MOS AMBIQUE. 
65 
where they were seen by Jerome Lobo in 1625 ; and it was about 
the same time that they made from that point their first inroad 
into Abyssinia. 
The endeavours of the Portuguese to introduce the Catholic 
religion into the country proved as abortive as their schemes of 
conquest; for, though, by the daring enthusiasm of a fanatic 
named Peter Gonsalvo de Sylva, they gained in 1571 (Vide 
Pory's Africa, p. 414) access to the court of the Quiteve, and 
made an impression on the mind of that sovereign, yet shortly 
afterwards the Mahomedan traders gained the ascendancy, and 
De Sylva himself fell a martyr to the cause he had espoused. 
As to the numbers stated to have been baptized, it will be found, 
I fear, that the Portuguese priests too often made nominal 
instead of real converts ; and that their motives proceeded rather 
from an idle vanity of extending the list of their proselytes, than 
from any actual desire to benefit the individuals whom they 
pretended to convert.* 
The above short account contains a summary of all that I con- 
ceive material to be known respecting the establishment and 
progress of these settlements; the following description of the 
present state of the Zambezi, and the Portuguese possessions on 
its banks, may not unaptly conclude this portion of my narrative. 
Great part of it is taken from a paper drawn up by a learned 
* J. Dos Santos asserts, " that in the four years he staid at Sofala, he baptised 1694 per- 
sons ; and the Dominicans are said to have baptised 16000 in the Querimbo Islands, 
besides 20,000 on the Cuama or Zambezi. Tiie Jesuits boast of iiaving baptised three 
times this number in Japan ; but I fancy the converts of both must have greatly resem- 
bled the Dutch Christians in Ceylon, who acknowledged to Mr. North;, that though they 
had faith in Christ, they still believed in Boudah !" 
