INDIGNANT PORTUGAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 7, 14 November 1890, Page 7

INDIGNANT PORTUGAL.

The Temps publishes a long letter from a special correspondent at Lnsbon. He found the populatian on his arrival there, much excited about the reported conclusion of an African treaty between Eneland and Portugal. They feared the fate of their country was to be that ot the lamb in the fable. Major Serpa Pinto is at present a popular hero in Portugal. His voice has resounded like a trumpet blast and has awakened the Portugese. He has made them feel that they are in danger of becoming vassals of England. The correspondent of the lemps resolved to interview tbe popular hero and ask him what parts of tbe old Portugese colonies were to be exposed to English action and what he had done to bring down upan himselt the anger of the London Foreign office. He found the Major in bis study, Bhaking the ashes of his cigarette into an earthenware spittoon representing a corpulent J,>hn Bull with m mey-biga in his hands, a red fa op, and the complacent smile of a man who has secured his fortun '. Major Serpa Pinto explained the events which have occurred with the aid of the map published by the Temps, which is, it appears, a rough copy of a very complete map published last year by the Portugese Colonial Minister. It is enouiih to mention that on it the northern limit of (Le Portugese territory crosses Lake Nyassa almost ! due west of Cape Delgado, while the southern boundary includes the whole basin of the Shire and Zambesi. The mission with which the Major was entrusted in 1889, was, he said entirely scientific. He accompanied a commission who were to Btudy the construction of a railway on the Shire, where it is not navigable. He h»d an escort of 500 men. Two hundred were to be left with the railway commission. The remaining 300 were to proceed to the Tete district. The object of the railway was to connect with the sea a Portugese mission, established by Cardinal Lavigerie at the southern extremity of Lake Nyassa. On arriving at Mpasso the Major was told that the Makololo cf the Shire, near Katunga'e, were about to stop his progress, and they had so frightened the people of the country that the Portugese party could get no provisions, even at double their usual price. The King of the Makololo was a dreadful drunkard. Every afternoon he came to the banks of the river to sip ardent spirits and look at the crocodiles. It gave him a great delight to throw a child to these reptiles and to see them fight for it and crunch it. If the mother of the infant cried or grumbled she was flung in too. The cruelty of this tyrant shocked the Major ; he would gladly have fought with him, but he was deterred by the danger of a struggle with his 14,000 subjects. He therefore returned to Mozambique and informed the Government of the obstacle he had encountered. In October, 1889, he left Mozambique to return to the Shire, after having enlisted from 6000 to 7000 Caff res in the Lower Zambesi and obtained arms and cannon. 'I be Makololo attacked him in mass at Mpasso. He thought they were in flight when they turned, headed by two men, each carrying an English flag. He was not stopped by this subterfuge, the origin of which he guessed. The battle recommenced. His Caffres killed the two standard bearers and took their flags. The King fell in the fight, and the Makololo were pacified. "It was in fact," continued Major Serpa Pinto, "the English who had perfidiously stirred up the resistance of the people." A shoit time ago, with the consent of the Portugese Government, the English founded a mission at Blantyre. The whole number of persons connected with it including women and children wsb 20. These were the only English in the interior of the country, and to this population of 20 persons Portugal owed the calling in question of her conquests made ages ago. The English missionaries had discovered the mineral and other riches of the country, and feared that Portugal was going to turn them to account. Major Serpa Pinto's schemes probably thwarting their own they conceived the idea of advising the Makololo to make war against him and seize his person, for the enemy were told that he was acting on his own account and not for his Government. After discussing the smail resources of th? British Lake Company, which had the audacity to wish to lay its hands on East Africa, and the Feizure by the Portugese of two great boxes containing steel hand cuffs for the »lave traders, manufactured at Birmingham, Major Serpa Pinto could no longer restrain himself. " His eyes," says the interviewer, " filled with anger at the idea of England asking explanations from Portugal." He said, " There are no other words, sir, to describe tbe conduct of the English in this matter than these — they are pirates, they are thieves."