The Portuguese are in great and reasonable alarm for the
fate of Lorenzo Marquez, the port at the head of Delagoa Bay, and geographically one of the most important points in South Africa. It is being threatened by some seven thousand Kaffirs, and is defended only by 120 Portuguese troops, and a body of volunteers raised from among the European residents in the port. The Portuguese believe themselves able to keep back the Kaffirs, though they are at their mercy, but there is danger that the great chief Gungunhama, who has an army of twenty thousand men, and is nearly independent, may take advantage of the situation both to disperse the Kaffirs and overwhelm the town. This would lead to a war between him and the Boers, who will not give up their hope of seeing Lorenzo Marquez the trading port of the Transvaal, and may perhaps lead to important practical consequences. It is a mystery to outside observers bow the Portuguese contrive to keep their settlements in East Africa at all. They have scarcely any troops there, and their colonist are counted by tens, so that in the event of a rising they have no solid strength with which to oppose it, and no reserve to fall back upon. Some day or other, probably when Delagoa Bay has become all-important, there will be a general massacre in Lorenzo Marquez, and either Great Britain or the Transvaal will be compelled in the interests of humanity to occupy the Colony.
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