Maputo

Maputo Bay, known to European sailors as Delagoa Bay, gathers several rivers behind a sheltered coast. Ronga-speaking communities and local rulers controlled the surrounding shores, where fishing and exchange connected the waterways to the Indian Ocean. The Tembe kingdom on the southern side of the bay became an important power in the ivory trade.

In 1721 the Dutch East India Company established Fort Lijdzaamheid on the bay, seeking ivory through dealings with local chiefs. Disease, difficult trading conditions and conflict weakened the post, which was abandoned in 1730. Portuguese traders later returned, and a fort begun in the 1780s became the nucleus of a settlement on the northern shore. Even then, the chiefs around the bay retained power over the country and its trade.