South Africa with Europe and America, were owned by British companies, and
naturally they were employed by the British Government for its own
purposes. Nothing which might in any way benefit the Boers was allowed to
pass over these lines and, so far as it was possible, the British
Government attempted to isolate the republics so that the outside world
could have no communication of any sort with them. With the exception of a
small strip of coast-land on the Indian ocean, the two republics were
completely surrounded by British territory, and consequently it was not a
difficult matter for the great Empire to curtail the liberties of the
Boers to as great an extent as it was pleasing to the men who conducted
the campaign. The small strip of coast-land, however, was the property of
a neutral nation, and, therefore, could not be used for British purposes
of stifling the Boer countries, but the nation which "rules the waves"
exhausted every means to make the Boers' air-hole as small as possible by
placing a number of warships outside the entrance of Delagoa Bay, and by
establishing a blockade of the port of Lorenzo Marques.

Lorenzo Marques, in itself, was valueless to the Boers, for it had always
been nothing more than a vampire feeding upon the Transvaal, but as an
outlet to the sea and as a haven for foreign ships bearing men, arms, and
encouragement it was invaluable. In the hands of the Boers Delagoa Bay
would have been worse than useless, for the warships could have taken
possession of it and sealed it tightly on the first day of the war, but as
a Portuguese possession it was the only friend that the Boers were able to
find during their long period of need. Without it, the Boers would have
been unable to hold any intercourse with foreign countries, no envoys
could have been despatched, no volunteers could have entered the country,
and they would have been ignorant of the opinion of the world--a factor in
the brave resistance against their enemy which was by no means
infinitesimal. Delagoa Bay was the Boers' one window through which they