146 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



unhappy slaves were done to death in the awful 

 journey out to the sea, no one ever will know. 

 Just as Mombasa has deserved its name of 

 " Island of War," so does the whole East Coast 

 merit some similar title characteristic of perpetual 

 strife and bloody mutiny. It is hard to realize 

 all this to-day. It has been my lot to travel 

 up and down the East Coast of Africa a number 

 of times, and I have never yet quite been able 

 to realize it. Seen from the decks of a comfort- 

 able modern Union-Castle or German East African 

 liner it all seems a land of peaceful beauty. 



The old Portuguese forts at Mozambique and 

 Mombasa still give forth the clash of arms, but 

 they are the arms of peace rather than the arms 

 of war, merely the rifles and bayonets of the 

 native " askaris," or police boys, and it is 

 seldom that they have to be used save on parade. 



It is indeed difficult to imagine a more restful, 

 sleepy, old-world port than Mozambique, once 

 the chief stronghold of Portugal in Africa. The 

 old cannon still look defiantly out to sea, and the 

 thick, coral-built walls still seem to throw out 

 a challenge : " Scale me if you dare ! " But 

 Portugal's fortunes have changed; her glory 

 in East Africa to-day centres at Lourengo 

 Marques and Beira, and instead of the rusty old 

 guns which were the pride of Vasco da Gama 

 and Barreto, there are the steam-driven cranes 

 and the trucks on the landing wharves, present- 

 day emblems of power. 



But these modern tokens of glory, escutcheons 

 on the shield of commerce, lack the romance of 

 the olden days. I have not written this book as 

 a serious disquisition on trade, although shekels 

 have constituted the shackles that have bound so 

 many to Africa. As was recorded in the begin- 



