Mozambique, the collective name for the territories of Portugal on the east coast of Africa, extends from Cape Delgado to Delagoa Bay, a distance of 1300 miles. The northern boundary is the Rovuma, the southern (in part), the Maputa, and the western frontiers are formed by Lake Tanganyika, the river Ruo, the Zambezi up to Zimbo, Mashona and Matabele Lands (British South Africa Company's Territories), and the Transvaal. The principal rivers, besides those already mentioned, are the Limpopo and Sabi, towards the south. The coast belt is low and swampy; but the interior rises into well-wooded plateaus, which furnish valuable timber. The soil is naturally fertile, and yields, in addition to maize, rice, manioc, &c., an abundance of natural products, such as cotton, sesame, cocoa-nut, medicinal plants, and india-rubber, but very little is done to cultivate them, owing to lack of capital and of means of communication. The imports (cotton goods, beads, hardware, arms and gunpowder, coals, spirits, and provisions) average about £508,000 annually; the exports (ivory, ground nuts, india-rubber, wax, copal, and oil seeds) about £765,000. The shipping is mostly (seven-tenths) in the hands of British firms. Customs duties are exceptionally heavy; agriculture does not flourish; mining is little prosecuted, although the country is rich in minerals, in gold, silver, iron, coal, and copper; pearls abound on the reefs off the coast, but are not gathered to any extent; and there is annually a deficit equal to 43 per cent. of the expenditure—some £60,000, which is made good by the home country. The pop. of the province is estimated at one million. There is a railway (1887) of 52 miles from Delagoa Bay to the Transvaal frontier. Chief towns: Mozambique, Quilimane, and Lourenço Marques, for which see the separate articles. The Mozambique territories are administered by a governor-general, assisted by a governing and a provincial council, and are divided into nine districts, each under a district governor.
MOZAMBIQUE, the capital, stands on a small coral island lying close to the mainland, and has a fine government house, a cathedral, an arsenal, &c. A fort, built by Albuquerque in 1508, two years after he occupied the island for Portugal, still stands at the north end of the island. Pop. 7380, of whom 6800 are natives, 280 Banyans, and about 100 Europeans. The city was formerly a great place for the slave-trade, but seems now hardly able to hold its own against Quilimane and Lourenço Marques. Its total trade ranges annually between £250,000 and £320,000.