Mozambique.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 28 January 1892, Page 2

Mozambique.

The Portuguese will be in want of a first-class auctioneer, as it is proposed to sell some real property on the east coast of Africa. In 1890 this bankrupt little Power almost went to war with Great Britain about a dispute at Delagoa Bay, by resisting the progress up the Zambesi river of a party of one of the African Companies. She now wants to sell the lot to pay her debts ! A few months ago Portugal sold her possessions at the north of the Cape Colony, on the We3t Coast, to an English company, and that operation has wetted her desire for money instead of glory. At the commencement of what may he called the partition of Africa among the European Powers, Portugal claimed the whole of Central Africa along the Zambesi ! and she now comes down to selling what she is unable to keep, in the best market. The auctioneer of the Portuguese has, however, an ugly difficulty to surmount. When that country was playing the fool by opposing the ingress and egress of trade by the Zambesi, Lord Salisbury had to say tk word to stop the nonsense, and haviug made Portugal abandon her claims to Central Africa, permitted her to extend her influence

south of Delagoft Bay, subject to the important proviso that she was not to part with any of her possessions without the consent of Great Britain, The price seems very much, handi* capped by this agreement, and the English seem to be able to make their own terms.

The Portuguese territories of Mozambique are situated on the east coast of Africa, almost opposite the island of Madagascar, and includes the mouth of the Zambesi, which, with its tributaries, stretches away two-thirds aoross the Continent towards the west coast. It inoludes 80,000 square miles of land and a population of 600,000.