EXPEDITION TO MANICA. 
369 
for so arduous a service. The sovereign of 
Monomotapa, called the Quiteve, being exceed- 
ingly dubious as to the object and issue of this 
expedition, resolved to oppose it v^ith his whole 
force. He soon found himself unable to cope 
with the Portuguese in the open field; but he 
began a concealed and harassing warfare, by sud- 
den attacks and cutting off their supplies. Though 
the Portuguese suffered dreadfully, they still per- 
severed, and, at length, through a thousand diffi- 
culties reached Manica, where the principal gold 
mines were situated. These were found in no 
degree to correspond with the magnificent expec- 
tations formed of them, or the labours and dangers 
through which they had been reached. They 
appear, by the description of Santos, to be simi- 
larly situated with those of Bambouk, in alluvial 
earth, which is collected by digging deep pits, 
and from which the gold is separated by long agi- 
tation in water. The Portuguese, in viewing the 
process, felt no inclination to dispute with the na- 
tives the performance of so long and laborious an 
operation. Barreto judged it expedient to con- 
clude a treaty with the Quiteve, by which the 
monarch granted a free passage to the Portuguese 
through his dominions, in return for which a tri- 
bute of two hundred ells of linen cloth was stipu- 
lated to be paid to him. 
Barreto, meantime, was not discouraged j he 
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