HISTORY 
59 
transmitted rumours of a great lake (Nyasa), which they styled Lake “Maravi.” 
This really meant “ a lake in the country of the Maravi,” Maravi being an old 
name (now nearly extinct) of the Nyanja tribes in the south-west of Nyasa- 
land. But in the middle of the eighteenth century the Jesuits were expelled 
from all the Portuguese Dominions by order of the Marquez de Pombal; and 
after their departure from the Central Zambezi there was a temporary diminu¬ 
tion of Portuguese activity. At the very end of the last century, however, the 
interest of the Portuguese Government in its East African possessions was 
revived by the British Government having taken possession of the Cape of 
Good Hope at the outbreak of the war with France. In the year following 
the seizure of Cape Town 1 by an English force, Dr. Francisco Jose Maria de 
Lacerda e Almeida, a distinguished scientific man who was a native of Brazil, 
and a Doctor of Mathematics at Coimbra University (Portugal), addressed a very 
remarkable letter to the Portuguese Government, setting forth that the results 
of the English invasion of Capetown would be the creation of a great British 
South African Empire, which would, if not counteracted in time, spread north¬ 
wards across the Zambezi, and separate the Portuguese Dominions of Angola 
and Mozambique. This, I think, at the period and with the limited 
geographical knowledge then possessed by even a Portuguese University, 
was one of the most remarkable instances of political foresight which can 
be quoted. The Portuguese Government was so struck with Dr. Lacerda’s 
arguments that it appointed him Governor of the Rios de Sena,' 2 and 
authorised him to conduct an expedition “ a contra-costa ”—across Africa from 
the Zambezi countries to Angola, establishing Portuguese Suzerainty along his 
route. 
It should be stated at this juncture that not nearly so many white Portuguese 
had assisted in opening up the East African territories, as had settled in Angola, 
and on the West Coast of Africa. In those days the Portuguese East African 
possessions were generally knit up with their Viceroyalty of India, and the 
pure-blooded Portuguese in the Zambezi countries were few in number 
compared to the “ Canarins ” or Canarese. These people were half-caste 
natives of Goa, with more or less Indian blood in their veins, and constituted 
the principal element in the Portuguese Zambezi settlements. They were very 
enterprising men, though they relapsed into semi-savagery, and as slave-traders 
and robbers had a record almost more evil than that of the Arabs. Nevertheless 
the European blood in their veins sharply distinguished these Goanese from 
the unlettered black people, and of some of their journeys they kept more 
or less intelligent records. Two Goanese of the name of Pereira, father and 
son, had gone gold hunting to the north of the Zambezi, and had eventually 
pushed on with their armed slaves till they reached the Ivazembe’s country, 
near Lake Mweru. The reports which they gave of the Kazembe (a lieutenant 
or satrap of the Muata Yanvo of Lunda) decided Dr. Lacerda to proceed 
thither on his way across to Angola. His expedition numbered about 75 
white Portuguese, and the two Pereiras accompanied it as guides. Dr. Lacerda, 
however, only succeeded in reaching Ivazembe’s capital, near the south end of 
Lake Mweru, and eventually died there on the 18th October, 1798. After his 
death the expedition became so disorganised that instead of continuing the 
journey to Angola it returned to Tete. 
At the beginning of the present century two half-caste Portuguese, named 
Baptista and Amaro Jose, crossed from the Kwango River in the interior 
1 Which took place in 1795. 2 The old name for the Zambezi. 
