AFRICA, SOUTHERN, COLONIES IN. 



of documents and raised so many difficult and 

 complex questions requiring expert opinion and 

 local investigation that they could not complete 

 their task earlier. The decision was a voluminous 

 document. The tribunal condemned as arbitrary 

 and illegal the action of the Portuguese Govern- 

 ment in seizing the railroad and rescinding the 

 charter. The amount of damages awarded to the 

 claimants was only abovit a third as much as they 

 contended for, but on the other hand it was three 

 times as much as the Portuguese Government had 

 offered in settlement. In addition to 28,000 

 sterling paid in by Portugal on account at the 

 beginning of the proceedings, the arbitrators 

 unanimously directed Portugal to pay over to the 

 British and American governments the sum of 

 15,314,000 francs, with simple interest at 5 per 

 cent, from June 25, 1889, the date of the seizure 

 of the railroad by the Portuguese authorities. The 

 costs were directed to be borne in equal shares 

 by each of the three parties to the suit, and the 

 award to be divided between Mrs. McMurdo and 

 the British bondholders in accordance with a scale 

 of distribution to be drawn up by the claimants 

 themselves. In fixing the amount of the award 

 the arbitrators took into account the capital ac- 

 tually invested in the railroad by the company 

 and the capital invested since 1889 by the Portu- 

 guese Government and computed the profits for 

 thirty-five years and the price that Portugal 

 would have to pay for the railroad at the end of 

 that term, which was taken to be twenty times 

 the estimated average profits for the last seven 

 years. The total capitalized value was credited 

 to the company and to the Portuguese Govern- 

 ment in the proportion of their respective con- 

 tributions of capital. The arbitrators refused to 

 take into consideration the market value of the 

 bonds and shares at the time of the confiscation 

 or to grant exemplary damages against the Gov- 

 ernment for its breach of contract, for which the 

 unstable financial condition of the company af- 

 forded some excuse. 



Angola. The Portuguese territory on the 

 southwest coast of Africa is divided into the dis- 

 tricts of Congo, Loanda, Benguela, Mossamedes, 

 and Lunda. The area is 484,800 square miles, with 

 a population estimated at 4,119,000. The revenue 

 for 1900 was estimated at 1,673,111 milreis, and 

 expenditure at 2,013,671 milreis. The imports in 

 1897 were valued at 6,380,368 milreis; the exports, 

 chiefly coffee and rubber, at 6,577,791 milreis. 

 Wax, oils, cocoanuts, and ivory are minor exports. 

 Sugar is grown for the distillation of rum, and 

 cattle do well on the higher elevations. Gold, 

 petroleum, iron, copper, and salt are found in con- 

 siderable quantities. Fish are caught and pre- 

 served. The Mossamedes Company, formed with 

 German capital, has a concession for cattle grow- 

 ing, fishing, and mining throughout a large region, 

 including the gold field discovered in Cassinga. 



German Southwest Africa. The German pos- 

 sessions in Southwest Africa have a total area of 

 322,450 square miles, with a native population 

 estimated at 200,000 and 1.840 Europeans, of whom 

 1,557 are Germans. The European military force 

 numbers 761 men. A concession for the coloniza- 

 tion of the lands in the north that are adapted 

 for grazing has been granted to a German com- 

 pany, and the Government offers to advance 4,000 

 marks free of interest to any bond fide German 

 settler. From the new harbor at Swakopmund 

 a railroad is being constructed to Windhoek. Over 

 80 miles were completed before the end of 1899, 

 and an imperial subsidy of 2,300,000 marks was 

 granted for 1900. The expenditure for 1899 was 

 estimated at 7,479,000 marks, of which the Im- 



ALABAMA. 



11 



perial Government contributed 6,909,000 marks. 

 For 1901 the German Reichstag voted 7,181,300 

 marks. The imports in 1899 were valued at 

 5,868,281 marks, of which 4,883,753 marks came 

 from Germany; exports, 915,784 marks, of which 

 773,000 marks represent guano and the remainder 

 mostly ostrich feathers. 



The railroad agreement concluded on Oct. 28, 

 1899, between the German Government and the 

 British South Africa Company, as the result of 

 Cecil Rhodes's negotiations in Berlin, provided for 

 a connection of the projected railroad from the 

 Cape to Cairo, with a line to the west coast of 

 Africa passing through German territory. If the 

 German Government be not ready itself to con- 

 struct the railroad from the British frontier to the 

 coast when the British South Africa Company 

 shall communicate its intention of connecting its 

 system with the west coast, then the British South 

 Africa Company will be entitled to build the sec- 

 tion across German territory. An Anglo-German 

 company was organized in 1900 to construct a 

 railroad 400 miles long from Great Fish Bay, in 

 the Portuguese territory of Angola, to Otavi, in 

 German Southwest Africa, where the company 

 intends to carry on mining operations. An expe- 

 dition was sent out to prospect the copper mines in 

 that neighborhood. Half the capital of 2,000.000 

 to be embarked in the railroad and mining enter- 

 prise was subscribed by German and half by 

 English capitalists. The Southwest African Com- 

 pany obtained the Damaraland concession, granted 

 in 1892, which covers the Otavi district, where 

 surveys were made in 1893 and 1894 with promis- 

 ing results. The German Hanseatic Land and 

 Mining Company sent an expedition to prospect in 

 the district of Rehoboth, 250 miles inland from 

 Walfisch Bay. Copper mines have been discovered 

 within 75 miles of Walfisch Bay, for the working 

 of which private individuals have taken out 

 licenses. 



ALABAMA, a Southern State, admitted to 

 the Union Dec. 14, 1819; area, 52,250 square 

 miles. The population, according to each decen- 

 nial census since admission, was 127,901 in 1820; 

 309,527 in 1830; 590,756 in 1840; 771,623 in 1850; 

 964,201 in 1860; 996,992 in 1870; 1,262,505 in 

 1880; 1,513,017 in 1890; and 1,828,697 in 1900. 

 Capital, Montgomery. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers in 1900: Governor, Joseph F. Johnston; 

 Secretary of State, Robert P. McDavid ; Treasurer, 

 George W. Ellis; Auditor and Comptroller, 

 Walter S. White; Attorney-General, Charles G. 

 Brown; Superintendent of Education, John W. 

 Abercrombie; Commissioner of Agriculture, Isaac 

 F. Culver, succeeded in September by Robert R. 

 Poole; Adjutant General, W. W. Brandon; Presi- 

 dent of the Railroad Commission, James Crook; 

 President of the Convict Board, S. B. Trapp; Back 

 Tax Commissioner, W. J. Wood; Examiner of 

 Public Accounts, John Purifoy; State Geologist, 

 Eugene A. Smith; Chief Mine Inspector, J. de B. 

 Hooper; Agent for Swamp Lands, W. M. Byrd; 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Thomas N. 

 McClellan; Associate Justices, Jonathan Haral- 

 son, John K. Tyson, Henry A. Sharpe, and James 

 R. Dowdell; Clerk, Robert F. Ligon, Jr. All are 

 Democrats. 



The new State administration came in Dec. 1. 

 For names of officers elected see under Political, 

 this article. The office of Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture is created by statute, and the term begins 

 Sept. 1, while the terms of the constitutional of- 

 fice,s begin Dec. 1. 



Population. The census returns show no 

 change in the order of the largest three cities 



