752 



PORTUGAL. 



Pimental failed in an attempt to organize a 

 ministry, and the King sent for the retiring Pre- 

 mier, who succeeded on May 21 in getting one 

 together which was composed as follows : Presi- 

 dent of the Council and Minister of War, Gen. 

 Joao Chrysostomo d'Abreu e Sousa ; Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, Count de Valbom ; Minister of 

 the Interior, Lopo Vaz ; Minister of Finance, 

 Marianno Carvalho ; Minister of Justice, Moraes 

 Carvalho; Minister of Marine and the Colonies, 

 Julio de Vilhena; Minister of Public Works, 

 Franco Castellobranco. Four of the ministers 

 were Conservatives, or Megeneradores, and the 

 rest were Progressists. The programme of the 

 new Cabinet consisted in a liberal and tolerant 

 policy : the commutation of sentences passed on 

 political offenders, greater liberty of the press, 

 the reduction of the number of officials and lower- 

 ing of salaries, and the conclusion of commer- 

 cial treaties to stimulate trade and production. 

 The colonies were to be opened to chartered com- 

 panies, thus increasing their productive capacity 

 and relieving the home Government of heavy ex- 

 penses. Senhor Carvalho went immediately to 

 Paris, where he arranged for the payment of the 

 coupons of the debt due in July, October, and 

 January. The price of Portuguese veiite rose. The 

 minister obtained the means for continuing the 

 harbor works at Lisbon on a less ambitious scale, 

 and rescued from bankruptcy by inducing the 

 directors to abandon the controlling interest that 

 they had secured in three Spanish railroads, and 

 making a large secret advance to them of Govern- 

 ment funds, concealing even from his colleagues 

 this transaction. The Portuguese investments 

 in Brazil, amounting to $550,000,000, were still 

 depreciated by 33 per cent, through the fall in 

 exchange, but thelarge hoards of gold, estimated 

 at $67,500,000, began to return to circulation, 

 and bank notes were taken more freely, relieving 

 slightly the monetary stringency. The Cortes 

 reassembled on May 30. The issue of small notes 

 was authorized, and the export of silver coin was 

 prohibited. The English treaty was ratified 

 without cavil. A loan of $8.000,000 was author- 

 ized for the ptirchase of silver for ordinary cur- 

 rency. A Government monopoly of alcohol was 

 approved, and the sale of watches and lotteries 

 were made monopolies, and from these sources 

 an increase of revenue of 2,000.000 milreis was 

 expected to be realized. The extraordinary ex- 

 penditure for 1891-'92 was fixed at 2,240,000 

 milreis. The effective of the army was reduced 

 to 22.000 men, and 3.000 recruits were dismissed 

 to their homes. All payments of state officials 

 by fees were abolished, find the maximum salary 

 was fixed at 2.600 milreis, even for officials fill- 

 ing more than one place. The tobacco bonds 

 signed for, but for which the Portuguese banks 

 could not pay, were taken by French banking 

 houses. The monetary crisis not being over 

 when the moratorium, expired on July 10, the 

 Bank of Portugal, which had authority to issue 

 bank notes to the amount of about $30.000,000, 

 was absolved for three months longer from the 

 obligation to redeem its notes in money. The 

 recall of troops from Africa on the conclusion of 

 the English treaty permitted a reduction of the 

 army by 8,000 men, saving 3,000,000 milreis a 

 year. The transfer of sovereign rights in East 

 Africa to chartered companies was expected to 



save 700,000 milreis ; and an increase of about 

 300.000 milreis in the revenue from Guinea and 

 Angola was obtained by a revision of the tariffs. 

 Colonial Possessions. The Portuguese colo- 

 nies in Asia, comprising Goa, Domao, and Diu, 

 in India, Macao, in the China Sea, and the Indian 

 Archipelago of Timor and Kambing, have a total 

 area of 7,923 square miles, and a population of 

 881,000. The possessions in Africa are the Cape 

 Verde Islands, 1,650 square miles in extent, with 

 110,926 inhabitants in 1885; the Guinea protect- 

 orate, 14,200 square miles in extent ; St. Th< m- 

 as's and Prince's islands, 454 square miles in area, 

 with a population of 21,037; Angola, Ambriz, 

 Benguela, Mossamedes. and the Portuguese Con- 

 go, having an aggregate area of 501,500 square 

 miles, and an estimated population of 19,400,000; 

 and the state of East Africa, 800,000 square 

 miles in extent, with about 1,000,000 inhabitants. 

 The total ordinary revenue is estimated in the 

 colonial budgets for 1891-'92 at 3,784,809 mil- 

 reis. the ordinary expenditure at 3,910,105 mil- 

 reis, and the extraordinary expenditure at 785,- 

 080 milreis. The imports of Angola in 1888 

 were valued at 2,405,5(i9 milreis, and the exports 

 at 2,116,487 milreis; imports of Cape Verde at 

 214,650 and exports at 301,791 milreis; imports 

 of Guinea at 21.087 and exports at 51,004 mil- 

 reis; imports of St. Thomas at 823,643 and ex- 

 ports at 275,621 milreis ; imports of Goa at 24,- 

 839 and exports at 28,445 milreis. The imports 

 of Mozambique in 1890 were 141,493 in value, 

 and the exports 90,374 ; while at Delagoa Bay 

 the value of the imports was 613.805, and of the 

 exports 2,211. The chief exports of the East 

 African colonies are oil, nuts and seeds, caout- 

 chouc, and ivory. There were 208 kilometres of 

 completed railroad, 370 kilometres under con- 

 struction, and 428 kilometres of telegraph line in 

 Angola in 1891; in East Africa there were 88 

 kilometres of railroad completed, 689 kilometres 



r rejected, and 870 kilometres of telegraphs; in 

 ndia there were 82 kilometres of railway and 53 

 kilometres of telegraphs. The troops in the colo- 

 nies consisted of 1.198 regular officers and soldiers 

 and 8,283 colonial troops of the first line. The 

 Delagoa railroad dispute was referred to Switzer- 

 land for arbitration as to the indemnity to be paid 

 to the American and English concessioniiaires. 

 The Government decided to have the road com- 

 pleted by private contract. In West Africa a 

 dispute arose concerning the railroad from Loan- 

 do to Ambaca, which an English construction 

 company undertook to build. The Portuguese 

 company which acquired the concession annulled 

 the contract, and the contractors, who had con- 

 structed a part of the line, claimed damages. 

 The natives of the Bissagos islands, off the coast 

 of Portuguese Guinea, rose in rebellion against 

 the authorities in the early part of 1891, over- 

 powered and massacred the garrison, and hoisted 

 the French flag. Troops sent from the mainland 

 against the rebels, who numbered 6,000, were 

 defeated, 4 Portuguese officers and several hun- 

 dred native levies being killed, and a stronger 

 force had to be brought from Angola to re-estab- 

 lish Portuguese authority. The delimitation of 

 the boundary between British and Portuguese 

 territory in Manica, East Africa, was carried out 

 by a joint commission. The agreement for the 

 delimitation of the spheres of Portugal and of 



