Majesty's Government did not, the German Government
would extend to Herr Lüderitz's factory "the same
was prepared to enter on a policy of colonial expansion,
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 April Herr
Lüderitz's agent landed at Angra Pequeña, and after a
short delay concluded a treaty with the local chief, by
which some 215 square miles around Angra Pequeña Bay
were ceded to Herr Lüderitz. In England and at the
Cape irritation at the news was mingled with incredulity,
and it was fully anticipated that Herr Lüderitz 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. In the month of August the German
German protection, and that just one week later a
Government intimated to their consular representative at
the Cape their preparedness to take Herr Lüderitz's
concessions under the protection of the Imperial Government.
In November the German ambassador again
inquired if Great Britain made any claim over this coast,
and Lord Granville replied that Her Majesty exercised
The British Government had again and again refused to
sovereignty only over certain parts of the coast, as at
Walfisch Bay, and suggested that arrangements might be
made by which Germany might assist in the settlenent of
Angra Pequeña. By this time Herr Lüderitz 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 August 1884 an official note was addressed by the
Rio del Rey to the Lagos frontier, where for a long
intimating that the German Emperor had by proclamation
taken "the territory belonging to Mr A. Lüderitz on the
west coast of Africa under the direct protection of His
Majesty." This proclamation covered the coast-line from
German consul at Capetown to the High Commissioner,
the north bank of the Orange river to 26 S. lati-
tude, and 20 geographical miles inland, including "the
islands belonging thereto by the law of nations." On the
8th of the following month-September 1884-the
German Government intimated to Her Majesty's Govern-
ment, "that the west coast of Africa from 26° S. latitude
to Cape Frio, excepting Walfisch 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 chargé d'affaires in London, 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 With this object Dr Nachtigal will shortly embark at Lisbon, on board the gunboat Möwe. He will put him- self 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 con- nected with certain questions. I venture," the official communication proceeds, "in accordance with mby instruc- tions, to beg your excellency to be so good as to cause the 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 and although the wording of the letter was studiously vague, it does not seen to have occurred to the British Government that the real object of Dr Nachtigal's journey was to make other annexations on the west coast. Yet such was indeed his mission. German traders and mission- aries 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 Dr Nachtigal turned his attention. The net result of his operations was that on the 5th July 1884 a treaty was signed with the king of Togo, placing his country under German protectorate was proclaimed over the whole of 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. 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 May Consul Hewett received instructions to return to the west coast and to make arrangements for extending British protec- tion over certain regions. He arrived too late to save either Togoland or Cameroon, in the latter case arriv- ing five days after King Bell and the other chiefs on the river had signed treaties with Dr Nachtigal. But the British consul was in time to secure the delta of the river Niger and the Oil Rivers District, extending from period British traders had held almost a monopoly of the trade. Meanwhile France, too, had been busy treaty- making. During the year 1884 no less than forty-two treaties were concluded with native chiefs, an even larger number having been concluded in the previous twelve months. While the British Government still remained under the spell of the fatal resolution of 1865, the French Government was strenuously endeavouring to extend France's influence in West Africa, in the countries lying behind the coast-line. In the campaign of 1880-81 Captain Gallieni advanced as far as Bammako, on the Upper Niger, and other French officials were steadily pursuing the policy which has resulted in surrounding all the old British possessions in West Africa with a con- tinuous band of French territory. In 1881 a preliminary step was taken in a project which, still unrealized, has always exercised a strange fascination over that section of public opinion in France which mostly concerns itself with African affairs. To join France's possessions on the Medi- terranean with her colonies in West Africa, by means of a railway is, with many Frenchmen, a haunting ambition. We need not consider the strategical, political, and com- mercial arguments which are advanced in favour of the proposed trans-Saharan railway, or discuss the difficulties which surround the accomplishment of this grandiose conception. But, in 1881, an expedition was sent from Algeria to make a preliminary survey and report. It was under the cominand of Colonel Flatters, and had not advanced very far into the desert before it was attacked by the Tuaregs and massacred.
There was, however, one region on the west coast where, authorities in the British possessions in West Africa to be notwithstanding the lethargy of the British Government, British interests were being vigorously pushed, protected,
West Africa. coast.
