FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408  
409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   >>   >|  
, instead of the fifteen leagues of the text.--E. [15] The sixty leagues in the text are inexplicable on any rational supposition, as they seem to have again made the Rocks de la Cruz, or rather Rocky Point, said just before to be only fifteen leagues from Infante river, to which they were then bound.--E. [16] The Portuguese ships appear to have been now on the coast of Natal, or the land of the Caffres, certainly a more civilized people than the Hottentots of the cape. But the circumstance of Alonzo understanding their language is quite inexplicable: as he could hardly have been lower on the western coast than Minz, or perhaps Congo. Yet, as a belt of Caffres are said to cross the continent of Africa, to the north of the Hottentots, it is barely possible that some Caffre slaves may have reached the western coast.--E. [17] This grain was probably what is now well known under the name of millet.--E. [18] According to Barros, _Aguada da boa Paz_.--Clarke. [19] Gibb's Orosius, I. 50. [20] The text here ought probably to be thus amended, "He and his brother, _with_ Nicholas Coelle," &c.--E. [21] These probably swam off to the ships.--E. [22] De Faria alleges that the people of this river were not so black as the other Africans, and wore habits of different kinds of stuffs, both cotton and silk, of various colours, and that they understood Arabic; and adds, that they informed De Gama there were white people to the eastwards, who sailed in ships like those of the Portuguese. Osorius likewise says, that one of the natives spoke Arabic very imperfectly, and that De Gama left two of his convicts at this place, which he called San Rafael.--Clarke. [23] There is no circumstance in the text from which the situation of this river can even be conjectured. Clarke, p.440, alleges that it was Soffala; and yet, in a note in his preceding page, says, "That De Gama seems to have passed Cape Corientes during the night, and to have kept so far from land, on account of a strong current setting on shore, as not to have noticed Sofala." In the notes on the Lusiad, this river of Good Signs is ascertained to have been one of the mouths of the Zambeze, or Cuama River, which divides Mocaranga from the coast of Mozambique; the different mouths of which run into the sea between the latitudes of 19 deg. and 18 deg. S.--E.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408  
409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

people

 

leagues

 

Clarke

 
western
 
Caffres
 

Hottentots

 

circumstance

 
Arabic
 

alleges

 

inexplicable


mouths

 

fifteen

 

Portuguese

 
Osorius
 

likewise

 

natives

 

convicts

 
imperfectly
 

habits

 
colours

called

 
understood
 

informed

 

cotton

 
sailed
 

eastwards

 

stuffs

 

Africans

 

Lusiad

 

ascertained


Sofala

 

current

 

setting

 

noticed

 
Zambeze
 

latitudes

 
divides
 
Mocaranga
 
Mozambique
 

strong


account

 

conjectured

 

Soffala

 
situation
 

Rafael

 

Corientes

 

preceding

 
passed
 

Orosius

 
Alonzo