Massangena is a river town in
Massangena District
Massangena District is a Districts of Mozambique, district of Gaza Province in south-western Mozambique. The administrative center of the district is Massangena. The district is located in the north of the province, and borders with Machaze Distric ...
of
Gaza Province
Gaza is a province of Mozambique. It has an area of 75,709 km2 and a population of 1,422,460 (2017 census), which is the least populous of all the provinces of Mozambique.
Xai-Xai is the capital of the province. Inhambane Province is to t ...
in south-western
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
. It lies on the river
Save River (Africa)
The Save River, or Sabi River (Portuguese: ''Rio Save'') is a river of southeastern Africa, flowing through Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river has its source in Zimbabwe, some south of Harare, then flows south and then east, from the Zimbabwean ...
.
History
Between 1740 and 1775 there were many attempts by the Portuguese to explore inland by way of travelling up the Save River. The farthest any of these missions got was Massangena. Seven attempts were made to go further in the 1750s and 1760s, and one attempt was made in 1775. All eight of these missions met with disaster. The first mission failed when the many members of the expedition came down with malaria. The second mission stumbled upon numerous
hippopotami
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
and many members of the expedition were killed or wounded by the startled animals. The third suffered a similar fate, however, it was crocodiles that befell them. The forth mission failed when torrential downpours in December made travel impossible. The fifth mission, as with the first, failed on account of a severe outbreak of malaria. The fifth expedition, led by Portuguese explorers Manuel Gomes and Agostinho Cabeçadas suffered from a leopard attack in which both of the aforementioned explorers, who were the leaders of the expedition were mauled by the same leopard a few miles northwest of Massangena. The sixth expedition was destroyed when their camp was overrun by an elephant and expedition leader João da Madalena was trampled to death, also a few miles northwest of Massangena. The sixth and seventh expeditions were attacked by the armed bands of the
Tsonga people
The Tsonga people ( ts, Vatsonga) are a Bantu ethnic group primarily native to Southern Mozambique and South Africa (Limpopo and Mpumalanga). They speak Xitsonga, a Southern Bantu language.
A very small number of Tsonga people are also found i ...
and were forced to turn back. And the eighth expedition was struck by a series of disasters, the first of which involving an incident with a
Mozambique spitting cobra
The Mozambique spitting cobra (''Naja mossambica'') is a highly venomous species of spitting cobra native to Africa. It is largely found in Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Taxonomy
Germ ...
which rendered the leader of the expedition temporarily blind and one of the bearers severely wounded, and another involving several bearers being killed and wounded by a
hippopotamus
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
, also several miles northwest of Massangena. For this reason the area to northwest of Massangena, which is roughly today's
Masvingo Province
Masvingo is a province in southeastern Zimbabwe. It has a population of 1.485 million as of the 2012 census, ranking fifth out of Zimbabwe's ten provinces. Established as Victoria Province by the British South Africa Company, it was one of the ...
of
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, was labelled as "desconhecida" and/or "inexplorada" on Portuguese maps by the late 1770s and early 1780s.
[Florilégio by João Maria Ferreira]
References
Populated places in Gaza Province
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