January, 1890

Britain threatens Portugal with an Ultimatum:

Abandon south-east Africa or face a naval

bombardment of Lisbon.

Three centuries earlier, the poet Luís de Camões described the region at issue —

Behold the lake which is the Nile’s source.

And the green Zambezi, too, begins its course.

Further upstream, the river becomes serpentine, twisting itself into a vast swamp, known to Europeans as Elephant...