Chap. XXXH. ATTEMPTS TO EEVIVE TRADE. 659 



both Seuna and Kilimane never think of standing to fight, but 

 invariably run away, and leave their officers to be killed. They 

 are brave only among the peaceable inhabitants. One of them 

 sent from Kilimane with a packet of letters or expresses, arrived 

 while I was at Senna. He had been charged to deliver them 

 with all speed, but Senhor Isidore had in the mean time gone to 

 Kilimane, remained there a fortnight, and reached Senna again 

 before the courier came. He could not punish him. We gave 

 him a passage in our boat, but he left us in the way to visit his 

 wife, and, " on urgent private business," probably gave up the 

 service altogether, as he did not come to Kilimane all the time 

 I was there. It is impossible to describe the miserable state 

 of decay into which the Portuguese possessions here have sunk. 

 The revenues are not equal to the expenses, and every officer 

 I met told the same tale, that he had not received one farthing 

 of pay for the last four years. They are all forced to engage 

 in trade for the support of then families. Senhor Miranda had 

 been actually engaged against the enemy during these four 

 years, and had been highly lauded in the Commandant's des- 

 patches to the Home Government ; but when he applied to the 

 Governor of Kihmane for part of liis four years' pay, he offered 

 him twenty dollars only. Miranda resigned his commission in 

 consequence. The common soldiers sent out from Portugal re- 

 ceived some pay in calico. They all marry native women, and 

 the soil being very fertile, the wives find but little difficulty in 

 supporting their husbands. There is no direct trade with Por- 

 tugal. A considerable number of Banians, or natives of India, 

 come annually in small vessels with cargoes of English and 

 Indian goods from Bombay. It is not to be wondered at then, 

 that there have been attempts made of late years by speculative 

 Portuguese in Lisbon, to revive the trade of Eastern Africa by 

 means of mercantile companies. One was formally proposed, 

 which was modelled on the plan of our East India Company ; and 

 it was actually imagined that all the forts, harbours, lands, &c, 

 might be delivered over to a company, which would bind itself 

 to develop the resources of the country, build schools, make 

 roads, improve harbours, &c, and after all leave the Portuguese 

 the option of resuming possession. 



Another effort has been made to attract commercial enterprise 



2 u 2 



