Leiford's pessimism ultimately came down to money. The homeland would only suck Mozambique dry, so Mozambique could never pour funds into local development as East Africa did. Even setting aside the lack of money, the Portuguese homeland could not provide Mozambique with other useful support to reduce colonial costs. Both paths of increasing income and cutting expenditure had been blocked.
The East African Navy's exercises gave Mozambique's new governor something of a reality check, while Britain's Natal Colony responded to the East African exercises with a lukewarm, "Noted."
The East African Navy did possess a certain degree of threat, but it was not one the British feared. In 1877, Britain had nearly more than 180 capital warships. Before the British Royal Navy, the East African Navy was like an ant.
Of course, this ant still had some bite in the Western Indian Ocean, because the Royal Navy was a global force and could not gather in one place simply to crush it.
"What are the Germans trying to do? Show off? If they dared pull this stunt in India, Cape Town, or the Red Sea, I would admire them. But conducting such a meaningless exercise in Natal really gives us too much credit! Even if they tried it in Cape Town, the Germans would learn what the world's number-one navy truly was."
Natal Colony was, in the final analysis, merely a small colony built around Port Durban, vastly different from a major colony on Cape Town's level. Thus, in the Natal governor's eyes, East Africa's actions were beneath contempt. It was like two men fighting, only for one of them to run to the other's home and threaten his children.
East Africa's purpose was not merely to flex its muscles. On a deeper level, it was meant to declare an