A WARLIKE DAWN 43 



Darker still was the opening of the nineteenth 

 century. The possession of the prazoes and districts 

 of Zambezia, which had for so many years remained 

 in the hands of pure Portuguese, was now to a 

 great extent in the control of their half-caste and 

 quarter-caste descendants. By this time ivory and 

 gold were scarce, the country depopulated by the 

 slave-export, and the seaboard from time to time 

 harried by French, Dutch, and English privateers. 

 The great influence of that distinguished statesman 

 the Marquez de Pombal, whose edict in 1761 

 extinguished the Jesuits and confiscated their 

 property, was fast waning ; and if the people were 

 a prey to indolence, immorality, and corruption, 

 but little more can be said for those in whose hands 

 the governing power had been placed. 



The first events of importance, after the dawn of 

 the nineteenth century, were wars with the Bongas ; 

 and the massacre at Boroma by these savages of 

 the devoted Governor Villas Boas Truao in 1810, 

 through an act of treachery on the part of a native 

 guide, was followed by an amazing sedition and 

 disorder in Sena. We are informed by Botelho 

 that a proclamation was actually issued announcing 

 a union with Brazil — a foolish and bloodless revo- 

 lution quickly extinguished. The same authority 

 informs us of the independence of Quelimane 

 granted, under a sub-governor, in 1814. A short 

 time before his death Governor Villas Boas Truao, 

 in a report upon the " Capitania dos Rios de Sena," 

 lamented the want of agricultural development, 

 and the dwindhng importance of the gold and ivory 

 revenue. He deals trenchantly, moreover, with 



