases containing cargo, and designated the whole affair as an illegal and piratical seizure. “Suaviter in modo et fortiter in re,”—is a good diplomatic motto; but, in dealing with Portuguese one must not forget the “fortiter in re.”

The Governor-general’s reply is one of the richest things on record. He commences by stating:—

“That it is with regret that he sees a vessel, the flag of which is under the protection of Great Britain, engaged in illicit commerce, more especially as in the province of Mozambique every facility is afforded for legitimate commerce to ships of all nations, and particularly to those of a friendly ally.

“That in regard to the deposition of the captain of the ‘Ari-passa,’ which I had sent to him, he doubts its correctness; for the captain does not mention her stay at Ibo, which was the most important circumstance connected with his voyage. That the dhows from India bear very suspicious characters; as a proof of which, one of the dhows from India lately entered the port with a cargo of fire-wood! But, however the matter may be, it was not for his Excellency and myself to settle it, but the tribunals, before which the depositions ought to be made.”

His Excellency then indulged in a geographical disquisition relative to Quicimajulo and Quitanhonga, and admitted that my knowledge might be correct as to their relative positions.

With reference to the conduct of the soldiers who boarded the “Ari-passa,” he reminded me of what the illustrious Lord Wellington himself states as to the conduct of his soldiers in the Peninsula, contained in his letters addressed to Viscount Castlereagh; and, also, begs me to bear in mind that, it is said, similar acts are practised by the British cruisers on the coast of Angola, and also on that of Mozambique; and that, in fine, he possesses a document of a recent date, in which the depositions of the crew and passengers are given, of one of the Portuguese vessels coming from India, which, being at anchor in Conducia Bay, was boarded by a boat from a British cruiser; that the officers searched the Portuguese vessel, broke the seals of the dispatches addressed to the custom-house, and endeavoured also, during the night, to introduce chains, or slave-irons, on board the vessel, so as to seize her as a slaver.

The fact of the matter was, that the Governor-general, at that time, was hard pressed by me on the subject of the slave-trade. I had discovered, in the short space of a month, all the ramifications of the slave-trade which he had established at Mozambique, under the denomination of the French Free Labour Emigration Scheme, and how the victims for that traffic were supplied from the interior of Africa, renewing the horrors of the slave-trade in the heart of that continent.

This letter was evidently written to annoy and irritate the British consul; but, coming from such a source, I could well afford to smile at the insult to my country, in comparing the glorious soldiers of Wellington, who, on their victorious bayonets, carried liberty to Spain and Portugal, to the convicted and degraded felons who formed the soldiery of Mozambique. In regard to the statement directed against the British navy, I simply let that matter rest until the arrival of a British ship of war, the commander of which considered it beneath notice.

The Scotchman kept his temper, and simply renewed his demand for the unconditional release of the “Ari-passa.” Some days afterwards I received an invitation for my wife and myself to drink a cup of tea at the palace; and a postscript was added by his Excellency, intimating that the “Ari-passa” was restored!

Yes, the “Ari-passa” was restored, because there was a British consul there to protect her; but how many “Ari-passas” have been seized and plundered without redress! Some portion of the money which had been robbed from this vessel could not be found when restoration was ordered; this was put down to the soldiers, who had been compared to the companions of Wellington; but the Banyan appeared well contented with what was given back to him, and begged me to let the matter drop.

It is necessary to show how this affair affected the owner of the “Ari-passa.” In consequence of her seizure, and the delay in restoring the vessel, she could not get away from Mozambique for her return voyage to Bombay, whither she was bound, until late in the month of September. On the voyage across the Indian Ocean the south-west monsoon failed her, and she was obliged to bear up for Zanzibar, from which place she returned to Mozambique in the month of December, 1857. She was in Mozambique harbour during the hurricane on the 1st of April, 1858, during which she suffered considerable damage, and was nearly lost. Had she reached Bombay in the end of 1857, her valuable cargo would have arrived at a good market; but as she could not leave Mozambique until after the setting in of the south-west monsoon, she did not reach her destination until late in 1858, when we all know she found a depreciated market for her cargo, owing to the Indian mutiny. Add to this the loss sustained by the depreciation of the value of her cargo by being so long in her hold, the wages and keep of her crew, and the loss of the vessel’s earnings during twelve months.

At Mozambique I obtained her release; and the same sense of duty to my country induces me to make the affair known in England, in order that the merchants of Great Britain may urge upon the British government that redress to which the mercantile community of this country are entitled. Be it remembered that these dhows frequenting Mozambique from Bombay, and other places in India, are laden with British goods sent to supply the Indian markets, and thence exported to East Africa.

I have already mentioned that when at Natal, on my way to Mozambique, a deputation from the Chamber of Commerce of Natal did me the honour of waiting upon me, in order to bring forcibly before my notice the great desire of the enterprising merchants of that young and energetic colony to trade with the neighbouring Portuguese possessions, and to explain the great and apparently insurmountable obstacles to carrying on any relations with the rich tract of country lying between Cape Delgado and Delagoa Bay.

The following letter, among others, was addressed to me by Mr. Cato of that place:—

(Copy.)

“Port Natal, 6th July, 1857.

“Dear Sir,

“I am glad that H.M.S. ‘Hermes’ called off this port, as it has afforded me the pleasure of paying my respects to you on your way to your Consulate, which I trust will be the commencement of more extended relations.

“I have long been anxious to see a trade established between this port and some of the ports to the northward; but the difficulties, official and others, have been so great, that no honest man could overcome, and make his trading speculation pay him. The duties and port charges demanded at the said ports have been the cause of complaint with every person that I have known attempt to trade in that direction.

“Should you at any time wish to send letters overland to this place, I would advise that they be sent to the Norwegian mission station in the Zulu country, addressed to me.

“The head of the mission in that country is the Rev. H. Schreuder—the farthest station from this is the Empangeni.

“On your arrival at your destination, and at your convenience, if you would favour me with the tariff of duties and charges at the different ports within your jurisdiction, I should feel obliged;—also—if not asking too much—add the facilities at those ports—pilots, boats, depth of water on the bars, produce obtainable, articles in demand, with any information you may think proper, or likely to lead to a trade. Placing my services at your disposal,

“I have the honour to be, dear Sir,

“Yours obediently,

“G. C. Cato.

“To Lyons M’Leod, Esq., H.M. Consul,
East Coast of Africa.

“Allow me to mention that I have the honour to represent at this port—Swedish and Norwegian Vice-Consul, Danish Vice-Consul, American Consular Agent, and Lloyd’s Agent.

“G. C. Cato.”

From the above letter it will be observed what a strong desire there was for trade with the province of Mozambique, and an anxious inquiry as to the capabilities of the country, of which little is known even at Natal, and much less in the mother country. It is to be hoped that this work will supply the wants of the mercantile community as to information regarding the productions of this rich country, and also as to the proper means of establishing commercial relations on a healthy basis.

Various attempts have been made to establish trade between Natal and Delagoa Bay; and it is openly stated by the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay, that more Englishmen have perished in these attempts from the poisoned cup than from the deleterious climate. In England people may be startled at this statement, but the Natal people will be only too glad to hear that such a statement has gone forth to the world, as it may call for a searching inquiry into the fate of those who have perished, and give some hope that property, belonging to British subjects, now lying there, may be restored. Any one who will visit Delagoa Bay may make himself satisfied with the correctness of these statements; and, once for all, let it be said, that nothing is asserted in this work which, if an opportunity is given, cannot be proved.

I have already drawn attention to an able letter which appeared in the Natal Mercury, from Mr. G. W. Duncan,[2] of Natal, on his return from a trading voyage to Delagoa Bay. Not many months afterwards—viz., on the 15th of November, 1857, a small cutter named the “Herald,” of eleven tons burthen, set sail from Port Natal, duly registered, and licensed for a trading coast voyage. She was bound to the river King George, which discharges itself into Delagoa Bay. The cutter was commanded by Mr. G. W. Duncan, and his friend, Mr. Charles Hilliard, who had been on a former voyage with Mr. Duncan, accompanied him as mate. The crew consisted of three men.

To make this affair clearly understood, it will be necessary to explain that the southern extreme limit of the Portuguese claim to possession on the east coast of Africa was but ill defined until, in 1823, it was settled by Captain W. F. Owen, R.N., when making his remarkable survey of that coast. Without entering into minute details of the arrangement made on that occasion, which it will be found is fully entered into in another part of this work,[3] it will be necessary to state that a line drawn due west from Cape Iniack marks the boundary of the Portuguese and British possessions in that bay; the territory to the south of the said line having been ceded to the British government by the natives of the country in 1823. To the northward of that line lies that extensive and valuable tract of country claimed by the Portuguese, to which the natives everywhere dispute their right, and along which the Portuguese have, as already explained at the opening of this chapter, a few insular positions, from which they interfere with legitimate, and carry on slave, trade.

The mouth of the river King George, to which the cutter “Herald” was bound, is in Delagoa Bay, to the northward of the line already described, and, consequently, within the line of coast claimed by the Portuguese. The river King George is called by the natives Manakusi; they claim sole right of dominion over the river, and acknowledge no superior power but that of their king, Manakusi, and his subordinate chiefs.

It will be seen by the letter of Mr. Duncan, already referred to, that he was fully aware that the Portuguese, in the adjoining small settlement of Lourenço Marques, claimed the entrance to the river King George, and that they informed him, in reply to a request to trade there, that if he attempted to enter the river he was liable to seizure going in and coming out. Nevertheless, the “Herald,” on this voyage, entered the river from the sea, by a channel discovered by Mr. Duncan, and proceeded up it.

The object of the expedition was to open friendly relations with the natives; to engage a hunting party, and establish an ivory trade, for which purpose a piece of ground was to be purchased, and a wooden house built for a depôt of goods and ivory.

The cargo of the “Herald” was well selected for the trade proposed to be established. The cutter and cargo were valued at 1,200l., and the estimated clear profit, after paying the amount invested, and all expenses and charges, was 2,400l., being a return of 200 per cent. on the original outlay. This instance alone will show what immense profits would be derived from trading with the natives, if the east coast of Africa was thrown open to legitimate traffic; and how the immediate neighbouring British colony of Natal would be enriched.

The Portuguese, from their neighbouring settlement of Lourenço Marques, are occasionally permitted to ascend the river in boats; this permission must first be obtained from the king of the river. When the application is made, it is always accompanied by a present; and if granted, which is only done in the trading season, the king demands a present from each boat ascending the river. Whenever the Portuguese have attempted to ascend the river without permission from the king, they have been attacked by the natives, and, if captured, compelled to pay a heavy ransom.

The “Herald” proceeded up the river, and the king, Manakusi, having heard of the arrival of an English vessel in the river to trade, immediately sent messengers with a welcome, who were returned with presents for their master.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese at Lourenço Marques heard of the entrance of this small English vessel into the river King George, and in her immediately recognized the “Herald,” which had been trading with themselves some months previous. Governor Mochado had received a copy of Mr. Duncan’s letter, which appeared in the Natal Mercury, and so fearfully exposed what was going on at Lourenço Marques; and he longed to be revenged on the Englishman who had dared to publish what he had seen. Lieutenant Silva was despatched in charge of nearly the whole of the available force at Lourenço Marques, and that officer found himself placed at the head of a formidable force, consisting of about 100 men, armed with old flint muskets, principally negroes belonging to the Crown, assisted by a few of the convict soldiers who formed the garrison of that place. They were embarked in three large launches, without any sails, and a very short supply of oars, ammunition, and provisions. It is therefore not surprising that they took more than two weeks to overtake the “Herald,” which, at that time, was about 120 miles up the river. On the 6th of December, the “Herald” was overtaken by this formidable party. The advanced force consisted, of course, of armed negroes; and Captain Duncan, imagining that they might be the natives of the country meditating an attack, anchored the cutter, and prepared to defend the vessel. But on the other two launches, with troops in them, making their appearance, he began to surmise whence the hostile force had come. Observing the “Herald” anchor, and prepare to defend herself, the Portuguese launches dropped down the river, landed a party on each bank, and took up a position on either side, abreast of the cutter. Mr. Duncan hereupon hailed the soldiers in Portuguese, to request their commandant to come alongside, informing them that he was not a pirate, but a trader.

The commandant accordingly came alongside, and informed Mr. Duncan that he had orders from the Governor of Lourenço Marques to take the cutter, and all she contained, together with all on board, to Governor Mochado.

Mr. Duncan, believing that he was in native waters, over which King Manakusi had dominion, asked Lieutenant Silva for his authority. That officer replied that intelligence had been received from a native chief that a boat, unlike any which had been seen before, had gone up the river; and that the chief, fearing those on board, had solicited the assistance of the Portuguese government at Lourenço Marques. Mr. Duncan replied that he was quite sure that such was not the impression at that time, for he had already established friendly relations. To which the commandant replied that he had his orders, and must comply with them.

Mr. Duncan now informed his captor that he had two men on shore, and that he could not consent to leave without them; and Lieutenant Silva consented to their being sent for.

The news soon spread of the interruption to the trade which was just about opening between the natives and the English, and a formidable number of negroes collected from all parts. The position of the English was soon made known to the natives, by the negroes belonging to the Portuguese; and the natives claimed the cutter for their prize, alleging that she was in their waters, where the Portuguese had never been before. Shortly afterwards, a conference took place between the contending parties, viz., the Portuguese officers and the native chiefs. The native chiefs declared that if they gave up their claim to the vessel, they certainly would have a handsome ransom. Lieutenant Silva sent for Mr. Duncan, and informing him what had passed at the conference with the chiefs, stated that he thought Mr. Duncan would have to sacrifice half, if not the whole, of the cargo to get out of the river, and begged him earnestly to sacrifice the cargo to save the lives of the party. Mr. Duncan said it was too late that night to do anything; he would consider the matter, and give his decision next morning. On the following morning, December the 8th, Mr. Duncan took an early opportunity of informing Lieutenant Silva that he considered himself his prisoner, and the vessel his capture—whether illegal or otherwise, was a matter for after-consideration; that he consequently ceased to exercise any authority over the cargo, and the commandant might do as he pleased. But that, although a prisoner, if it was the commandant’s intention to fight his way, he might depend upon him for assistance.

Meanwhile, the natives had not been idle. Under the direction of their king they had made the river impassable, until such time as their wants were satisfied. During the previous day, and on the morning of the 8th, canoes were observed floating down the river—sometimes one alone, at other times two or three lashed together; these were collected at a narrow part of the river, and with them a boom was formed, rendering all exit from the river impossible. Above this boom, on each side of the river, an army (as the natives called it) was placed; and the king gave Lieutenant Silva to understand that it was his intention to enforce his sovereign rights, and make the commandant pay handsomely for the ransom of himself and party, when he might take the cutter with him; warning him that next time he came up the river, without previously receiving permission from King Manakusi, the consequences would be more serious. Another attempt was made to induce Mr. Duncan to pay the ransom, but he simply replied that he was no longer a free agent, but a prisoner.

At last, after much disputation with the natives, Lieutenant Silva, commandant of the Portuguese force, took from the cargo of the British cutter “Herald” sixty pounds sterling worth of goods, to pay for the release of himself and party, and to be permitted to take with him the “Herald.” The boom was then removed, and King Manakusi bade him “go!”—at the same time warning him what the consequences would be, not only to any Portuguese whom he might find in the river without his permission, but to the settlement at Lourenço Marques, if they again attempted to infringe on his territory. This Lieutenant Silva knew was no idle threat; for the fort, as it is called, at Lourenço Marques, is frequently in imminent peril from the natives, who generally inflict some punishment on the Portuguese annually, after the trading season is ended, as a return for some injury inflicted during that period.

Previous to getting under weigh, the two men who were missing from the “Herald” joined the party, one being ill with fever.

Soon after weighing, it became apparent that the captors were quite incompetent to manage the prize, and Lieutenant Silva was obliged to ask Mr. Duncan to navigate the “Herald” to Lourenço Marques. The following remarks are from Mr. Duncan’s journal, and show the relative position of the English and the Portuguese in this affair:—

“On our way down the river, it was somewhat novel that, although prisoners, we were left on board to enjoy our floating home, contrary to all instructions; a condescension worthy of esteem, had it emanated from a feeling of sympathy or kindness; for although the accommodation on board our cutter was far from being sufficient for any length of time, yet it was a palace compared with the wretched condition which those miserable creatures were in, in their open boats, and which we should have had to endure, had it not been that on us alone they depended to take their cutter with a deck-load of their vermin to Lourenço Marques; for though so many in number, there was not one sailor among them who could work the craft.

“This doubtless will appear strange, especially to persons who understand the nature of such an expedition, not to be provided with a few mariners to carry out, to the strict letter, their orders. What could be more absurd than to entrust those whom they considered their prisoners to take the cutter, and a host of their force on board, to where they had orders to take her? Doubtless it was to their overwhelming numbers compared with us, more especially as they were armed to the teeth, that they trusted. But could they have conceived the danger they placed themselves in, they would have been glad to take to their boats when we got into the open bay, and let us go; for nothing could have been more easy, with a strong breeze blowing from the southward and eastward, having a good offing, and the sea running considerably high, than to have washed the deck, and rid ourselves of the nuisance. Nothing but an opinion of their proceedings being unlawful, and a hope of having full damages awarded through the official interposition of H.M. Consul, Mr. M’Leod, prevented me ridding the world of an intolerable portion of its offscourings.

“On the evening of the third day’s sail down the river we arrived at Lourenço Marques harbour, and shortly after coming to an anchor, an order came for the rudder of the cutter to be unshipped and sent on shore; between ten and eleven o’clock another order, for her mainsail to be unbent and sent on shore, together with the guns, which had been kept loaded in the cabin, and the ship’s papers. Next day, an order came for the cutter to be got under weigh and laid on the beach, without her rudder and mainsail, and a fresh breeze blowing off the land.

“As it was to me the Governor sent the orders, I refused to comply, telling him that I would not undertake to do any such thing—that I considered his orders absurd,—that I thought I had done sufficient in bringing the vessel, cargo, Portuguese troops, and his people safe into port—that if he wished to humbug the boat about, he must send men of his own, and at his own risk. Shortly afterwards, a large barge was sent off, manned with negroes, to tow her on shore, which was accomplished, but not without considerable difficulty.

“On the following day, Saturday, the 12th December, everything was taken out of her and carried into the fort. That done, we were all ordered to land, and marched into the fort, the sick among us being placed in the same room.

“In the afternoon, myself and two others were ordered back to the boat, the sick sent to a place on the opposite side of the square in the fort, called an infirmary, a most wretched apology for one; it was far inferior to the one attached to the D’Urban Gaol in comfort, although much larger. The scenes witnessed there by our sick I leave them to describe, should they be disposed to do so. As to the district surgeon, his attention, and the use of means placed at his disposal, nothing can be said against him.

“A Portuguese who had shipped with us as cook was kept in the fort, and allowed greater latitude than any of us who were sent on board the cutter. He was allowed to walk in and out of the fort at pleasure, and to dispose of a number of articles which, with the assistance of the Portuguese guard, he had stolen from the cargo of the ‘Herald.’

“Why this Portuguese should be allowed to remain in the vessel when all were ordered on shore, he being one of the crew, seems strange, and more so that he should be kept in the fort when we were ordered back to the ‘Herald;’ except it is, as I have since imagined, to make him an instrument to effect some purpose for which he is very capable; for a more unmitigated scoundrel never could exist. I said that he is an instrument to effect some purpose; for, on our embarking on board the brig ‘Clara,’ all the officers belonging to Lourenço Marques were on board; and on their leaving the vessel I heard the Commandant-Lieutenant Silva say, ‘You know what has been said to you, take care!’ To which he replied that he would.

“On Monday, the 21st December, 1857, we set sail for Mozambique, on board of a Portuguese brig, called ‘Clara,’ commanded by Señhor José Antonio de Olliveira. Their object in sending us is as yet a mystery, nothing having been said to us by any of the authorities. Nor was I summoned to appear before any one to answer for myself, except before the Collector of Customs, to whose office I was marched under a guard of four soldiers and a corporal, armed with muskets and fixed bayonets,—treated more like a brigand than a man endeavouring to establish friendly and peaceable commercial relations among that portion of the uncivilized inhabitants dwelling on the banks of the river King George.

“Our passage to Mozambique was more than persons in our circumstances could possibly expect. Strange to say, after the barbarous treatment I had received during my stay of nine days, a close prisoner on board the cutter, with a guard of four soldiers over me, that a cabin passage should have been provided for me, with everything necessary for my support and comfort at discretion. Those of the crew, five in number, were not so comfortable as I should have wished, there being no other accommodation for them than the longboat, with a tarpaulin for an awning. Two of them were very ill from the effects of marsh fever, one especially being, as I considered, in a dangerous state; but who has up to the present gradually improved, by taking the medicines that I had fortunately provided, their properties being very efficacious.

“With respect to the kindness of Captain José Antonio Olliveira, his officers and crew, to assist in promoting the comfort of our party while on board the ‘Clara,’ too much cannot be said; more especially the captain, who was a perfect gentleman, and worthy of that name in its purest sense, the very opposite, indeed, of almost all of his countrymen at Lourenço Marques, Governor Mochado included. I had, indeed, many fears, on embarking, that ill-treatment would have been continued during our passage; but happy am I to state that, amidst many troubles, the passage to Mozambique was an interval of ease and plenty, added to which was the pleasure derived from delightful weather. Nothing could have proved a greater relief and change (except that of being homeward-bound in our little craft), from what we had suffered under the Russian despotism of the Portuguese Governor Mochado, at Lourenço Marques.

“The care of those of our party who were sick, and the fear that they would not survive the passage, caused me great anxiety; but when in that I was favoured, having the daily pleasure of seeing them rapidly improving, nothing, at last, seemed to burden my mind, excepting a strong desire of arriving at Mozambique, buoyed with the hope that through the official interposition of H.B.M.’s Consul, Mr. M’Leod, we would meet with a speedy settlement of the affair, and thereby enable me the sooner to return to Natal.

“This composure and satisfaction for myself, and for those who were with me, was not continued to me long, for on the 31st December I had the pain of reading the burial-service over the remains of one of my crew, John Fysh, a young man, aged nineteen years, who not many days previous enjoyed perfect health, and who was remarked by all on board as a fine, healthy young man. On the 23rd December, about ten o’clock in the evening, I was pacing the deck, when the deceased appeared coming from the forepart of the ship; I seriously reproved him for his imprudence in being on deck so late in a heavy cold dew, after an excessively hot day, with nothing on but light trousers and a very thin flannel. The following day he did not appear well, but did not complain; the day after I went to see him, found him very feverish, and gave searching medicine.

“On Sunday, the 27th, according to his own statement, feeling as well as he ever did, he dressed himself, and in the hottest part of the forenoon I saw him under the port-bow of the longboat, on his knees, cutting out a pair of trousers for one of the ship’s company. I reproved him, telling him that it was the Sabbath-day, and that the scorching heat of the sun under the lee of the boat might affect him more than the dew had a few days previous. On Monday he complained of not being well, but did not seem much indisposed. On Tuesday he was very bad. I gave him medicine, and blistered him on the back of the head, kept him on low diet, &c., but the treatment adopted had no effect.”

On the 3rd January, 1858, the Portuguese brig “Clara” arrived at Mozambique, when Mr. Duncan and his unfortunate companions claimed the protection of the British consul, and the next day they were provided for by me.

The following extract from the statement of Mr. Charles Hilliard, a highly intelligent man, who accompanied Mr. Duncan as his mate, in the “Herald,” throws additional light on this affair, and shows us that considerable changes among the Portuguese on the east coast of Africa must take place if commercial relations are to be established with the interior of the country by way of the magnificent rivers on that coast:—

“On a previous trip to Lourenço Marques, Captain Duncan had, out of charity, taken three poor starving wretches, by permission of the Portuguese Governor of that place, to Natal. One of these men, João Alberto, shipped with us on this voyage as cook and interpreter, pretending also to a knowledge of the language of the natives to whom we were going. After the seizure of the vessel by the Portuguese on our way to Lourenço Marques, he ingratiated himself with the half-starved soldiers who were on board, by stealing the ship’s bread for them at night, in which he was several times detected. On the removal of the cargo from the vessel to the fort, at Lourenço Marques, he gained the patronage of the guard by treating them with liquor he had stolen from the cabin, part of which I took from him while serving it out; and in the confusion and pillage that took place, and which neither the captain, myself, nor the custom-house officers could restrain, he was leader, throwing articles out on the beach, breaking, and wasting their contents. And in a scuffle that ensued for some private articles between him, assisted by the guard, and a fellow from the shore called the harbour-master, and one of the crew, John Fysh, he attempted the life of Fysh, by stabbing him twice with a clasp knife; and I got some blows on the breast from the butt of the corporal’s musket in endeavouring to save Fysh.

“When we were sent back to the vessel, he was allowed to remain in the fort, and to keep for his own use a number of articles, beads, handkerchiefs, pieces of blue calico, &c., belonging to the cargo of the vessel, which he had stolen with the assistance of the guard, and afterwards sold; and in a few days many of the Portuguese troops were dressed in new blue cotton jackets, the property of J. D. Koch, Esq., of Natal.

“At Lourenço Marques he wanted to leave the cutter’s crew, but, finding that if he did so the Portuguese would make him carry the musket again, and give him a sound flogging into the bargain, he claimed the protection of the British flag, and was sent on board the ‘Clara,’ where he again refused to do anything, even to carry refreshments from the galley to his sick shipmates; for which he was treated with just contempt by his countrymen.

“During our stay at Delagoa Bay, no examination of any one, not even the captain, took place respecting our voyage, nor were any questions asked upon the subject.

“The object of the expedition was to open friendly commercial intercourse with the natives of Manakusi, or River King George, for which we had an assorted cargo, to engage a hunting party and obtain a place from the natives, or build a house for a depôt of goods and ivory.

“As great stress has been laid on the monstrous ingratitude of Captain Duncan (in the Portuguese despatches) in firing a pistol at Lieutenant Silva (who had so generously come to save him), I assert that it is a base falsehood, as Captain Duncan neither burnt a grain of gunpowder, nor had a pistol in his hands during the affair. What did take place was done by myself. One barrel of my rifle, which I was loading, not being clear, I blew some loose powder out of it to clear it, but which I don’t believe either the lieutenant, or any of his party, so much as saw the smoke of, they having pulled away round a bend of the river below us, and were wholly hidden from view by a thick border of high reeds.”

How it fared with the master and crew of the “Herald” at Mozambique will be related in the following chapters. Meanwhile, enough has been stated in this one to show the restrictions which are thrown in the way of legitimate trade.

CHAPTER III.

Escape of British Consul and Party from the Attack of the Natives—Supplies Cut Off—Governor-General Protects the Consul—Insolence of the Portuguese Guard—The Crew of the Cutter “Herald” Arrive—The Consul’s Position Improved—Insolence of the Portuguese Coxswain Exposed—The Governor-General furnishes the Consul with a Guard—The Slave-dealers Disband the Mozambique Police, and the Consul is without a Guard—Fever Attacks the Inmates of the Consul’s House—The Portuguese Doctors Refuse to Render any Assistance—Mr. Duncan Dies—Hurricane at Mozambique.

Having learned that there was a house to let at Messuril, I called upon the owner of it in the city of Mozambique, and as he asked me a yearly rent of seventy-five pounds sterling, and assured me “that it was just the residence suitable for a British consul,” I determined to go and see what it was like; and according to arrangement with the owner of it, the next afternoon I went to Messuril, accompanied by Mrs. M’Leod and her maid. On approaching the house, we saw at once that sending us to look at it was intended as an insult, for it was nothing more than a large hut with the walls whitewashed, and indeed was but little better than the stable of the house I was then living in. However, as we had seen the outside, we determined to look at the inside, and entered it for that purpose, when we found there was not an apartment in it that would contain my bed. Before entering the house, I had made a remark on the loneliness of the situation, and what a distance it was from the sea; and while examining the house, and smiling at the impertinence of those who had played off such a practical joke on us, I observed that a number of people were collecting round the carriage. I hurried my wife and her maid into the carriage, and made the best of my way to the palace, as the native war-drums were sounding, and a number of the natives, armed with assegais and muskets, were collecting round us, yelling and shouting. As soon as I got in sight of the guard at the palace of Messuril, the natives stopped and made off to the road by which we usually went to Messuril. Here I was met by one of the native Portuguese soldiers, who desired me to save my party by taking the lower road nearer the sea. I therefore pushed on for my house by that road, and when the natives observed that we had escaped, they began yelling and shouting at their own discomfiture.

In the time of Vasco Guedes, when he was encamped at Messuril with all the available force in Mozambique, and the war was going on between him and the natives, my wife, accompanied only by her maid, frequently drove fearlessly through numbers of the natives; she was never annoyed, but always treated by them with great respect.

I therefore brought this matter under the notice of the Governor in a semi-official note, and he took care to have the guard on the alert at Messuril after that occurrence.

Subsequently I had inquiries made among the natives, and I found that a party of strange people, who had come in to barter, were engaged to attack us; and that, humanly speaking, we owed our safety to going to Messuril at an earlier hour than was anticipated.

Soon after this event, finding that we were not to be tempted into the country again to our destruction, Mr. Soares sent one Sunday morning to borrow the carriage and horse, and forgot to return them.

After this occurrence, the natives were ordered by their masters, the neighbouring Portuguese, not to sell us anything; and some of them having been seen to enter my house for the purpose of selling fowls and eggs, they were waylaid by the overseers of the neighbouring plantations and cruelly beaten.

Those slaves who were in the habit of bringing fire-wood to my house, by the sale of which they obtained food for themselves, were forbidden to come near the house; and there was a cordon of slaves established for the purpose of preventing any supplies coming near us. But the slaves were more considerate than their masters, and for a time some of the very slaves who were set to keep a watch over the house, and prevent any supplies reaching us, came after dark with wood, fowls, eggs, and milk.

This went on for some time, until they were betrayed by the other slaves of our neighbours, when a more rigid look-out was established, and regular night parties were told off, not only to watch the house for the purpose of preventing any supplies arriving, but also to disturb us at all hours of the night.

In the dead of the night a tremendous thumping would be heard at the door of the house, disturbing us out of our sleep; when, on going to one of the windows to see the cause of this disturbance, there would be no one near the house. Hardly had I returned to my bed, when again I was obliged to rise from the same cause.

I had recourse to the Governor-general in this state of affairs, and he promised that he would establish a night patrol. Finding that this was only a promise, after putting up with it for three weeks longer, during which I had been frequently disturbed four, five, and six times of a night, I addressed his Excellency officially, when he informed me that this was the first intimation which he had received of my having been molested, and forthwith he supplied me with a night patrol. The annoyance ceased at once, and we had some rest at night.

However, the Capitain-Mor, commanding on the mainland, ordered the patrolling to cease, and the slave-dealers, apprized by him of the circumstance, ordered their slaves to renew their midnight attacks on my house.

I was obliged to make another official intimation to the Governor-general, when the patrol was restored, with an intimation from the Governor-general that it had been discontinued without his knowledge, and contrary to his express orders, and that he had, in consequence, visited the Capitain-Mor with a severe reprimand, and directions to continue the patrol as long as I remained resident on the mainland.

The Portuguese patrol now informed me that they were directed to intimate to me their presence, and that they would do so as long as I desired it. They arrived about eleven o’clock at night, and intimated their presence by battering the house-door with the butts of their muskets. They patrolled the house and grounds until four o’clock in the morning, and during the whole of that time they kept up an incessant yelling from one to the other. There were four men and a sergeant, and every time they came to the front of the house they made an attack on the front door with the butts of their muskets, accompanying the assault with the most frightful oaths in Portuguese. When I remonstrated with the sergeant, he coolly informed me that he was obeying his orders by thus intimating his presence, and that he was instructed to do so on every occasion that he visited the house; that my remonstrances were in vain, and that he would continue this as long as I required a patrol. For three more nights this continued, we in the house being obliged to go without any sleep. On the fifth night a violent storm rid us of our persecutors; and, as I did not make another official complaint to the Governor-general, the patrol was discontinued.

As soon as the slave-dealers were aware of this, their slaves were sent again to disturb us, during the night, not only by stoning the house at all hours after dark, but even, at times, by firing musketry close under the windows.

This state of affairs went on until, at last, we had no fire-wood to light a fire, and all the old casks and packing-cases in the house were being fast consumed. Since the desertion of the “Castor” frigate, things were worse and worse, and I even found that the Governor-general could not be prevailed upon to carry out the promises of assistance which he had made me.

Finding that I had been so shamefully deserted by one of Her Majesty’s ships, immediately after the seizure of the “Charles et Georges” he began to be quite careless about the suppression of the slave-trade, and informed me that, with the best intention, he found himself quite powerless to protect me; in fact, he began to dread the consequences of the decisive step which he had taken by seizing the “Charles et Georges;” and, I believe, had made his mind up to see myself and family perish from the state of starvation which we were in by the rigid blockade established by the slave-dealers.

He knew that I had not a slave in my house, and that the only means of communication which I had with him was in writing, by way of his palace at Messuril. To get a letter there, I had to fee a negro well, for he ran the risk of being flogged for having any communication with my house; and, on his arrival at Messuril, he was obliged to fee the sergeant of the guard to send the letter to Mozambique. The Governor-general had promised to provide a house for me on the island, and in the city of Mozambique, but he found he could not procure one—at least, so he said. His Excellency had asked me to wait for some servants until the “Charles et Georges” was condemned, and that then he would place under my protection as many of the slaves comprising her cargo as I was willing to take charge of, knowing, as he said, that they could not be in kinder hands, until it was decided what was to be done with them. But here I found that he had otherwise arranged, for, it having been represented to him that if those slaves got into my hands I should be able to learn who their masters were, and also who were the owners of the other slaves on board of that vessel, it was decided that they should be returned to their owners in the city of Mozambique.

On being apprized of this distribution of the slaves, it became more certain that the state of imprisonment in which I was held on the mainland was decided to continue.

Fortunately for me, at this juncture, the crew of the British cutter “Herald,” which had been illegally seized by the Portuguese, when trading with the natives in the Manakusi river, arrived at Mozambique, and the Governor-general, now that I had some more witnesses to testify to the treatment to which I was subjected by the officials and slave-dealers, attended to my requisition for a government boat to communicate with him relative to the cutter “Herald.” The Superintendent of the Dock-yard, a notorious slave-dealer, sent this boat over for me without an awning, in the mid-day sun, although, at all other times, the boat was fitted with an awning. The object which he contemplated by this arrangement was to give me fever by exposure to the sun. He succeeded in this. The government slaves, who rowed the boat, were ordered by this officer not to carry me into the boat, so that I would be compelled to walk through the water up to my knees. The coxswain of the boat was made drunk, so as to be excessively insolent to me.

On this occasion I was accompanied by the late Mr. G. W. Duncan, the captain of the “Herald,” who, from having been in the Brazils some five years, spoke Portuguese fluently. I had cautioned him not to speak a word but English on the passage across to the town; and, on my arrival at the palace, I complained to the Governor-general of the conduct of the coxswain of the boat, and of his not allowing the crew to carry me through the water into the boat; also, of his insolence on the passage across. The Governor-general apologized for the absence of an awning, which he said must have been accidental. He sent for the coxswain of the boat, when he was satisfied of his not being sober. When asked for an explanation of his conduct, he at first denied everything in toto, and, of course, said that I had entirely mistaken his meaning. The Governor-general hoped that I was satisfied, when I informed him that I was by no means satisfied by the explanation given to him by the drunken coxswain of the boat, and requested Mr. Duncan to explain to His Excellency the nature of the language made use of by the Portuguese coxswain.

Hereupon Mr. Duncan pulled out a small pocket-book; and to the consternation of His Excellency, the coxswain, and the negroes, read out of it some of the oaths made use of by the coxswain on the passage across; and, commencing with our arrival on the beach, he, in the purest Portuguese, described everything that had occurred until our arrival at the palace, particularly dwelling upon the curses heaped upon the British consul and the English nation by this Portuguese felon.

The Portuguese coxswain, finding the tables completely turned upon him, informed the Governor-general that in all he had done he was only obeying the orders of his superior, who took the awning out of the boat with his own hands, and directed him not to allow the crew to carry me into the boat.

The slaves, interrogated by the Governor-general, confirmed the statement of the coxswain, while they stated that every word uttered by Mr. Duncan in recounting the passage across was perfectly true. The Governor-general made a most abject apology, and begged that I would make great allowances for him when I saw him surrounded by such people.

Mr. Duncan and I now proceeded through the city, and prevailed upon some of the Banyans to allow their slaves to come and serve in my house. By this means we were enabled to collect a crew for my boat, which had been lying idle, for want of hands, on the beach in front of my house for many weeks.

Mr. Duncan took the boat in hand, and employed her between the house and the city until we laid in a large stock of fire-wood, fowls, ducks, two sheep, a goat, and two cows.

During this time the most strenuous endeavours were used to get the slaves in my employment away, but we made the Banyans stick to the agreement, which was in writing, and by that means got the consulate provisioned.

We could not get the Portuguese to sell us any flour, but we hoped to get some from vessels coming in. In this we were disappointed, for Mr. Duncan was only able to get 12lbs. of flour from a German brig, and this had to be obtained through the Portuguese custom-house officer on board of her.

Soon after the arrival of the survivors of the crew of the British cutter “Herald” at Mozambique, I succeeded in obtaining the house of Señhor José Vincente de Gama, at the yearly rental of 400 dollars; and now that there were a few more Englishmen in the port, the Governor-general was pleased to furnish me with a guard consisting of four native policemen belonging to the city of Mozambique, under the command of a Portuguese sergeant from His Excellency’s body-guard.

The slaves of the neighbouring slave-dealers were not allowed to insult me; the natives were permitted to approach the house and furnish us with supplies; and the Banyans were persuaded to allow their slaves to come and serve in my house. All this was in consequence of the presence of a few Englishmen, and the persevering energy of Mr. Duncan, who thought he could not do too much for the consul of his nation, to enable him to maintain his post against the slave-dealers. Loud were the complaints among all classes of the shameful desertion of H. M. Consul and the Governor-general by the British frigate “Castor,” and by no party at Mozambique was the captain of that vessel more thoroughly despised and abused than the very slave-dealers who had been assisted by the absence of a British ship of war.

Mr. Duncan and his mate, Mr. Charles Hilliard, both resided in my house, while the remainder of the crew of the “Herald” lived in the city of Mozambique.

Mr. Duncan gave the Portuguese very clearly to understand that their treatment of the British consul should be made known to the world; and as they already were aware that he had exposed slaving practices at Lourenço Marques, by his letter in the “Natal Mercury,” they were afraid of him, and consequently hated him intensely. I cautioned him at all times to avoid eating or drinking with them when he had occasion to visit the city of Mozambique to look after his crew. But having escaped the poison cup at Lourenço Marques, he said that he felt he would live to expose the infamy of these people to the world. Among other good offices which he rendered us, he induced a Portuguese lady in the city of Mozambique to allow her slaves to wash our linen; and thus my wife and poor Rosa were relieved from labour which was absolutely killing them, with the approaching sickly season before us.

Everybody spoke of the fearful season which was approaching; that it was the seventh year since the awful hurricane and fatal season of 1851, and that it was sure to be most destructive of life. Constant inquiries were made relative to the health of the British consul and his family as the season advanced, but Providence wonderfully protected us, as will be seen in the following pages.

For a brief space after getting into our new house we had peace, and we made the best use of our time by putting everything in order, and laying in a good stock of supplies; we were successful in obtaining all we stood in need of, excepting flour; but as we were able to buy bread at Mozambique, after the arrival of the crew of the “Herald,” we hoped that we would be able to hold out until the dhows began to come over from Bombay.

The slave-dealers at Mozambique remonstrated with the Governor-general for giving me a guard of police from Mozambique. His Excellency explained that all the trustworthy men of the garrison were sick, and that it was useless his sending men to guard me, who would give as much trouble as the negroes who were sent to persecute me; and that, as he was compelled to protect me, he could but furnish me with a police guard.

The Governor-general of Mozambique is entirely in the hands of the Finance Committee, and they are governed by slave-trade interests. Finding that remonstrance was useless, the Finance Committee informed the Governor-general that they, from motives of economy, had disbanded the police force, and, of course, next morning my guard vanished.

A few days afterwards the two cows and nearly all the poultry were stolen. The butcher at Mozambique, from whom I had purchased the cows, sent me word that they were at the palace of the Governor-general at Messuril. At first the Governor-general refused to return them, alleging that they were his property. The butcher went to his Excellency, and stated that I had purchased the cows from him, they being his property. Some days after the butcher had seen the Governor-general on this subject, the cows were returned to me, and the butcher was put in prison.

Some days previous to this occurrence, Mr. Charles Hilliard, the mate of the “Herald,” was attacked with fever, and after Mr. Duncan and myself had completely despaired of his recovery, by the blessing of Providence on my wife’s treatment of this fever, and her unwearied nursing, he was enabled to get about again. He had five different attacks of this most malignant fever before we left Mozambique, but, owing to his good constitution and the treatment adopted in his case, he recovered, and is now, I believe, in the enjoyment of the best health at Natal. Mr. Duncan, in consequence of the illness of some of his men at Mozambique, exposed himself a good deal, and, in fact, had never felt quite well since his arrival at Mozambique, having suffered considerably from the treatment he underwent at the hands of the Governor of Lourenço Marques.

On the 24th of February, he complained of headache, lassitude, loss of memory, and pains in his back and limbs, being the usual symptoms of this fever.

Having studied for the medical profession in his younger years, he had some knowledge of the treatment of fevers in general, and adopted what he considered was a most efficacious mode for his recovery. For this purpose he had recourse to emetics, to clear the stomach; and, although remonstrated with, he, by this treatment, so reduced the system, that when we took him in hand, although we were able to keep him alive by the use of quinine for some short time, still he never recovered sufficiently to rally against the fever, and he positively died from sheer exhaustion, the fever having in his case assumed the most malignant form.

Unfortunately, at the same time that Mr. Duncan was attacked with fever, my wife had an attack of the same fever, but at first in a milder form, and was of course confined to her room.

Rosa, observing a great change in Mr. Duncan on the evening of the 2nd of March, communicated her fears of his approaching dissolution to her mistress; and, in the hope of being able to suggest something for the recovery of Mr. Duncan, my wife insisted on being wrapped up in blankets, and taken to see him. Mrs. M’Leod was at the time in that stage of the fever when it is so necessary to humour the patient, and by no means to excite irritation by offering opposition to their wishes. Finding that dissuasion only rendered her more determined to endeavour to be as useful in his case as she had been in Mr. Hilliard’s, she was wrapped in blankets, and conveyed to the side of the sufferer, when she at once pronounced that there was no hope. Perceiving that he was partially conscious, she endeavoured to prepare him for his approaching end, and asked for any message he might have for her who was so soon to be a widow. While trying to catch a few inarticulate sounds from the dying man, she leaned over him, and, in her anxiety not to lose a sound, she inhaled the fetid breath of him who was fast passing into eternity. The consequence of this was that she had a putrid sore throat accompanying her fever, and for six long weeks she was confined to her bed.

During the time that Mr. Duncan was dying, Mr. Hilliard was suffering from another attack of fever, and for three days and nights I expected from hour to hour to lose him.

The Portuguese frigate, “Don Ferdinand,” was lying in the harbour, on her return from Goâ, and en route to Lisbon. There were two medical officers on board of that vessel; at the city of Mozambique there were three medical men; and of these five doctors not one could be found to visit the British consul’s house, with three people at the point of death in it, although I made an application to the Governor-general for that purpose.

To my neighbour, Brigadier Candido da Costa Soares, I applied, asking him to send me his native doctor, in the hope of saving Mr. Duncan, and suggesting something for the other sufferers; but although this man’s son, João da Costa Soares, had been treated by my wife and myself, when he was sick at the Cape of Good Hope, as if he had been our brother, he brutally refused to send me any assistance.

I again applied to the Governor-general, begging him to send me a doctor, and if he could not get the Portuguese doctors to visit my house, to oblige me by sending his aide-de-camp on board the French steamer of war “Mahé Le Bourdonnais,” then in harbour, and ask the doctor of that vessel to visit the sick in my house. The Governor-general was obliged to ask the French doctor to visit us, for the Portuguese had made up their mind to let us all die. His Excellency also procured a dozen leeches for me, which were immediately applied to my wife’s throat, and had the desired effect of giving her immediate relief.

When the French doctor visited us, he found my wife propped up with pillows in bed, much relieved from the application of the leeches, and engaged in making the shroud of our departed friend, Mr. Duncan. This employment he of course forbade, and it was laid aside, but only to be renewed on his departure. Mr. Hilliard was in that state that it was very doubtful if he would recover, and Rosa he found had a low, nervous fever. Poor girl, she was struggling hard to help her mistress.

That night a coffin was sent over by the Governor-general, in answer to my application, and the next morning his Excellency sent a boat to convey the remains of Mr. Duncan to their last resting-place. Previous to their leaving, I had the coffin placed under a large tamarind tree in the court-yard of my house, and, spreading over it my consular flag as a pall, I read the beautiful service for the dead of the Church of England.

Rosa, at last worn out, had taken to her bed, unable to move; and my poor dog “Belle” was the only one to mourn with me over my friend.

Having thus performed the last sad Christian rites over the remains of the noble Duncan, and wrapped them in that flag which he loved so well, I had them conveyed to the boat for interment in a grave by the side of his countrymen, Captain Dacres, R.N., and Lieutenant Loch, R.N., which the Governor-general was so considerate as to attend to. I wrote to the survivors of his crew, and my German friend, to see him laid in his grave. The sail was hoisted, and I turned from the service of the dead to endeavour to save those who were between life and death.

Mr. Hilliard I found was quite sensible, and I made known to him that the French doctor had strongly urged his removal to the hospital, as the only chance of saving his life. I pointed out to him that even poor Rosa was at last ill, and that I had no one to assist me about the house. He asked for his friend Duncan, and I answered that “he was better now,” for he was too ill to be informed of his death.

Looking at me very earnestly, he asked me to grant him one favour—to allow him to remain in my house. I explained to him that I did not know the moment when the fever might attack myself, and then there would be no one to attend to his wants; and that he would perish from neglect; that his only chance of being saved was going to the hospital, where there were plenty of attendants.

To all this he replied by asking me in a tone and with an earnestness that I could not resist, “To let him die under his own flag?” Of course he remained in my house.

In a few days Rosa was herself again, but my wife was a long and patient sufferer.

The French vessel proceeded to sea; the day after, the good young doctor of her visited us, and I was then obliged to make an urgent official application to the Governor-general for medical assistance. Dr. Fonseca, the Surgeon Major, then visited the inmates of my house. For my wife he prescribed manna, and what he called cream of tartar, and finding this had not been taken on his second visit, he asked for a cup, in which he placed the manna, and sprinkled over it the cream of tartar, instructing me to fill the cup with warm water next morning, and, after mixing it well, to insist upon my wife taking it.

On my asking when he would next visit us, he said that Mr. Hilliard’s was a hopeless case; Rosa was quite well; and that after Mrs. M’Leod had taken the medicine prescribed by him, “she would require no more;” adding, that “it would, therefore, be unnecessary for him to call again.”

The next morning my wife took the medicine prescribed, which was administered by my own hand, and I went to look at Hilliard. On my return, I found my wife in the greatest agony, with Rosa hanging over her. It appears that soon after my leaving the room the medicine had acted as a violent emetic, and Rosa was attracted to the room by my wife’s shrieks of agony, which I did not hear, being in the lower part of the house. Mrs. M’Leod complained of a feeling of intense burning, not only in her stomach, but in her throat, and during more than two hours she endured great agony, during which we observed the curving of the back, and twitching of the muscles, as described in cases of poisoning from strychnine. Her belief is that an over-dose of poison was administered to her, which, acting as an emetic, had not time to lodge in the system. After this we felt that we had a better chance of living without the attendance of Mozambique doctors than with them; and consequently dispensed with their services for the remainder of our stay at that place.

The sickly season had now set in, and it proved a very fatal one; numbers of deaths occurred daily at Mozambique.

The Governor of Killimane had come out, with his wife and three daughters, in the Portuguese frigate from Lisbon, in company with the Governor-general. At first the mother fell a victim to the climate; and on being apprized of this intelligence by the Governor-general, my wife sent an invitation, through his Excellency, for the young ladies to stay with us while they remained at Mozambique. But they very naturally preferred remaining with their bereaved parent. They were all very ill, and the youngest of the three died just before the hurricane, and was buried during that great calamity which I am now going to describe.

On the 1st of April, 1858, the city of Mozambique, on the east coast of Africa, situated in latitude 15° 2′ S., and longitude 40° 48′ E. of Greenwich, was visited by a hurricane which in less than twenty-four hours did more destruction to the city and surrounding districts than any tempest in the memory of the oldest resident in these parts.

For some eight days this great convulsion of nature had been announced by heavy rains, which laid in ruins many dwellings in the city, and on the mainland; and more especially, since the 29th of March the weather had been very uncertain—torrents of rain, changeable winds, an atmosphere overcast with thick clouds, charged with electricity, were the forerunners of a terrible tempest, which commenced on the morning of the 1st of April.

The following vessels were anchored in the harbour of Mozambique:—the French schooner of war “l’Aigle;” the French barque, “Charles et Georges;” the Portuguese ship, “Adamastor;” brigs, “Amisade,” “2 Irmaõs,” and “Nostra Señhor de Soccorro,” “Flor do Mar;” schooners, “19 de Maio,” “Esperança,” and “Livramento,” together with twenty-nine Arab dhows.

On Thursday, April the 1st, at six A.M., at the British consular residence, Cabaçeira Grande, on the mainland of Port Mozambique, the barometer B.T., No. 341, stood at 29·924 (t. 78°). The wind was from the S. and S.W., very squally, and up to eleven A.M. very heavy showers, or almost torrents of rain, came up from the S.W. At noon the barometer had fallen to 29·800 (77°), when the wind commenced blowing furiously, the horizon became less distinct, and the clouds denser and more lowering.

The wind kept increasing, and with it the sea in the harbour, until four P.M., when the Portuguese schooner of war, “19 de Maio,” the Portuguese schooner, “Livramento,” some of the dhows and other vessels, began to drag their anchors. The blasts of wind were augmented in force, until the tempest became furious at sunset; from which it gradually increased in violence, so that all the dhows, with the exception of one called the “Mantalla,” parted their cables; and some of them, as well as the schooner, “19 de Maio,” and “Livramento,” were blown on the Cabaçeira side of the harbour, and stranded there.

The schooner “Livramento,” thrown in the first place on the north side of the harbour, turned upside down, and, when the wind chopped round from the opposite quarter, she righted; then being forced afloat again by the violence of the wind, she was again upset in the middle channel, or, as it is called, the grand canal. Four men belonging to the crew of this vessel were able to cling to that part of the hull which was not entirely submerged, and were saved by the crew of the Portuguese ship “Adamastor,” whose captain sent a boat to rescue these unfortunates.

At nine P.M. the wind appeared to lull, and almost gave rise to the hope that the hurricane had passed. This lull was of short duration; the wind appeared to cease, in order to commence afresh with greater fury, which continued until eleven P.M.

The destruction that the first part of this terrible visitor had caused was already considerable. The plantations on the mainland had suffered in a great measure, many of the cocoa-nut trees having been uprooted, and all stripped of their nuts; whilst temporary buildings, and even houses, had been laid in ruins.

The city of Mozambique had suffered likewise, and up to this time considerable damage had been done to the shipping in the harbour. In my house on the mainland every precaution had been taken to resist the hurricane; all doors and windows having been well secured, and even the shutters of the latter were doubly secured by being screwed to the frame-work of the windows. No opening was allowed for the entrance of the wind.

Shortly before eleven P.M. I had observed the barometer, and placed a lamp near a window to attract the attention of the unfortunate shipwrecked mariners, or any of the natives whose huts might have been destroyed by the tempest. From the barometer still continuing to fall, I was led to believe that the centre of this revolving storm was passing not far distant from my house. I had retired about ten minutes, when suddenly the wind ceased, and was followed by a calm too horrible to describe. Springing out of bed, I observed it was exactly 11 P.M., and that the barometer, which an hour previous had stood at 29·000, had now fallen to 28·740.

The wind had ceased; the sea suddenly became still, not a leaf moved—nothing was heard but the lowing of the cattle, and the bleating of the sheep, which had hitherto survived the storm, and these signs of animal life added to the horror of so intense a calm after such a convulsion of nature. The stars shone bright in the firmament of heaven, more especially in the zenith, and the atmosphere had the most serene appearance.

Since the commencement of this calm I had been narrowly watching the barometer, and, instead of its rising, it continued to fall, so that I might almost say that the mercury was seen to move in the tube. At 11h. 18m. P.M. the barometer had fallen to 28·700; at this instant a blast of wind, never to be forgotten by those who experienced it, came from the N.W., accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightning; blast upon blast of wind succeeded each other rapidly, if possible, increasing in force. Torrents of rain accompanied these blasts more rapidly and violently.

The heavens instantly became black and obscured—not a star was visible; for twelve minutes the barometer was stationary; then at 11h. 30m. P.M. it began to rise very gradually until midnight, when it was 28·720. At this time I went to observe if the magnetic instruments were affected by this storm, but the house shook so violently that it was impossible to read the instruments; these instruments were placed on pillars of solid masonry, which I had built for the purpose; the pillars were on the ground-floor, or basement of the house, and the instruments were so much agitated, that one was almost led to the belief that the ground on which the pillars were built was moved by an earthquake, and yet I think that it was only the violence of the wind.

My house was built of solid masonry, the outside walls from three to three-and-a-half feet thick, and the partition walls at least three feet thick. The houses are built with walls thus thick in order to make them cool, and yet my house moved as if built of wood; and at one time, when the wind came from the N.W., I expected it would have been swept into the sea. It was much shaken at that time, and immediately afterwards the rain began to make its way through the flat roof, and deluge the rooms.

Some idea of this blast of wind may be formed by my stating that I counted upwards of four hundred cocoa-nut trees which had all been uprooted by this one blast, the whole of them having been thrown on the ground towards the south.

In the city of Mozambique, the frightful darkness of night, unillumined by moon or stars, added to the horrors of the scene which this convulsion of nature produced.

It was impossible to traverse the streets inundated with water. The sand raised from the beach was formed into sand-whirlwinds, which reached to a great altitude, and, breaking, descended with the torrents of rain invading every place; the houses themselves, even those most solidly built, trembled from the impetuous violence of the wind, and shook everything contained in them. The rain deluged the houses; many trees, and some of them gigantic, lost their limbs, which were carried great distances; others, on which the first Portuguese voyagers had looked with admiration for their enormous size, were now uprooted from their mother earth, and laid beside their companions.

The shrubs and plants looked as if they had been burned by the fury of the wind; not a garden escaped the ravages of this fearful storm.

All these direful events, heightened by the shrieks of the unfortunate, which, at intervals, added to the howling and hissing of the wind, increased the terror and consternation of the inhabitants of this doomed city. Many huts were swept away by the wind; others, as fragile, being saved by the fact of their being almost buried by the sand which the sea and wind drove over the island. But if this was the terror and suffering in the city, how much greater damage did the tempest cause in the harbour!

There the horrors of the tempest were increased by the fury of the sea, the fragileness of the vessels, the frightful darkness of the night, and the absolute impossibility of help from any quarter.

After the illusive calm already described, when the wind changed suddenly to the N.W., just previous to midnight, the dhows commenced to get foul of each other. Immediately all was disorder, confusion, and terror. Some dhows were capsized; others were dashed to pieces on the beach, or crumpled up among the rocks. In the middle of this sad disorder were heard the despairing cries of the wretched sailors, calling for help, and raising their hands to the Almighty to save them. To hear the piercing cries of those men, child-like in the depth of their despair, was heart-rending, but to witness their struggles when cast upon the beach, and they came nigh being dashed against the rocks, without being able to assist them, was horrible.

The numerous wrecks subsequently encountered on the shore of the island of Mozambique attested, at the same time, the violence of the tempest and the extent of this direful catastrophe. Sad to relate, among the debris of the wrecks and cargoes on the beach, numerous corpses were met with.

The ship “Adamastor,” the barque “Charles et Georges,” and the brig “Amisade,” were the only vessels at anchor in Mozambique that escaped.

The French schooner of war, “l’Aigle,” was only saved by her anchors holding until 11 P.M.; she appeared to be anchored too close to the beach; after that time she went on shore in consequence of two dhows drifting on top of her, from whose crews she succeeded in saving fourteen persons. She parted her anchor, lost her rudder, and was otherwise injured, but the solidity of her construction prevented her making water, and after the hurricane she was got afloat again.

The schooner belonging to the Portuguese government, called the “19 de Maio,” was thrown on the Conducia or north shore of the harbour, with little damage to her hull; as was likewise a dhow sent from Ibo, and detained at this port for having four sea-pieces on board, which suffered no damage. The brigs “2 Irmaõs,” “Nostra Señhor do Soccorro,” and “Flor do Mar,” were beached, and more or less injured. On the mainland the hurricane destroyed houses, swept away huts, uprooted gigantic trees, killed many negroes and cattle, and levelled with the ground many palm-trees, and in some places whole plantations of cocoa-nut trees, each tree producing annually nuts to the value of three shillings.