nities opened up
by the gift unexpectedly awarded her by MacMahon. She was unable to
control either the Tongas or the Boers.

[Footnote 441: Sir C. Dilke, _Problems of Greater Britain_, vol. i. pp.
553-556.]

England having been ruled out, there was the chance for some other Power
to step in and acquire St. Lucia Bay, one of the natural outlets of the
southern part of the Transvaal Republic. It is an open secret that the
forerunners of the "colonial party" in Germany had already sought to
open up closer relations with the Boer Republics. In 1876 the President
of the Transvaal, accompanied by a Dutch member of the Cape Parliament,
visited Berlin, probably with the view of reciprocating those advances.
They had an interview with Bismarck, the details of which are not fully
known. Nothing, however, came of it at the time, owing to Bismarck's
preoccupation in European affairs. Early in the "eighties," the German
colonial party, then beginning its campaign, called attention repeatedly
to the advantages of gaining a foothold in or near Delagoa Bay; but the
rise of colonial feeling in Germany led to a similar development in the
public sentiment of Portugal, and indeed of all lands; so that, by the
time that Bismarck was won over to the cause of Teutonic Expansion, the
Portuguese refused to barter away any of their ancient possessions. This
probably accounts for the concentration of German energies on other
parts of the South African coast, which, though less valuable in
themselves, might serve as _points d'appui_ for German political agents
and merchants in their future dealings with the Boers, who were then
striving to gain control over Bechuanaland. The points selected by the
Germans for their action were on the coast of Damaraland, as already
stated, and St. Lucia Bay in Zululand, a position which President
Burgers had striven to secure for the Transvaal in 1878.

In reference to St. Lucia Bay our narrative must be shadowy in outline
owing to the almost complete secrecy with which the German Government
wisely shrouds a failure. The officials and newspaper writers of Germany
have not yet contracted the English habit of proclaiming their
intentions beforehand and of parading before the world their
recriminations in case of a fiasco. All that can be said, then, with
certainty is that in the autumn of 1884 a German trader named Einwold
attempted to gain a footing in St. Lucia Bay and to prepare the way for
the recognition of