150 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



and Africa her slaves for the " prazos "— a prazo 

 is an administrative concession; the prazo- 

 owner is a virtual despot — that do not get 

 voluntary recruits, weave ropes of willingness 

 and send them to defend the right with strands 

 round their ankles. 



But if you would know more about these 

 methods in an age when all men are free, you 

 must go into the interior, as I have done, and see 

 the full majesty of Portuguese law, as I have done. 



It is no good wasting French on the custodian 

 at the gate, though he is ribboned and medalled, 

 obviously one in authority — a centurion at the 

 very least. He will only smile and bow, and 

 when you drop half-a-crown into his bronzed 

 palm for what in Dar-es-Salaam would be 

 accounted espionage, he will give a lazy salute 

 and drop a " Gracias, senhor." 



Outside the fortress there is a little coralline 

 city where the houses are of pale blue, pink, 

 violescent. High, latticed windows and bad-smell- 

 ing cobblestone streets, a cathedral that might be 

 a school with a spire ; the Governor's residence, 

 cool and commanding, the Eastern Telegraph 

 Company's quarters, where is the seat of British 

 power; shipping agencies and shops wherein 

 are various collections of picture postcards and 

 the perpetual coral ; these, with a Post Office 

 and an impressive pier, with unimpressive oil- 

 lamps, are the civic constituents of Mozambique. 

 Out on the mill-pond of the sunlit sea, lateen- 

 sailed boats ply a debatable trade, and little 

 islets, round which eddies swirl, rest on the 

 bosom of the Indian Ocean. 



One of these islands was not so long ago a 

 powder-magazine, and some ruined walls tell a 

 tale of woe. There is a story of this Promethean 



