ABSTRACT
The Portuguese objections to the Moffat Treaty only anticipated by a few days a much more active counter-effort on the part of the Transvaal Government. Towards the end of 1887 a rumour steadily gained currency that Lobengula had entered into a treaty with the Transvaal Government, and ultimately it reached Sir Hercules Robinson through a private letter from a gentleman at Pretoria. The despatch containing the news of the Moffat Treaty reached Lord Knutsford, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on ioth April, 1888, and a fortnight later he telegraphed to Sir Hercules Robinson giving him authority to ratify the agreement, which was at once published in a Gazette Extraordinary. As early as 1789 a Portuguese writer, Andrada, denied the existence of any real dominion in East Africa outside Mozambique, and this was corroborated by Lameiro, writing in 1824.
