Chapter IV: The Portuguese in Africa (1)

The mother of Portugal was Galicia, that north-western province of
the present Kingdom of Spain. It was here at any rate that the
Portuguese language developed from a dialect of provincial Latin,
and hence that the first expeditions started to drive the Moors out
of that territory which subsequently became the Kingdom of Portugal.
A large element in the populations of Galicia and of the northern
parts of Portugal was Gothic. The Suevi settled here in considerable
numbers; and their descendants at the present day show the fine tall
figures, flaxen or red hair, and blue eyes so characteristic of the
northern Teuton. Central Portugal is mainly of Latinized Iberian
stock, while southern Portugal retains to this day a large element
of Moorish blood. The northern part of Portugal was first wrested
from the Moors in the 11th century by the bravery of Alfonso V,
Ferdinand I and Alfonso VI, Kings of Leon. Alfonso VI placed it (as
a tributary county) in charge of Henric of Besançon or Burgundy, a
French prince of the Capetian house, who married the illegitimate
daughter of Alfonso VI, and extended the conquered area nearly to
the banks of the Tagus. He became known to the Moors as Errik; and
his warrior son Alfonso I was styled in Moorish history “ibn Errik,”
the “son of Henry.” Alfonso I became the first king of Portugal in
1143, though it is doubtful whether the kingly title was assumed or
recognized till the reign of Henric’s great-great grandson Alfonso
III, by whom in 1250 the southernmost province of Algarve[48] was
conquered. By the middle of the 13th century the Moors had ceased to
rule in the Roman Lusitania. Lisbon, the capital, had been wrested
from the Muhammadans in 1147, thanks to the cooperation of a
crusading force of English, Dutch and Germans, who volunteered the
aid of their ships and fighting men. Most of these Saxon crusaders
settled in Portugal, which at that period even imported Anglo-Saxon
or English architects and craftsmen; and not a few of the later
_conquistadores_ and bold sea-captains of the Lusitanian kingdom
could trace their descent from Teutonic adventurers of the 12th
century.

In course of time the Portuguese, not content with ridding the
western part of the Peninsula of the Moorish invaders, attempted to
carry the war into the enemy’s country, urged thereto by the
irritating attacks of Moorish pirates. In 1415, as already
mentioned, a Portuguese army landed on the coast of Morocco, and
captured the citadel of Ceuta, the Roman Septa. One by one the
Portuguese captured the coast towns of north-west Morocco, till in
the second half of the 16th century the king of Portugal was almost
entitled to that claim over the Empire of Morocco which asserted
itself down to 1910 in the formal setting-forth of his dignities.
Most of these posts were either abandoned some years before or just
after the defeat of the young king “Sebastião o Desejado”—Sebastian
the desired—who at the age of only 23 was defeated and slain by the
founder of the Sharifian dynasty of Morocco on the fatal field of Al
Kasr-al-Kabīr in 1578[49]. Ceuta was taken over by Spain in 1580—was
garrisoned, that is, by Spanish soldiers[50]; the two or three other
Moroccan towns which remained in Portuguese hands after the battle
of Kasr-al-Kabīr, being garrisoned by Portuguese soldiers, reverted
to the separated crown of Portugal in 1640. Of these Tangier was
ceded to England in 1662, Saffi was given up to the Moors in 1641,
other points were snatched by the Moors in 1689, and Mazagan was
finally lost in 1770.

The second son of the king Dom João I (who reigned from 1385 to
1433) and Philippa, daughter of the English John of Gaunt, was named
Henry (Henrique), and was subsequently known to all time as “Henry
the Navigator” from the interest he took in maritime exploration. He
was present at the siege of Ceuta in 1415, and after its capture was
said to have inquired with much interest as to the condition of
Morocco and of the unknown African interior, and to have heard from
the Moors of Timbuktu.

On his return to Portugal he established himself on the rocky
promontory of Sagres, and devoted himself to the encouragement of
the exploration of the coasts of Africa. Under his direction
expedition after expedition set out. First Cape Bojador to the south
of the Moroccan coast was doubled by Gil Eannes in 1434[51]. In
1441-2 Antonio Gonsalvez and Nuno Tristam passed Cape Blanco on the
Sahara coast, and on the return journey called at the Rio d’Ouro or
River of Gold[52], whence they brought back some gold dust and ten
slaves. These slaves having been sent by Prince Henry to Pope Martin
V, the latter conferred upon Portugal the right of possession and
sovereignty over all countries that might be discovered between Cape
Blanco and India. In 1445 a Portuguese named João Fernandez made the
first over-land exploration, starting alone from the mouth of the
Rio d’Ouro, and travelling over seven months in the interior. In the
following year the river Senegal was reached, and Cape Verde was
doubled by Diniz Diaz; and in 1448 the coast was explored as far as
the Gambia river. In 1455-6 Ca’ da Mosto (a Venetian in Portuguese
service) and Uso di Mare (a Genoese) discovered the Cape Verde
Islands, and visited the rivers Senegal and Gambia, bringing back
much information in regard to Timbuktu, the trade in gold and ivory
with the coast, and the over-land trade routes from the Niger to the
Mediterranean. It is asserted by the Portuguese that some years
later two Portuguese envoys actually reached Timbuktu; but the truth
of this assertion is somewhat problematical, since, had they done
so, they would probably have dissipated to some extent the excessive
exaggerations regarding the wealth and importance of the Songhai
capital. In 1460 Diego Gomes reached the river and mountain
peninsula of Sierra Leone; the last named from the incessant rumble
of thunderstorms making the mountain range roar like a lion. In
1462, two years after the death of Prince Henry, Pedro de Sintra
explored the coast as far as Cape Palmas in modern Liberia. By 1471
the whole Guinea coast had been followed to the Gold Coast and on
past the Niger delta, to the Cameroons and as far south as the
Ogowe.

In 1448, under Prince Henry’s directions, a fort had been built on
the Bay of Arguin, to the south of Cape Blanco; and a few years
later a Portuguese company was formed for carrying on a trade with
the Guinea coast in slaves and gold. The first expedition sent out
by this company resulted in the despatch of 200 Negro slaves to
Portugal, and thenceforward the slave trade grew and prospered. It
at first resulted in but little misery for the slaves, who exchanged
a hunted, hand-to-mouth existence among savage tribes in Africa for
relatively kind treatment and comfortable living in beautiful
Portugal, where they were much in favour as house servants. In 1481
the Portuguese, who had been for some years examining the Gold
Coast, decided to build a fort to protect their trade there. In 1482
the fort was completed and the Portuguese flag raised in token of
sovereignty. This strong place, for more than a hundred years in
possession of the Portuguese, was called Saõ Jorge da Mina[53]. In
the same year in which this first Portuguese post was established on
the Gold Coast[54], exploration of the African coast was carried on
beyond the mouth of the Ogowe by Diogo Cam, who discovered the mouth
of the Congo in 1482, and sailed up that river about as far as Boma.
In 1485 Diogo Cam returned with a stronger expedition which sailed
and rowed up the Congo to the mouth of the Mpozo river, just below
the Yellala Falls[55]. Diogo Cam’s discoveries were continued by
Bartolomeu Diaz de Novaes, who, passing along the south-west coast
of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in stormy weather without
knowing it, and touched land on February 3, 1488, at Mossel Bay,
then again at Algoa Bay, Cape Padrone and the mouth of the Great
Fish river. Here the timorous officers and crew insisted on a return
westwards. On the homeward voyage Diaz beheld and named Cape
Agulhas, and also “Cabo Tormentoso,” the terminal point of South
Africa, which was afterwards christened by Diaz, or by his monarch,
King Joaõ II, “the Cape of Good Hope.”

At this stage in the relation of the founding of the Portuguese
dominion and influence over Africa some mention must be made of the
part played during the 15th century by the Jews settled in Portugal.
Badly as the Christians of Portugal treated the Jews, their
existence in this western kingdom was not unbearable compared with
the ferocious cruelty of the Spaniards; consequently during the 15th
century the Jewish colonies in Portuguese cities increased
considerably, and Jews even rose to a high position in the state. In
return they established printing-presses, advanced education, and
spread a knowledge of geography, astronomy, mathematics, classical
history and medicine which was directly useful to the new school of
Portuguese seamen-explorers, who mostly obtained their nautical
instruments from the Jews. In short the Jews did much to create a
Portuguese Empire beyond the seas; but they were subsequently
treated with the grossest ingratitude and expelled from Portugal in
the early 16th century, thousands of them being deported to Saõ
Thomé in the Gulf of Guinea where they died of malarial fever.

Before the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Diaz, the King of
Portugal was convinced of the circumnavigability of Africa from the
Atlantic into the Indian Ocean. Through enterprising Portuguese Jews
(Abraham of Beja and Joseph of Lamego) who had travelled overland
via Egypt and Syria to the Persian Gulf, he had heard that this was
possible[56], and resolved to send two Portuguese officers, Pero de
Covilham and Alfonso de Paiva, to travel to India by way of the Red
Sea, and to find out all they could about the Christian King of
Ethiopia and the Arab settlements on the East coast of Africa, and
whether the King of Portugal might look for allies or friendly
neutrals in this direction. Accordingly, in 1487, de Covilham and
Paiva reached Egypt; and the former journeyed by the Red Sea to
India, while the latter made for Abyssinia, but was killed on the
way, near Suakin. Pero de Covilham, on his return journey from
Southern India, visited the north coast of Madagascar and the
settlement of Sofala, near the modern Beira (S.E. Africa). Thence he
proceeded northwards, calling at all the Arab ports of East Africa
till he once more re-entered the Red Sea. Returning to Cairo he
learnt that his companion, Paiva, had been killed, but he met the
two Jews, Abraham and Joseph. By the last-named he sent back word of
his discoveries to King John II, and then starting off with Abraham
of Beja he visited Mecca and Medina and finally landed at Zeila (N.
Somaliland) and travelled to Abyssinia. The information sent back by
de Covilham decided the despatch of an expedition under Vasco da
Gama to pass round the Cape of Good Hope to the Arab colonies, and
thence to India. Vasco da Gama set out in 1497, and made his famous
voyage round the Cape (calling at and naming Natal on the way) to
Sofala, where he picked up an Arab pilot who took him to Malindi,
and thence to India. On his return journey Vasco da Gama took
cognizance of the island of Mozambique, and visited the Quelimane
river near the mouth of the Zambezi. Numerous well-equipped
expeditions sailed for India within the years following Vasco da
Gama’s discoveries. While India was the main goal before the eyes of
their commanders, considerable attention was bestowed upon the
founding of forts along the East coast of Africa, both to protect
the Cape route to India, and to further Portuguese trade with the
interior of Africa. In nearly every case the Portuguese merely
supplanted the Muhammadan Arabs, who—possibly succeeding Phoenicians
or Sabaeans—had established themselves at Sofala, Quelimane, Sena
(on the Zambezi), Moçambique, Kilwa, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Malindi,
Lamu, and Magdishu. Sofala was taken by Pedro de Anhaya in 1505.
Tristan d’Acunha hoisted the Portuguese flag on Sokotra Island and
at Lamu in 1507, in which year also Duarte de Mello captured and
fortified Moçambique. Kilwa and the surrounding Arab establishments
were seized between 1506 and 1508; and a little later the remaining
places already mentioned on the East coast of Africa were in
possession of the Portuguese, who had also Aden on the south coast
of Arabia, the island of Ormuz on the Persian Gulf, and various
places on the coast of ’Oman, including Maskat. Meantime, for thirty
years, Pero de Covilham remained a prisoner at the Court of the
Emperor of Abyssinia, though treated with the utmost distinction.

Before this period of the world’s history, and from the time of the
earlier crusades, a legend had grown up of the existence of Prester
(priest) Johannes—some Christian monarch of the name of John, who
ruled in the heart of Asia or of Africa, a bright spot in the midst
of Heathenry and Islam. The court of Prester John was located
anywhere between Senegambia and China; but the legend had its origin
probably in the continued existence of Greek Christianity in Dongola
and Abyssinia. Pero de Covilham having at last located Abyssinia,
and an Abyssinian envoy having proceeded to Lisbon in 1507 to invite
an alliance, a Portuguese embassy sailed round the Cape of Good Hope
to the Red Sea and landed (apparently at Masawa) in 1520. With this
embassy were two priests, one of whom (Alvarez) thirty years
afterwards wrote an interesting account of Northern Abyssinia. The
priest-missionaries remained for a long time in Ethiopia; but the
lay-members of the mission returned after a residence of five years,
bringing Covilham away with them. But he died on the way back.

The Turks meanwhile had taken possession of Egypt and Western
Arabia, and became very jealous of Portuguese interference with
Abyssinia and the Red Sea. They stirred up a Somali warrior,
Muhammad Granye, furnished him with artillery, and urged him to
conquer Abyssinia. This Muhammadan Somali from the Danákil country
commenced invading and raiding Abyssinia from 1528. A Portuguese
priest, Bermudez, was sent to Lisbon to beg for assistance. This was
sent by way of India, whence came in 1541 a strong Portuguese fleet
to Masawa. Six months afterwards the fleet landed at Masawa a force
of 450 Portuguese soldiers under Christoforo da Gama. But after
carrying all before them the Portuguese unwisely split their forces.
Muhammad Granye, having received Turkish and Arab reinforcements,
captured Christoforo da Gama’s camp, and put that gallant Portuguese
to death. Ultimately, however, with the help of the remaining
Portuguese, the Abyssinian Emperor defeated Muhammad Granye, who was
himself slain by da Gama’s attendant, Pedro Leon (1542). Portuguese
Jesuit missionaries remained in Abyssinia until 1633 and penetrated
into countries which have only been since revisited by Europeans
within the last few decades. Father Pedro Paez discovered the source
of the Blue Nile in 1615; and Father Lobo visited the same region
and much of S.W. Abyssinia in 1626. Portuguese civilization
distinctly left its mark on Abyssinia in architecture and in other
ways. The very name which we apply to this Empire of Ethiopia is a
Portuguese rendering of the Arab and Indian cant term for
“negro”—_Habesh_—a word of uncertain origin.

From the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese visited the
coasts of Madagascar, as will be related in the chapter dealing with
that island. They had also discovered in 1507 the Mascarene islands
(named after a sea-captain, Mascarenhas) now known by the names of
Réunion and Mauritius, though they made no permanent settlements on
either. Madagascar, which was first sighted by Diogo Diaz in 1500,
was named the Island of St Laurence.

On the West coast of Africa geographical discovery was soon followed
by something like colonization. The island of Madeira, which had
been known to the Portuguese in the 14th century, was occupied by
them in the 15th, and a hundred years afterwards was already
producing a supply of that wine which has made it so justly
famous[57]. The island of St Helena—afterwards to be seized by the
Dutch and taken from them by the English East India Company—was
discovered by the Portuguese in 1502; and this island also, at the
end of a century of intermittent use by the Portuguese, possessed
orange groves and fig trees which they had planted.

When Diogo Cam returned from the Congo in 1485 he brought back with
him a few Congo natives, who were baptized, and who returned some
years later to the Congo with Diogo Cam and a large number of
proselytizing priests. This Portuguese expedition arrived at the
mouth of the Congo in 1491 and there encountered a vassal chief of
the king of Kongo[58] who ruled the riverain province of Sonyo. This
chief received them with a respect due to demi-gods, and allowed
himself to be at once converted to Christianity—a conversion which
was sincere and durable. The Portuguese proceeded under his guidance
to the king’s capital about 200 miles from the coast, which they
named São Salvador. Here the king and queen were baptized with the
names of the then king and queen of Portugal, João and Leonora,
while the Crown Prince was called Affonso. Christianity made
surprising progress amongst these fetish worshippers, who readily
transferred their adoration to the Virgin Mary and the saints, and
discarded their indigenous male and female gods. Early in the 16th
century the Kongo kingdom was visited by the Bishop of São Thomé, an
island off the Guinea coast, which, together with the adjoining
Prince’s Island, had been settled by the Portuguese soon after their
discovery of the West coast of Africa. The Bishop of São Thomé,
being unable to take up his residence in the kingdom of Kongo,
procured the consecration of a native negro as Bishop of the Congo.
This man, who was a member of the Kongo royal family, had been
educated in Lisbon, and was, I believe, the first negro bishop known
to history. But he was not a great success, nor was the next bishop,
in whose reign in the middle of the 16th century great dissensions
arose in the Kongo church among the native priesthood, which led to
a considerable lessening of Christian fervour. After the death of
the King, Dom Diego, a civil war broke out; and one by one the males
of the royal house were all killed except “Dom Henrique,” the king’s
brother. This latter also died soon after succeeding to the throne,
and left the state to his son, “Dom Alvares.” During this civil war
many of the Portuguese, whom the kings of Kongo had invited to
settle in the country as teachers, mechanics and craftsmen, were
killed or expelled as the cause of the troubles which European
intervention had brought on the Kongo kingdom; but Dom Alvares, who
was an enlightened man, gathered together all that remained, and for
a time Portuguese civilization continued to advance over the
country. But a great stumbling-block had arisen in the way of
Christianity being accepted by the bulk of the people—that
stumbling-block which is still discussed at every Missionary
conference, polygamy. A relation of the king Dom Alvares renounced
Christianity and headed a reactionary party. Curiously enough he has
been handed down to history as _Bula Matadi_, “the Breaker of
Stones,” the name which more than three hundred years afterwards was
applied to the explorer Stanley by the Congo peoples, and has since
become the native name for the whole of the government of the
Belgian Congo.

In the middle of the 16th century Portuguese influence over Kongo
received a deadly blow. That kingdom, which must be taken to include
the coast-lands on either side of the lower Congo, was invaded by a
savage tribe from the interior known as the “Jagga” people, probably
the same tribe as the Ba-Kioko or Ba-jok of Upper Kwango river[59].
The Jaga or Imbangola were powerful men and ferocious cannibals, and
they carried all before them, the king and his court taking refuge
on an island on the broad Congo, not far from Boma. The king of
Kongo appealed to Portugal for help; and that ill-fated but
brilliant young monarch, Dom Sebastião, sent him Franciso de Gova
with 600 soldiers. With the aid of these Portuguese and their guns
the Jaga were driven out. The king, who had hitherto led a very
irregular life for a Christian, now formally married, but was not
rewarded by a legal heir, and had to indicate as his successor a
natural son by a concubine. About this time the king of Portugal
pressed his brother of Kongo to reveal the existence of mines of
precious metals. Whether there are such in the Kongo country—except
as regards copper—has not been made known even at the present day,
but they were supposed to exist at that time; and certain Portuguese
at the Kongo court dissuaded the prince whom they served from giving
any information on the subject, no doubt desiring to keep such
knowledge to themselves. The king of Kongo, Dom Alvares, when the
Jaga had retired, made repeated appeals for more Portuguese priests,
and sent several embassies to Portugal; but Dom Sebastião had been
killed in Morocco, and his uncle, the Cardinal Henrique, who had
succeeded him and who was the last Portuguese king of the House of
Avis, was too much occupied by the affairs of his tottering kingdom
to reply to these appeals. But when Philip II of Spain had seized
the throne of Portugal he despatched a Portuguese named Duarte Lopes
to report on the countries of the Congo basin. After spending some
time in Congoland, Duarte Lopes started to return to Portugal with a
great amount of information about the country, and messages from the
king of Kongo. Unfortunately he was driven by storms to Central
America, and when he reached Spain the king was too busy preparing
the Great Armada to listen to him. Therefore Lopes went on a
pilgrimage to Rome to appeal to the Pope. Whilst staying in Italy,
Lopes allowed a papal official named Filippo Pigafetta to take down
and publish in 1591 his account of the Kongo kingdom, together with
a recital of the Portuguese explorations and conquests in East
Africa.

Although Portuguese priests—Jesuits probably—continued for a little
while longer to visit the kingdom of Kongo, from the end of the 16th
century both Christian and Portuguese influence slowly faded, and
the country relapsed into heathenism, in spite of the strenuous
efforts made by the Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries, who sent
thither Italian, Flemish, and French missionaries. The Portuguese
appear to have excited the animosity of a somewhat proud people by
their overbearing demeanour and rapacity. They held intermittently
Kabinda, on the coast to the north of the Congo estuary, and
occasionally sent missions of investiture to São Salvador to
represent the king of Portugal at the crowning of some new king of
Kongo; and the king of Kongo was usually given a Portuguese name and
occasionally an honorary rank in the Portuguese army. But it was not
till after the middle of the 19th century that Portugal began to
assert her dominion over the Congo countries. France and Britain
during the 18th and nearly all the 19th centuries steadily refused
to recognize Portuguese rule anywhere north of the Loge river in
Angola (south of the Congo Estuary); but Britain in 1884 proposed to
do so under sufficient guarantees for freedom of trade set forth in
a treaty which was rendered abortive by the opposition of the House
of Commons. If this treaty had been ratified it would have brought
under joint English and Portuguese influence the lower Congo,
besides settling amicably Portuguese and British claims in
Nyasaland. The opposition of a knot of unpractical philanthropists
in the House of Commons wrecked the treaty, and gave to the other
powers of Europe an opportunity for interfering in the affairs of
the Congo. The result to Portugal, nevertheless, was that she
secured the territory of Kabinda north of the Congo, and the ancient
kingdom of Kongo south of that river.

Although the Portuguese discovered the coast of Angola in 1490, they
did not attempt to settle in that country until 1574, when, in
answer to an appeal of the chief of Angola (a vassal of the king of
Kongo), an expedition was sent thither under the command of Paulo
Diaz[60]. This expedition landed at the mouth of the Kwanza river,
and found that the chief of Angola who had appealed to the king of
Portugal was dead. His successor received Diaz with politeness, but
compelled him to assist the Angolese in local wars which had not
much interest for the Portuguese. Diaz found in the interior of
Angola many evidences of Christian worship, which showed that
missionaries from the Congo had preceded his own expedition. When
Diaz was at last allowed to return to Portugal, the king (Dom
Sebastião) sent him back as “Conqueror, Colonizer, and Governor of
Angola” with seven ships and 700 men. His passage out from Lisbon in
the year 1574 occupied three and a half months—not a long time at
that period for sailing-vessels. Diaz took possession of a sandy
island in front of the bay which is now known as the harbour of São
Paulo de Loanda. Here he was joined by 40 Portuguese refugees from
the Kongo kingdom. Eventually he built on the mainland of Loanda the
fort of São Miguel, and founded the city of São Paulo, which became
and remains the capital of the Portuguese possessions in South-west
Africa.

For six years perfect peace subsisted between the Portuguese and the
natives; then, afraid that the Portuguese would eventually seize the
whole country, the king of Angola enticed 500 Portuguese soldiers
into a war in the interior where he massacred them. But this
massacre only served to show the splendid quality of Paulo Diaz, who
was a magnificent representative of the old Portuguese type of
Conquistador. Leaving Loanda with 150 soldiers—nearly all that
remained—he marched against the king’s forces near the Kwanza river,
and routed them with great loss, being of course greatly helped in
securing this victory by the possession of muskets and cannon. The
Angolese were defeated repeatedly before they gave up the struggle;
but at length in 1597 the Portuguese had established themselves
strongly on both banks of the river Kwanza. In that year 200 Flemish
colonists were sent out by the king of Spain and Portugal. In a very
short time all were dead from fever. In spite of many reverses,
however, the Portuguese slowly mastered the country south of the
Kwanza nearly as far as Benguela. Portuguese traders and
missionaries probably travelled inland up the Congo as far as the
Bateke country or Stanley Pool. In 1606 an interesting but
unsuccessful attempt was made to open up communication across
south-central Africa between the Kwanza and the Zambezi settlements.
But the explorer never got beyond the King of Kongo’s capital, that
potentate refusing him permission to proceed further into the
interior. Nevertheless, from Portuguese annals it is clear that
numerous venturesome priests and soldiers attempted at this period
to penetrate Darkest Africa, and were never heard of again. What a
subject for romance would be their experiences in these lands, at
that time absolutely free from the influence of the European—a
condition which no longer applied to the natives of Darkest Africa
when Stanley first made known the geography of those regions. For in
the three and a half centuries which had elapsed, even those savages
in the heart of Africa, who possibly knew nothing of the existence
of white men, had nevertheless adopted many of the white man’s
products as necessities or luxuries of their lives, such as maize,
tobacco, sweet potatoes, manioc, papaws, chillies, the pine-apple,
and the sugar cane.

We may here fitly consider the greatest and most beneficial results
of the Portuguese colonization of Africa. These wonderful old
Conquistadores may have been relentless and cruel in imposing their
rule on the African and in enslaving him or in Christianizing him,
but they added enormously to his food-supply and his comfort. So
early in the history of their African and Indian explorations as
about 1510 they brought from China, India, and Malacca the orange
tree, the lemon and the lime, which, besides introducing into Europe
(and Europe had hitherto only known the sour wild orange and the
lime, brought by the Arabs), they planted in every part of East and
West Africa where they touched. They likewise brought the sugar cane
from the Mediterranean and the East Indies and introduced it into
various parts of Brazil and West Africa, especially into the Islands
of São Thomé and Principe and the Congo and Angola countries.
Madeira they had planted with vines in the 15th century; the Açores,
the Cape Verde Islands and St Helena with orange trees in the 16th
century. The cacao tree was introduced into São Thomé in 1822. From
their great possession of Brazil, overrun and organized with
astounding rapidity, they brought to East and West Africa the Musk
duck (which has penetrated far and wide into the interior of
Africa), chili peppers, maize (now grown all over Africa, and
cultivated by many tribes who have lost all tradition of its foreign
origin), wheat (into Zambezia)[61], tobacco, the tomato, pine-apple,
sweet potato (a convolvulus tuber), manioc (from which tapioca is
made), rice (into West Africa), haricot beans and lentils, onions,
guavas, jackfruit, papaws, small bananas, ginger and other less
widely known forms of vegetable food. The Portuguese also introduced
the domestic pig into West Africa, and the domestic cat, possibly
also certain breeds of dogs; in East tropical Africa the horse is
known in the north by an Arab name, in the centre by the Portuguese
word, and in the extreme south by a corruption of the English. Take
away from the African’s dietary of today the products that the
Portuguese brought to him from the far East and far West, and he
will remain very insufficiently provided with necessities and simple
luxuries. I may add one or two dates concerning these introductions
by the Portuguese:—the sugar cane and ginger were first planted in
the island of Principe, off the coast of Lower Guinea about 1520;
maize was introduced into the Congo (where it was called _maza
manputo_) about 1560[62].

In 1621 a chieftainess, apparently of the Kongo royal family, known
as Jinga Bandi, came to Loanda, made friends with the Portuguese,
was baptized, and then returned to the interior, where she poisoned
her brother (the chief or king of Angola), and succeeded him. Having
attained this object of her ambitions, she headed the national
party, and attempted to drive the Portuguese out of Angola. For 30
years she warred against them without seriously shaking their power,
though on the other hand they could do little more than hold their
own. But a much more serious enemy now appeared on the scene. The
Dutch, who took advantage of the union between the Spanish and
Portuguese thrones in 1580[63] to include the Portuguese empire as a
theatre for their reprisals against Spain, made several determined
attempts during the first half of the 17th century to wrest Angola
from the Portuguese. They captured São Paulo de Loanda in 1641, one
year after Portugal had recovered her independence under the first
Bragança king. The Portuguese concentrated on the Kwanza. The Dutch
attempted by several treacherous actions to oust them from their
fortresses on that river. At last, however, following on the
reorganization of the Portuguese empire after 1640, reinforcements
were sent from Brazil to Angola, and a siege of São Miguel took
place. The Portuguese imitated with advantage the Dutch game of
bluff, and by deceiving the besieged as to the extent of their army
they secured the surrender of 1100 Dutch to under 750 Portuguese. In
the preliminary assault on the Dutch at São Paulo de Loanda the
Portuguese lost 163 men. After the recapture of this place they
proceeded methodically to destroy all the Dutch establishments on
the Lower Guinea coast as far north as Loango. In the concluding
years of the 17th century nearly all the remaining Portuguese
missionaries in the kingdom of Kongo[64] migrated to the more
settled and prosperous Angola. In 1694 Portugal introduced a copper
coinage into her now flourishing West African colony—flourishing,
thanks to the slave trade, which was mightily influencing the
European settlement of West Africa.

In 1758 the Portuguese extended their rule northwards from São Paulo
de Loanda into the Ambriz country, where however their authority
continued very uncertain till about 1885. About the same time
Benguela was definitely occupied; and Portuguese influence continued
extending slowly southward until, in 1840, it reached its present
limits by the establishment of a settlement (now very prosperous)
called Mossamedes, almost exactly on the fifteenth parallel of south
latitude[65].

Between 1807 and 1810 attempts were made to open up intercourse with
the Lunda kingdom of the Mwata Yanvo, and thence across to the
colony of Moçambique, but they proved only partially successful. In
1813 and in the succeeding years a renewed vigour of colonization
began to make itself felt in the creation of public works in Angola.
Amongst other 19th century improvements was the bringing of the
waters of the Kwanza by canal to São Paulo de Loanda, which until
then had no supply of good drinking water. The Dutch had attempted
to carry out this, but were interrupted. The Portuguese efforts in
the early part of the last century proved unsuccessful, but in 1887
the canal was at last completed, and it made a great difference to
the health of the town. Portuguese rule inland from Angola waxed and
waned during the 19th century, but on the whole was greatly
extended. Livingstone found Portuguese in 1855 established to some
extent on the upper Kwango, an affluent of the Congo, and for long
the eastern boundary of Angola. From this, however, they had to
retire owing to native insurrections; though now their power and
their influence have been pushed far to the east, to the river
Kasai.

In 1875 a party of recalcitrant Boers quitted the Transvaal owing to
some quarrel with the local government, trekked over the desert in a
north-westerly direction, and eventually blundered across the Kunene
river (the southern limit of Portuguese West Africa) on to the
healthy plateau behind the Shela Mountains. It was feared at one
time that they would set the Portuguese at defiance and carve out a
little Boer state in south-west Africa. About this time, also,
Hottentots much under Boer influence and speaking Dutch invaded the
district of Mossamedes from the coast region; but by liberal
concessions and astute diplomacy, joined with the carrying out of
several important works, like the waggon road (now the railway)
across the Shela Mountains, the Portuguese won over the Boers to a
recognition of their sovereignty, though they have since left the
country and returned to German or British South Africa.

Slavery was not abolished in the Portuguese West African dominions
until 1878; but the slave trade had been ostensibly forbidden in the
first quarter of the 19th century. Prior to that time the slave
trade had brought extraordinary prosperity to the islands of São
Thomé and Principe, to the Portuguese fort on the coast of Dahomé,
and to Angola, all of which countries were more or less under one
government. The abolition of the slave trade however caused the
absolute ruin of Principe (which has not yet recovered), the
temporary ruin of São Thomé (the fortunes of this island have since
revived owing to the cultivation of cinchona and the enormous
extention of the planting of cacao), and the partial ruin of Angola,
which began to be regarded as a possession scarcely worth
maintaining. Brazil (though it had been severed from the crown of
Portugal) did almost more than the Mother Country to revive trade in
these dominions. Enterprising Brazilians such as Silva Americano
came over to Angola in the sixties and seventies of the 19th
century, started steam navigation on the river Kwanza, and developed
many industries. Through Brazilian, United States, and British
influence a railway was commenced in the eighties to connect São
Paulo de Loanda with the rich interior, especially with the coffee
districts on the water-shed of the Congo. Another railway of even
greater importance has been begun by a British company in the
Benguela district south of the Kwanza River. This line starts from
Lobito Bay, near Benguela, and is destined to cross Angola at its
broadest and ultimately reach the copper and gold mines of Katanga
in the Belgian Congo. American and Swiss protestant missionaries
have formed important settlements on the Bailundo uplands. The
magnificent island of São Thomé, just under the Equator, possesses
mountains which rise high into a temperate climate. On these, as
already related, flourishing plantations of cacao, cinchona and
coffee have been established. Public works in the shape of good
roads and bridges have been carried out in many parts of Angola, and
this country is certainly the most successful of the Portuguese
attempts at the colonization of Africa. Unfortunately the “boom” in
cacao (cocoa, chocolate) and the fact that it is a capricious tree,
not easy to acclimatize and only growing to perfection in a few
parts of tropical America and the west coast of Africa, notably São
Thomé, induced the Portuguese government from 1880 onwards to push
the interests of São Thomé at the expense of Angola. A kind of slave
trade under the guise of “apprenticeships” was revived in South and
East Angola, which made its effects felt on the Congo populations as
far inland as the Kasai and Lomami. These apprentices, once landed
in São Thomé (they were regularly bought and sold) never, or hardly
ever, obtained their liberty or received regular pay for their work.
In all other respects they were kindly treated. But this policy led
to native wars and insurrections in the Angola hinterland, and
attracted attention and condemnation in Europe.

In the autumn of 1904 the Portuguese forces in Southern Angola
sustained a disastrous defeat near the Kunene river from the
Kuanyama (Cuanhama) people, a tribe connected linguistically with
the Ovambo and the Ovaherero (Damara). Bantu negroes, speaking
dialects of this Ondonga or Herero group and distantly allied in
racial origin with the Zulu-Kafir stock, inhabit the south of Angola
and are formidable warriors. These disturbances in Southern Angola
have died down since the hinterland of Benguela was opened up to
profitable commerce by the Anglo-Portuguese railway concessionaires
who are building a line from Lobito Bay eastwards to Katanga.

Portuguese rule was extended in 1885 northwards to the southern
shore of the Congo, and over the small territory of Kabinda, which
is separated by a narrow strip of Belgian territory from the Congo
estuary. On the other hand the Portuguese protectorate over Dahomé—a
protectorate which never had any real existence—was abandoned to
France together with its only foothold, São João d’Ajudá[66]. The
Portuguese forts on the Gold Coast had not been held very long
before they were captured by the Dutch at the beginning of the 17th
century. Portugal, in spite of discovering and naming Sierra Leone,
never occupied it; but in varying degree she continued to maintain
certain fortified posts amid that extraordinary labyrinth of rivers
and islands in Senegambia, between the Gambia and Sierra Leone. This
is a district of some 14,000 square miles in extent, to-day
carefully defined, and known as Portuguese Guinea. But in the
seventies of the 19th century it was doubtful whether Portuguese
sovereignty over this country had not been abandoned. England, which
exercised exclusive influence in these waters, attempted to
establish herself in the place of Portugal, but the Portuguese
protested and proclaimed their sovereignty. The matter was submitted
to arbitration, and the verdict was given against England.
Consequently the Portuguese reorganized their colony of Guinea,
which in time was separated from the governorship of the Cape Verde
islands. There was a serious native rising in 1908, but it was
suppressed. In the present condition of Portuguese Guinea, however,
the native tribes are practically independent.

The Cape Verde Islands are a very important Portuguese asset three
hundred miles off the north-west coast of Africa. They have been
continuously occupied and administered since their discovery in the
15th century. They possessed then no population, but are now peopled
by a blackish race descended from Portuguese, Negroes and Moors. In
one or two of the healthier islands are white settlers of Portuguese
blood. Owing to the magnificent harbours which these islands offer
to shipping, especially São Vicente, and their use as a coaling
station, they may yet figure prominently in the world’s history.

Both Ascension and St Helena were discovered and named by the
Portuguese. The first-named was never continuously occupied until
England took possession of it as an outpost of Napoleon’s prison in
1815. St Helena was taken in the early part of the 16th century by
the Dutch, and passed into the hands of the English in the middle of
that century. Another Portuguese discovery was the most southern of
those isolated oceanic islets, Tristan d’Acunha, which bears the
name of its discoverer, but which, so far as occupation goes, has
always been a British possession[67].

On the East coast of Africa Portuguese colonization did not commence
until the 16th century had begun, and Vasco da Gama, after rounding
the Cape, had revealed the existence of old Arab trading settlements
and sultanates between Sofala and Somaliland.

The need of ports of call on the long voyage to India caused the
Portuguese to decide soon after Vasco da Gama’s famous voyage to
possess themselves of these Arab settlements, the more so because
hostilities against the “Moors” were a never-ending _vendetta_ on
the part of Spaniard and Portuguese, while the conquest was at that
date an easy one, as the Portuguese had artillery and the East
African Arabs had none.

By 1520, the Portuguese had ousted the Arabs and had occupied in
their stead Kilwa, Zanzibar, Pemba, Mombasa, Lamu, Malindi, Brava
(Barawa), and Magdishu (Magadoxo), all north of the Ruvuma river.
South of that river they had taken Sofala and Moçambique. Here they
had, it is said, established a trading station in 1503; but
Moçambique island[68] was not finally occupied by them till 1507,
when the existing fortress was commenced and built by Duarte de
Mello. The fort was then and is still known as “the Praça de São
Sebastião.” It had been decided before this that Moçambique should
be the principal place of call, after leaving the Cape of Good Hope,
for Portuguese ships on their way to India; but, when in 1505 the
Portuguese deliberately sanctioned the idea of a Portuguese East
African colony, they turned their attention rather to Sofala as its
centre than to Moçambique. Sofala, which is near the modern Beira,
was an old Arab port and sultanate, and had been for some 1500 years
the principal port on the south-east coast of Africa, from which the
gold obtained in the mines of Manika (Monomotapa, _i.e._ Southern
Rhodesia) was shipped to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Consequently the first proposed Portuguese settlement on the East
coast of Africa was entitled “the Captaincy of Sofala.” But later on
Moçambique grew in importance, and eventually gave its name to the
Portuguese possessions in East Africa.

The Quelimane river, taken to be the principal exit of the Zambezi
by the Portuguese, was discovered and entered by Vasco da Gama in
the early part of 1498, and was by him called the “River of Good
Indications.” He stayed a month on this river, where there seems to
have been, on the site of the present town of Quelimane, a trading
station resorted to by the Arabs, who were even then settled in
Zambezia. The name Quelimane (pronounced in English Kehmane) is
stated by the early Portuguese to have been the name of the friendly
chief who acted as intermediary between them and the natives, but it
would rather appear to have been a corruption of the Swahili-Arabic
word “Kaliman,” which means “interpreter.”

The first “factory” or Portuguese trading station at Quelimane was
established about the year 1544; and by this time the Portuguese had
heard of the River of Sena (as they called the Zambezi) and of the
large Arab settlement of Sena on its banks. They had further heard
both from Quelimane and from Sofala of the powerful empire of
Mohomotapa[69], and especially of the province of Manika, which was
reported to be full of gold. Having found it too difficult to reach
Manika from Sofala, owing to the opposition of the natives, they
resolved to enter the country from the north by way of Sena, on the
Zambezi; consequently, in 1569, an exceptionally powerful expedition
left Lisbon under the command of the Governor and Captain-General
Francisco Barreto. After a preliminary tour up and down the East
coast of Africa as far as Lamu, and a rapid journey to India and
back, Francisco Barreto with his force, which included cavalry and
camels, landed at Quelimane, and set out for Sena. The expedition
was accompanied, and, to a certain extent, guided by a
mischief-making Jesuit priest named Monclaros, who wished to avenge
the assassination of his fellow-priest, Gonçalo de Silveira,
martyred not long previously in the Monomotapa territories.
Francisco Barreto found on arriving at Sena that there was already a
small Portuguese settlement built alongside an Arab town. These
Arabs appear to have got on very well with the first Portuguese
traders, but they evidently took umbrage at Barreto’s powerful
expedition, and are accused of having poisoned the horses and
camels. What really took place, however, seems to have been that the
horses and camels were exposed to the bite of the Tsetse fly, and
died in consequence of the attacks of this venomous insect. From
Sena, Barreto sent an embassy to the Emperor of Monomotapa, whom he
offered to help against a revolted vassal, Mongase. After receiving
an invitation to visit the emperor, a portion of the Portuguese
force commenced to ascend the right bank of the river Zambezi, but
apparently never reached its destination, because it was so
repeatedly attacked by the hostile natives that it was compelled to
return to Sena. Shortly afterwards there arrived the news of a
revolt at Moçambique, and consequently Barreto, together with the
priest Monclaros, having handed over the command of the expedition
to a lieutenant, entered a canoe, descended the Zambezi to the Luabo
mouth, and from there took passage in a dau to Moçambique. He and
Monclaros subsequently returned to Sena, but Barreto died soon after
his arrival. The Portuguese chroniclers of this expedition write
with considerable bitterness of the Jesuit Monclaros, to whose
counsels most of the misfortunes and mistakes are attributed. The
expedition after Barreto’s death returned to Moçambique, and
attempted later on to enter Monomotapa by way of Sofala, but was
repulsed.

For some time to come further exploration of the Zambezi or of the
interior of Moçambique was put a stop to by the struggle which
ensued with the Turks. Towards the end of the 16th century (in
1584), following on the conquest of Egypt and at the instigation of
Venice, the Turkish Sultan sent a powerful fleet out of the Red Sea,
which descended the East coast of Africa as far as Mombasa, and
prepared to dispute with Portugal the dominion of the Indian Ocean.
The Turks, however, were defeated with considerable loss by the
Admiral Thomé de Sousa Coutinho; and Portuguese domination was not
only strengthened at Zanzibar and along the Zanzibar coast, but was
also affirmed along the south coast of Arabia and in the Persian
Gulf.

At the end of the 16th century the Portuguese had terrific struggles
with the natives in the interior of Monomotapa, behind Kilwa, on the
mainland of Moçambique[70], and in the vicinity of Tete on the
Zambezi; and shortly afterwards appeared the first Dutch pirates in
East African waters, some of whom actually laid siege to Moçambique.
In 1609 there arrived at Moçambique the first Portuguese Governor of
the East coast of Africa, this province having been separated from
the Portuguese possessions in India, and withdrawn at the same time
from the spiritual jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Goa, and placed
under the Prelate of Moçambique. Meantime the efforts to reach the
gold-mines to the south of the Zambezi had been so far successful
that a considerable quantity of gold was obtained not only by the
officers, but even by the private soldiers of the different
expeditions; but the expectations of the Portuguese as to the wealth
of gold and silver (for they were in search of reported silver-mines
on the Zambezi) were considerably disappointed; and later on, in the
17th century, their interest in these East African possessions
waned, largely on account of the poor results of their mining
operations. The Dutch in 1604-7 twice attacked Moçambique, and again
in 1662 sought to obtain possession of the little fortress island.
In the middle of the 17th century, however, a new source of wealth
was discovered—the Slave Trade—which for two hundred years following
gave a flickering prosperity to these costly establishments on the
East coast of Africa. In 1645 the first slaves were exported from
Moçambique to Brazil. This action was brought about by the fact that
the province of Angola had fallen for a time into the hands of the
Dutch, and, therefore, the supply of slaves to Brazil was
temporarily stopped.

In consequence of this, Moçambique and the Zambezi for some years
replaced West Africa as a slave market. In 1649 the English first
made their appearance on this coast; and two years afterwards the
Portuguese were perturbed by the definite establishment of a Dutch
colony at the Cape, and by the establishment of French factories on
the coast of Madagascar—events which are prophetically described by
a contemporary writer as “Quantos passos para a ruina de
Moçambique!”—“So many steps towards the ruin of Moçambique!” At the
same time the Arabs in the Persian Gulf drove the Portuguese out of
Maskat, and towards the end of the 17th century began to attack
their possessions on the Zanzibar coast. By 1698 Portugal had lost
every fortress north of Moçambique; and in that year this, their
last stronghold, was besieged straitly by the Arabs and very nearly
captured. In fact it was only saved by the friendly treachery of an
Indian trader who warned the Portuguese of an intended night attack.
All of these posts on the Zanzibar coast were finally abandoned[71]
by the Portuguese in the early part of the 18th century by agreement
with the Imam of Maskat, who founded the present dynasty of
Zanzibar. In 1752 this fact was recognized by the formal
delimitation of the Portuguese possessions in East Africa at the
time when they were also again removed from any dependency on the
Governor of Goa. In this decree of the 19th of April, 1752, the
government of Moçambique was described as extending over
“Moçambique, Sofala, Rio de Sena (Zambezi), and all the coast of
Africa and its continent between Cape Delgado and the Bay of
Lourenço Marquez (Delagoa Bay).” Hitherto commerce in Portuguese
East Africa had been singularly restricted, and after being first
confined to the Governors and officials of the state, was then
delegated to certain companies to whom monopolies were sold. In 1687
there was a fresh arrival, after a considerable interval, of Indian
traders, who established themselves on the Island of Moçambique; and
by degrees the whole of the commerce of Portuguese East Africa was
thrown open freely to all Portuguese subjects, though it was
absolutely forbidden to the subjects of any other European power,
and considerable anger was displayed when French and Dutch
endeavoured to trade on the islands or on the coast in the province
of Moçambique. In the middle of the 18th century the practice of
sending the worst stamp of Portuguese convicts to Moçambique was
unhappily adopted in spite of the many protests of its governors.
About this same time also there occurred a series of disasters
attributable to the deplorable mismanagement of the Portuguese
officials. The fortresses of the gold-mining country of Manika had
to be abandoned, like Zumbo[72] on the upper Zambezi. The forts on
the mainland opposite Moçambique were captured by an army of Makua;
and the Island of Moçambique itself very nearly fell into the hands
of the negroes of the mainland.