EASTERN AFRICA. 225 



led to victory by their king, Chaka, who can arm 100,000 

 fighting men, and has 15,000 constantly ready for war. A 

 email English settlement has been formed on his maritime 

 border, which is encouraged by that powerful chief with a 

 view to commercial advantages ; but of course much pre- 

 caution is required in dealing with a potentate who com- 

 mands so many savage bows and spears. 



The Mantatees, after their defeat, separated into several 

 detachments, one of which settled among the Kureechanes, 

 while another advanced against the Cafires, whom they. de- 

 feated, and part of whose territory they have since continued 

 to occupy and plunder. In 1826, they came within two 

 days' journey of the British frontier, where there was 

 nothing to prevent them from advancing upon the Scotch 

 locations in Albany ; but measures have since been taken, by 

 which these settlements are placed in full security.* 



We possess only a very limited knowledge respecting the 

 eastern coast of Africa, washed by the Indian Ocean, — a re- 

 gion scarcely visited except by the Portuguese, who con- 

 tinued to throw a veil of mystery over all their discoveries. 

 In 1498, when Vasco de Gama had rounded the Cape of 

 Good Hope, he touched at Mozambique, Mombasa, and Me- 

 linda, where he found the ruling people Arabs and bigoted 

 Mohammedans. His object was merely to obtain pilots to 

 guide his fleet to India ; but at the two former of these 

 ports he met an inhospitable and treacherous reception ; 

 while, on the other hand, he experienced at Melinda the ut- 

 most courtesy, and readily found the means of continuing 

 his voyage to the coast of Malabar. Cabral, who followed 

 in the footsteps of Gama, likewise visited Quiloa, which he 

 describes as the capital of an extensive kingdom, and the 

 seat of a flourishing trade ; but it was not till he, too, 

 reached Melinda, that he could obtain any friendly as- 

 sistance. 



The Portuguese, engrossed for some time with the more 

 brilliant objects presented by the shores of India, sought in 

 African ports only refreshment and pilots, and made no at- 

 tempt at conquest. As their empire, however, extended, 

 resentment or ambition furnished motives for successively 

 attacking those settlements. In 1505, Almeda, indignant 



* Tlie group in the annexed plate represents the Queen of Lattakoo, a 

 Lattakoo warnoq and two Bosjesman Hottentots. 



