'qd 





HISTORY UF EARLY PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES^* 

 AND EXPLORATION IN AFRICA. \'U\ ^ , 



J>v Salomon Sekuva. 



{Evening Discourse delivered in the Colonial Hall, Lourengo 

 Marques, on Friday, July nth, 1913. Illustrated by lantern 

 slides. I 



" Portugal does not forget that she was the first power to 

 raise the veil of mystery which covered Central Africa." These 

 were the introductory words of the address of the President of 

 the French Geographical Society to Sir H. M. Stanley, when he 

 presented the Society's Gold Medal to the great explorer on the 

 28th June, 1878. 



^^'ell, ladies and gentlemen, Portugal does not forget, either, 

 ihat her sons were the first to set foot on the shores of South 

 and East Africa, and were thus the chief agents in the general 

 development of the world which followed their discoveries. 



It is because Portugal does not forget her work of past 

 centuries that I venture to address to the members of the South- 

 African Association for the Advancement of Science, on this 

 tiieir first visit to Portuguese soil, a relation of the doings of 

 our ancestors in Africa. 



It would, perhaps, be more becoming if I gave this Associa- 

 tion a scientific dissertation. But our programme calls this a 

 popular lecture, and so I avail myself of this in order to hide 

 my ignorance in matters of science, and, I hope, that when I 



Jeronvmos Monastery. 



(now the Industrial and Commercial Museum), erected in Lisbon in 

 commemoration nf the Portuguese discoveries. 



