DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 101 
gion till her death, which happened on the 17th 
December 1663, at the age of eighty-one. 
To the south of Matamba is situated an extra- 
ordinary natural phenomenon, called Maopongo, 
or the Castle of Rocks. At a distance, it appears 
to compose only one immense mass, but proves, on 
a nearer approach, to be separated by ravines into 
a great number of distinct portions. Nature seems 
here to have amused herself in mimicking the most 
varied productions of art ; towers, steeples, porticos, 
arches, obelisks, mausolea, appear as if interming- 
led ; and the whole presents, at a little distance, 
the appearance of an immense and magnificent 
city. The entire mass is about 27 miles in cir- 
cumference. Down the sides of the rocks de- 
scend numerous streams, some fresh, others salt ; 
the latter of which are supposed, probably by the 
mere power of imagination, to ebb and flow along 
with the sea. No description is given of the na- 
ture of the rock ; but the structure seems clearly 
to indicate that peculiar species of sandstone, which 
produces similar appearances in different quarters 
of southern Africa, as well as in some parts of Eu- 
rope. * 
On the top of these rocks, and along their base, 
* Driiter Sandstein of Werner. See Jameson's Geog- 
nosy, ch. viii. 
