hundred in number. The remainder of the population, consisting of free blacks, and native soldiers whom I have before described, may, in addition, amount to about one thousand five hundred. The necessity of employing the latter arose from the small degree of reliance to be placed on the services of Europeans, whose free mode of living and debauchery soon rendered them in this climate incapable of active exertion. It is even said, that not more than seven soldiers out of a hundred survive after a service of five years; and that nearly the same proportion holds good with respect to the civilians, who go out to the Colony from Europe.
It may be easily conceived how inadequate such a promiscuous population must be to the improvement, or even defence of the Settlement. As to the neighbouring tribes before described, which acknowledge the Portuguese jurisdiction, it may be doubted whether they add more to its safety or its danger. In fact, as the Portuguese themselves confess, it is only on the ignorance of their enemies that they rely for security, and upon this no great dependance is to be placed, for the Arab traders, whom I met with at Mocha, seemed to me pretty intimately acquainted with the true state of affairs at Mosambique, and one of them, named Hadjee Sâlee, even declared "it was so miserably weak that, with a hundred stout Arabian soldiers, he would dispossess the Portuguese of the Colony." I tried to convince him that the situation of things would be very different under the new governor; but he shook his head and persisted in his opinion, observing that "it was too far gone to be reclaimed."
The external connections of this colony were unfortunately at this time as discouraging as its internal relations. The war with France had been already productive of the most disastrous consequences. In 1808, a French privateer took possession of one of the adjacent islands, at the season when the coasting vessels come up from Quilimanci and Sofala, and captured almost every Portuguese boat employed in the trade, which proved a serious loss in a country where wood is scarce, and where the industry requisite to remedy such a disaster is wanting. This kind of warfare would probably have been
