In January 1896 I compIeted a small volume which was published in London
and Capetown with the title of The Portugaese in South Africa, and which
is now out of print, The preface to that volume was as follows - A very
few years ago, when I prepared my Iarge History, the expression South
Africa meant Africa south of the Limpopo. Mainly through the ability of
one man-the Right Honourable CeciI John Rhodes-that expression to- day
means Africa south of the Zambesi. The event which I took as an initial
point--the arrival of Van Riebeek in able VaIIey in April 1652.-has thus
come to be incorrect for that purpose, the true starting-point now being
the arrival of DAnayit in Sofala in September 1505. I have therefore
written this volume, in order to rectify the beginning of my work. As
Bantu tribes that were not encountered by the Dutch, and that differed
in several respects from those south of the Limpopo, came into contact
with the Portuguese, it was necessary to enlarge and recast the chapters
in my other volumes descriptive of the South African natives. I need not
give my authorities for what I have now written concerning these people,
for I think I can say with truth that no ono else has ever made such a
study of this subject as I have. The Portuguese in South Africa are not
entitled to the same amount of space in a history as the Dutch, for they
did nothing to colonise the country. I think that in this little volume
I have given them their just proportion. In another respect also I have
treated them differently, for I expended many years of time in research
among Dutch archives, and I have obtained the greater part of my
information upon the Portuguese by the comparatively trifling labour of
reading and comparing their printed histories. I should not have been
justified, however, in issuing this volume if I had not been able to
consult the important documents which the Right Honourable C. J Rhodes
caused to be copied at Lisbon for his own use. The government of the
Cape Colony took a different view of the relative interest of the
Portuguese occupation, and considered it advisabIe that deeper research
should be made into the particulars of their intercourse with the native
tribes south of the Zambesi in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
eighteenth centuries. I therefore came to Europe in October 1896, and
the greater portion of my time since that date has been devoted to
collecting Portuguese manuscripts and early printed books relating to
South-Eastern Africa, translating them into English, and publishing the
original texts and the translations. Some Dutch and English manuscripts
have also been included. Each volume contains over five hundred pages,
and the ninth is now in course of preparation. The series, termed
Records of South-Eastern Africa, prepared and printed at the cost of the
Cape government, can be seen in the principal public libraries of Europe
and the British colonies throughout the world. The volume in the readers
hands is an abstract of the documents and printed matter thus collected,
with a couple of additional chapters giving a brief narrative of events
during the nineteenth century and a chapter upon the earliest
inhabitants of the country. It contains about three times as much matter
as The Portuguese in South Africa, and must therefore be regarded as a
new book. As it stands, it forms Volume I of my history of South Africa.
