vm POSTSCRIPT TO PREFACE. 



that the ancient inhabitants of Senna, a village on the 

 Zambesi, found no difficulty in navigating the Shire to 

 Lake Nyassa up what modern travellers find to be an 

 ascent of 1200 feet in 35 miles of latitude. A broad 

 shallow lake, with a strong current, which Senhor Canclido 

 declared he had visited N.W. of Tette, is assumed to be 

 the narrow deep Lake Nyassa, without current, and about 

 N.N.E. of the same point. Great offence is also taken 

 because the discovery of the main sources of the Nile has 

 been ascribed to Speke and Grant, instead of to Ptolemy 

 and F. Lobo. 



But the main object of the Portuguese Government is not 

 geographical. It is to bolster up that pretence to power 

 which has been the only obstacle to the establishment of 

 lawful commerce and friendly relations with the native 

 inhabitants of Eastern Africa. The following work contains 

 abundant confirmation of all that was advanced by me at the 

 Bath meeting of the British Association ; and I may here 

 add that it is this unwarranted assumption of power over 

 1360 miles of coast — from English Eiver to Cape Delgado, 

 where the Portuguese have in fact little real authority 

 — which perpetuates the barbarism of the inhabitants. 

 The Portuguese interdict all foreign commerce, except at 

 a very few points where they have established custom- 

 houses, and even at these, by an exaggerated and obstructive 

 tariff and differential duties, they completely shut out the 

 natives from any trade, except that in slaves. 



Looking from South to North, let us glance at the enor- 

 mous seaboard which the Portuguese in Europe endeavour to 

 make us believe belongs to them. Delagoa Bay has a small 

 fort called Lorenzo Marques, but nothing beyond the walls. 

 At Inhambane they hold a small strip of land by sufferance 

 of the natives. Sofala is in ruins, and from Quillimane north- 



