32 



HISTORY. 



The important depot was again attacked in 

 1589 by a savage host from the south, called by- 

 contemporary historians, ' Zimbas : ^ the city was 

 taken by the savages; and after plunder and 

 massacre, it was again occupied by Thom^ de 

 Souza Coutinho. In 1592, according to the 

 Mombasah Chronicle, Shaho bin Misham, its last 

 Shirazian Sultan, was succeeded by Ahmad the 

 Shaykh of Melinde. Two years afterwards a fort 

 was built by order of the Viceroy Matthias 

 d' Albuquerque, and in 1596 D.Erancisco da Gama 

 re-established the Portuguese rule. If we may be- 

 lieve the Dominican monk Joao dos Santos, who 

 was present during the war waged with the 

 Monomotapa about the mines of Chicova, the 

 conduct of the European foreigners was ' outrage- 

 ous and unreasonable,' and it soon led to the 

 usual consequences. The first deadly blow 

 against the conqueror was struck by Yusuf bin 

 Ahmad, alias Dom Jeronymo Chingoulia, the 

 Nana Sahib of the Eastern Coast. A son of 

 Ahmad, the first Melinde Sultan of Mombasah, 



1 Dos Santos calls the Commander * Muzimbas.' Duarte 

 Barbosa mentions sub voce Zimbaoche, a great village seven 

 days' journey from Benametapa. De Barros identifies it with 

 the Ptolemeian Agyzimba, and describes it as a royal residence 

 of the Emperor Benomotapa. It is the Zumbo of Dr Living- 

 stone. 



