Hellfarth Map Sofala Mozambique (1 results)

Good. Foxing along fold lines and in margins. Size 10.75 x 13.5 Inches. This is an 1874 Augustus Petermann map of central Mozambique, tracing the journey of Carl (or Karl) Mauch, a German explorer. It depicts the area between the Zambezi and Save Rivers, where the Portuguese had long maintained a coastal presence with more tenuous control inland. A Closer Look This map covers the territory from Quelimane in the north through the Sofala region, roughly the lands between the Zambezi and Save Rivers. The port city of Sofala (now Nova Sofala) attracted both Swahili and Portuguese traders seeking gold in the 12 - 16th centuries, but gradually lost its prominence, and in the 20th century was replaced by Beira, near the mouth of the Buzi (Busi) River. Height is given in English feet and Greenwich is used as the Prime Meridian, while scales are given in German miles and kilometers. The map illustrates the routes of Mauch on two expeditions, made during 1867 and 1871 1872 respectively, along with the routes of the English explorers David Livingstone and Thomas Baines. Starting in the Transvaal, Mauch trekked northwards into what is now Zimbabwe and Mozambique, areas that often had been described in earlier Portuguese texts but had not been visited by Europeans in many years. Today, Mauch is mostly remembered for his description and interpretation of the stone ruins of the city Great Zimbabwe, which he believed to be the lost biblical city of Ophir, dismissing the idea that local peoples could have built the city. While the Portuguese had long had a degree of control over the Mozambique coast, their presence inland was very limited. Some trading post-fortresses (noted as ruins) were established in earlier centuries and settlers moved inland, but by the early 19th century, these links were mostly a distant memory. In the early 19th century, the Portuguese state tried to induce greater settlement inland, with some success. But it was not sufficient to hold off the British. Once the 'Scramble for Africa' began and British mining interests rapidly moved into the interior of Africa, Portugal was helpless against the much more powerful British Empire. Publication History and Census This map was made by Augustus Petermann, with text by Bruno Domann, and printed by Carl Hellfarth of the publisher Justus Perthes, based in Gotha. It was published as Supplement (Ergänzungsheft) No. 37 to the periodical Petermann's Geographische Mitteilungen . The full distribution of the map is difficult to determine due to inconsistent cataloging but is known to be held by the University of Chicago and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. It is scarce to the market. References: OCLC 65538676, 163821219.