28 THROUGH ANGOLA 



settler to abuse the emigration of the Angolan 

 native to San Thome and Principe, it is easy to 

 recognize a motive which must influence his 

 judgment. 



Of the abuse that appeared some years ago 

 in a section of the British press, on labour condi- 

 tions in the island, I can only say that, while 

 not myself knowing the exact conditions that 

 prevailed then, I know of many Englishmen 

 who hold that it was not justified. The papers 

 that abused the Portuguese slave traffic in 

 cocoa, abused the Belgians years before for their 

 " rubber atrocities." I was then in the Congo, 

 and in a position to know the truth, and we know 

 now that these statements were prompted by 

 Germany and spread by the enemies of England 

 as well as Belgium. It is impossible to believe 

 that any section of the British press would de- 

 liberately invent lies about " Portuguese slaves ' : 

 or " Belgian murderers," but it is undoubted that 

 a certain press, controlled and supported by 

 faddists and Little Englanders, has perhaps un- 

 wittingly or from contrariness supported more 

 than one campaign started by the enemies 

 of England. If Portugal, our oldest ally, and 

 Belgium, for whom we have fought, will remember 

 that the best of the British never attack their 

 friends, they can then afford to treat with contempt 

 those who do. 



The earliest reference I have been able to obtain 

 of the island of San Thome is given in Hamusicfs 

 Voyages. A Portuguese pilot wrote a full and 

 quaint history of :> voyage to San Thome in 1552. 



