Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms: Volume 34

The lower reaches [of the river] divide into four mouths to enter the sea. For merchant ships, the mouth of the Quelimane River original: 彌喱麻尼 (Milimani); refers to the Quelimane or Bons Sinais River in modern Mozambique is the most important. The local inhabitants original: 土番 (tuban); a term used historically for indigenous peoples are dark-skinned and highly skilled in various crafts and arts.

In the year 1500 the 13th year of the Hongzhi reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese original: 葡萄亞 (Putuoya) reached this land by way of the Cape of Good Hope original: 兀賀峽 (Wuhe Xia); "Wuhe" is a phonetic rendering of the "Cape of Storms," the original name for the Cape of Good Hope. They settled and cultivated the southern coastal corner and excluded all other foreigners. Because of this, the internal details—such as the number of local tribes and their chiefs, which lands are governed by which group, the total area, population size, and matters of governance—cannot be fully known.

In the south, there are six departments: Sofala original: 含摩那司 (Hanmonasi), Inhambane original: 英漢門 (Yinghanmen), Quelimane original: 疏華臘麻尼 (Shuhualamani), Mozambique original: 加摩 (Jiamao), Sena original: 蘭牙摩 (Lanyamo), and Tete original: 新彌葵 (Xinmikui). All of these are under Portuguese jurisdiction. To the north, there are two departments, Shanwei and Mamoqu, which are under the jurisdiction of Aden original: 阿丹 (Adan), referring to the influence of the Omani Sultanate or Arab traders from the north.

Sofala is bounded to the east by the sea and to the west by the wilderness. To the south lies Caffraria original: 加富臘匣阿 (Jiafulaxia-a); a historical term for the region in Southern Africa inhabited by the Xhosa people, and to the north is Inhambane. The southern boundary of Eastern Africa original: 東阿末里加洲 (Dong Ameilijia zhou); while this phonetically resembles "America," in the context of this volume, it refers to the African continent, which was occasionally transliterated with similar characters in early Qing geography begins from this point.