While residing at the Cape of Good Hope, I was informed that the Boers contemplated the purchase of Delagoa Bay; and I am now in a position to state that I know, from undoubted authority, that this arrangement was far advanced.
In the execution of what I conceived my duty to my country, I brought this matter under the notice of Her Majesty’s late Government, recalling the cession of Tembe and Iniack Island, and pointing out the advantages of establishing a Factory for the purposes of trade, and also a Lighthouse for steam-postal communication on the last named place, which, from the salubrity of its climate and central position, would soon become an emporium for trade. And I am glad to think that I have been thus far successful in upholding the rights of my country and frustrating the Portuguese intentions of selling, and those of the Boers of buying, British Territory.
The Tembe country abounds in Orchella weeds, which were first discovered by a British subject, not more than three years ago.
It may be recollected that, when at Natal, I stated that Mr. G. W. Duncan handed me a letter relative to slaving transactions going on at Delagoa Bay. During the visit of Mr. Duncan to this place, he discovered that the Orchella weed was to be had in enormous quantities on the South, or British, side of the bay. He persuaded the natives to collect some for him, so as to take it down to Natal as a specimen. On his return to Delagoa Bay, wishing to obtain a cargo of this valuable weed from the Zulus living on the British side of the bay, he commenced operations for that purpose; but the Portuguese Governor, Muchado, of the small settlement of Lourenço Marques, built on the opposite side of English River, informed him that such traffic with the natives was forbidden. In the meanwhile, during his stay at Lourenço Marques, a large vessel was filled up with Orchella weeds and ivory, obtained from the Zulus of Tembe. This vessel had been sent for to Mozambique, by Governor Muchado, when informed of the discovery made by the enterprising Englishman from Natal.
Mr. Duncan had the mortification to see his discovery not only seized upon by the Portuguese, but, at the same time that Governor Muchado forbade him to trade with Tembe, he saw a vessel under the Portuguese flag obtaining the weed which he had discovered in British territory. Truth is stranger than fiction. What Mr. Duncan did at Delagoa Bay on a small scale, Dr. Livingstone has done on a grand scale in the interior; both endeavoring to make discoveries for the benefit of the natives of Africa, and the commerce of their own much-loved country, and—mark the sequel—both with the same results.
Dr. Livingstone has opened the Luavo mouths of the Zambesi to commerce. These mouths were known to the Portuguese before, but they were always reported to be impassable; the object of this being that, while the Portuguese Officials kept our Cruisers at anchor off the Killimane mouth of the river, the Slavers might come in and go out by the Luavo mouths. As soon as Dr. Livingstone had pointed out that these mouths were navigable, and proved it by entering the river by one of those mouths, the Portuguese Government immediately decided upon establishing Customhouses on the river. Thus are we prevented from trading with the natives of the country, and from benefiting by the enterprise of our countrymen.
This digression was somewhat necessary, to show how our valuable possession of Tembe has been trifled with by the Portuguese in Delagoa Bay.
The Orchella weed is gathered in bags, and a number of these are placed together under a screw press (with which all vessels in this trade are provided), and formed into bales.
As many of my readers are, doubtless, unacquainted with the properties of this valuable weed, the following brief account of it and its habitat may not be unacceptable:—