SOFALA  , a Portuguese seaport on the

east coast of Africa, at the mouth of a river of the same name, in 2o° 12' S . Pop, (moo), about I000 . The town possesses scarcely a trace of its former importance, and what trade it had Was nearly all taken away by the establishment of Beira (q.v.) a little to the north ir . 1890 . Sofala Harbour, once capable of holding a hundred large vessels, is silting up and is obstructed by a bar . Ruins exist of the strong fort built by the Portuguese in the 16th century . Previous to its conquest by the Portuguese in 1505 Sofala was the chief town of a wealthy Mahommedan state, Arabs having established themselves there in the 12th century or earlier . At one time it formed part of the sultanate of Kilwa (q.v.) . Sofala was visited by the Portuguese Jew, Pero de Covilhao, in 1489, who was attracted thither by the reports of gold-mines of which Sofala was the port . The conquest of the town followed, the first governors of the Portuguese East African possessions being entitled Captains-General of Sofala . (See PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA.) Thorne Lopes, who accompanied Vasco da Gama to India in 1502 and left a narrative of the voyage (first printed in Ramusio, Viaggi e Navegationi), identifies Sofala with Solomon's Ophir and states that it was the home of the Queen of Sheba . This identification of Sofala with Ophir, to which Milton alludes (Par .

Lost, xi . 399-40,) is untenable . The small

island of Chiloane, with a good harbour, 40 M . S. of Sofala, has been colonized from Sofala (the township being named Chingune) as has also the island Santa Carolina, in the Bazaruto archipelago . See Bull . Geogr . Soc . Mozambique (1882) for an account of the Sofala mines; and, generally, Idrfsf, Climate, i . § 8, O . Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686) ; T . Baines, The Gold Regions of South Africa (1877); G . McC .

Theal's Records of South Eastern Africa (1898—1903) ;

Sir R . Burton's notes to his edition of Camoens .