MOZAMBIQUE. 



203 



Elate with joy, we raise the glad acclaim, 

 And River of Good Signs the port we name. 



"Our keels, that now had steer' d through many a clime, 

 By shell-fish roughen'd, and incased with slime, 

 Joyful we clean; while bleating from the field 

 The fleecy dams the smiling natives yield. 

 Alas ! how vain the bloom of human joy ! 

 How soon the blasts of woe that bloom destroy ! 

 A dread disease its rankling horrors shed, 

 And death's dire ravage through mine army spread. 

 Never mine eyes such dreary sight beheld ! 

 Ghastly the mouth and gums enormous swell'd; 

 And instant, putrid like a dead man's wound, 

 Poison'd with fetid steam the air around. 

 Long, long endear'd by fellowship in woe, 

 O'er the cold dust we give the tears to flow ; 

 And in their hapless lot forebode our own, — 

 A foreign burial, and a grave unknown." 



The fleet joyfully left the River of Good Promise on the 24th 

 of February, and not long after discovered two groups of 

 islands. Near the coast of one of these they were followed by 

 eight canoes, manned by persons of fine stature, less black than 

 the Hottentots, and dressed in cotton cloth of various colors. 

 Upon their heads they wore turbans wrought with silk and gold 

 thread. They were armed with swords and daggers like the 

 Moors, and carried musical instruments which they called sag- 

 buts. They came on board as if they had known the strangers 

 before, and spoke in the Arabic tongue, repelling with disdain 

 the supposition that they were Moors. They said that their 

 island was called Mozambique ; that they traded with the Moors 

 of the Indies in spices, pearls, rubies, silver, and linen, and 

 offered to take the ships into their harbor. The bar permitting 

 their passage, they anchored at two crossbow-shots from the 

 town. This was built of wood and thatch, — the mosques alone 

 being constructed of stone. It was occupied principally by 

 Moors, the rest of the island being inhabited by the natives, who 

 were the same as those of the mainland opposite. The Moors 

 traded with the Indies and with the African Sofala in ships 



