Bidspirit auction | PORTUGUESE Western Africa. London. 1877.

PORTUGUESE Western Africa. London. 1877. - PORTUGUESE Western Africa . Presented by the Translator to the British Library. London: Herbert J. Fitch, 1877. 2 v.; 220 mm. A collection of two diplomatic pamphlets, published separately but bound together, translated into English and published in London in 1877 as part of the Portuguese effort to defend before British public opinion the sovereignty of the Portuguese Crown over the territories of Molembo, Cabinda and Ambriz, on the west African coast, located between 5 degrees and 12 minutes and 8 degrees south latitude. The first volume translates the 1855 text by the Viscount of Sá da Bandeira on Portugal's historical right to these territories; the second brings together the translation of a similar text by the Viscount of Santarém, accompanied by the translation of the dispatch and memorandum by João de Andrade Corvo, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, extracted from the Portuguese White Paper ”Foreign Affairs” presented to the Cortes in 1876. This document is of particular interest for the study of the so-called Cabinda and Ambriz Question, a diplomatic dispute that pitted Portugal against Great Britain regarding the recognition of Portuguese sovereignty on that coast, foreshadowing the tensions that would culminate, thirteen years later, in the British Ultimatum of 1890. ⚑ Auto-translated via Google Translate