Mozambique Channel

“ There is one man upon your track who judges for himself, and does not take slave-dealers’ reports; but he has not yet entered the Mozambique Channel; he is at Natal, and has only just heard of your movements. You may perhaps obtain your cargo of slaves, and add to the large list of unreported slavers which have been carrying large cargoes from the Mozambique to Cuba and America for a quarter of a century.
The “Zambesi” stood away for the Bazarutto Islands, remained there three days, relanded the men who had belonged to the “Ocean Queen,” and returned to Inhambane. ”

“ The crew were subsequently landed at the Bazarutto Islands; the captain and slaves conveyed to Natal, where we were bound, and the vessel set on fire.
Commander Oldfield, acting on information which I supplied to him, after landing me at Mauritius, on his return to the Mozambique Channel, captured sixteen dhows engaged in the slave-trade, showing what one energetic officer, having the public service at heart, could do in the Mozambique Channel, while his senior officer, playing at billiards, kept his vessel at anchor in that harbour. ”

“ Mozambique Island is a mile and a half long by a quarter of a mile in width, and is separated from the mainland by a shallow channel one mile broad, through which the ebb and flood tides run with great velocity. Considering the small area of the place the population is dense, amounting altogether to seven thousand. ”

“ The very first day I shipped aboard the Dolphin we took two Mtpe dhows close inshore near Pemba. That brought me in a niceish bit of prize-money for a start; and, just a week arter that exactly, when we had got down to our proper cruising ground—that was, sir, just atween Zanzibar and the Mozambique Channel, which, as I daresay you know, sir, is about two hundred and fifty miles wide and runs between Madagascar and the mainland of Africa—why, we came upon the biggest haul that had been made on the coast for years ”

“ There are no fords. In some dry seasons there are rapids between Seña and Tete; they are [239] always passable. The bed of the river is mud, gravel, and sand.
In the dry season, the water of the river is clear and transparent; in the rainy season, it is brown, and at times approaching to a bright yellow. At this season, the Mozambique Channel is discoloured at a distance of 80 or 100 miles from the Killimane Bar.
In the neighbourhood of Tete, gold, coal, and iron are found in close proximity. Dr. Livingstone has worked the “Asthmatic” with the coal of the country ”

“ The surface currents all through the Indian Ocean are strong and tricky. Off Durban or Port Natal the current runs southwesterly at very nearly three or four knots at this season, and it was worth while not to get into it, especially for a ship like the Clearchus, which could not be depended upon to sail faster than five or six knots. By keeping a couple of hundred miles to the southward we got into the easterly drift and the west wind, and we held that course to about 35° east longitude, gradually turning to the north for the Mozambique Channel. ”

“ Passing to the north of Java, they ran through the channel between that island and Sumatra, taking care to avoid the Straits of Malacca, on the north shore of which the Portuguese had a settlement. They now steered directly for the Cape of Good Hope. As they approached Madagascar, in consequence of the want of provisions, a mutiny broke out, some of the men wishing to put into Mozambique to repair the ship and obtain food ”

“ Between Quelimane and Mozambique the coral-builders have erected a continuous chain of reefs and islets, skirting the coast at a distance ranging from 12 to 18 or 20 miles, and enclosing a broad channel, which in many places affords good anchorage. ”

“ The blight of slavery has poisoned everything on which it rested.
Nevertheless, as a place of call for refreshment, for ships passing through the Channel, Mozambique has some claims to attention. Abundance of vegetables and fruit are to be obtained there; pigs and goats are readily to be purchased, as well as poultry, and, were the demand for bullocks larger, they would soon be brought to market in numbers. ”

“ The 17th we were in, lat. 14° 57' S. so that we have got 25 leagues farther north, and the main power of the current seems now lessened. My master is of opinion that the age of the moon may have peculiar influence over the currents, causing them to be strong till three or four days after the full: but I rather think that the deep bay between Cape Corientes and Mozambique causes an indraught or eddy of some stream or current, coming either from the N.E. or more easterly, and entering the channel of Mozambique at the N.W. of Madagascar, and so along the land to Cape Corientes ”

“ One of Africa's poorest countries, with a per capita GDP of little more than $100, Mozambique has failed to exploit the economic potential of its sizable agricultural, hydropower, and transportation resources. ”

“ This island was already a great Arab market, trading with the East Indies, when Yasco de Guma discovered it in 1498. The Portuguese had merely to fortify the place in order to secure a station of vital importance on the highway between Lisbon and Goa. Mozambique Island, a coralline rock about two miles long and a few hundred yards broad, partly closes the entrance of the spacious Mossoril Bay, a perfectly sheltered haven from 25 to 60 feet deep, where vessels frequenting these waters find a safe anchorage during the prevalence of the south-east monsoons. ”

“ "I suppose that, after visiting the curious coasts of Arabia and Egypt, the Nautilus will go down the Indian Ocean again, perhaps cross the Channel of Mozambique, perhaps off the Mascarenhas, so as to gain the Cape of Good Hope." ”

“ Of late years Zanzibar has monopolized most of the East African trade, and, consequently, Mozambique has been losing its importance, and has now almost ceased to be a centre of commercial industry. Indeed, the only African export of any moment which now passes through Mozambique is india-rubber, which is said to be of good quality, and of which large supplies are forthcoming. ”

“ We first made sail for Mozambique, where Captain Armstrong had to communicate with the governor to arrange a plan for the suppression of the slave-trade. Mozambique belongs to the Portuguese. It is the chief of their settlements on the east coast of Africa. They claim the whole coast from Cape Delgado in the north, situated in about eleven degrees south latitude, to Delagoa Bay, which will be found at about the twenty-sixth degree south latitude ”

“ Mozambique commands from its low islet a labyrinth of inner havens, followed northwards by Conducia Bay and the magnificent group of sheltered inlets presented by the Ferñao Vellozo or Masasima basin. Memba Bay, with those of Mwambi, Montepes, Ibo, Masimbwa, and Mayapa, not to speak of the many excellent anchorages formed by the islets off the coast, render this seaboard one of the most favourable for navigation in the whole world. At the same time the barrier reefs and the swift currents striking against them require great caution on the part of skippers frequenting these waters. ”

“ The trade to Mozambique is trivial; but, since the capture of the Isle of France by the British has cleared that coast from French privateers, it may be expected to increase. It affords many valuable products, such as gold-dust, brought from the interior, ivory, of which the Prince monopolizes the largest sort, ebony and other fine woods, drugs, oil, excellent columbo-root, and an abundance of various gums, particularly of the gum meni. The whale fisheries on the coast have proved a source of riches to many speculators. ”

“ PORTUGUESE TERRITORY—TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT—MALARIA—HORSE SICKNESS
Between the north-eastern borders of the Transvaal and the coast lies the Portuguese colony Mozambique. Its frontier railway station, Ressario Garcia, is near that of the Transvaal, viz., Komati poort, which is 53 miles from Delagoa Bay. A low-lying country extends from the coast about 100 to 200 miles inland, and is tropical. Except some elevated spots, the whole of it is almost uninhabitable in summer by whites on account of malaria. During some specially bad seasons natives even succumb to that malady. ”

“ The station of Mozambique itself, mainstay of the Portuguese authority along the seaboard, is situated not on the mainland but on a neighbouring island, while the surrounding country might, till quite recently, be described as a terra incognita to within a short distance of the opposite coast. Like all other stations on the East African seaboard, except Sofala, Mozambique was regarded as little more than a port of call for vessels plying between Europe and India. ”

“ The harbour of Mozambique has seldom less than eight or ten fathom water, which is so clear, that every bank, rock, or shallow can be easily seen.
"The Moors, so often mentioned, are supposed by Bruce to have been merchants expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, who first fixed their residence on the western coast of Africa, and extending themselves eastwards, formed settlements in Arabia and Egypt, till the oppressions of Selim and Soliman, the Turkish emperors, interrupted their commerce, and obliged them to disperse along the coast of Abyssinia and eastern Africa. ”

“ We put in at the Mauritius for coal and there we heard stories regarding the still flourishing slave trade which led us to believe we might find some spirited and profitable sport with them, in the same way that we had preyed on the Chinese and Malay pirates out East. We sailed around Cape St. Mary into the Mozambique Canal, between the East African coast and the island of Madagascar, and began bartering for ivory, gold dust, palm nuts, and animal skins, as a mask for our real purpose and to give us a favorable opportunity to study the situation. ”

“ Mozambique (1,000) , the general name for Portuguese East Africa, lies between Cape Delgado and Delagoa Bay on the mainland, opposite Madagascar; the Rovuma River separates it from German territory in the N.; in the S. it touches British Maputaland, while inland it borders on British Central and South Africa and the Transvaal; the Zambesi divides it into two; the coast is low and wet, inland are richly wooded plateaux; the soil is fertile, and minerals abound, but the government is bad, and industry does not develop; 52 miles of railway connect Lorenzo Marques with the Transvaal ”

“ There are a few Portuguese officials connected with the Custom-house and the Treasury, some half-caste descendants of Portuguese or Canarines from Goâ, and natural children of slave-dealers by native women from India or Africa; such is the society at Mozambique. Add to this, one German merchant and an agent of a house from Marseilles, thirty or forty Banyan traders from Cutch, Goâ, and Bombay; a few Arabs, or, as they are called at Mozambique, Moors, and you have all that portion of the inhabitants of the island who call themselves free. ”

“ The officers in the garrison towns among the friendly tribes apparently tamper with the evil. And individuals are freely named both in Imerina and in the provinces who are said privately to soil their hands with the traffic and to make from it large profits. The Arab and Hindu merchants live on the coast: the Arab dhows run backward and forward between the west coast of the island and Mozambique: they are said to run their vessels, not into Mojangá Bay, but up the deep river Loza, some forty miles to the north, or into the quiet bays away from the Hova towns. ”

“ If found stealing cocoa-nuts from the trees, the custom of Mozambique is to allow the captain or guardian of the palm trees to shoot them. No question is asked as to how a slave comes by his death—and the body is thrown into the sea. ”

“ Although the Portuguese have had possessions of immense territorial extent, both on the West and East Coasts of Africa, for more than three centuries, in regions where this weed of the most superior quality abounds, it is only within the last twenty or thirty years that they have brought it into the European market; and, from what I could learn at Mozambique, it is only since the Slave Trade was partially checked in that Province, that the Mozambique people began to export this valuable commodity, viz., subsequent to 1850. ”

“ One of them is the well-known Mozambique current, called at the Cape of Good Hope the Lagulhas current. Another of these warm currents from the Indian Ocean makes its escape through the Straits of Malacca, and, being joined by other warm streams from the Java and China Seas, flows out into the Pacific, like another Gulf Stream, between the Philippines and the shores of Asia. Thence it attempts the great circle route for the Aleutian Islands, tempering climates, and losing itself in the sea as its waters grow cool on its route towards the north-west coast of America. ”

“ Communications.—There is regular steamship communication between the chief ports and Marseilles, Zanzibar and India (via Mauritius and Ceylon) ; and a submarine cable to Mozambique places the island in telegraphic connexion with the rest of the world. The French have built carriage roads from the interior to the principal ports as well as to connect the principal towns. On these roads large use is made of bullock wagons, as well as carts drawn by men, and women also. Tamatàve and Antanànarìvo are joined by coast canals and lakes and by a railway service. ”