Quelimane

Quelimane was a Swahili trading town near the Zambezi mouths on the Rio dos Bons Sinais. Muslim merchants linked to Kilwa made it an early coastal settlement; tradition also attributed its founding to Kilwa refugees in the late fifteenth century.

Vasco da Gama reached its river in 1498, and permanent Portuguese settlement began in 1544. Under Portuguese oversight Quelimane became a slave-trading market, drawing captives and ivory from the Zambezi hinterland. In 1761 it was formally chartered as a Portuguese town, with trade long reserved to Portuguese merchants.