"تجارة الرقيق في شرق أفريقيا" [‎١‎٦] (١٠٨/٢٥)

16
In the opinion of Captain Gardner, after an experience of three years
upon thxs station Portugal has, by these restrictions, stopped C
trade on the whole coast, and left her own subjects and the natfve
chiefs nothing but the Slave Trade to depend upon."
In further support of the above statement, we quote from the
Postscript to the Preface of Dr. Livingstone's last work. He
says, m reference to the answer put forward by the Portuguese
government to the statement made by him at the meeting of the
-untish Association at Bath, in September, 1864, that
tlie -Portuguese Government is not
geographical. It is to bolster up that pretence to power which has
eon the only obstacle to the establishment of lawful commerce and
friendly relations with the native inhabitants of Eastern Africa I
may add, that it is the unwarranted assumption of power over 1360
miles of coast-from English River to Cape Delgado, where the
ortuguese have, in fact, little real authority—which perpetuates the
barbarism of the inhabitants. The Portugese inteXfalltre^gn
customTon^ ? 3 £ u WP ? mts wh8re have established
S mr S-^ f:; 6 "- f 686 ' bj r exa c8' era ted and obstructive
tantt and differential duties, they completely shut out the natives from
any trade, except that in slaves.
"Eooking from South to North, let us glance at the enormous
Swfh T . Port T? uese in Euro P e endeavour to make us
elieve belongs to them. Delgoa Bay has a small fort called Lorenzo
smaTstrinofT^T T' 1 the W ; llIs - At lubambane they hold a
and from O 1 7 sufferance of the natives. Sofala is in ruins :
small I 3 ! 11 ® n0 j ^wards, for 690 miles, they have only one
.mall stockade, protected by an armed launch in the mouth of the
river Angoxa, to prevent foreign vessels from trading there. Then at
Mozambique they have the little island on which fort stands and
few fL I f miles » on th e mainland, on which they have a
fevy farms, which are protected from hostility only by pavini the
mv^The Z7 tribute W hich they call 'having the blades in their
/ T 1 ? r aS ? n8 ' been declining in trade and importance
It is garrisoned by a few hundred sickly soldiers shut up in the fort'
Z^IsCd ^ Can IlardIy be Sterne!
j 1 01 Iboe, an immense number of slavps arp
collected, but there is little trade of any kind. At Pomba Bay a small
fort was made, but it is very doubtful whether it still exists the
attempt to form a settlement there havino- entirelv failed T ,!
iirrr; chi8rto