150 NATIVES OF AFRICA IN THE i6tH CENTURY, 



living" in Natal during the pre-Chaka period. However, I have 

 not met any of Lavanha's names amongst them. It must be 

 remarked that these were names of petty headmen, and not of 

 clans, as is the case with those of the chiefs of Delagoa Bay 

 Natives ; so the}' may have been lost more easily.* 



On the other hand, it is evident that the population of Natal 

 and Zululand was very similar to that of to-day, and that the 

 language spoken was already the actual Zulu-Nosa. This is 

 proved by the many words reported by Lavanha ( r.i,'., ancosse, 

 iiikosi; inhancosa, nyena-icc nkosi: sinkoa, isiiiku'o. bread) ; there 

 were already many dialects of the same tongue, if we can rely 

 on the information of the chronicler, who savs : — • 



The language is almost the same all through Caft'raria and the differ- 

 ence between them (the dialects) is similar to that existing in the lan- 

 guages of Italy or between the common idioms of Spain. 



The third region crossed by the shipwrecked men of the 

 sixteenth century extends from the Limpopo to Inhambane. 

 Diogo de Couto mentions the following tribes as having been 

 met on the way by the travellers : Near the mouth of the Limpopo, 

 on the \A'estern shore, the kingdom of IiiJiapitlc ; on the other 

 side of the river, the Maimca. On the coast further North, the 

 kingdom of Inhahosc, reaching the river called Inhorino^ue. On 

 this river were five other chiefs: Panda, Monhibcnc, Jarara, Gani- 

 ba., Mokumba ; further on. they reached the river of Lrhabane. 

 We step here, and do not follow them further North, to Sofala. 

 Though I have never visited this ])art of the coimtry myself, I 

 have easily identified most of these names by questioning Natives 

 coming from the region. Inhapule is evidently Nyaf^iirc. the 

 name by which Natives still designate the country round the 

 mouth of the Limpopo. This name is found on all the maps 

 iinder the form of Inhampura. As is the case with Nyaka, the 



='^ The only name which Theal proposes to correlate with an actual tribe 

 is Banibe, as quoted by Diogo de Couto (IV. p. 100) and Lavanha (V, 

 p. 76). He identifies it with the Abambo tribe, which he supposes toi 

 "have come from the Zambesi between 1570 and 1593 and to have settled 

 hetween the Umbelosi and the Umkumazi rivers and shortly afterwards to 

 have broken up into numerous fragments amongst which were the Amazizi 

 in the upper Tugela valley and the Amahlubi on the Buffalo river. Theal 

 describes this horde as having devastated all the territory between the 

 Zambesi and the Limpopo, only sparing boys and women who were incorpo- 

 rated in this mass. I do not know from what sources Theal draws all this 

 information. It is true that the party of the San Alberto found Ihe 

 Natives to the South-West of Delagoa Bay in a certain state of unrest. 

 Nuna Velho, before reaching Inhaca, thirty leagues from the Bay, met 

 with a treacherous attempt on the part of a headman called Bembe to rob 

 him of one of his cows. This occurred not far from Santa Luzia Bay ; but 

 it was by no means an attack by a powerful invading tribe. It is true tha,t 

 this " Ancosse " was an usurper, reigning by terror ; however, the identifica- 

 tion of this Bambe with the great .\bambo tribe seems very doul)tful. 

 Moreover Perestrello, already in 1554. mentions a tribe of robbers in the 

 same neighbourhood. Diogo de Couto in 1589 places the Vambe tribe 

 further South, and says it occupies the great part of Natal. These are 

 contradictory statements, and it seems to me difficult to prove any real 

 relation between this Bambe and the supposed migration of the Abambo. 



