60 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



Jameson or Blantyre or Nairobi, a result of 

 modern settlement consequent on the scramble 

 for territory in which the Powers indulged in the 

 latter part of the nineteenth century. It is rather 

 to be classed with Mozambique or Mombasa, for 

 the Portuguese have held sway in the Zambesi 

 Valley for centuries. True, the majority of its 

 buildings are modern, but there is a background 

 of antiquity to the place, which harmonizes with 

 the mighty river flowing quietly by it. 



More than four hundred years ago a little 

 band of venturesome Portuguese navigators 

 raised the standard of their nation to the glory 

 of Christ and their temporal monarch at this 

 spot on the Zambesi, som^e 320 miles from the 

 mouth of that mighty waterway. Those were 

 the days when Portugal and Spain were the 

 greatest colonizing powers in all Christendom, 

 when the proud spirits of men like Francisco 

 Barreto and Vasco Fernandes Homem fought 

 the good fight against heathen Africa under 

 conditions so awful, so difficult, that no living 

 man can conceive what those daring voyagers 

 underwent. Their deeds left an impress deep 

 in the sands of history. Mombasa, Mozambique, 

 Quilimane, and many another stronghold of the 

 East Coast fell before their matchlocks and 

 cannon, and their expeditions penetrated deep 

 into the heart of Africa. 



Here and there they founded administrative 

 posts and forts, and one of these was Tete. 



Slumbering old town ! Gone are the glamour 

 and the glory of your heroic past; gone are 

 those deeds of daring which won for your nation 

 Eastern Africa ! Conquest has given way to 

 commerce, you have given yourself up to a 

 seemingly eternal siesta, and your might has 



