the same name. This island
with two others, Saint Jago and Saint George, and the mainland, form the
confines of the harbour, and shelter the vessels riding between them
from every wind.

I and several of the officers landed with Captain Armstrong, who wished
to communicate with the governor-general. It was said that he was very
anxious to suppress the slave-trade, but that he was actually
intimidated by the slave-dealing community.

The island is defended by two forts, and we heard that the guns had been
dismounted and sent to Portugal, in order that should the place be
captured by the natives, it might be the more easily retaken by the
slave-dealers. We were not prepared to find so handsome a city as
Mozambique is in many respects. We landed at a fine wharf built of the
most massive masonry. The palace of the governor-general is a handsome
building, erected round a court-yard, with lofty rooms and floors of
timber. The roof is flat, and covered entirely with lead. The floors
of most of the other houses are of chunam, or lime. All the houses are
very substantially built, for the sake of coolness; and many of them
look as if at one time they may have been comfortable abodes when the
slave-trade flourished, and they were inhabited by the principal
slave-dealers in the place. The town is irregularly built; the streets
are narrow; there are two large churches and several chapels, and two or
three squares, with fair-sized houses round them. As we were passing
through the principal one, we observed a pillar of wood fixed in a mass
of masonry. We inquired its object, and were told that it is used for
securing the negroes when they are ordered to be publicly whipped. I
have little more to say about the city of Mozambique, except to remark
that it is difficult to conceive how civilised beings can allow the
place they live in to be kept in so very dirty a condition. The truth
is, that the blighting influence of slave-dealing affects every one,
from the highest to the lowest Portuguese; and their whole thoughts are
taken up in the consideration of how they can in the greatest degree
benefit directly or remotely by it. While the Portuguese government
persists in sending out ruined men to govern the country, or under-paid
officers, they cannot wash away the stigma which now rests on them of
wishing to support the slave-trade in spite of treaties, and their
promises to put a stop to it. There are about two hundred wh