DELAGOA BAY (del-a-go'd), in southeast Africa, a large sheet of water separated from the Indian Ocean by the peninsula and island of Inyack. The bay stretches N. and S. upward of 40 miles, with a breadth of from 16 to 20 miles, and forms the southern extremity of the Portuguese settlement of Mozambique. It is available for vessels of large ton nage, though the presence of shoals, banks, and fiats, renders the navigation of the bay somewhat intricate. The Oli fants or Krokodil river, flowing into it, is navigable for steam launches for a considerable distance; but there are swamps around the coast, and some ma larial fever is prevalent. The Trans vaal border begins 52 miles inland. In the course of the negotiations between Great Britain and Portugal as to the action of the latter power in East Africa, the claims of the Delagoa Bay Railway Company for compensation for the seiz ure of the line by Portugal on June 29, 1889, were brought foward. This was
decided against Portugal (as announced March 29, 1900), damages of over $3, 100,000 being awarded with interest from 1889. In September, 1900, a compromise of these claims was finally agreed to, the American claimants getting an aggregate of $500,000, out of which they were or dered to pay the costs of the United States Government. The extension of the line from the Portuguese frontier at Komati (which is 60 miles from the port of Lorenzo Marques) to Pretoria (Trans vaal) was formally opened on July 8, 1895. The extension is the property of the Netherlands South African Railway Company, and places Pretoria by rail 350 miles from the coast, and Johannesburg 400 miles. The distance from the latter city to Cape Town by rail is 1,013 miles.