The German and Portuguese Governments are both learning the lesson
that colonies are not always profitable. The German officers in South-West Africa are by no means optimistic as to the prospects of the Herero War. The tribesmen show no disposition to surrender, and when pursued outmarch the Germans, whose horses are dying of starvation, the native cattle having eaten all the grass, while typhoid still carries off the men. It is believed that a much larger force must be despatched, and, of course, the accounts received chill the enthusiasm for volun- teering. Just over the frontier, too, in Portuguese South Africa, another tribe, the Cuanhamas, which has been for some time in revolt, has gained a rather important victory, having cut up a column which was crossing the Cunene River. The Portuguese lost fifteen officers and thirteen sergeants, the total casualties numbering three hundred and four, of whom two hundred and fifty-four were killed on the spot, including a hundred and nine Europeans. The Government of Lisbon recognises that this defeat will shake the allegiance of all its tribes, and talks of sending out a new force, not yet organised, of five thousand men. Neither Government, it is clear, has yet I learned the secret of conciliating the natives, who complain.
among other things, of outrages by the farmers settled among them, and seem determined to extirpate the whites.
