São Tomé e Principe - Discovery
The chain of islands in the Bight of Biafra (or the Gulf of the Mafras in its original Portuguese form) were discovered by Portuguese explorers before the end of the reign of King Affonso V, who died in the year 1481. De Barros states that he was unable to trace the exact dates of the discovery of San Thome, Principe and Anno Born (Annobon), but the island now known as Fernando Po was found by Fernaodo Po in 1478 and named by him Formosa (beautiful). His own name was afterwards given to this island. Other accounts attribute the discovery of San Thome and Fernando Po to Joao de Santarem and Pedro d'Escobar on December 21, 1470 (or 1471), of Anno Bom (Happy New Year) on January 1 of the next year, and of Principe on the 17th of the same month. These four islands remained subject to Portugal till October 24, 1778, when Fernando Po and Anno Born were ceded to Spain in exchange for certain concessions made to Portugal by the Treaty of El Pardo.
San Thome and Principe remained Portuguese colonies. The first-named received its name from being discovered on St. Thomas's Day, and the second from the Prince, eldest son of King Affonso V.
The colonization of San Thome began in 1493, and the settlers seem to have been mainly convicts and Jewish boys who had been taken from their parents. From these and from freed slave-women the native element of the population is said to be largely derived. From the beginning cultivation depended on slave labor. There was no aboriginal element, all these islands having been uninhabited when discovered. Sugar was the principal crop and prospered exceedingly, so much so that by the middle of the sixteenth century the population amounted to 50,000 on an area of 400 square miles, a great part of which is mountain. At the same time there were said to have been 80 sugar-mills.
This prosperity, as usual, attracted raiders. French ships plundered San Thome in 1567 (probably the raiders under Montluc who had attacked Funchal in Madeira in October 1566). The Dutch did the same in 1600, but their most serious visitation took place at the same time as their conquest of Loanda. The whole of this expedition seems to have been inspired by the desire to obtain command of the slave-market.
San Thome was held by the Dutch from 1641 to 1644, and even then they were said to have been heavily bribed to leave the island. The French took the town of Anna de Chaves in 1709, burnt it, and exacted a large sum from the inhabitants. San Thome also suffered at intervals from slave revolts, and had great trouble with a people known as Angolares, who were descended from a number of Angola slaves wrecked some time between 1520 and 1540 on a part of the island, where they settled and multiplied. The last of these outbreaks was subdued in 1693.
The principal cause of the decline of San Thome was, however, the great development of sugar cultivation in Brazil, which led to a large emigration of owners and their slaves to that country. Both this island and Principe gradually fell into decay, and at last came to exist almost entirely by provisioning slave-ships. They were named for this reason 'the inn' (aestalagem) of the Gulf of Guinea. The Government was removed from San Thome to Principe in 1735 and was not brought back till 1852.
The abolition of the slave-trade brought about the complete ruin of these islands. The last slaves were liberated in 1875, and slavery was abolished in both islands by a royal decree of February 3, 1876.
The fine soil and natural capabilities of San Thome, however, led to the introduction of several staples which were found suitable. Rubber, cinchona, coffee, and cocoa all prospered, but cocoa, first introduced in 1822, gradually almost monopolized the energies of the island. It rises to a height of over 7,000 ft. and, although under the equator, almost every variety of climate can be found on tht slopes between the summit and the sea. The cocoa plantations in this island and Principe were said in 1913 to supply over one-sixth of the cocoa consumed in the world. During the last few years before the Great War the development of cocoa cultivation on the Gold Coast produced a rival to this important industry. The cultivation of cocoa on the Gold Coast, introduced in 1891, had by 1916 developed to such an extent that the production was over 72,000 tons, more than a third of the cocoa production of the world. It did not seem probable, there£ore, that San Thome would recover its former superiority in this important trade.
Principe shared in the history of San Thome, and in its early prosperity. The Portuguese first planted the sugar-cane and ginger in the island about 1520. It is only about one-seventh of the size of the larger island, and has no high mountain region, and does not therefore share its advantages of climate. The center of the administration of the two islands was removed to Principe in 1735, and remained there for more than a century. Like San Thome it suffered from raids. In 1706 the French took the fort and did much damage to the island, and it was again occupied by the French in 1799. It shared in the decay of San Thome, and has not rallied so quickly, but the cultivation of cocoa made some progress.
An isolated settlement in Dahomey, Sao Joao Baptista d'Ajuda, known to English mariners as Whydah (Widah, French Ouidah), was incorporated in the province of San Thome and Principe in 1680, but was soon evacuated by the Portuguese. It was re occupied by them in 1844, but the need of a labor supply from Dahomey obliged the Portuguese to make concessions to the King of that State. On August 5, 1885, a treaty was concluded between Dahomey and Portugal, by which the latter settled the port of Adra, giving access to the fort; and on January 21, • 1886, Portugal declaredaprotectorate over the Dahomey sea-coast, but withdrew this again on December 22, 1887. Finally, on December 3, 1892, Ajuda and other districts were definitely annexed by France.
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