Africa

(Herero) and Namaquas, often combining small trading operations with their

missionary work. From time to time trouble arose between the missionaries

and the native chiefs, and appeals

Germany enters the field.

were made to the German government for protection. The German government in

its turn begged the British government to say whether it assumed

responsibility for the protection of Europeans in Damaraland and

Namaqualand. The position of the British government was intelligible, if

not very intelligent. It did not desire to see any other European power in

these countries, and it did not want to assume the responsibility and incur

the expense of protecting the few Europeans settled there. Sir Bartle

Frere, when governor of the Cape (1877-1880), had foreseen that this

attitude portended trouble, and had urged that the whole of the unoccupied

coastline, up to the Portuguese frontier, should be declared under British

protection. But he preached to deaf ears, and it was as something of a

concession to him that in March 1878 the British flag was hoisted at

Walfish Bay, and a small part of the adjacent land declared to be British.

The fact appears to be that British statesmen failed to understand the

change that had come over Germany. They believed that Prince Bismarck would

never give his sanction to the creation of a colonial empire, and, to the

German inquiries as to what rights Great Britain claimed in Damaraland and

Namaqualand, procrastinating replies were sent. Meanwhile the various

colonial societies established in Germany had effected a revolution in

public opinion, and, more important still, they had convinced the great

chancellor. Accordingly when, in November 1882, F. A. E. Luderitz, a Bremen

merchant, informed the German government of his intention to establish a

factory on the coast between the Orange river and the Little Fish river,

and asked if he might rely on the protection of his government in case of

need, he met with no discouragement from Prince Bismarck. In February 1883

the German ambassador in London informed Lord Granville of Luderitz's

design, and asked ``whether Her Majesty's government exercise any authority

in that locality.'' It was intimated that if Her Majesty's government did

not, the German government would extend to Luderitz's factory ``the same

measure of protection which they give to their subjects in remote parts of

the world, but without having the least design to establish any footing in

South Africa.'' An inconclusive reply was sent, and on the 9th of April

Luderitz's agent landed at Angra Pequena, and after a short delay concluded

a treaty with the local chief, by which some 215 square miles around Angra

Pequena were ceded to Luderitz. In England and at the Cape irritation at

the news was mingled with incredulity, and it was fully anticipated that

Luderitz would be disavowed by his government. But for this belief it can

scarcely be doubted that the rest of the unoccupied coast-line would have

been promptly declared under British protection. Still Prince Bismarck was

slow to act. In November the German ambassador again inquired if Great

Britain made any claim over this coast, and Lord Granville replied that Her

Majesty exercised sovereignty only over certain parts of the coast, as at

Walfish Bay, and suggested that arrangements might be made by which Germany

might assist in the settlement of Angra Pequena. By this time Luderitz had

extended his acquisitions southwards to the Orange river, which had been

declared by the British government to be the northern frontier of Cape

Colony. Both at the Cape and in England it was now realized that Germany

had broken away from her former purely continental policy, and, when too

late, the Cape parliament showed great eagerness to acquire the territory

which had lain so long at its very doors, to be had for the taking. It is

not necessary to follow the course-of the subsequent negotiations. On the

15th of August 1884 an official note was addressed by the German consul at

Capetown to the high commissioner, intimating that the German emperor had

by proclamation taken ``the territory belonging to Mr A. Luderitz on the

west coast of Africa under the direct protection of His Majesty.'' This

proclamation covered the coast-line from the north bank of the Orange river

to 26 deg. S. latitude, and 20 geographical miles inland, including ``the

islands belonging thereto by the law of nations.'' On the 8th of September

1884 the German government intimated to Her Majesty's government ``that the

west coast of Africa from 26 deg. S. latitude to Cape Frio, excepting

Walfish Bay, had been placed under the protection of the German emperor.''

Thus, before the end of the year 1884, the foundations of Germany's

colonial empire had been laid in South-West Africa.

In April of that year Prince Bismarck intimated to the British

government, through the German charge d'affaires in London,

Nachtigal's mission to West Africa.

that ``the imperial consul-general, Dr Nachtigal, has been commissioned by

my government to visit the west coast of Africa in the course of the next

few months, in order to complete the information now in the possession of

the Foreign Office at Berlin, on the state of German commerce on that

coast. With this object Dr Nachtigal will shortly embark at Lisbon, on

board the gunboat `Mowe.' He will put himself into communication with the

authorities in the British possessions on the said coast, and is authorized

to conduct, on behalf of the imperial government, negotiations connected

with certain questions. I venture,'' the official communication proceeds,

``in accordance with my instructions, to beg your excellency to be so good

as to cause the authorities in the British possessions in West Africa to be

furnished with suitable recommendations.'' Although at the date of this

communication it must have been apparent, from what was happening in South

Africa, that Germany was prepared to enter on a policy of colonial

expansion, and although the wording of the letter was studiously vague, it

does not seem to have occurred to the British government that the real

object of Gustav Nachtigal's journey was to make other annexations on the

west coast. Yet such was indeed his mission. German traders and

missionaries had been particularly active of late years on the coast of the

Gulf of Guinea. German factories were dotted all along the coast in

districts under British protection, under French protection and under the

definite protection of no European power at all. It was to these latter

places that Nachtigal turned his attention. The net result of his

operations was that on the 5th of July 1884 a treaty was signed with the

king of Togo, placing his country under German protection, and that just

one week later a German protectorate was proclaimed over the Cameroon

district. Before either of these events had occurred Great Britain had

become alive to the fact that she could no longer dally with the subject,

if she desired to consolidate her possessions in West Africa. The British

government had again and again refused to accord native chiefs the

protection they demanded. The Cameroon chiefs had several times asked for

British protection, and always in vain. But at last it became apparent,

even to the official mind, that rapid changes were being effected in

Africa, and on the 16th of May Edward Hyde Hewett, British consul, received

instructions to return to the west coast and to make arrangements for

extending British protection over certain regions. He arrived too late to

save either Togoland or Cameroon, in the latter case arriving five days

after King Bell and the other chiefs on the river had signed treaties with

Nachtigal. But the British consul was in time to secure the delta of the

river Niger and the Oil Rivers District, extending from Rio del Rey to the

Lagos frontier, where for a long period British traders had held almost a

monopoly of the trade.

Meanwhile France, too, had been busy treaty-making. While the British

government still remained under the spell of the

French and British rivalry in West Africa.

fatal resolution of 1865, the French government was strenuously

endeavouring to extend France's influence in West Africa, in the countries

lying behind the coastline. During the year 1884 no fewer than forty-two

treaties were concluded with native chiefs, an even larger number having

been concluded in the previous twelve months. In this fashion France was

pushing on towards Timbuktu, in steady pursuance of the policy which

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