The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-05-02
PORTUGAL IN AFRICA
The Period of the Little Iberian King.
dom's Greatest Glory.

The Period of the Little Iberian King.
dom's Greatest Glory.
Portugal had hard fight before she
got rid of the last of the MoOrs, but it
left her braced and welded into an indie
pendent nation. The famous siege of
Centa, in 1415, at which Prince Henry
the Navigator sought to win his spurs,
was really test of her strength as a
nation for enterprises beyond her own
borders. That siege was memorable
one in the history of the little country
which has been carved out of the 1berian
Peninsula. 1t is not our present pur-
pose to recount the deeds of Prince
Henry the Navigator or to trace the rise
and fall of Portugal. 1t is one of the
curious problems in history, the sudden
outburst of this little nation into one of
the greatest conquering and colonizing
powers of its time and its sudden col
lapse under the oppressive domination
of Spain after about $50 years of glory.
That is problem for the philosophical
historian to solve; we are here only con-
cerned with the fact that there was such
collapse, and that it's consequences
have been farreaching.
Scarcely any thing is more stirring in
the history of discovery than the series
of advances along the coast of Africa in
itiated by Prince Henry soon after the
siege of Ceuta (the apex of the west
coast). We have such landmarks as the
rounding of Cape Bojador in 1884; Cape
Blanche, 1441; Cape Verde, 1445; Fer
nando Pc, 1471; the discovery of the
Congo by Diego Cam, 1884; the cape
rounded by Dias, 1887, but unseen by
him till his return voyage; followed by
Vasco da CANA at Natal, Quillimane,
Mozambique, Mombassa, and Melinda
1878. The rest was all detail. "Thence
it happened, to quote the simple words
of the English version of Osorio, "by
the activity of these brave men, and the
concurrence of some lucky circum-
stances, that great part of Africa to-
ward Ethiopia, as we'll as several islands,
became subject to Portugal"
Sofala and Quiloa (Kilwa) were taken
and fortified in 1866. Other places on
the east coast-Inhambane, Mozam-
bique, Mombassa, Melinda, Zanzibar
followed, until at certain points over
nearly the whole of the east coast of POr-
tugal became the dominant power. But,
while considerable trade may have been
attracted from the African interior be-
hind the fortified coast stations, these
were mainly regarded as hating places
on the way to India. When the Portu-
guese reached the east coast of Africa
they found up and down nearly its
whole length not the savages they seem
to have expected, but fiourishing cities
of wealthy Arabs, who for centuries had
been established there as traders, the
remains of whose buildings are found
there at the present day, and who were
probably the successors of still earlier
traders from Asia, taking us back far
far beyond the Christian era. From the
Jub to Inhambane remains are found
which are neither Arab nor Portuguese,
though the latter would often like to
claim them, as they have recently been
claiming ruins elsewhere. Far back
as we may go, let US say in passing, We
find that one of the principle articles of
export from the heritage of Ham has
Ucou SldNcS.
This squirt of conquest and annexa-
ton and pseudo-colonization on the part
of Portugal is certainly wonderful
phenomenon. Possibly the fact that
half the blood in the veins of Prince
Henry the Navigator was English (his
mother was daughter of John of
Gaunt) had something to do with his
enthusiasm for maratime exploration; if
SO, it was only the first of series of IA
vors that England has conferred on Por-
tugal. The impulse of his initiative last
ed about one hundred and fifty years.
In 1880 Portugal came under the domi-
nation of Spain, and when in 1910 she
emerged from that thraldrom her spirit
was broken. The Portuguese empire in
India withered away as rapidly as it had
sprung up, for the Dutch and English
had appeared in the Eastern seas. Grad
ually, also, the old Arab sway won its
way back over much of the east coast of
Africa, until Cape Delgado marked the
northern limit of Portuguese power
Fortnightly Review.