3-074-936 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Dispute with Portugal: Delagoa Bay, South Africa, 1890. 'This bay, to which the Cape Squadron has been ordered to proceed in consequence of the dispute with Portugal, marks the southern limit of the Portuguese coast, and is the best harbour in East Africa...Three large streams empty themselves into the Bay - the King George, the English River, and the Maputa...Delagoa Bay really means the Bay of the Lagoon or the Marshes...The port itself is not accessible to very large vessels, though it might easily be made so. The town was founded so long ago as 1544, but until recently it was little more than a factory...It...[is] surrounded by a rampart with bastions armed with a few small guns intended for defence, not against a sea attack, but from the attacks of the natives. The fortifications...are reported in a dilapidated condition. Still, there is considerable commerce at the port, the trade with Natal alone averaging £150,000 annually...The town is very unhealthy, owing to its being surrounded by marshes, which the Portuguese have made no attempt to drain...Lourenço Marques is the chief town of a district the total population of which is about 80,000, of whom not more than one hundred are Europeans'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.