Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
This Vegetable Prison
Feel rather homesick today - owing, I think, to the
pervading smell of hyacinths here.
Arthur Holmes' diary
The route south that Holmes and Mr Barton followed had last
been taken by Henry O'Neill in 1881, some thirty years pre-
viously. An adventurous British Consul, O'Neill was the first
white man to penetrate beyond the coastal zone and although
he lived on in the memory of some of the older natives, many
of them, particularly the women, had never seen a white man
before. Consequently Holmes and Barton were often followed
by a shrieking mob for mile after mile. But this was the least of
their di~culties. After a month of fruitless wanderings they
stopped for a few days at Nacavalla where Holmes found time
to write a letter to Bob explaining the problems:
The object of our expedition has been to find an old Arab
Sultan, named Moravi, who, a quarter of a century ago was
the ruler of the Makua over all the coastal district south of
Mozambique.
[The indigenous peoples of Mozambique are of
Bantu origin, but by the tenth century the Arabs had established
themselves on the coast.]
This man was attacked by the
Portuguese, but instead of blotting him out they were them-
selves defeated. This however, was an unstable state of
affairs and presently Moravi had to fly inland. He surrounded
