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Portuguese Nyasaland

Portugal's possessions in Africa had long been to her a source of passionate interest and pride. They were the earliest of all her foreign settlements. They were among the few foreign settlements which she had succeeded in preserving intact through every extremity of fortune. Their acquisition had been the dream of the greatest of her princes. They formed part of the legacy bequeathed to her by the ablest and boldest of her pioneers; by men whose names are indissolubly connected with the period of her glory and her power; by men whose courage and energy had triumphed over difficulties till then deemed invincible.

The administration of Portuguese Nyasaland territories was under the control of a semi-sovereign body, known as the Companhia do Nyassa, which received a Royal Charter from the King of Portugal, published on September 28, 1891, but was not definitely constituted until March 16, 1893. The company, while holding the land and being responsible for the general administration, exercises these privileges as the delegate of the Portuguese Government and subject to conditions set forth in the charter.

The Nyassa Company enjoyed the exclusive right of imposing and collecting the import, export, and harbor dues, together with all other taxes, direct or indirect; except that the Portuguese Government after the expiration of twenty-five years may impose its own taxes. It provided and controls the currency; issued postage and fiscal stamps; granted licences; and possessed an exclusive right (a) to construct and work railways, roads, telegraphs, harbors, &c.; (6) to mine for gold, coal, and other minerals; (g) to hunt elephants; (d) to gather sponges, coral, &c.; and (e) to collect rubber and other forest products.

The Portuguese Government was represented by a Commissioner (Intendente), resident at Ibo, who had a consultative voice and formed the channel of communication between the Government and the company; the magistrates and officials of justice must be nominated by the sovereign Power; and the State reserved the right to station its own military forces in the territory, although the company was empowered to organize and provide land- and sea-police for its own purposes.

Portuguese Nyasaland, or the territory of Cabo Delgado, which was administered by the chartered Companhia do Nyassa, was the northernmost division of Portuguese East Africa. It was situated, approximately, between 34° 40' and 40° 40' E. long., and between 10° 39' and 15° 20' S. lat. Its area was sometimes stated to be 100,000 square miles, but this seems to be an overestimate; probably 73,000 square miles is nearer the truth.

Portuguese Nyasaland was bounded on the north by the territory known as German East Africa, on the east by the Mozambique channel of the Indian Ocean, on the south by the Portuguese districts of Mozambique and Quelimane, and on the west by the British protectorate of Nyasaland, and by Lake Nyasa.

The total population of the territory was estimated in 1915 at 521,125. The native population (520,343) is calculated on the basis of the hut tax and is probably considerably underestimated. The report of the Nyassa Company suggested that it should be increased by 25 per cent., which would give about 650,000. A consular report, however, gave an estimate of two millions for the total population, and earlier estimates (based on very imperfect data) have ranged as high as three to four millions. The Europeans numbered 184, of whom 8 were German, 6 Greek, 3 Italian, 1 Austrian, 1 Swiss. There were also a few British. The remainder—about 160—were Portuguese.

The powers of the tribal chiefs were no longer as paramount as they were, but leave has to be asked by strangers from the chief to pass through his territory, and a tribesman will be stirred to work for his chief harder than for himself. A belief in witchcraft is nearly universal, and it was found difficult to suppress resort to the 'poison-ordeal' as a method of deciding guilt or innocence.

They formerly had a reputation as treacherous robbers, but of recent years they have suffered more from the depredations of others. They have been incapable of any organized resistance to more aggressive tribes and suffered especially from the raids of the Maviti. They have muzzle-loaders, spears, axes, and poisoned arrows.

The territory, from the coast inland to Lake Nyasa, may be divided, broadly, into three natural regions or zones. A low coastal zone extends inland from the sea for an average distance of perhaps 30 miles, though in parts it may be as wide as 60 miles; it is narrower in the south than in the north. It is gently undulating, and on the whole slopes very gradually upward.

Along the inner margin of the coastal zone there is as a rule a somewhat steeper slope up to the middle or plateau zone, which has an average elevation of about 1,500 ft. Its general level is commonly broken by short irregular ranges of hills and by remarkable isolated granite cones. The plateau is highest in the south-west of the territory, where the principal rivers (apart from the Rovuma) take their rise. These are the Lurio and the Lujenda (the ultimate sources of which were outside the confines of the territory), the Msalu and the Mtepwezi.

The highland zone, which extends westward to Lake Nyasa. High hills extend along the greater part of the Anglo-Portuguese frontier in the south-west, and from 13° 30* S. northward to the Rovuma there are at least three main ranges between the Lujenda basin and the lake, extending from south to north, and demarcating the valleys of the Luchulingo and the Msinje, southern tributaries of the Rovuma. Heat is most oppressive just before and during the early rains, that is to say, in November, or as late as January. The latter part of January, especially midway between the western highlands and the coast, is hot and generally or locally damp.

Little is known of the early history of Portuguese Nyasaland. Arab influence on the coast no doubt dates from a very early period, since Quiloa (now Kilwa Kisiwani, north of Lindi) was one of the most important places of trade in East Africa from the tenth century onwards. Ibo and the neighbouring islands were occupied by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. When Dos Santos visited them in 1591-4 they supplied Mozambique with most of its provisions and were administered by a governor sent yearly from Mozambique whose authority extended up the coast as far as Cape Delgado.

At the end of the seventeenth century Portuguese merchants were established at Kerimba and Ibo, and there was a certain amount of trade with the mainland in slaves, ivory, and wax. In 1761 the islands of Cabo Delgado were established as a separate government under that of Mozambique, but their prosperity was cut short by the revival of Arab power which proceeded from the Sultanate of Muscat and Zanzibar, by native wars, and by the raids of the pirates of Madagascar. Many of the islands were abandoned, and in 1816 the seat of government was moved from Kerimba to Ibo, which was comparatively strongly fortified.

It was during the period of slave trading and the influence of Zanzibar that the interior of the country was first visited by Europeans (excepting Boccarro in 1616)—by Silva Porta in 1854, by Livingstone in 1859 and 1866, and subsequently by members of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, who established themselves in 1886 at Likoma off the east coast of Lake Nyasa.

The Portuguese first attempted to establish their influence in the Nyasa territories after the scramble for Africa had begun. The expedition of Lieut. Valadim to Mwembe in 1889 ended in disaster, his party of five being massacred by Mataka. Antonio Maria Cardoso, who led an expedition of 986 men from Quelimane to Nyasa in 1888-9, induced most of the native chiefs to the south and east of the lake to accept Portuguese sovereignty.

In the region south of Lake Nyasa, however, British traders and merchants had been first in the field, and when later in 1889 Major Serpa Pinto and Lieu- tenant Continho led a large expedition north across the Ruo an ultimatum was sent to Lisbon, and the Portuguese Government was forced to admit the British claims to the Shire Highlands and the southern end of Lake Nyasa. The frontier was determined by the treaty of June 1891.