Angoxa—Its History—Perfidious Conduct of the Portuguese—Effects
of British Interference—Wholesale Dread which the Portuguese
have of the Imâm of Muskat—Visit of the Sultan of Angoxa to
Johanna—Invites a British Merchant to Trade with him—Seizure of
the British Brig “Reliance.”
Passing on from the mouths of the Zambesi, with all its untold treasures,
we come to a country which, having abandoned the slave-trade, and entered
into legitimate commerce, finds its reward in growing richer and more
powerful every year, while the neighbouring Portuguese settlements,
abandoned to the nefarious traffic in human beings, become annually more
impoverished.
Steaming along this coast the prospect was quite enchanting, as ever and
anon island after island rose from the sea, displaying their shores of
the purest white sand, surrounded by the blue ocean, and surmounted by
the beautiful and graceful Kasurina tree, which, at a distance, has much
the appearance of our own fir tree.
At last we anchored as close as the surrounding reef would permit us, to
an island called Mafamale.
This island is at the mouth of the Angoxa river, and is well known to
the Arabs who frequent these seas as the burial-place of one of their
prophets.
We visited the island, and made diligent search for the tomb of the
prophet, but could not find a vestige of anything which might be taken
for an Arab tomb. In fact, the only marks which we observed at all on
the island of its having been visited at any time, were that some of the
trees had been lately cut down and removed; and we also saw the remains
of a recent fire.
On the 15th of July, the morning after we anchored, the Prime Minister
of the Sultan of Angoxa came on board the “Hermes,” accompanied by the
Sultan’s nephew. The latter evidently came to look after the prime
minister, who, although entirely in the confidence of the chief of the
country, was anxious to get back to Zanzibar, of which place he was one
of the Arab community.
On the following day Captain Gordon went up the river and paid a visit
to the Sultan, at the town of Angoxa, which is situated at the distance
of twelve miles from the mouth of the river; to which there are two
entrances, so that a vessel may enter and go out with a fair wind in
either monsoon.
The town of Angoxa consists of a number of small houses, built partly of
stone and partly of wood, the roofs being of the leaves of the palm or
cocoa-nut. It contains about 1,000 inhabitants, the greater part of whom
are Arabs, and carries on a considerable trade with the Arab settlements
at Zanzibar, Melinda, and Mombas.
Angoxa supplies immense quantities of simsim, or sesame, or guergelin
seed (which appears here particularly to thrive), the oil expressed from
which is a valuable article of commerce, being used as a substitute for
olive oil, and much prized for the finer portions of machinery.
Ivory in abundance, ebony, orchella weed, gum copal, cocoa-nut oil, coir
and ground nuts form the principal portions of cargoes of fleets of dhows
trading, in the season, between this country and the dominions of the
Imâm of Muskat.
The Sultan of Angoxa, who is an independent prince, asks for a British
consular agent, and is anxious to place himself under the protection of
Great Britain; meanwhile the Mozambique government threatens the seizure
of English vessels trading with Angoxa.
The kingdom of Angoxa extends at present from Sliangazi, at the mouth
of Captain Owen’s river Antonio, about twenty miles to the northward of
Angoxa river, whilst the southern limit is Quizano or Moma, about sixty
or seventy miles from the mouth of the same river. By this it will be
seen that it has a seaboard of ninety miles; while I was informed that
the Angoxa river is navigated about sixty leagues, or 180 miles, from its
mouth. Over the whole of the country through which that portion of the
Angoxa river runs, which is navigated at present, the Sultan of Angoxa
is acknowledged as the supreme head, having under his rule from thirty to
forty chiefs, more or less powerful.
The Angoxa river is said to take its rise in a large lake. This may be
the lake Maravi, which, from what I learned from the Moors at Mozambique,
has an outlet by a river discharging itself either at Angoxa or
Mozambique.
The history of Angoxa is contained in the following statement, derived
from reliable sources:—
At one time the government of that Arabic kingdom was located at
Killimane, a place much desired by the Portuguese, as it commands one
of the mouths of the Zambesi. About fourteen Sultans’ reigns since,
negotiations were entered into by the authorities at the island of
Mozambique, with the then reigning Sultan of the kingdom of Angoxa, at
the capital, Killimane, for the purchase of that town. Terms were agreed
upon; and, in order that there should be no misunderstanding, the Sultan
removed to the river Angoxa. A yearly tribute, or rent, was to be paid
by the Portuguese to the Sultan for the use of Killimane. Eight Sultans
received this tribute money. The ninth Sultan went for a number of years
to the city of Mozambique and received this rent, but after some time
the Portuguese pleaded inability to pay, and asked for time, which was
granted by the Sultan. After a number of years, having always received
the same messages from Mozambique, he determined to go in person and
demand the rent which was in arrear. Arrived at Mozambique, he found
a new Governor-general, who ignored the Killimane arrangement, and on
the other hand demanded from the Sultan of Angoxa tribute-money, due by
him as a vassal to the King of Portugal, and which he claimed as being
in arrear the same number of years that the Mozambique government had
omitted paying the rent for Killimane.
The Sultan of Angoxa, taken by surprise, was imprisoned at Mozambique; a
member of his family was found willing to reign over Angoxa as Sultan,
acknowledging himself as the vassal of the King of Portugal, and from
that time Angoxa was claimed as a Portuguese possession. The Portuguese
Sultan, in consequence of murdering a member of his own family, was
driven out of Angoxa by his subjects. A new Sultan was set up by one
party, while the cause of another claimant to the throne was advocated
by a second party at Angoxa. The latter repaired to Mozambique, and with
the assistance of the government of that place, and his own adherents at
Angoxa, was created Sultan of Angoxa, subject again to the authorities at
Mozambique. Soon after being placed in the government, he was dethroned,
and was succeeded by others who did not acknowledge the sovereignty
of Portugal; and this state of affairs continued until the attention
of the British government having been called by the Portuguese to the
slave-trade at Angoxa, Commodore Wyvill was instructed to put a stop to
it; and having, I am informed, called upon the Portuguese authorities at
Mozambique to assist him in coercing their so-called rebellious subjects
at Angoxa, an attack was made by Her Majesty’s naval, and the Portuguese
small military, force. The Sultan of Angoxa promised to abandon the
slave-trade, and was forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of Portugal.
A fiscal officer was placed on the point of land at the mouth of the
river. As soon as he was unprotected, the natives of Angoxa forced him to
take to the boat which had been left with him to escape by (for such an
event was fully expected), and so ends for the last time the sovereignty
of Portugal over Angoxa.
It must not for a moment be imagined that the assistance of Commodore
Wyvill was solicited by the Portuguese authorities for the purpose of
stopping the slave-trade; that was simply the pretext by which they
obtained the assistance of the senior British naval officer to force
upon the Angoxa people their hated rule. For I know, from persons who
were then resident at Mozambique, that the slave-trade was at that time
flourishing in Mozambique harbour, and that a Spanish slaver was lying
off Inhambane for more than three weeks, waiting for slaves, during which
time she was supplied by the authorities at that place, and went away
with 1000 slaves. It is in this manner that the British government has
been duped, and British officers have been made instruments for extending
the Portuguese dominion, under the specious pretext of stopping
the slave-trade, which would have been more effectually done if the
Portuguese had been left to maintain their sovereignty where they were
able to do so; and, at all other parts of the coast, a system of open
ports and free trade had been established.
The Portuguese government, having obtained from Great Britain an
acknowledgment of its sovereignty over the coast from Cape Delgado to
Delagoa Bay, insists on maintaining it, although it does not carry out
the terms of the agreement, viz.:—The abolition of the slave-trade in the
province of Mozambique. The faithless are always most exacting in faith
from others.
The Angoxa people know the Portuguese as the nation who once oppressed
them, and perfidiously deprived them of Killimane, the capital of their
kingdom, situated on a mouth of the river Zambesi, the great commercial
highway of Eastern Africa.
The Sultan of Angoxa asks for a consular officer from England, and trades
with the subjects of the Imâm of Muskat. I have seen dhows belonging to
Zanzibar, with cargoes from Angoxa, on their return from that place
to Zanzibar, anchor within gun-shot of the fort of Mozambique, during
a calm, or for a whole night, and resume their voyage without being
interrupted by the authorities at Mozambique; so much do the latter dread
their neighbour, the Imâm of Muskat, whose plain red Arab flag these
dhows fly. The reason for this is that on the Sultan of Angoxa driving
away the fiscal officer placed there by the Portuguese when assisted by
the British, under Commodore Wyvill, he offered to place himself under
the protection of the Imâm of Muskat, but the Imâm refused the offer made
by the Sultan of Angoxa, fearing to offend the English. At the same time,
he sent an intimation to the Governor-general of Mozambique, once and
for ever, that if he found him interfering, in any way, with the trade
established between Angoxa and Zanzibar, or molesting any dhow or vessel
with his flag flying on her, he would come with his ships and blow the
city of Mozambique into the water, before England or France could come
to its assistance. The Portuguese knew him well, and what he was capable
of doing. He had taken from them Mombas and Melinda, and they wished to
retain the last monument of their glory in the kingdom of Algarves; the
consequence is that, as I have already related, the Portuguese do not
interfere in the lucrative trade carried on by the Arabs of Zanzibar.
On the other hand, any vessel with the British flag, trading at Angoxa,
is immediately seized and plundered. I state facts, which I defy the
Mozambique people or the Portuguese government to deny. Now to the proof.
In the year 1851 or 1852, the Sultan of Angoxa paid a visit to the Sultan
of Johanna, one of the Comoro Islands, and while residing there made the
acquaintance of an English merchant settled at that island. He informed
the English merchant of a fact, viz., that he was an independent Sultan,
most anxious to trade with the English. He told him of the riches of
his country; how that from Angoxa, the simsim, or sesame, or guergelin
seed, (the oil of which vies with that of the olive) is taken in great
quantities to Zanzibar, and thence to Europe; how fleets of dhows are
engaged, during the trading season, between Angoxa and Zanzibar. He
described to him the ebony and beautiful figured woods of the country;
the wax in abundance; tortoise shells and ivory, and, in fact, did all
in his power to induce the merchant to visit him. The merchant, sometime
afterwards, having occasion to go in his vessel to Mozambique, called in
at Angoxa to see the Sultan, and make arrangements for future trading. I
believe no trading transactions took place. The vessel weighed and left
the river, outside of which was lying a small Portuguese schooner-of-war.
As soon as the English vessel was beyond the protection of the Sultan,
and out of gun-shot distance from the shore, and, consequently, out of
the territory of the sovereign of the country, whether the Sultan of
Angoxa or the King of Portugal, the small Portuguese schooner-of-war
ranged alongside of the English vessel, and ordered her to keep company
to the port of Mozambique. The merchant, a man of law and order, hailed
to reply that he was going there. They sailed in company together, and
when they arrived in the harbour of Mozambique, the Englishman discovered
that he was a prisoner, his vessel was confiscated, and to this hour he
has obtained no redress.
The name of the vessel which was thus seized was the “Reliance,” a brig
under English colours; and the merchant was Mr. William Sunley, residing
at Johanna, one of the Comoro Islands, and at present Her Majesty’s
consul at that island. On referring to that gentleman, I think it will be
found that I have stated the circumstances very fairly.
On Captain Gordon’s return to the “Hermes,” the anchor was weighed; and,
although there was a present of a bullock from the Sultan to the captain,
and another to myself, besides quantities of fowls on the way down the
river, we could not wait for them, but steamed away to Mozambique, our
arrival at which will form the subject of the next chapter.