was divided between Portugal and the Free State. The interior
limits of the Portuguese possessions in Africa south of the
equator gave rise, however, to much more serious discussions
than were involved in the dispute as to the Muato Yanvo's
kingdom. Portugal, as has been stated, claimed all the
territories between Angola and Mozambique, and she succeeded
in inducing both France and Germany, in 1886, to recognize
the king of Portugal's ``right to exercise his sovereign
and civilizing influence in the territories which separate
the Portuguese possessions or Angola and Mozambique.'' The
publication of the treaties containing this declaration,
together with a map showing Portuguese claims extending over
the whole of the Zambezi valley, and over Matabeleland to
the south and the greater part of Lake Nyasa to the north,
immediately provoked a formal protest from the British
government. On the 13th of August 1887 the British charge
d'affaires at Lisbon transmitted to the Portuguese minister
for foreign affairs a memorandum from Lord Salisbury, in
which the latter formally protested ``against any claims not
founded on occupation,'' and contended that the doctrine of
effective occupation had been admitted in principle by all the
parties to the Act of Berlin. Lord Salisbury further stated
that ``Her Majesty's government cannot recognize Portuguese
sovereignty in territory not occupied by her in sufficient
strength to enable her to maintain order, protect foreigners
and control the natives.'' To this Portugal replied that the
doctrine of effective occupation was expressly confined by
the Berlin Act to the African coast, but at the same time
expeditions were hastily despatched up the Zambezi and some
of its tributaries to discover traces of former Portuguese
occupation. Matabeleland and the districts of Lake Nyasa were
specially mentioned in the British protest as countries in which
Her Majesty's government took a special interest. As a matter
of fact the extension of British influence northwards to the
Zambezi had engaged the attention of the British authorities
ever since the appearance of Germany in South-West Africa and
the declaration of a British protectorate over Bechuanaland.
There were rumours of German activity in Matabeleland, and
Rhodesia secured for Great Britain.
of a Boer trek north of the Limpopo. Hunters and explorers
had reported in eulogistic terms on the rich goldfields and
healthy plateau lands of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, over
both of which countries a powerful chief, Lobengula, claimed
authority. There were many suitors for Lobengula's favours;
but on the 11th of February 1888 he signed a treaty with J.
S. Moffat, the assistant commissioner in Bechuanaland, the
effect of which was to place all his territory under British
protection. Both the Portuguese and the Transvaal Boers were
chagrined at this extension of British influence. A number of Boers
attempted unsuccessfully to trek into the country, and Portugal
opposed her ancient claims to the new treaty. She contended
that Lobengula's authority did not extend over Mashonaland,
which she claimed as part of the Portuguese province of Sofala.
Meanwhile preparations were being actively made by British
capitalists for the exploitation of the mineral and other
resources of Lobengula's territories. Two rival syndicates
obtained, or claimed to have obtained, concessions from
Lobengula; but in the summer of 1889 Cecil Rhodes succeeded
in amalgamating the conflicting interests, and on the 29th of
October of that year the British government granted a charter
to the British South Africa Company (see RHODESIA.) The
first article of the charter declared that ``the principal
field of the operations'' of the company ``shall be the region
of South Africa lying immediately to the north of British
Bechuanaland, and to the north and west of the South African
Republic, and to the west of the Portuguese dominions.''
No time was lost in making preparations for effective
occupation. On the advice of F. C. Selous it was determined
to despatch an expedition to eastern Mashonaland by a new
route, which would avoid the Matabele country. This plan was
carried out in the summer of 1890, and, thanks to the rapidity
with which the column moved and Selous's intimate knowledge of
the country, the British flag was, on the 11th of September,
hoisted at a spot on the Makubusi river, where the town of
Salisbury now stands, and the country taken possession of
in the name of Queen Victoria. Disputes with the Portuguese
ensued, and there were several frontier incidents which for
a time embittered the relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, north of the Zambezi, the Portuguese were
making desperate but futile attempts to repair the neglect
Anglo-Portuguese disputes in Central Africa.
of centuries by hastily organized expeditions and the hoisting of
flags. In 1888 an attempt to close the Zambezi to British
vessels was frustrated by the firmness of Lord Salisbury.
In a despatch to the British minister at Lisbon, dated the
25th of June 1888, Lord Salisbury, after brushing aside
the Portuguese claims founded on doubtful discoveries three
centuries old, stated the British case in a few sentences:--
It is (he wrote) an undisputed point that the recent discoveries
of the English traveller, Livingstone, were followed by organized
attempts on the part of English religious and commercial
bodies to open up and civilize the districts surrounding
and adjoining the lake. Many British settlements have been
established, the access to which from the sea is by the
rivers Zambezi and Shire. Her Majesty's government and the
British public are much interested in the welfare of these
settlements. Portugal does not occupy, and has never occupied,
any portion of the lake, nor of the Shire; she has neither
authority nor influence beyond the confluence of the Shire
and Zambezi, where her interior custom-house, now withdrawn,
was placed by the terms of the Mozambique Tariff of 1877.
In 1889 it became known to the British government that a
considerable Portuguese expedition was being organized under
the command of Major Serpa Pinto, for operating in the Zambezi
region. In answer to inquiries addressed to the Portuguese
government, the foreign minister stated that the object of
the expedition was to visit the Portuguese settlements on the
upper Zambezi. The British government was, even so late as
1889, averse from declaring a formal protectorate over the
Nyasa region; but early in that year H. H. (afterwards Sir
Harry) Johnston was sent out to Mozambique as British consul,
with instructions to travel in the interior and report on
the troubles that had arisen with the Arabs on Lake Nyasa
and with the Portuguese. The discovery by D. J. Rankin in
1889 of a navigable mouth of the Zambezi--the Chinde--and
the offer by Cecil Rhodes of a subsidy of L. 10,000 a year
from the British South Africa Company, removed some of the
objections to a protectorate entertained by the British
government; but Johnston's instructions were not to proclaim
a protectorate unless circumstances compelled him to take that
course. To his surprise Johnston learnt on his arrival at
the Zambezi that Major Serpa Pinto's expedition had been
suddenly deflected to the north. Hurrying forward, Johnston
overtook the Portuguese expedition and warned its leader that
any attempt to establish political influence north of the
Ruo river would compel him to take steps to protect British
interests. On arrival at the Ruo, Major Serpa Pinto returned
to Mozambique for instructions, and in his absence Lieutenant
Coutinho crossed the river, attacked the Makololo chiefs
and sought to obtain possession of the Shire highlands by a
coup de main. John Buchanan, the British vice-consul, lost
no time in declaring the country under British protection,
and his action was subsequently confirmed by Johnston on his
return from a treaty-making expedition on Lake Nyasa. On the
news of these events reaching Europe the British government
addressed an ultimatum to Portugal, as the result of which
Lieutenant Coutinho's action was disavowed, and he was ordered
to withdraw the Portuguese forces south of the Ruo. After
prolonged negotiations, a convention was signed between Great
Britain and Portugal on the 20th of August 1890, by which
Great Britain obtained a broad belt of territory north of the
Zambezi, stretching from Lake Nyasa on the east, the southern
end of Tanganyika on the north, and the Kabompo tributary of
the Zambezi on the west; while south of the Zambezi Portugal
retained the right bank of the river from a point ten miles above
Zumbo, and the western boundary of her territory south of the
river was made to coincide roughly with the 33rd degree of east
longitude. The publication of the convention aroused deep
resentment in Portugal, and the government, unable to obtain
its ratification by the chamber of deputies, resigned. In
October the abandonment of the convention was accepted by
the new Portuguese ministry as a fait accompli; but on
the 14th of November the two governments signed an agreement
for a modus vivendi, by which they engaged to recognize
the territorial limits indicated in the convention of 20th
August ``in so far that from the date of the present agreement
British and Portuguese spheres defined.
to the termination thereof neither Power will make treaties,
accept protectorates, nor exercise any act of sovereignty
within the spheres of influence assigned to the other party
by the said convention.'' The breathing-space thus gained
enabled feeling in Portugal to cool down, and on the 11th of
June 1891 another treaty was signed, the ratifications being
exchanged on the 3rd of July, As already stated, this is the
main treaty defining the British and Portuguese spheres both
south and north of the Zambezi. It contained many other
provisions relating to trade and navigation, providing, inter
alia, a maximum transit duty of 3% on imports and exports
crossing Portuguese territories on the east coast to the British
sphere, freedom of navigation of the Zambezi and Shire for
the ships of all nations, and stipulations as to the making of
railways, roads and telegraphs. The territorial readjustment
effected was slightly more favourable to Portugal than that
agreed upon by the 1890 convention. Portugal was given both
banks of the Zambezi to a point ten miles west of Zumbo--the
farthest settlement of the Portuguese on the river. South of
the Zambezi the frontier takes a south and then an east course
till it reaches the edge of the continental plateau, thence
running, roughly, along the line of 33 deg. E. southward to the
north-eastern frontier of the Transvaal. Thus by this treaty
Portugal was left in the possession of the coast-lands, while
Great Britain maintained her right to Matabele and Mashona
lands. The boundary between the Portuguese sphere of influence
on the west coast and the British sphere of influence north
of the Zambezi was only vaguely indicated; but it was to be
drawn in such a manner as to leave the Barotse country within
the British sphere, Lewanika, the paramount chief of the
Marotse, claiming that his territory extended much farther
to the west than was admitted by the Portuguese. In August
1903 the question what were the limits of the Barotse kingdom
was referred to the arbitration of the king of Italy. By
his award, delivered in June 1905, the western limit of the
British sphere runs from the northern frontier of German
