The Portuguese in Africa
South-East Africa, 1488-1530. By Eric Axelson. (Longmans. iss.) THE Republic of Portugal has lately been celebrating the 800th anniversary of the foundation in 'Lao of the Portuguese nation and the 3ooth anniversary of the restoration in 1640 of its national independence. The publication of this learned book by Dr. Axelson, of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johan- nesburg, dealing with the romantic story of Portuguese explora- tion, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, is therefore peculiarly opportune ; and because the way of the Portuguese navigators to the East took them round the coasts of Africa, it is no less appropriate that the work should be that of a South African student. It is the fruit of years of intensive research into original authorities in the Portuguese archives and in other great libraries: it is exhaustively documented, and the claim made for it in the " Foreword " by Professor Fouche that it will form the indispensable basis for all future research in this field is amply justified.
The story opens with the Arab occupation of the South-Eastern seaboard of Africa in the Middle Ages. It was after the fall of Ceuta, with its " rich harvest of Arabian maps and charts," that Henry the Navigator's intense interest in naval exploration was aroused ; and the history of the Portuguese African adventurers is mainly that of their establishment of forts or " factories " among the Arabs, who themselves traded with the natives of the interior for the gold which the Portuguese required for their commerce with India.
That Bartholomeu Dias in 1487 rounded the southern point of Africk and discovered the Cape of Good Hope on his way back, that Vasco da Gama followed in 1497 and made his way to India is known to most people ; but how many, we wonder,
' have heard of Pedro da Covilha, who in 1487 travelled from Alexandria through Cairo to Aden and thence to India? And bow many know of the padroes, those cross-crowned pillars which the explorers put up on the coast to establish the points which they had succeeded in reaching, to afford landmarks for later vessels, and to stake out a claim for Portuguese sovereignty in the neighbouring waters. It has been reserved for Dr. Axelson to discover the remains of the padrrs put up by Bartholomeu Dias himself on a promontory near the mouth of the Bushman's River, which for 45o years had lain lost to knowledge.
Most interesting, too, is the account of the exploration in 1514 by Antonio Fernandes of what is now part of Southern Rhodesia and was then the hinterland, and the most important source of supply, of Sofala, the centre of the gold trade ; but the: main theme of the book is the forcible establishment of the Portuguese posts on the coast with an eye to a monopoly of that trade. The story is darkened by the record of much bloodshed and oppres- sion, begun by Vasco da Gama himself. None of the nations whose pioneers went forth in the Age of Discovery can claim that their methods were always gentle, and Portuguese interests themselves in the end suffered in consequence through the poverishment and extinction of the Arab traders. Nevertheless, the history is one of high endeavour and wonderful achievement ; and this volume, though intended primarily for the student, should find many other readers among those who care for the legend of
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