Taken from: Settlement and Trade from AD 500 to 1800 at Angoche, Mozambique by Edward Pollard, Ricardo Duarte & Yolanda Teixeira Duarte. African Archaeological Review volume 35, pages 443–471 (2018)

 

Previous archaeological investigations have revealed local ceramics from the early second millennium AD and imports from the late fifteenth century. According to oral traditions and ancient sources, Angoche’s growth is associated with the arrival of coastal settlers from Kilwa in 1485. The survey revealed evidence for occupation dating from c. AD 500 and trading evidence from the late first millennium AD. Artefacts from the thirteenth to sixteenth century on the islands are similar to those found at Kilwa and Sofala, which shows a link to Kilwa earlier than the oral traditions and the name of one of the Angoche Islands ‘Quilua’, is Kilwa in Portuguese. The name of Angoche relates to a port of call and the presence of ninth-tenth-century- storage vessels from southern Iran supports this theory. Traded glass and ceramic artifacts and beads increase from the late medieval period revealing that Angoche became an important and wealthy entrepôt. The lack of coral limestone and reef coral, on the sandy Angoche Islands, indicates some building materials would have had to have been imported. Although many buildings would have been made of wood, some stone ruins are likely to have been demolished and burnt to make lime.

 

Island Archaeological Survey

In 1975, Dickinson (1976) briefly surveyed two of the Angoche Islands: Catamoio (Muchelele site) and Quilua. The site of Muchelele on Catamoio Island revealed pottery dating from the late fifteenth to early seventeenth century (Dickinson 1976, p. 5). He accepted, based on oral tradition and artefact evidence, that Muchelele was the site associated with the beginning of the sultanate at the end of the fifteenth century. He described the assemblage as celadon from c. 1500, blue and white Ming porcelain from c. 1600, earthenware with highly glazed exteriors in sea greens and turquoise, imported glass beads of Indian red predominating but also purple, yellow, green and blue, and a bronze bead; African ceramics decorated with chevrons of parallel grooved lines, incised crisscross, wavy-shell impressions of diagonal parallel lines, red oxide polish and a baked-clay decorated spindle whorl (Dickinson 1976, pp. 6 – 7).

Imported artefacts found during the survey. A Muchelele celadon. B Nhanluqui celadon. C Ming porcelain from Muchelele

D Qing porcelain from Muchelele. E Storage vessel from Nhanluqui. F Late Islamic Sgraffiato from Nhanluqui (photos: R.Duarte and Y. Teixeria Duarte)

Taken from: OBSERVATIONS PRELIMINAIRES SUR LES SITES DU MOZAMBIQUE - PIERRE VÉRIN 1970 Azania.

 

According to Arnaldo Ramos da Fonseca, Angoche was a name given for centuries to an entire region that constitutes the current district of Antonio Enes. Still according to this author, around 1450 an important establishment was founded on the island of Quiloa in the country of Angoche by 'Xossa', son of a certain 'Hassini', originally from Zanzibar who married Malivo, daughter of Buana Mecussi of Quiloa. Their descendants reigned until the end of the 19th century.

In 1512 the first revolt of the Moors of Angoche took place. Alfonso d'Albuquerque sent Antonio Saldanha to chastise her.

 

From these independent times, there remain the arms of the Sultans of Angoche in the small museum of the Municipality of Antonio Enes as well as archaeological remains in Velha Angoche in the island of Quiloa and in Catamoio. We have not yet been able to see these remains and to our knowledge, they have never been described.

 

Taken from: THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AFRICA General Editors: J. D. FAGE and ROLAND OLIVER Vol. 3.

 

Late in the fifteenth century Angoche was visited by refugees from Kilwa, who founded a new sultanate, the trade of which grew as the Sofala-Kilwa axis collapsed. A few years later commercial power shifted again, as Angoche was gradually replaced by the Portuguese establishments of Mozambique island, north of it, and Quelimane, south of it. The gradual shift from Kilwa to Angoche, Quelimane and the other northern ports was a sign that from the fifteenth century the Zambezi valley had become the major trade artery of the region and replaced the routes inland from Sofala.

 

Taken from: Newitt, M. D. 1972. The early history of the Sultanate of Angoche. Journal of African

History 13, 397–406.

 

By 1511, the Portuguese had come to realize that Angoche was the center of clandestine trade, principally with cloth, and an armed expedition of 1200 men sacked the town. No military garrison was set up though and a year later the clandestine trade was again in effect (Newitt 1972, p. 401; Newitt 1995, pp. 20–2).

End of the Middle-Ages View of Angoche by the Portuguese.

 

Note: Zambuk: Sambuk; is a type of dhow, a traditional wooden sailing vessel.

 

Taken from: Álvaro Velho: Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama. (1497-1499).

Álvaro Velho was on board but left on the return at Sierra Leone.

 

The first place Da Gama visits in East Africa is the river Limpopo = Inhampura (250km down from Inhambane gulf) or according to others the river Inharrime (90km down from Inhambane gulf). He was very well received by clearly wealthy people. Who must have seen occasionally other big ships passing to be so open to them.

 

Here the River of Good Signs is the second place where he stops.

If the starting point was the river Limpopo (250km down from Inhambane gulf) he would have reached the islands in 10 days when traveling during day and night at 7.5km an hour. Leaving the Copper river on the 16^th of January and arriving at the islands on the 25^th of January.

10 days* 24houres *7.5 km/h = 1800km. This makes him just reach the south side of Angoche island. And his river might well have been the southern channel around Angoche island. Leaving from that channel in NE direction you meet indeed 3 little islands and you are indeed 6 days from Mozambique island when only sailing during daytime as he mentions. It is also a place where merchants and a young man who had traveled to foreign countries might show up in a small boat after two or three days. There are no other islands in the open sea till Mozambique island.

6 days*12houres*7.5km/h= 540km. Brings you to the second of the three islands called Ilha de Mafamede (=Mohamed).

 

[Rio dos Bons Signaes] (River of Good Signs).

On Monday [January 22] we discovered a low coast thickly wooded with tall trees. Continuing our course we perceived the broad mouth of a river. As it was necessary to find out where we were, we cast anchor. On Thursday [January 25], at night, we entered. The Berrio was already there, having entered the night before — that is eight days before the end of January (January 24).

 

The country is low and marshy, and covered with tall trees yielding an abundance of various fruits, which the inhabitants eat. These people are black and well made. They go naked, merely wearing a piece of cotton stuff around their loins, that worn by the women being larger than that worn by the men. The young women are good-looking. Their lips are pierced in three places, and they wear in them bits of twisted tin. These people took much delight in us. They brought us in their almadias (dug-out) what they had, whilst we went into their village to procure water.

When we had been two or three days at this place two gentlemen (senhores) of the country came to see us. They were very haughty, and valued nothing which we gave them. One of them wore a touca (head-dress fastened under the chin) with a fringe embroidered in silk, and the other a cap of green satin. A young man in their company — so we understood from signs — that our country was more distant than theirs, and that our ships were bigger than theirs. These tokens (signaes) gladdened our hearts, for it appeared as if we were really approaching the places of our desires. These gentlemen had some huts built on the river bank, close to the ships, in which they stayed seven days, sending daily to the ships, offering to barter cloths which bore a mark of red ocher. And when they were tired of being there, they left in their almadias (dug-out) for the upper river.

 

As to ourselves, we spent thirty-two days in the river taking in water, careening the ships, and repairing the mast of the Raphael. Many of our men fell ill here, their feet and hands swelling, and their gums growing over their teeth, so that they could not eat.

 

We erected here a pillar which we called the pillar of St. Raphael, because it had been brought in the ship bearing that name. The river we called Rio dos Bons Signaes (River of good signs or tokens).

 

[To Moçambique]

 

On Saturday [February 24] we left this place and gained the open sea. During the night we stood N.E., so as to keep away from the land, which was very pleasing to look upon. On Sunday [February 25] we still stood N.E., and at vesper time discovered three small islands, out in the open, of which two were covered with tall trees, while the third and smallest was barren. The distance from one island to the other was four leagues.

 

On the following day we pursued our route, and did so during six days, lying to at night.

On Thursday, the 1st of March, we sighted islands and the mainland, but as it was late we again stood out to sea, and lay to till morning. We then approached the land, of which I shall speak in what follows.

 

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

 

ANGOY.

After passing this river of Zuama, at XI leagues from it, there is a town of the Moors on the sea coast, which is called Angoy, and has a king, and the Moors who live there are all merchants, and deal in gold, ivory, silk, and cotton stuffs, and beads of Cambay, the same as do those of Sofala. And the Moors bring these goods from Quiloa, and Monbaza, and Melynde, in small vessels hidden from the Portuguese ships; and they carry from there a great quantity of ivory, and much gold. And in this town of Angos there are plenty of provisions of millet, rice, and some kinds of meat. These men are very brown and copper colored; they go naked from the waist upwards, and from thence downwards, they wrap themselves with cloths of cotton and silk, and wear other cloths folded after the fashion of cloaks, and some wear caps and others hoods, worked with stuffs and silks; and they speak the language belonging to the country, which is that of the Pagans, and some of them speak Arabic. These people are sometimes in obedience to the king of Portugal, and at times they throw it off, for they are a long way off from the Portuguese forts.

 

Taken from : Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol II

 

LETTER FROM DIOGO VAZ, FACTOR OF MOZAMBIQUE, TO ESTÊVÃO VAZ, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CASAS DA INDIA E GUINÉ Mozambique, 1509 September 4

 

A year has already gone by since Duarte de Lemos arrived here and made himself captain-major in the same way as Jorje d’Aguyar his uncle was to have been, and the talk of the day was how to set the world straight. He left here saying that he was going to Socotra and went to Malindi where he stayed for many days and then came back here, and while he was here Cide Abubacar arrived here with another Moor from Malindi where both are very eminent men, bringing their sambuks loaded with cloth from Cambay amounting to one hundred thousand odd cloths, and he allowed them to go to Angoxe to trade and do as they liked with the said cloths, whereupon the said Moors went straight to Angoxe and as soon as they arrived there, sent out their factors throughout the coast and thus gathering all the ivory and ..... there is and not satisfied with that but we are now informed that they have sent a great number of them to Quama, 15 or 20 leagues from Sofala, which they say is a second Sofala. All this land is full of cloths whilst ours is so far gone that I dare not tell you. There are so many things to tell that they cannot all be written and for no reason other than that everything is allowed to pass through.

 

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol III

 

SUMMARY BY ANTÓNIO CARNEIRO, SECRETARY OF STATE, OF LETTERS FROM AFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE TO THE KING

(in 1511)

…………………… Item, that if Sofala were not leased to the Moors, the Moors of Sofala would strive to take the trade away from Angoxe. ………………………….

 

SUMMARY BY ANTÓNIO CARNEIRO, SECRETARY OF STATE OF LETTERS FROM ANTÓNIO DE SALDANHA, CAPTAIN OF SOFALA AND MOZAMBIQUE, TO THE KING

(In 1511)

I — In one he tells how he went to Angoxe and of the death of Duarte de Melo and how they wounded four others of his men though none died and how they burnt all the sambuks wherein they sailed and that in this enterprise there were up to 1,200 men, Moors and Kafirs.

 

2 — Item, that the sheik of Angoxe and his subjects are 12,000 men who made up their minds to destroy all the land of the district and which they did to such purpose that there is not one bale of corn to be had on the mainland, and for this reason he would remain in Mozambique and also because he could not leave that fortress at a time when there was so much merchandise and only twelve men, and because he had to wait there for the fleet to see what orders Afomso d’Alboquerque was sending.

……………………

6 — Item, that the Moors thought themselves destroyed when they saw that Angoxe was reached and that no peace was granted to them.

Item, that he has learned that all the trade lies in Angoxe and that the merchandise is taken from there to Maena (Cuama is meant) and he says that this Maena is a very great river and that they land a good 6 leagues (6*6km) upstream at the house of an honored Kafir, king of that land, and there pay his duties and that he gives them almadias (rowing boat) to take the cloth up-river. And that further up there is a narrow pass through which the almadias go after they have been unloaded by him and then they load again and go another 20 leagues or so, where there is a mountain they call Otonga, and there lies a large village where he says all the Kafir and Moorish merchants of the land gather together and where they sell and set up their markets.

And that he will cut off this river and Angoxe otherwise there is no way of establishing trade and that he is working to this purpose as his duty to your Service demands. ………….

……………………

And that if they could be wholly cut off in Mozambique and in Angoxe and up-country they could do no damage and would of necessity become friends.

And that this can be done with a brace of the smallest caravels and 30 men who would always keep Angoxe busy and winter there and always remain there and have no other task.

And if this is not done nothing can be done to keep the small sambuks from sailing.

11 — Item, that the whole of the land of Monapotapa is at peace and that he hopes that this will allow him to settle matters pertaining to your Service.

………………………….

 

LIST OF THE INDIA FLEETS

(In 1512)

………………… (About Gaspar Pereira); The vessel Santo Antonio, of captain Francisco Nogueira, was lost on the shoals of Angoxe, where nearly all the crew died, and he, not knowing how to swim, stayed with his two sons on what was left of the vessel and, on the ebb tide, the waters subsided so that he walked dry foot to one of the islands of Angoxe where the Moors took him prisoner and later exchanged him for their sheik whom Antonio de Saldanha had captured when he went to avenge the deaths of some of our men, killed by the Moors, when they were in search of supplies.

…………………..

 

LETTER FROM PERO VAZ SOARES, FACTOR OF SOFALA, TO THE KING Sofala, 1513 June 30

……………………………….. This commerce, Sire, has also one thing that is very damaging to the said trade, and that is Angoja where are resident many Moors from Kilwa and Malindi, and a great deal of merchandise comes to them in sambuks which can slip through at the time they know they can come without danger of being taken, for the Moors in Mozambique tell them when there is no ship there so that they can pass; they all trade with one another and thus fill the land with cloth and cause a great decrease in the trade of this factory; Your Highness should order the said Moors to be thrown out of there or destroyed in such a way that they will not be able to live or trade there; and that passage in Mozambique should be well guarded at the time when they are likely to come, for they will always be taken. ……………………

 

DRAFT OF A LETTER FROM THE KING TO SIMAO DE MIRANDA, CAPTAIN OF SOFALA AND M0ZAMBIQUE

 Symao de Miramda. We the King send you greeting. We saw the letter you sent us and, in regard to what you say of the Moorish settlement you have made adjoining for the reasons pointed out in your letter, we think it is very well thus and good for our Service and you should strive to do this, and let the Moors of Amgoje come to the said settlement; however, always be on guard at Angoje so that the Moors cannot get their merchandise through to it, and be sure you have in that all the care we expect from you.

 

LETTER FROM AFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE TO THE KING Goa, 1514 October 25

…………….. Symam de Miramda complains of the river Amgoja and of another river which is closer to Sofala than the former. He says that there is where the cloth from Malindi and Mombassa, Brava, Pate and Lamo and Mogadishu comes and there where the naos (vessels) from Cambay come yearly loaded with cloth. He says that the cloth slips through in small boats that go along the coast into Amgoja and into the other river and he sent to me asking for a brigantine, which I had made for him; but to me, Sire, it seems that the caravels should patrol the waters of Mombassa and of the other places of that coast, which would be doubly profitable: they could capture the cloth that comes to those parts and keep the Moors from damaging the trade of Sofala. Pero d’Alboquerq[u]e took two of these naos (vessels) which had put into Cape Guardafui owing to the weather. There is no other way to keep out the cloth from still entering these rivers in small boats. ………………………………

 

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol V

 

Letter written by Cristovam de Tavora from Mozambique on 20 Sept. 1517.

 

………… a zambuk went with cloth from Amguoja to Cuama and there they went inland with thirty Negroes carrying it. If this be true, or not, I cannot learn until I go to Sofala, but Your Highness can be assured that this passage of Amgoja is very harmful to the trade of Sofala, because they give their merchandise for less than half of its price in Sofala, and the greater part of these merchants are from Mombasa. If these two places were destroyed, Sofala would become prosperous and I, with these few people I have, would already have gone against Amgoja if these fortresses were provided with arms and powder, …………….

 

Taken from: Lendas da India by Gaspar Correa 16^th Vol 1

 

DOM FRANCISCO, VISOREY, 1507.

(The King of Melinde complains to Tristan da Cunha about his problems with the King of Bombaça who now gets help from the Rey d'Angoja.)

They immediately left with the armada, and went to land on the Island of Angoja, and presented the armada in front of the city, which was large, with beautiful houses of stone, two-story houses, terraced on top, without walls or fences, of many towers, and gardens, and the city settled along a beach, which formed the place, where zambucos are located. The city was populated by Moors, of whom a Moorish merchant was Rey, who, because he was powerful in wealth over everyone, was Rey. ……... (He destroys the city) …………

The men disembark and enter the city, finding no one to resist them, where the people were busy robbing, and they will find little in fact, because their deal was with gold and silver, which they had well guarded, …… They find a lot of corn, butter, cows, goats, chickens, yams, with which they will eat as much as they want; and nothing was found in the houses of the King, but of supplies he took a large amount. He then ordered many parts of the city to be set on fire, which was left very destroyed. ………………….