Discovery in the African Centinent. 13 K 



which no bribe or price would induce him to part with, — the 

 carved representation of a man on horseback, of European 

 contour, and dressed with a hat, trousers, and jacket, which 

 was stated to be that of one of this fated party. There is 

 every reason, from all we have gained, to believe that they 

 w>ere dispersed, and several lost their lives somewhere at the 

 back of Inhamban, to which part of the coast, upon their 

 turning to the eastward five or six days north of Melita, ac- 

 cordmg to the Bawanketz account, that route would bring them. 



In consequence of the long absence of intelligence from 

 these travellers, Lord Caledon sent a vessel to Sofala, where it 

 collected that the party had been cut off in the kingdom of 

 Zaire, between Inliamban and Sofala, and only two persons 

 escaped ; and the Portuguese Governor of Mosambique having 

 sent some trusty negroes up the country, received similar 

 information — From some subsequent intelligence communi- 

 cated by Captain Vidal, commanding one of the discovery 

 ships on the eastern coast in the year 1824, and which is borne 

 oat by the testimony of Mr. H. Fynn, long a resident at Port 

 Natal, a Hottentot man and woman arrived early in 1810 at 

 the Portuguese Settlement of Delagoa, who stated themselves 

 to belong to an Expedition from the Colony, at which Portu- 

 guese station they died, under strong suspicion, of poison, 

 and, as has been rumoured, because they were the depositaries 

 of a knowledge of the route from the Cape to the Portuguese 

 Settlement ; a circumstance not altogether unlikely, from fhe 

 known jealousy of the Portuguese : of the existence of which 

 feeling I believe I can give no better proof than that of the 

 suppression of the papers of Commodore Owen, employed by 

 the British Government to survey the eastern coast, and which 

 were prepared for the press, but have been held back in conse- 

 quence, it is said, of the strong protest of the Portuguese 

 Ambassador, 



A very interesting document has just been placed in my 

 hands for publication by Mr. H. Fynn, to whom 1 have already 

 alluded of " A Ten Years' Residence at Port Natal," in 

 which I find the curious circumstance mentioned of the arrival in 

 the neighbourhood of that place of a European on horseback, tvlio 

 was endeavouring to reach the sea : this took place previous to 

 the reign of the predecessor of the late celebrated Chieftain of 

 the Zulo nation Chaka, about the year 1810, and upon whose 

 Siiccess in regaining his country and authority the appearance 

 of this strange visitant had a marked influence. He came, say 

 the natives, who treasure up the memory of this apparition, 

 from the westward, having passed through numerous tribes, 

 inspiring much terror from his extraordinary figure ; his 

 hat was conceived to be a part of his head, which he had 



