1868, the President of the Republic of the Transvaal, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, claimed the territory on each side of the Maputo River down to the sea. In the following year, however, the Transvaal government acknowledged Portugal's sovereignty over the bay. Development of the city, 1850s–1890s In 1850, a small town was founded next to the fort. The town, like the fort, became known as Lourenço Marques. In 1871, the town was described as a poor place, with narrow streets, fairly good flat-roofed houses, grass huts, decayed forts, and a rusty cannon, enclosed by a recently erected wall high and protected by bastions at intervals. On 9 December 1876, Lourenço Marques was elevated to village status. The growing strength of the Transvaal led, to greater interest being taken back in Portugal in the development of a port. A commission was sent by the Portuguese government in 1876 to drain the marshy land near the settlement, to plant blue gum trees, and to build a hospital and a church. In 1885, the Vasco de Gama Gardens were laid out. On 10 November 1887, Lourenço Marques was declared a city by a royal decree by King Luís, who cited the settlement's material improvements and economic potential. The Witwatersrand Gold Rush, which began in 1886, further increased the economic development of the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Lourenço Marques served as the closest seaport for the export of gold and diamonds from South Africa. In 1889, another dispute arose between Portugal and the United Kingdom over the Portuguese seizure of the railway running from the bay to the Transvaal. This dispute was also referred to arbitration: in 1900, Portugal was found liable and ordered to pay nearly £1,000,000 in compensation to the railway company's shareholders. In 1892, a commercial newspaper, O Commercio de Lourenço Marques, began publication. In 1895, construction of a railroad to Pretoria, South Africa, caused the city's population to grow. In 1898, Lourenço Marques replaced the Island of Mozambique as the capital of Portuguese Mozambique. In 1891, a Portuguese politician, António José Enes, succeeded Júlio de Vilhena as High Commissioner of Mozambique. He, based out of Lourenço Marques, resisted British attempts to enter the region, defeated powerful African rulers, and solidified Portuguese military control over southern Mozambique. Chief Mpfumu Nuamantibjane of the Magaia tribe, one of the greatest opponents of Portuguese colonial occupation of Delagoa Bay,