738 



PORTUGAL. 



gether on the Zambesi, were escorted by Zanzi- 

 bar by the war steamer " Redbreast," in the be- 

 ginning of September to the Chinde mouth. The 

 " Redbreast," after making a survey to ascertain 

 if the vessels could make the passage, took them 

 up and the light gunboats, the " Mosquito " and 

 the " Herald," were put together and launched 

 on the Zambesi despite the interdiction of the 

 Portuguese naval officers and the protests of the 

 Governor of Quillimane, who quoted the law to 

 the effect that no foreign vessels have the right 

 to navigate the Zambesi. The Portuguese gun- 

 boats made ready to fight, but finally were or- 

 dered by the Governor to make no resistance, as 

 the opposing force was too strong. 



In West Africa the chiefs of the Bihe and 

 Bailundo districts rose in rebellion against Por- 

 tuguese authority in the spring of 1890. Silva 

 Porto, the captain-general of Bihe, on finding 

 himself unable to cope with the insurrection, 

 committed suicide. A force had been sent under 

 Lieut. Conceiro, an officer of artillery, to the re- 

 lief of the captain-general, but when it arrived 

 at Bihe it was obliged to beat a retreat. Other 

 troops were dispatched with artillery from the 

 Portuguese stations, and as the result of oper- 

 ations that lasted till late autumn the insubord- 

 inate chiefs were reduced to subjection. A rail- 

 road from Mossamedes to Bihe has been sur- 

 veyed and the concession given to a company. 



Change of the Ministry. When Lord Salis- 

 bury sent his ultimatum, on Jan. 11, 1890, de- 

 manding the withdrawal of all Portuguese, mili- 

 tary and civilians, from territories in Africa de- 

 clared to be under British protection or within 

 the sphere of British influence, the Council of 

 State, to which must be submitted, according to 

 the Constitution, questions of peace or war, was 

 called together under the presidency of the 

 King. British fleets threatened to seize St. Vin- 

 cent, in the Atlantic, and Lourenco Marques and 

 Quillimane, the keys to the Portuguese posses- 

 sions in southeast Africa, and the Council there- 

 fore yielded to superior force. Barros Gomes, 

 the Minister of Foreign Affairs, after signifying 

 the acceptance of the British demands, resigned, 

 and with him the other members of the Cabinet. 

 The exasperation of the people had risen to such 

 a pitch that Englishmen were mobbed whenever 

 they appeared in public, and the escutcheon on 

 the British consulate at Lisbon was torn down. 

 The new ministry chosen from the Liberal-Con- 

 servative or Regenerador party apologized for 

 the insult, and took measures to preserve order 

 in Oporto and Lisbon. A serious riot occurred 

 at Lisbon on Feb. 11, and the students continued 

 to manifest a turbulent spirit, but the Govern- 

 ment kept the military under arms, arrested all 

 who took part in riotous proceedings, forbade 

 the demonstrations planned by the Republi- 

 cans, and by these precautions confined the anti- 

 English manifestations to the collection of a 

 national defense fund, the ostentatious severing 

 of relations with the English by nearly every 

 man of prominence in any party, and a general 

 boycotting of British goods. 



The result of the general elections, which took 

 place on Mar.ch 30, was to give the Government 

 a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies, 

 although the ministers were not in full posses- 

 sion of all the means of pressure commonly used 



to secure a victory for the party in power, and, 

 moreover, had to face an electoral alliance be- 

 tween the Progressists and the Republicans. On 

 April 7 the Marquis Julio de Vilhena became 

 Minister of Marine and the Colonies, a post that 

 he had held in 1881, while Senhor Arroyo was 

 transferred to a newly created Ministry of Pub- 

 lic Instruction and Arts. Decrees were issued 

 curtailing the right of public meeting and as- 

 sociation and the liberty of the press, and for- 

 bidding theatrical representations satirizing the 

 monarchy or its representatives. On June 7 a 

 vote of indemnity was passed relieving the Cabi- 

 inet of all responsibility for its dictatorial meas- 

 ures. The duty on manufactured tobacco was 

 increased 1,000 reis on every kilogramme. A 

 bill for a 6 per cent, increase of taxation was 

 approved by the Chamber of Peers on July 25. 



Fall of the Cabinet. Serpa Pimentel and 

 Hintze Ribeiro, who took office to carry out the 

 evacuation of the Shire territories and to take 

 the negotiations with Great Britain, which the 

 people thought had been mismanaged by Barros 

 Gomes, had pronounced in favor of arbitration 

 of the dispute. This Lord Salisbury persistently 

 refused. Before the Cortes met again on Sept. 

 15 Hintze Ribeiro was ready with the best treaty 

 that he could make, which conceded all the 

 main points at issue to Great Britain, and was 

 therefore condemned by public opinion in ad- 

 vance. The modifications that he had been able 

 to obtain from Lord Salisbury made no change 

 in this judgment. The revolutionary parties 

 the Republicans, who had grown active and 

 strong since the Brazilian revolution, the agita- 

 tors for Iberian union, and the Socialists made 

 the most of the situation for the purpose of rous- 

 ing a spirit of dissatisfaction with the dynasty 

 and the existing order. A great mass meeting 

 at Oporto, presided over by Alvaro de Castelloes, 

 the engineer whom Major Serpa Pinto escorted 

 on the railroad survey that precipitated the con- 

 flict with England, and a declaration of protest 

 signed at Lisbon by the Duke of Palmella, Count 

 San Januario, and the other great nobles and the 

 men of distinction in every profession gave evi- 

 dence of the universal feeling against the treaty. 

 On the day that the Cortes assembled crowds 

 met in the streets to discuss the question of the 

 day and manifest their feelings. The police and 

 municipal guards broke up these impromptu 

 gatherings, but some artillery soldiers who 

 formed one of the groups turned on the police 

 and drove them away. Re-enforcements were 

 brought up, and the people, taking sides with 

 the soldiers, mobbed and- stoned the police, to 

 show their Detestation of the employment of the 

 police force to check patriotic and political dem- 

 onstrations and discussions. Lisbon was de- 

 clared in a state of siege. When the treaty was 

 presented to the Chamber the Progressists raised 

 a violent uproar. The committee to which the 

 treaty was referred was against it, and although 

 the Regenerador politicians and their press or- 

 gans defended the arrangement, Senhor Ribeiro 

 did not wait for its inevitable rejection, but on 

 Sept. 16 proffered his resignation to the King, 

 and on the following day Serpa Pimentel handed 

 in the collective resignation to the Cabinet. Pe- 

 titions for the rejection of the treaty were sent 

 to the Cortes from all parts of the country. 



