3-077-678 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Portuguese at Delagoa Bay - sketches by Mr. Wallis Mackay, 1890. '1. Liquor Traffic: Landing Demijohns of Gin, called "Missionaries." 2. Naval and Military Types. 3 and 4. Contrast in Past and Present Style of Building: Ancient Stone; Modern Stucco. 5. Itinerant Traders from the Hills. 6. In the Banyan (Indian Traders') Quarter...without imputing national degeneracy to the Portuguese, it must be acknowledged that all who now visit their East African stations agree in testifying unfavourably of the present condition of affairs...in the port and island town of Mozambique...[the] ordinary traffic is carried on by the Banyans or Hindoo merchants from Bombay, or the Arabs from Zanzibar...The unchecked sale of spirituous liquor to the natives is a frightful cause of demoralisation, which is sarcastically rebuked by calling the demijohns of bad gin and whisky "missionaries" in the common talk of the coast. It is melancholy...to behold the utter want of decent sanitary care in the state of the town of Lourenço Marques. The vexatious hindrances to steam-ship traffic and passengers, further tend to prevent European intercourse with the colony; and its military and naval forces are beneath contempt'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.