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of the Governorship of Jafampatas and four of that of Beligas, with the faculty of making all [appointments] therein during his lifetime. [This inscription was raised] a.d. 1639, when Pedro de Silvoa was Viceroy."
"We have still to show how the authority of the Arabian princes of Omân first rose, and gradually replaced that of the Portuguese along the East-African coast. Omân comprises the north and south-eastern portions of Arabia, which lie on the Gulf of Persia and the Indian Ocean. In the year 1614, after great disorders and dissensions, Omtin and its inhabi-
tants became subject to the rule of a sagacious and energetic Imâm, Nâsir bin Murshid, the Yä'arabite. After establishing his sovereignty in Omân, he planned the complete expulsion of the Portuguese from their Arabian and African posses-
sions. . . . His victories over the Portuguese were con-
tinued by his cousin and successor, Sultân bin Seif bin Mâlik, who took Máskat in 1658, leaving the Portuguese then no seaport of any consequence on the coast of Arabia. His second son, Sultân Seif, who defeated his brother Bel’arab and usurped the throne, at the request of the people of Mombâsa, sent a fleet to Eastern Africa, captured Mombâsa, Zanzibar, and Kîlwah, and laid siege to Mozam-
bique in 1698. He placed a governor in Mombâsa who was nominally subject to Omân. After the fall of Mombâsa, the Portuguese on the East-African coast were everywhere massacred or expelled; and there was an end of their sovereignty from Cape Delgado to Cape Gardafui. Even the town of Mukdîshu, which had retained its independence during the period of the Portuguese rule, placed itself under the protection of the princes of Omân."[1]
The different towns and forts on the coasts, to-
gether with the adjacent islands, from Cape Delgado
- ↑ Krapf's Travels and Missionary Labours in Eastern Africa, pp. 521-29.