Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/65

 'Bokaranga,' and 'Mokaranga,' &c. The fact appears to be, that the sovereign's title was Quitéve, and the name of the country Motapa, to which Mono has been prefixed, as in Monoemugi and many other names on the coast—that beyond this lay a district called Chikanga, which contained the mines of Manica, and that the other names were applicable solely to petty districts, at that time under the rule of the Quitéve. This monarch immediately collected a force to oppose Baretto's progress, and to prevent his reaching Chicanga, lest the king of that district, who was his declared enemy, should join with the Portuguese. Having, however, in two or three skirmishes found the decided inferiority of his troops, he adopted the wiser resolution of retreating before the enemy, annoying him in his march, and destroying the plantations, to prevent their affording sustenance to his pursuers; and at last, when the Portuguese approached his capital, the Quitéve retired into a neighbouring forest, "abandoning instead of defending," as the Portuguese insist he ought to have done, "the dwellings of his people." At the same time his subjects, who knew the country intimately, cut off a great number of the straggling soldiers. Baretto, greatly annoyed by this conduct, and the total evacuation of Zimbaoa, burnt it, and continued his march to Chicanga, the king of which was at that time a Mahomedan. He received the Portuguese with apparent attention, as they abstained from all acts of hostility, and professed themselves friends; yet, though he promised them access to his dominions, for the purposes of trade, he at the same time gave them little satisfaction respecting the mines, as is evident from the attempt to cover their disappointment by the assertion, "that the risk and labour attending the procuring and cleansing the gold, rendered it unworthy of their notice." Thus baffled in their main pursuit, and having lost a great number of men, it was time to make their way back,