70 MOSAMBIQUE. 
the traders send out their agents in different directions/ who in 
return for their goods bring back gold, ivory, and other valuable 
articles. Of the country beyond Zumbo no information could be 
obtained. 
From the foregoing accounts it will appear how extremely 
confined the knowledge of the Portuguese has always been re- 
specting the interior,* which satisfactorily accounts for the extra- 
ordinary inaccuracy of all their writers, and their want of 
agreement, on the subject. 
The jurisdiction of the Portuguese, along the coast, has on the 
contrary, been always extensive ; in the heighth of their power 
it reached from Socotra, on the north, to the Cape of de TAgoa, 
on the south, comprehending the islands of Zanzebar, Quiloa, 
and other important settlements, which have been since reco- 
vered by the Arabs, and are now subject to the Imaum of Mus- 
cat, whose power and consequence has greatly increased of late 
years owing to the protection and encouragement of the Bombay 
government. It still extends from Cape Delgado on the north, 
to Inhambane on the south, embracing an extent of thirteen 
degrees of coast. The most southern settlement on this line is at 
Cape Corrientes, where a small fort is established, which was taken 
• The following passages from Marmol (p. 113) and Lafitau's Conquestes des Port, 
dans le Nouv. Monde, may serve to convince the reader of this fact ; the first begins his 
account of these countries thus : Sofala est un grand contree sous la domination d'un 
'^ Prince N^gre que Ton nomme Bdnamotapa ou B^namotacha. — Ce pais commence a la 
*f frontiere de Congo," &c. — The second says, I'empire du Monomotapa ou B^nomo- 
" tapa comprend une grande partie de la basse Ethiopie, depuis I'empire des Abyssins 
jusques au cap de Bonne-Esperance, nord et sud ; et depuis la cote de Zanguebar 
*'jusques aux pais des N^gres et Royaumes d'Angoleet de Congo est et ouest ! !" Such 
has been the information on which our maps of Africa haVe generally been constructed. 
