Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/74

 long time been governed. The two first causes having most materially affected its trade and relative value; and the last having degraded its consequence, broken its connections with the neighbouring tribes, and reduced it to a state scarcely capable of resisting the attacks of the undisciplined barbarians in its neighbourhood. A cursory review of the government, its population, internal and external connections, will clearly elucidate this statement.

The Governor of Mosambique is assisted in his office by a council, consisting of the Bishop, the Minister, (as he is here termed) and the Commandant of the troops. The regular salaries of all these persons, and their subordinate officers are inconceivably small. The Governor receives 12,000 real crusades only, or about 750l. sterling: the Bishop 1500; the surgeon-general 960; a captain 720, and a lieutenant 300, or the pitiful allowance of 18l. 5s. per annum. One simple fact will shew the perfect inadequacy of these salaries to the proper maintenance of such officers: the Governor's cook gets at this time fifty dollars per month for wages, besides his provisions and a bottle of wine per day, which, as may be observed, is more than treble the pay of a captain. Hence has arisen the too frequent practice of tolerating certain abuses, such as selling the inferior commands, of keeping a nominal instead of an effective force, and in fact of winking at every species of injustice.

Even with men of high feeling, it is to be apprehended that a system of this nature might have had no small influence on their integrity; what then could be