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Rh several varieties of vitex and of ficus, notably the sycamore, which bears an edible fruit. Excellent hardwood is obtained from a species of grewia. Other characteristic trees are the mangrove (along the sea shore), sandal-wood, gum ccpal, bnobab and bombax, and, in the lower plain, dracaenas (dragon trees), candelabra euphoria, and many species of creepers and flowering shrubs. The thorny smilax and many other prickly creepers and shrubs are abundant. Acacias are numerous, including the gum yielding variety, while landolphia rubber vines grow freely in the forests. Among plants of economic value the coffee, cotton, indigo and tobacco plants are found, as well as the castor oil and other oleaginous plants. Bananas, mangoes and pineapples grow in great profusion. Among flowers crinum lilies, lotus, gentians, gladioli, lobelias, violets (scentless), red and yellow immortelles (confined to the higher elevations) and ycllow and blue amomums are common. Of grasses the bamboo is common. Phragmites communis, spear grass, with its waving, snowy plumes, grows 12 to 1.1, ft. and is abundant along the river banks and along the edges of the marshes. (For the flora of the Nyasa region see .)

Inhabitants.—Portuguese East Africa is sparsely inhabited, the estimated population (1909) being 3,120,000; 90% of the inhabitants belong to various Bantu tribes, from whose ranks most of the natives employed in the Transvaal gold mines are recruited. The most important in the northern half of the province are the (q.v.) and the Ma Kua (Makwa). The Makwa, notwithstanding the presence of Arabs, Banyans (Hindus) and Battias in all the coast districts, have preserved in a remarkable degree their purity of race, although their language has undergone considerable change (see ). Most of the country between the Rovuma and the Zambezi is populated by branches of this race, governed by numerous petty chiefs. The Makwa are divided into four families or groups-the Low Makwa, the Lomwe or Upper Makwa, the Maua and the Medo. Yao possess the country between the Msalu river and Nyasa. The dominant race between the Zambezi and the Mazoe are the Tavala, other tribes in the same region being the Maravi, Senga, Muzimba and Muzuzuro. They are mainly of Zulu origin. Between the Zambezi and the Pungwe are the Barue, Batoka, &c. In the district south of the Pungwe river, known as Gazaland, the ruling tribes are of Zulu origin, all other tribes of different stock being known as Tongas. For the most part these Tongas resemble the Basutos. They are of peaceful disposition. They occupy themselves with stock-raising and agriculture. The white inhabitants numbered about 9000 in 1909. They are chiefly Portuguese and British and nearly a half live in Lourenco Marques. There are many Portuguese half-castes.

Chief Towns.—The chief towns are Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, Quilimane, Inharnbane, Beira, Chinde and Sofala all separately noticed. The other European settlements are Chingune (see ), Angoxa and Ibo on the coast, and Sena, Tete and Zumbo on the Zambezi. Angoxa lies midway between Quilimane and Mozambique, dates from the 17th century, and is a small and little frequented port. Ibo, founded by the Portuguese at the beginning of the 17th century, is built on an island, likewise called Ibo, in 12° 20' S., 40° 38' E. off the northern arm of Montepuesi Bay, and 180 m. north of Mozambique. Ibo Island is one of a group known as the Querimba archipelago. The harbour is sheltered but shallow. The town attained considerable dimensions in the 17th century and was made the headquarters of the Cape Delgado district in the 18th century. The most prominent buildings are two forts, one disused. The other, called San Joao, is star-shaped and was built, according to an inscription over the gateway, in 1791. The Zambezi towns (Sena, Tete and Zumbo) mark the limits of penetration made by the Portuguese inland. Comparatively important places in the 17th and early part of the 18th centuries, with the decline of Portuguese power they fell into a ruinous condition. The opening up of Rhodesia and British Central Africa in the last quarter of the 19th century gave them renewed life. Sena, some 150 m. by river from Chinde, is built at the foot of a hill on the southern side of the Zambezi, from which it, is now distant 2 m., though in the middle of the 16th century the river flowed by it. Sena possesses an 18th-century fort, a

modern government house and a church dedicated to St Marcal.

Tete, founded about the same time as Sena, is also on the south bank of the Zambezi. It is about 140 m. by the river above Sena. Since 1894 there has been a regular service of steamers between Tete and Chinde. Of the ancient town little remains save the strongly-built fort and the church. The new town dates from about 1860, when there was a revival of the trade in gold dust and ivory. This trade, however, became practically extinct by 1903; the gold dust traffic through exhaustion of supplies, and the ivory trade through diversion to other routes. A transit trade to British possessions north and south of Tete has been developed, and in 1906 some gold mines in the neighbourhood began crushing ore. Zumbo is picturesquely situated just below the Loangwe confluence and commands large stretches of navigable water on the Loangwe and middle Zambezi. The 17th-century town was deserted in consequence of the hostility of the natives. In 1859 David Livingstone found on its site nothing but the ruins of a few houses. Since then a new settlement has been made, and Zumbo has acquired some transit trade with Rhodesia.

On the line of railway from Beira to Rhodesia the most important town is Massi Kessi (Portuguese Macequece) in the centre of the Manica goldfields. It lies 2500 ft. above the sea, 194 m. north-west of Beira by rail, and is close to the British frontier. Along the railway from Lourenco Marques to the Transvaal frontier are stations marking the position of small settlements. The last Portuguese station is named Ressano Garcia; the first Transvaal station Komati Poort.

Communications.—The Zambezi is navigable by light draught steamers throughout its course in Portuguese territory with one break at the Kebrassa Rapids-400 m. frnm its mouth. By means of the Shire affluent of the Zambezi there is direct steamer and railway connexion with British Central Africa. The navigability of the other rivers of the province has been indicated. From Lourengo Marques railways run to Swaziland and the Transvaal, and from Beira, there is a railway to Rhodesia. These lines, built to foster trade with countries beyond Portuguese territory, link the ports named to the British railway systems in South and Central Africa. The route for a railway to connect Beira with Sena was surveyed in 1906-1907, a route from Quilimane to the Zambezi being also surveyed. A light railway (50 m. long) goes inland from Matamba, on Inhambane Bay, serving northern Gazaland. Native caravan routes traverse every part of the country, but these are mere tracks, and in general communication is difficult and slow. Lourenco Marques, Beira, Mozambique and other ports are in telegraphic communication with Europe via South Africa and Zanzibar, and a cable connects Mozambique with Madagascar. Inland telegraph lines connect the ports with the adjacent British possessions. British, German and Portuguese steamship lines maintain regular communication between Lourengo Marques and other ports and Europe and India. In 1908 some 1700 vessels of 3,400,000 tons visited the ports of the province.

Agriculture and Other Industries.—The country from the Rovuma to the Zambezi is of great fertility, the richest portion being that between Angoxa and Quilimane. In-the basin of the Zambezi the soil is fertilized by the inundations of the river. The low coast land of the Gaza country is almost equally fruitful. A great part of the country is suitable for the growth of the sugar-cane, rice, ground-nuts, coffee and tobacco. The two last named plants, as also cotton, vanilla, tea and cloves, are not a success in the Quilimane region, where coco-nuts and ground-nuts are the chief crops. Rubber vines are largely grown in the Mozambique district and the Mozambique Company has large plantations of coffee and sugar. There are numerous sugar factories and rice plantations in the Zambezi district. The natives devote their attention to the raising of oleaginous crops and of maize, cassava, beans, &c. Wheat and other cereals are grown in the valley of the Zambezi. Large herds of cattle are raised. The system prevails in many districts of dividing the land into prazos (large agricultural estates) in which the natives cultivate various crops for the benefit of the European leaseholder, who is also tax-collector for his district and can claim the tax either in labour or produce.

Fish are plentiful along the coast, and pearls are obtained off the Bazaruto Isles. Turtles are caught in the Querimba archipelago. Spirits, sugar, fibres and pottery are practically the only commodities manufactured. The hunting of game for ivory and skins affords employment to large numbers of people.

Mineral Resources.—There are immense deposits of coal in the neighbourhood of Tete and near Delagoa Bay, and adjoining the coalfields ironstone of the best quality is plentiful. Malachite and copper are found in the interior, north-west of Mozambique. The 