I suppose, on the Portuguese first settling in Delagoa Bay, they erected a temporary location on the bank of the river, opposite to where their vessels were at anchor; intending at an early date to remove to the adjoining highland, but that those who were left behind, on their vessels sailing to form the new settlements along the coast, were overtaken by the effects of the malaria of the position which they had first chosen, and that many of them must have fallen victims to this want of foresight in the Commander of the expedition; while the survivors found themselves too enfeebled to undertake the formation of another town in a more healthy locality; and getting gradually acclimatized to the atmosphere of the place, they decided upon remaining where they were.
After the above description of Lourenço Marques, the reader will not be surprised at the unhealthiness of the place, and will seek for its cause, not in the climate of this portion of Africa, but in the locality chosen for this Portuguese settlement. There is a slimy mud bank between Waterloo and Southwark Bridges on the Thames; the occupant of a hut built on that mud bank would, in the height of our summer, be nearly as liable to marsh or putrid fever as the inhabitants of Lourenço Marques.
When the Dutch made their appearance on the East Coast of Africa, they built a Fort on English River, opposite to Lourenço Marques; having only one object in view, namely, the wresting of the valuable commerce, then established, from the Portuguese. To place themselves in communication with the natives, and cut them off from Lourenço Marques, their settlement was opposite to that of the Portuguese, and therefore, was like wise unhealthy. The first Dutch Factory was destroyed by the Natives, who were instigated to this by the Portuguese, at a time when the Dutch were disappointed of reinforcements, and demoralized and enfeebled by the pestilential atmosphere of the malaria district, which circumstances somewhat compelled them to choose, in order that they might break up the monopoly of the ivory trade enjoyed by the Portuguese.
The second Factory of the Dutch was built in the same place as the former one; and this they abandoned on the appearance of the English in these waters.
On the Dutch again becoming masters of the Cape of Good Hope, they found that they could not compete with the English, whose superior manufactures, brought by the Banyans from Bombay to Lourenço Marques, had established a trade with which they could not interfere. That trade has been carried on ever since, but has now dwindled down into utter insignificance, in consequence of the difficulties thrown in the way by the Portuguese officials abandoned to the Slave trade. They obtain sufficient American goods for the ivory trade with the Natives; whilst, by excluding the English, they are enabled to carry on the Slave Trade in complicity with the neighbouring chief who may be paramount at the time; and who, being the victor, has more prisoners to supply the odious traffic by which alone the Portuguese Official may hope to make the means of retiring to his own country.
The Portuguese claims to territory on the East Coast of Africa begin at Lourenço Marques, which is the most southern point on the coast where the Portuguese flag is permitted to fly.
Formerly, the authorities of Lourenço Marques claimed the whole of Delagoa Bay; but the southern portion of the bay, comprehending Tembe and its dependency, Iniack Island, having been ceded to Captain W. F. Owen, R.N., by King Keppel, in 1823, we have been in possession of a tract of country which affords us access to the Zulu country by way of the British river Mapoota, while the English River gives us access into the interior, even, it is believed (for this country is very little known), to the Transvaal Republic.
The Boer States of the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic have no port, and consequently no outlet for their commerce. Their products have, therefore, to find their way to the ocean by the harbours of the Cape Colony, or that of Port Natal. To avoid the transit dues of import and export, they have turned their attention to Port St. Lucia, as already stated; but this not altogether suiting their purpose, and being on a line of coast in close proximity to Natal, where they may expect to be checkmated by Great Britain extending her authority to Cape Colatto, they have turned their thoughts more directly to Delagoa Bay; which, from its receiving four large navigable rivers, communicating with the interior and their own States, offers every facility for extending their commerce to the richest portion of Africa. These Boers are very prolific, many of the women bearing upwards of twenty children. I am personally acquainted with three such mothers; and, after a careful calculation, I am inclined to believe that the average of the Boer families is sixteen; and, I may almost say, never less than twelve. It may well be imagined that a people who increase so rapidly, and with whom the south part of Africa is known to agree remarkably, require only an outport to become a mighty nation.