lime, and very lofty, with their
windows like those of the Christians; in the same way it has streets, and
these houses have got terraces, and the wood-work is with the masonry,
with plenty of gardens, in which there are many fruit trees and much
water."[32] Kilwa after a time captured Sofala, seizing it from Magadosho.
Eventually Kilwa became mistress of the island of Zanzibar, of Mozambique,
and of much other territory. The forty-third ruler of Kilwa after Ali was
named Abraham, and he was ruling when the Portuguese arrived. The latter
reported that these people cultivated rice and cocoa, built ships, and had
considerable commerce with Asia. All the people, of whatever color, were
Mohammedans, and the richer were clothed in gorgeous robes of silk and
velvet. They traded with the inland Bantus and met numerous tribes,
receiving gold, ivory, millet, rice, cattle, poultry, and honey.

On the islands the Asiatics were independent, but on the main lands south
of Kilwa the sheiks ruled only their own people, under the overlordship of
the Bantus, to whom they were compelled to pay large tribute each year.

Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 and went north on the
east coast as far as India. In the next ten years the Portuguese had
occupied more than six different points on that coast, including
Sofala.[33]

Thus civilization waxed and waned in East Africa among prehistoric
Negroes, Arab and Persian mulattoes on the coast, in the Zend or Zeng
empire of Bantu Negroes, and later in the Bantu rule of the Monomotapa.
And thus, too, among later throngs of the fiercer, warlike Bantu, the
ancient culture of the land largely died. Yet something survived, and in
the modern Bantu state, language, and industry can be found clear links
that establish the essential identity of the absorbed peoples with the
builders of Zymbabwe.

So far we have traced the history of the lands into which the southward
stream of invading Bantus turned, and have followed them to the Limpopo
River. We turn now to the lands north from Lake Nyassa.

The aboriginal Negroes sustained in prehistoric time invasions from the
northeast by Negroids of a type like the ancient Egyptians and like the
modern Gallas, Masai, and Somalis. To these migrations were added attacks
from the Nile Negroes to the north and the Bantu invaders from the south.
This has led to great differences among the groups of the population and
in their customs. Some are fierce m