Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-01-14
DELAGOA BAY.
Ii IL Pronounced the Finest IIarbor
In South Africa.


Delagoa Bay, to which British and Ger
man ships are being dispatched. is pro-
nounced the finest harbor in South Africa,
and the European powers, which have in
terests In Africa, have long kept Jealous
watch of each others movements In re-
lation to it.
In the latter part of September, 1894,
there was a report in England that syn
dictate purchased a concession for building
a pier in Dengio, by which the practical
control of the port would pass to the
Transvaal. Soon afterward there was an
uprising of Kaft1rs against the Portuguese,
to whom Dela9oa Bay belongs. and British
marines were promptly landed at Lorenzo
Marques from the Eunboat Thrush, against
the protest of the Portuguese governor.
Delagoa Bay Is the natural outlet of the
trade of the Transvaal. and Portugars in
teres. is to make all the traffic of the pla-
teau of the interior converge toward this
pert. To this end the Pretoria-Lorenzo
Marques railway was commenced in 1886.
For half a century prior to this attempts
were made, but unsuccessfully to establish
comm anications between the Tra1svaal and
Delagoa Bay. With basins, Guays and rail-
ways at Lorenzo Marques communicating
with the gold fields and rich country of
the interior Lorenzo Marques will have
great future before 1t.
AT present its chief imports are AIMS and
alcoholic liquors: its exports, OIL nuts.
caoltchouc, etc.
The town is surrounded by a wall. and
batteries have been erected to defend IL
against hostile attack en- the land side.
The town lies on the northern side OF the
inner harbor, or English river. as 1t used
to be called.
Lorenzo Marques has a splendid harbor.
capable OF holding and sheltering hundreds
of the finest ships. The entrance to the
harbor is so wide and fine that a feet OF
ironclads could enter II. The harbor COW
ar.S cprro vay &c NJ or
here and there with wood-clad Islands.
Invack Island guards the entrance, and
here the Portuguese have planted batteries
to defend the anchorage. The entrance to
the inner harbor or English river. where
Lorenzo Marques has been planted, 10
about a mile wide. Fifteen feet of water
cover the bar at low water. Vessels draw
ing twelve feet of water can navigate the
English river for forty miles, while two
miles from Lorenzo Marques they can lie
In sufficient depth and free from every
wind About five miles from Lorenzo the
Temby, the Dundas and the Mattel empty
into the estuary.
The ownership of the bay of Lorenzo
Marques became question of great i'm
Portugal claimed possession of the whole
of it by right Of discovery, England by ef-
fective colonization. The British settled
along the southern part of Delagoa bay,
and built town in the course of time.
England, while acknowledging Portugars
right to the northern part of the bay,
claimed the southern as her own. The
matter was brought to a crisis when, in
1S6S, the Transvaal republic, by procla-
nation. claimed the Maputa river from its
| junction with the Pongola to its mouth
| into the southern part Of Delagoa bay.
Both England and Portugal strenuously re-
sisted this claim, and set up counter pre-
| tensions. Eventually, the matter was re-
ferred to the arbitration of Marshal Nc
Mahon, then president Of the French re-
public. In 1875 he declared that the south
ern part of Delagos bay including the Ma
puta river up to the Lombobo mountains,
belonged to Portugal. England conse-
Quently hauled down the British ensign,
but in 1891 an agreement was made be-
tween that country and Portugal that, in
the event ofSthe latter country wishing to
part with the bay, England should have
the first right of purchasing it.