Maputo Bay, formerly Delagoa Bay (Port. "bay of the lagoon") is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique, between 25 40 and 26 20 S., with a length from north to south of over 70 m. and a breadth of about 20 m. The bay is the northern termination of the series of lagoons which line the coast from Saint Lucia Bay. The opening is toward the N.E. The southern part of the bay is formed by a peninsula, called the Inyak peninsula, which on its inner or western side affords safe anchorage. At its N.W. point is Port Melville. North of the peninsula is Inyak Island, and beyond it a smaller island known as Elephants Island. An Inlet is a narrow body of water which usually drains from a larger body of water, such as from an ocean, into a lake. ... The Indian Ocean is the third-largest body of water in the world, covering about 20% of the Earths water surface. ... Mozambique is also the name given to a style of music from the 1960s, an advanced rumba by Peyo el AfroCán Mozambique is a country in Southern Africa, bordering South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. ...

In spite of a bar at the entrance and a number of shallows within, Maputo Bay forms a valuable harbour, accessible to large vessels at all seasons of the year. The surrounding country is low and very unhealthy, but the island of Inyak has a height of 240 ft., and is used as a sanatorium. A river 12 to 18 ft. deep, known as the Manhissa or Komati, enters the bay at its iiorthern end; several smaller streams, the Matolla, the IJmbelozi, and the Tembi, from the Lebombo Mountains, meet towards the middle of the bay in the estuary called by the Portuguese the Espirito Santo, but generally known as the English river; and the Maputa, which has its headwaters in the Drakensberg, enters in the south, as also does the Umfusi river. These rivers are the haunts of the hippopotamus and the crocodile. The Lebombo Mountains are a range of mountains in Southern Africa stretching from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa. ... This article or section should include material from Drakensberg hiking The Drakensberg (Dragon Mountains in Afrikaans) mountains are the highest in South Africa, ranging up to 3,482 m (11,422 ft) in height. ...

The bay was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Antonio de Campo, one of Vasco da Gamas companions, in 1502, and the Portuguese post of Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) was established not long after on the north side of the English river. See Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama for the football club. ... Events January 1 - Portuguese explorers sailed into Guanabra Bay, Brazil and mistook it for the mouth of a river which they named Rio de Janeiro May 9 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip to the New World. May 21 - Portuguese discover island of St Helena. ... Lourenço Marques was a 16th century Portuguese trader. ...

In 1720 the Dutch East India Company built a fort and factory on the spot where Lourenco Marques now stands; but in 1730 the settlement was abandoned. Thereafter the Portuguese had - intermittently - trading stations in the Espirito Santo. These stations were protected by small forts, usually incapable, however, of withstanding attacks by the natives. This article is about the trading company. ...

In 1823 Captain (afterwards Vice-Admiral) W. F. W. Owen, of the Royal Navy, finding that the Portuguese exercised no jurisdiction south of the settlement of Lourenco Marques, concluded treaties of cession with native chiefs, hoisted the British flag, and appropriated the country from the English river southwards; but when he visited the bay again in 1824 he found that the Portuguese, disregarding the British treaties, had concluded others with the natives, and had endeavoured (unsuccessfully) to take military possession of the country. Captain Owen rehoisted the British flag, but the sovereignty of either power was left undecided till the claims of the Transvaal Republic rendered a solution of the question urgent. In the meantime Great Britain had taken no steps to exercise authority on the spot, while the ravages of Zulu hordes confined Portuguese authority to the limits of their fort. In 1835 Boers, under a leader named Orich, had attempted to form a settlement on the bay, which is the natural outlet for the Transvaal; and in 1868 the Transvaal president, Marthinus Pretorius, claimed the country on each side of the Maputa down to the sea. In the following year, however, the Transvaal acknowledged Portugals sovereignty over the bay. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. ... The South African Republic (Dutch: Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek), often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, not to be confused with the Republic of South Africa, occupied the area later known as the province of Transvaal, first from 1857 to 1877, and again, after a successful Afrikaner rebellion against British rule... The Zulu are an African ethnic group of about 11 million people who live mainly in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. ... 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Afrikaners (sometimes known as Boers) are white South Africans, predominantly of Calvinist German, French Huguenot, Friesian and Walloons descent who speak Afrikaans. ...

In 1861 Captain Bickford, R.N., had declared Inyak and Elephant islands British territory; an act protested against by the Lisbon authorities. In 1872 the dispute between Great Britain and Portugal was submitted to the arbitration of M. Thiers, the French president; and on the 19th of April 1875 his successor, Marshal MacMahon, declared in favor of the Portuguese. It had been previously agreed by Great Britain and Portugal that the right of pre-emption in case of sale or cession should be given to the unsuccessful claimant to the bay. Portuguese authority over the interior was not established until some time after the MacMahon award; nominally the country south of the Manhissa river was ceded to them by the Matshangana chief Umzila in 1861. Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta President of France, 1873-1879 Marie Edmé Patrice Maurice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, Marshal of France (July 13, 1808 - October 16, 1893) was a Frenchman of Irish descent. ...

In 1889 another dispute arose between Portugal and Great Britain in consequence of the seizure by the Portuguese of the railway running from the bay to the Transvaal. This dispute was referred to arbitration, and in 1900 Portugal was condemned to pay nearly 1,000,000 in compensation. to the shareholders in the railway company.

For an account of the Delagoa Bay arbitration proceedings see Sir E. Hertslet, The Map of Africa by Treaty, iii. 991-998 (London, 1909). Consult also the British blue-book, Delagoa Bay, Correspondence respecting the Claims of Her Majestys Government (London, 1875); L. van Deventer, La Hollande et la Baie Delagoa (The Hague, 1883); G. McC. Theal, The Portuguese in South Africa (London, 1896), and History of South Africa since September 179,f, vol. v. (London, 1908). The Narrative of Voyages to explore the shores of Africa, performed under direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, RN. (London, 1833) contains much interesting information concerning the district in the early part of the 19th century.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...