DR. KARL PETERS AND THE ZAMBESI.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your interesting note on Dr. Karl Peters's recent discoveries in the valley of the Zambesi (Spectator, July 22nd), you say that the tradition of the mines had been completely lost. May I, however, draw your attention to Portuguese writers ? Thus, in chap. 22 of his "Ninth Decade," Conto gives an account of the three great South African gold-mines at the time of Francisco Barreto's deputation in 1571. He there states that Masapa is the richest of the three, that the " Cafres call it Fur or Fara, and the Moors Aufur," whence the writer deduces Ophir. He speaks of the enormous nuggets found there, and especially of one as large as a big yam, which weighed 12,000 cruzados, discovered in his time; In chap. 25, Conto speaks of the ruins called "Simbave,' and locates one set at " Macapar,"—possibly a misprint for Masapa. When Barros wrote, some fifty years earlier than Conto, though he speaks of the ruins of " Symbave," the knowledge of the sources whence gold reached Sofala was not sufficiently definite to enable him to distinguish Masapa.—I
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