EAST AFRICA. 



265 



claims, and became more urgent in its demands 

 for freedom of navigation on the Zambesi. In 

 August, 1887, George Petre, the British minister 

 at Lisbon, presented a dispatch in which it was 

 pointed out that in the region to which Portugal 

 .asserted a preferential claim there were countries 

 in which were British settlements and others in 

 which Great Britain takes an exceptional inter- 

 est. An English naval officer pretended to have 

 found a navigable channel from the sea into the 

 Zambesi by the Chinde mouth. If this proved 

 true, the English were determined to refuse to 

 pay duties, and to declare Nyassaland a British 

 possession. Except in regard to Khama's coun- 

 try and Matabeleland, the British Government 

 at that time advanced no territorial claims, ask- 

 ing only for the free passage of goods to Nyassa- 

 land, but said that it would acknowledge Portu- 

 gal's right only where means were developed for 

 maintaining order, protecting foreigners, and con- 

 trolling the natives. Perceiving their purpose, 

 the Portuguese enforced more stringently the 

 provincial regulations governing the passage of 

 goods and persons. Mr. Petre, on March 29, 1888, 

 was instructed to complain that the closure of 

 the Zambesi to foreign ships was contrary to the 

 spirit of the Congo act. The Portuguese minis- 

 ter, on June 7, replied that Portugal was willing 

 to admit English vessels to free navigation on 

 the Zambesi provided an arrangment could be 

 made determining Portugal's territorial rights 

 -and sphere of interests. The missionaries and 

 traders became involved in a war with the Arabs 

 on Lake Nyassa, and wished to arm the natives 

 under their influence. The Portuguese feared that 

 munitions introduced into the country would 

 be used eventually to contest their sovereignty, 

 and refused to let them go through, except three 

 small cannon and 2,400 rifle cartridges that were 

 permitted to pass the custom house in October, 

 1888, at the earnest request of the British Gov- 

 ernment. The British consular representative at 

 Quilimane attempted to smuggle through a lot 

 of war rockets from the royal army stores, and 

 was detected and arrested. In July, 1888, the 

 British Government announced that its sphere of 

 influence embraced Matabeleland, and extended 

 as far as the Zambesi. This was by virtue of a 

 treaty claimed to have been made with Lobengula, 

 and the protectorate was extended to all the tribes 

 whose cattle he stole and whose people he en- 

 slaved. The Portuguese Government protested, 

 'asserting its traditional claims to the entire 

 region. In September the British claim to Ny- 

 assaland was raised in a memorandum in which 

 it was said that Dr. Livingstone was for all prac- 

 tical purposes the discoverer of Lake Nyassa, and 

 that it was owing to him that the districts sur- 

 rounding it were settled and have since been oc- 

 cupied by British subjects. Senhor Barros Gomes 

 then told the British representative that it was 

 useless to continue the correspondence on this 

 subject, and that Portugal reserved the right of 

 independent action. An expedition was planned 

 to survey a railroad route and to assert the do- 

 minion of Portugal over the Makololo. who un- 

 til lately had paid taxes and received a Portu- 

 guese resident. 



The river Ruo, where the Portuguese main- 

 tained a custom house, had been considered the 

 boundary between the jurisdiction of the Portu- 



guese Government and the independent jurisdic- 

 tion of the missionaries, and the British Govern- 

 ment was willing to accept it as the frontier, al- 

 though south of it was the Blantyre Mission and 

 agricultural settlement in the midst of the Mako- 

 lolo, a tribe sprung from Livingstone's carriers, 

 who had remained in the Shire highlands and con- 

 quered the unwarlike people of the district. In 

 August, 1888, the Lisbon Cabinet was advised 

 that Makolololand, as well as Mashonaland, was 

 considered under British influence. In his reply 

 the Portuguese minister expressed reservations 

 regarding districts already under the effective 

 dominion of Portugal. In the spring of 1889 

 Consul H. H. Johnston was sent to Lisbon to 

 negotiate a delimitation when the Portuguese 

 were about to send an expedition into the dis- 

 trict. When the Portuguese Government agreed 

 to accept the Ruo, Lord Salisbury refused to 

 ratify the arrangement, the British South Africa 

 Company having in the mean time conceived the 

 design of extending its operations to the metal- 

 liferous district near Lake Bangweolo and join- 

 ing hands with the missionaries and traders on 

 the great lakes. On Nov. 7, 1889, a royal decree 

 was issued creating the new district of Zumbo, 

 north of the Zambesi, comprising Chitambo and 

 other territories extending to 13 of south lati- 

 tude, brought under Portuguese influence in 

 1885, and the territory lying between the Aruan- 

 goa and the Kafue, and, south of the Zambesi, 

 the district lying between that river and the riv- 

 ers Sanyati, Umfuli, and Mazoe. Lieut. Cordon 

 had previously passed through the country south 

 of the Zambesi with a military escort, and had 

 raised the Portuguese flag and concluded treaties 

 with the chiefs Chupizira and Manianga, on the 

 upper Manyame, Dureira, on the upper Umfuli, 

 Inhamaconde, of the Magunda tribe, whose do- 

 minion extends to 18 of latitude, and Choto, 

 who rules the country between the Umfuli and 

 the Sanhata. On his journey from Zumbo to 

 the Umfuli he came upon ancient ruins of Por- 

 tuguese forts and mines. Another decree placed 

 the territory of Umzila and the Portuguese dis- 

 tricts of Manica and Inhambane under a central 

 administration, with its seat at Quite vi, charged 

 with maintaining order with the aid of a military 

 force, and having under it six commissioners for 

 the administrative districts of Manica Inhoaxe, 

 the Buzi valley, Bandiri, Mossarise, the Sabi, 

 and Bilen. South of the Mazoe and east of the 

 Save the country has been for some time under 

 the effective domination of Portugal. Gen. Ma- 

 noel Antonio, who twenty years ago conquered 

 the Barue chief Makombi, has since coerced the 

 Muzizuru chiefs living between the Ruenya and 

 Mazoe rivers, and in 1888 subdued Bonza and 

 captured his stronghold at Mosangano. Gun- 

 genhemo, the son of Umzila, chief of the Gaza 

 Zulus, a ruler as powerful as Lobengula, having 

 25,000 trained soldiers and the undisciplined ma- 

 terial for an army of 100,000, has acknowledged 

 Portuguese suzerainty, and the Portuguese flag 

 was accepted in 1889 by numerous chiefs of the 

 interior through the efforts of Gen. Manoel An- 

 tonio, Col. Ignacio de Jesus Xavier, a Portu- 

 guese African, and Col. Paiva d'Andrada, who 

 traversed northern Mashonaland and won for 

 Portugal the allegiance of other chiefs besides 

 those visited by Lieut. Cordon. The efforts of 



