histoky]
AFRICA
tion ” and contended that the doctrine of effective occupation had been admitted in principle by all the parties to the Act of Berlin. Lord Salisbury further stated that “ Her Majesty’s Government cannot recognize Portuguese sovereignty in territory not occupied by her in sufficient strength to enable her to maintain order, protect foreigners, and control the natives.” To this Portugal replied that the doctrine of effective occupation was expressly confined by the Berlin Act to the African coast, but at the same time expeditions were hastily despatched up the Zambezi and some of its tributaries to discover traces of former Portuguese occupation. Matabeleland and the districts of Lake Nyasa were specially mentioned in the British protest as countries in which Her Majesty’s Government took a special interest. As a matter of fact the extension of British influence northwards to the Zambezi had engaged the attention of the British authorities, ever since the appearance of Germany in South-West Africa and the declaration of a protectorate over BechuMatabele- analan<L There were rumours of German land and activity in Matabeleland, and of a Boer trek Mashona- north of the Limpopo. Hunters and explorers had reported in eulogistic terms on the rich goldfields and healthy plateau lands of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, over both of which countries a powerful native chief, Lobengula, son of the great Moziligazi, claimed authority. The Matabele, or Amandebele, were a branch of the great Zulu family and a race of warriors. There were many suitors for Lobengula’s favours; but on the 11th February 1888 he signed a treaty with Mr J. S. Moffat, the assistant commissioner in Bechuanaland, the effect of which was to place all his territory under British protection. Both the Portuguese and the Transvaal Boers were naturally chagrined at this extension of British influence. A number of Boers attempted unsuccessfully to trek into the country, and Portugal opposed her ancient claims to the new treaty. She contended that Lobengula’s authority did not extend over Mashonaland, which she claimed as part of the Portuguese province of Sofala, and suddenly developed spasmodic activity in the distribution of flags and the establishment of stations and forts, not only in Eastern Mashonaland, but in the countries north of the Zambezi. Meanwhile preparations were being actively made for the exploitation of the mineral and other resources of Lobengula’s territories. Two rival syndicates obtained, or claimed to have obtained, concessions from Lobengula; but in the summer of 1889 Mr Cecil Bhodes succeeded in amalgamating the conflicting interests, and on the 29th October of that year Her Majesty granted a charter to the British South Africa Company (see Chartered Companies), the grantees being the Duke of Abercorn, the Duke of Fife, Lord Gifford, Mr Cecil J. Bhodes, Mr Albert Beit, Mr Albert Grey, and Mr George Cawston. The first article of the charter declared that “the principal field of the operations” of the company “shall be the region of South Africa lying immediately to the north of British Bechuanaland, and to the north and west of the South African Bepublic, and to the west of the Portuguese dominions.” No time was lost in making preparations for effective occupation. On the advice of Mr F. C. Selous it was determined to despatch an expedition to Eastern Mashonaland by a new route, which would avoid the Matabele country. This plan was carried out in the summer of 1890, and, thanks to the rapidity with which the column moved and Mr Selous’s intimate knowledge of the country, the British flag was, on 11th September, hoisted at a spot on the Makubusi river, where the town of Salisbury now stands, and the country taken possession of in the name of Queen Victoria. Disputes with the Portuguese ensued,
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and there were several frontier incidents which for a time embittered the relations between the two countries. Meanwhile, north of the Zambezi, the Portuguese were making desperate but futile attempts to repair the neglect of centuries by hastily - organized expeditions and the hoisting of flags. In 1888 an attempt g”Jain to close the Zambezi to British vessels was Portugal frustrated by the firmness of Lord Salisbury, north of In a despatch to the British minister at Lisbon, . dated 25th June 1888, Lord Salisbury, after brushing aside the Portuguese claims founded on doubtful discoveries three centuries old, stated the British case in a few sentences. “ It is,” he wrote, “an undisputed point that the recent discoveries of the English traveller, Livingstone, were followed by organized attempts on the part of English religious and commercial bodies to open up and civilize the districts surrounding and adjoining the lake. Many British settlements have been established, the access to which from the sea is by the rivers Zambezi and Shire. Her Majesty’s Government and the British public are much interested in the welfare of these settlements. Portugal does not occupy, and has never occupied, any portion of the lake, nor of the Shire; she has neither authority nor influence beyond the confluence of the Shire and Zambezi, where her interior custom house, now withdrawn, was placed by the terms of the Mozambique Tariff of 1877.” As a matter of historical accuracy it may be well to add that the Nyasa region has, from the first, been peculiarly associated with Scottish enterprise. Apart from the fact that Livingstone was a Scotsman, the first missions were established by the Scottish churches, the first planters were Scottish, and the “African Lakes Company,” which was the pioneer in trading and transport operations, was a Scottish corporation. In 1889 it became known to the British Government that a considerable Portuguese expedition was being organized for operating in the Zambezi region. In answer to inquiries addressed to the Portuguese Government, the foreign minister stated that the object of the Serpa Pinto expedition was to visit the Portuguese settlements on the Upper Zambezi. The British Government was, even so late as 1889, averse from declaring a formal protectorate over the Nyasa region; but early in that year Mr H. H. (afterwards Sir Harry) Johnston was sent out to Mozambique as British consul, with instructions to travel in the interior and report on the troubles that had arisen with the Arabs on Lake Nyasa and with the Portuguese. The discovery of a navigable mouth of the Zambezi—the Chinde—and the offer by Mr Bhodes of a subsidy of £10,000 a year from the British South Africa Company, removed some of the objections to a protectorate entertained by the British Government; but Mr Johnston’s instructions were not to proclaim a protectorate unless circumstances compelled him to take that course. To his surprise, Mr Johnston learnt on his arrival at the Zambezi that Major Serpa Pinto’s expedition had been suddenly deflected to the north. Hurrying forward, Mr Johnston overtook the Portuguese expedition and warned its leader that any attempt to establish political influence north of the Buo river would compel him to take steps to protect British interests. On arrival at the Buo, Major Serpa Pinto returned to Mozambique for instructions, and in his absence Lieutenant Coutinho crossed the river, attacked the Makalolo chiefs, and sought to obtain possession of the Shire highlands by a coup de main. Mr Buchanan, the British vice-consul, lost no time in declaring the country under British protection, and his action was subsequently confirmed by Mr Johnston on his return from a treaty-making expedition on Lake Nyasa. On the news of these events reaching Europe the British
