IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 51
African establishments of Portugal, and had exceptional opportunities for preparing his remarkable memorial.
In
his description the "mines of Manica" are placed "some fifty leagues
west of Sofala." The Portuguese league was 3.84 English miles, and De
Barros was as loose as contemporary writers in the measure of
distances. " All gold found there is in dust," he writes, " and the
workers have to carry the earth which they dig to some place where
water can be had. Nobody digs more than six to seven spans deep (four
to six feet), and if they go to twenty, they come to hard rock."
Beyond the Manica placers, in positions not defined, were the mines of Boro and Quiticui. There nuggets were found
