CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



105 



which was made the headquarters of the admin- 

 .11. Tin- company, which has a paid-up 

 i of 1,000,000, derives its revenue from 

 trading licenses, iv;,'i>tratii>n fees, and milling 

 , which it has the power to tax to 

 ..tent of .V) I..T cent, of the output of gold, 

 reed t<> give a subsidy of 9,000 a year to 

 Yican Lakes Company, with a view to the 

 lal amalgamation of the two. The local 

 administration was placed in charge of A. II. 

 (.'ol.iuhonn and Dr. Jameson. The former went 

 v into Manic 'a. to conclude treaties and 

 olituin concessions that could be set up as coun- 

 terclaims to defeat the Portuguese title. On 

 Sept. 14 ho made a treaty with Umtasa, the 

 local chief of Manica, who is said to be inde- 

 pendent cif (Jimgunhaina and free from all obli- 

 gations to the Portuguese. The Portuguese 

 claimed sovereignty over the independent Ma- 

 shonas, and through their vassal Gungunhama, 

 Ki\\ of Gazaland, over Manica. The British 

 ted that all Mashonaland and the Barotse 

 country north of the Zambesi were tributary to 

 Lobengula, whom they claimed as a vassal. The 

 draft agreement of Aug. 20, 1890, which fixed 

 the eastern boundary of the English sphere at 

 tin 1 Sabi river was rejected by the Portuguese 

 Cortes. Seven weeks after the treaty of protec- 

 tion was made with Umtasa, Col. Paiva d'An- 

 drade and the half-cast Gouveia, otherwise known 

 as Gen. Manuel de Souza, who was the official 

 administrator or Capitfio Mor of the district, 

 arrived at Umtasa's kraal engaged on a survey 

 for a railroad. They were met there by English 

 officers who announced the British annexation 

 of the country. Major Forbes, who had a force 

 of police within call, at a public meeting, at 

 which Umtasa formally acknowledged that he 

 had ceded his country to the Portuguese twenty 

 years before, put a sudden end to the parley by 

 seizing Col. d'Andrade, Baron Rezende, and 

 Gouveia in the presence of the chief and his 

 in<lnnx and English and American prospectors 

 who were working under Hcenses issued by the 

 Mozambique Company. The English flag was 

 airain hoisted, Massikessi was occupied and gar- 

 risoned, and the Portuguese officers were carried 

 prisoners to Fort Salisbury. At various places 

 in Mashonaland where the Portuguese flag was 

 living thc> chiefs submitted to the British occu- 

 pation after the seizure of Gouveia. Moloko, 

 the paramount chief of the country north of 

 Manica,, changed his allegiance by making a 

 treaty with F. C. Selous, an agent of the Char- 

 tered Company. Negotiations were begun with 

 (iiingunhaina to make him transfer his allegi- 

 ance to England. 



Before these events were known in Europe a 

 modus vivendi was signed in London, on Nov. 

 14, 1890, by which the British and Portuguese 

 governments agreed to preserve the stat us quo, 

 and each to re-pect the possessions actually held 

 by the other pending the adjustment of disputes 

 by a treaty of delimitation. The temporary ar- 

 rangement was valid for six months. 



The wagon route of 900 miles from Vrylmri; 

 was not adapted for the transport of crushing 

 machinery and miners' supplies, and therefore 

 the English desired to obtain possession of the 

 road from the east coast by way of the Pungwe 

 river. From Beira, the port of the Pungwe 



river, to Mount Hampden the distance U only 

 ::*<) miles, of which teo miles can be made in 

 small .steamers on the river. When the English 

 learned of this route, over which the 1'ortugueae 

 expected to build a railroad to their mines in 

 Manica, the railroad that had been begun be- 

 tween Vryburg and Mafeking was abandoned. 

 On Dec. 6 Major Forbes took formal possession 

 of the whole country between Manica and the sea, 

 lying between the Pungwe and the Busi rivers. 

 On Jan. 8, 1891, Lieut. Freire went to Massikessi 

 as the bearer of an official message to the British 

 officer in charge informing him of the modus vi- 

 n-n/li. The English officer refused to receive the 

 notice, and placed the messenger under arrest. 

 An expeditionary force of volunteers who had 

 arrived from Portugal set out for Massikessi and 

 Muniea, but were kept back by orders sent from 

 Lisbon, and employed in working in the harbors. 



The violation of the agreed boundary and the 

 abduction of Portuguese officials in Manica after 

 the modus vivendi was concluded, seemed likely 

 to result in a collision between the forces of 

 the Chartered Company and the bands of young 

 Portuguese who volunteered to defend their 

 country's rights in Africa, and possibly in a 

 native war between the English and the forces 

 of Gungunhama or Lobengula. Sir Henry Loch 

 and Mr. Rhodes hastened to England to ward 

 off a catastrophe by bringing about a settlement 

 of the dispute with Portugal. The Mozambique 

 Company reorganized with the aid of French 

 capital, obtained a regular charter conferring the 

 power to administer and exploit these regions 

 of Africa, to levy taxes and impose import du- 

 ties, to make treaties with native chiefs, and to 

 carry on or grant concessions for mining and 

 other undertakings. The companv engaged 

 within a specified time to build a railroad from 

 Beira, at the mouth of the Pungwe, to Massi- 

 kessi, on the borders of the Manica territory. 

 The country handed over to the jurisdiction of 

 the company was that bounded on the north by 

 the Zambesi down to its mouth, on the north- 

 west by the district of Tete, on the we.st by the 

 boundary of the province of Mozambique, on 

 the south by the Sabi or Save river, and on the 

 east by the ocean. These limits included about 

 9,500 square miles that were in dispute, includ- 

 ing Manica and the gold fields there, to which 

 miners were flocking from all countries. An 

 Anglo-American company had been formed for 

 the purpose of establishing a service of river 

 .steamers and wagons by the Pungwe route. 



Several Englishmen who attempted to import 

 arms or who refused to acknowledge Portuguese 

 authority on this river were stopped. The 

 "Countess of Carnarvon," which had gone up 

 the Limpopo with a cargo of arms, was seized 

 by a Portuguese gunboat on Feb. 22, 1891. Dr. 

 Jameson and other officials of the British South 

 Africa Company were on board the English 

 steamer, which had made a previous voyage on 

 the Limpopo, and found it navigable as" far as 

 the junction of the Nuanetsi, at the boundary 

 line of the territory claimed by the South Africa 

 Company. The arms (1,000 rifles with 20,000 

 rounds of ammunition) had been landed on the 

 banks of the Limpopo to enable, it was sup- 

 posed, native chiefs in the district of Inhambane 

 to rebel against Portugal. The Governor-Gen- 



