Sofala was probably the first port opened for trade with Europeans on the coast of South-East Africa. Sofala was frequently visited by Europeans in the sixteenth century due to the gold mines located beyond the port. However, the slave trade from Sofala to the New World developed only later, in the nineteenth century. In 1815, with the suppression of the slave trade in the North Atlantic, traders began to search for new slave markets on the coast of Mozambique, in South-East Africa. Sofala was among the ports located on that coast with slave trading potential. The image is of a map of Sofala. It shows the depth of the sea surrounding the coast and locates the port in the upper section of the map. The map also provides the names of the main coastal points to the south of Sofala. This map was published by Commander Francisco Maria Bordalo, responsible for completing a report on the Portuguese possessions overseas begun by Commander José Joaquim Lopes de Lima. The image is reproduced courtesy of the Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.