 He set out to quiet relations between the indigenous and Europeans; he met with the colonial Europeans to unite them and to persuade the local chief, Lhiumbulla, to stop detaining colonists (a fact that merchant Europeans continued to do for petty reasons).However, his attempts were an impossibility when the chief died, forcing Silva Porto to ask the colonial administration for a military force to protect Portuguese interests.After 1854 his activity was incessant, and by 1869 he had made six voyages to Lui and three to Benguela, where he would purchase the local shop Bemposta and remained sedentary, until 1879 when he returned to Belmonte.