Portuguese influence, though not always Portuguese rule, was carried southward to the northern shore of Delagoa Bay at the end of the 17th century. Here the settlement of Lourenςo Marquez was founded as a trading station. At the beginning of the 18th century this Portuguese station was abandoned; and the Cape Dutch came and built a factory there, which however was destroyed by the English in 1727. Nevertheless Portugal continued to assert her claims to Lourenço Marquez; and when, in 1776, an Englishman named Bolts (formerly in the employ of the English East India Company), who had entered the service of Maria Theresa in order to found an Austrian Company to trade with the East Indies from Flanders, came thither with a large following composed of Austrian-Italian subjects, and made treaties with the chiefs of Delagoa Bay, the Portuguese protested and addressed representations to the Austrian Government. These protestations would have been of but little avail had not a terrible outbreak of fever carried off almost all the European settlers. The Austrian claim was therefore abandoned; and the Portuguese continued at intervals to make their presence felt there by a quasi-military commandant or a Government trading establishment. When Admiral Owen’s expedition visited Delagoa Bay between 1822 and 1824, they found a small Portuguese establishment on the site of the present town of Lourenço Marquez[74]. Realizing the importance of this harbour, and finding no evidence of Portuguese claims to its southern shore, Captain Owen concluded treaties with the King of Tembe by which the southern part of Delagoa Bay was ceded to Great Britain. The Portuguese made an indirect protest by removing the British flag during Captain Owen’s absence, but the flag was rehoisted in 1824. Owen’s action, however, was not followed up by effective occupation, though on the other hand the Portuguese did nothing to reassert their authority over the south shore of the bay until, in the sixties, the growing importance of South Africa led the British to reassert their claims. The matter was submitted to arbitration, and Marshal MacMahon, the President of the French Republic, was chosen as arbitrator. His verdict—a notoriously biassed one—not only gave the Portuguese the south shore of Delagoa Bay, but even more territory than they actually laid claim to. Britain had to some extent prepared herself for an unfavourable verdict by a prior agreement providing that whichever of the two disputing powers came to possess the whole or part of Delagoa Bay should give the other the right of pre-emption.