/\ o . , /-itT; ,Q e V vA- f cx. i > THE ARABS IN CENTRAL AFRICA AND AT LAKI-: NYASSA. WITH CORHE^PONDEXCE WITH 11. M. SEOItETAIiY (>E STATE EOT FOHEKIX AFFAIRS ON THE A TTITUDE OF PORTUGAI.. 15 Y JAMES S TEVE NSON, F.K.S.E. CHAIHMAS (IF AFRICAN LAKES COMl’ANA', I.IMITFU. WITH TWO MAP8. (J Fi A S G U : JAaVFKS MAOLEHOSE a sons, F-Uxblishcrs^ to the fftnibevsito. 1 8 8 8. IASTE1!1«(1 A\Fi!ieA illustraliiig a Tirper by JA. STEVENSON ,T.TbS.E. Scale I -5,000,000. g ^ y to jc 40 _ fpo StatuteWles (S9.i6^1^). mStatwn (?/' t/w Africxtn J/dkes C9 » Mi.sfnonmy Sta . hake^ Jiuwtion TL)ad ( Stevenson Boaxx. Th^ fXTits e.xfyve-^s the Attitiute abm’e t/ur Le\'cJ Sea. I -1 Und0‘ SCOOt't UZlJOOO’GOOO tt. [E2 fh'ErOVOO ft. 'E.G f industrial population of the continent. ' In 1871 Livingstone found himself confronted by Arabs in various parts, and especially at Nyangwe he witnessed the • commencement of a system of wholesale massacre. From this | point in particular the tribes around were attacked. In a map published in 1883 I showed the extent to which these ravages had extended, along with the other regions throughout Central ! Africa in which slave-hunting had been destroying the popula¬ tion more or less. During the last five ye ars the information that has come to hand shows that the ravages of the Zanzibar Arabs have extended in area and intensity among some of the most advanced races of the interior, so that countries lying west of the great lakes have been destroyed over an area of one tlmusand miles in length ^ four hundre d in b readt h. The devastation extends as far as to the countries where the population was previously thinned by the West Coast slave trade, so that there is a near approach to the time when the nations of Europe may find that there is \ but a very small industrial population remaining in these parts. < Proceedings of the Fioyal Geographical Society, 1887, p. 640.—Dr. Wolf says of Lunda, etc. (see map) :—“The country from the coast to the Kassai is thinly populated, though all the villages I passed ; through showed a great number of healthy-looking children. This i will be understood if we remember that this region has for centuries j provided Angola and the foreign market with slaves.” 4 From the central regions slaves have recently been drawn to fill up the blanks created by earlier slave raids near the East Coast, but the source of supply is coming to an end, both from the exhaustion of the centre and quite recently from the Arabs having in a few places begun to cultivate by slave labour the lands from which the inhabitants had been expelled. Eeferring to the annexed map, I quote information from the various travellers who have, within the last five years, been witnesses of what has been going on. In order to give a \ general idea of what passes, I begin by quoting passages descrip- 1 tive of the scenes which accompany the ravages of the country I about Stanley Falls. This district is numbered 1 in the map. The Co7igo and tde Founding of its Free State, by H. M. Stan¬ ley (Vol. II., p. 140).—“Our guide, Yumbila, was told to question them as to what was the cause of this dismal scene, and an old man stood out and poured forth his tale of grief and woe with an exceed¬ ing volubility. He told of a sudden and unexpected invasion of their village by a host of leaping, yelling men in the darkness, who dinned their ears with murderous fusillades, slaughtering their people as they sprang out of their burning huts into the light of the fiames. Not a third of the men had escaped ; the larger number of the women and children had been captured and taken away, they knew not whither.” P. 144.—“ We discovered that this horde of banditti—for in reality and without disguise they were nothing else—was under the leader¬ ship of several chiefs, but principally under Karema and Kibunga. They had stai’ted sixteen months i)reviously from Wane-Kirundu, about thirty miles beloAV VinyaNjara. F or eleven months the band had been raiding successfully betAveen the Congo and tne Lubiranzi, on the left bank. They had then undertaken to perform the same cruel work betAveen the Biyerre and Wane-Kirundu. On looking at IS my map I find that such a territory Avithin the area described Avould cover suj)erficially 16.20 0 scpiare geographi cal m iles on the left bank, a nd 10,5 00 miles on t he right, all of AA^hichTin statute mileage Avoula be equal to 34,700 square miles, just 2,000 square miles greater than the island of Ireland, inhabited by about 1,000,000 people. “ The band AA^hen it set out from Kirundu numbered 300 fighting j men, armed AAuth flint locks, double-barrelled percussion guns, and a feAv breech-loaders; their folloAvers, or domestic slaves and AA'omen, doubled this force.Within the enclosure Av^as a series of loAV sheds extending many lines deep from the immediate edge of the clay bank inland, 100 yards ; in length the camp Avas about 300 yards. At the landing place jDeloAA^ Avere 54 long canoes, varying in carrying capacity. Each might conA^ey from 10 to 100 people. The first general impressions are that the camp is nuich too densely 5 peopled for comfort. There are rows upon rows of dark nakedness, relieved here and there by the white dresses of the captors. There I are lines or groups of naked forms—upright, standing, or moving about listlessly ; naked bodies are stretched under the sheds in all positions; naked legs innumerable are seen in the perspective of • prostrate sleepers ; there are countless naked children—many mere infants—forms of boyhood and girlhood, and occasionally a drove of absolutely naked old women bending under a basket of fuel, or cassava tubers, or bananas, who are driven through the moving groups by two or three musketeers. On paying more attention to . details, I observe that mostly all are fettered ; youths with iron rings ) around their necks, thT’oiigh which a chain, like one of our boat - anchor chains, is rove, secimng the captives by twenties. The children over ten are secured by these copper rings, each ringed leg brought together by the central ring, which accounts for the apparent listlessness of movement I observed on first coming in presence of this curious scene. The mothers are secured by shorter chains, < around whom their respective progeny of infants are grouped, hiding ' the cruel iron links that fall in loops or festoons on their mammas’ ' breasts. There is not an adult man captive amongst them.” ^ P. 148.—“ The slave traders admit they have only 2,300 captives in ] this fold, yet they have raided through the length cirnTbreadtlTof a f country larger than Ireland, lu'inging fire and spreading carnage with ^ lead and iron. Both banks of the river show that 118 villages and ; 43 districts have been devastated, out of which is only‘ educed'This ^ s'cairty^profit of 2,300 females and children, and about 2,000 tusks of ivory ! The spears, swords, bows, and the quivers of arrows show that many adults have fallen. Given that 118 villages were peopled only by 1,000 each, we have only a profit of 2 per cent., and by the time all these captives have been suBj ectecT to“the accidents of the river voyage to Kirundu and Nyangwe, of ca mp life and its harsh miseries, to the Ijavoc of smallpox, and the pests which miseries breed, there will only remai n a scant 1 per cent, upon the bloody vei^re.^ “They tell me, however, that the convoys already arrived at Nyangwe with slaves captured in the interior have been as great as their present band. Five expeditions have come and gone with their booty of ivory and slaves, and these five expeditions have now com¬ pletely weeded the large territory descrilied above. If each expedi¬ tion has been as successful as this the slave-traders have been enabled to obtain 5,000 women and children safe to Nyangwe, Kirundu, and Vibondo, ^iove the Stanley Falls. Tilts' 5,000 UiTtrof an annual I million will be at the rate of a half ]) er cent., or 5 slaves out of 1,000 people.This is poor profit out of'suciriarge waste of^ life, for originally we assume the slaves to have mustered about I To,000 in number. To o btaip the 2,300 slaves o ut of th e 118 * villages they must have s Tot a r oun d numbe r of 2,500 people, while 1,300 men died by tlie wa yside through scant px’ovisioiis and the intensity of their hopeless wretchedness. How many f’ I i / I 1 ! I arc wounded and die in the forest or droop to death through an overwhelming sense of their calamities we do not know; but if the above figures are trustworthy, then the outcome from the territory with its million of souls is 5,000 slaves, obtained at the cruel expense of 33,000 lives ! And such slaves f ’They areTeniales or young childreh^who^ cannot run away, or who with youthful indifference will soon forget the terrors of their capture ! Yet each of the very smallest infants has cost the life of a father, and perhaps his three stout brothers and three grown-up daughters. An entire family of six souls have be^ done to death to ol3tain that small, feeble, useless 'child ! These are my thoughts as I look upon the horrible scene. Every second during which I regard them the clink of fetters and chains strikes upon my ears. My eyes catch sight of that continual lifting of the hand to ease the neck in the collar, or as it displays a manacle exposed through a muscle being irritated by its weight or want of fitness. My nerves are offended with the rancid effluvium of the unwashed herds within this human kennel. The smell of other abominations annoy me in that vitiated atmosphere. For how could poor people, bound and riveted together by twenties, do otherwise than wallow in filth. Only the old women are taken out to forage. They dig out the cassava tubers and search for the banana ; while the guard, with musket ready, keenly watches for the coming of the revengeful native. Not much food can be pro¬ cured in this manner, and what is obtained is fiung down in a heap before each gang to at once cause an unseemly scramble. Many of these poor things have been already months fettered in this manner, and their bones stand out in bold relief in the atteiTuated skin, whdeh hangs down in thin wrinkles and puckers. And yet who can with¬ stand the feeling of pity so powerfully pleaded for by those large eyes and sunken cheeks ? ” This sufficiently describes the general situation.—Coining south of the great forest belt, indicated on the map, we have the following notices of observations made by recent German travellers to the east and west of Nyangwe, in two of the richest and best peopled regions of the continent, which have been wholly destroyed, and also in a district south of Nyangwe, where the process was beginning. Mr. Wissmann in 1881 came through the country of the Basonge, marked 2 in the map, in the very heart of the con¬ tinent, about the 5th parallel, south latitude, and says:—■ “ They lived in beautiful villages, miles in length, cultivated the land, and excelled in the manufacture of cloth, pottery, iron articles, and Avood carving. To the east of these tribes, however, I found that, in consequence of a recent inroad of the Arabs of NyangAve, the villag es had been d eserted. The Basonge have never yet seen an Arab, lioFTieard the report of a gun, but I am afraid their fate is sealed.” 7 On his second journey— Proceedings of the Rotjal Geographical Society, 1887, p. 776.—“From the 28th December, 1886, to the 23rd January, 1887, the caravan marched through the region of the gigantic villages met with on the first journey. Now the district was entirely depopulated. War and smallpox had entirely devastated the country. The want of food was so great that Wissmann lost 80 men from hunger and smallpox on the journey from the Sankuru to Nyangwe.” In the latter ■ place he found conditions also very much changed, in consequence of the events at Stanley Falls. The bearing of the Arabs towards the traveller was decidedly hostile.” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1887, p. 221.—“Dr. Lenz left Kasonge on June SOth, and traversing the plateau (marked 3 on the map), between that and Tanganyika, reached Mr Hore’s ' station on Kavala Island on August 7th. He found much of the route studded with recently-founded Zanzibar villages established by the Arab traders, the natives having been compelled to retreat into the forests and remote mountains.” Proceedings of the Royal Geographiml Society, 1887, p. 190.—“Ujiji was entered on August 15th. Here Dr. Lenz discovered that on account of the Avarlike raids of the Arabs and the excitement in Uganda, it Avould be impossible for him to push northwards to Emin Pasha, as Avas his original intention.” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1887, p. 643.— Dr. LudAvig Wolff .says (1886, February)—“Between Katshitsh and the Batondoi (marked 4 on the map), I met the poAverful chief Zappu / Zapp, Avho as a slave hunter is the curse of the country between/ the LuBilash and the Lomami. Nearly all his men were armed Avith > percussion guns, which he gets at NyangAve from the Arabs, in exchange for slaves and ivory. The other tribes are still armed Avith boAvs and arroAvs. This Avas the furthest point to the Avest whence the trade all goes to Zanzibar. Several of Zappu Zapp’s j men, also his sons, spoke the SAvahili language. Zappu Zapp wanted guns and powder from me. He did not care for anything else, i When I refused to accept his slaves and ivory he resolved to take : the ‘ En Avant ’ by force overnight.” Proceedings of the Roycd Geographical Society, 1887, p. 776.— “Wissman found that in the region between the Lomami and the Sankuru the conditions of trade have completely altered since 1884. Noav glass beads, arms, and poAvder form the chief articles of barter, having replaced the earlier coAvry shells.” One State, that of Kua, seemed to be holding out; but to the south of it, in the rich mining region of Katanga (marked 5 j on the map), we have these notices by Keichard, a German, and Capello and Ivens, Portuguese travellers. 8 Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1885, p. 606.— “On October 27tb they (Dr. Bohm and Herr Reichard) crossed into the kingdom of a powerful chief named Msiri, who had been waging a war against Urua during the last six years, in the course of which he had advanced as far as the Kikondia Lake. He was even then ‘ in the field ’ beleaguering a town named Katapena, and it was there the explorers joined him on January 20th, 1884.When Msiri at length returned to his capital (Kimpatu, in U-nkea), it became evident that he aimed at the traveller’s destruction. Tired of interminable delays, Herr Reichard at length started on September 25th with ‘ colours flying and drums beating.’ A hundred and fifty natives who sought to prevent his passage of the Lufira were easily put to flight, but thenceforth his progress became a continual struggle against cold, wet, and hunger.” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1887, p. 318.— Capello and Ivens “were now within the limits of the empire which Msiri, a native of Unyamwezi (called Ukalaganja, or Gara- ganza, by the western tribes), has carved himself out of the ancient dominions of the Kazembe, and which extends from Lake Kikonja and Urua in the north to the Mushinga Mountains in the south, and from the Lualaba eastward to the Luapula. This vast region is by no means devoid of natural wealth, but it has been depopu- lated__by war, and the traveller sometimes spends days dh the march witiiout encountering a single human being. The ‘Kinpata’ of Msiri, in the district of Bunkea, is approached through a perfect labyrinth of narrow lanes, planted with euphorbias, and decorated at intervals vdth trophies of human skulls, every one of which has a history attached to it, proclaim¬ ing the detestable cruelty of this parvenu among African rulers. Permission to proceed to Kazembe’s town, or even to visit the western shore of Lake Moero, having been refused, on the ground of the unsettled state of the country. Captain Ivens rejoined his com¬ panion at Ntenke’s, and Luapula.” We are now well down to the region west of Lake Nyassa. Of the country north of Lake Bangwelo (marked 7 in the map) we have from Reichard and Giraud a harrowing picture of desolation. Giraud also tells that it is the boast of the jDCople of Bemba, among whom it may be remembered that Livingstone encountered the first Arabs who had penetrated to the centre of Africa, that they had exterminated the Babisa (whose country is marked 8 on the map). This was an impor¬ tant tribe, who sometimes traded as far as the East Coast of Africa, but have latterly been carried thither in captivity by way of tlie ferries of Nyassa by the Aralis of Kota Kota. they resolved to make their way to the 9 Coming nearer the scene of the late disturbances, we have the , following description by Mr Moir, of the African Lakes Com¬ pany, of the destruction of a people whom the London Mis¬ sionary Society had hoped to evangelize. Their valley is j numbered 6 in the map. Scottish Geographical Magazine, April, 1885, p. 110.—Paper by F. M. Moir—“Within 20 miles of this station, Avhile we were on our march from Nyassa to Tanganyika, the fertile valley of the Lofu, was the scene of a t errible slave r aid. An Arab, Kabun da, who had been settled there lor about ten years, having man 5 ni 6 uses and slaves, determined to go to Zanzibar with his ivory. So he picked a quarrel with Katimbwe, the chief, and took all his cattle; then organized a sudden raid throughout all the valley, and evCTy man, woman, and child who could be found was seized and tied up. Yeiy few managed to escape him or his keen 'Euhfers, and a caravan was made up for the coast; but the smiling valley that had been known t as the Garden of the Tanganyika, from its fertility and the industry 1 of its people, now silent and desolate, was added to that already long ) stretch of hungry wilderness through which we had passed. . . / . . . To deal with, so far (Kabunda) was the polished gen¬ tleman. He told us he was going on next morning, and would pass our tents; his caravan was about 3,000 strong, two detachments had gone by a road to the back of us, as could be seen by the tracks in the grass. Accordingly, we were up betimes to see them pass. “ First came armed men, dancing, gesticulating, and throwing about their guns, as only Arabs can do, to the sound of drums, panpipes, and other less musical instruments. Then followed, slowly and sedately, the great man himself, accompanied by his brother and other head men, his richly caparisoned donkey walking along near by; and surely no greater contrast could be conceived than that between this courteous, white-robed Arab, with his gold-embroidered joho, silver ! sword and daggers, and silken turban, and the miserable swarm of naked squalid human beings, that he had wantonly dragged from their now ruined homes in order to enrich himself “ Behind the Arab came groups of wives and household servants, i laughing and talking as they passed along, carrying the camp utensils 1 and other impedimenta of their masters. After that the main rabble ] of the caravan, the men armed with guns, spears, and axes. Omin- | ously prominent among the loads were many slave sticks, to be handy ' if any turned refractory or if any likely stranger were met. Mingling j with and guarded l^y them, came the wretched over-burdened tied-up ' slaves. The men who might still have had spirit to try and escape were driven, tied two-and-two, in the terrible goree or taming stick, or in gangs of about a dozen, each with an iron collar let into a long iron chain, many even so soon after the start staggering under their loads. “ And the women ! I can hardly trust myself to think or speak of them—they were fastened to chains or thick bark rojjes ; very many. 10 ill addition to their heavy weight of grain or ivory, carried little brown babies, dear to their hearts as a white man’s child to his. The double burden was almost too much, and still they struggled wearily on, knowing too well that when they showed signs of fatigue, not the slaver’s ivory, but the living child would be torn from them and thrown aside^to die. One poor old bvoman I could not help noticing. She was carrying a biggish boy who should have been walking, but whose thin weak legs had evidently given way, she was tottering al¬ ready ; it Avas the supreme effort of a mother’s love—and all in vain ; for the child, easily recognizable, was brought into camp a conple of hours later by one of my hunters, who had found him on the path. We had him cared for; but his poor mother would never know. Already during the three days’ journey from Liendwe death had been freeing the captives. It was well for them ; still we could not help shuddering, as, in the darkness, we heard the howl of the hyenas along the track, and realized only too fully the reasoirwEyi these poor negroes may be in the moral scale, they have still strong maternal affection, and love of home and country.” i ypr ninety miles along the south coast of Tanganyika we have the entire population swept away, and in the adjoining fertile country of Fipa the Arabs are now in great force. During the last year letters from the Mission Stations ex¬ pressed apprehensions, on account of the presence near Lake Nyassa of the Arab Kabunda, of whose doings at Lake Tangan¬ yika Mr. Moir’s description has been given. The Arab traders had congi'egated in greater numbers at the Xyassa end of the road, on account of the small steamer of the African Lakes Com¬ pany having been for some time detained on account of dis¬ turbances near Bandawe. The killing first of one chief, and then when by the mediation of the agent of the Company no reprisals were made, the killing of another, indicated a desire to find an excuse for seizing the villagers to carry their ivory to the coast. The reprisals on the women belonging to the Arabs furnished a I colourable pretext for the seizure of tlie fifteen hundred, who I were afterwards rescued by the defenders of Karonga. Another motive is indicated in the following extract from the letter of the Eev. JMr. Scott of ]\Ianchester, to the Manchester Guardian. Manchester Guardian, Feb. 25, 1888 .—From a letter of the Rev. Mr. ^ Scott. —“ It is impossible to tell Avith accuracy the number that have been carried off Avith Arabs as slaves, but a large number of Avomen and children are knoAvn to be in their hands. That the fate of the 11 majority^of the former was not oiie^ of slavery only we have too much reason to fear. Lest it should be thought that I exaggerate, I will tell your readers that the leader of this ruffianly band, a Belooch i from Zanzibar, had the blackguard audacity to inform the Rev. J. A. 1 Bain, M.A., and Mr. Monteith, in an interview they had with him, before the massacre, what would be done with the ‘young Wa-Nkonde' girls,’ accompanying his atrocious statement with the foulest language. And there is no doiibt that most were abandoned to the Ruga-ruga and other ruffians who formed his force, whose only pay consists in uncontrolled licence of this kind, with a very small proportion of the booty captured.” The question is now fully brought before us—Are the atrocities of the Arab invasion now to be extended to Lake Nyassa ? At various points besides the north end the invaders are ready, and have been tentatively adding to their old station at Kota Kota one near the Bandawe Mission, and besides Losewa and Makanjira’s they have been aggressive near Blantyre. The Rev. Mr. Scott, head of the Blantyre Mission, in regard to this i district says :—“ The Arab slave trade is making frightful pro- S gress. Caravans of Arabs are pouring in—for trade ? No ! ( Hardly a bale of cloth goes up country from the East Coast; it is guns and powder, not even spirits. It is symply slaughter, and slau ghter of thousands, and the desolation of the fairest lands —lands where theHmlives were at peace, where industry and thrift and happiness ruled ; where to get through one village ; you might start in the early morning and not pass out of it till ; the sun was half-way down, journeying straight on ; and these are now desolate. Fresh routes are opening up to them, and ■ the desolation is spreading. It is not slave-trade ; it is ruthless ; massacre of the most barbarous type. There is actually a ne\v ' Arab village near the south end of Lake Nyassa.” On the other hand, the forces in favour of order, if properly i used, are much stronger on Lake Nyassa, and can be readily / augmented. For the purposes of defence, the coasts of Lake Nyassa are ; within easy reach. The steamers of the Company would set ‘ down reinforcements within three weeks after leaving the East Coast, and in favourable circumstances, for they pass rapidly through the malarious district, and the land journey past tlie ■ rapids is over high and healthy land. 12 There are thus no pliysical difficulties, but only those which arise from the present action of Portugal. The following quotations show the position twelve years ago. From The Civilization of South Eastern Africa, by James Stevenson. EEMARKS ON MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE APPROACH BY THE ZAMBEZI TO NYASSA, REQUIRING THE ATTEN¬ TION OF GOVERNMENT. When the Scottish missions proceeded to occupy the Shir6 Valley and LakeNyassa, arrangements were proposed that their communica¬ tions should be kept up by their employing vessels to enter the Kongone or Luabo mouths of the Zambezi from the ocean, and by smaller vessels on the rivers to connect that navigation with that of the steamer placed on Lake Nyassa. The original discovery and navigation of these river communications by agents of the British Government seems clearly made out in Livingstone’s Missionary Travels, pp. 640 and 665, Zambezi, pp. 16, 91. The only exception is about 30 miles of the Zambezi navigation from Mazaro to the entrance to the Shire, which is also part of the line of water communication between the Portuguese settlements of Quillimane, Mazaro, Senna, and Tette. The carrying out of this intention was deferred in conseci[uence of the receipt of a letter from Senhor Zagury, intimating that he had had conceded to him by the Portuguese Government the exclusive right of steam navigation between Quillimane, the Luabo mouth of the Zambezi, and Tette. The missions have since used the Portuguese approach by the Quillimane river, which connects itself by a porterage of six miles with the Zambezi at Mazaro. That this concession of the Portuguese Government would have been, if carried out, an invasion of British rights hardly admits of doubt, although it was not the part of the Mission to contest the matter. But the concession was probably hastily granted, when the passage of the British steamer Ilala attracted attention, with the view of keeping the question open, and it is understood to be now withdrawn. The Portuguese route from Quillimane to Tette above mentioned, as we have said, coincides for 30 miles with the new route from the mouth of the Zambezi to Nyassa, but the Portuguese are very much in the position of a power that has been withdrawing from it, which came about in this way. . The high price of slaves in Brazil, 40 years ago, induced a pretty ; general sale of the agricultural population connected with their ! settlements, destroying both their defensive power and their revenues. The Landeens, part of the great Abantu or Zulu Kaffir race, which 1 now occupies most of Eastern Africa from the Cape to within five degrees of the equator, have gradually, in the last 30 years, driven 13 them from the south bank of the river. The town of Senna is secured by the payment to the Landeens of an annual tribute or land-tax, enforced in case of refusal by occupation and slaughter of the inhabitants. Livingstone’s Missioncmj Travels, p. 658 ; Zambezi, p. 152 ; Fritsch, Eing. Sud. Africas, p. 494. The Livingstone Search Expedition found the inhabitants, in 1867, living on the islands of the Zambezi, in consequence of 600 persons having been killed the previous year on account of this and other provocations. The party in the Ilala also found that, in November, 1874, the Landeens had occupied Mazaro, on the north bank, with a slaughter of 200 people, when enforcing the payment of their land-tax there. As they also levy dues on the river, and the Portuguese Government has not seen its W'ay during thirty years to prevent their thus treating the whites as a conquered tribe, it woiild appear to be necessary to consider the position of this race as well as that of the Portuguese in any settle¬ ment. The concession of transit duties might be made to the Portuguese on condition of the river from Mazaro to the Shire being kept open, a task which, judging from P)ritish experience of the Kaffirs in South Africa, maj" involve difficulty and expense. With the Landeens between the mouth of the Zambezi and Mazaro we ])resume we must deal ourselves. The next steps were these. In 1877 the revised Portuguese tariff for Mozambique and the East Coast of Africa was issued. This contained the tw'o following clauses:— “ Art. 7 0. The transit of merchandise from places outside the provinces, and destined by land or water transit for foreign places adjoining I’ortuguese territory on the north or south, and also for countries situated bevond the confluence of the V rivers Shire and Zambezi, is permitted through the Customs Houses mentioned in Art. 11 on payment of a sole duty of 3 per cent, ad valorem.” “The Custom Houses mentioned in Art. 11 are Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, Angoche, Quillimane, Sofala, Inhambane, and Laurenco Marques.” “Art. 84. The taxes of 3 and 1 per cent, ad valorem which have been collected in the Custom Houses of Mozambique for public works are extinct, the Administration being expressly prohibited from reviving these taxes or fixing any other new ones on imports or exports.” A custom house in addition to the ports mentioned was established at the confluence of the Zambezi and Shir6. The 14 present African Lakes Company was accordingly formed, and a steamer was sent out in due course. The Portuguese have also been active on the south side of the Zambezi in suppressing the Landeens, the native race who occupied so important a position in 1876. This has been done by forces drawn from the other native races, who have been supplied with arms and have acted under leaders generally half-castes. The emigrants from Portugal to the pro¬ vince of Mosambique form hardly an element in the population at present. The revenues of the province have not been equal to the strain upon them, which has been a good deal felt among the official class. This may account for the freedom with which arms and ammunition have recently been sold to the Arabs at Quillimane, and no doubt some revenue as well as profit has been obtained. But, from the remarks of the liev, Mr. Scott, quoted above, it would appear that the immediate result is that these banditti are ruining the country just behind the province, which will return into the state of primeval forest when the population is destroyed. It is also worthy of con¬ sideration that the abundant supply of arms to this part of the country will probably precipitate the Arab attack upon the middle Zambezi and its tributary the Kafue, which lies next to the country ravaged by Msiri on the other side of the Machinga range. The African Lakes Company, who have steadily refused to sell guns or ammunition to the Arabs, have cause to complain that their peaceable operations should be eompromised in this way. The Missions also are placed in circumstances unfavourable to them. The company had fully equipped itself for conducting its affairs on a more important scale, when the recent block of the rivers occurred. The new river steamer of the company is a stern wheeler, intended to carry 7 5 tons on a moderate draft. They have also a steamer of considerable size in course of being put together on Lake Nyassa. It may be added that the company and the missions have expended altogether some £150,000. In pursuance of similar objects a survey was obtained and a road made for about forty- six miles through the rough country north-west of Lake Nyassa, towards Lake Tanganyika, which is reached from that point 15 through an easy country. The road was made by native labour, and the traffic on it was at first worked by parties hired by the company from the tribes Nkonde, Wanda, and Mambwe, with all of whom the company made treaties by which its authority was recognized over these districts, but it was almost inevitable that the management should slip into the easier way of letting the Arabs purchase goods at the Nyassa terminus, and convey them by their own people, often slaves, to Tanganyika, the European staff being too limited in numbers to superintend all the stations required. The international importance of this route has been indicated by almost all the recent explorers of the central regions, Giraud, Lenz, Wissmann, having returned from the Congo Free State this way. If the block on the road between the lakes continues this will be no longer possible, and an important part of Central Africa will be practically closed to Europeans, whereas if it were kept open there would be little danger of obstruction on either of the great inland seas, which are more favourably situated in this respect than either railways from the East Coast or narrow rivers from the West. A glance at the map shows it to be one of the most important routes in Africa, strategically considered. The elevation above the sea level pro¬ bably renders it more healthy for Europeans than Arabs, and its possession gives ready access to the centre of the Arab position on the continent. Although the training of the natives to industrial pursuits is a slow process, yet there are tribes like the Wa-Nkonde, who in their own way are an industrious and intelligent people, numbering about 30,000. They rescued the party besieged at Karonga, and some of them might be effectively organized for the defence of the country, and well led would no doubt keep the road to Tanganyika clear. The Angone, the Zulu race on the plateau west of Lake Nyassa, recently defeated the Bemba warriors, who co-operate with the Arabs in destroying their neighbours. There are also remnants of races, such as the Bisas, who have found a place of refuge on the islands of Lake Bangweolo, who would pro¬ bably be of use in any serious attempt to restore order in the country. 16 The company has paid all its expenses, but has been almost deprived of dividends by the fact that the Portuguese have for several years demanded higher duties than they were entitled to charge according to their own tariff. When these present difficulties are overcome the company ought to be placed on a more extended basis. This would no doubt 1)6 agreeable to the Portuguese in respect of yielding larger transit duties. It would also enable the company to be of still greater use in respect of the important objects to be accomplished in Africa. The first movement towards the establishment of the African Lakes Company was made by the Government of Portugal, and the attention of its promoters was specially called to the articles quoted at page 13 of this paper. The Portuguese Government had the means to understand thoroughly the views of those whom they desired to commence commercial enterprise in those jiarts. The promoters had good reason to expect from Article 70 that there would be no interference with them beyond the confluence of the rivers, and from Article 84 that these arrangements were permanent. The Portuguese Government, which had in vain endeavoured to find financial support for a claim of exclusive navigation of the rivers, has now for ten years recognized the British flag, as well as the flags of other nations, in these waters. The demand for the continuance of these arrangements is simply a demand for the observance of an honourable understanding under which substantial interests have been created at the instance of Portugal, and is all the more cogent because this route gives important access to such communities as the Congo Free State, lying far beyond any possible claim of Portugal. The advance of the Arab banditti, and the encouragement given them by the free sale of arms and ammunition, has rendered it imperative that the communities formed on Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika should have the right of introducing by the rivers such means of defence as they deem necessary, without hindrance from the Portuguese provincial authorities. PRINTED BY ROBERT .MACLEHOKE, PNIVERSTTY PRESS, 153 WEST NILE STREET, ikdis^m ahaL^isulutim> & Rihe SLAVE TRADE MAP OF EQUATORIAL Principal Dish ids harassed by Slave-Hunters to supply the Coast or Districts near it. 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