374 THE EASTERN COAST. 
open in the evening to all the principal inhabitants 
of the place, who waited upon him, and were en- 
tertained with tea. The population is reckoned 
by Mr Salt at five hundred Portuguese, eight hun- 
dred of Arabian extraction, and fifteen hundred 
negroes. The trade, now much reduced, consists 
in gold, ivory, and slaves, the number of which last 
annually exported does not exceed four thousand. 
Gold and ivory sell at high prices, the former at 
5s. the ounce, the latter at £,^^ to £.,^5 
the hundred weight. The profits of this trade 
must be very great, as the articles taken in ex- 
change by the natives are exceedingly simple ; 
such as salt, shells, tobacco, coloured handker- 
chiefs, and coarse cloths. Mr Salt was even as- 
sured that, high in the interior, articles of the 
value of two dollars would purchase either a slave, 
or from sixty to eighty pounds of ivory. 
Mosambique is built upon a small island at the 
mouth of a deep bay. Immediately to the north 
is the peninsula of Caboceiro, nine miles long and 
four broad, and connected with the continent by 
a neck of land about a mile in breadth. In it are 
situated the country-houses of the governor and 
principal inhabitants ; and most of the provisions 
consumed at Mosambique are raised here. It 
forms, in fact, the limit of Portuguese dominion, 
and is frequently itself exposed to attack from the 
native tribes. 
