1821.] Errors in the Encyclopedia Britannica. 
15 
pretensions, I mean the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica, 5th edition. 
In speaking of the Portuguese settle¬ 
ment of Mozambique on the eastern 
coast of Africa, it is represented as 
being on an 44 island thirty miles in 
circumference” 44 the town regularly 
lortified.” 44 As the island abounds 
in cattle, the Portuguese slaughter and 
salt up a great deal of beef, which they 
afterwards send to the Brazils, or sell 
to the European shipping,” in all of 
which statements there is not a syllable 
of truth. What authority the writer of 
the article proceeded upon, it is diffi¬ 
cult to conceive, for I know not that 
any one represents it as he has done, but 
suspect he must have penned it from 
some vague recollections, which in such 
a work, professing to be almost scien¬ 
tific, is, I need not say, altogether un¬ 
justifiable. It must likewise be ad¬ 
mitted that much ignorance prevails 
respecting the whole of the Eastern 
Coast of Africa. The best geographies 
of the day can scarcely furnish any in¬ 
formation on an extent of coast embrac¬ 
ing nearly 45 degrees of latitude, and 
much of what is said is, to my know¬ 
ledge, either quite fictitious, or ex¬ 
tremely incorrect. 
Having been at Mosambique, and 
perambulated the island in length and 
breadth, permit me to say what it 
really is. 
The island bearing this name is, in¬ 
stead of thirty, scarcely three miles 
long, and in its broadest part not more 
than a mile across, but in many places 
by no means so much. It is in general 
very sandy, possessing little or no 
vegetation, and so far from supporting 
any considerable number of cattle, is 
unable to maintain the very few (per¬ 
haps not more than a dozen head) 
wanted for immediate use, without 
provender being brought from the main. 
Neither does the latter itself furnish 
many; most of their black cattle, in 
fact, come from the opposite shore of 
Madagascar, as well as rice, yams, and 
some other articles of the first necessity. 
Refreshments for shipping are, there¬ 
fore, on the whole scarce, and conse¬ 
quently dear. The absurdity of the 
assertion of curing meat for the Brazils 
is so excessively great, that no personof 
common information could make, or 
believe it, for a moment. Mozambique 
never had more resources than at the 
present time, and for every bullock or 
buffalo which it owns, Brazil, on a mo¬ 
derate computation, possesses 50,000. 
The account of the town is equally 
unhappy; for in place of being 44 regu¬ 
larly fortified,” it has not the slightest 
semblance of such defences. The main 
strength of the island and necessarily 
of the town, is a very large and regular 
fort, situated at one extremity of the 
island, commanding the entrance to 
the harbour, and being erected more 
than three hundred years ago, forms a 
very splendid monument of what the 
Portuguese then were, rather than what 
they now are. Another smaller struc¬ 
ture containing a few guns, is raised on 
a rock in the water about a quarter of 
a mile southward from the island. St. 
Jago and St. George, two other small 
islands four or five miles distant, are 
not defended, or indeed scarcely inha¬ 
bited. 
On the main, the territory of the 
Portuguese is very limited, being prin¬ 
cipally on a peninsula, and this often 
subject to invasions by the neighbour¬ 
ing savages, who are not less warlike 
than inimical to Europeans. The trade 
of the island, forming the head quar¬ 
ters of all the settlements of the nation 
on this coast, is very considerable. 
The governor, who resides here, is 
chief of the whole. The town is really 
a curiosity, placed as it is on a desart 
island iir this obscure corner of Africa, 
on account ofi its extent, population, 
and the number of large, though per¬ 
haps, not very elegant, houses, which 
are found in its narrow streets. Few 
foreigners, except some Frenchmen 
from Mauritius and Bourbon, reside 
here, and the other whites are rather 
Portuguese subjects than Portuguese, 
being mostly natives of her colonies. 
The main trade is carried on with Goa 
on the Malabar coast. The island is 
not altogether healthy, but perhaps less 
so than is commonly represented. A 
few of the more opulent residents have 
country houses on the shores of the 
peninsula already alluded to, to which 
they occasionally retire. O. P. Q. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
An OAK GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY; 
being a full , true , and complete Ac¬ 
count of the Fete Champetre . June 9, 
1775, at the Oaks, near Sutton , in 
Surrey; from an Original MS. 
T HE noble family at whose expence 
the above tote was prepared, be¬ 
ing desirous to indulge the curious in 
general with a sight of some part of 
the rural festival, as well as the select 
party who had cards of invitation, gave 
orders 
