Chapter 105 The Portuguese
October 5, 1867.
Eastern Lake Malawi region.
Mitomoni Village is located more than 100 kilometers south of Songea City.
The forests in the eastern Lake Malawi region are relatively dense, with groups of tall trees, which are very different from the endless grasslands in the northern part of East Africa.
In the past, even in the 21st century, Tanzania's forest coverage rate remained at around 50%. Nowadays, the forest coverage rate in the whole of Tanzania has only increased.
Unlike tropical rainforests and subtropical forests, the trees in East Africa's forests are not densely spaced. There are large gaps between the trees, and the space between the trees is mainly grass with very few shrubs. Therefore, it is easy to pass through, but it is easy to get lost without a compass or map.
Therefore, the area east of Lake Malawi is also the least developed land in East Africa. After all, a fire in the grassland can burn out a large area of wasteland, and it is still very difficult for the East African colonies with a smaller population to cut down these trees.
Everything has two sides. The forests are lush and the timber resources are abundant. Due to limited transportation capacity, these trees cannot be exported at present, but they have greatly satisfied the needs of the East African colonies themselves.
These abundant resources can be used to build houses, as fuel, and to make tools. Considering the current population size of the East African colonies, the development of these woods is truly inexhaustible.
As one of the southernmost villages in the eastern Lake Malawi region, Mitomoni is also a small military outpost.
In addition to the low walls made of mud and stones, there are also simple sentry posts built with wood and wooden chevaux de frise in the direction of the exit. Such a configuration is a bit luxurious for the natives in the south.
Strictly speaking, East Africa did not yet border the colony of Mozambique established by the Portuguese. After all, although Mozambique had a large population, there were not many Portuguese, and most of them were distributed along the coast.
It was naturally impossible for the Portuguese to completely control Mozambique, so there were a large number of indigenous tribes in Mozambique, and their relationship with the Portuguese was more like that of a vassal state.
As long as they submitted to the rule of the Kingdom of Portugal, they were considered our own people. Of course, this situation was more obvious in the inland areas. In the coastal areas controlled by the Portuguese themselves, the natives could only work like slaves for the Portuguese and be bullied at will.
Before the end of the slave trade, Mozambique was an important source of goods for the Kingdom of Portugal.
The Portuguese colonization of Mozambique was relatively conventional, as they first occupied the ports on the coast and then gradually expanded inland along the rivers.
Of course, initially the Portuguese had an additional goal, which was to destroy the Arab forces as much as possible, so this was also a religious war.
In Mozambique, the Portuguese were successful. The Arab forces along the coast were indeed weak and it was difficult for them to resist the Portuguese invasion.
But when the Portuguese tried to repeat this action by moving north, they encountered the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which was in its heyday, and the two sides ended in a draw. So the Portuguese turned from confrontation to cooperation with the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the two sides jointly developed their interests along the western Indian Ocean coast.
At one point, the Portuguese influence reached as far as parts of Zimbabwe and Zambia, but because of plague in both places, the Portuguese were forced to withdraw to Mozambique. This was also the first failed attempt by Western colonists to develop inland Africa.
Up to now, the Portuguese have not successfully expanded into the interior of Africa. At most, they are an important foreign force that influences the indigenous kingdoms and tribes in the interior.
…
A Portuguese patrol, fully armed, explored northwards, led by Tulio Penilli, an officer of the Portuguese Mozambique colony.
As a Portuguese who had been in the Mozambique colony for many years, Tulio Penilli was quite familiar with the local area.
The team was small, forty-seven in total, and they followed traditional routes to visit the indigenous tribes under the colonial rule of Mozambique.
Gradually, Tulio Penilli came to the border area between the East African colony and the Mozambique colony.
In fact, the Portuguese did not know much about the expansion of their colonies in East Africa. They only knew that the Germans defeated the Sultanate of Zanzibar, but the Sultanate of Zanzibar still existed and retreated to the island of Zanzibar.
According to the Portuguese, the Germans should be of the same type as themselves, mainly concentrated in the coastal areas and at most influencing the inland tribes.
After all, the Portuguese had been developing their own power in Africa for hundreds of years, but they had not been successful in penetrating deep into the interior. The Germans had just arrived and could only develop the coastal plains at most.
The village of Mitomoni was not too far from Lake Malawi and could be considered inland, so Tulio Penilli and his party set off towards the north without a care in the world.
Soon, after reaching the last tribe in northern Mozambique, its chief began reporting the latest news to Tulio Penilli.
"Many people who escaped from the north were captured by us. They were all from northern tribes. I heard that they were recently driven out by a group of white-faced people. Many rebels were beaten to death or fled westward. They were also resistance fighters and were unwilling to flee westward. They used the forest to escape to our territory." The translator said to Tullio Penilli.
"White faces?" Tullio Penilli whispered. "Could they be Germans?"
Tulio Penilli was undecided and said to the chief: "Give me a detailed account of their appearance, clothing, and weapons."
"Our people have gone to the north to check, and found a castle (Mitomoni Village) has been built there. Their skin color is very similar to yours (actually most of them are Chinese), they have the same weapons (guns) as you, and their clothing is similar, but more uniform, and not as good-looking as yours (Westerners' clothing is flashy, while East African colonies mainly wear military uniforms). The people from the northern tribes that we captured said that they are a tribe with the lion as its totem." The chief replied.
"It looks like they are Germans!" Tullio Penilli said to his team members, "In that case, let's go and pay them a visit. When we get there, follow my orders and don't clash with them."
Soon, Tulio Penilli and his party, led by the chief, arrived near the village of Mitomoni. From a distance, they saw the lion totem mentioned by the chief erected in front of the simple fortifications.
Tulio Penilli naturally recognized that it was not the tribal totem mentioned by the local natives, but a flag, the family crest (coat of arms) of the Hechingen family, and also the flag of the East African colony.
In fact, Tullio Penilli only knew that it was a flag of a European noble family. As for Hechingen and the like, there were so many nobles in Europe, especially in Germany. How could Tullio Penilli, a commoner of the Kingdom of Portugal, recognize them all?
The reason why we know that it is the flag of a European aristocratic family is mainly because of the lion on the flag. It is very common in Europe. Many aristocratic families and royal families have this symbol on their coat of arms. Generally, those who can use eagles and lions as family emblems (coats) are not small.
But this did not prevent Tulio Penilli from knowing that it was a German flag, because on the eastern coast, Portuguese merchants could still obtain a lot of intelligence from East Africa, especially at the mouth of the Rovuma River (the Rovuma River was the boundary river between the eastern East African colonies and the Mozambique colony), where many such flags were erected on the other side.
What Tulio Penilli did not expect was that the Germans had already infiltrated the interior of East Africa and established a considerable stronghold here.
(End of this chapter)
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