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Updated: June 27, 2025
The Moors of Quiloa are richly dressed, especially the women, who wear many golden ornaments. They are great merchants, enjoying the principal trade in gold at Sofala, whence it is distributed over Arabia Felix, and other countries; and many merchants resort thither from other places. Hence there are always many ships in this port, which are all hauled upon the beach when not in use.
In this God preserved our people from the intended danger most miraculously, for if they had gone to Quiloa they had all surely perished; as the general was so fully persuaded of the natives being Christians, as reported by the pilot, that he would doubtless have landed immediately on his arrival, and have thereby run headlong to a place where he and all his people would have been slain.
The city of Quiloa is in lat. 9°25'S. and long. 40°20'E. handsomely built of stone and lime, and pleasantly situated between fine gardens and the sea, having abundance of provisions from its own island and from other places on the continent. The king and the inhabitants of the city are Moors of a fair colour using the Arabic language, but the original natives of the country are Negroes.
The overthrow of the great Moorish kingdom of Granada only took place five or six years before the present voyage. "The island of Mozambique, which does not exceed a league in circumference, is described as low and swampy, and was inhabited by Moors who had come from Quiloa and Sofala.
From Quiloa he went to Mozambique in a zambucco, where he afterwards died; but left a letter in which he gave a particular account of the state of affairs in India, which he ordered to be, delivered to the first captain who might put in there from Portugal .
That king depends so entirely on the king of Portugal, that our king may dethrone him whenever be pleases to send there a force of 1000 men, which would oblige the king of Quiloa to run away; and it is believed this will be done shortly, the thing being so easy, and by this means an yearly revenue of 500,000 ducats would be secured.
On arriving at Quiloa, and receiving a safe-conduct for that purpose, the general sent Alonso Hurtado, attended by seven of the principal officers, to wait upon the king, signifying that Cabral had come here with the fleet of the king of Portugal to settle a trade in the city, and had great store of merchandize fit for that purpose; and to say that he was desirous to confer with his highness on this subject, but had been forbidden by the king his master to go on shore.
In 1505, on the twenty-fifth of March, Francisco de Almeida, the viceroy of India, sailed from Lisbon with a fleet of twenty-two sail. On his way to India, he stopped at Quiloa, where he built a fort, appointing Peter Fereira to command it. From beyond Melinda he passed over to the island of Anguediva, of which he appointed Emanuel Passavia to be captain.
"The eastern coast of Africa is hitherto very little known to geography, its trade being entirely confined to the Portuguese, who have settlements at Sofala, the river Zambeze, Mozambique, Quiloa, and Melinda, and conceal all the circumstances respecting their foreign possessions with infinite jealousy.
Within this range the boats or almadias of the country ply backwards and forwards in great safety, in the intervening channel. At all events, Prasum cannot be farther south than Cape Corientes, or farther north than Quiloa or the Zanguebar islands. The harbour of Mozambique has seldom less than eight or ten fathom water, which is so clear, that every bank, rock, or shallow can be easily seen.
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