VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
299 
Mr. Poultney Bigelow : I am sure we all feel that we would have 
liked to hear a very few more words on that most absorbing point on 
the map of Africa, Delagoa Bay. I think the Speaker was very wise in 
not having himself made a more intimate acquaintance with it because I 
had not been more than two days there myself before I was stretched with 
fever which stayed in my bones for many months, and has not yet got 
out of them. It is very striking that Delagoa Bay should be such a 
very unhealthy port, while only one night’s journey to the south of 
it, at Durban, there is a port which twenty years ago was equally 
unhealthy, but which by the energy and enterprise of those people there 
is now one of the healthiest places on the coast, and is in fact a health 
resort in winter. Durban is, I should say, a model town in every 
respect, excellent roads, excellent public buildings, excellent administra¬ 
tion, and a harbour which has now I understand, nineteen feet of water 
on the average, and can berth the largest steamships which frequent that 
coast, whereas Delagoa Bay is the most pestiferous swamp that one can 
imagine, it is run by Portuguese as you know, the so called facilities for 
landing are practically nil, and the government can only be described as 
a swindling and a thieving ring. The language I am using is very strong 
for a Parliamentary gathering like this, but I do not think I have said 
more than half the truth. (Laughter.) 
Any one landing in Delagoa Bay would think he had arrived in some 
clime where some cataclysm had scattered bales and boxes, water bottles, 
cartridges, etc., all over the country for miles, and amongst these ruins 
go little Portuguese officials doing what pleases them, and the man 
who manages to transport his goods from there to the Transvaal does so 
by ingenuity which is not common in commercial communities. 
(Laughter.) 
Delagoa Bay is the most magnificient harbour anywhere in Africa ; 
there is no exaggeration in saying that it is by nature the one harbour 
in that part of the world. Cape Town has not a natural harbour ; it 
requires a very exceptional break-water to make it at all safe, and the 
Harbour at Durban has to be perpetually dredged, although it is now in 
very fair condition. The river which runs into Delagoa Bay is a beauti¬ 
ful stream where vessels can anchor three to four abreast for a distance 
of five or ten miles. It is a perfect harbour. The Portugese, however, 
have done their utmost to make the harbour worthless. They imported 
a lightship there a short time before my arrival, and the Governor used 
that lightship part of the time in transporting bricks for a house he was 
building. He was not particular as to where he left it at night, so that 
those who were not in the know sometimes landed at the wrong place. 
(Laughter.) 
I think we all feel there will be a row at Delagoa Bay someday, but 
if that brings me on the verge of politics—and Major Abdy has strictly 
warned me that this is not a political meeting—I have to thank you for 
allowing me to say so much. (Loud applause.) 
The Chairman : If no one else has a remark to make, nothing 
remains for me but to convey the thanks of the company present to the 
lecturer for his very able and interesting lecture. 
