64 
M.OS AMBiaUE. 
Since this period the Portuguese have been compelled to act 
chiefly on the defensive, and to content themselves, like their 
predecessors the Arabs, v^ith carrying on the trade in a more 
quiet way, keeping up their influence in the country by setting 
the native powers in opposition to each other, and confining 
themselves solely to the coast, and the line of the river Zambezi. 
To maintain even these they have had several severe struggles, 
particularly in the years 1580 and 1592 (Purchas, Part II. p. 1554, 
and Hist, de TEthiopie, p. 141), when they were attacked on the 
northem bank of theZambezi by an inroad of a wandering and fero- 
cious tribeofMuzimbas,* who appear at this time tohave been pass- 
ing by on their progress from the south-west. The description which 
is given of this people and of many of their customs, of their ac- 
tivity, roving disposition, mode of warfare, f and particularly the 
direction which they subsequently took, lead to the conclusion 
that they were tribes of Galla ; for the last account we have of the 
Muzimbas states, that they reached Quiloa in 1593, and thence 
passed on to Melinda, where they were stopped by a tribe of natives 
called Mossequeios, and the first we hear of the Galla is at Patta, 
* They are elsewhere called Mauruca, and their king " Gallo," (Vide Purchas, 
Part II. Book ix. p. 1552) and these may be recognized in the Maraeata, a tribe ef Gala 
m the neighbourhood of Mugdasho. The Muzimbas are accused by some of the Portu- 
g;uese writers as being cannibals. That raw flesh is the common food of these Galla is 
certain, from various instances that have been witnessed at Bombay among the slaves 
taken in French vessels ; but of their being cannibals there remains no satisfactory proof, 
no more than of their idolatry and witchcraft, with which they have been equally charged 
by the same writers. 
t they in all probability first introduced the savage custom ©f mutilating those whom 
they had killed in battle, which is still retained by the Galla. Of this an extraordinary 
plate is given in Du Bree's Collection. 
