The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-07-23
PORTUGUESE m AFRICA.
Their Power and Influence Have Compiete-
ly Passed way.


ly Passed Away.
The Hrst to como were the men of
Portugal, then IL the fresh spring
time of its power. Bartholomew
Diaz discovered tho Cape of Storms,
as he called it. III 1886, and after
Vasco ds Cana, in 1878, had trac-
ed the southeast coast as far as So
fala, little to the south of the mod
ern port of Beira, the Portuguese
established settlements at that place
and farther to the north of it, and
thence carried on Il considerable
trade with the natives, chiefly in
gold brought down from the mines
OF Mashonaland. However, the un-
healthiness of the fat country which
lies between the coast and the into
rior plateau checked their projects Of
exploration and conquest. Individu-
al traders, and sometimes mission
aries also, penetrated far into the
interior, and articles which the Por-
tuguese must have brought to ,Afri-
ca, such as fragments of Indian and
Chinese pottery, and even, in one or
two instances, small cannon, have
been found many hundreds of miles
from the seaboard. But, on the whole,
the Portuguese exerted little infiu-
ence on the country and its inhabit-
ants.
Tho white population remained
very small, and it became degraded
by intermarriage with the Kaffirs,
for in Africa, as well as in Brazil,
the Portuguese have shown little of
that contempt for the native blacks
and aversion to a mixing of their
blood with the latter, which have
been SO generally characteristic of
the Dutch and the English. During
the Seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turtles the oolonizing force of Portu.
gal declined with the decline of her
European power.
She made NO further efforts to ex-
plore, and even abandoned some of
her stations on the Zambezi. She
remained, however, undisturbed in
her possessions till few years ago,
when a question arose between her
and Great Britain regarding the
right to Delagoa bay, a port the
value of which, as the only deep wa
ter harbor fit for large vessels along
tho whole stretch of the southeast
coast south of Beira, was now gener-
ally perceived. President MacMa-
hon, to whom as arbitrator the con-
troversy was referred, decided in IA
vor of Portugal. Subsequently Ger
many appeared as formidable
neighbor on the north, while bound
airy disputes arose with the British
settlers who in 1890 had occupied
the inland country to the west.
! Thus the Portuguese frontier,
which had been very uncertain, has
now become defined. It includes a
vast area, but in that area the num-
Der of white men, or even of semi
civilized half breeds, is so small that,
although some fitful efforts have
been made by the Mozambique COM
pany, little or no progress in occupy
ing or improving the country can be
recorded. Portugal sends no emil
grants to Africa. Her government,
now hard pressed for money, cannot
find the sums needed to develop her
African territories, nor is there pri-
vate capital in Portugal to supple
ment the weakness of the govern
ment. The Beira railway and the
Delagoa Bay railway-of which more
anon-have both been bulls by for
aign companies. Practically, Portu-
gal may be looked on as an extinct
force in South Africa. - James
Bryce, NJ. P, in Century.