GERMAN COLONIZATION IN SOUTHWEST AFRICA 73 
Lord Derby, Colonial Secretary, was able to reply on Feb- 
ruary 23 to the effect that Cape Colony had certain estab- 
lishments along the southwest coast of Africa, and, if the 
precise location of the German factory were given the For- 
eign Office, inquiries would be made as to the possibility 
of affording it British protection. 
In April, 1883, Herr F. A. E. Liideritz, a Bremen mer- 
chant, sent out an expedition under the command of Herr 
Vogelsand, who purchased, for two hundred rifles and one 
hundred dollars in cash, one hundred and fifty square miles 
in the neighborhood of the bay of Angra Pequena from 
Joseph Frederica, the Hottentot chief of the region. In 
August, Herr Liideritz himself went out and negotiated the 
purchase of the entire tract from the Orange River to lat. 
26° S., extending twenty miles inland, for three thousand 
dollars and sixty guns. In spite of the fact that British 
traders had stations already on this coast and that the 
islands had been leased to a British firm, Liideritz, basing 
the interpretation of his grants on a general rule of inter- 
national law, claimed control of everything in sight. This 
irrepressible German, as Mr. Spence called him, was not 
satisfied with the land and harbors, but wanted the sea as 
well — at least for the five miles nearest shore. 
Meanwhile, petitions from the British traders for aid and 
protection began to pour in at the British Foreign Office, 
and Liideritz besieged his Government to support his claims. 
The British Government proceeded with great deliberation 
to inquire into the truth of the matter from the Cape Gov- 
ernment and to send H.M.S. Boadicea to Angra Pequena 
Bay to prevent conflicts between the German and British 
traders. On September 10, Baron von Plessen, German 
Chargé d’Affaires in London, left at the British Foreign 
office a “Memorandum,” stating that Herr Liideritz had 
purchased one hundred and fifty square miles of territory