CENTRAL north, and north-east of Lake Nyasa. The Zulu language is still spoken by the dominating caste in West Nyasaland. As regards foreign settlers in this part of Africa, the Arabs may be mentioned first, though they are now met with only in very small numbers. The Arabs undoubtedly first heard of this rich country—rich not alone in natural products such as ivory, but also in slaves of good quality — from their settlements on the river Zambezi, and these settlements date back to a very early period, and are possibly coeval with the pre-Islamite Arab settlements in the gold-bearing regions of South-East Africa. But the Arabs do not seem to have made much progress in their penetration of the country in the days before firearms; and when firearms came into use they were for a long time forestalled by the Portuguese, who ousted them from the Zambezi. But about one hundred years ago the increasing power and commercial enterprise of the Arab sultanate of Zanzibar caused the Arabs of Maskat and Zanzibar to march inland from the east coast. They gradually began to found strong slave - trading settlements on the east and west coasts of Lake Nyasa, and thence westwards to Tanganyika and the Luapula. They never came in great numbers, however, and, except here and there on the coast of Lake Nyasa, have left no mixed descendants in the population. Of Europeans British Central Africa proper (the Protectorate) now possesses about 450 settlers, including about 100 officials and military and naval officers. The Europeans are chiefly natives of the United Kingdom, but there are a few Germans, Dutchmen, French, Italians, and Portuguese. The British protectorate established over Central Africa has attracted an increasing number of Indian traders, besides whom about 300 British Indian soldiers (Sikhs) are employed as the nucleus of an armed force. The total value of the trade of the British Central Africa Protectorate in the year 1899-1900 was £255,384, showing an increase of 75 per cent, on the figures for the previous year. Imports were valued at £176,035, an increase of 62 per cent., and exports at £79,449, an increase of 109 per cent. The principal exports are coffee, rubber, and ivory. A number of Englishmen and Scotsmen (perhaps a hundred) are settled, mainly in the Shire Highlands, as coffee planters. A railway from the coast to Lake Nyasa is now considered, however, to have become an imperative necessity if the trade of the Protectorate is still further to increase. The African trans-continental telegraph line runs through the Protectorate, and a branch line has been established from Lake Nyasa to Fort Jameson, the present headquarters of the Chartered Company in North-Eastern Bhodesia. The principal European settlement or town is Blantyre, at a height of about 3300 feet above the sea, in the Shire Highlands. This place was named after Livingstone’s birthplace, and was founded in 1876 by the Church of Scotland Mission. The Government capital, however, is Zomba, at the base of the mountain of that name. Other townships or sites of European settlements are Port Herald (on the lower Shire), Chiromo (at the junction of the Buo and the Shire), Fort Anderson (on Mt. Mlanje), Fort Johnston (near the outlet of the river Shire from the south end of Lake Nyasa), Kotakota and Bandawe (on the ■west coast of Lake Nyasa), Likoma Island (off the east coast of Lake Nyasa), Karonga (on the north-west coast of Lake Nyasa), Fife (on the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau), Abercorn (on the south end of Lake Tanganyika), and Bhodesia (on the east coast of Lake Mweru). The present political divisions of the country are as follows:—The districts surrounding Lake Nyasa and the Shir6 Province are governed directly under the Imperial Government by a Commissioner, who
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acts under the orders of the Foreign Office. The districts to the westward forming the province of Northern Bhodesia are governed by an official of the British South Africa Chartered Company under the direction of the aforesaid Commissioner and of the Foreign Office. In process of time the two administrations will probably be fused in name as they are already in actuality. History.—The history of the territory dealt with above is recent and slight. Apart from the vague Portuguese wanderings during the 16th and 17th centuries, the first European explorer of any education who penetrated into this country was the celebrated Portuguese official, Dr F. J. M. de Lacerda e Almeida, who journeyed from Tete on the Zambezi to the vicinity of Lake Mweru. But the real history of the country begins with the advent of Livingstone, who in 1859 penetrated up the Shire river and discovered Lake Nyasa. Livingstone’s subsequent journeys to the south end of Tanganyika, to Lake Mweru, and to Lake Bangweulu (where he died in 1873), opened up this important part of South Central Africa and centred in it British interests in a very particular manner. Livingstone’s death was soon followed by the entry of various missionary societies, who commenced the evangelization of the country; and these missionaries, together with a few Scottish settlers, steadily opposed the attempts of the Portuguese to extend their sway in this direction from the adjoining provinces of Mo§ambique and of the Zambezi. From out of the missionary societies grew a trading company, the African Lakes Trading Corporation. This body came into conflict with a number of Arabs who had established themselves on the north end of Lake Nyasa. About 1885 a struggle began between Arab and Briton for the possession of the country, which was not terminated until the year 1896. The African Lakes Corporation in its unofficial war enlisted volunteers, amongst whom were Captain (afterwards Brigadier-General) Lugard and Mr Alfred Sharpe. Both these gentlemen were wounded, and the operations they undertook were not crowned with complete success. The present writer was sent out in 1889 to endeavour to effect a possible arrangement of the dispute between the Arabs and the African Lakes Corporation, and also to ensure the protection of friendly native chiefs from Portuguese aggression beyond a certain point. The outcome of these efforts and the treaties made was the creation of the British Protectorate and sphere of influence north of the Zambezi. In 1891 Mr (afterwards Sir) Harry Johnston returned to the country as Imperial Commissioner and Consul - General. In the interval between 1889 and 1891 Mr Alfred Sharpe, on behalf of Mr Bhodes, had brought a large part of the country into treaty with the British South Africa Company. These territories, now known as Northern Bhodesia, were administered for a considerable period by the present writer in connexion with the British Central Africa Protectorate. Between 1891 and 1895 a long struggle continued between the British authorities on the one hand and the Arabs and Mahommedan Yaos on the other regarding the suppression of the slave trade. By the beginning of 1896 the last Arab stronghold was taken and the Yaos were completely reduced to submission. Then followed during 1896-98 wars with the Zulu tribes, who claimed to dominate and harass the native populations to the west of Lake Nyasa. The Zulus having been subdued, there was every prospect of the country enjoying a settled peace and considerable prosperity. The native population numbers about 2,000,000, and is well disposed towards European rule, having indeed at all times furnished the principal contingent of the armed force with which the African Lakes Company or the British Government endeavoured to oppose Arab or Zulu aggression. The
