ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Brittle Books Project, 2014.COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION In Public Domain. Published prior to 1923. This digital copy was made from the printed version held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was made in compliance with copyright law. Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2014STANFORD'S COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAYEL (NEW ISSUE)LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS.' CHUM A,' Livingstone's Servant : of the Wahiao Tribe. {From a Photograph.) Chuma was released from the slave-traders on the Shir£ river by Bishop Mackenzie and his party, and was constantly with Dr. Livingstone during his last nine years of travel. He accompanied Livingstone's remains to England, and has subsequently served with Bishop Steere in the Nyassa country.STANFORD'S COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL (NEW ISSUE) AFRICA YOL. II. SOUTH AFEICA BY A. H. KEANE, F.E.G.S. AUTHOR OF 'ASIA' IN SAME SERIES*, 'EASTERN GEOGRAPHY,' ETC. ETC. MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD 26 & 27 COCKSPUR STREET, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 1895PEEFACE In the new issue of this series the single volume formerly thought sufficient for the treatment of African geography is replaced by two, each somewhat larger than that work. Yet the more than doubled space has seemed scarcely adequate to a proper exposition of the facts, both of a geographical and political order, which have accumulated with surprising rapidity since the leading Powers resolved, a few years ago, to transform this continent to a political dependency of Europe. Occurrences of far-reaching consequence have followed in such swift succession that in the preparation of this work the chief difficulty has been to keep pace with the shifting scenes. In some instances many carefully-prepared pages have had to be greatly modified, and even re-written, owing to the un- expected turn taken by events in various parts of the continent. From the contents it will be seen that a somewhat wider scope is here given to the subject of geography than has hitherto been usual. Such an enlargement, however, is not only in harmony with the broader views now generally entertained by the leading exponents of geographical science, but may perhaps be regarded as specially desirable in the case of a region where everything is new, and where information on closely-allied subjects may be welcome to students unable to consult the innumerable books of travel, scientific periodicals, and memoirs inviii COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL which this information is dispersed. Hence the space here given to history, political questions, and ethnology, without detriment, it is hoped, to more strictly geographical topics, such as the physical features, hydrography, and natural history of the continent. Of the original work by the late Keith Johnston nothing remains except a few passages, which appear as ordinary quotations, and some of the Ethnological Appendix, which is absorbed with much fresh matter in the body of the work. Of the illustrations in the original edition only the frontispiece and three small figures in the text have been retained in this Volume. The new illustrations have been chosen from the most recent and authentic sources available, and it is hoped may be found to add interest and value to the text. Of these a considerable number have been redrawn from copyright photographs, and special thanks are due to Sir John Kirk, Mr. F. L. Moir, and the Eev. A. Wookey of the London Missionary Society, for their kind permission to copy several from their collections. For the remainder the works of Mr. H. M. Stanley, Vincent's Actual Africa, Farini's Through the Kalahari Desert, Bryden's Gun and Camera in South- ern Africa, Dr. Brown's Story of Africa, and the Tour du Monde, have been put under contribution. Several have been reproduced from the photographs of Mr. W. Coates Palgrave; the "Victoria Nyanza Chief," on page 513, is from a photograph kindly lent by Mr. M'Dermott of the Imperial British East Africa Company; and the "Giraffes," on page 398, by kind permission of Messrs. Henry Dixon and Son, of Albany Street. A. H. KEANE. 79 Broadhurst Gardens, N.W., September 1895.CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE CAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS PAGE General Survey — The Cameroons — German Annexation — The Cameroon Mountain—Rivers—Climate, Floro, Fauna—Inhabit- ants—The Bantu Races—The Cameroon Bantus—Stations, Trade, Prospects—The Gulf of Guinea Islands : Fernando Po ; Prince's ; St. Thomas ; Annobon—The British South-East Atlantic Islands : Ascension ; St. Helena; Tristan da Cunha ; Diego Alvarez (Gough)—Table of the Gulf and South-east Atlantic Islands ...... 1 CHAPTER II FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA (GABOON AND OGOWAY BASINS ; LOWER CONGO) General Survey — Results of Geographical Research — Physical Features—The Coast Ranges—River Basins ; Gaboon, Ogoway, Kuilu, Chiloango—Climate of the West Equatorial Seaboard— Flora and Fauna—Inhabitants—The Indigenous Bantus—The Ba-Kalai and Fans—The Cannibal Zone of Equatorial Africa— The Pygmy Races—Stations ..... 35X COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL CHAPTER III THE CONGO FREE STATE PAGK General Survey : Formation of the Free State—Progress of Geo- graphical Research—Boundaries, Extent, Population—Physical Features—The Congo Basin—The Livingstone Falls and Congo Estuary—The Middle Congo and its Affluents—The Upper Congo, its Lakes and Tributaries—Lake Tanganyika and the Lualaba—Climate of the Congo Basin—Flora and Fauna—In- habitants and Native States—Garenganze, Katanga—Lunda, the Muata Yamvo's Kingdom—The U-Rua State—Manyuema and the Arabs of the Lualaba—The Ba-Lolo, Ba-Ngala, and Ba-Yansi Nations—The Ba-Luba and Tu-Shilange Territories — The Ya-Chibokwe and Kwango Ba-Ngalas — Table of the Congo Tribes and Nations—Bantu and Negro contrasted— Mission of the Congo Free State—Railway Projects—Trade and Free-trade Area—Administration . . . .69 CHAPTER IY PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA (ANGOLA-BENGUELA-MOSSAMEDES-HINTERLAND) Extent, Boundaries, Population—Portuguese Administration, the Slave Trade—Exploration—Physical Features—Rivers Coanza, Cunene—Climate, Flora, Fauna — Inhabitants: the Congo Empire: the A-Bunda Nation; the Ganguellas; the Aborigines —Table of the Chief Angolan Tribes—Towns, Stations—The Boer Immigrants—Resources ; Government; Prospects . 131 CHAPTER Y GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA (OVAMPO, DAMARA, AND GREAT NAMAQUA LANDS) German Annexations in South-West Africa—Boundaries, Extent and Population of the Protectorate—Geographical Research —Physical Features—Characteristics of Soil and Climate— Changed Climatic Conditions—Natural Resources ; Minerals— Inhabitants; Bantu and Hottentot—The Ova-Mpo—The Boers ;CONTENTS xi Upingtonia—The Ova-Herero and Hill Damaras—The Namas —The Hottentot Race and Language—Table of the Chief Tribes in German South-"West Africa—Population according to Races—German Policy ; Prospects of the Colony—Seaports and Inland Stations—Administration—Walvisch Bay . .163 CHAPTER VI cape colony Extent, Boundaries, Coast-line—Dependencies ; Areas, Populations —Historical Survey ; the Portuguese Pioneers—The Dutch in South Africa—The English in South Africa—The Kafir Wars ; Kafir Genealogies—Geographical Research—Physical Features „ —The Karroos—River Systems—The Orange Basin—Climate— Fauna—Flora—The Native Populations—The Cape Hottentots —The Bantus—The Kafirs—The Bushmen — Chief Tribal Divisions — Towns and Stations — Railway Development — Griqualand West and its Diamond Fields—Resources : Tillage, Pasturage, Industries, Trade—Education, Finance, Religion, Communications—Administration—Political Forecast; Con- federation . . . . . . .194 CHAPTEE VII south-east africa (natal with zululand j orange free state and transvaal) General Survey : Areas and Populations—Historic Retrospect: the Zulu Military System ; the Great Trek ; History of Natal and the Boer States—Physical Features—Rivers ; the Limpopo— Climate—Natural Resources : Mineral Wealth—Flora and Fauna—Inhabitants—The Coolies, Zulus, and Whites of Natal —Inhabitants of the Orange Free State—Inhabitants of Trans- vaal—Towns, Stations—Swazi and Tonga Lands . .279 CHAPTEE VIII british south central africa General Remarks—Political Divisions : I. Bechuanaland South and North—Geographical Exploration—Physical Features— The Kalahari Wilderness—Fluvial Systems : Lake Ngami— Inhabitants of Bechuanaland—Table of the Chief Bechuana Nations—The Bushmen—Stations and Trade Routes—Materialxii COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Progress — II. Zambesia South and North—Political Divisions, Boundaries, Extent — Historic Retrospect—The Zimbabye Ruins—Geographical Research—British Occupation of Mashona and Matabili Lands—The Barotse and Makololo States—Physical Features of South Zambesia ; Mineral "Wealth — Matabililand Scenery— Climate — Fauna — Inhabitants — North Zambesia : Physical Features—Rivers of Zambesia— The Zambesi—The Victoria Falls—Lake Nyassa—The Shire Basin—Lake Shirwa—Climate of North Zambesia—Flora and Fauna—Inhabitants—Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations in North Zambesia—The Ba-Lundas, Barotse, Mambundas, Ba- Shukulumbwe, Ba-Tonga, Manganja, Makololo, Awamwamba, Awawandia—The Stevenson Road .... 332 CHAPTEE IX portuguese east africa (gazaland ; mozambique) Boundaries, Extent, Divisions, Population—Portuguese Maladminis- tration — Historic Retrospect; Present Relations — Physical Features ; the Namuli Highlands—Rivers ; Zambesi Delta— The Sabi, Pungwe, and Rovuma Rivers—Climate—Flora— Fauna—Natural Products—Inhabitants of Gazaland : Tongas ; Ba-Lempas ; Banyans ; The Portuguese Half-breeds—Inhabit- ants of Mozambique : Wa-Yao ; Makua—Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations in Portuguese East Africa—Towns and Stations: Louren^o Marques; Delagoa Bay ; Inliambane; Sofala ; Quilimane ; Mozambique ; Angosha ; Fernao Vellozo ; Ibo ; Zumbo ; Tete ; Sena ..... 443 CHAPTEE X german east africa Historic Retrospect—Boundaries; Extent; Prospects—Geographical Exploration—Physical Features—Kilimanjaro—Rivers and Lakes ; Sources of the Nile—Lakes Manyara, Eiassi, Victoria Nyanza, and Rukwa—Climate—Flora and Fauna—Inhabitants —Wa-Zambara; Wa-Zeguha — Wa-Sagara ; Wa-Hehe ; Ma- Konde ; Wa-Swahili; Wa-Taveita ; Wa-Gweno ; Karagwe ; Wa-Huma Migrations—Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations in German East Africa—Towns; Stations — Kiloa ; Dar-es- Salaam ; Bagamoyo ; Mpwapwa ; Taborah ; Ujiji . . 480CONTENTS xiii CHAPTEE XI BRITISH EAST AFRICA PAGE General Survey ; Extent, Population, Political Situation — Geo- graphical Exploration—The Tana, Juba, and Sabakhi Basins— Exploration of Masai and Kavirondo Lands—Exploration of the Equatorial Lake Region—Physical Features ; the Coastlands— Masailand—Lakes Naivasha, Baringo and Samburu—The Kenia and Aberdare Highlands—Kavirondoland—Uganda ; the Vic- toria Nile—Unyoro, Koki, Ankole—The Albertine Nile ; Lake Albert Edward—The Semliki River ; Lake Albert NTyanza— Ruwenzori — Inhabitants — Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations of Ibea—General Ethnical Relations in Ibea—The Bantus of the Tana Basin—The Masai; Wa-Kwafi; Ando- robo — The Waganda ; the Kitwara Empire—Political and Social Institutions—Kingdom of Unyoro—Towns; Stations —Progress and Prospects—The Zanzibar Protectorate . . 528 CHAPTEE XII ISLANDS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN "Lemuria" ; The Indo-African Continent—Madagascar—Historic Retrospect—Physical Features—Rivers; Climate—Flora and Fauna—Inhabitants—Social Progress ; Spread of Christianity —Administration—Topography— Antananarivo; Tamatave ; Diego Suarez—Nossi-Be and the Comoro Group—The Mas- carenhas : Mauritius ; Reunion ; Rodrigues—The Seychelles —The Cargados and Amirantes . . . . 597 CHAPTEE XIII THE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES Madeira ; The Canaries : Cape Verd Islands ; The Azores . . 636 INDEX 657LIST OF MAPS 1. Orographical Map of Africa . . . To face page 1 2. German Cameroon . , . . ,, 34 3. Congo Free State and French Congo . . . ,, 162 4. German South-West Africa . . . ,, 192 5. Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State . . ,, 278 6. South African Republic, Bechuanaland, etc. . . 330 7. Rhodesia, British Central Africa, and Portuguese East Africa. . . . . . ,, 442 8. German East Africa . . . . ,, 526 9. British East Africa . . . . ,, 596 10. Madagascar, Mauritius, etc. . . . ,, 634 11. "West African Archipelagoes . . . „ 654LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. c< Chuma," Livingstone's Servant 2. The Cameroon Mountain 3. Fernando Po 4. Jamestown, St. Helena 5. Rapids of the Ogoway . 6. Falls of the Ivindo 7. Head of a Gorilla 8. Hippopotami .... 9. Ishogos ..... 10. A Ba-Teke Native 11. Wambutti Pygmies at Home 12. View of Loango .... 13. Native of Cabinda 14. Village on the Lower Aruwimi . 15. Stanley Pool .... 16. Yellala Falls .... 17. Banana Point .... 18. Seventh Cataract, Stanley Falls 19. Cascades of the Nepoko 20. South End of Lake Tanganyika 21. Herd of Elephants 22. Bantu Types from the Congo 23. Kavalli, Chief of the Ba-Biassi . 24. The Songue Antelope 25. Sao Paulo de Loanda 26. Mossamedes .... 27. Banks of Orange River—Great Namaqualand 28. Bethany—Great Namaqualand . 29. Hill Damara .... 30. Ova-Herero "Woman, Namaqualand 31. Nama Huts .... 32. Okahanja—Kamaherero's Kraal 33. Table Mountain, from Table Bay 34. The " Hundred Falls"—Orange River . 35. Zebra ..... 36. The Secretary Bird 37. A Kafir Kraal . . 38. Kafirs taking Snuff 39. Cape Town and Table Mountain 40. Main Street, Port Elizabeth . . • 41. De Beers Mine, Kimberley. Open Workings Time ...... PAGE Frontispiece 5 22 32 41 43 48 49 51 55 61 64 67 78 80 81 83 84 90 96 104 . 122 . 124 . 144 . 153 . 159 . 168 . 169 . 178 . 180 . 185 . 191 . 217 . 224 . 233 . 234 244 246 . 253 . 255 at the Present . 265xvi COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL PAGE 42. The Yaal River at Barkly West . . . . 293 43. A Zulu ........ 308 44. Johannesburg ....... 322 45. General View of Pretoria ..... 323 46. Durban and Port Natal ..... 325 47. The Principal Street of Durban .... 328 48. Molopolole, Town of the Bakwena Tribe . . . 343 49. Molopo River ....... 348 50. Pool on the Maritsani ...... 349 51. The Upper Limpopo River ..... 351 52. Masinya's Kraal—Ngamiland . . . . . 363 53. Ruins at Zimbabye . . . . . .374 54. Salisbury . . . . . . .380 55. Two-Horned Rhinoceros ..... 397 56. Giraffes ........ 398 57. Blantyre Church . . . . . .403 58. Zambesi at Shupanga . . . . . .411 59. Victoria Falls of the Zambesi ..... 415 60. Falls of Zoa on the River Ruo ..... 421 61. Baobabs on the Island of Chisumulu .... 426 62. Chiefs House, Wankonde Tribe .... 432 63. The Governor-General's Palace, Mozambique . . . 450 64. Rock Hills, Usambara ...... 492 65. Kilimanjaro ....... 495 66. Lake Uriji ....... 500 67. South-West Extremity of Lake Victoria Nyanza . . 502 68. The Flower of the Baobab Tree .... 507 69. Euphorbia Candelabrum ..... 508 70. Colobus Guereza ...... 510 71. Victoria Nyanza Chief ...... 513 72. Ivory at Bagamoyo .... . . 523 73. Ujiji, General View ...... 526 74. View of Ripon Falls ...... 552 75. South End of Albert Nyanza ..... 561 76. Ruwenzori from Karimi. ..... 563 77. King Mutesa's Daughter . . . . .578 78. Uganda Boy ....... 581 79. Mombasa, from the North Shore, with Custom-House and Fort 589 80. Landing Place, Zanzibar . . . . 594 81. Brown Mouse Lemur ...... 598 82. The Traveller's Palm . . . . . .613 83. Madagascar Oxen . . . . . .617 84. Betsimisaraka Women . . . . . .619 85. A Hova ........ 620 86. The Palace of the Queen of Madagascar . . . 624 87. General View of Tamatave ..... 627 88. Chanarel Falls, Mauritius ..... 632 89. Funchal ........ 639 90. The Burning Mountain, from Yaiza, Lanzarote . . 643 91. Peak of Teneriffe ...... 645 92. Las Palmas ....... 649C.Fimsterf« N O R T 11 ANT I C C.SffinjaA Straff o£ Qy 'Tangief^rteut" ^ /' Biscay g ROME l III ALGIER . Z>a»w 30° \500 N \60° B\L A C K SKA R Tretdzomd, H 4f f jj40° * o Damascus An PERSIA ! Cajuir\-Islands a, ■ * ✓ • J J Cs'Bojador^ SebUtaDU A fel'ele j ^ S A H A 11 A o R /:/ Ju C-Blancbfa-Itnfum At.,,- J™*™."-, -F-^l * . ' ° oShingtiL : . 201 2/.___^ J R E «/■.-• .,______________A s a vr a d CM'ik C. Verd/j. F.Gortv BissagoiIfi»**. w. JOfunr. - v#Ub ScardcsM SIERRA^ , LEONE ! Sherbi . > rftnbo ■ ! Tronic of Cancer ARAB I\ >"yfcy * " Af^yfj ^ JM mir\ *«**•/ ^ -v «' - • •v-' «&-- * ■' 7i £ ^ Gp y h,orv r^v&y ' ! V i- , O -1 CV-'" Rob'ertsp___ Q MOSKQVl J., $ v. "T,<" Bei«lia Gu7/o/5i' Mogadon fT / El Erg *■«* .M# ...../ _l r S.Gvt isthmus OFSUEZ $ y JitroMib• Mtu-iiiieii x°- ■■< Jhpitet-Am (r.ot'J/cubah - v i Temasatrdn Mouah SM > F E Z° Z A Kj MURZUk3 Faratr Dale serbo 0 i#u.* K xi £ r a Ai >i. 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ZANZIBAR •V fir—- Sl'T Ibaiisiii \ ^ $ette Xhanga May/wi Kailui oc A i.u-i Chiloan •v ITabettd: R :Conga Uhmdo M'd /i .. r»au C O NG O Bettibo Aitibri Bra^aS STPHULDE LOANO OutBeriffue NovottedonH Quicomh Effit Katombel BENGUE C.^Jfarvi Baro t& ^Qthit-hcuue. ,~-j , J a ' Comoro!^ *** pr" »> 6*? Helena 1. Br. |2pl Tropic of Caprico .•Qite^pn ilh|r> ' '<<(/i/>a \ + Fr. . y jlvo«a Br. British Possessions Fr. French G. German It. Italian P. Portuguese .. Sp. Spanish OROGRAPHICAL MAP OF A F R I C A Scale. 1:30.096.000, 475Enlist. Miles to llnx-li. Scale of English Miles t=l i==r i I i-1 lOO O loo 200 300 400 500 600 Tele^raplx Cables. fA»i«.......... Above 10,000 feel ....... • • • . 5000 to 10,000 ,w — '1000 to 5000...... .................HHI <5«9 to 2000 ................I I 0 to 600 .......„.................I I land and Salt Lakes below the level of the Secu. ^ \ Iff1, \ \ ! W.clr. \0 \E.Gr. Wolfish B» ,,, ^7- , Schfppm ansae HaBamBird Br , ! Spencer B_ Altera Pcquena B.&IdttleFishR. Roast Beef i) gjMhmhoB. A ^mozami^IQOK "■lijmAifal*. /c*—- x- //,, -i , 'Jfcinfira/i' jr-O \sr Mouths a/' \) 'va^g^e Zamle4^. ^ sta/hiamm i \ TshihUmmh a, CJtfVi juhiunbanc. . ^ S'AM^istjaeR '. Corrientes ^ Orang'- PortNoUot1 Jjmipopo Ji. Bay %Iorehxt> Man/u s t '$siR. LA.'Lucia C/SfLucw ('^1 tuber i | 201 waAeiaJ JFtDaiiphin, j& C.ltapcruiy ^ u^eh/t. _ MARITSBURG 'itcbau______ "'"""'Hiujt. Saldmiha Ji Tab/ejrjRA| CAPE TOWf^r Capcd-C.oodH«e^^^^Y> /»' r i ^ V I 30" =F^ 11 Drawn & Engraved, at Stanford 's Geog. Establishment London-.Edwaj?cL Staxifoi-d,26 &27 Cockspur St.,Charing Cross. S.WSOUTH AFRICA CHAPTER I the cameroons and south-east atlantic islands General survey—The Cameroons—German annexation—The Cameroon mountain—Rivers—Climate, flora, fauna—Inhabitants—The Bantu races—The Cameroon Bantus—Stations, trade, prospects—The Gulf of Guinea Islands : Fernando Po ; Prince's ; St. Thomas ; Annobon— The British South-east Atlantic Islands : Ascension ; St. Helena ; Tristan da Cunha ; Diego Alvarez (Gough)—Table of the Gulf and South-east Atlantic Islands. General Survey About the head of the Gulf of Guinea the northern and southern divisions of the continent are clearly separated by a great volcanic fault, whose main axis runs for about a thousand miles in the direction from south-west to north-east. At one extremity the Pico do Fogo (" Fiery Peak ") rises to a height of 3250 feet above the island of Annobon; at the other stands the lofty Mount Alantica, culminating point of the Adamawa highlands (10,000 feet). Between these extremes the cones of the other islands in the Gulf—St. Thomas, 7000 ; Prince's, 2700; Fernando Po (Clarence Peak), 10,100—together with the vol. ii b9 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL superb crests of the Cameroon group on the opposite mainland, 13,000 to 13,500 feet, are all disposed along the line of fault in the same north-easterly direction. The islands themselves, which stand at intervals of about 120 miles one from the other, lie in comparatively shallow waters, everywhere under 1000 and at Fernando Po falling to less than 350 fathoms. Hence it cannot be doubted that they form part of the same igneous system with which the more remote volcanic islets of Ascension and St. Helena may also have been connected. But this volcanic insular and continental borderland between North and South Africa is distributed politically amongst no less than four European Powers. Ascension and St. Helena in the Atlantic, as well as the still more remote Tristan da Cunha group in the austral seas, are British Crown Colonies. Within the sphere of influence of the same Power comes the magnificent upland region of Adamawa, a recognised dependency of the Fulah empire of Sokoto, which is now a British protectorate, but which, belonging to the northern division of the Continent, does not come within the scope of the present volume. Of the chain of gulf islands the two central links, St. Thomas and Prince's, are Portuguese, the two outer, Annobon and Fernando Po, are Spanish possessions. All the rest— that is, the Cameroon highlands, with their unexplored hinterland stretching north-eastwards to Adamawa—forms part of the German colonial empire. The Cameroons Till recently the Cameroon highlands were commonly supposed to form a dependency of the British Empire, and they certainly came within the " sphere of British in- fluence." They had been mainly explored by EnglishTHE CAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 3 travellers, and English missionaries had long been engaged in evangelising the natives, and had for some years maintained the flourishing station of Victoria on the south coast. English traders also had for generations largely monopolised the local traffic, to such an extent that English was and still is the common medium of communication between the whites and the coast tribes. But a few German traders had also of late years established factories and acquired lands on the slopes of the mountains; and when the German nation resolved to create a colonial empire this was considered sufficient ground for hauling down the British flag, which had already been hoisted at some points of the interior, and proclaiming the whole region a German protectorate. After protracted diplomatic negotiations the British Government accepted the " accomplished fact"; the distinguished traveller, Dr. Nachtigal, was sent out as Imperial Commissioner; the missionaries were dismissed, their vested interests being duly respected; and the Cameroons became German territory by agreement with Great Britain in 1885. At the same time an amicable arrangement with France resulted in the cession to that .Power of certain German factories or trading stations on the Senegambia seaboard in exchange for all Erench claims south of the Niger delta and north of the Gaboon. The northern frontier of the German domain towards the British Mger protectorate has been fixed at the Eio del Bey (Eiari), and beyond that river by a conventional line running north-eastwards to a point above Yola on the Benue. Southwards it is separated from Erench territory by the Bio del Campo (Etembue), giving to the Cameroons a coast-line of about three hundred miles, round what was formerly known as the Bight of Biafra. By the Franco-German Agreement of March 1894, the4 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL frontier line of the French and German spheres of in- fluence in the interior runs from the southern boundary to the Egoko river, which is followed to 2° K lat.; it is then drawn straight to the Sanga river, which it follows for eighteen miles, and then runs direct to a point at 4° N. lat. near Bania, whence it follows the 15th degree of east longitude to 8° 30' N". lat., and then runs west- wards across the Mayo Kebi straight to 10° N". lat., which parallel forms the boundary as far as the Shari river; the frontier is continued along the course of this river to Lake Chad. Since the German occupation, several short expedi- tions have been made to the interior, especially by Schwarz and Knuston, who, in 1885, advanced some seventy miles north-eastwards to Lake Mbu; by Lieu- tenants Kund and Tappenbeck, who, despite much opposition from the natives, were able to determine the upper courses of several streams flowing to the Gulf of Guinea; by Knuston and Yenau, who, in 1887, surveyed the uplands inhabited by the Bamboko nation; by Mr. H. H. Johnston, who, in 1888, ascended the Cross river, and collected much valuable geographical and ethnological in- formation regarding the border lands between the British and German domains; by Dr. Zintgraff, who, in 1889, penetrated from the Cameroons north-eastward to Adam- awa, where a junction with Flegel's route was effected at Donga; lastly by Lieutenant Morgen, who, in 1890-91, crossed from the Batanga coast along the course of the important river Sannaga (Mbam) to the powerful Fula kingdom of Tibati in Adamawa, and thence through Gasheka and across the Bakundi (Tarabba) valley to the Benue at Ibi. Nevertheless, only a very small portion of the region claimed by Germany as her " Hinterland " has been visited, while the territory brought under theTHE CAMEKOONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 5 direct jurisdiction of the High Commissioner is estimated at less than 12,000 square miles, with a population of aboiit half a million. The Cameroon Mountain The great geographical feature of this region is the Cameroon mountain, which in the terminal peaks known as the " Three Sisters " attains an altitude of nearly 14,000 feet, and which is probably the culminating point on the west side of the continent. It is doubtless greatly ex- ceeded in height by the giants of the Euwenzori group, as well as by Kilimanjaro, Kenia, and the Abyssinian Semen on the eastern seaboard. But, springing sheer from the water's edge, it presents a more imposing sight than any of these eminences, which already stand on THE CAMEROON MOUNTAIN.6 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL plateaux several thousand feet above sea-level. The Mongo-ma-Loba, or "Mountain of the Gods," as it is called by the natives, was first scaled in 1847 by Merrick, who, however, failed to reach the summit. This exploit was reserved for Burton, Mann, and Calvo, who, in 1862, mounted to the terminal craters, from the highest of which (Victoria Peak) smoke was rising. Thus was determined the igneous character of the Cameroon mountain, which in fact consists of an intrusive volcanic mass, everywhere presenting heaps of ashes, numerous lava streams, and recent scoriae, besides dozens of lateral cones, the whole standing on an isolated base some 700 or 800 square miles in extent. The lower slopes are clad to a height of 6000 feet with a magnifi- cent forest vegetation, succeeded higher up by grassy slopes, and towards the summit by bare lavas, which are at times streaked with snow. No native habitations rise higher than about 3500 feet, which also marks the limit of the cultivated plants, such as the coco-nut, banana, and oil-palm. Beyond these follows a tangle of bombax and other large African species bound in the coils of huge lianas, and gradually yielding to woodlands of an almost European character. But there is a remarkable dearth * of Alpine forms, which may, perhaps, be explained by the comparatively recent origin of this West African igneous system. North and south of the volcanic mass the prevailing formations are sand or gravel underlying a thick layer of alluvial mud, while here and there gravel heights with fragments of porphyry and quartz relieve the monotony of the level mangrove swamps fringing the fluvial estuaries, and extending to the foot of the hills. " Here are often discernible the traces of an ancient shore-line, showing that this continuous fringe of flat marsh-land whichTHE CAMER00NS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 7 borders so much of Western Africa was clearly formed by the constant alluvial deposit of the many streams and torrents perpetually coming down from the interior tableland" (H. H. Johnston). Rivers The Cameroons are almost everywhere encircled either by marine or fluvial waters. The rivers, though numerous, have generally short courses, none except the Sannaga (Mbam) rising far inland, and all converging in broad creeks or estuaries, such as those of the Rio del Rey, the Memeh (Ndobe), the Mungo, and the Cameroon. The last mentioned, the estuary of which is by far the largest on this part of the coast, gives its name to the whole region, and was itself so named by the early Portuguese navi- gators from the abundance of Cameraos or " prawns " found on its muddy banks. It was surveyed in 1886 by Johnston for some sixty miles to the point where it trends south-eastwards, rushing between gneiss walls over the falls formed by the outer escarpment of the plateau. Some miles below the falls, the Wuri, as the natives call the main headstream, sweeps round a large island, beyond which its united waters develop a spacious estuary, which is joined on the north by the Mungo, on the south by the Lungasi, Donga, and Kawkwa coast streams. By far the most important of all these rivers are the Sannaga or Mbam, which rises in the very heart of Adamawa, and which is navigable for forty miles to the falls of Idia, and the Mungo, whose sources lie nearly 100 miles inland. After receiving the overflow of the Balombi-ma-Mbu, or "Elephant Lake," the Mungo de- scends through a series of rapids a total height of about eighty feet, beyond which it continues its south-westerly8 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL course to the Cameroon estuary, where it develops a large delta. One branch of this muddy plain is the Bimbia, which enters the Gulf of Guinea at the station of Bimbia, and which is accessible to vessels of large draught. Throughout its lower course of over seventy miles, the Mungo is navigable by large boats, and is here obstructed only by one somewhat difficult rapid. All the rivers following south from the Cameroon are, like it, interrupted by falls in their middle or lower course, and all present the same formation at their mouth where the alluvial, mangrove-covered banks are all disposed in the same direction from south to north under the influence of the marine current, which here sets normally from the equator towards the Gulf of Guinea. Such are the Edea, which is accessible to boats for over thirty-five miles; the Moanya, navigable by small steamers to the falls twenty-four miles from its mouth; and the Lobe or Great Batanga, whose pictur- esque cascade seen from the sea looks like a silver thread suspended athwart the stream, but which is really a copious river precipitated from a rocky ledge over fifty feet high. The Eio del Campo in the extreme south, and the Eio del Eey in the extreme north, are more important as political frontiers than as fluvial basins. The latter, which has been carefully surveyed by Johnston and Knuston, was long supposed to mingle its waters with the Memeh, which is now shown to be an independent coast stream reaching the gulf in a separate channel to the south both of the Eio del Eey and of the Eumbi.THE CAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 9 Climate—Flora—Fauna The regret felt in England at the cession of the Cameroons to Germany was partly due to the prevalent belief that these highlands might serve as a sanatorium or health resort for Europeans exhausted by the enervat- ing climate of West Africa. But such a belief seems to have rested on no solid foundation of fact, and further experience has shown that these uplands, like Sierra Leone and so many other high grounds near the equator, afford little immunity from the effects of malaria and a uniformly high temperature combined with moisture. The Cameroons lie just beyond the zone of double rains along the Upper Guinea seaboard ; but the numerous streams and exuberant vegetation are sufficient indica- tion of an abundant rainfall, a condition which within the tropics may always be regarded as unfavourable to the physical constitution of the white race. It is not the heat but the saturated hot atmosphere that is so oppressive, and in the Cameroons the hot atmosphere is not only saturated but also often charged with malarious vapours rising to a considerable height from the sur- rounding marshy coastlands. Higher up, the summer rains, usually lasting from May till September, are followed by fierce winter gales, and the volcano is seldom clear from fog except during the prevalence of the dry harmattan blowing from the Sahara across the Sudan to the Gulf of Guinea. It is obvious that the slopes of the great mountain are not a desirable residence for invalids. Owing to the porous nature of the soil, there is also a great deficiency of springs, none occurring higher than about 9000 feet. Hence the zone suitable for health resorts is considerably-10 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL restricted, and such establishments could be founded only at the few points within this zone that afford a supply of spring-water. Here have been settled for some time a few Swedish colonists, some of whom, such as Knuston and Benau, have done much useful exploring work in the surrounding districts. Besides the already-mentioned banana, oil-palm, and coco-nut, the chief cultivated plants are ground-nuts, the wine-palm, manioc, yams, sweet potatoes, and the edible colocasia. The latter, locally known as " coco," is really the same tuber as the taro which is so widely diffused throughout Polynesia, whence it was probably introduced by English traders. All these useful plants thrive well on the rich alluvial plains and lower slopes of the uplands. The indigenous vegetation includes the man- grove of the low-lying coastlands and estuaries, the raffia palm and pandanus, also on the lowlands, and a varied growth of tropical and sub-tropical forest trees matted together by huge creepers 011 the higher slopes. One of these creepers is the Landolphia Jlorida, which grows to a length of- 180 or even 200 feet, and from whicfy the Swedish settlers extract a kind of caoutchouc. The elephant, formerly numerous on the seaboard, has mostly withdrawn to the interior, where large herds are still met in some of the woodlands fringing the banks of the streams, especially in the Mungo basin. But the tusks are coarse-grained, and the ivory collected in this region is of a brownish colour and of slight commercial value. Resident traders speak of the gorilla and chimpanzee, but none of these large anthropoid apes have yet been seen, although smaller monkeys are numerous in the wrooded tracts. On the other hand, there is an immense variety of the lesser fauna, includ- ing several new species of venomous and harmless snakes,THE CAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 11 batrachians, chameleons, and tortoises described by the zoologist Buchholz. A curiosity of the marine fauna is a peculiar species of yellow shrimp (Thalassina), which in the months of August and September almost chokes the Cameroon and neighbouring estuaries. These crustaceans, doubtless the Cameraos of the Portuguese navigators, are taken by the basketful, dried, smoked, and forwarded in vast quantities to the inland popula- tions. The insect world is equally abundant, the ground glittering with the metallic sheen or phosphorescent light of beetles and fireflies, while the prodigious flocks of butterflies produce at a little distance the effect of a tremulous haze in the atmosphere. The Cameroons do not come within the zone of the true tsetse fly, which is here represented by the Glossina, an apparently closely-allied but harmless species. Inhabitants For the ethnologist there are few more interesting regions than the Cameroons. With the exception of the Southern Ibeas and of some Efik Negroes on the banks of the Memeh, this region is exclusively occupied by tribes of Bantu speech, and we now know from Johnston's careful survey that the lower course of the Bio del Bey coincides very nearly with the parting-line between the true Negro and the Bantu races on the west side of the continent. North and north-west of this river the Negro domain extends almost uninter- ruptedly through Upper Guinea and Senegambia to the Sahara; south of the same river the Bantu domain stretches across the continent southwards to the Hottentot-Bushman territory in the extreme south-west. The significance of this great ethnological fact for the12 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL future destinies of Africa can scarcely be overrated. It probably means that the south will eventually control the north, for the true Negro is of himself incapable of upward development, and without miscegenation cannot even be raised to the somewhat higher stage of culture represented by the Mohammedan Arabs of North Africa. All the intelligent and dominating peoples of Sudan— Eulahs, Toucouleurs, Kanuri, Haussas, Mabas, Dasas, Nubians—are mixed races, where the Negro element is in inverse ratio to the material and moral progress of the people. Where that element exclusively or mainly prevails, as amongst the Ashanti and others of Upper Guinea, the Battas of Adamawa, the Mosgus of the Chad basin, the Nubas of Kordofan, the Bari, Shilluks, and others of the White Nile, there is practi- cally no progress. On the other hand, the higher Bantu groups—that is, those in which the Negro element is least pronounced— are of themselves capable of advancement, and without miscegenation can under judicious European control be elevated to a relatively high degree of social culture, Here, again, the non-Negro element is in direct ratio to the advancement of the people, as witness the present condition of Basutoland under healthy European influ- ences and of North Bechuanaland under that remarkable personality Khama, ruler of the powerful Bamangwato nation. The Bantu Races What is this non-Negro element? A satisfactory answer to this question will go far to solve the complex problem of South African ethnology, and cannot fail to be of great practical service to those European statesmen and chartered corporations who have recently acceptedTHE CAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 13. the responsibility of controlling the future destinies of half the continent. On the constituent elements of the Bantu races the present writer remarked in the year 1884 :— "The Wa-Huma, to whom the attention of ethno- logists has scarcely yet been seriously directed, present some points of great anthropological interest, probably affording a solution of the difficulties connected with the constituent elements of the Bantu races in East Central Africa. Speke had already observed that the chiefs of the Bantu nations about the great lakes were always Wa-Huma, a pastoral people evidently of Galla stock, and originally immigrants from the Galla country. Since then it has been ascertained that several Wa-Huma communities live interspersed amongst the mixed Bantu nations of the lacustrine plateau; and J. M. Schuver was recently informed that the Negro inhabitants of the Afils country were governed by a Galla aristocracy, "From these and other indications it seems highly probable that in point of fact the Bantu peoples are fundamentally Negroes in diverse proportions affected by Wa-Huma or Galla—that is, Hamitic—elements. The Wa-Huma, who, under the name of Wa-Tusi, are found as far south as the U-Nyamezi country, are by recent observers unanimously described as a very fine race, with oval face, straight nose, small mouth, and, generally speaking, regular Caucasic features. Such a type is found everywhere cropping out amid the surrounding Negroid populations throughout the southern half of the continent, and the conclusion seems irresistible that it should be referred to those Wa-Huma, or Hamitic Gallas, probably for ages advancing as conquerors from the north-east into the heart of the continent. "No distinct mention is made of the Wa-Huma14 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL speech. It is known, however, to differ from that of the Bantus proper; and when we hear that the late King M'Tesa of Uganda spoke Galla as his mother- tongue, and was proud of his Galla ancestors, little doubt can remain on this point. The Wa-Huma are also distinguished by their intense love both of personal freedom and political autonomy, sentiments which are but feebly developed amongst the true negro populations. Such is their horror of captivity and a foreign yoke that those who have failed to maintain their independence are no longer regarded as true Wa-Huma. The very women who have the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Arab slave-dealers are looked upon as degraded for ever, and, should they escape from bondage, are burnt alive by their own people. Traits of this sort would almost alone suffice to suspect at least a very large infusion of non-Negro blood in the Wa-Huma race. This element we may now trace with some confidence to the Hamites of North-East Africa as its true source."1 The Bantus may therefore be regarded as a Negroid— that is, a modified Negro—race, in which the Hamites of North-East Africa constitute the modifying element. The modification itself is obviously a question of degree, naturally greater in the east than in the west, with every shade of transition in the intervening central regions. This conclusion is amply confirmed by Stanley, who has had more opportunities of studying the various Bantu populations than any other living observer. In Through the Dark Continent (i. 251) he speaks of the Wa-Kerewe of Ukerewe Island, in the Victoria Nyanza, as " a mixture of the Ethiopic [Hamitic] and Negro type and again in Darkest Africa we are told that certain Wa-Huma chiefs of Usongora "were as like in features to the finest of the 1 Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan, Stanford, 1884, pp. 9, 10.THE CAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 15 Somali types and Wa-Galla as though they were of the same race" (ii. 317). We now see that they were, in fact, of the same race, for both Somalis and Gallas are Hamites; and when it is further remembered that the Hamites themselves are one of the main divisions of the primaeval Caucasic stock, we begin to understand the comparisons so frequently drawn by travellers between certain South African groups and our own European races.1 At the same time, the term Bantu is far more intel- ligible in a linguistic than in an ethnological sense. We can confidently speak of a Bantu stock language, for all the Bantu idioms bear the closest family likeness, and are admittedly derived from a single source. But we cannot speak of a Bantu stock race, for we have seen that these populations are essentially mixed; the physical type nowhere presents any uniformity, but is continually shifting from group to group according to the predomin- ance of the Negro, Hamitic, or possibly even other elements; for the world is very old, and who can say what migrations and interminglings may not have taken place during the countless ages covered by the expression " prehistoric times " ? The Cameroon Bantus In this region there appear to be two distinct tribal groups—-the primitive or indigenous Bantus, who occupy the central parts, and who are supposed to represent the first waves of migration, probably from the east; and the more recent intruders from the south, who now hold the northern plains as far as the Negro domain, and the southern slopes to and beyond the Cameroon river. The 1 See article " Caucasic Races," in Casseli's Storehouse of Information.16 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL distinction is based, not on physical appearance, which is nowhere sufficiently marked for purposes of classification, but on linguistic grounds, the indigenous tribes speaking archaic Bantu idioms degraded by long contact with their Negro neighbours, while all the later arrivals except the Ibeas speak comparatively pure Bantu tongues connected by imperceptible transitions along the seaboard with those of the Lower Congo. Subjoined is a tolerably complete list of all the Cameroon tribes grouped according to this dis- tinction, which was first indicated by H. H. Johnston:— Indigenous— Bayon Ndob and Ns5 . Bonken Basa .... Balun (Balong) . Abo and Buduman Barombi Wuri . Intruders— Barondo and Bafarami Extreme north-east. Interior, north slope Ndobo Pinda Mountains. About sources of the Wuri. Between the Wuri and Lungasi rivers. Lower Mungo river. Between the Mungo and Upper Wuri rivers. Upper Mungo basin. Middle Wuri river. North-westernmost of all Bantu tribes, near the Rio del Rey. Baki'sh . . . Left bank of the Mameh. Bakundu . . . Northern slopes Upper Mameh, and thence east to the Mungo. Bumboko, or Bambuku Western slopes and coast between the Memeh and Bimbia. Southern slopes, north from the Bimbia. About the Bimbia. Lower Wuri and Cameroon estuary. Bakwiri (Bakwili) Isubu Duala Bakoko > Banoko and Bapuko, or "Great Batanga" Bafindi Ibea or Mabea Coastlands between the Cameroon estuary and the Rio del Campo. Amongst the northern Bakundus a social movement is now in progress, which possesses much interest inTHE CAMEKOONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 17 connection with the question of domestic slavery. This agricultural nation imports all its slaves from the far north—that is, probably from the Benue basin—and to these robust and intelligent Negro or Negroid serfs is left the entire cultivation of the land. They occupy separate residences, and in some places even form little inde- pendent States within the State. The result is that they are gradually turning the tables on their enervated masters, and acquiring not only the actual possession of the land, but the political supremacy itself (Richardson). Of all the Cameroon tribes the best known are the Bakwiri and their Duala neighbours, who dwell in the vicinity of the European factories and missionary stations. The latter are typical Bantus with regular, almost European features, and, what is y still more remarkable, with well- developed lower extremities, in this respect presenting a striking contrast to the characteristic Negro races. Nor can their fine physical qualities be attributed to contact with the whites, for they are so proud of their racial purity that until recently they killed off all half-castes, regarding such fair-skinned offspring as a disgrace to the nation. Both the Dualas and the Bakwiri are well skilled in the "drum language," which is so prevalent along the western seaboard. This curious " phonographic system," the knowledge of which is jealously guarded from slaves, women and the whites, is no mere code of signals, but a well-developed method of " tam-taming," by which sus- tained conversation can be rapidly carried on at great distances. Words and sentences are distinctly expressed by the varied notes of the drum, and amongst the Bakwiri by the horn, whose echoes resound from hill to hill, and communicate intelligence of war, peace, or any important event to the remotest confines of the land. Till recently cannibalism in a mitigated form, or as a VOL. II c18 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL religious ceremony, was still prevalent amongst most of these tribes, none of which, despite their long intercourse with Europeans, have advanced much beyond the social state represented by witchcraft, ordeals, and human sacrifices. Nobody is supposed to die a natural death, and as custom exacts life for life, every death, however brought about, requires a fresh victim, usually by fire, water, or poison. This practice resulted some years ago in the total depopulation of the islet of Ambas, near Victoria, where, the bulk of the people having exterminated each other by their daily ordeals, the few survivors took refuge on the mainland. They represented the old Amboz (Zam- bus) tribe, from whom the Cameroon mountain was by the Portuguese originally named Terra dos Ambozes. The Ibeas (Mabea, or " Brush People ") speak a very different language from the Dualas and other later Bantu immigrants from the south. They appear to have arrived still more recently, not from the south, but from the east. Like the Fans of the Ogoway basin, they have long been moving from the interior towards the coastlands, and have already reached the seaboard at the Lobe river. They bring down ivory from the unexplored inland regions which stretch away towards the hypothetical "Lake Liba," and beyond it towards the Congo-Chad water-parting. It is doubtful whether they are Bantus at all, and further research may show that their affinities are rather with the Fans or the Zandehs (Mam-Mams), whose domain extends from the Congo-Mle divide for an unknown distance westwards. Stations—Trade—Prospects The Portuguese seem never to have held any per- manent posts in this region, where the most important,THE CAMER00NS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 19 if not the earliest, European settlement is Victoria, founded in 1858 by the English Baptist missionaries after their expulsion by the Spaniards from the neigh- bouring island of Fernando Po. Victoria stands on Ambas Bay, at the south-west extremity of the mountain, whence a superb view is commanded of the neighbouring wooded shores and of the Fernando Po peaks in the hazy distance. It is accessible to vessels of average size, and might be converted into an important naval station by cutting a short canal across the muddy neck of the promontory separating Ambas Bay from the deep and well-sheltered inlet of Man-of-War Bay. Since the German occupation the English missionaries have been replaced by others from Switzerland, whose efforts to substitute the German for the English language have caused much mental confusion amongst their few Bakwiri converts. North of Victoria the only post is the fishing-village of Bibundi, to which the German traders are endeavour- ing to divert the produce hitherto forwarded to the English factories in the Calabar river. A more important place is Bimbia, near the entrance to the Bimbia branch of the Mungo. Although of somewhat difficult access, especially during the rainy season, when the surf breaks fiercely over the neighbouring bar, Bimbia serves as the outlet for the numerous Bakwiri villages dotted over the surrounding heights. Farther inland are Mbinga, on the Mungo delta, and the American missionary station of Bakundu-ba-Nambele, in the territory of the Bakundu nation. On the south side of the Cameroon estuary, here navigable by large vessels, is a group of ten or twelve native villages, such as King AkwaJs Town, King Bill's Town (here all the tribal chiefs are " kings "), which are20 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL collectively known as the Cameroons. This place has been selected as the seat of the new administration, the Governor's residence occupying a neighbouring terrace, while a kind of sanatorium has been founded at Kaiser Wilhelm's Bad on the sandy beach at Point Swellaba, near Cape Cameroons, on the north side of the entrance to the estuary. In the Batanga and Ibea territory, between the Cameroon estuary and the French frontier, there are no European settlements beyond a few factories near the mouth of the Moanya river. In exchange for European textiles, hardware, spirits, firearms, and ammunition, these and the other factories in the Cameroons take such native products as ivory, caoutchouc, ebony, dye- woods, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, palm oil and ground-nuts. Some of the factories are managed by natives, and all the coast tribes are keen traders and mostly " middlemen " ; that is to say, they stand between the European dealers and the producers of the interior. Hence their extreme jealousy of all travellers, and their open and secret opposition to all expeditions organised to explore the " Hinterland." After leaving the seaboard travellers suddenly find themselves beset by all kinds of unforeseen difficulties; the guides lose their way, the porters throw down their loads and disappear in the bush, the explorer himself is even occasionally carried off by a dose of poison, or " a gourd of bad water," as the untoward event may be reported at the coast stations. Under these adverse conditions the Hamburg mer- chants may continue to develop a flourishing trade in spirits, which are here called "rum," and which have hitherto constituted two-thirds of all the imports. But for German immigration, a primary object of the occupa- tion, there is no field in the Cameroons region. Thethe camer00ns and south-east atlantic islands 21 country is absolutely unsuited for European colonisation, and in any case no white peasantry could compete with the native cultivators, who are inured to the climate, who employ slave labour, and whose plantations, as in the Bakundu territory, are as carefully tended as a Mid- lothian farm. The present political masters of the land can scarcely hope to do more than retain a fair share of the local trade, and even here they are threatened with the increasing competition of the native middlemen. There were only about 150 Germans in the colony in 1894, in which year the revenue scarcely exceeded £30,000; imports (spirits, firearms, gunpowder, salt, rice), £232,000; exports (palm-oil, kernels, rubber), £238,000. The Gulf Islands Of the south-east Atlantic islands by far the most important is Fernando Po, whose area and (undeveloped) economic value greatly exceed those of all the others taken collectively. The present name is merely the Spanish form of Fernao do Po, its Portuguese discoverer, who himself named it Formosa, or the " Beautiful," a term amply justified by its imposing appearance, luxuriant vegetation, and charming sylvan scenery. Clarence or Isabel Peak, the culminating point (10,000), is an extinct or quiescent volcano, which, with the Cameroon moun- tain on the opposite side of the intervening strait, about eighteen miles wide, forms a magnificent gateway leading to equatorial Africa. This passage, which in clear weather presents one of the grandest marine panoramas on the globe, nowhere exceeds 280 to 290 feet in depth, and the shallow waters extend some distance beyond the island before22 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the soundings suddenly reveal depths of nearly 600 fathoms. The Fernando Po volcano thus appears to rest on the same pediment as the Cameroons, and evidently formed part of the mainland within a comparatively recent geological epoch. From the summit, which was first ascended by Becroft,1 numerous torrents descend in cascades and FERNANDO PO. streams to every part of the coast, sustaining a vigorous tropical vegetation, which is specially remarkable for its prolific growth of underwoods, orchids, ferns, and mosses. The flora corresponds, according to elevation, with that of the mainland, and nearly twenty species on the up- lands have been identified with those of the temperate zone on the Abyssinian highlands on the opposite side of the continent. The cinchona has been successfully 1 The feat lias even been performed by a lady, the Polish novelist Hajota, who accompanied her husband, Lieut. Ragozinski, to the summit in January 1890. On the peak they found a bottle with enclosed note left by a previous climber, Julian Pellou, dated April 3, 1860.THE CAMEKOONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 23 introduced; coffee, cotton, tobacco, and the sugar-cane thrive well on the plantations, and maize, rice, the banana, manioc, and yams yield an abundant supply for the local consumption. Three species of apes, formerly indigenous, have dis- appeared, and the large fauna is now exclusively repre- sented by horned cattle and other domestic animals. An antelope, however, still survives on the higher grounds. There are several species of snakes, and birds and insects are met in considerable variety. It is uncertain whether Fernando Po was inhabited at the time of its discovery, probably about the year 1486. But the stone implements that have been found in various parts show that it was occupied at some time by men of the neolithic period. The Bubi, as the present natives are collectively called, seem to have immigrated from the mainland about 400 years ago. According to Johnston, they belong to the indigenous group of Bantus who reached the Cameroons from the east at some un- known epoch. The term Bubi, written " Boobies " by the ^English, means " men "; and these men, numbering about 30,000, are scattered in five or six distinct tribal groups over the interior of the Achimama, or " universe," as they call their island home. They are a feeble folk, who were long oppressed by their Portuguese and Spanish tax- masters. But they got rid of the former by poisoning all the wells and running waters, and nearly compelled their Spanish successors to retire by refusing to supply them with provisions. Now, however, harmony prevails, and the chief native " king," who resides on the east side of the island, recognises the suzerainty of the Spanish governor. The Spaniards have been in possession since 1778, when the island was ceded to them by Portugal. But24 compendium of geography and travel in 1827 the English occupied Clarence Town {Santa Isabel), on the north coast, as a naval station for the suppression of the slave trade. Eichard Lander, the African explorer, lies buried in a neighbouring cemetery. This is the only town in the island: but a kind of health- resort has been established at the village of Basileh, which lies a few miles inland from Clarence Town at an altitude of over 1000 feet above sea-level. With a heavy annual rainfall of from 100 to 120 inches, and a normal temperature of about 78° F., Fernando Po is necessarily unsuitable for European colonisation. The only white residents are a few English and Portuguese traders and planters; but the foreign trade is slight, and has recently even diminished. About midway between Fernando Po and St. Thomas lies the Ilha do Principe, or Prince's Island, so named by its Portuguese discoverers because it was granted about the year 1500 to a prince of the Braganza dynasty. It is an extremely fertile volcanic rock, the " garden of Africa," less than half the size of the Isle of Wight, watered by countless streamlets, all flowing northward from the southern heights which culminate in a peak nearly 3000 feet high. During the days of slave labour it was a flourishing sugar-plantation, and also an im- portant depot of slaves destined for the American market. Now all its prosperity is gone, and its few Negro inhabit- ants are mostly centred in the little port of Santo Antonio, on a sheltered inlet on the north-east coast. Beyond Prince's follows the far larger and even more lovely island of St. Thomas, which in the wooded peak of the same name on the west side rises to an altitude of 7000 feet. St. Thomas lies almost on the equator, which separates it from the neighbouring Eolas, or Dove islet, at its southern extremity. But, thanks to the coolthe cameroons and south-east atlantic islands 25 southern current by which it is enveloped, it enjoys a relatively mild temperature, and is by far the healthiest of the Gulf Islands. The low-lying coast is certainly dangerous; but the higher grounds, despite an excessive rainfall, are regarded as a sort of sanatorium by the European residents on the malarious West African sea- board. The Agoa Grande, one of the numerous streams fed by the tropical rains, tumbles over the romantic Blu- Blu cascade just before reaching Cidade, capital of the island, on the north-east coast. These streams, which water every glen, nourish a rich and diversified flora comprising nearly 450 species, mostly allied to those of the mainland. But the fauna presents some remarkable features implying long separation from, if not complete geological independence of, the continent. Of the eighteen species of land molluscs, all but one are peculiar to the island, which has also an indigenous monkey as well as a bat found nowhere else. St. Thomas enjoys the distinction of being one of the few African tropical lands where the white race has suc- ceeded in establishing itself. Soon after its discovery, towards the close of the fifteenth century, it was occupied by some Portuguese settlers; and their descendants, though long harassed by French corsairs, and afterwards by Angolan blacks from the mainland, have become per- fectly acclimatised on the uplands. The Angolans also still survive on the west side, where they preserve their Bantu speech and national usages. In recent years the population has rapidly increased, and is chiefly occupied on the flourishing coffee, cacao, and sugar plantations. Since its introduction some years ago the cinchona has thriven well, and as many as a million of these valuable trees now cover the slopes up to a height of 4500 feet. Annobon, last member of the Gulf volcanic chain, is a26 compendium of geography and travel three-crested wooded rock inhabited by some 3000 blacks, descendants of castaways or slaves introduced by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, but now Spanish subjects. The only anchorage is on the north side, where stands San Antonio da- Praia, residence of the governor. Annobon is the Spanish form of the Portuguese Anno Bom —that is, "Good Year"—so named because discovered by Escobar and Santarem on the first day of the year 1471. No settlement took place till 1550, and in 1778 it was ceded with Fernando Po to Spain. The island has good water, and produces excellent oranges and other fruits, which it supplies to passing vessels. The British South-East Atlantic Islands Ascension lies about 960 miles south-west of Cape Palmas, the nearest point on the African mainland. It is a rugged volcanic rock of oval shape, seven or eight miles long, and apparently of recent origin, resting on the " Challenger Bank," a submarine ridge which forms the "divide" between the deep south-eastern and still deeper south-western Atlantic waters. From the cul- minating point of the Green Hills, on the west side (2650 feet), a view is commanded of some forty now ex- tinct cones and craters scattered in disorder over the whole surface. European fruits and vegetables thrive in the fertile valleys of the Green Hills, which enjoy a healthy climate, with a normal temperature of 73° F., falling on the higher summits to 60° F., but rising to 84° at George Town on the north-west side. Owing to the excessive heat of this station, which stands on Clarence Bay, the only frequented anchorage, the British Govern- ment a few years ago built a hospital or convalescent home on a neighbouring wooded eminence, 2000 feetTHE GAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 27 high, for troops serving on the West African seaboard. A conduit over a mile long conveys good water from this place to George Town. The chief resource of Ascension are its gigantic green turtles (Testudo viridis), some of which weigh 10 or 11 cwt. The flesh is consumed by the inhabitants, and large numbers are shipped for England to supply the tables of the wealthy classes with turtle soup. Ascension appears to have been discovered in 1502 by Juan de Nova, surnamed Gallego—that is, the Gali- cian—at that time in command of a Portuguese fleet. It remained unoccupied till the year 17.01, when Dampier was here wrecked. He and his crew would have perished of thirst but for some wild goats, by following whose track they discovered in the Green Hills the running waters still known as " Dampier's Spring." After a three weeks' residence they were rescued by an English vessel, and the incident was regarded as an act of possession. But formal occupation was deferred till the year 1815, when the British Government placed a small garrison in the island to prevent other Powers from making it a base of operations to facilitate Napoleon's escape from St. Helena. Ascension lies right in the track of the south-east trades, under whose influence, perhaps increased by the occasional crash of huge icebergs from the Antarctic regions, the Atlantic billows, twenty to thirty feet high, break with fury against the windward coast. But the uplands are not sufficiently elevated to intercept the moisture-bearing clouds from that quarter. Hence the rainfall is insufficient to nourish a large indigenous flora, which comprises only two flowering shrubs (.Hedyotis ascensionis and JEuphorbia origanoides1), besides less than 1 The hedyotis differs little from other African species, while the28 compendium of geography and travel twenty smaller cryptogamous species. But a considerable increase of moisture has been observed since the intro- duction of numerous exotics by Mr. Bell, who has con- verted the Green Hill slopes into a vast garden of accli- mation for the eucalyptus, araucaria, juniper, acacia, and hundreds of other foreign plants. This experiment shows that at least in some localities the planting of the land may have beneficial results on the climate. Dampier's goats were not indigenous, but had been landed to stock the island by some passing navigators. The cat, dog, pheasant, poultry, guinea-fowl have been introduced in the same way, and, like the goats, many have reverted to the wild state. As in so many other islands, snakes are unknown, and the native fauna is very poor. Nominally a Crown Colony, Ascension is practically a sort of naval station occupied only by a few officers, sailors, soldiers, and provision dealers, and administered like an English arsenal by an almost absolute governor. Some 830 miles south-east of Ascension on the direct route to the Cape, from which it is distant 2000 miles, lies the larger and more famous island of St. Helena. Before the opening of the Suez Canal, which diverted most of the sea-borne traffic from the southern waters, St. Helena enjoyed considerable importance as a victual- ling station and port of call for shipping plying round the Cape between Europe and the East. In the days of sailing-vessels it even served, like Tierra del Euego and some other isolated points, as a sort of oceanic post-office, where letters were called for and left by passing vessels under a basalt block which is still preserved. euphorbia " belongs to a group of littoral, mostly shrubby species, widely spread in Polynesia, with one species in the West Indies and the Bermudas, and two on the western coast of tropical Africa " (Challenger Expedition, vol. i. Botany ; Report III. p. 65).THE CAMEKOONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 29 The formation is entirely igneous—basalts, pumice, and other old and recent volcanic rocks, with no trace of metamorphic or sedimentary deposits. Hence the island is clearly of oceanic origin, and can scarcely at any time have formed part of the mainland. On the other hand, there are abundant evidences of vast denudation, show- ing that it must have formerly occupied a much larger area than at present. The submarine bank on which it stands, and which at one time rose above the surface, extends all round the periphery for a distance of two or three miles, and then the sounding-line plunges abruptly from depths of 400 or 500 feet into abysmal waters over 2000 fathoms deep. Owing to the extreme hardness of the plutonic rocks, the work of erosion, carried on simul- taneously by the marine and running waters, must have lasted vast ages, and it has been estimated that the waves must have taken from 40,000 to 50,000 years merely to reduce certain headlands to their present fragmentary state. The whole surface of the island is of an extremely rugged character, scored with deep ravines such as Gregory's Yalley, strewn with fantastic blocks such as " Lot and his Wife," surmounted by long-extinct craters and a chaos of peaks, some over 2000 feet high and culminating in Diana's Peak (2720 feet) near the former centre of eruption at the back of Sandy Bay on the south side. Notwithstanding its intertropical position within 1100 miles of the equator, St. Helena enjoys an equable climate with a normal temperature ranging from about 50° to 80° F., and a moderate rainfall of fifty inches on the uplands and twenty-eight to thirty at Jamestown on the north coast. These favourable conditions, which make the island quite suitable for European settlement, are due to30 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL its position within the zone of the cool Antarctic current and invigorating south-east trade-winds. The moisture suffices to support an exuberant vege- tation, and at the time of the discovery, the whole island was forest-clad from the water's edge almost to the highest summits. But this natural flora, which included the ebony, a distinct species of tree-fern, and nearly eighty other peculiar forms, has mostly disappeared, and is now replaced by such economic plants as tea, coffee, sugar- cane, cotton, indigo, the vine, apple, pear, besides the European oak, cypress, and some other forest growths. European domestic animals, ox, sheep, goat, poultry, have also driven out most of the indigenous fauna, which presented even more independent forms than the vegetable kingdom. It comprised a plover (Charadrius pecuarms) elsewhere unknown, besides nearly fifty distinct species of butterfly, and eleven land molluscs whose nearest congeners are found in the remote islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The first inhabitants of St. Helena were some Portu- guese mutineers, landed, with a few slaves, by Albuquerque in 1513; that is, eleven years after its discovery by Juan de Nova. But no further settlement was made by the Portuguese, who were succeeded in 1651 by the Dutch, and these in 1666 by the English, who have become perfectly acclimatised. They are even distin- guished by personal beauty, though lacking the florid complexion of the race, which may possibly be due to mixture with the African slaves, Chinese and Malay coolies introduced at different times. But since the ruin of the export trade caused by the opening of the Suez Canal, the population has steadily decreased, especially by emigration to the Cape. Nevertheless, England cannot afford to abandon this oceanic Crown Colony, whose pros-the camer00ns and south-east atlantic islands 31 perity must always revive whenever the overland route to India becomes temporarily blocked by naval operations in the Mediterranean. "England,, the great carrying Power of the world, may find it more advantageous to trust to her own strength and the security of the open seas than to run the gauntlet of the numerous strategical positions in the Mediterranean, each of which is capable of affording impregnable shelter to a hostile fleet; and though the ultimate key to the Indian Ocean is in our own hands, our passage to it may be beset with a thousand dangers." 1 The only centre of population is Jamestown, the capital, situated^ on the west or leeward side, at the outlet of a deep gorge, which is occasionally swept by freshets. The station is defended by military works crowning the neighbouring Ladder Hill, so called from the long flight of steps by which it is approached from the town. The track leads thence over Eupert Hill eastwards to Long- wood, where Napoleon was kept under arrest for six years till his death in 1821. His remains, which had been interred in the neighbouring " Yalley of the Tomb," were removed to Paris in 1840. Another memorable site is Mount Halley (2420 feet), so named from the illustrious English astronomer, who set up his observatory on this peak in 1676, and thus began the observation of the southern heavens which was afterwards continued by Herschel, and is now being prosecuted with such brilliant success by Dr. David Gill at the Cape. In the extreme south-east Atlantic are two other British islets, Tristan da Cunha and Diego Alvarez. The latter, discovered early in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese pilot Alvarez, whose real Christian name 1 Sir R. Lambert Piayfair, Address to the British Association at Leeds, 1890.32 compendium of geography and travel was Gongalo, is often called Gottgh, from the English mariner who rediscovered it in 1713. It is a rugged mass 4400 feet high, whose sheltered creeks, fertile dales, and well-stocked waters have never attracted any settlers beyond some American seal-fishers who have occasionally resided on the island during the season. Gough lies 245 miles south-east of the little Tristan da Cunha group, which is distant 1840 miles west of the Cape. Although discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese navigator whose name it perpetuates, it was never occupied JAMESTOWN, ST. HELENA.THE CAMEROONS AND SOUTH-EAST ATLANTIC ISLANDS 33 till the beginning of the present century ; but it has been frequently visited by sailing-vessels, which, by deflecting their course so far south, fall in with the west winds, and are thus enabled more easily to double the Cape. The group consists of three volcanoes — Tristan da Cunha, 8500 feet high; Inaccessible, about 2 0 miles to the south-west; and Nightingale, 12 miles to the south-east of the latter—all composed entirely of lavas and terminating in craters now flooded by blue lakelets. Of the collective area, some 20,000 acres, two-thirds are comprised in Tristan, whose perfectly circular snow-clad cone is visible in clear weather for a distance of nearly 100 miles. Notwithstanding its relatively high latitude (37° 10' S.) it enjoys a remarkably mild but damp climate, with a temperature varying from about 58° F. in winter to 68° in summer. Like that of so many other oceanic islands which have never been connected with the mainland, the flora presents some peculiarities, such as the forests of huge algae, 150 to 200 feet long, fringing the coast to a width of nearly half a mile. There are also some heaths and a prickly grass growing in dense, tufted masses on the lower slopes, besides a solitary indigenous tree (Phyliea arborea) which here and there reaches a height of twenty feet. European fruits and vegetables, and even maize, thrive well in the sheltered valleys. There appears to be absolutely no indigenous fauna except penguins and other aquatic birds. But the island is now well stocked with cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, and other European animals. The first permanent settlers were some Americans, who arrived in 1811. The garrison placed here by the British Government in 1816 to watch the prisoner of St. Helena was withdrawn after his death, and since then VOL. II D34 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the little colony has been chiefly recruited by shipwrecked sailors, a few Boers from the Cape, and half-caste women from St. Helena. This mixed community, which is thoroughly acclimatised, forms a little English-speaking republic under a " president," who recognises the suzerainty of Great Britain. Subjoined is a Table of all the Gulf and south-east Atlantic islands:— Area in Square Miles. Population. Spanish Portuguese British Fernando Po Annabon . Prince's St. Thomas 830 7 60 370 35 47 45 30 28,000 2,000 2,500 18,000 360 4,116 110 Ascension ; St. Helena Tristanda Cunha Gough G ERMAN CAME R 0 O N -Bir Xefygqjt ^ Mayijat/ & / is {£ Ngegiini/is >* Uc'i <> • QlaLowii/^v Td^elel >£ulakida ZctfyaH tAlakkog i WZtatin Tororo ibtwa. Kalhalo, NM-tzitim (BJuek, water ) DIGGERA TUiREGS \-....................MtvWuskek rider................6So5PW>iPaI* ,7 s ■ ./-MTTJEIyWO Kanaiia, J \£elan/jai • \Fotrorn, , Ytjuin.ni, | 4 ™ %•!■■ T,Jt£ '&£<>*; L. CHAD «SO fV Bosntn _ s'"^n'c^u„L Sr: AmKo»-*o\ I?of ftTTtlNTI Goran/La 185^-- / KXTKA • JJld **7^7 . Lagaretteo % . »V/ ( K O Y A. 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I R '"" °j£da< SFJEI P^ifictua •p°\TimuL "aza ""S. v S H Iv k/A i M ltSX t , T.,n.: M,.s„« "Crata.-- Fag/am" Surbao "Uirufint ' "Bamov ..............!—./' " Darsp° a,tl "l,malil.- ¥™l« (UU' „ 1 ; Tf ^ T% fei»gj£MT WA irtin!liit / (re/emir -Malo laL Konmn Krftua, > Duff ho A' oli.ilm luuht0li&% fonia >Kiiv\'va Sideling a Tibati TARTAR iftiiaAlIali ''diin/cumbol zJtinJaijnbU '"Patoto v © i^m-Tibali ARAM lOlaaik#' Xaicurv oToko \ nNdidb orPandob ffiiJcuni' r Wute / Txorunto „ .... ! w oJraminkt • B A Y O N G © ~r'""u:ikki #/' N^ila /'-..X-^cmrp Daka Tit ion. Ittundfi, Mbamblpi & CMuJlen.^f.^'fzSii,., jdsSf" S^IsabiH^r)'" C.^o° /£?=t£-.f lO,J9o V MelxiJIe li. V ^^C.Barro\f V FERNAJVIJO PO ^' ^a,7„e (SP') A> . ^ Lucdtxvi / * "Cccsfad V Saddle Point^ ^M'Atouift Campo li. ) - 7'-' , /i V <"• Bcitta. r ' -- Tanya ZoELVL ^Saixnde) , ^-yMalamq o N Yambong Vyongo Maicnde< 3Arquti \j~' - /" Jeyebd""o_.y u MoLoncjo ' Molorufoii Batta, Hcittci Longitude Ea.st of Greepwioli MoLoncjo ' Molorufoii SCALE, 1:5,977, 38^ 84 >6 ENGLISH MILES TO I INCH. Tond/iri,: Stanford's Gtog^lstatf IOO 50 0 10O d London: Edward Stanford.26 & 27 Cocltspur St.Charing Cross. S W.CHAPTER II FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA (GABOON AND OGOWAY BASINS ; LOWER CONGO) General Survey—Results of Geographical Research—Physical Features— The Coast Ranges—River Basins : Gaboon, Ogoway, Kuilu, Chiloango —Climate of the West Equatorial Seaboard—Flora and Fauna—In- habitants— The Indigenous Bantus—The Ba-Kalai and Fans—The Cannibal Zone of Equatorial Africa—The Pygmy Races—Stations. General Survey With the exception of a few points claimed by Spain, the Portuguese enclave of Cabinda, and a strip of terri- tory reserved to the Congo Free State on the north side of the estuary, the whole of the seaboard from the Cameroons to the Lower Congo has fallen to the share of France in the recent partition of the continent. This seaboard has a coast-line of about 900 miles, and with it, of course, go the backlands, as far as they can be der fined in a region much of which has never yet been visited by a single white explorer. The frontiers towards the German Cameroons have been defined at pp. 3, 4. A convenient boundary towards the Free State is formed by the Eio Campo to its mouth in the Congo, and thence by the Congo itself to Manjanga, below Stanley Pool. From this point an irregular con-36 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL ventional line, running mainly west to the Atlantic below the mouth of the Kuilu, separates French Equa- torial Africa from the Free State and Cabinda. The whole territory thus delimited may have an area of about 220,000 square miles, with a population vari- ously estimated at from two to five millions. But most of it is so little known that M. Cholet, Colonial Adminis- trator of the French Congo, was the first to survey the course of the Sanga in the summer of 1890, although that affluent of the main stream lies considerably nearer the coast than the Ubangi. As indicated by such names as Lopo Gonzalvez (Cape Lopez) and Fernao Yaz, the seaboard was first visited by the Portuguese, who had already penetrated south of the equator in the year 1470, and had even formed per- manent settlements in the Gaboon and at other points in the sixteenth century. But no attempt appears to have been made to open up the interior till towards the middle of the present century. The occupation of a station by the French on the north side of the Gaboon estuary in 1842 forms the starting-point of the sys- tematic exploration of West Equatorial Africa, which thenceforth proceeded at a rapid rate without being yet completed. The northern districts between the Rio del Campo and the Gaboon estuary have been chiefly surveyed by Iradier and other Spanish travellers, who have crossed the country in various directions, penetrating at some points over 100 miles inland. The most conspicuous names associated with geographical research in the Gaboon, Ogoway, and Kuilu basins, are those of Du Chaillu, Walker, Serval, Aymes, De Compiegne, Marche, Oscar Lenz, both De Brazzas, Kouvier, and Ballay. After the French Government surveys of the Komo and KamboeFRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 37 coast-streams, the Gaboon was twice visited by Paul Du Chaillu (in 1856 and 1865), and his accounts of the gorilla, largest of anthropoid apes, and of the Obongo dwarfs, at first received with incredulity, have been fully confirmed by the researches of later travellers. The main results of all these explorations were highly disappointing to the French, who had supposed first that the Gaboon and then that the Ogoway must be the out- lets of great water highways, by which they would obtain easy access to the heart of the continent. But the Gaboon was soon found to be merely a broad tidal estuary receiving a few short affluents from the coast ranges. The Ogoway also, notwithstanding its large delta, proved to be navigable only as far as the same ranges, where it became obstructed by numerous falls, and beyond which it dwindled to an insignificant stream flowing from the low water-parting towards the Congo basin. This water-parting was crossed in 1878 by Lieutenant Savorgnan de Brazza, who thus came upon the Alima and several other rivers flowing south to the Congo. It was by following the course of the Alima, two years later, that he reached the right bank of the Congo, and made a treaty with one of the " makokos " or riverain chiefs, in virtue of which France afterwards successfully asserted her claim to the whole region from the Gaboon to the lower course of the great artery. Within this region lies the Kuilu (Kwilu) basin, which, though much smaller than that of the Ogoway, was found to afford greater facilities for penetrating beyond the coast ranges into the interior. Hence the attention of the French has now been diverted both from the Gaboon and the Ogoway to the Kuilu, which has the further advantage of lying at a greater distance from the equator, and much nearer to the Congo and to the district through38 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL which must run the future railway from the coast to Stanley Pool above the cataracts. Physical Features of French Equatorial Africa A little below the equator the South African coast- line projects farthest seaward at the island of Cape Lopez (properly Lopo Gonzalvez), which almost forms part of the mainland, at the north-western extremity of the Ogoway delta. In fact the headland itself is the crea- tion of the Ogoway, whose alluvial deposits have here encroached considerably beyond the true coast-line. Farther inland the low-lying coastlands soon. begin to rise in a series of escarpments to the great central table- land, which as it approaches the northern section of the continent, here falls to a mean altitude of probably not more than 3000 feet. The escarpments themselves, which, seen from below, assume the aspect of long, parallel ridges, with a uniform trend from north to south, nowhere rise to great altitudes. In the extreme north the system appears to culminate in the conspicuous peak of Mount Batta (5000 feet?), east of which the parallel Siete Sierras (" Seven Ranges ") converge towards the south in the Serra do Cristal, or " Crystal Mountains," of the early Portuguese writers.1 This range, with peaks from 4000 to 4500 feet, reaches southwards to the right bank of the Ogoway at the equator, beyond which the coast hills gradually fall to a height of little over 1000 feet in the Kuilu basin. Even the Igumbi Ndele peak, highest point in the hills about the southern branch of the Ogoway delta, falls far below 1 Serra is the Portuguese form of the Spanish Sierra, a saw, applied originally to jagged mountain crests, such as those of the Pyrenees, and afterwards to mountain ranges generally.FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 39 4000 feet, and. here the whole system has an average elevation of less than 3000 feet. In the outer escarpments the prevailing formations are chalk and Jurassic (oolitic) strata, in some places underlying old eruptive rocks. But notwithstanding the reports of " burning mountains," the " fetish " hills and rocks of the natives, there do not appear to be any recent volcanic cones or craters in this region. The calcareous rocks, are succeeded in the central ranges by gneiss and "quartz, beyond which the plateau assumes the aspect of a perfectly level sandy plain. The seaboard, although broken by several conspicuous headlands, such as Capes St. John and Lopez, is absolutely destitute of any islands, except the Elobey islets in Corisco Bay, and even these rocks are evidently mere fragments detached in comparatively recent times from the mainland. Rivers: Gaboon, Ogoway, Kuilu, Chiloango West Equatorial Africa falls within the zone of perpetual rains, which give rise to the three considerable fluvial systems of the Gaboon, Ogoway, and Kuilu, be- sides feeding several coast-streams, such as the Eio del Campo (Etembwe), San Benito (Eyo), Angra (" Danger "), Muni, Sette Camma, and Nyanga, which reach the sea in independent channels. The Gaboon—that is, the Portuguese Gabao,or "Cabin" —presents a curious resemblance to the Gironde, and although, like it, obstructed by a bar, is nevertheless one of the finest havens on the West African seaboard. It* lies just north of the equator, and is accessible to the largest vessels through four well-marked channels from twenty-five to thirty-two feet deep at low water. Its40 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL two chief affluents, the Komo and Kemboe, with their tributaries the Maga and Bogwe, are also navigable for some distance by river craft; but the estuary itself penetrates not more than forty miles inland, to the foot of the first escarpments. Although no longer ranking with the great con- tinental arteries, the Ogoway (French spelling, Ogooue) is still an imposing river, with a course of over 700 miles, a catchment basin of nearly 130,000 square miles, and an average discharge of perhaps 360,000 cubic feet per second, rising, according to some authorities, to 1,000,000, or even 1,750,000, during the floods. It may also claim to be not only the largest river on the west side of the continent between the Mger-Benue and the Congo, but also by far the largest strictly equatorial stream in the world, for its course, with many windings, lies mainly east and west on and about the equator. Thus, while the delta terminates at Cape Lopez, just below the line, the farthest sources of the main head- stream, visited by De Brazza in 1878, lie a few miles north of the same parallel, within 120 miles of the Congo. In one respect the Ogoway may be described as a typical African river, with well-defined characteristic upper, middle, and lower courses. Thus, the higher reaches, like those of the Nile (Shimiyu), flow at a slight incline along the plateau, where, below the Passa con- fluence, they are already navigable by boats—at least, in the rainy season. Then follows the middle course, where the Okanda, as the main head branch is called, becomes ^entangled in the intricacies of the escarpments of the plateau, and consequently develops a long line of almost continuous falls and rapids, again comparable to the numerous cataracts of the Nile valley between LakelliliBll! RAPIDS OF THE OGOWAY.42 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Victoria and Upper Egypt. Lastly, on escaping from the ravines and gorges of the outer ridges of the plateau, the Ogoway, again like the Nile, resumes its placid course through the low-lying coastlands to its vast delta below the equator. Even here the parallelism is continued, for if the Egyptian stream has its Eayyum depression and Birket el-Qarun, the Lake Moeris of the Ancients, the Lower Ogoway has also its Zonenghway (Jonanga) lagoon or reservoir, a lateral depression over 200 square miles in extent, which receives the overflow from the main branch during the periodical floods. Lake Moeris had its islands, temples, labyrinth, and other works of man, as became that marvellous artificial basin; Lake Zonengh- way in the same way has its natural insular eminences, one of which, the abode of a potent " medicine-man," is regarded as a holy island by the surrounding Ivili, Galoa, Ba-Kalai, and other tribes. These natives are far below the state of culture already reached by the subjects of Amenemhat III.; but they also hold in equal reverence the great diva, or inland sea, which receives and controls the excess of annual flood-waters, and thus preserves from destruction the villages and plantations maintained in the delta by the fertilising stream. Without rivalling the size and grandeur of the middle Zambesi or Somerset Nile cataracts, some of the Ogoway falls, such as those of Dume, where the stream turns abruptly to the west, and those of Bowe below the con- fluence of the Ivindo from the north, are of a very wild and romantic character. At several places the stream is obstructed by the so-called " fetish stones " ; that is, rocky barriers almost impassable at low water, and dangerous during the floods. One of these, specially known as " Fetish Point," at the confluence of the Ngunie, indicates&HS5 FALLS OF THE IVINDO.44 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the place where, till recently, all white travellers were stopped by the natives and prevented from ascending higher up. From Nazareth Bay, where the main branch of the delta reaches the coast, the lower course of the Ogoway is navigable by steam-launches drawing four feet for nearly 200 miles, and the Ngunie, the largest tributary from the south, is accessible to small craft for sixty miles, as far as the Samba Tails, one of the most dreaded fetish stones in the whole Ogoway basin. Including Cape Lopez island, the whole delta covers an extent of nearly 2000 square miles. It is intersected in all directions by numerous backwaters and shifting channels, and by the three navigable branches at Nazareth Bay, Cape Lopez, and Fernao Yaz in the extreme south. The Nkomi lagoon, spreading southwards, may be re- garded as an extension of the delta in this direction, being in fact a backwater of the Wango or upper course of the Fernao Vaz. But the Rembo Obenga ("River Obenga "), which it receives at its southern extremity, is not a branch of the delta, as is generally supposed, but an independent coast-stream rising on the south slope of the Ashankalo hills which separate its basin from Lake Zonenghway. The Nkomi lagoon communicates directly with the sea through the Fernao Yaz. Beyond the Ogoway follow the Sette Camma estuary, the Nyanga, which rises on the seaward slope of the Ashango hills (2420 feet), and the Kuilu, whose farthest sources lie within sixty miles of the Congo north of Stanley Pool. The Madi (Mari), as its upper course is called, makes two great bends, first to the south, then to the north, thus describing a figure (O along the line of least resistance through the schistose escarpments barring its passage seawards. It has a total length of 370;miles? and after piercing the hills through a series of tremend-FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 45 ous gorges, where the channel contracts at some points to little over twenty feet, it becomes navigable for forty miles to its mouth at Eudolstadt, just below Loango. The Kuilu gives access to a district in the interior, which is reported to possess rich copper and lead mines; but in other respects its economic value appears to have been singularly overrated by French writers. Midway between the Kuilu and the Congo occurs the little Chiloango coast-stream, which was chosen by the Convention of 1885 as the frontier line between Portu- guese Cabinda and the Free State, and higher up between the Free State and French Congo. Climate of the West Equatorial Seaboard As shown by De Bort's chart indicating the distri- bution of cloudiness and moisture throughout the con- tinent, French Equatorial Africa lies entirely within the zone of greatest rainfall, which on the west side extends from beyond the Mger delta to the Congo estuary. Nevertheless, within this zone itself there is a steady diminution' of moisture as we proceed from north to south. Thus, the annual precipitation falls from over 120 inches above the Gaboon estuary to 98 or 100 about the Ogoway delta. Beyond this region the decrease is even more rapid, but also less uniform, vary- ing greatly from year to year, and falling from over 60 to under 20 in 'exceptional seasons about the lower Kuilu district. As the moisture-bearing clouds follow the course of the sun between the tropics, there are here necessarily two rainy seasons, which have their respective maximums about December and May. The latter is the season of the great rains, which coincides with the highest floods in the Ogoway and other fluvial basins.46 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL The temperature, which is considerably influenced by the cool marine current setting steadily from the Ant- arctic waters along the west seaboard, is, however, sub- ject to even greater oscillations than the rainfall. Even at the equator it ranges from over 90° F. to about 60°, and below Loango from nearly 100° F. to under 60°. Here the average in the hottest months (March and April) is not more than 85°, and about 78° in the com- paratively cool month of August. Thanks to its sandy bed, the Ogoway is more healthy than the marshy Gaboon estuary. But fever may be said to be endemic on the whole seaboard, and even the slopes of the escarpments are affected by the malarious exhalations borne inland from the swampy, low-lying coastlands by the daily sea breezes, which here alternate regularly with the land winds prevailing during the night. But the cool, untainted atmospheric currents are themselves to be dreaded, for they necessarily give rise to dangerous chills, as they do in all regions where the heat and moisture are abnormally high. This is the reason why throughout the greater part of intertropical Africa little immunity is afforded from sickness either by altitude or by apparently salubrious plains and uplands. They are hot and moist, and under these conditions even slight exertion is apt to occasion sudden chills, by far the most fatal of all African plagues. Miasma is of course the direct and sole cause of much illness; but draughts, because less heeded and even courted, are far more murderous to Europeans obliged to undergo physical labour in tropical Africa. Hence no astonishment need be felt at the statement, for instance, that " a comparison of the sick lists of the different [missionary] stations revealed after a time the surprising fact that the breezy hill stations were far more fever-FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 47 stricken than the low-lying riverside ones where miasmic influences might be supposed to abound!"1 This is said in reference to the Congo region; but it is true every- where throughout tropical, and to some extent even temperate, lands. Even in England, with a climate free from all extremes, how often is heard the remark, " Oh! he caught a chill and was gone in no time!" Apart, therefore, from marsh fevers, the climate of Equatorial Africa differs mainly rather in degree than in kind from that of other regions. But between tropical and tem- perate lands this difference must always be exceedingly great, owing to the higher normal temperature of the torrid zone. Flora and Fauna H. H. Johnston's physical map of the west coast of Africa2 shows a botanic zone, like the rainfall, diminish- ing in density from the forest regions of the Gaboon and Ogoway southwards to the sandy wastes beyond the Cunene river. Dense woodlands reaching almost con- tinuously to the Kuilu basin are followed by savannahs, interspersed with oil-palms, whose southern limit coin- cides nearly with the course of the Cuanza. Beyond this latitude (about 10° S.) treeless savannahs merge gradu- ally, through tracts of scanty vegetation, in the deserts of Ovampo and Damara lands. But this broad generalisation is not entirely applicable to French Equatorial Africa, where, despite the copious rainfall, extensive treeless tracts, due to the sandy nature of the soil, occur especially in the Ogoway basin. The whole of the Gaboon, however, is essentially a forest 1 Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness, The New World of Central Africa, Lon- don, 1890, p. 495. 2 The River Congo, London, 1884, p. 13.48 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPi AY EL zone, where the huge dracsenas overtop the more valuable ebonies (both green and black), oil and wine palms, dye- woods, such as the red varwood, camwood (Baphia nitida), caoutchouc - yielding lianas, ground - nuts, and other economic plants. Farther south the Ogoway forests abound in the dika (" Gaboon Chocolate "), whose large, green fruit supplies the staple food of several tribes. " From the Gaboon it has been reckoned that of sandalwood and ebony 40,000 tons are yearly exported under French, English, and American flags."1 So vast and op- pressive are these equatorial wood- lands, " always green, always wet, always fireproof," head of a gorilla. that as a rule they are not favourable to the development of the higher forms of animal life. " For months," writes a traveller quoted by Moloney, " I have trodden its labyrinths, and seen only a diminu- tive deer, a grey monkey, and a few serpents." Never- theless the Gaboon is the true home of the gorilla, as well as of more than one species of chimpanzee. The term gorilla, applied by its discoverer, Du Chaillu, to the rijina of the natives, was originally used by the Cartha- ginian navigator, Hanno, in reference to certain hairy 1 Alfred Moloney, Sketch of the Forestry of lVest Africa, London, 1887, p. 137.HIPPOPOTAMI.50 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL women seen by him during his exploration of the West African seaboard. This largest and most ferocious of anthropoid apes appears to be restricted to a compara- tively narrow range, extending along the seaboard from Loango northwards to the San Benito river. Even this range has been contracted since Du Chaillu's time, the gorilla having withdrawn from Cape Lopez inland, and from several forest tracts where he was met by the early explorers. Of the chimpanzee at least two species occur in the west equatorial region, Troglodytes calvus and the Kulu, the latter being described as the most human in appear- ance of all the quadrumana. The roar of the lion is never heard in the gloomy equatorial forests, while the panther, like the crocodile, rarely attacks man. The hippopotamus abounds in most livers, and even in the shallow marine estuaries, as about the Bisagos islands on the coast of Senegambia. But the elephant, said by some authorities to be a distinct species, is disappearing from all the coastlands. Eodents, however, are numerous, and include two remarkable squirrels—the kendo, smallest member of this family, and the mboko, called Sciurus eborivorus from its habit of gnawing ivory. Some of the birds peculiar to this region are noted for their gorgeous plumage, such as the Suimanga magni- ficus, a species of thrush with feathers of metallic sheen, and the Chrysococcyx smaragdineus, all aglow with gold and emerald hues, as indicated by the name. Most of the snakes are more or less venomous, and several species of ants are of a peculiarly ferocious character, though less dreaded than the jigger, which, since its introduc- tion from America, is spreading all over the West African seaboard.FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 51 Inhabitants There can he no doubt that the Mpongwes, Ashangos, Bakelai, Ishogos, and other coast and riverain tribes in the Gaboon and Ogoway basins, as well as the Cabindas of the Lower Congo, are of Bantu speech, while here, as ISHOQOS. elsewhere, presenting all shades of transition from the Xegro to the Hamitic type. Even the Tans, the Pahouins of French writers, who, like the Ibeas of the Cameroons, are recent intruders from the interior, are said to speak a somewhat differentiated Bantu idiom,1 although their 1 Winchvood Reade (African Sketcli-book, i. 108) says : " It is like Mpongwe (a pure Bantu idiom cut in half) ; for instance, njina (gorilla) in Mpongwe is nji in Fan." The collective national name Fan, "Man," appears to be the same word as Bantu, and the plural is formed in the usual Bantu way by the prefix ba: Ba-Fan, i.e. "Men." Nevertheless, Oscar Lenz, who has published the most comprehensive treatise on the52 COMPENDIUM QF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL scarcely Negroid physique is one of the puzzles of African ethnology. But their tribal relations have been greatly obscured throughout West Equatorial Africa by two distinct tides of migration that have been converging on this region for generations, possibly for ages. One, represented formerly by the Bakalai, at present by the Fans, has been setting from the interior of the continent towards the seaboard; the other, represented chiefly by the Ivili and kindred Ba-Vilr of the Lower Ogoway mid its Ngunie affluent, have been creeping up the Congo estuary towards the equator. The result of these conflicting currents has been a general dislocation of the aboriginal tribal groups, such as the Mpongwes of the Gaboon, and Mbengas of the Muni basin, which have either been driven continually seawards, or broken into detached fragmentary groups, or else absorbed or extirpated by the intruding peoples. But although, under such conditions, no systematic classification is possible, all these heterogeneous popula- tions may still be grouped under three main divisions, comprising (a) the indigenous or settled Bantu tribes; (b) the intruding Fans and others from the interior and south coast; (c) the Obongo and other dwarfish aborigines. Of the indigenous Bantus—that is, those that were found already settled in the country at the arrival of the whites—the most important are the Mpongwe . . About the Gaboon estuary. Mbushu j" . Corisco Bay and islands. ethnology of the Gaboon - Ogoway region (SJcizzen aus West Afrika, Berlin, 1878), describes the Fan language as "entirely different from that of the other Negro tribes," p. 35. More information is needed before a definite opinion can be formed.FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 53 Bapuka . . . North from Corisco Bay. Osekiani . . Inland from the Mbenga territory Gajloa . . . Just above Ogoway delta. T . f Lower Ogoway from the Galloas to the Ngunie IvinSa • • " I confluence. Okanda ^ Jalimbongo j- . Left bank Middle Ogoway, about the Cataracts. Apinji J Ishog(f° } * * About the Ngunie affluent. Oshebo, Aduma,A Osaka, Awanshi, I Upper Ogoway and thence to the Congo water- Mbamba, Ba-f parting. Ngwe ' Ajuma . . . About Lake Azingo. Apfuru, Ba-Teke . Alima basin to right bank Congo. Ba-Lumbo (Ba-Vili) Lower Nyanga river and Banya Lagoon. Ba-Yaka . . Inland from the Ba-Lumbo. Ma-Yombe, Ba-^ Kunya, Ba-j- Kuilu basin and Cabinda territory. Kamba J Ba-Fyot V /Between the Lower Kuilu and the Congo Cabinda J I estuary. Of all these settled Bantu peoples, the best known and at one time the most powerful are the vainglorious and somewhat eccentric Mpongwes, whose name must be familiar to all readers of missionary reports. They have long been in contact with both the Protestant and Catholic missionaries, and many round about the stations claim to be Christians. Their typical Bantu language, of which they are very proud, is widespread amongst the Ajumas and many other surrounding tribes, and has been reduced to writing by their religious teachers. But the Mpongwes, who characteristically call themselves " Ayogo " or the "Wise," are mostly indolent ne'er-do-wells, who have acquired a taste for drink and other European vices, hence they are of little "economic value," and have to be replaced on the plantations by coolies imported from the Upper Guinea coast. Formerly they occupied a far more54 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL extensive territory than their present narrow domain about the Gaboon estuary, but, like the Mbengas of Corisco Bay and many other coast tribes, they have been gradually driven seawards by the continual pressure of the peoples attracted to the ocean by the reports of white men arriving in winged boats full of rum, firearms, salt, and other good things. Some of these tribes, such as the Ba-Ngwe of the Ogoway basin, are so fond of salt that they will swallow it in handfuls as our children do sugar. Others, like the formerly powerful Okandas in the same region, have been almost ruined by their indulgence in ahigu, as rum and all other " fire-waters " are here called, and in the still more injurious liamba (diambd), or Indian hemp, a drug now widely consumed throughout the Ogoway and Lower Congo regions. Beyond the Ogoway-Congo divide the most powerful nation are the warlike but little-known Apfuru; they appear to occupy most of the Upper Alima basin, coming in contact lower down wTith the Ba-Teke, one of the chiet populations of the Congo above Stanley Pool. The Ba-Lumbo or Ba-Vili of the coastlands south from the Ogoway delta .are not a distinct tribe, but rather a miscellaneous group of refugees, runaway slaves and others from the Gaboon and Lower Congo factories. They are gradually moulding these diverse elements into a fresh nationality, which, however, is adopting the usages of their Ba-Yaka neighbours in the interior, and, like the " citizens " of Hayti, reverting to the savage state. The only people in this region who have acquired ahy degree of culture are the Ba-Fyots,1 who are the Cabindas 1 The origin of this word Fyot, vulgarised to Fyort by some English Cockney writers, has been much discussed ; but it seems most probably to be a corruption of mfioti, a Negro or black man, from amfioti, " black." See Rev. W. H. Bentley's Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language, London, 1887.A BA-TEKE NATIVE.56 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL of the Portuguese, and who are the dominant race along the coast from Kuilu to the Congo estuary. The Ba-Fyots, who may be regarded as a northern branch of the Congo nation, may almost claim to possess a history, for their territory was formerly included in the empire of the great Mfumu, a sovereign of Congo-land, the first of the Bantu potentates who accepted Christianity. After the Congo realm was shattered by the invasion of the Yakka savages, the Kakongo, Lorengo, and other provinces lying north of the estuary, became independent kingdoms under the former Muenes, governors or vassals of the Mfumu. In these kingdoms, which again became subdivided into smaller petty states, thd%uling race has everywhere been the Cabinda, which still retains traces of the Boman Catholic religion professed for some generations by the Mfumu, whose capital, San Salvador, was the seat of a bishop. But in course of time Christian and heathen practices and beliefs became strangely intermingled, and the Nzambi, or chief deity of the Ba-Fyots, is now confounded with the Nogin, or with the universal mother earth. The worship of Christian saints and pagan fetishes was even associated with human sacrifices and witch- burning, practices which survived down to quite recent times.1 In other respects the Ba-Fyots are at present an industrious and intelligent people, shrewd traders, skilful boat-builders, and the best native craftsmen on the west coast. The Ba-Kalai and Fans Of the intruding peoples by far the most powerful are the A-Kellai, or Ba-Kalai, mainly from the south-east, 1 In 1887 a witch was burnt within sight of the European factories at Cabinda.FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 57 and the Fans. from the east and north-east. The Ba-Kalai, whose westward migrations preceded those of the Fans, have themselves been hard pressed and driven forward by that warlike nation. They are now chiefly confined to the left bank of the Ogoway about the cataracts and the lower course of the Ngunie affluent, where they number considerably over 100,000 souls. Formerly skilled hunters, copper and iron workers, they have been compelled in their new homes to rely mainly on trade, and the Ba-Kalai are now the chief brokers and middlemen between the factories and the inland producers. Their language, a pure Bantu dialect, has thus become the principal medium of intercourse throughout the Ogoway basin. The Ba-Kalai are the Mpangwes of the settled tribes. The Fans, who appear to have been first heard of by Bowditch, in 1819,1 were still scarcely known in the Gaboon when the French established themselves there in 1842. Now they not only occupy the head of the Gaboon estuary and nearly all the left bank of the Middle Ogoway, but have even formed settlements at some points on the coast south of the Gaboon. Within the surveyed limits of the Gaboon-Ogoway region there cannot be less than 300,000 of these energetic and aggressive warriors, whose onward march to the seaboard nothing seems able to arrest. Captain Burton, Windwood Beade, Oscar Lenz, and all other observers, describe them as a race quite distinct from the Negro, well-built, tall, and slim, with a light brown complexion, often inclining to yellow, well-developed beard, and very prominent 1 This traveller, who allies them to the Fulahs of West Sudan, calls them Paamways, and the name has assumed many other forms, such as Pahuin, Pa-Mue, Mpangwe, Panwe, Fanwe, etc. The n is a strong nasal, and might "be represented by the Spanish n, thus : Fan ; Ba-Fan.58 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL frontal bone standing out in a semicircular protuberance above the superciliary arches. Morally also they differ altogether from the Negro, being remarkably intelligent, trustworthy, truthful, and of a serious temperament, seldom laughing or indulging in the wild orgies of the blacks. Yet many ethnologists ally them to the Zandehs (Niam-Niams) of the Welle-Mle watersheds, whom they certainly resemble in many of their usages and especially in their taste for human flesh. Since their arrival on the coastlands, this taste has been considerably restrained, and the practice is now in most places either restricted to the chiefs or else reserved as a religious rite for solemn occasions. But when they first emerged from the interior no such limitations existed, and at that ,time the Tans were as decided anthropophagists as the Zandehs or Schweinfurth's Monbuttus. They did not eat members of their own class, but they bartered the dead among themselves, and even disinterred them to be devoured.1 The Cannibal Zone Such pronounced cannibalism might be expected of a people who come from what may be called the " cannibal zone" in a pre-eminent sense. Anthropophagy was doubtless diffused in former ages all over Central and South Africa; but in recent times it has been mainly confined to the region stretching west and east from the Gulf of Guinea to the western headstreams of the White Nile, and from a little below the equator northwards in the direction of Adamawa, Dar-Banda, and Dar-Fertit. Wherever explorers have penetrated into this least-known region of the continent, they have found the practice fully 1 Heart of Africa, ii. p. 18.FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 59 established, not merely as a religious rite or a privilege reserved for chiefs, but as a recognised social institution. When Stanley first entered this zone during his memorable voyage down the Lualaba-Congo, his flotilla was attacked at many points for the avowed purpose of procuring a fresh supply of human food. This article of diet is here openly sold in the market-place; prisoners of war are killed and cured for future consumption, and herds of human cattle are " preserved and fatted for the table/' So deeply rooted is the custom, that the victims themselves take it as a matter of course, and bide their time cheerfully, like those youths and maidens decked with wreaths of flowers and bright feathers who went jubilant to the shambles of the Mexican teocalli. A woman recently rescued against her will by a missionary in the North Congo region, returned of her own accord next day to the pen where her associates were all waiting patiently to be killed and eaten. Similar testimony is given by Herbert Ward, who states that during his residence in the Free State savage acts of cannibalism were constantly brought under his notice.1 Pere Angouard, another missionary, who is now endeavouring to found a station in the Ubangi valley, tells us that the people dwelling on the banks of that river, which flows through a great part of the "cannibal zone," eat human flesh because they prefer it to any other. "Nearly every day some slave is cut up and cooked for a village festival, the banquets being organ- ised on the least pretext, sometimes even because a head or member of the tribe has had some good tidings. It is impossible to dissuade these people from their flesh- devouring proclivities." This was in the year 1890, so that the practice still 1 Five years with the Congo Cannibals, 1890, p. 132.60 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL flourishes with unabated vigour, despite the denials of certain sentimental sympathisers with the lower races. Africa is not to be regenerated by concealing the truth, but by a frank statement of all the facts. The Pygmy Races When Du Chaillu first reported the existence of a pygmy people in the west equatorial forests his account was received with incredulity, and even with derision." A wider knowledge of the continent has revealed the presence not only of these pygmies (A-Bongo, O-Bongo; A-Koa, O-Koa) in the Ogoway basin, but of very much smaller pygmies in many other parts of Central Africa. Du Chaillu's Obongos vary in height from four feet six inches to about five feet; but the Wambutti met by Stanley in the Aruwimi forests were only four feet four inches, Schweinfurth's Akkas four feet six; the Batwa seen by Pogge and Wissmann south of the Congo four feet four, while those measured by Emin Pasha " never exceeded four feet one inch" (Jephson, p. 372). Most have the normal Negro features,1 some to an exaggerated degree, although the colour is generally described as inclining rather to various shades of brown and red, chocolate, cafd aw la-it, burnt brick, etc., than to black. Gathering up the threads of these independent accounts, which come from almost every part of the inter- tropical forest-lands, anthropologists have already come to the general conclusion that all the pygmy peoples belong to the same primitive stock, mostly broken into 1 But Dr. L. Wolf noticed that the Batwa in the Ba-Kuba country, Kassai basin, "were all well shaped, had uniform dark, coffee-brown colour, and not apparently any pithecoid signs whatever. Prognathism and also steatopygy were not developed more than with other African tribes" (Proc. R. Geo. Soc. 1887, p. 646).WAMBUTTI PYGMIES AT HOME.62 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL fragments, but in some places still surviving in con- tinuous communities spread over the central forests of the plateau. They are found generally in contact, and often on friendly terms with the tall Negro and Negroid races, whom they probably preceded as the true autochthones of the equatorial regions. Thus the 0- Koas, a timid, feeble folk, lurking in the recesses of the forests about the head-waters of the Ngunie, are treated with much kindness by the Ashango people of that district. They form small family rather than tribal communities, hunting the python with little darts, but living mostly on roots and berries, and dwelling in frail, leafy huts which escape observation amid the surrounding undergrowth. Next to nothing is known of their jlanguage, which is presumably distinct from the Bantu, except wher$ the latter may have been adopted, as j Malay idioms have been adopted by many Negrito tribes [in ' the Malay Peninsula and Philippine Islands. The O-Bongos are also in some places gradually conforming to the customs of their Bantu neighbours, with whoni, however, no alliances are ever contracted. Stations of French Equatorial Africa—Trade—Prospects Libreville, founded on the north side of the estuary soon after the occupation of the Gaboon, still remains the centre of French power in West Equatorial Africa. It takes its name, like Liberia on the Guinea coast, from the emancipated or rescued slaves settled here about 1850. But it has developed scarcely any trade, and its chief importance is derived from the large Koman Catholic Mission established here for evangelising and training the natives in various industrial arts. Thp rival American Mission of Bavctka lies in the outskirtsFRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 63 close to Glass, where are the English and other foreign factories, which nearly monopolise the trade of the Gaboon. Thus Libreville continues to be a burden on the Trench Treasury, its revenue from import dues and other sources scarcely covering a fourth of the expenditure. In the Ogoway and Alima basins there are no strictly European settlements, but only a few stations founded at the most favourable points for the future development of the country. Such are Lawibartnt, also with a Catholic Mission and some factories, on the Wango midway between Lake Zonenghway and Fetish Point; Njole, above Fetish .Point and just below the first cataracts, a garrison station and future capital of the Ogoway territory; Franceville, above the cataracts in the valley of the Passa affluent, whence the route leads across the water-parting down to the Alima and along that navigable stream to the Congo; lastly Brazzaville, on the French side of Stanley Pool. On the coast between the Ogoway delta and Cabinda Trance has secured possession of the historic seaport of LocingOy which had been claimed by Portugal as heir to the Emperor of Congo. Formerly capital of a province of that realm, and afterwards of the independent kingdom of Loango, when it had a population of 15,000 Loango is still an important, place as the natural outlet for the whole trade of the Kuilu basin. The roadstead is sheltered by the westerly, trend of the shore-line, and on the protected beach, where vessels can safely load and unload, several English, *Fjerich, and other European factories have been established. Loango was the starting-point of Gussfeld's expedition of 1873, and of several other subsequent journeys to the interior. In the neighbourhood are the burial-places of the old kings of Loango, guarded by potent fetishes.VIEW OJ? LOAN GO.FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA 65 Trance has now been in possession of West Equatorial Africa for nearly sixty years, but the country is still in a backward state. In 1893 all the exchanges fell short of £400,000, and the shipping was little over 95,000 tons. Nearly all the trade is with England and Germany, less than £50,000 representing the combined imports from and exports to the mother-country, which has to meet an annual expenditure of about £212,000, with an income of under £60,000 from all sources. Yet there is neither postal nor telegraph service, while scarcely 400 native children are receiving any kind of education in the eight schools for boys and two for girls. There are nowhere any roads beyond the native tracks, and the country is still mostly covered with dense forest, while the exports are mainly limited to the natural produce, such as ivory, ebony, caoutchouc, and palm oil, though some experiments have been made with coffee, cotton, tobacco, sugar and vanilla growing. The white population is limited to about 300, dispersed amongst the twenty-eight stations, mostly in the Ogoway basin. But none of these are settlers, the Gaboon-Ogoway being absolutely unsuited for European colonisation. The prospects of the colony are not bright, and as at present administered French Equatorial Africa seems incapable of development. Spanish Possessions The islands of Corisco, Great and Little Elobey, * together with a considerable tract on the opposite main- land, constitute the Spanish claims in this region. The territory is nowhere strictly defined, and is rather a sphere of influence than a possession in the ordinary sense of the word. It is officially dependent on the VOL. II F66 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Government of Fernando Po, but Spanish authority is unrepresented by a single Custom-House officer. Even the foreign factories, all now concentrated in Little Elobey opposite the Muni estuary, trade freely with the natives without paying any imposts to Spain. Corisco—that is, " Lightning," so named from the thunderstorm raging at the time of the Portuguese discovery—is a low island, some six or eight square miles in extent, inhabited, like the neighbouring Great Elobey, by Mbengas, many of whom have been converted by the Protestant and Catholic missionaries long settled amongst them. Portuguese Possessions—Cabinda At the time of the foundation of the Congo Free State, Portugal made repeated attempts to secure per- manent possession of both banks of the Congo estuary, which would have had the result of depriving the Free State of all direct communication with the sea. Fortun- ately the Portuguese pretensions were not recognised by the other Powers, and a compromise was effected by the Convention of 1885, by which the north side of the estuary was secured to the Free State, Portugal retaining possession of the little enclave of Cabinda wedged in between the Free State and French Congo. This territory comprises the two circumscriptions of Landana in the north and Cabinda in the south, so named from their respective chief towns. Landana, a little below the mouth of the Chiloango, is, perhaps, the pleasantest place of residence on the whole West African seaboard. Its port, like those of Loango and Cabinda, is protected by one of those numerous headlands, all projecting westwards, which are characteristic of thisFRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA G7 seaboard. To the Catholic Missions are attached some flourishing plantations and orange groves, said to be the finest on the west coast. But the great drawbacks are the miasmatic exhalations from the neighbouring lagoon, which has now been planted with the febrifugal eucalyptus from Australia. Although lying nearly forty miles north of the Congo the spacious and well- sheltered port of Cabin- da has already attracted some of the trade of this estuary. It seems des- tined to become the chief emporium of this region, and cannot fail to enter on a period of great prosperity when the projected railway is opened from the coast to Stanley Pool. The chief factory flies the British flag, and Cabinda is already the centre of the English traffic between the Cameroons and Angola. Besides the intelligent Ba-Fyots it is inhabited by a commun- ity of Ma-Vambus, who have the reputation of being the Jews of Africa. By the Portuguese they are even called Judeos pretos, or "Black Jews," and their arched nose and cunning eyes certainly give them a curious resemblance to the Semitic type. There is a local saying to the effect that the Ma-Vambus were specially created to punish other men by their ruinous competition in trade. NATIVE OF CABINDA.68 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL For administrative purposes the Portuguese enclave north of the Congo is attached to the possessions south of the estuary, forming a separate province with the district bounded on the south by the river Loge. Of this province Cabinda is the capital.CHAPTEE III the congo free state General Survey: Formation of the Free State—Progress of geographical research—Boundaries, extent, population—Physical features—The Congo basin—The Livingstone Falls and Congo estuary—The Middle Congo and its affluents—The Upper Congo, its lakes and tributaries— Lake Tanganyika and the Lualaba—Climate of the Congo basin— Flora and fauna — Inhabitants and native States — Garenganze, Katanga—Lira da, the Muata Yamvo's kingdom—The U-Rua State— Manyuema and the Arabs of the Lualaba—The Ba-Lolo, Ba-Ngala, and Ba-Yansi nations—The Ba-Luba and Tu-Shilange territories— The Va-Chibokwe and Kwango Ba-Ngalas—Table of the Congo tribes and nations—Bantu and Negro contrasted—Mission of the Congo Free State—Railway projects—Trade and free-trade area—Administration. General Survey—Formation of the Free State The creation of the Congo Free State will in future ages probably be regarded as one of the most memorable events in the social history of the human race. It is of too recent occurrence for the present generation to grasp its full significance; nevertheless even casual observers cannot fail to perceive that it ranks with the emancipa- tion of the plantation slaves by the British Government as one of the two philanthropic measures which reflect most credit on the civilisation of the nineteenth century. The Emancipation Act directly affected the African populations transported beyond the seas. The formation70 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL of the Free State, inspired rather by humanitarian than political motives, is intended to affect the African popula- tions in their native land. The former measure has not realised all the hopes of its generous promoters; the latter enterprise may also possibly be doomed to partial failure. But even so both will always stand out as the noblest efforts ever made to improve the moral and material well-being of the least advanced section of mankind. Soon after Stanley sailed down the Lualaba and found it the Congo, a " Comit^ d'Etudes du Haut Congo " was formed, under the auspices of Leopold II., King of the Belgians, for the purpose of studying the physical conditions, material resources, and ethnical relations of the vast region thus suddenly revealed to the outer world. In 1879 Stanley himself was commissioned to proceed again to the scene of his great exploit, and in- quire on the spot into the best means of introducing orderly trade and European culture amongst the savage populations dwelling on the banks of the great artery. " I am charged," he wrote at the time, " to open and keep open, if possible, all such districts and countries as I may explore for the benefit of the commercial world. The mission is supported by a philanthropic society, which numbers noble-minded men of several nations. It is not a religious society, but my instructions are entirely of that spirit. No violence must be used, and wherever rejected, the mission must withdraw to seek another field. ... I have fifteen Europeans and a couple of hundred natives with ma" Here, therefore, was a new' departure in the history of European enterprise—an attempt to conquer by peaceful means, and for peaceful aims; to conquer also at least as much in the interest of the vanquished as of theTHE CONGO FREE STATE 71 controlling power. A bloodless victory of prodigious magnitude was the outcome of this mission, which lasted altogether five years (1879-84), and which involved a vast amount of hard pioneering work especially in the region of the cataracts between the estuary and Stanley Pool. It was at Yivi, the base station at the foot of the last falls, that Stanley earned the title of Bula Matadi, or " Stone- Breaker," from the natives amazed at the energy with which he overcame all physical difficulties in the pre- liminary work of road-making, required to keep open the communications between the stations successively founded above Yivi at Isangila, Manyanga, and Leopoldville at Stanley Pool on the plateau itself. The hardest task was thus successfully accomplished towards the close of 1881, and Leopoldville, terminus of the portages along the escarpments of the plateau, at once became the starting-point of the fluvial navigation for hundreds of miles along the main stream from Stanley Pool to Stanley Palls, and for thousands of miles along the countless affluents ramifying in all directions through- out the Congo-Lualaba catchment basin. A steamer, well named the En Avant, was now- launched for the first time on these inland waters; an event soon followed by the foundation of fresh stations at Mswata, chief Gobila's village, and a little higher up, at Kwamouth, the converging point of the great Kassai affluent, with its endless cortege of navigable secondary tributaries. Ascending the Kwa the pioneers, taking a wrong turning, missed the Kassai, but through the Mfini reached the considerable lacustrine basin now known as Lake Leopold II. After a brief visit to Europe to report progress, Stanley returned at the end of 1882 with increased powers to treat with the native chiefs, and acquire the lands and privileges necessary for the72 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL consolidation and further development of the work already done. Continuing its onward march, though with ever- increasing difficulties, the mission now ascended the great horseshoe bend of the main stream, founding stations at Wangata, on the equator, henceforth known as Equatorville, and at Stanley Falls, above the equator, at the eastern side of the bend, and at the head of the navigation of the Middle Congo. The preliminary work of the Mission and of the " Comite d'l^tudes" was now done; it remained for international diplomacy to accomplish the rest. Stanley returned to Europe in 1884, leaving his charge in the hands of Colonel Sir Francis de Winton, while the Comite became merged in the "African International Association." This body, still sustained exclusively by the private purse of the King of the Belgians, but now armed with 450 treaties made with various African chiefs, appealed to the civilised world for public recognition. England stood aloof; the energies of France and Portugal were chiefly displayed in the endeavour to seize vantage points in a region to the development of which they had contributed nothing. But the United States came forward and first recognised the " Congo Free State," which was at last formally constituted a sovereign power under international guarantees by the Congress of Berlin in the year 1885. The monarchial form of Government was adopted, Leopold II. being chosen its first king, with the Belgian capital as the seat of the administration. But in 1889 Leopold bequeathed to Belgium all his sovereign rights, and in 1890 the whole territory was declared inalienable, the right being reserved to Belgium of annexing the Free State after a period of ten years.THE CONGO FREE STATE 73 Progress of Geographical Exploration The exploration of the Congo basin was now actively continued, chiefly by the European officials in the service of the State, but also by individual enterprise, and by the missionaries, who have not been slow to occupy a new field offering unlimited scope for their Apostolic labours. Even before Stanley's withdrawal from the scene, Lieutenant Wissmann and Dr. Pogge were already at work on behalf of the German African Association among the southern Congo affluents. Before the end of 1880 they had made their way from Loanda across Portuguese territory to Kikassa on the Kassai, and thence next year across the Lulua and through the Tu-Shilange territory to Lake Munkamba, reported to be " a vast sea," but now shown to be a small tarn scarcely three miles long. The expedition then pushed on to the Lubi and Lubilash, headstreams of the Sankuru, and after crossing the Lomami, then considered a branch of the same great Congo affluent, it crossed Cameron's route of 1874, reaching Nyangwe on the Lualaba in 1882. Here the explorers parted company, Dr. Pogge returning westwards and Wissmann continuing the journey across Lake Tanganyika to Saadani, on the Indian Ocean. In 1884 Wissmann entered the service of the Congo International Association, and, in company with Dr. Wolf and Lieutenant Miiller, resumed the survey of the Kassai waters, which had also, meantime, been visited by Buchner and Schiitt. After founding the important station of Luluaberg, on the Lulua, some miles above its confluence with the Kassai, the flotilla formed at this station descended the Lulua, and, after encountering some rapids near its mouth, entered the Kassai and followed its whole course without further obstruction down to the74 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Sankuru confluence on the right and the Kuango on the left, and so on past the Mfini confluence to Kwamouth, in July 1885. Next to Stanley's descent of the Lualaba-Congo this was the most important expedition in the Congo basin, for it determined the true character of the vast Kassai hydrographic system, and showed that the Kwa, a sort of inland Humber, was not so much a river in the ordinary sense as a broad, deep channel through which a multitude of streams—Kwango, Kassai, Lulua, Lubilash, Sankuru, Lomami, with all their head-waters— converged on the left bank of the Congo above Stanley Pool. This great fluvial system, ramifying in every direction on the south side, is, so to say, balanced on the north by the Ubangi (Mobangi), which was first ascended to the Falls by the Rev. Mr. Grenfell in 1885-6, and again in 1888 by Lieutenant van Gele. Dr. W. Junker, advanc- ing from the White Nile regions, had, in 1883, already followed the course of the Welle-Makua to the station of Abdallah (22° 55' E., 4° N.), within sixty miles of the farthest point afterwards reached by Yan Gele on the Ubangi. Thus was solved the last great hydrographic problem in Africa; for it now became evident that the Welle, supposed by its discoverer, Schweinfurth (1870), to drain through the Shari to the Chad basin, was, on the contrary, the upper course of the Ubangi, largest affluent of the Congo on its right bank. The connection was soon after completed by Yan Gele, who steamed up the Ubangi to Abdallah's in 1890, and afterwards penetrated up the Mbomu, Mbili, and other affluents of the Welle-Makua. Treaties have already been made with the native chiefs and stations of the Free State founded in the Welle basin itself, most of which was a terra incognita before Junker's explorations of 1876-83. Junker had penetrated in the year 1882 through theTHE CONGO FKEE STATE 75 Niam-Mam country southwards to the Nepoko, the mouth of which river was passed by Stanley during his ascent of the Aruwimi in 1887. Its lower course has not yet been surveyed; but there is no longer any doubt that it flows through the Aruwimi to the Congo. The Aruwimi itself was found by Stanley to rise on the plateau, near the west side of Lake Albert Nyanza, which belongs to the Nile system. The true position and limits of the Congo-Nile water-parting are thus finally settled, and within little more than a decade of Stanley's expedition down the Congo the extent, outlines, and more salient features of the whole basin had already been determined. Boundaries, Extent, and Population of the Free State But at the time of the Berlin Congress many of these discoveries had yet to be made, and, despite Stanley's preliminary surveys, much of the Congo region still remained to be explored. Hence the frontiers of the new State could only be roughly indicated, in many places by little-known water-partings or unsurveyed river-courses, or the pretended boundaries of conterminous European claims, or else by purely arbitrary conventional lines traced along the meridians and parallels of latitude. The principle that the Free State should coincide with the fluvial basin itself, so as to correspond with the natural physical divisions, was found to be impracticable; for the basin had already been encroached upon at various points by rival European Powers. But in working out the details this principle was kept in view, and adopted wherever possible. The result is that for all practical purposes the Congo State and the Congo basin are one. Thus the Congo-Zambesi divide has been chosen as the southern boundary, while on the east side the line follows76 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the western shore of Lake Tanganyika, which is almost an inland basin, draining only intermittently to the Congo. In the south-east the British sphere of influence en- croaches by appropriating Lake Bangweolo and the east side of Lake Moero both in the Luapula, or Upper Congo valley. On the other hand, in the north-east the conventional line of 30° E. longitude crosses Lake Albert Edward at the Semliki river—that is, takes in a corner of the Albertine branch of the Nile, which should be included in the sphere of influence of British East Africa. By the Franco-Belgium Agreement of August 1894 the frontier towards French Congo coincides with the valley of the Ubangi up to its confluence with the Mbomu, and then follows the course of the Mbomu to its source at the Congo - Mle water - parting, which forms the boundary as far as its intersection with 30° E. longitude. A seaward outlet along the right bank of the Congo estuary was secured to the Free State by the Convention of February 1885 between Portugal and the African International Congress, and in March 1894 the frontier towards Portuguese West Africa was finally settled by the acceptance of the line proposed by the Rev. George Grenfell, delegate of the Free State. Here the boundary partly coincides with the Kwango south to the Tungila confluence, from which point it runs eastwards mainly along 8° S. latitude to the Luita tributary of the Kassai, then north by east partly along the Loangwe valley to 7° S. latitude, and thence mainly along this parallel east- wards to the Chikapa river a little above its junction with the Kassai. From this point the line turns abruptly south along the Chikapa valley to 7° 177 S., which parallel is followed east to the Kassai. As thus constituted the Congo Free State has an area roughly estimated at 900,000 square miles, with a population of about 14,000,000.THE CONGO FREE STATE 77 Physical Features—The Congo Basin When Diego Cano (Diogo Cam) reached the Congo estuary in the year 148 2} struck by its immen- sity and ignorant of any local appellation, he called it the Poderoso, or " Mighty." Then his Portuguese suc- cessors learnt from the natives that they also designated it by the corresponding word Nzadi, or " Great River." 2 But this word, which still lingers on some European maps under the corrupt form of Zaire, gradually gave place to the term Congo, from the name of the once powerful empire through which it flowed, and this designation has been finally accepted in geographical nomenclature, despite Stanley's attempt to substitute that of Livingstone in 1877. In superficial extent the basin of the " Poderoso" (about 1,600,000 square miles) ranks next to that of the Amazons (1,800,000 square miles), while two at least of its affluents, the Ubangi on the right and the Kassai on the left bank, drain areas very much larger than the whole of the British Isles (170,000 and over 200,000 square miles respectively). Others, such as the Aruwimi, Loika, and Alima on the north, the Boloko, Lopori, and Juapa on the south side, vie in length and volume with the Rhine, the Loire, and other great rivers of West Europe. The farthest headstreams rise thousands of miles away to the south-east, where the sources of the Chambezi are separated only by a narrow ridge from the affluents of 1 Not 1484 as hitherto supposed. The two pillars erected by the navigator to commemorate this expedition were brought to Lisbon in 1892, when an inscription was discovered on one of them showing that the coast had been traced all the way to Benguela in 1482, two years earlier than the date usually assigned. 2 Hence Nzadi a Mungwa = " The great salt river," the sea.78 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Lakes Xyassa and Hikwa, within 450 miles of the Indian Ocean, and where those of the Lualaba rise at the foot of Mount Kaomba, Arnot's " Border Craig," close to the main source of the Zambesi. On the other hand the Mouyango, southernmost tributary of the Kassai, has its source in the Chibokwe country, close to the north-western feeders of the Zambesi, and within 350 miles of the Atlantic. VILLAGE ON THE LOWER ARUWIMI. Thus the head-waters of the main stream and of its chief southern affluents are spread over a great part of the continent, and are met by travellers crossing from ocean to ocean along the whole extent of the great central plateau, within its eastern and western escarpments. In its general outlines the section of the plateau lying within the Congo basin presents the aspect of a somewhat depressed alluvial plain with a decided tilt towards the Atlantic, and rising round the periphery to heights of from about 3000 to 6000 feet, but nowhere traversed by continuous lofty ranges. The Katanga copper-countryTHE CONGO FEEE STATE 79 towards the south-east is described by Mr. Arnot as dis- tinctly " mountainous" ; the same traveller crossed the Bihe escarpments 100 miles from the Atlantic at an altitude of 6000 feet. The Kifumaji Flat, where some of the Zambesi and Congo head-waters are intermingled about Lake Dilolo, stands 4000 feet above the sea ; Lake Bang- weolo, in the extreme south-east, is nearly as high (3700 feet); the passes leading from the north to the sources of the Makua in the extreme north-east were found by Junker to be 4000 to 5000 feet, and the whole region may be said to culminate a little farther south in the snowy Buwenzori group, 17,000 to 20,000 (?) feet high. But no such elevations occur anywhere within the periphery, where no part of the whole region is crossed by any distinct mountain range. The fall is continuous, and for the most part gradual, from the surrounding Congo-Zambesi, Congo-Nile, Congo-Shari, Congo-Ogoway water-partings down to the central artery, which, after making a tremendous horse-shoe bend to about 2° 30' north latitude, discharges the whole drainage of a well- watered catchment basin nearly 1,600,000 square miles in extent, 1400 miles long, and 1200 broad, through a single estuary some six degrees below the equator. The Livingstone Falls and Congo Estuary In fact this great Central African depression was probably at one time the bed of a vast inland sea, which may have included the Chad basin itself, but which is now represented in the Lower Congo regions only by Stanley Pool, a sheet of water less than 100 square miles in extent, but over 200 feet deep. Here were collected all the equatorial waters, which, owing to the -excess of rainfall over evaporation, gradually surged up80 COMPENDIUM ,OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL against the coast ranges, which barred their passage sea- wards. At last the summits were reached, and then the overflow of the lacustrine basin was discharged towards the Atlantic through a series of tremendous cataracts, which have slowly eaten away the escarpments down to the levels of what are now collectively called the Livingstone Falls. Thus, like the Niagara and so many STANLEY POOL. other watercourses that have not yet completed their life history, the Congo still rushes with fury down to its placid estuary, descending between Stanley Pool and the Yellala, or lowest falls, a total height of nearly 900 feet through as many as thirty-two distinct rapids, in a distance of somewhat less than 170 miles. This region of the lower cataracts, formerly the great barrier to the seaward-course of the Congo waters, is at present the great barrier to the inland flow of European trade and culture. As it must take ages before Stanley Pool can be cut down to the level of the estuary, even by a dis-81 THE CONGO FREE STATE charge estimated according to the seasons at from 1,300,000 to nearly 2,000,000 cubic feet per second, it is clear that a railway from the coast to Stanley Pool, or YELLALA FALLS, some other point above the falls, is a primary condition for the development of the Congo Free State. The estuary itself, which is 120 miles long, with an average breath of five or six miles, and a depth in some places of over 200 feet, looks like a delta in course of VOL. II G82 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL formation. While rivers are eating their way down to sea- level; all their energies are devoted to the work of erosion : but this once accomplished, as in the Lower Zambesi and Lower Nile, their current becomes sluggish and they begin to deposit sedimentary matter, which in the Congo estuary is estimated at over eleven billion cubic feet a year. This would suffice, if centred in one spot, to create an island 1000 feet high and half a square mile in extent. But, being spread over a wide space and arrested by the tidal current, it accumulates now in one place, now in another. Shifting sandbanks are thus created, shoals and subfluvial banks are developed, through which the stream has again to cut its way, as on the north side of the Congo estuary, where a channel already twenty feet deep at low water branches olf to the right, and after ramifying round several flat deltaic islands reaches the coast at Banana (French Point) over against Shark Point (Cape St. Antonio) at the southern entrance of the estuary. Similar formations are being developed in the Kissanga district on the south side, and the time is perhaps not distant when a true Congo delta will be created rivalling in extent those of the Niger, Nile, and Mississippi. The Middle Congo and its Affluents Above the narrows there is a clear waterway of nearly 1000 miles, stretching without interruption from Stanley Pool round the great horseshoe bend to Stanley Falls on the equator. Throughout this section, constituting a well- defined middle course, the Congo flows in a majestic island-studded current, in some places broadening out to a width of eight or even ten miles, along the lowest part of the old lacustrine bed at a mean elevation of aboutBANANA POINT.8A COMPENDIUM; OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 1200 feet above the sea.1 The station of Kwamouth, about ninety miles above the pool, indicates the point where the main stream is joined on the left bank by the Kwa, which collects in a single channel the drainage of a region fully as large as France. This channel, through which the Kassai with its vast ramification of secondary SEVENTH CATARACT, STANLEY FALLS. affluents reaches the main stream, is scarcely a third of a mile wide at the narrows where it pierces the rocky ridge formerly separating it from the Congo, and even at the confluence it is less than half a mile wide, but it has a depth of at least 130 feet, and a velocity of four miles an hour. 1 Just below Stanley Falls, Stanley [Through the Dark Continent)gives the height of the river at 1511 feet, while Grenfell estimates that of Stanley Pool at 800, others at 916 feet, leaving an average of about 1200 for the whole course between these two points.THE CONGO FREE STATE 85 At about 5° south latitude the Kassai is joined on its right bank by its largest tributary, the Sankuru (Sankulu), whose farthest south-eastern headstream, the Lomami, is no less than 750 miles long. The Lomami, whose source was discovered by Le Marinel (1891), in 8° 45' S., 24° 55' E., is not to be confounded with the eastern Lomami, Grenfell's Boloko, which joins the Congo in an independent channel much farther east some miles below Stanley Falls. The Boloko was ascended towards the end of 1889 by Mr. Janssen, Governor-General of the Free State, to the head of the navigation about the latitude of Nyangwe, and it was thus shown that this great trade centre could be reached much more easily by the Lomami than by the main stream, which is obstructed by numer- ous rapids beyond those of Stanley Falls. The Kassai, central artery of the great southern hydrographic system, flows first nearly 200 miles due east to the northern margin of the Kifumaji (Chifumachi) Flat, which Cameron had heard of as a great lake, but which Arnot found to be " an immense sandy plain, flooded to the depth of two or three feet during the rainy seasons; but the water speedily drains away and leaves a dry arid plain in winter." 1 The lowest depression in this plain is flooded by the permanent Lake Dilolo, where some of the Congo (Kassai) and Zambesi head-waters are intermingled during the rains, as are those of the Amazons and Orinoco in the Cassiquiare channel. At the Kifumaji Flat the Kassai bends abruptly northwards, and mainly follows this direction for the rest of its course to the Kwa. Below the Wissmann Falls at the head of the steam navigation it receives the copious Lulua above the Sankuru, and at the Kwa Confluence the Mflni, through which Lake Leopold II. sends its overflow to the 1 Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January 1889.86 COMPENDIUM-OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Congo. A little above the same confluence the Kassai is joined from the south-west by the Kwango, largest of the tributaries on its left bank. But the Kwango, flowing northwards along the eastern or inner foot of the escarp- ments, is so obstructed by falls and rapids, that it is far more useful as the political frontier of the Tree State and Portuguese West Africa, than as a highway of communica- tion with the interior. Nevertheless its lower course is navigable for nearly 200 miles from its mouth to the first rapids at Kingunji. From its source to the confluence, a distance of over 600 miles, there is a total descent of over 4000 feet, and at the Caparanga (Louisa) Falls there is a clear drop of 163 feet. A few miles below the equator, the Middle Congo is joined by its great affluent from the extreme north-east, the Ubangi, whose farthest headwaters are now known to rise on the southern watershed of the Congo-Nile divide.1 From this point (Mounts Chippendall, Speke, Junker, and Schweinfurth, within a short distance of Wadelai, on the White Nile), it flows as the Welle Kibali or Kibbi, or simply Welle, that is, " Eiver" in a pre-eminent sense, first north and then nearly due west, and lower down takes the name of Makua, receiving the Werre, Kengo or Mbomu, and other large affluents, nearly all on its right bank, from the Dar-Fertit and Krej watershed of the divide towards the Nile and Chad basins. On the south 1 Even in good geographies there is much confusion in the use of such terms as water-parting, divide, and watershed. It may therefore be well to explain that water-parting and divide are synonymous, meaning the ridge or rising ground, however low, which separates the sources of streams flowing to two or more different basins ; but a watershed is a slope ; hence one divide must have two, and may have more watersheds, one for each basin, of which it forms the parting-line. Thus Mr. Arnot's "Border Craig," taken as a whole, is a divide or water-parting with three watersheds or slopes, from which streams flow north-west to the Lulua-Kassai basin, north to the Lualaba, and south-west to the Zambesi respectively.THE CONGO FREE STATE 87 side its largest feeder is the Bomokandi, which appears to rise a few miles south-west of Mount Schweinfurth, and after a westerly course of over 300 miles reaches the left bank of the Welle, some distance above the Werre confluence. Farther on, according as it traverses different Mam-Mam and other populations, the Welle takes other names, such as the Koyu and the Dua, the latter prevailing both above and below the dangerous Zongo rapids, where its westerly course is arrested by a group of hills 600 to 800 feet high. Here the Dua trends abruptly south for the rest of its course to the Congo, which it enters as the Ubangi or Mobangi, through a broad island-studded channel, which has often been mistaken for that of the main stream itself. This Ubangi-Welle affluent, draining a region larger than the United Kingdom, must prove of vast importance for the future development of Central Africa. Its navigation is certainly obstructed by the Zongo Falls (which, however, have already been surmounted by Yan Gele), and again by the Kibali Falls on its upper course. But between these two points and throughout its lower reaches it is everywhere navigable for hundreds of miles by river steamers of considerable size. At the Zongo rapids, which can be easily turned by portages, the stream is 640 yards wide and 25 feet deep, with a current of nearly two miles an hour, and a volume of 75,000 cubic feet per second, or about two-thirds of all the other Congo tributaries below the Aruwimi. Even at low water in February it is never less than 600 yards wide, and with its numerous tributaries cannot have a navigable water- way of less than 2000 miles. It thus affords almost unbroken water communication from Stanley Pool right across the continent to the Mle basin in the east, and to the Chad basin through the river Shari in the north.88 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL The Ubangi also traverses one of the finest and most densely peopled regions in the whole of Africa, a region of which, despite the prevailing cannibalism, its first explorers speak in enthusiastic language. Thus the country above the Zongo Tails is described by Captain Yan Gele as " beautiful in the extreme. On both sides rise gently sloping hills, woods and pasture lands; fields of maize and bananas pass in endless succession. . . . Sometimes the banks seem at first sight to be uninhabited, because the villages lie about a hundred yards inland; but the moment one accosts a passing canoe the inhabit- ants flock down to the water's edge. I never saw such a quantity of provisions everywhere, not only in one particular spot, but during the whole voyage; bananas, maize, flour, sorghum, sweet potatoes, yams, beans, sugar- cane, sesame, ripe bananas preserved in honey, palm-wine infused with kola nuts, tobacco, sheep, goats, splendid fowls, were offered in abundance. To sum up, it is the most densely peopled and fertile land I have come across in Africa." 1 Beyond the Ubangi, the Middle Congo receives also on its right bank three other large affluents—the IsTgala, or Mongalla, surveyed by Baert and Werner as far as the Mugwardie Tails and Eapids in 1886,2 the Loika or Itimbiri, ascended in 1884 by Grenfell and again by Van Gele, as far as the Lubi or Eubi Falls, and the Aruwimi (Biyere), traversed nearly from mouth to source by Stanley's Emin Pasha Eelief Expedition of 1887-89. Here is entered the great Central African forest zone 1 Proc. Royal Geographical Society, 1889, pp. 335, 336. 2 This expedition settled the true character of the Ngala river, which by some had previously been taken for a branch of the Ubangi; but which was now shown to be an independent stream, apparently sending some of its overflow to the Ubangi during the floods.—J. R. Werner, A Visit to Stanley's Rear-Guard, 1889, p. 134/THE CONGO FREE STATE 89 stretching from about the Congo-Nile divide southwards to Manyuemaland, and from the Albertine Nile westwards to and beyond the Lomami (Boloko) affluent of the Congo. During his toilsome march up the Aruwimi valley, Stanley plodded for 160 days " through the forest, bush and jungle, without ever having seen a bit of green sward of the size of a college chamber floor. Nothing but miles and miles, endless miles of forest, in various stages of growth and various degrees of altitude, according to the ages of the trees, with varying thickness of undergrowth."1 The Aruwimi was found to have a course of about 700 miles, rising as the Ituri on the plateau above the west side of Lake Albert Nyanza, near the sources of the Welle ; it flows thence south-west and west parallel with that river, and collects through the Lenda from the south, the Ihuru, Nepoko and other affluents from the north, the running waters of a densely-wooded region nearly 70,000 square miles in extent. But as a highway of communication with the Nile basin it cannot compare with the Ubangi-Welle, for it flows mainly through un- cleared land, and is obstructed by numerous rapids throughout the whole of its middle course. The Nepoko also at the confluence develops a picturesque waterfall which bars all access to the Upper Welle or to the Nile by that affluent. Till quite recently these north-eastern tributaries of the Congo were separated by an unexplored tract from Junker's itineraries in the Welle-Makua basin. But this intervening district was crossed at two different points in the summer of 1890 by Captains Boget and Becker, in the service of the Free State. Boget, starting from the Loika, made his way northwards to the Makua, at a place a little above Abdallah, Junker's westernmost point 1 Darkest Africa, i. p. 136.90 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL in the direction of the Ubangi (February 1883). Becker, setting out from Yambuya, on the Lower Aruwimi, ad- vanced north-westwards across the Lulu affluent of that river and then across the Loika, which was here found to be identical with Junker's Bubi,1 and which was joined on the right by the Biketti, Junker's Bikkiti or Likkiti, though by him placed too far west. Becker took 200 !f' fr ~~ days to cross the dense forest region, reaching from the Aruwimi to the Makua, which © ' o at the point struck by him had a breadth of nearly a mile. All the itineraries of explorers penetrating south- wards from Egypt were thus at last connected with those spreading northwards from the Cape, and it is now possible to proceed by known routes across the whole length of the continent from the Nile delta to Cape Town. 1 The letters r, I and d interchange in the Bantu and other African languages. Hence Grenfell's Lubi Falls were the falls of Junker's river Rubi. CASCADES OF THE NEPOKO.THE CONGO FKEE STATE 91 The Upper Congo, its Lakes and Tributaries Stanley Falls, where the Congo begins its middle course, are still distant from 1400 to 1500 miles from its farthest headstreams; the Chambezi, which rises near " Stevenson's Boad," on the plateau between Lakes Tan- ganyika and Nyassa, and the Lualaba, which has its source on the southern slope of the Lokinga (Mushinga), range at about 13° S. latitude, close to the head-waters of the Zambesi. Throughout this section the Upper Congo drains a vast lacustrine region, the true character of which has not yet been determined. The western chain of little known lakes, including Kasali (1800 feet above sea-level), Kowambe, Bembe, and others, may possibly, like Stanley Pool, be surviving fragments of the ancient inland sea. But those lying more to the east and south-east—Bangweolo (4000), Moero (2820), and Tanganyika (2665)—evidently belong to different geological systems. The Chambezi, whose upper course, the Chazi, rises within less than 430 miles of the Indian Ocean, flows mainly in a south-westerly direction through a swampy district to the east side of Lake Bangweolo or Bemba,1 southernmost, and next to Tanganyika largest of all the lacustrine basins draining to the Congo. Its name will always be associated with that of Livingstone, who dis- covered it in 1868, and who ended his days in 1873 at Chitambo's station of Ilala on its southern shore. Bangweolo, which lies at the northern foot of the Lokinga range, is merely a shallow, reedy, and island- 1 Neither of these names is known to the natives, and Mr. Alfred Sharpe thinks that Livingstone's ''Bangweolo" is a corruption of Pa- mwelo, 44 at the lake." South of Tanganyika all lakes are called Mwelo or Mwelu, Mwero or Mweru {Geo. Jour. 1893, p. 551).92 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL studded depression, flooded to a depth of from fifteen to twenty feet by the Chambezi and several smaller streams from the surrounding morass. It appears to change its form and size from season to season, Livingstone describ- ing it as an oval, with its long axis disposed from east to west, whereas Giraud found it in 1886 stretching in the opposite direction from north to south, and sending its overflow from the south-west corner through the Luapula to the Lualaba. Bangweolo stands at an altitude of 3800 feet, or about 100 feet higher than Livingstone's rough estimate. In 1893 Bangweolo was visited by Joseph Thomson, who corrected some of Giraud's esti- mates, and reduced the area of open water in the dry season to about 1670 square miles, and its altitude to 3760 feet. At the outlet the Luapula is already a copious stream 600 feet wide and twenty deep ; but it is soon obstructed by the dangerous Mombottuta (Mambirima) Falls, beyond which point it flows in a northerly direction through Lake Moero (Mweru, " white ") to its confluence with the Kamorondo (Lualaba), a little above the junction of the Lukuga from Lake Tanganyika. In the section of the Luapula between Bangweolo and Moero, a distance altogether of not more than 300 miles, there is a total fall of about 700 feet (3800 to 3100). But Sharpe (1893) gives Moero an altitude of 3000 feet, and a length of 68 miles, with a mean breadth of 24 miles. Although smaller, Moero presents more the character of a true lake than the Bangweolo depression. It lies on the same plateau and stands at about the same level as Tanganyika, from which it is distant less than 100 miles; it presents an open expanse broken by few islands, about 90 miles long and very deep, especially towards the north, where the encircling wooded mountainsTHE CONGO FREE STATE 93 give it a somewhat Alpine aspect. Its great age is betrayed by its fauna, which includes some remarkable fishes of the Silurian epoch and of amphibious habits. After the periodical inundations which here cover vast spaces, these Siluroids leave the lake to feed on the reptiles and other animals left dead on the ground after the subsidence of the waters. Moero was visited in 1892 by Mr. Alfred Sharpe, who founded the station of Ehodesia at its north-east corner, and again in 1894 by the Eev. Mr. Crawfurd, who found that the Luapula entered the lake through two mouths, although one only is shown on Mr. Sharpe's map.1 Beyond Moero the Luapula, here known as the Luvwa, and by Livingstone called Webb's Eiver, still continues its precipitous course down to its junction with the Lualaba descending from the south-west. Several of the head streams of the Lualaba, such as the Lokoleshe, Luburi, Lufupa, and Lulua, all rising about the Border Craig water-parting, were crossed near their sources, on his journey to Garenganze, by Mr. Arnot, who found them already "large streams over which we had to make bridges." Thus a great volume of water is carried down by the Lualaba to its confluence with the Luapula, and Keichard, who in 1884 crossed it 120 miles above this point, supposed that it was the more copious of the two. But M. Delcommune, who explored a great part of this lacustrine region in 1891-2, found that in the month of August the eastern branch had a discharge of 1830 cubic feet per second at its outflow from Lake Moero, while the volume of the western branch was not more than 890 cubic feet near the confluence. Of the numerous lakes lying in its valley the largest appear to be Lo-Hamba and Kassali, the latter lying at the 1 Jour. Geo. Soc., June 1893, p. 561.94 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL converging point of the Lualaba, Lufira and Luburi. But the geographical nomenclature of this region is very confusing. The Luapula itself often takes the name of Lualaba, and these two great headstreams of the Congo are by some writers distinguished as the Eastern and Western Lualaba. Of the western branch the chief tributary is the Luburi or Lubudi (Lububuri), which was explored in 1893 by Lieut. Erancqui, who thinks that, although smaller at the confluence, it must have a much longer course than the eastern branch.1 Lake Tanganyika and the Lualaba Below their junction the main stream has in recent years received the overflow of Lake Tanganyika through its Lukuga emissary. At the time of its discovery by Burton and Speke (1858), this great equatorial lake was certainly a land-locked basin without any outflow, the evaporation balancing the contributions received from the Malagarazi, Rusizi, Lofu and some smaller affluents. Since then its physiography has been carefully studied by Livingstone, Stanley, Cameron, and especially by Edward C. Hore, who was settled with his family for ten years (1878-88) on its banks.2 This observer is of opinion that the discharge through the Lukuga is quite a recent phenomenon, due to a gradual gain of inflow over the evaporation. M. Delcommune, who completed 1 Mouvement Gtographique, 1894, No. 8. 2 Mrs. Hore has the distinction of being the first European woman who penetrated into East Equatorial Africa from the Zanzibar Coast. For a graphic account of her journey and residence on the lake see To Lake Tanganyika in a Bath-Chair, by Annie B. Hore, 1887. Tanganyika is the Swahili name of this basin, which all the natives call Nyanja, Liemba, Mweru or Hueru, that is, the "lake," in the local Bantu dialects (H. H. Johnston, "Report for 1891-93," p. 6).THE CONGO FREE STATE 95 the survey of the Lukuga in 1892, found that it has a total length of 235 miles, with a fall of 1035 feet (2665 to 1630). At the confluence, where it forms a delta of considerable size, it is 187 feet wide and 5 feet deep, with a discharge of 50 cubic metres per second in the dry season. Neither M. Delcommune nor Capt. S. L. Hinde, who explored the lower reaches of the Lukuga in 1893, saw any trace of the Lake Lanji (Ulenge), which is figured on all maps at or near the converging point of the Lualaba, Luapula, and Lukuga. Tanganyika, that is, the " mingling of the waters," occupies the lowest cavity of a depression in the plateau, apparently of volcanic origin, and is 400 miles long with an average breadth of 20 miles, and a depth in the central parts of from 500 to 2000 feet. It bears a curious resemblance in its general outline to the more southerly Lake JsTyassa, which doubtless belongs to the same great volcanic fault stretching north-west and south-east between the Euwenzori and Shire highlands, parallel with another line of igneous energy indicated by the Comoro group, the north of Madagascar, and the Mascarenhas Islands. "Not only the appearance of the depression and the lake lead one to think of volcanic action and earthquake movement, still more practical and impressive evidence has been forced upon me during ten years of residence, in the frequent recurrence of shocks of earthquake, sometimes so severe as to open cracks in the ground, as well as in the presence of several hot springs and jets of steam and petroleum, while still more frequent gloomy rumblings beneath the surface (the complaints and warnings of the storm demon Kabogo) indicate that the fires below are still active" (Hore). The lake, which stands 2665 feet above sea-levelSOUTH END OP LAKE TANGANYIKA.THE CONGO FEEE STATE 97 (Popelin), is remarkably free from shoals, reefs, or islands, except Kavala's and a few others close in-shore. But it is exposed to sudden squalls and fierce storms, especially at the turn of the seasons, and these are accompanied by waterspouts, the " St. Elmo's fire," and other electric disturbances. Tanganyika is a fresh-water basin, well stocked with fish, and containing a remark- able shell-fish fauna, more than half the molluscs being peculiar to the lake, while others resemble the extinct marine species of the European cretaceous period. The section of the Lualaba from the Lukuga confluence to that of the Luama above Nyangwe was first explored in 1894 by Captain Hinde, who describes it as a noble stream, in some parts from one to two miles wide, including the islands, and over thirty-five feet deep, but so obstructed by the Nyangy Falls and many other rapids as to be of little use for navigation.1 Erom the Luama confluence, where it is a copious water-way nearly three- quarters of a mile wide and from ten to sixteen feet deep, the Lualaba flows mainly north through a little known forest region to the equator. Here the Stanley Ealls, a series of seven formidable rapids completely obstruct- ing the navigation, mark the termination of the upper and beginning of the middle course of the Congo. Above the falls the main stream is joined by several large affluents, such as the Lufubu, Ruika, and Kasuku 011 its left, the Kipembwe, Urindi, Lulu - Lowwa, and Leopold on its right bank. Climate of the Congo Basin There can be no doubt that the climate of this region is very trying to the European constitution, not so much 1 "Three Years' Travel in the Congo Free State," in Jour. Geo. Soc., May 1895. VOL. II H98 COMPENDIUM OF GEOCxKAPHY AND TRAVEL from the tropical heat, as from the excessive moisture of the atmosphere. This is shown by the fact that English travellers and residents, accustomed to the damp foggy climate of the British Isles, resist its influences better than the Belgian and other European officials of the Eree State, better even than the Nubian inhabitants of the almost rainless Middle Mle valley, who " are not so tolerant of moist heat as Englishmen."1 But it would be a mistake to suppose that the English or any other Europeans can ever hope to found permanent colonies except in some favoured districts about the periphery of the Congo basin. Such might possibly be the Tanganyika uplands, where " the climate on the whole is by no means unhealthy. ... I have no doubt that, as a few civilised surroundings are secured, and the country and conditions of life become better understood, there will be no complaint of the climate." 2 Such also might be the Katanga high- lands, which Mr. Arnot speaks of as " a healthy part of the interior," and where he himself resided for some years without any detriment to his physical or mental energies. But taken as a whole the great Central African depression must necessarily be debilitating and more or less dangerous for all European residents, because of the high normal temperature ranging from about 60° to 90° F.,3 the sudden transitions from hot days, with the glass 1 J. T. Wills, Proc. Royal Geographical Society, 1887, p. 294. 2 E. C. Hore, ib. 1889,'p. 589." 3 Wherever accurate records have been taken we find high temperatures prevailing all the year round, both in the dry and wet seasons. Thus at Luebo Station (Luebo-Lulua Confluence, Kassai basin) the glass never fell in 1886 below 63° F. in July, a dry month, rising in October, a wet month, to 105°, the average for both being at 2 p.m. 86° and 97° respectively (Batcman). This means a climate made up entirely of alternating wet and dry hot summers. Luebo stands almost in the mathematical centre of the Congo basin at atn altitude of about 2000 feet. It may therefore be taken as representing the normal climatic conditions in Central Africa.THE CONGO FKEE STATE 99 often standing at 100° F. and even 10 9° (Lower Ubangi), to chilly nights, when Cameron found the water freezing about the sources of the Kassai; the absence of distinct summer and winter seasons, here replaced by two rainy and two dry periods ; lastly, the free play of high winds, which are often charged with miasmatic vapours wafted from great distances across the open plateau or along the large river valleys, and which, when cool, are apt to give rise to chills and ague of a peculiarly treacherous character. Stanley, who has had more experience of the climatic conditions in the Congo regions than any other living authority, concludes generally that "from 0 to 5000 feet above the sea there is no immunity from fever and ague; that over forty miles of lake water between a camp and the other shore are no positive protection; that a thou- sand miles of river course may serve as a flue to convey malaria in a concentrated form; that if there is a thick screen of primeval forest, or a grove of plantations between the dwelling-place and a large clearing or open country, there is only danger of the local malaria around the dwelling, which might be rendered harmless by the slightest attention to the system. But in the open country neither a house nor a tent is sufficient protec- tion, since the air enters by the doors of the house, and under the flaps and through the ventilators, to poison the inmates."1 But if under these adverse conditions the European race cannot be perpetuated in the Congo basin, European officials, missionaries, traders and travellers may by due precautions greatly reduce the risks to which they are exposed by residence in the country. Doubtless the death-rate has hitherto been excessively high amongst all these classes. But they may be regarded as pioneers who 1 In Darkest Africa, ii. p. 32.100 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL have suffered for the benefit of their successors, and the history, for instance, of the first expeditions up the Niger shows how much may be done to lessen the mortality of Europeans obliged to reside for a term of years in Congo- land. Of the forty-nine whites on board the two steamers that first ascended the Niger in 1832 all but nine perished. A steam flotilla despatched in 1841 by a philanthropic society lost forty-eight out of 143 whites in a few weeks, and the " model farm " founded by the survivors above the Benue confluence had been scarcely cleared for tillage when " the death of all the Europeans restored the land to wild beasts and the jungle." Then followed Baikie's famous expedition of 1854 up the Lower Niger and Benue, accomplished without the loss of a single life, thanks to proper attention to diet, sanitary arrangements, and a judicious use of wine and quinine. Some of the unfortunate Congo missionaries were rigid teetotallers, forgetting that alcohol is medicine, food, and poison according as it is used or abused. The Congo basin lies within the track of the south- east trades, which set steadily from that quarter except where deflected by mountain barriers or attracted by fluvial valleys. Thus in the west they assume the character of south-westerly monsoons, and in the south, follow the northerly course of the streams flowing to the left bank of the Congo. They prevail especially in the two dry seasons which intervene between the wet season from October to the end of December, and the much heavier rainy period from February to May. The droughts are sometimes protracted with disastrous results, especially when intensified by the prairie fires, which rage over wide spaces, filling the atmosphere with dense volumes of smoke, and destroying vast quantities of vegetable growths.THE CONGO FREE STATE 101 Flora and Fauna The common idea that Central Africa is one vast primeval forest has long been exploded. Nevertheless a far greater space is covered with continuous and almost impenetrable woodlands than might be inferred from some hasty generalisations, such as those of Professor Drummond.1 From this point of view the Congo basin might be roughly divided into two distinct regions—a forest zone, occupying nearly the whole of the north-east from about the confluence of the Lualaba and Luapula northwards to the Welle-Makua basin, and an open zone mainly of savannah and arable lands comprising all the rest. Stanley, who crossed the northern section of the forest zone during his expedition up the Aruwimi, estimates its length north and south at 620 miles, with a mean breadth of 517 miles and a total area of 320,000 square miles, exclusive of many broken stretches of timber and the long leafy avenues which fringe both banks of nearly all the rivers converging on the main stream, as well as those of the main stream itself. Characteristic of these, as of the Amazonian forests, are the huge lianas or creepers, by which in many places the vegetation is matted together in an inextricable tangle. " Imagine the whole of France and the Iberian peninsula closely packed with trees varying from twenty to 180 feet high, whose crowns of foliage interlace and prevent any view of sky and sun, and each tree from a few inches to four feet in diameter. Then from tree to tree run cables from two to fifteen inches in diameter, up and down in loops and festoons and W's and badly-formed 1 Tropical Africa, 1888.102 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL M's; fold them round the tree in great tight coils, until they have run up the entire height, like endless ana- condas. Let them flower and leaf luxuriantly, and mix up above with the foliage of the trees to hide the sun; then from the highest branches let fall the ends of the cables reaching near to the ground by hundreds, with frayed extremities, for these represent the air roots of the epiphytes (parasites); let slender cords hang down also in tassels with open thread-work at the ends, work others through and through these as confusedly as possible, and pendent from branch to branch, and at every fork and on every horizontal branch plant cabbage- like lichens of the largest kind, and orchids and clusters of vegetable marvels and a drapery of delicate fronds. Now cover tree, branch, twig and creeper with a thick moss like a green fur, and the ground with a thick crop of phrynia and amoma . . . until the whole is one impervious bush." 1 In general the water-partings coincide with or deter- mine the range of the prevailing species. Thus the oil- palm is limited southwards by the Congo-Zambesi divide, and westwards by the escarpments of the plateau beyond the Kwango basin. In the same way the oil-palm is again arrested northwards by the Congo-Nile divide, which also appears to be the northern limit of the kola, raphia, and pandanas. Owing to the great uniformity of soil and climate, the same economic plants, such as maize, manioc, millet, tobacco, hemp and sugar-cane, are everywhere success- fully cultivated. These, with the banana, which yields prodigious quantities of wholesome food, form the chief agricultural resources of the country; but it is evident from the few experiments already made that most 1 In Darkest Africa, ii. p. 70.THE CONGO FREE STATE 103 European fruits and vegetables might be raised on the plateau and surrounding slopes. Junker grew excellent radishes in Makarakaland on the northern slope of the Congo-Nile divide, and the vine and orange as well as the coffee shrub run wild in the Kassai valley. It is noteworthy that most of the economic plants have been introduced by Europeans from America, and it has been well remarked that their introduction has more than compensated " for the evils caused by the sale of firearms and spirits. Four centuries ago the Congo tribes lived mainly by hunting wild beasts or man himself, by fishing, and at most a rudimentary agriculture, whereas they now depend altogether on a well-developed system of husbandry, enabling them to increase tenfold, without exhausting, the fertile soil."1 A characteristic feature of the African fauna is the vast range especially of the larger quadrupeds and amphibia, a fact due to the absence of great mountain barriers traversing the continent continuously in any direction. Thus the elephant, found on the banks of Lake Chad in the north and of Lake Ngami in the south, also frequents every part of the Congo basin except the steppe lands, which are exposed to constantly recurring conflagrations, and are consequently almost destitute of animal life. The hippopotamus and crocodile, which infest the Nile, Zambesi, and Limpopo, also crowd the Congo waters to such an extent as almost to obstruct the navigation in some rivers. Other widely diffused animals are the buffalo, several species of antelope, and the chimpanzee, the last-mentioned being limited, like the oil-palm, northwards by the Congo-Nile, southwards by the Congo-Zambesi divide. The attempts made to acclimatise European domestic animals have hitherto 1 Recius, xii. p. 441.104 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL failed, and some asses introduced by the English mission- aries a few years ago all succumbed either to the climate or to the tsetse fly. A similar experiment made with the Indian tame elephant in the Tanganyika district had no better result. Beichard, who in 1890 explored the Upper Congo HERD OF ELEPHANTS. regions, penetrating southwards to Garenganze, discovered on the western slope of Tanganyika the anthropoid ape already heard of by Stanley under the name of Soko, and seen by Livingstone in Manyuemaland. This huge ape is nearly four feet high, but resembles the chimpanzee rather than the gorilla. They form colonies or settle- ments in the forests, building habitations in the branches of the trees, and are much dreaded by the natives for their " evil eye," sure precursor of death.THE CONGO FREE STATE 105 Inhabitants and Native States of the Congo Basin From the anthropological standpoint Central Equa- torial Africa may be described as a region of physical diversity and linguistic unity. Closely related Bantu forms of speech hold almost exclusive possession of the land, while the Bantu populations themselves present the usual transitions from the Negro to the Hamitic or other higher types. They are commonly designated as Negroid, an elastic term applicable to all populations betraying essentially Negro features in any modified degree. But the Negro element is perhaps less conspicuous in the south and east than in the west and north, and in the Welle basin both the Negro type and Negro or non- Bantu tongues are distinctly dominant. During his ascent of the TJbangi, Van Gele noticed that about the district of the Zongo Falls the language changed al- together, and this may perhaps be taken as the parting- line between the Negro and Bantu domains in the central equatorial region. Here is also entered the already described Cannibal Zone, and the same explorer tells us that " the Ba-Ati make constant raids against the other tribes, but their only object is rapine and the pro- curing of meat. All that is killed is eaten on the spot; what is captured alive is carried off and eaten as the occasion arises. I have met with one of these maraud- ing expeditions; it was composed of about fifty canoes divided into vanguard and main body, and the meat I mention is, it must be avowed, human flesh, for cannibal- ism exists 011 a large scale along the whole river (Ubangi) and its tributaries. I have seen houses surrounded by a border of skulls for a distance of at least twenty-eight yards. During the whole of my voyage I was unable106 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL to deliver a single one of these wretched creatures reserved for food, and this despite the most liberal offers. ' It is meat/ they always replied, ' and we don't sell it.'" 1 Higher up, Junker and Schweinfurth have shown that the Welle-Makua valley and the water-partings towards the Shari and Nile basins are all occupied by peoples of Negro type and speech, such as the powerful Mam-Mam and Monbuttu nations. Lower down, the Mon-Tumbi, Mon-Zembo, Ba-Ati and Bangala are all Negroid peoples of Bantu speech. Farther east a sort of transition is effected between the two domains by the A-Babua and Mabode tribes of the Upper Loika and Nepoko rivers, who appear to be semi-Bantus conterminous on the north with the Mon- buttu and Mam-Mam negroes, on the south with the Ba-Bunda, Ba-Buru, and other true Bantus of the Aruwimi valley. About Lake Tanganyika towards the eastern frontier there is a mingling of tribes as well as of waters, these minglings being due to many causes, such as voluntary or forced migrations, slave-hunting razzias, famines, prairie fires, inundations, exogamous or extra-tribal marriages. Around the shores of the lake E. C. Hore enumerates ten distinct tribes " representing all the different families of Africa," including the Hamitic Warundi and Wajiji of the east coast, originally from Gallaland, and still retaining " the splendid physique and superior features of their forefathers." Farther south the Zulus, here called Mazitu and Watuta, have gradually approached the lake as conquering intruders from the southern extremity of the continent. But since the death of their warlike chief, Mirambo, their power has been broken, and the survivors have now found a home 1 Proc. Royal Geographical Society, 1889, p. 328.THE CONGO FREE STATE 107 amongst the Wanyamwezi between Tanganyika and the Zanzibar Coast. Garenganze—Katanga The Wanyamwezi themselves have in recent times sent out colonies to the Katanga country, where they were for some years the dominant people, in the district to which their late king, Mzidi (Mushidi), gave the name of Garenganze, an old designation of their mother country, Unyamwezi. Little was known of this State before the expedition of Capello and Ivens, and the mission of Mr. Arnot, who was well received by the king. But Mr. Arnot's efforts to found stations and strengthen Mzidi's hands against the Arab slavers from Manyuemaland were arrested by the action of the Congo Free State, by which the inevitable collision between the Europeans and the Arabs was precipitated in the Upper Congo region. The treaty made by the British South Africa Company had extended the British sphere of influence up to Garen- ganze, and it was feared that Mzidi also would accept the British protectorate, and surrender the rich mineral district of Katanga to the English. An expedition was accordingly sent in 1892 against Mzidi, which resulted in his death and the annexation of the whole region to the Free State. Thereupon a number of agents were sent up the Congo to survey the Katanga copper mines, and to trade directly with the natives. The Arabs who were stationed at Biba - Riba, Nyangwe, Kassongo, and other points on the Upper Congo, and who had hitherto acted as the middlemen in all commercial relations between the natives and the whites, took alarm at these proceedings, and with the aid of their Manyuema allies cut off or captured all the108 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Belgian troops and traders in the country. The newly- founded stations were destroyed, the whites everywhere driven out, and for a time (1892-3) the whole region again became the hunting-ground of the Arab slavers. But their triumph was short-lived. A first repulse at Stanley Falls was followed by a series of encounters, in which the combined forces of the Free State and Anti- Slavery Society successively defeated Sefu, eldest son of Tipoo Tib, his cousin Eashid, and the powerful Arab leader Rumaliza ; thus by the spring of 1894 the slave- hunters and their " native" allies had everywhere been crushed, and order once more established throughout the whole of the Upper Congo basin. In 1895 this region was constituted an administrative district, including all the zone of Riba-Riba, Nyangwe, Kassongo, and Manyue- maland, as far east as Lake Tanganyika. Nyangwe has been chosen as the permanent capital of this vast terri- tory, which extends from Stanley Falls south to British Central Africa. New stations have also been founded at Issangi—formerly an entrenched Arab camp at the Congo-Lomami confluence—at Albertville on Lake Tan- ganyika, and at other strategical points. The territory over which Mzidi held sway lies mainly between the two head branches of the Upper Congo, the east and west Lualabas, stretching eastwards to Lake Moero in the north, and nearly to Lake Bangweolo in the south, and westwards to the ill-defined frontiers of the Muata Yamvo's kingdom of Lunda. Much of the country is distinctly mountainous, dotted over with numerous lakes, well watered by the copious head- streams of the Lualaba, and possibly healthy enough for European settlement. Mzidi's capital, Mukuru, or Unkeya, which was destroyed by Captain Stairs' expedition of 1892, layTHE CONGO FKEE STATE 109 in the northern part of the kingdom, on an open plain watered by the headstreams of the Lufira, and enclosed on three sides by lofty mountains. It consisted of several village groups clustered round a twin-crested hill, and it was here that Mzidi welcomed Mr. Arnot, " sitting in the centre of a large court surrounded by his five hundred wives." A short distance west of the capital are the famous caves of Mount Sombwe, still inhabited by a section of the indigenous Samba tribe, who here found such safe retreats that Mzidi was never able to extort tribute from them. The inside of the caves has the appearance of pumice- stone, and one of them (Kalosa) is no less than five miles long, with entrances at both ends and running water in the interior. During, their journey across Africa in 1884-5 the Portuguese travellers Capello and Ivens crossed the famous Katanga Copper Country, and visited the Kalabi Mine, which, however, had been abandoned two years previously owing to a subsidence causing the loss of many lives. The mine is situated in an extensive formation of paleozoic schists, which prevail throughout the whole region, and are associated with quartz, iron and copper ores, and malachite both in mass and in scattered boulders. Coal was also discovered, and there was ample evidence that the current reports of the vast mineral resources of the Katanga country are by no means exaggerated. The natives display great skill both in smelting the copper ores and working up the metal, which is largely exported in the form of ingots, wire, armlets, and other ornaments. " Katanga must become an important centre of exploration, thanks to its mines, which, according to native report, are very numerous. The copper here produced in various forms is circulated throughout the whole region from Manyuema and Urua to Genyi and Bih£, and only awaits110 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL better means of transport by Lake Nyassa and Loanga to reach the coast."1 Lunda, the Muata Yamvo's Kingdom Adjoining Mzidi's former territory on the west is the still larger and at one time far more powerful kingdom of Lunda, ruled for many generations by the present dynasty of the Muata Yamvo. Lunda, or Ulunda, which takes its name from the widespread Wa-Lunda nation, is a hilly region sloping from the Congo-Zambesi divide northwards to about 6° S. latitude, and stretching west and east between the Kwango, separating it from Angola, and the Lubilash, its somewhat fluctuating limit towards the Lualaba valley. But this vast region is now politically dismembered, the greater portion being included in the Congo Free State, and the rest in the Portuguese West African possessions, in accordance with the Agree- ment of March 1894, referred to at p. 76. The Muata Yamvo had already accepted the suzerainty of the Free State in 1890. This step had been foreseen as inevitable, for nothing could prevent the disintegration of a state which had entered on a period of decline, torn by internal strife and wasted by revolted vassals or independent chiefs round all the outlying provinces. In recent times no one had contributed more to shake the empire to its foundations than Kangombe, a powerful chief of Luvale- land, on the Congo-Zambesi divide, about the Kifumaji Flat. This chief annually collected large bands of followers to ravage Ulunda, the marauders being attracted from far and wide by the hope of plunder and the promise of indemnity to their friends in case they should fall in 1 Capello and Ivens, De Angold a Contra-Costa, Lisbon, 1886, p. 71.THE CONGO FREE STATE 111 battle. With the aid of guns and ammunition from Angola, Kangombe usually returned successfully from these incursions, in which whole provinces were laid waste. On one occasion Mr. Arnot had to follow for days in the wake of the returning hordes and to witness " the horrors connected with African slave-raiding. Although Kangombe had passed along that road six days previously, I found that some of his victims, who had been left to perish, were still in life; some were tied to trees with bark cords, others were mutilated and partly torn by wild animals." 1 The present Muata Yamvo, fourteenth in descent from the founder of the dynasty in the seventeenth century, claimed to be the feudal lord of about three hundred monas and muenas, that is, vassal chiefs and kinglets, who paid tribute in kind—ivory, lion and leopard-skins, corn, cloth, salt—so long as their suzerain was strong enough to enforce it. His territory was about 100,000 square miles in extent, with a total population scarcely exceeding 2,000,000. "The succession goes to one of the sons of the two chief wives, chosen by four official electors, and confirmed by the Lukoshesha, or ' Mother of the Kings and Peoples.' The Lukoshesha, whose election was made in the same way from the daughters of the two chief wives, and ratified by the king, was exempt from his jurisdiction, and above all law, holding her own court, ruling over her own territories, and enjoying independent tribute." 2 The Mussamba, or royal residence, which was displaced at every succession, but always within the limits of the plain stretching between the Luiza and Kalangi tributaries of the Lulua, was at Kisimeme, on the left bank of the 1 Proc. Royal Geographical Society, 1889, p. 71. 2 Statesman's Year Book, 1890, p. 310.112 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL Kaiangi, at the time of Pogge's visit in 1876. Tour years later Buchner found it had been removed to Kawanda, twelve miles farther to the south-west. In this district dwelt the first Muata Yamvo, and here is the burial-place where the remains are still preserved of all the rulers of Lundaland. The Ka-Lunda1 nation, dominant in the empire, appear to have come originally from the Lunda country, about Lake Moero, formerly governed by the Kazembe. Physically they are a tall, well-proportioned Bantu people, of fairer complexion and more regular features than their western neighbours. They still trade mostly in ivory and slaves; but the land is extremely fertile, and well watered by the numerous affluents of the Kassai, and when trade ceases to be a royal monopoly, and more settled relations are established with the Free State, it will be able to offer much agricultural produce in exchange for the textiles, iron and copper ware, which it now imports from the surrounding countries. 1 Ka- is one of the numerous class prefixes which in Bantu speech indicate the personal plural. Dialectic variants are Ba, Wa, Ova, Va, Vua, XJa, U, A, 0, Ma, Mu, Ama, Aba, Eshi, Tu, and others, with cor- responding singular prefixes. Thus from the root ntu=personality, are formed in the organic language the singular Um-ntu and Muntu = a person, a man ; and the plural aba-ntu, ba-ntu=persons, people, men ; whence the term Bantu adopted by ethnologists as the collective designation of all Bantu-speaking peoples. So Mwishi-Kongo = a native of Kongoland ; but Eshi-Kongo = the Kongo people : Ama-Zulu, Mu-Sorongo, Ma-Yomba, O-bongo, Vua-Twa, Ova-Herero, Wa-Nyamwezi, Ba-Suto, Ba-Rolong, etc. Equally numerous and confusing are the class prefixes indicating speech, including such diverse forms as Ki, Kishi, Di, Lu, So, Se, etc. Thus Se- Suto = the language of the Ba-Suto; Kishi-Kongo = that of the Eshi-Kongo ; Di-Kele = that of the Ba-Kele ; Lu-Wumbu = that of the Ba-Wumbu ; Ki-Swahili = that of the Swahili (Zanzibari), etc. In Kishi-Kongo the English language is called Ki-Ngelezo. But as a rule kishi corresponds to eshi ; Tci to a, wa, or ba j lu to ma, etc.THE CONGO FREE STATE 113 The U-Rua State The region stretching north from Garenganze and east from Lunda, across the Lualaba lake district (Kamolondo), and beyond the Luapula in the direction of Lake Tangan- yika, is the domain of the powerful but extremely barbar- ous Wa-Rua (Mo-Lua) nation. The country, which was traversed in its entire length from north to south by Cameron on his journey across the continent in 1874, is governed by the Kassongo, one of the most ruthless despots in Africa. His territory is divided into provinces, either under hereditary chiefs or governors appointed for four years, and then either promoted or mutilated at his caprice. Mutilation and death are the only punishments, and these are inflicted in the most arbitrary manner for trivial or imaginary offences. The Kassongo ranks as a god, whose death must be honoured by atrocious sanguin- ary rites. His grave, like that of Alaric, is dug in the bed of a stream diverted from its channel, and here the corpse is laid on a number of living women. Then the pit is filled in and saturated with the blood of more victims, after which the river is restored to its bed, and the burial-place of the divinity thus concealed for ever from mortal eyes. Kilemba, the royal capital, is merely a palisaded village lying a few miles to the north-west of Lake Kassali. The surrounding district is extremely fertile, and abounds in mineral wealth, silver, quicksilver, iron, and petroleum. Despite their barbaric laws, the Wa-Kua are a gifted people, with a highly-cultivated artistic taste, as shown in their industrial processes, and especially their dwellings, which Cameron describes in enthusiastic language. The Arab slave-hunters from the Lower VOL. II I114 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Lualaba had already reached this country before their overthrow in 1893, so that the people in many places were driven to take refuge in the forests, or else in the limestone caves of the Mitumbo Hills, which are said to be even more spacious than those in Garenganze. The Ba-Lolo, Ba-Ngala and Ba-Yansi Nations Within the great horseshoe bend of the Middle Congo the dominant people are the great Ba-Lolo nation, of whom little was known till quite recently. Yet their domain, which is about bisected by the equator, fills nearly all the space within the bend, while their speech has a still wider range, being current right across the whole of the enclosed region, and stretching from the parallel of Bolombo, on the left bank of the main stream, southwards to the Ikata, and at some points to within a few miles of the Sankuru-Lomami valley. The Ba- Lolo people thus occupy a territory considerably larger than the wThole of the British Isles, and the Ki-Lolo language is spread continuously over a space about the size of France, and spoken by at least ten millions of people. The Ba-Lolo, that is, " Men of Iron," either in reference to their strength in battle (compare Ironsides), or more probably to their skill as forgers, are both physically and mentally one of the finest Bantu races. The slight strain of Negro blood is betrayed chiefly in the tumid lower lip, but for which the features—high forehead, arched or straight nose, delicate under-jaw, bright eye— might fairly be called Caucasic, fully equal to the average European in their regular outlines and intelligent ex- pression. They appear to have migrated early in the century from the east or north-east, especially Galla orTHE CONGO FREE STATE 115 Kaffaland, to their present homes, where they have cleared the forests, brought vast tracts under cultivation, and built towns like Mulongo's or Boyela's, regularly laid out in the American style, but with the houses so wide apart that it takes hours to traverse them. The Ba- Lolo are extremely skilful workers in iron, producing agricultural implements such as hoes, spades, and axes, as well as knives, spears, and ornaments, all of excellent quality and mostly in good taste. They also display great skill in the construction of their canoes, and understand the division of labour, "farmers, gardeners, smiths, boat-builders, weavers, cabinet-makers, armourers, warriors, and speakers being already differentiated amongst them." 1 The women have also their rights, and take part in the public assemblies, where all important questions are discussed. But although they recognise their common nationality throughout Balololand, no powerful states have anywhere been founded; the nation remains with- out political cohesion, and the tribal organisation still everywhere prevails. For our first knowledge of this remarkable people we are indebted to the Eev. Mr. John McKittrick, who made their acquaintance at Equatorville. in 1884, and who has founded stations amongst them under the auspices of the East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions. The regions about the Ubangi and Kwa confluences are respectively occupied by the widespread Ba-Ngala and Ba-Yansi peoples, the former a fine race with regular features, the latter betraying the Negro element in a more pronounced degree than amongst most Bantu races. Ibaka, " King of Bolobo," in the Bayansi country, figured in Johnston's River Congo, is even of a repulsive 1 The New World of Central Africa, p. 471.116 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL Negro type, and there is certainly a large measure of truth in this explorer's remark that as the coast is neared the Congo tribes " begin to lose their distinctive Bantu character, either through the degradation the coast climate seems to entail, or because on their migra- tion westward and from the north-east Bantu focus, they originally met and mixed with in the low-lying coast- lands, an entirely Negro population."1 But there are numerous exceptions to this law, and the Ma-Eungu people, for instance, who dwell away to the east on the west side of Tanganyika, show in an exaggerated form such characteristic features as a flat nose, wide nostrils, decided prognathism, and disproportionately short legs. They are akin to the Vua-Kungu, on the opposite side of the lake, who, however, have acquired somewhat more regular features, probably by contact with the Zanzibari coast people. Both the Ba-Ngala and Ba-Yansi, as well as the Ba- Teke on both sides of the main stream about Stanley Pool, still remain broken into tribal groups. This absence of large native states along the whole course of the Congo, from the Luapula-Lualaba confluence to the estuary, largely accounts for the rapid progress of exploration and settlement in the Free State, just as the incoherent condition of the Ostyaks, Yoguls, Tunguses, and other Siberian peoples enabled a handful of Cossacks, under Yermak, to overrun a great part of Northern Asia in a single generation. The Ba-Ngala, who occupy both sides of the Congo, and 2 Op. cit. p. 397. At the death of this chief in 1888 human sacrifices were renewed under the very eyes of the Free State officials. Three of his wives were buried alive, and several slaves slaughtered on his grave, ''for Ibaka had been a great chief, and must enter the next world with a suitable retinue " (H. Ward's Five Years with the Congo Cannibals, 1890, p. 298).THE CONGO FKEE STATE 117 who give their name to the station founded by the Free State above Equatorville, are ruled by numerous petty chiefs, with a collective population of nearly 150,000. They are an intelligent people, who have already begun to appreciate the comforts of civilised life, having to a considerable extent exchanged their scanty costume of vegetable fibre for European clothes. The Ba-Ngala are also amongst the few races at a low state of culture, who are apt to take a pessimistic view of life, their moody fits at times even ending in suicide. Unfortunately witchcraft, human sacrifices, and even cannibalism are still rife amongst them. At the death of their late chief, Mata Bwyki, a gigantic Bantu six feet four inches high, ten slaves were sacrificed in the neighbourhood of the Bangala station, and on another occasion Captain Coquilhat met a canoe, also close to the station, from which the natives landed several large pots containing portions of human arms and legs. The Ba-Luba and Tu-Shilange Territories In the middle Kassai basin, south of the Ba-Lolo domain, a dominant race are the Ba-Luba, whose various branches — Ba-Songe and Ba-Sange of the Sankuru headstreams,1 Ba-Shilange (Tu-Shilange) about the Lulua confluence, and many others—occupy the greater part of the region stretching from Manyuemaland westwards nearly to the Kwango. Wissmann and Pogge, by whom they were first visited, in 1881, describe them as one of the finest of all Negroid peoples, highly intelligent, indus- trious, and surprisingly skilful workers in iron and copper. Captain C. S. Latrobe Bateman, who resided in 1885- 1 Not to be confounded with the Ba-Senge of the Lukenye valley farther north, who are probably Ba-Lolo.118 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 86 amongst the Ba-Shilange, superintending the founda- tion of the new station of Lnebo at the Lulua-Luebo confluence, was much struck by the remarkable qualities of that group. Wissmann had already called them " a nation of thinkers, with the interrogative 'why' con- stantly on their lips." Bateman, in his turn, found them "thoroughly and unimpeachably honest, brave to foolhardiness, and faithful to each other and to their superiors, in whom, especially if Europeans, they place the most complete reliance. They are prejudiced in favour of foreign customs rather than otherwise, and spontaneously copy the usages of civilisation. They are warm-hearted and affectionate towards their friends, and they are the only African tribe among whom, in their primitive state, I have observed anything like a becoming conjugal affection and regard. To say nothing of such recommendations as their emancipation from fetishism, their ancient abandonment of cannibalism, their hereto- fore most happy experience of Europeans, and their national unity under the sway of a really princely prince (Calemba), I believe them to be the most open to the best influences of civilisation of any African tribe whatsoever." 1 It is, however, to be observed that Tu-Shilange, the name of the primitive populations adopted by the Ba- Luba intruders from the south-east, is a collective term, comprising several groups differing greatly in appearance, usages, traditions, and stages of culture. The best known and most important district in Tushilangeland is the so- called Lubuka, or land of " Friendship," a sort of African " Philadelphia," where a strange revolution took place some years before the arrival of the first European explorers. The so-called institution or secret brother- 1 The First Ascent of the Kassai, 1889, p. 20.THE CONGO FREE STATE 119 hood of the Bena-Riamba, or " Sons of Hemp," seems to have grown out' of a general political and social move- ment, which took place about the year 1870, when a large section of the Tu-Shilange became divided into two hostile factions on the question of admitting foreign traders (Angolan Portuguese from the west, Zanzibari from the east) into their territory. The king, having sided with the young or progressive party, the old people, here as elsewhere " Conservatives," were defeated with great slaughter and driven eastwards beyond the Lulua. Then the barriers of seclusion were broken down, com- mercial relations were entered into with foreigners, and the custom of riamba (bhang) smoking, already prevalent on the Zanzibar Coast, was introduced, with many other innovations. Such appears to be the origin of a practice which soon became associated with strange rites, rapidly degenerating into one of the most baneful institutions in Central Africa.1 On the right bank of the Lulua, about Luebo Station, dwell the Ba-Kete, a somewhat effeminate Negroid people, vassals of the powerful Ba-Kuba, whose territory stretches farther north towards the Kassai - Sankuru confluence. The Ba-Kete are noted for their excellent husbandry, possessing admirably tilled plantations, " arranged in separate plots and beds, and separated by wide, perfectly straight alleys, weeded, swept, and maintained in the greatest neatness and order." 2 Here are grown a pro- fusion of cereals, fruits, and vegetables, amongst which Bateman mentions manioc, maize, yams, sweet potatoes, ground-nuts, sorghum, gourds, beans, peas resembling the Egyptian " mummy pea," bananas, plantains, and saffu (banyan). 1 A. H. Keane, Academy, April 6, 1889. 2 Bateman, op. cit. p. 69.120 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL North-eastwards, in the hilly country between the Lubilash and Lomami, dwell the Ba-Songe, remarkable for their splendid physique, and for their skill in various crafts, such as pottery, weaving, wood carving, iron and copper work. Like the Ba-Lolo and Ba-Ngala, the Ba- Songe build towns of immense length, one of which, with a population of nearly 15,000, Dr. Wolf took five hours to traverse from end to end. The Va-Chibokwe and Kwango Ba-Ngalas In the Upper Kassai and Upper Kwango basins the dominant people are the Kiokos (Chibokwe), probably the most enterprising of all the Congo nations. They came originally from the Zambesi valley, and still occupy the western water-parting between that river and the Congo basin. Their territory is crossed by the trade route leading from Angola eastwards to Lunda, and all travellers describe them as famous hunters and craftsmen, noted especially as skilled forgers and armourers. The Va- Chibokwe " are remarkable for their activity and in- dustry, and command the fear and respect of all native travellers who pass through their country. Their wild independent ways were a constant source of anxiety to me, but personally I suffered no injustice at their hands. These people were the first to discover a method of extracting rubber from the " Talamba" root, which has led to a great improvement in trade at Benguela and other parts; and this shows that these Africans are not altogether incapable of utilising the resources of their own country without the help of Europeans." 1 In the Middle Kwango, north of the Va-Chibokwe and of the savage Minungos, another Ba-IsTgala nation 1 F. S. Arnot, loc. cit p. 71.THE CONGO FREE STATE 121 has developed a certain political organisation under a Kassanje, or supreme chief elected by four nobles from three royal families. The Ba-Ngala have long been in contact with the Portuguese of Angola, and under their influence have acquired a certain degree of culture. They are great traders, and their capital, Muene Puto Kassanje the Feira or " Fair " of the Portuguese, is the centre of the exchanges and transit trade between the west coast and the interior. The Portuguese, who were driven out of the country in 1860, have since returned, and their suzerainty is now accepted by the Kassanj& Most of his territory lies east of the Upper Kwango, within the Portuguese sphere of influence as determined by the Agreement of March 1894 (p. 76). Our information regarding the Central African peoples is still far from sufficient to attempt any scientific classifications based on their physical or linguistic affinities. Hence in the appended table the Congo tribes are grouped solely according to their geographical position. Table of the Congo Tribes and Nations Yua-Rundi, Yua-Yira, Yua- \North end Tanganyika, and thence to- Sighe, Yua-Kombe f. wards the Albertine Nile divide. Yua-Hha, TJ-Yinza, U-Ka-\East Coast Tanganyika in order from wende, Yua-Fiba J north to south. Yua-Bembe, Yua-Songa, Yua- ^ West Coast Tanganyika in order from Simalunga, U-Guha, Ma- >- north to south, and thence towards Rungu, I-tawa J the Luapula. Yua-Rungu .... South end Tanganyika. Vua-Bemba, Yua - Kissinga, \Round Lake Bangweolo in order from Yua-Bisa, Yua-Ussi J north by east to south and west. Ka-Lunda .... South-east side Lake Moero. Wa-Nyamwezi, Ba-Samba, lfiMran.. fKatantral I-Ramba, Ba-Yeke j-Uarenganze (Katanga). Yua-Rua .... Upper Lualaba lake region. Ma-Nyuema .... Middle Lualaba, about Nyangwe.BANTU TYPES FROM THE CONGO. 3. Wa*Kongo.THE CONGO FREE STATE 123 Yua Yinza, Yua-Hiya, Ba- Bire, Wa - Npuma, Wa- Koruru Ba-Kussu, Ba-Bisa, Wa-Ruru, U-Kumu, Yambarri, Yua- Twa (Batwa) Yua-Regga Wenya, Ba-Soko, Ma-Ruka, Wa - Manga, Lu - Ali, Ba- Ondo, Ba-Bileku, Ba-Bali Ba-Banda, Ba-Be, Ba-Besse, Ba-Biassi, Ba-Bukwa, Ba- Bunda, Ba - Burn, Ba- Busesse, A-Yisibba, A-Ye- jeli, Ba-Kandi, Ba-Kusu, Ba-Nalya, Wa-Mbutti, Ba- Twa Ma-Bobe, A-Babua. Ma-Ruka, Ba-Putu, Ba-Sebi, U-Ranga, Ba-Sombo, Wa- Tomba, Ma-Lunja A - Babambo, A - Babombua, A-Banja, A-Mubensa, Mu- Nsamba, Ma-Benge, A- Diggi, A-Bito, A-Nsakkara Ba-Atti, Ma-!^yembo, Mu- Tumbi, Mon-Bangi, Ba-Loi, Ba-Ngala Ba - Yansi, Ba - Nunu, Ba- Tende, Ba-Furu Ba - Teke, Wa - Buma, Ma- Kongo, Ba-Fiot Ba-Sundi, Eshi-Kongo, Ba- Fiot, Mushi-Kongo Ba-Lolo .... Bo-Kakala, Mongo, Ba-Ngonzi Ba-Luba, Ka-Wanda, Tu- Shilange, Tu - Bindi, Ba- Kete, Ba-Lindi, Ba-Sange, Ba-Songe, Ba - Kuba, Ba- Songa-Mino, Ba-Kutu Ka-Lunda Lu-Yale . Ya-Kioko (Ya-Chibokwe) Minungo, Ba-Ngala, Ma- Shinje, Ma-Yakka, Wa- Buma I Right bank Lower Lualaba, between J Nyangwe and Stanley Falls. Left bank Lower Lualaba, between Nyangwe and Stanley Falls. /Between Lower Lualaba and Lake Albert \ Edward. I Congo between Stanley Falls and Aruwimi f confluence. -Aruwimi Basin. Between Aruwimi and Upper Welle. | Middle Congo, between Aruwimi and Ubangi confluences. ^•Middle Ubangi (Welle-Makua). I Lower Ubangi and Congo-Ubangi con- fluence. Middle Congo between Ubangi and Kwa confluences. \ Middle Congo between Kwamouth and J Stanley Pool inclusive. \ Lower Congo, from Stanley Pool to J Estuary. {About the equator within the horseshoe bend of the Middle Congo. Lulonga-Lopori Yalley. | Kassai - Sankuru Basin with Luebo, Lulua, Lubilash, Lomami, and other affluents. Muata Yamvo's territory. South frontier Lunda. Upper Kassai and Kwango. Middle and Lower Kwango.124 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TBAVEL Bantu and Negro contrasted Before Stanley's descent of the Congo less than two decades ago, scarcely any of these teeming multitudes, KAVALLI, CHIEF OP THE BA-BIASSI. collectively numbering probably thirty millions, were known even by name. Some have not even yet beenTHE CONGO FREE STATE 125 visited by any Europeans; our knowledge of others is limited to the vague reports of one or two explorers traversing their territories; but others, again, including nearly all the more important groups, have been for some time in direct contact with the whites, and have been studied by careful observers, such as Johnston, Wissmann, Arnot, Bateman, Junker, Wolf, and Grenfell. From the accounts of these men, embodied in official documents, in books of travel, in scientific memoirs or missionary records, it may be concluded generally that the more or less Negroid Bantu populations of the Congo regions are far superior both in physical and mental qualities to the true Negroes of Upper Guinea and the Sudan. Herein lie the best hopes for the future prospects of the .Free State. Even under wise and equitable European control the Negro proper is incapable of rising except by miscegenation, which involves a corresponding degradation of the higher element. The late Colonel F. G. Kuffin, perhaps the best authority on the Negro question in the Southern States, declared that it was im- possible " to educate the coloured people. Their industrial condition, their criminal record, their social, moral, and religious state, all show that freedom is a disadvantage to them; that they are worse in all these particulars than they were before the war, and are deteriorating every day. . . . The Negro is incapable of receiving what white men call religion and education, and he is worse after professing to have received them than he was before." 1 It may be confidently asserted that no purely Negro population ever produced such a personality as Calamba, " the intelligent and noble-minded king of the Ba-Luba," who, Bateman tells us,2 " would amongst any people 1 Richmond Despatch, September 21, 1890. 2 Op. cit. p. 114.126 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL be a remarkable, and indeed, in many respects, a magni- ficent man," and who some years ago of his own accord abolished fetishism independently of any European influences. But steel-grey eyes are prevalent amongst the Ba-Luba (Tu-Shilange), betraying a distinct Hamitic strain, and the Hamites are a main branch of the Caucasic or highest division of mankind. Hence the Congo Bantu peoples, largely Negroid Hamites, are naturally capable of upward development, and all the more rapidly according as the Hamitic element pre- dominates. The witchcraft, human sacrifices, savagery, and even cannibalism, still prevalent in some communi- ties, may be considered due to the Negro substratum. Their surprising skill in the industrial arts, such as weaving, pottery, wood carving, iron and copper smelting and forging, house and boat building, as well as their capacity for political organisation, as seen in the power- ful states founded at various times by the Kazembes, Muata Yamvos, Mzidis, and others, may in the same way be regarded as inheritances from their Hamite ancestry. It is noteworthy that, as a rule, the higher faculties increase eastwards and southwards (Ba-Luba, Ka-Lunda, Ya-Chibokwe, Mzidi's Wa-Nyamwezi, Ba-Lolo, compara- tively recent immigrants from the east); the baser qualities westwards (Minungo, Ma-Yakka), and especially northwards, that is, in the direction of the Negro domain proper (Ba-Yansi, Mon-Bangi, Ba-Atti). Mission of the Congo Free State The numerous civil and missionary stations founded at various convenient points in the Free State—Banana, Boma, Matadi, Lukungu, Isangula, Manyango, Leopold- ville, Kwamouth, Bolobo," Equatorville, Bangala, Bolombo,THE CONGO FEEE STATE 127 Upoto, Rembo, Stanley Falls, along the main stream in ascending order; Yambuya on the Aruwimi; Basoko on the eastern Lomami; Molongo's, Marin ga, Mumbimba in Balololand ; Bangodi, Badinga, Luebo, Luluaburg along the Lulua-Kassai; Benabendi at the Kassai-Sankuru confluence, and fourteen others in the Kassai basin — are fast becoming important centres for the diffu- sion of civilising influences amongst the surrounding populations. Their founders have hithertp met but slight opposition on the part of the natives, some of whom even clamour for the privilege of securing such strongholds of law and order in their midst. Here they learn improved methods of tillage and better industrial processes ; they grow accustomed to orderly dealings, become gradually weaned from their barbaric usages, begin to despise their witch-doctors, and acquire a taste for better clothing and other European comforts. Thus while being themselves raised to a higher level of culture, their very increased necessities tend to develop the elements of the future commercial relations, by which alone these stations can acquire a permanent character. They are, it may be hoped, the modest beginnings of flourishing trade-centres for the spread of wealth, refine- ment, and civilisation throughout the Central African populations.1 Railway Projects—Trade—Free Trade Area— Administration But from the first it was foreseen that a railway running from the coast or the estuary to Stanley Pool 1 According to Captain Hinde as many as twelve posts in the Sankuru valley were already engaged in 1894 "in the collection of enormous quantities of indiarubber " {Jour. Geo. Soc., May 1895, p. 429).128 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL would be required to turn the Livingstone Palls and reach the many thousand miles of navigable waters ramifying throughout the Congo basin. Such a line, without which the interior would remain for trading purposes almost as secluded from the outer world as before the Stanley expedition, was felt to be a primary condition of success. At present a ton of goods, the freight of which from England to Banana or Boma in the estuary costs only £2, cannot be transported thence to the Middle Congo under an expenditure of £70 for porterage. Hence it is satisfactory to know that the Free State has at last granted to a Belgian company the concession of a railway to run along the left bank from Matadi, opposite Vivi, just below the Yellala Tails, to Leopoldville on Stanley Pool. The line, 270 miles long, will traverse a somewhat rough country, of which, however, only about twenty-five miles appear to present any serious engineering difficulties. The first section, from Matadi to Kenge, 25 miles long, was completed in September 1894 at a cost of £734,000, the estimate for the whole line being £2,250,000. Another line has been projected to run from Kabinda along the right bank to Boma, the chief outlet of the whole basin, and thence to Brazzaville, the Prench station on Stanley Pool, opposite Leopoldville. Doubt- less both will be ultimately needed for the requirements of the free trade area, which, as determined by the Berlin Conference of 26th February 1885, comprises a far wider space than the Free State itself. The boundary line is traced very irregularly from the Sette Camma estuary eastwards and northwards along the Congo - Ogoway divide, then round again to the east along the Congo-Shari divide to Ndoruma at 28° E. longitude, and thence still eastwards along 5° N. latitudeTHE CONGO FREE STATE 129 to Lado on the White Nile, and so on to the Somali coast on the Indian Ocean. On the south side of the Free State the line runs from Ambriz above Loanda on the west coast south-eastwards along the Congo-Atlantic divide to Kanjamba, near the source of the Kwango; then eastwards between the Congo-Zambesi divide to the source of the Loangwa, a northern affluent of the Zambesi, about 33° E. longitude ; then south-eastwards along the secondary Nyassa - Zambesi divide to the Zambesi at the Shire confluence, and thence along the left bank of the Lower Zambesi to the delta below Quilimane on the Indian Ocean. Within these limits the several interested Powers agree to levy no customs dues on imports and exports beyond what may be required to defray the cost of keeping the routes them- selves open for the free trade of the world.1 At present the trade of the Free State is limited to a few imports, such as woven goods, tobacco, spirits, firearms, and ammunition, taken in exchange for ivory, rubber, ground-nuts, coffee, palm oil, gum-copal, orchilla, cam-wood, wax, and other natural produce, the annual ex- changes being valued altogether at less than £1,000,000. The navigation of the Congo, represented by about 1000 vessels entering and clearing the ports of the estuary and a few small steamers on the inland waters, is controlled by an international commission nominated by 1 But in 1890 the Free State authorities succeeded in obtaining the sanction of the contracting Powers to levy duties on certain imports, such as spirits, firearms, ammunition, and the like, for general adminis- trative purposes, and especially for the suppression of the slave trade in accordance with the declarations of the Brussels International Anti- Slavery Congress of 1890. The general import duties are fixed at 5 per cent, while an export duty of 10 per cent will also be allowed on ivory and gutta-percha. On- the other hand the license duty is suppressed, and those on spirituous liquors are reduced to one-third of their actual value. VOL. II K130 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL all the Powers who were parties to the Berlin Conference of 26th February 1885. In the same year the Tree State itself was placed by the Belgian Legislature under the sovereignty of Leopold II., not as King of the Belgians, but in his individual capacity. In 1890 the territory was declared inalien- able, while the right was reserved to Belgium of annex- ing the Free State after a period of ten years. The Central Government, consisting of the king and three heads of departments for foreign affairs and justice, finance, and the interior, is located at Brussels. There is also a local government, comprising a governor- general, vice-governor-general, state inspector, general secretary, directors of justice and finance, and com- mander of the forces, with official residence at Boma, 1 on the right bank of the estuary. The annual expendi- ture, estimated for 1895 at £-270,000, does not yet appear to be covered by the income, and in fact is largely derived from a subsidy of £80,000 granted by King Leopold, and an advance of £80,000 made in 1890 by the Belgian Government for a period of ten years. The revenue has to provide for a force of 3800 natives under white officers, and a steam flotilla of seven vessels on the Lower and eleven on the Middle Congo. Provision has also to be made for numerous white officials, including the heads of the twelve administrative divisions : Banana, Boma, Matadi, The Falls, Stanley Pool, Kassai, Equator, Ubangi, Aruwimi-Welle, Stanley Falls, Kwango Oriental, and Lualaba. There is a regular steam service between Europe and the Free State, which is now included in the international postal union.CHAPTEE IY portuguese west africa (angola-benguela-mossamedes-hinterland) Extent, boundaries, population—Portuguese administration, the Slave trade — Exploration — Physical features — Rivers Coanza, Cunene— Climate, Flora, Fauna—Inhabitants: the Congo Empire: the A-Bunda Nation ; the Ganguellas ; the Aborigines—Table of the chief Angolan tribes—Towns, stations—The Boer immigrants—Resources ; govern- ment ; prospects. Extent, Boundaries, Population Till recently the Portuguese possessions on the west side of the Continent were limited to the zone of coastlands stretching from Ambriz at 8° S. latitude for about 850 miles southwards to Cape Frio, beyond the Cunene river. The frontiers towards the interior were nowhere very clearly defined; but the country as actually administered had an average width of about 220 miles, with a total area of nearly 200,000 square miles, and a population of about 2,000,000. The district extending from Ambriz northwards to the Congo estuary was also claimed by Portugal, but the claim was contested by Great Britain, and no attempt had ever been made to settle or even administer that region; it was, and still is, mainly held by the savage and predatory Mushi-Kongo tribes. But132 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL after the opening of the Congo a rush was made by Trance from the north and by Portugal from the south, to seize the estuary with a view to commanding the outlets of that basin. The result, as regards Portugal, was the recognition by the Berlin Conference of her claim to the disputed district, thus bringing her territory right up to the left bank of the Lower Congo. By subsequent agreements with France (December 188 5), with Germany (December 1886), and with Great Britain (August 1890), the Portuguese Hinterland was also accurately determined. The bound- ary is traced on the north in a straight line from ISTokki on the estuary eastwards to the Kwango, which river from this point to 8° S. forms the east frontier to- wards the Congo Free State. The south frontier towards the same State follows the Congo-Zambesi divide, thence eastwards to the source of the Liba, a main head- stream of the Zambesi, where the line is deflected south- wards round the source of the Lualaba, and north-east- wards to the source of the Kabompo, easternmost head- stream of the Zambesi. Here the course of the Zambesi and Kabompo rivers is taken as the provisional Anglo- Portuguese boundary, pending a definite settlement of the frontiers. A nearly straight conventional line drawn from the Katima rapids of the Zambesi westwards to the mouth of the Cunene separates the Portuguese posses- sions from the German South-West African protectorates. Historic Retrospect—The Slave Trade Thus the Portuguese Hinterland, as recognised by the treaty with Great Britain, extends in the north-eastwards to the Free State frontier, in the south-eastwards toPORTUGUESE WEST AFKICA 133 British Zambesia, and southwards to the German sphere. Within the specified limits the whole region forms a domain about 520,000 square miles in extent, with a population vaguely estimated at from 5,000,000 to 3,500,000. The western parts alone, comprising the low-lying coastlands between' the escarpments of the plateau and the sea, are occupied and administered by Portugal. The whole of the uplands are practically independent, and even the important trading station of Bih(5 was only recently brought within Portuguese juris- diction. When Mr Arnot visited this place on his first journey to Garenganze, he found that " the Portuguese had no administrative power there," and Silva Porto, the official resident, had no force behind him to check the slave trade still openly carried on by the Bihe dealers. Mr. Arnot confirms by independent evidence the state- ment made by Mr. Bateman that individual Portuguese did much to encourage the slave trade. People from Bihe, penetrating into Lunda, where there is no ivory, exchange cloth, guns, and other European wares for slaves, who are then " carried away to the lower Kassai country and exchanged for ivory." 1 But these practices still exist on the seaboard itself, which has been continuously occupied by Portugal for over three hundred years, that is, dating from the first actual settlement made at Loanda in 1574. Formal possession had already been taken in 1482, when Diogo Cam, discoverer of the Congo, set up the stone monument at the mouth of the estuary. Mne years later an expedi- tion had already reached the Mbanza, or capital of the Congo empire, since known as San Salvador; this place itself became the seat of a Pioman Catholic bishop and the centre of missionary zeal, which resulted in the formal 1 Loc. cit. p. 81.134 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL acceptance of Christianity by the Mfumu, or emperor, and a large section of his subjects. Portuguese women arrived in 1594, when regular European households were established, and for at least three centuries the Muata Potu, or " King of Portugal," has had undisputed sway over the whole seaboard except for a brief interval in 1641, when the coast towns were seized by the Dutch. We also read that from these coast towns the ascend- ency of the Portuguese " pioneers of a higher culture " gradually penetrated beyond the coast ranges and plateaux far into the interior. Nevertheless Cameron was in- formed in 1875 that " slaves were still exported from the coast, especially from Mossamedes, where they were held in readiness for embarkation, although scattered about the town in small parties, instead of being kept in barracoons as formerly, and a steamer came in for an hour or two, shipped the slaves, and was off again imme- diately." Cameron failed to discover their destination; but it is now known that they were intended for the plantations of the Portuguese islands of St. Thomas and Prince. The complete abolition of slavery in Angola was doubtless decreed to take place in 1878 ; but the official edict has remained a dead letter, and vessels flying the Portuguese flag still convey slaves both from the West and East African Portuguese possessions to the same islands. One of these ships, from Mozambique, the steamer Rei de Portugal, put into Cape Town in 16th September 1890, when an application made to the Supreme Court for the liberation of the captives failed on technical grounds. Some, however, who had effected their escape from the vessel were declared free, the Court refusing to assist in their recapture. Even in Angola itself the hands employed on the plantations, although legally free, are practically littlePORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 135 better than serfs. According to the terms of the Act of Emancipation, the slaves were required to work for seven years as a compensation to their owners; but little effort was made by the authorities to enforce the enfranchisement after the expiration of that period. Thus the' status of many remained unchanged, especi- ally on the large domains where the whole system of cultivation has for centuries been dependent on forced labour. Here the owners are called employers, and the labourers are called free; but these free labourers fall into the power of the employers through money advances at high interest, and the prevailing truck system of pay- ment. Generally speaking, the debtors have no means of meeting their engagements, except by manual labour, and thus they continue to toil for the planters to the end of their days. Exploration The term Angola, properly Ngola, originally restricted to the territory east of Loanda, where the first settle- ments were founded, was gradually extended to the whole of the northern province, and is now also the official designation of all the Portuguese West African possessions. It therefore comprises the Cabinda enclave north of the Congo, the territory or " kingdom " of Congo south of the estuary, and the three administrative pro- vinces of Angola, Benguela, and Mossamedes, taken in their order from north to south. Although the Catholic missionaries had at an early date penetrated as far as 150 miles inland, and although the country had long been traversed by the pombeiros1 1 Pombeiros is not a proper name, as is often supposed, but simply means those emancipated slaves who since the beginning of the present century have been employed by the Portuguese as caravan leaders, and136 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL with their coffee, ivory, and slave caravans, very little was known of the interior till about the middle of the present century. Closed to strangers by the exclusive policy of Portugal, the country had scarcely been visited by travellers till the year 1853, when Livingstone crossed from the Zambesi to Loanda. This event was immediately followed by the researches of Dr. Welwitsch during the years 1855-59, while the Hungarian, Ladis- laus Magyar, who had married a native of Bihe and settled in Benguela, explored every part of the southern provinces during the nine years from 1849 to 1857.1 In more recent times the survey of the whole region was continued and completed by the Portuguese them- selves—Silva e Costa in the north, Silva Porto and Serpa Pinto in the central districts, Capello and Ivens in every part of the Angolan territory. The district lying between Benguela and Bihe has been repeatedly traversed by explorers such as Cameron and Arnot, either penetrating inland or advancing from the interior to the coast. The Congo country in the extreme north has also been visited by Bastian, Comber, Biittner, and Wolf, and the southern border lands by Galton and Andersson, followed later by Palgrave, Hartley, and others. The Chella range was first crossed by Capello and Ivens during their journey from Mossamedes to the Zambesi in 1884-85. who are still sent into tlie interior to procure slaves and ivory in exchange for European wares. They are agents seldom trading directly on their own account. 1 The results of these researches wTere summarised in J. J. Monteiro's Angola and the River Congo, London, 1875, still the most valuable treatise on Portuguese West Africa.POKTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 137 Physical Features of Angola These explorers, when proceeding inland from Loanda to Malange, or from Benguela to Bihe, traverse first the low-lying zone of alluvial coastlands, which form the periphery round the greater part of the continent, and which in Angola broaden out northwards in the direc- tion of the Congo estuary, and gradually contract south- wards to their narrowest part at Mossamedes, with a mean breadth of scarcely more than fifty miles. Beyond this zone the ground rises very rapidly along the seaward face of the escarpments, on the highest passes reaching an altitude of between 6000 and 7000 feet, and then falling again to 4000 feet, which is about the mean elevation of the central plateau between the Congo and Zambesi watersheds. Thus Mr. Arnot tells us that " travelling inwards from the coast through the Ovim- bundu country the road ascends a steep escarpment of the plateau, so that on the fourth day (from Benguela) I reached an altitude of over 4000 feet, and subsequently over 6000 feet at 100 miles from the coast. This elevation continues eastwards with little change—only dipping somewhat as it reaches the valley of the Coanza —until about 4000 feet is again attained, near 20° E." The escarpments, which generally affect a terrace formation running in parallel ridges north and south, are interrupted about midway between the Congo and Cunene by the deep valley of the Coanza. North of this valley the system falls somewhat gently seawards, but on the east side the incline is very abrupt down to the valley of the Kwango. Here both the crests and the mean altitude are generally lower than farther south, where the Angolan highlands appear to culminate in the138 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL lofty Mount Lovili, nearly 8000 feet high, a little north of the trade route between Benguela and Bihe. This route crosses the Andrade-Carvo (Jamba) range, where several other peaks, such as Elongo and Hambi, rise considerably above 7000 feet. In the extreme south the uplands have been greatly denuded and eroded by the running waters, far more copious formerly than at present, which find their way to the Atlantic through the Cunene valley. But even here the Chella range is still elevated enough to retain the winter snows for a short time, whence its Portuguese name of Serra da Neve, or " Snowy Mountains "; some of its peaks rise considerably above 6000 feet. Of primitive rocks the most prevalent appear to be gneiss and mica schists, whose surface has in several places been weathered and decomposed as laterite of somewhat recent formation. Elsewhere they underlie secondary and tertiary sedimentary deposits, such as limestones, sandstones, clays, and conglomerates, which are remarkable for their regular stratification. In some places the limestones are pierced by cavernous recesses often containing wells of prodigious depth. Hot springs occur in several districts, but there are no traces of recent volcanic disturbances. The Mulondo- Zambi burning mountain, mentioned by Magyar in the Libollo district south of the Coanza, has not been seen by any recent explorers, who regard its existence as more than doubtful. Rivers—Coanza—Cunene Except the Lufu, Mposo, and a few other streams flowing north to the left bank of the Congo, all the Angolan rivers find their way mostly through indepen-PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 139 dent channels directly to the Atlantic. Eising on the plateau, they have to force a passage seawards through the intervening ranges and escarpments, carrying down much sediment, which is deposited about their estuaries. The consequence is that nearly all are blocked by bars at their mouth, and obstructed by rapids in their upper reaches, thus being useless for navigation, and accessible even to light craft only for short distances inland. In the north the Mbrish escapes from the uplands near San Salvador, through a continuous series of rapids, with a total fall of nearly 450 feet, one of the upper cascades having a clear drop of 150 feet. The Loge, coming from the south-west, and throughout its whole course indicating the limit in this direction of the free trade area, reaches the coast just below the Mbrish, at the port of Arribriz, whose name is the Portuguese form of Mbrish. But the great watercourse of Angola, the most im- portant on the west coast between the Congo and Orange rivers, is the Coanza, which rises in Lake Mussombo on the plateau south of Bihe 5500 feet above the sea. Here is another great " border craig " forming the divide between the Zambesi, Coanza, and Congo (Kwango) watersheds, and from this point the Coanza sweeps in a vast semicircle over 700 miles long round by the north- east, north, and west to its mouth, a short distance below Loanda. Like its chief tributary, the Lucalla, it forces its way in a long succession of romantic gorges and foaming rapids through the ranges obstructing its sea- ward course, at one point developing the magnificent Livingstone (Cambambe) Falls, with a clear drop of seventy feet. Even in its lower course of 120 miles between the foot of the escarpments and the sea, there is a total incline of 300 feet. This section, although140 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL navigable by small steamers, is cut off from communica- tion with the Atlantic by an extremely dangerous bar, which is crossed on frail rafts three or four feet wide by the local boatmen. Like the Ogoway, the Coanza has also its "fetish stones/' one of which, the Pedrct dos Feiticeiros, was formerly a sort of Tarpeian rock, from which persons accused of witchcraft were precipitated into the swift current washing its base. Beyond the Coanza most of the coast streams, flowing through a perceptibly drier region, are mere "wadys," which reach the sea only during the rainy season from December to April. This explains the remarkable fact that the Cunene1 itself, forming the southern frontier toward German South-West Africa, after its mouth had been discovered by an English skipper in 1824, could not again be found the next year, and remained un- known until rediscovered and ascended for 25 miles in 1854. It had been sought during the dry season, when its channel was merely a sandy bed fringed here and there with a little scrub. Yet the Cunene, rising in the Jamba highlands near the source of the Kubango headstream of the Zambesi, and flowing for about 720 miles south and west, has a catchment basin of no less than 115,000 square miles. At Quiteve, where it was crossed 240 miles from its source by Capello and Ivens, it is already a copious stream 500 feet wide and 9 feet deep even in the dry season. Such a volume of water, swollen farther down by the drainage of the Chella Mountains discharged through the Caculovar affluent on its right bank, could not fail to reach the Atlantic throughout the year but for the fact that several branches both above and below 1 That is Ku-Nenc, or Great River ; it is the Nourse of early English writers.PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 141 the Caculovar confluence are thrown off from its left bank southwards to the extensive saline depression of Lake Etosha in Ovampoland. This depression, alter- nately a shallow lagoon and a morass, may be regarded as a sort of inland delta through which the Cunene probably sent the whole of its waters at one time to the Zambesi lacustrine basin. The Cunene would thus appear to belong originally to the Zambesi hydrographic system, with which Lake Etosha no doubt still com- municates during the floods, while another branch of comparatively recent formation reaches the Atlantic intermittently during the same season. But pending a more detailed survey of the little known region lying between Etosha and the streams flowing west to Lake Ngami, this view of the remarkable Cunene regime can be regarded only as a probable hypothesis. Climate—Flora—Fauna The Coanza valley forms, at least in its lower course, a climatic and botanic, as well as a physical parting- line. In these respects the region to the north of the Coanza still belongs to the Congo basin, that is to say, it is essentially Central African—hot, moist, more or less malarious, unsuited for European settlement, somewhat thickly wooded, and forming the extreme southern limit of the palm family. Thus " the raphia, whence maluvo is extracted, and which is so profusely met in the north, disappears as if by enchantment south of parallel 8°."1 The Lower Coanza basin itself is described as an ex- tremely fertile plain, capable of growing an almost un- limited quantity of sugar, " if the difficulty of the pestilent climate could only be got over." 1 Capello and Ivens, From Benguela to Yacca, ii. p. 146.142 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL Yet even in the north the heats are not excessive, being somewhat tempered both by the land breezes from the plateau and by the fresh sea breezes, cooled by the cold marine current which sets steadily along the Angolan seaboard from the Antarctic waters. At Loanda the mean annual temperature is not more than 74° F, seldom rising above 90° or falling below 55°. Here also the rainfall may even be called slight, falling in some years as low as six, and rarely exceeding thirty inches. But though the precipitation is small on the lowlands, the atmosphere itself is constantly saturated with moisture, and the first rains stirring up the decayed vegetation give rise to miasmatic exhalations, and are consequently always unhealthy. Thus Angola, north of the Coanza, may be broadly described as a fever-stricken productive region, inhabitable only by natives or half- castes, and wTell adapted for the cultivation of such economic plants as manioc, sorghum, massango (Penni- setum typhoideum) and maize. These, in fact, yield the various breadstuffs which constitute the staple food of the natives, while from the forests are derived the articles of export, such as caoutchouc, orchilla, ground- nuts, and palm oil. In the region south of the Coanza, the conditions are greatly modified, temperature, rainfall, malaria, and vegetation decreasing gradually in the direction of the arid and almost rainless districts about the Lower Cunene basin. Hence South Angola may be described, in contrast to the north, as a moderately productive, somewhat healthy region, merging in the desert wastes of Damara and Great Namaqua Lands. Mr. Arnot noticed that on the table-land, about the latitude of Benguela, "the easterly winds which prevail come from the far interior, not charged with sand or deadly malaria,PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 143 but cool and invigorating." 1 They come, in fact, from the Garenganze highlands, one of the very healthiest regions of Central Africa, and they blow across the great plateau, over 5000 feet high, which forms the water-parting between the Congo and Zambesi depres- sions. Here also the influence of the cold marine current is naturally greater than farther north, and to it the pro- minent headland, a little south of the Cunene, owes its name of Cabo Frio, " Cold Cape." Thanks to this relative coolness, with a temperature ranging from 68° to 74° F. (Capello and Ivens), and an extremely dry atmosphere, the southern provinces of Benguela, and especially Mossamedes, enjoy a tolerably salubrious climate, in which the European race can be and has been perpetuated. Very striking also is the contrast between the two vegetable zones, the northern euphorbias, palms, erioden- drons, bombax, baobab, and lianas yielding in the south to various gummiferous plants, and to such highly dif- ferentiated forms as the parasitic hydnora and the remarkable trailing tree, Welwitschia mirabilis. Here also large tracts are covered with tall steppe grasses, which in the Lower Cunene basin assume the aspect of bound- less prairies, and, like them, are subject to frequent conflagrations consuming all living things. Notwithstanding these destructive fires, many parts of the savannah still abound in large game, such as buffaloes, zebras, gazelles, the straight-horned galengues {Oryx gazella), the beisas, leucoryx, and many other varieties of the widespread antelope family. The ele- phant has mostly disappeared from the coastlands; but large beasts of prey, lions, panthers, leopards, and hyaenas, 1 Loc. cit. p. 70.144 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL are still numerous. Rodents (Mus ratus, Mus dorsalis, Mus pumilio, Steatomys edulis, and others) occur in sur- prising variety and numbers, while the rivers, especially the Cunene, swarm with crocodiles and hippopotami. The THE SONGUE ANTELOPE. latter are generally taken by means of a pitfall sunk three or four feet in the ground with a sharp stake driven point upwards into the bottom, and covered over with brambles and a layer of clay like that of the sur- rounding ground. Angola supplies the Portuguese market with several rare birds, such as the auspicious quioco, and the ill- omened little Corythrix paulina, whose funereal notesPORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 145 suffice to depopulate whole villages. According to Monteiro the brilliant red wings of this remarkable bird yield a proportion of copper when steeped in water. Equally characteristic are some of the snakes, one of which, the " spitter," ejects an acrid secretion which destroys the eyesight of its pursuers. The Angolan waters teem with fish, amongst which are an edible shark and the pungo, or singing fish, with a soft note like that of the flute. The bagro, a large siluroid, seven or eight feet long, has almost become amphibious, having acquired the power of living for many hours out of the water. Bees, ants, and mosquitoes abound; but beetles and butterflies, as well as other insects, are somewhat rare, at least on the seaward slope of the country. Inhabitants of Angola—The Congo Empire The Bantu populations of this region represent nearly every shade of transition from the Negro to the Hamitic type, and every degree of culture, from the absolutely savage state of the Mushi-Kongo 1 to the almost semi- civilised condition of the kindred and neighbouring Eshi-Kongo. The latter are grouped by many writers with the people of Cabinda, north of the estuary, under the collective designation of Ba - Eiot. Both belong undoubtedly to the same ethnical family, and as descendants of the dominant race in the ancient king- dom of Kongo (Ekongo), both preserve the same historic traditions and social usages, and have developed a certain sense of solidarity tending to merge tribal distinctions in a common national sentiment. They also speak the same Kishi-Kongo language, which is a typical Bantu 1 Doubtless a corruption of Mwishi-Kongo, which, is itself a singular form, consequently a mistake for the plural Eshi-Kongo. VOL. II L146 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL idiom already reduced to written form .over 250 years ago by the Portuguese missionaries.1 This language, of which the Eev. W. Holman Bentley has published an excellent dictionary and grammar (London, 1887), is current with little dialectic variety throughout a great part of the former Kongo empire, that is, along both sides of the estuary from Loango southwards to the frontier of Angola proper, and from the coast inland to within fifteen miles of the meridian of Stanley Pool. But the empire itself, first shaken to its foundations by the irruption of the Yacca hordes, and further weakened by the expulsion of the Jesuit missionaries about 120 years ago, was rapidly broken into fragments, and the mfumu reduced to the position of a Portuguese pensioner. The present emperor, Ntotela, bearing the high-sounding title of " Dom Pedro V., Catholic King of the Kongo and its dependencies," exercises a nominal authority over a district extending in no direction more than forty miles from the capital, Mbanza, the Ambassi of the old maps, at present better known as San Sal- vador. This place occupies a commanding position on the lower terraces of the escarpments near the sources of the Lueji, some miles south of the Yellala Falls. But its vaunted splendours are gone, and when visited a few years ago by Mr. Bentley, nothing was seen but " mouldering ruins." Even the old Eoman Catholic rites had fallen into abeyance, or become mingled with heathen practices, till they were recently revived by the missionaries. Certain emblems of that religion, such as crucifixes and 1 There still exist two copies of a treatise on Christian Doctrine written or translated into Kongo by Fr. Marco Jorge, with interlined Portuguese text, and published in Lisbon in 1624. This appears to have been the first work printed in Kishi-Kongo, or in any Bantu language.portuguese west afkica 147 effigies of the saints, were, however, still jealously preserved and borne in processions, being regarded either as potent fetishes or badges of authority. But Portuguese culture never penetrated very deep below the surface, and even during the most flourishing " Christian period" the people remained polygamists, and continued to be addicted to barbarous practices connected with witchcraft, ancestral worship, and the burial of. kings and chiefs. Outlying tribes also re- mained wholly unaffected by these exotic influences, and till quite recently the Congo estuary was still infested by the predatory Mushi-Kongos, Muso-Eongos, and others occupying the left bank of the river. All these closely related peoples constitute the Fiot, or Congo group proper, whose domain extends from the Lower Congo southwards to about the parallel of Ambriz, and from the coast inland to the Kwango River. The A-Bunda Nation South of Ambriz follows the widespread A-Bunda (Bin-Bundo, Ovim-Bundu) nation, whose territory extends along the whole of the seaboard to the Cunene Eiver, and inland to the plateau. It thus occupies the greater part both of the low-lying coastlands and of the terraced escarpments, and is accordingly divided into two main branches, the Ba - Nano, or " Highlanders," and the Ba-Buero, or " Lowlanders." Like the Ba-Fiot, the A-Bunda have been long in contact with Europeans ; the mutual relations have even been more intimate in the south than in the north. Owing to the unfavourable climatic conditions few Portu- guese have &ver settled in the Kongo country, whereas in the southern provinces whites both from Portugal148 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL and Brazil have contracted numerous alliances with the natives, resulting in a large mulatto element, dis- tinguished by considerable intelligence, energy, and capacity for trade. Such are the Ambakistas—that is, the inhabitants of Ambaca in the Coanza valley, and some of the Bihenos, or natives of the Bih£ district, both widely spread throughout a great part of Central Africa, and everywhere noted for their commercial enterprise, and also, unfortunately, everywhere associated with the slave trade. Most of them are bilingual, speaking both Portuguese and Umbundu (Bundu), a Bantu idiom, which in Angola proper and Benguela takes the place of Kishi-Kongo, and which is intermediate between that language and the Ova - Herero of Ovampo and Damara Lands. Umbundu is the lingua franca of the west, as Ki-Swahili is of the east coast, and any person familiar with these two Bantu tongues could easily make his way without any interpreter along the trade routes right across the continent from Benguela to Zanzibar. Mr. Arnot studied Umbundu with the American missionaries of Bihe for the purpose of communicating with the tribes farther east. This traveller also speaks highly of the enterprising spirit of the Ovimbundu between Benguela and Bihe, who " have done their full share in developing the resources of Central Africa," and who " are the real suppliers of the Portuguese markets at Catumbela and Benguela." All these settled and somewhat civilised Bantu and half-caste populations are collectively called Pretos by the Portuguese, in contradistinction to the JSfegros, or independent wild tribes. These terms therefore express social rather than ethnical differences, and in fact many of the Pretos cannot be distinguished physically fromPORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 149 the average West African Bantu, while others approach the European type in appearance and complexion. It is mainly by miscegenation that the Portuguese have perpetuated their race in Angola. Of full-blood Lusi- tanians there are not more than 4000, including officials, soldiers, and traders, in the whole colony, and scarcely any family groups are met except in Mossamedes, where they have alone succeeded in acclimatising themselves. A few Boers, penetrating from the south to Ovampoland, also effected settlements about the upper course of the Ounene; and although these settlements were afterwards dispersed, other "trekkers" from Transvaal followed in 1892, and attempted to set up an independent Boer republic in Mossamedes. On the whole the Cunene basin may be regarded as the northern limit of possible white colonisation on the south-west side of the continent. The Ganguellas In the Portuguese Hinterland beyond Bih^ the numer- ous Bantu nations whose territories are traversed by the trade route between Bihe and Lake Dilolo are grouped by some writers under the collective name of Ganguella. But this term, however convenient for classification, has no ethnological value, for it simply means " Stammerers," being the nickname applied to those eastern peoples by the Ovimbundu because of their unintelligible speech. In the same way the Germanic peoples called the Italians and Britons Welsh,1 that is, " foreigners," and were themselves called Memce, that is, " speechless," by their Slav neighbours. Of these " Stammerers" the most important groups are the Ambuella, Luimbe, Chibokwe, 1 Cf. Anglo-Saxon wealh = foreign, as in walnut; so also Welscliland= Italy.150 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Luvale, and Lunda (Wa-Lunda and Ba-Lunda), who are a southern branch of the Muata - Yamvo's Ka - Lunda subjects. The Lunda dwell chiefly about the head-waters of the Liba affluent of the Zambesi, where they constitute a powerful nation independent alike of the Muata-Yamvo and of the Barotse ruler, though some of their chiefs recognise the suzerainty of the former. They have long had indirect dealings with the Portuguese through the Bih£ traders, and most of the beeswax exported from Angola comes from their country. The Ba-Lunda rival the Javanese themselves in their love of ceremony, as displayed in their extreme courtesy to strangers and obsequious servility towards their chiefs. To their numerous modes of salutation they have added Ave-ria, a corruption of Ave Maria, introduced by the Bihe traders, and have also learnt to express surprise by the exclamation Allah! derived through Arab influences from the opposite quarter. They are amongst the few South African peoples who respect their women, some of whom even rise to the rank of queens. Their territory is extremely fertile, yielding provisions of all sorts in great abundance, while the forests contain immense stores of such natural products as rubber, gums, wax, honey, ground-nuts, and timber. The Aborigines Intermingled in the southern districts of Angola with the more or less civilised peoples are certain wild tribes of low stature and primitive usages, who should probably be grouped rather with the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert than with the Negroid Bantus. Such are the Ba-Kwisse, Ba-Kubale, Ba-Simba (Cimbeba), and others,PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 151 of Mossamedes and the Lower Cunene valley, who mostly hold aloof from the settled communities, keeping to the recesses of the mountains, the arid coastlands, or the remoter parts of the savannahs, and living almost exclu- sively by the chase or by fishing and capturing the jetsam cast ashore on the south coast. All these savage tribes, or rather family groups, may be regarded as the true aborigines, who have been gradually driven to the southern confines of the land by the Bantu peoples advancing from the interior seawards. Subjoined is a Table of the Chief Angolan Tribes Ba-Fiot, or B a-Kongo Group A-Btjnd a (Bin-Bundo or OviMBUNDU) Group Aboriginal (Bushman ?) Group. Eslii-Kongo, Mushi-Kongo, Muso- Kongo, Sonho, Bamba, Muyolo,- Ma-Yumbu, Ma-Yacca, Dembo Congoland, from the Lower Congo southwards to Ambriz Ba-Nano (e< Highlanders ") Hollo, Ba-Kgala, Songo Bailundo, Kimbande, f From the Middle 4 Coanza eastwards [ to the Kwango Bihenos, 1 Ba-Kankala, Lu-Shaze, Ba- I Jamba and Chella Nhaneka, Ba-Mkombi, Ba- j Highlands Kubale J Ba-Buero (" Lowlanders ") Quissama, Amboella, Libollo . Lower Coanza valley Mu-Ndombe, Mu-Seli . . . Benguela coast Ba-Kwande, Ba-Kulabe (Cabae), f Mossamedes coast Ba-Kwisse, Ba-Koroka, Ba- -j and Lower Cunene Kanaka, Ba-Simba (Cimbeba) [ basin Towns—Stations Owing partly to its shoals and shifting sands, partly to the inhospitable character of the lawless riverain tribes, the south or Portuguese side of the Congo estuary continues to be practically deserted. Here the only port accessible to large vessels is Nohi (.Lukango), just below152 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the cataracts on the frontier of the Congo Free State. Since the ivory caravans have been diverted from Ambriz to the Congo, the trade of Noki has been more than doubled; and it cannot fail to become a flourishing sea- port whenever the projected railway is opened from this place to Stanley Pool. On the exposed seaboard of Congoland there are neither harbours nor stations beyond a few fishing villages, such as Cabega de Cobra (" Snake's Head "), Ambrisette, and Mussera, the latter once a busy place, but ruined by an invasion of small-pox some years ago. Ambriz, on the north frontier of Angola proper, is the only port of call for steamers plying on this coast between Banana and Loanda. Notwithstanding the loss of its ivory business, and despite the exposed nature of its roadstead, Ambriz, lying just within the free trade area, has become a thriving seaport, taking large quantities of European wares in exchange for such local produce as ground-nuts, caoutchouc, the baobab bast used for making paper, and especially coffee from the southern plantations. The exports are now valued at over £200,000 yearly; but the climate is fatal to Europeans, as shown by the attempt lately made by an English speculator to work the malachite deposits in the neighbouring districts of Bemb4} where all the miners introduced from Cornwall were swept away within a twelvemonth. Farther inland the fortified station of Encogt (Sao Jos6 de Encogti) is the centre of a peculiar coffee industry, large quantities of the berry being collected, not from plantations, but from the uncultivated plant which grows wild in the surround- ing forests. Loanda (Sao Paido de Loanda), the oldest Portuguese settlement south of the equator, has for over 300 years been the chief centre of their power and "influence on thePORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 153 south-west seaboard, and is still the capital of their Angolan possessions. But although the largest place on the west coast between Upper Guinea and the Cape, its SAO PAULO DE LOANDA. population scarcely exceeds 15,000 ; while the insanitary state of the town and the absence of much-needed harbour works betray here as elsewhere the incapacity of Portugal to develop the resources of her colonies.154 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Loanda was founded in 1576, some twenty miles above the Coanza estuary, on the long low-lying island which forms a northern continuation of the Palmeirinhas headland, and which encloses a bay or natural harbour open to shipping on the north side, and accessible to small vessels through the Corimba Channel lower down. But the settlement was soon transferred to its present site on the opposite mainland near the deepest part of the bay, where the largest steamers find good anchorage in sixty or eighty feet of water within two miles of the town. Formerly the harbour was accessible to shipping right up to the shore; but during the present century it has been largely encroached upon by the silting sands, which unless arrested by dredging or other hydraulic operations must in course of time close the port altogether. Loanda was for over 200 years the chief centre of the slave trade between Angola and Brazil, and it was nearly ruined by the suppression of that traffic. Since then, however, it has recovered some of its former prosperity, and at present more than half of the trade of Angola is centred in this port, which exchanges rubber, coffee, and other colonial produce for textiles, hardware, and all kinds of European wares. The imports and exports were estimated in 1889 at over half a million sterling; and this trade has received a fresh stimulus by the completion of the submarine cable to the Cape, thus connecting Loanda with the telegraphic service of the world. Railway works are also in progress up the Coanza valley to the coffee plantations in the direction of Ambaca, and regular steam communication is maintained with Europe and Brazil. In the extremely fertile but pestiferous Coanza basin there are several important agricultural and trading centres, such as Dando at the head of the fluvial naviga- tion, locally known as the " furnace" or " hell" of Angola;PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 155 Cacullo, the chief place in the Cazengo district, in the valley of the Lucalla affluent, the most productive coffee region in the colony; Pungo Ndongo, a historical place east of Dando, lying 4000 feet above the sea, in one of the most romantic regions in Africa; Pamba, better known as Ambaca, from the name of the district, the proposed terminus of the line, 220 miles long, which is to run from Loanda to the interior through the rich coffee, sugar, tobacco, ground-nut, and other plantations of the Coanza and its Lucalla tributary. Ambaca, which is the administrative centre of this highly productive region, was formerly a flourishing place on the great trade route running through Malange to the Kassai basin. But its enterprising inhabitants, the famous Ambakistas, were nearly ruined by the cupidity of the corrupt Portuguese officials, and Pamba is now little more than an obscure village abandoned by its industrious inhabitants, and already overgrown with a rank vegetation. Malange, the farthest Portuguese station east of Loanda, lies on the plateau near the divide between the Coanza and Kwango basins. Here converge several important caravan routes from the interior, and all traders and travellers pro- ceeding from Loanda towards the Kassai basin must take the Malange route. About 200 miles south of Malange lies the much more important station of Belmowte, which is situated nearly on the highest point of the plateau on the most frequented southern trade route to the interior, standing in this respect in the same relation to Benuela that Malange does to Loanda. Like Pamba, Belmonte is more familiarly known by the name of its district, Bih6. The inhabitants also resemble the Ambakistas in their love of trade and their enterprising spirit; but the Bihenos (Ba-Bihe) have the double advantage of occupy-156 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL ing a more healthy. country, and of being practically independent of the oppressive Portuguese administrators. Hence while the Ambakistas have had to migrate in search of new homes and new occupations, the Bihenos form a flourishing compact community, strong enough to control the markets both of the interior and of Southern Angola. They are a branch of the A-Bunda nation, largely mixed with slaves and captives from all parts of the Kassai basin, and speaking the Umbundu language, which, thanks to them, has become the chief medium of communication from tribe to tribe between Benguela and Lunda. They are described by Capello and Ivens as " tall, thin, with heads of ample size, broad foreheads, not too low, flat noses, widespread cheeks, pointed chins, and arched brows of no great prominence, . . . lively and intelligent, very cunning and excessively grasping, and, like all the populations of Central Africa, distinguished by an indifference both physical and moral, of which it is difficult to convey an idea." 1 From them the Va-Luetia (Va-Luvale) and other inland peoples obtain their supplies of English cottons, German spirits, firearms and ammuni- tion, salt, and glass beads, in exchange for ivory, slaves,2 rubber, beeswax, skins, and other produce. They are naturally jealous of any interference with this lucrative trade between the coast and the interior, of which they hold a monopoly. Hence the obstructions thrown in the way of all travellers passing inland, and the opposition 1 Op. cit. vol. i. p. 109. 2 " In the region between the Lomami and the Sankuru the conditions of trade have completely altered since 1884. Now glass beads, arms, and powder form the chief articles of barter, having replaced the early cowrie shells. The former are supplied by the Bihe caravans in exchange with the Bassonge (Ba-Songe) for slaves, which they then exchange with the Bakuba for ivory. The Bakuba buy the women slaves for their house- holds, but the men for victims at their funeral solemnities" (Lieut. Wissmann, Proc. R. Geo. Soc. 1887, p. 776).PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 157 shown even to the peaceful mission of Mr. Arnot, who complains that " the chiefs and native traders were my greatest hindrance. Thus I was obliged to start from Bihe in rather an ignominious fashion, with a few women and children carrying my loads a day's march at a time." 1 Belmonte itself is a mere village, with one European dwelling, long occupied by the official Portuguese resident, Senhor Serpa Pinto, one of the few travellers who have crossed the continent from sea to sea. Marvellous stories are related of the extraordinary fertility of the district, where beans and corn spring up and ripen in two months, and where Capello and Ivens were seriously informed by a native that his freshly-cut staff casually stuck into the ground took root and developed into a huge wide- branching tree while he was entertaining his friends with some gossip in front of his house. The American missionaries have a station at Belmonte, which, however, is subject to agues during the rainy season; hence their headquarters lie farther west in the more healthy Bail- undo country, near the Jamba highlands. There are scarcely any permanent settlements along the trade route between Bihe and the coast town of Benguelct, capital of the province of like name. This seaport, which dates from the erection of the Portuguese fortress of San Felipe in 1617, is pleasantly situated in a fertile district on the slopes of the wooded hills exposed to the cool sea breezes. The beach, where are grouped the residences of the European traders, enjoys the full benefit of the cold Antarctic marine current, and is consequently fairly healthy, at least in the dry season. Benguela may be regarded as the natural outlet for the produce of the central plateau between the Congo and 1 Loc. cit. p. 70.158 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Zambesi depressions, and its exchanges, at present valued at about £250,000 yearly, appear to be increasing. The neighbouring Dombe districts (Great and Little Dombe) in the Capororo basin are rich in copper ores, argentiferous lead, gypsum, and especially sulphur, enormous quantities of which exist in an almost pure state. Like Benguela, the southern province of Mossamedes has for its capital a seaport bearing the same name as the district itself. This name was first applied towards the end of the last century to the neighbouring Angra do Negro (the Little Fish Bay of English mariners) in honour of a Portuguese commander, Mossamedes; it was then extended to the settlement, which dates only from the year 1840, and finally to the whole province, which is scarcely yet fully organised. Notwithstanding its recent origin Mossamedes has already become a flourish- ing seaport, and is the only Portuguese settlement on the west side of the continent which can be called a colony in the strict sense of the term. Thanks to its salubrious climate it seems suited for European settlement, and it already possesses a larger relative white population (Portuguese, Brazilians, and natives of Madeira) than any other place on the seaboard between Morocco and Cape Colony. But even here the mortality is still in excess of the birth-rate, and there appears to be little scope for the development of an agricultural settlement in a district where the arable land is mainly confined to the beds of dried-up or intermittent coast streams. But the fisheries are very productive, and much " cod-liver oil" is prepared from a fish resembling the cod of the northern hemisphere. Stock-breeding also has been successfully introduced in some of the grassy tracts, where the Kafir breed of ridingPORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA 159 oxen is reared for the markets of the Cape and the Gaboon. The Boer Immigrants From Mossamedes a practical road for pack animals has been opened across the Chella range to the Upper Cunene basin. By this route the Boers settled in that MOSSAMEDES. region have already found their way into the Mossamedes coastlands, and travellers are now able to reach the Ganguella territory and the Zambesi basin by following the same track. But this road has also given access to the Portuguese tax-gatherer, with the result that the Ba- Nano populations have in many places withdrawn farther inland. Thus this fertile and comparatively healthy elevated region remains almost uninhabited, except by the wandering Ba-Kankala bushmen; even the few Boers who had settled round the stations of Huilla and San Januario or Humpata have recently returned to Ovampoland. " During the long trek or exodus from their southern160 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL homes the Boers had to endure great hardships and privations as they drove their herds before them, plodding wearily from pasturage to pasturage, sojourning for months together in some more favoured localities in order to recruit their strength, but again exposing them- selves to the inclemency of the weather, and facing the perils of forced marches across the waterless wilderness. Many perished of exhaustion, and the report even spread that all had succumbed; but towards the close of the year 1880 some 400 or 500 survivors at last reached the promised land, distant more than 1200 miles from the mother country. But even here, under this favoured climate of Mossamedes, the fates still pursued them ; small-pox broke out amongst the new arrivals; nearly all the horses which they had brought with them, to the great terror of the natives, died of fatigue; all the flocks of sheep disappeared, together with two-thirds of the horned cattle. Despair seized many of the settlers, who embarked for the Cape; others, retracing their steps, endeavoured to return overland to Transvaal, while others, resuming the trek, penetrated from stage to stage into the Cunene basin and the region of the inland plateaux."1 These Boers, locally known as Ugaras, had already intermarried with the Portuguese, whose suzerainty they had recognised while retaining complete self-government in all communal affairs. But owing to the exactions of the Portuguese officials they again withdrew beyond the Cunene, where, under the leadership of Mr. Jordan, they founded the temporary Eepublic of " Upingtonia." Lower down the Cunene basin continues to be almost unin- habited, although possessing the advantage of two good havens on the neighbouring coast — Bahia Pinda and 1 Reclus, xiii. p. 53.POETUGUESE WEST AFRICA 161 Bahia dos Tigres, the Port Alexander and Great Fish Bay of English writers. Resources—Government—Prospects Portuguese "West Africa labours under two great physical disadvantages—a deadly climate in the fertile northern provinces, an arid soil in the relatively healthy southern provinces. This, combined with gross mal- administration, the rapacity of officials, and high tariffs, sufficiently accounts for the backward state of the colony, which has made but little progress since the flourishing times of the "middle passage." In those days three- fourths of the revenue were derived from the sale of slaves destined mainly for the plantations of Brazil. Since the abolition of that traffic the revenue has never sufficed to cover the expenditure, so that Angola continues to be a burden to the home government. Eecently the revival of legitimate trade has been checked by the establishment of the international free trade area, which, owing to the heavy custom-house imposts in Angola proper, has tended to divert the ivory caravans northwards to the province of Zaire (Congoland) and even to the Congo Free State. Orchilla also, formerly a staple export, is becoming scarce ; while the sources of caoutchouc are being dried up by the reckless destruction of the rubber-yielding lianas throughout the lowland forests. But there still remain the fossil copal of the coastlands, the palm oil, gums, bast, timber, and drugs of the woodlands, the copper ores, argentiferous lead, and sulphur of the mineral districts, and the produce of the plantations—sugar, rum, tobacco, cotton, and especially the wild and cultivated coffee of the Coanza and Lucalla valleys. Over two-thirds of these VOL. II M162 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL articles are taken by Great Britain in exchange for textiles and other British wares. Much of the rest of the foreign trade is conducted with Germany, France, and Holland, so that the Portuguese administration has come to be regarded as a coastguard system maintained in the interest of foreign nations. There is no local representation of any kind, and the government of the colony is entirely in the hands of the Governor-General, resident at Loanda, who is himself directly dependent on the home authorities. For administrative purposes the country is divided into four provinces: Zaire (Congoland), Loanda (Angola proper), Benguela, and Mossamedes, each subdivided into numerous Concelhos or Circles under Portuguese officials. Most of the natives, except in the neighbour- hood of the towns, are still in the tribal state, and many of their sobas or " kings " are practically autonomous; but in the more settled districts, to each soba is attached a Portuguese chefe or political agent. A few public works have recently been taken in hand; about 330 miles of the " Trans-African Railway" had been completed in 1894; the telegraph system has been extended to several inland stations; good water has at last been supplied to the capital; and a few roads have been constructed in the coastland districts. But it is obvious that there is no future for Angola as a Portu- guese colony. It is mainly unfit for European settle- ment,1 and its great natural resources can never be developed by a country which has herself entered on a long period of decadence, and which has no industrial products wherewith to effect a " balance of trade " with her African possessions. 1 Even European domestic animals succumb to the climate, although Angola lies beyond the range of the tsetse fly. The cat becomes paralysed, the dog loses his scent, and horses and horned cattle rapidly die off.If dob orPandob Tzimmtop Wute / a oFaminJa. • BAYONG y g, Jcki A- Xoiia. [Kederu, \Ben.d< jTho^i" a. ^Ddl&rwidi fjephant L. uv- Mohorye £lyv UonlA\i, l ' ijutiina. Jmii tPoromo -i/fbimcL Duaros Qianbiri fjfdirt Van Gele TCoKhnj A*| Munotinga SLss?^ Rr 10.190 W Meivflh> B. C^Barrow Wongumbo ,Beki .Mundri Tpiynoa Nangba RpbicLs, $-i<~Z.—-'pongu GangereTambu Bcanbptfvrro FEKNAXDiO PO f Sp ) c BadalV ►usembi. ■ : --- - % Godo>l Zuggar's o Gobcuy Ydmbong diiaviaB- .Aha^- imufar- Mbabu >Donpo Onegca Bat a agaf^ L lUllcwi P i Saddle Pointfe* Cantpo B. ) % P* Canipo C. J}a±ta | 3 tolobo Adunris Lipenga b Bolomo\ c °^ar'n-~ x 1 2 Mbelia jt> MfJuntec. M I ," SlahayUsip • "N^ &» ^fj ■•£* &ylaximiAiaJ A'„ AViiidermei \KaVe 2fig| ^ ^1. Ihcrrya. t 'Otyga Sat Nkenie C.S.C ath ni^mi\ph>j,iba JVqoriS ^shV^ Koriif uaz£\. Xilongo BV Lonc/obondt Lower Eu Rudol Lot \Ponta .Vegra fBU ■wmfe Iluugjf 'Kttambi, Mutch ata la Ana Ka Miteite KwaJco lyyi(Egy^le > MasscOn (j/igiutji Cataracts ..•lyMfnfy \CaiiRixtgau . iiuua RiW/Jutcli Morfit Kafyonqo i asongo\ faiartufnhaJimga ^Kapxaiai 5 L oaiufo 1 us orJ£akongoR.& •Mj^suinba Kassofi Cfuniai °op(LdaJ>aca. mimboma PermilhcL or Morn _ v C ONGO RIVERB Padr s s ° ^ San^itorSo^ S„U n ll ^^^^-yChitembe -> Cabeca de Cobra\r}i^vaJlo Jfa|H j(R)irttiXbe . Lutidcas' jUW.TOfg-'j B a s Rusawa M^aKaiiJv^ - - Ankoro \ *■ Yr ! Murd a Kumbanat1 Mpallk (MalcowirfA MaJciyc7?ibol J)cotibd&$ Taftfyaiisi ahia %U MucuRaS \jJert&'£M- for elandsa\ V— 3B MujserraXf?' i / Jb Ambiiygggr°---| Jfi/ ?sulo grande Muejie Futc&Z~LiAane R.^> Ca±u7nbojZ Be^B. C.Lagosiaf^oK ^ DE LOANDA^TTI^-^w TanjjCv/'* usingd fckaria" leombwa / i Mazfembe/ t •, r2890 JibalaAi SacalUM f%£&4 ' Jfusenguo ' I^AHijnbe ' r B '.. A. X. Kahanda 0 Gdbwe^ G XI fi uiomha Kaparrrpc^, tMoigorike ' LJMorul^ \oQdkanga fShamassaiigd- ■ 'JO. KoyyanfBe .. -.' KivbsMfV-,-^ ienwi 1800 ■wena wik-ab,v\'ia ^Jfunibi* \ Lung a ^ iMBongijr^^JmeEP jTirfTunoj sr .Mbqa Kis sent ;%o/ I"! Atr ? \uerie. moero / 2900 / limqa 'unau uco&oR ^ , r ^hibve&L 'sfyena c\^j^ ru>embi oDumb a iManda1 ibolo ,^0- Malembas \KdssurtcLt mitRurg ""^MuacheF<' Jfussuluntl^i Chamois Old Bengudiij | I !0io7ios< er Craig 0ri>MT\ l B^: jjjMere ; tonclyve ^Tovo Redondo/ QoicomboT 'I ?&7iambi°. - ' ^ioma" yoMuataMa&cto CONGO FREE STATE ibdarau.' 4000 -4260^ Unhumga\ Jiarunibo Balomba. R. Mu ctri Ac %obito,r_^l^ BENGtT^tA.-M^ tJ7' v$S^E>! '~jDatpen.de ^^0^' Soloisho HiUs •^3ate or Kabompu J. Monakadze^t1.9 Mdcoso (Lvvvngi SCALE, 1:5,977,30 2, 94 /a ENGLISH MILES TO I INCH ^ (Belrtioi Pt SalilULS', Dorribe de JfSjwambal ElfphantBj^ C.sSfflwX" / ^ fflnro Maftdca' (P.) - Portuguese (Sp) -Spanish Heights in, JingUshFeet h-Y ^Mucunha Musso\ 8° LoiL^itude East of Greenwicli London: Edward Stanford,26 4 27 Cocksptu- St..Charing Cross. S!W.CHAPTER V GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA (OVAMPO, DAMARA, AND GREAT NAMAQUA LANDS) German annexations in South - West Africa—Boundaries, Extent and Population of the Protectorate — Geographical Research — Physical Features — Characteristics of Soil and Climate — Changed Climatic Conditions—Natural Resources ; Minerals—Inhabitants ; Bantu and Hottentot — The Ova - Mpo — The Boers ; Upingtonia—The Ova- Herero and Hill Damaras—The Namas—The Hottentot Race and Language—Table of the Chief Tribes in German South-West Africa — Population according to Races — German Policy ; Prospects of the Colony—Seaports and Inland Stations—Administration—Wal- visch Bay. German Annexations Till recently the seaboard extending from the Cunene to the Orange Eiver was on most maps usually coloured red, in accordance with the popular view which regarded the whole region from Cape Colony to Portuguese West Africa as forming part of British South Africa. Some of the coast islets, such as Eoast Beef, Plumpudding, Pomona, Halifax, Penguin, Mercury and Hollams Bird, as well as the district on the mainland round about Walvisch1 Bay, were even occupied or officially recog- 1 That is, Whalefish, but variously written Walfisch, Walvisch, Walfish, etc., in more or less incongruous Dutch spelling.164 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL nised as British territory ; Walvisch Bay still remains a dependency of Cape Colony. But in the year 1884, when the Germans began to build up their colonial empire, all the rest of the region in question was suddenly proclaimed a part of the imperial possessions under the designation of Liideritzland, afterwards changed to German South- West Africa. After the usual protests and diplomatic wranglings the claim was duly recognised, and the limits of the German protectorate determined by two conven- tions with Great Britain (December 1884, and July 1890) and one with Portugal (December 1886).1 Boundaries—Extent—Population In virtue of these conventions, German South-West Africa is enclosed on the north by Portuguese West Africa, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and the British enclave of Walvisch Bay, on the south by Cape Colony, and eastwards by the British Crown Colony and protectorates of Bechuanaland. The northern frontier towards the Portuguese possessions follows the 1 " Undeterred by the fact that the natural and widely-known desire of Cape Colony was to expand northwards to the Zambesi, and that since 1878 Walvisch Bay had, with that object, been occupied as a British naval station, an enterprising Bremen merchant, Herr Liideritz, con- cluded a series of political and commercial treaties with native chiefs, whereby a claim was instituted over Angra Pequena, and over vast dis- tricts in the interior between the Orange River and Cape Frio. On 7th August 1884, the German flag was hoisted at Angra Pequena, and on 13th October 1884, Germany formally notified to the Powers her Protector- ate over South-West Africa" (Silva White, The Development of Africa, 1890, p. 294). This event is specially interesting in the history of European colonisation, for Angra Pequena was the first annexation made by Germany beyond Europe, the foundation-stone, so to say, of her colonial empire, which has since been developed with such surprising rapidity.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 165 course of the Lower Cunene to the cataracts near 15° E. longitude, beyond which it is indicated by a conventional line running due east to the river Kubango, then by the eastern course of that river to its sharp southern bend at Andara, where it is continued by another conventional line eastwards to the Katima Eapids of the Zambesi, and then by the Zambesi itself to the Chobe confluence. The southern frontier coincides entirely with the course of the Orange Eiver, terminating, at 20° E. longitude, a little west of the Hygap confluence. On the east side the frontier line is purely conventional, following the 20th meridian from the Orange Eiver northwards to 22° S. latitude, and then the 21st meridian to 18° S. latitude, a few miles south of the Portuguese frontier. Here another conventional line running parallel with that frontier eastwards to the Chobe, and then along the course of that river to its confluence with the Zambesi, leaves a narrow strip of territory, nowhere less than 20 miles wide, giving Germany free access to the Zambesi between the Portuguese and British possessions north and south. As thus defined, this region forms a rough triangular mass, with truncated apex resting on the Orange Eiver, and broadening northwards with the north-western trend of the continental coast-line. It has a total length of about 900 miles, a mean breadth of 400 miles, and an area roughly estimated at 400,000 square miles, with a scattered population supposed not to exceed 250,000. In the north it encroaches eastwards on the Zambesi and Lake Ngami basins; in the south it merges in the Kalahari Desert, while ethnologically it comprises in their order, from north to south, the ill-defined territories of Ovampo (Ovambo), Damara, and Great Namaqua Lands.166 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Geographical Research The exploration of these lands may be said to have begun with Livingstone's discovery of Lake Ngami in 1849. Doubtless long before that date the seaboard had been surveyed, and a few temporary stations estab- lished at Walviseh Bay, Angra Pequena, and one or two other points on the coast. But no serious efforts had been made to penetrate from any of these stations into the interior, till an unsuccessful attempt was made by Francis Galton and Charles Andersson to open up a route from Walviseh Bay to Lake IsTgami. Two years later Andersson reached the lake, thus connecting his itineraries with those of Livingstone, and since then the country has been traversed in almost every direction by travellers, traders, and especially by Finnish, German, and other missionaries, who had already founded stations in Damaraland so far back as 1842. Conspicuous among the earlier explorers are Green, Hahn and Eath, Palgrave and Hartley, Todd and Lewis, while, since the German occupation, more systematic surveys have been made, chiefly by Dr.. Hans Schinz (1884-86), Dr. F. M. Stapff (1885-86), Dr. A. Schenck (1888), and Baron von Steinacker (1888-89). Schinz, after exploring the southern districts acquired by Herr Liideritz, passed northwards through Ovampoland to the Cunene, and thence eastwards to Lake Ngami, returning to the coast through Damaraland, and afterwards again penetrating east to the Kalahari. To Stapff, geographical science is indebted for a careful geological survey of the Kuisip (Khosib) valley, and other parts of Namaqua- land. These surveys were continued and extended by Schenck over the whole region between Walviseh BayGERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 167 and the Orange Biver; while Yon Steinacker explored, and for the first time accurately mapped, the Herero country (Damaraland) and the eastern districts in the direction of the Kubango and Chobe basins. Physical Features The normal plateau-formation, interrupted by the valley of the Cunene, again acquires a partial develop- ment in the region stretching from that river southwards to the Orange basin. But whereas north of the Cunene the tableland maintains a uniform elevation of about 4000 feet for hundreds of miles eastward, here it assumes rather the character of a broad ridge descending seawards, either in terraces or gently inclined slopes, or through a series of sandhills 300 or 400 feet high, and falling landwards far more precipitously down to profound depressions separating it from the Kubango basin in the north and from the Kalahari Desert in the south. This ridge, whose main axis runs parallel with the coast at a mean distance of from 100 to 120 miles, traverses the northern section, under the name of the Kaoko and Damara hills, at an average altitude of less than 3000 feet; but as it approaches the latitude of Walvisch Bay it rises to nearly double that height, the whole system here culminating in Mount Omatako, 7650 feet above sea-level. South of this point the shield-shaped crest again falls to little over 3000 feet, at which mean altitude it traverses Namaqualand southwards to the Orange valley. But in this southern section it often loses the character of a continuous range, breaking into a chain of hills, or even of isolated heights, which in many places affect the fantastic form of ramparts, towers, or BANKS OF ORANGE RIVER—GREAT NAMAQUALAND.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 169 pinnacles. Here some of the peaks east of Angra Pequena rise to an altitude of nearly 6000 feet, while the route leading from the coast eastwards to Bethany Station traverses the range at a height of 5300 feet. The prevailing formations are gneiss quartz, schists, recent chalks, crystalline lime-stones, and especially granites, whose disintegration appears to have given rise BETHANY—GREAT NAMAQUALAND. to the sands of the interior, while the coast dunes are by some geologists supposed to be of marine origin. In any case, there is abundant proof of extensive up- heaval along this seaboard, where salt-water shells of the same species as those still inhabiting the neighbour- ing sea occur as high as 70 feet above the present ocean-level. The remains of large cetaceans have even been found at a height of nearly 100 feet half a mile inland. Characteristics of Soil and Climate It is commonly supposed that the whole of German South-West Africa is merely an arid sandy waste, with some grassy tracts in the northern and central districts, but with no natural resources beyond its inaccessible mineral wealth. Owing to the prevalence of this view little interest was taken in the country, which was left severely alone even by the Cape Government, notwith-170 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL standing the fact that the southern populations had long drawn their chief supply of cattle from this very region. But the systematic surveys carried out since the German occupation have shown that the popular view is mainly applicable only to Great Namaqualand—that is, to the southern division between Walvisch Bay and the Orange River. Many parts of Ovampoland in the extreme north are even described by Dr. Schinz as well suited for agricultural pursuits. The district of TJpingtonia, and other tracts occupied either by the Boers or by the more settled Ovampo tribes, are partly hilly and apparently rich in minerals, partly undulating limestone plains (an old lacustrine basin), sufficiently watered and of great natural fertility. Perennial springs abound, and for half the year, from November to April, the rainfall is considerable. Malarial fevers, however, prevail during this austral summer season, though they are of a far less virulent nature than in Angola.1 Farther south follow the grassy plains and slopes of Damaraland, which afford excellent pasturage for numerous herds of horned cattle. But " Great Kama Land," as Dr. Stapff calls the region round about Walvisch Bay, is by this explorer divided into three distinct physical sections:—1, The great stony desert of Namieb in the north; 2, the valley of the Kuisip (Khosib), converging on Walvisch Bay; and, 3, the sandy dunes stretching thence parallel with the coast-line southwards to the Orange basin. Namieb presents the aspect of a vast plain rising almost imperceptibly landwards, and east of Walvisch Bay, attaining an altitude of 2000 feet at a distance of 60. miles from the sea. The dreary prospect is unrelieved 1 MS. note, the substance of which appears in the Proc. of the B. Geo. Soc. 1887, p. 244.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 171 by the presence of a single tree or shrub; but the view is broken here and there by isolated eminences or small groups of hills, whose dark rocky walls present a sharp contrast to the surrounding yellow-grey plains. Here and there occur the so-called vleys, that is, shallow depressions in which the rain-water is collected, leaving after evaporation gradually accumulating saline and sandy deposits. Changed Climatic Conditions South of the Kuisip the sandy dunes—probably upheaved marine beds moulded to their present shape by the prevailing south-west winds—form a zone of absolute desert, where the tracks running inland from the coast have in some places to traverse as many as six of these parallel sandhills. Such is the dominant feature of this seaboard for hundreds of miles between Walviseh Bay and Cape Colony. These conditions appear to be the result of the gradual process of desiccation going on for ages in the two rainless zones which sweep round the northern and southern hemispheres at various distances from the equator. In this region, as in the Sahara and the Central Asia deserts, abundant indications of the change from a moist to a dry climate are afforded by the vegetation of the river valleys, and especially of the Kuisip, where are still to be seen the dead or decaying stumps of the wild fig, ebony and other forest trees; during the periodical freshets also many snags and large tree-trunks are carried down with the yellow floods from inland districts where no large vegetable growths now flourish.1 1 Dr. F. M. Stapff, Petermann's Mitteilungen, July 1887. It may here be mentioned that about the year 1775 most of the Herero people172 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL Another proof of change in the direction of greater dryness is seen in the recent cretaceous deposits which cover a large part of this region, and which in fact are distributed all over the southern part of the continent. These chalks were deposited in relatively shallow brackish waters, showing that in a former geological epoch the surface of the land was strewn with lacustrine basins of all sizes. Scanty remains of such basins are the valleys and lakes scattered over the northern parts of the Kala- hari Desert. At present the rainfall is not sufficient to repair the loss suffered by evaporation. Hence Schinz and other recent travellers report that even Lake Ngami itself is much reduced in size, and apparently slowly drying up. It is noteworthy that the rain-bearing clouds precipitate their moisture at different periods on the coastlands and in the interior. On the seaboard it falls chiefly in the form of mist, during the winter season, whereas farther inland it occurs only in summer, and nearly always in connection with fierce thunderstorms. These thunder- showers are attributed by Schenck to the condensation of the moisture brought with the warm north-east winds from equatorial Africa by coming in contact with the cool south-west current setting from the coast towards the interior. Rivers But the annual rainfall, averaging probably not more than three inches for the whole region, is nowhere suffi- cient to maintain permanent watercourses on the Atlantic slope of the divide. Hence not a single perennial stream abandoned their settlements in the Kaoko uplands, and migrated farther south, where even at that recent date water is stated to have been more abundant than at present.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 173 reaches the sea for the space of about a thousand miles from above the Cunene to the Orange Kiver. Even the Tsoakhub (Swakop) and the Kuisip, the two largest of these streams, both of which reach the coast at Walvisch Bay, the former from the north-east/the latter from the south-east, are in the nature of wadys—dry sandy beds for a great part of the year, roaring torrents during the rainy season. The Tsoakhub, which rises to the east of the Damara highlands, traverses the plateau through a series of deep rocky gorges, and has a total course of nearly 250 miles. . Notwithstanding the great extent of its catchment basin, the Kuisip, which intersects the Namieb plain, does not always reach the coast even in the rainy season. Between the years 1866 and 1878 it is said to have never once sent any of its flood waters down to Walvisch Bay. Although draining a less extensive area than either of these wadys, the Omaruru is a more copious stream, retaining its waters for a longer period, and supporting a more extensive vegetation. Its course lies a few miles to the north and nearly parallel to that of the Tsoakhub. In Namaqualand even the umarambas, or intermittent streams, disappear. Here almost the only watercourse is the Little Orange, which descends from the north-east to Angra Pequena. On the opposite or inland slope the chief hvdrographic system is that of the already described Etosha lagoon, which belongs to the Cunene basin. "When visited by Schinz in 1886, Etosha Pan presented the appearance of a veritable lake. Farther east the Umaramba-wa-Mataka flows north-east, and, under the name of the Seshongo, joins the Ombuengo or Okavango, whose sluggish current ramifies into several branches in a swampy district draining to Lake Ngami.174 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Natural Resources—Minerals The whole of the south-west coast is exposed to the influence of the cold marine current which sets steadily from the Antarctic waters northwards. Hence the temperature is rarely excessive, even in summer, and is all the more endurable because of the extremely dry atmosphere. For the same reason there is a general absence of malaria, except in the marshy districts of Ovampoland, about the Etosha Pan, and thence east- wards to Lake Ngami. The Boers, who have made repeated attempts to establish themselves in this region, have often been decimated by fever, and compelled to abandon their settlements owing to the malarious climate. Farther south the obstacles to European colonisation arise, not from the climate, but from the lack of water and of land suitable for tillage. In the whole of Namaqualand, after years of strenuous efforts, the mis- sionaries have failed to bring more than ten or twelve acres under cultivation. On the other hand, Damaraland abounds in rich grazing grounds, and stock-breeding might certainly prove remunerative in this region. Both horned cattle and sheep thrive well in the Omaheke district, and horses might be raised in some of the upland valleys of the Kaoko country. Some of the lowland tribes are known as " Cattle Damaras," from the numerous herds which constitute their sole wealth. Since 1891 camels have been introduced, and are now employed on the routes between the coast and the interior. Their powers of endurance have been successfully tested on the borders of the Kalahari Desert, and they have hitherto resisted the many fatal diseases to which horses and even cattle are subject in Namaqualand.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 175 All the domestic animals now bred on the pasture lands of the higher grounds are sprung from stock originally introduced by Europeans. They maybe said to have replaced the indigenous fauna, for few wild animals are now found except the ubiquitous antelope, some small felines, jackals, rodents, snakes, and lizards. The most dangerous of these reptiles is the cuspedeiro, or " spitter "—a serpent which attains a length of about 2 5 feet. Crocodiles are confined to the Cunene basin, and the ostrich has disappeared from all the coastlands. Though the surveys are still far from complete, it is already known that this region is rich in minerals, especi- ally copper, which occurs throughout the plateau, and even in the Otavi Hills 280 miles north-east of Walvisch Bay. Argentiferous ores are found in the northern districts of Namaqualand, and mining operations have already commenced at several points. But these resources can scarcely be properly exploited in the total absence of communications beyond mere tracts across the sandy plains. Inhabitants—Bantu and Hottentot It is at once evident, from the local nomenclature alone, that this region is a land of transition between the northern Bantu and southern Hottentot races. In Ovam- poland we find geographical terms such as Etosha, Otavi, Mataka, ending in open syllables in accordance with the harmonious Bantu phonetic system. Farther south the consonantal endings and harsh sounds of such names as Tsoakhub and Khosab show that we have already entered the domain of the Khoi-Khoin (" Men of Men "), as the Hottentots call themselves. The Ova-Mpo and Ova-Herero may in the same way be recognised as Bantu peoples from the prefix element ova (see p. 112), while176 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the Dama-ra and Nama-qua are seen to be Hottentot nations, or at least subjected to Hottentot influences, from the dual and plural endings, ra, qua} peculiar to the Hottentot language. Speaking broadly, the northern and southern divisions (Ovampo and Namaqua Lands) are occupied exclusively by Bantu and Hottentot peoples respectively, while the central division (Dama-ra or Herero Land) constitutes the debatable region where the two races have for generations been struggling for the ascendency. Geo- graphically about three-fourths of the whole region is comprised within the Hottentot domain, which extends from the Orange River uninterruptedly northwards to Walvisch Bay, and penetrates beyond that point far into the Damara uplands. But ethnologically this proportion is reversed, for the great bulk of th^ population is centred in the northern (Bantu) districts. The Ova-Mpo The northern Bantu populations are divided into a considerable number of tribal groups, all of which are under separate hereditary chiefs or " kings," except one, the Oranda, who have abolished the monarchy, and adopted a republican or communal form of government. They take their collective name from the Ova - Mpo group, which was the first met by Galton and Andersson 1 Qua or Tcha is the masculine plural, as in Nam a-qua, Gri-qua, Khora- qua, etc. ; ra is the feminine dual, so that Dama-ra really means " the two Dama women." It arose out of a misapprehension on the part of the first explorers of the country. To their question as to its name the native guide answered Dama-ra, supposing they referred to two Dama women who happened to be passing at the time. The form should of course be Dama-qua, like Nama-qua, and these again, being plural forms, should, strictly speaking, be Englished Damas, Namas, not Damaqnas, Namaquas.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 177 in 1852, at which time their king, Nangoro, had his residence at Ondonga. Physically the Ova-Mpo are a fine race, tall, robust, well proportioned, with regular features and bright expression, bespeaking a considerable degree of intelli- gence. They are industrious agriculturists, but also notorious cattle-lifters, and given to inter-tribal warfare. With a view to quell the disturbances, and establish some kind of orderly administration, the Cape Govern- ment sent a mission under Mr. W. Coates Palgrave to the Ova-Mpo and Damara nations in the year 1876. Mr. Palgrave was well received, and much valuable information on the relations of these people was em- bodied in his report on the results of the mission, pub- lished at Cape Town in 1877. Amongst the Ova-Mpo also dwell a few scattered communities of Bushmen, the Ma-Cuancalas of the early Portuguese settlers. They have been reduced to a state of servitude by the Bantus, who employ them as carriers of ivory and iron and copper ores. The natives under- stand the art of smelting these ores, from which they manufacture excellent metal ware. The Boers—Upingtonia After their withdrawal from Mossamedes, the Boers, under their leader, Mr. Jordan, purchased a tract of country in the Ondango district about a copious spring, the Groot - Pontein, east of Lake Etosha. Here was founded in 1844 their short-lived republic of "Uping- tonia," so named in honour of the well-known statesman, Mr. Upington, of Cape Colony. It stretched from Lake Etosha eastwards in the direction of the Ngami basin, and was said to have an area of 20,000 square miles, VOL. II N178 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL parcelled out in allotments of 6000 acres. But although the land was fertile and well watered, the climate was HILL DAMARA. malarious, and after the murder of Mr. Jordan, in June 1886, the republic collapsed, the Boer settlers accepting the German protectorate.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 179 The Ova-Herero and Hill Damaras Damaraland, which comprises the Kaoko highlands, and which extends from the Ovampo territory to Walvisch Bay, is a region of great ethnical confusion. The population is broadly divided into highlanders and lowlanders, the former commonly known as " Hill Damaras," the latter as " Cattle Damaras," or " Damaras of the Plains." This term " Damara," however, which is of Hottentot origin, is rejected by most of the tribes, who are certainly of Bantu stock, and who call them- selves Ova-Herero, meaning in their Bantu language the " Merry People." Even the highlanders are regarded by Galton and others as of Bantu stock, though assimi- lated in speech and some other respects to the Hotten- tots, and on that account generally supposed to be a branch of that race. Thus Herero and Damara may be taken as practically synonymous terms, though it might be convenient to restrict the former to the true Bantus of the plains, and reserve the latter for the Hottentot- speaking tribes of the uplands. Traditionally the Ova-Herero reached their present homes about two hundred years ago from the region north of the Cunene, being apparently descended from the Ma - Tamas, who figure on the old maps as the dominant people of the " Great Mataman " kingdom in the south and east of Mossamedes.1 They passed thence southwards between the Ova-Mpo and the coast to the Kaoko district, where another dispersion took place, some under the name of Ova-Mbandem migrating 1 Thus on the map of Africa attached to Filippo Pigafetta's Relationi del Reame di Congo, Rome 1591, Matama is placed west of the fabulous empire of Monomotapa, and south of the equally fabulous " Lago Aqueluna " (Aquilunda) east of the present province of Mossamedes.180 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL eastwards in the direction of Lake Ngami, some settling permanently in Kaokoland, while the majority pushed southwards nearly to Walvisch Bay. Here they came into collision with the Hau-Khoin, or "True Hottentots" of the hills, and the warfare thus begun between the two races has been carried on almost incessantly ever since. About the middle of the present century the Ova- Herero gained a signal victory over the Namaqua by the aid of the Swedish traveller, Andersson, who had acci- dentally become involved in the fray. But the Namas, being furnished with firearms from the Cape, soon recovered from this disaster, and in the subsequent struggle appear to have more than held their own. In October 1890 their chief Witbooi defeated their hereditary foes in a pitched battle, in which the Herero chief, Epias, was slain. Hitherto the German authorities have abstained from taking © any part in these conflicts, their policy being to foment the rivalries of the hostile tribes, and thus prepare the way for European colonisation. The Ova-Herero, who are even a finer people than the kindred Ova- Mpo, are essentially a pastoral nation divided into numerous tribes or castes (eanda), whose headmen acknowledge the authority of the paramount chief of Damaraland. They have long been in close contact with the whites, and many have at least outwardly conformed to the Christian religion preached by the Finnish and other missionaries settled OVA-HERERO WOMAN, NAMAQUALAND.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 181 amongst them. But many pagan practices still survive, and certain forest trees are the object of a kind of worship, being regarded by them as the forefathers of mankind. A peculiarity of the race, shared in even by their cattle, is their dislike of salt, which appears never to be collected by them from the salt-pans, nor ever used as a condiment. The true aborigines of this region are certainly the Khoi-Khoin (Hottentots), who, jointly with the allied Sans (Bushmen), formerly occupied the whole of South Africa, probably as far north as the Zambesi. But their domain has been gradually encroached upon by the Bantus advancing from the north, and by the European settlers in the extreme south, until it is now reduced to a comparatively narrow enclave in the south-west corner of the continent, roughly limited northwards and east- wards by 20° south latitude and 23° east longitude. North of the Orange Eiver they form two distinct groups, the pure and half-caste Khoi-Khoin of Great Namaqualand, and the more or less mixed Hau-Khoin or Hau-Damop (" True Khoinor " True Damas ") of the Damara uplands north of Walvisch Bay. These Ova-Zorotu (" Hillmen "), as they are called by their Herero neighbours, are a feeble folk of low stature and weak frames, apparently forming a transition between the true Bushmen, with whom they are often confounded, and the true Hottentots of Namaqualand. Most of them are reduced to a state of bondage by the local stock-breeders, while others are grouped in small communities round about the missionary stations. They have ceased to take any part in the national struggle between the Herero and Namas, and they are now chiefly distinguished by their remarkable musical talent.182 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TBAVEL The Namas The Namaqua proper, formerly said to number several hundred thousand, are now reduced to little over 20,000, including 3000 settled in Little Namaqua- land south of the Grange Eiver. In German territory they are scattered in small pastoral groups as far north as Walvisch Bay, and from the coast inland to the verge of the Kalahari Desert. In this wide domain they form three main divisions : (1) the Namas proper with about twelve tribal subdivisions, the true aborigines of Namaqualand; (2) the Orlams} who migrated north- wards from the Cape about the beginning of this century, and who form five tribal groups; (3) the Bastaards, Dutch-Hottentot half-breeds, also from the Cape, with no tribal divisions, but distributed in five settlements between Walvisch Bay and the Kalahari Desert. The Hottentot Race and Language The Namas proper, who are full-blood Khoi-Khoin, may be taken as the most typical branch of the Hottentot2 race, not only in Namaqualand, but in the whole of South Africa. They consequently afford the 1 According to Andersson, Orlam is a corruption of the Dutch O'erland, that is, "Overland," in reference to their arrival by the over land route from the Cape under their famous leader, " Afrikander." The term Afrikander, originally applied in a contemptuous sense to the Dutch Hottentot mongrels, has now acquired a more elevated national meaning, indicating the descendants of the Dutch-Huguenot and even of the English settlers ; in fact, all native-born colonials are Afrikanders. 2 No satisfactory explanation has been given of this word, which already occurs in the earliest records, and which seems to be of onoma- topoeic origin, suggested probably to the first European settlers by the jabbering or unintelligible chatter of these natives.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 183 best opportunities for the study of this race, which still remains one of the most difficult problems of African ethnology. Although possessing some traits, such as black woolly hair, broad flat nose and thick everted lips, in common with the Negro, other peculiarities, both physical and mental, require them to be separated from that race. Such are especially a yellowish-brown com- plexion, extreme dolichocephaly, somewhat oblique brown eyes, and excessively prominent cheek-bones, which, combined with a pointed chin, gives to the face a decided triangular shape. To these must be added some other highly characteristic racial features, such as very large lobeless ears, steatopygia, and the tablier, where it is to be remarked that such features, though very prevalent, are not universal amongst the Hottentots, while they are constant amongst all Bushman women. The two languages also have in common those peculiar utterances known as " clicks," which no European can pronounce, and which seem to hold a middle position between articulate and inarticulate speech. Here again the " clicks," restricted to four in Hottentot, are almost unlimited in Bushman,1 so that the conversation of a group of these natives resembles the cackling of geese to the European ear. On these and other grounds—low stature, analogous usages, weapons, traditions and the like—it may, perhaps, be inferred that the Bushmen are the true aboriginal element in South Africa, and that the Hottentots are fundamentally Bushmen, modified by crossings with the Negro and Negroid peoples advancing from the north, and partly exterminating, partly absorb- ing the primitive populations. Apart from the " clicks," the Hottentot language 1 They occur in no other known language except the Zulu-Kafir, which, however, possesses three only, evidently borrowed from Hottentot.184 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL presents some other remarkable characters, which are as great a puzzle to philologists as the race itself is to the anthropologist. Notwithstanding the debased condition of the people themselves, their speech is so highly developed, both in its rich phonetic system, as represented by a very delicately graduated series of vowels and diphthongs, and in its varied grammatical structure, that Lepsius sought for its affinities in the Egyptian, at the other extremity of the continent. But this relationship, which would place it on a level with the Hamitic group of languages, has not been established, and Hottentot remains without any known congeners either in Africa or elsewhere. Like the Indo-Chinese family, it possesses tones by which different meanings are imparted to the same word; like the Aryan tongues, it has a true objective (accusative) case clearly indicated by the endings in the singular, dual and plural; lastly, like the very highest orders of speech (Aryan, Semitic, and Hamitic), and unlike any other known linguistic group, it has evolved true grammatical gender, marked by distinct endings for the masculine, feminine and neuter of all three numbers. No satisfactory theory has yet been suggested to account for such phenomenal perfection in the structure of a language spoken by one of the most degraded ethnical groups still surviving in any part of the wTorld. As an essentially pastoral people, the Nama Hottentots are distinguished on the one hand from the Bushmen, who live exclusively by the chase, on the other from the Negro people, and the great majority of the Bantus, who are mainly, though not exclusively, agriculturists. The national garb is the well-known kaross, or sheepskin, worn with the woolly side out in summer and reversed in winter. It is supplemented by the olchubib or apronGEKMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 185 reaching below the knees, and usually embellished with glass beads. A conic bonnet of zebra skin was at one time common, while the body is still smeared with a mixture of grease and a reddish powder, producing an almost intolerable odour. The Nam a huts are frail structures of matting, sup- ported by a light framework of branches, and bound together by cordage made of tendons or mimosa bark. They are weighted with stones against high winds, and protected from animals by a thorny fence. These huts NAMA HUTS. are carried from one camping ground to another by those clans which still lead a nomad existence, while others are permanently grouped round the missionary stations. All the Orlams, and most of the other tribes, have already been converted, mostly by Protestant missionaries. But under the outward form of Christianity many old superstitions survive, and the Heitzi-Eibib, or great spirit, is still alternately rewarded with offerings or overwhelmed with maledictions, according as he shows himself pro- pitious or hostile to the community. Like many other nomads, they welcome the stranger with a show of hospitality, but once beyond their district he is regarded186 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL as lawful prey. Polygamy, although accepted in theory, is rare, and even the widower is said seldom to marry again. The tribal government, as with most pastoral peoples, is of a somewhat patriarchal character; but the hereditary chiefs, now usually bearing such Christian names as Barnabas, Simon, David, Andrew, etc., are kept under control by a council of elders, by whom all pains and penalties are awarded. Table of the Chief Tribes in German South-West Africa Ova-Mpo Groups (Ovampoland) Avare; Okafima (Okafina); Ova-Kwangama; Ova-Mbarandu (0- Mblandu) ; Great and Little O-Mbanja; O-Rundu-Konutwe ; O-Karuthi (O-Kwaludi); Ova-Kwambi (O-Kwambi); Ova-Nganjera (Gangera); Ova- Mpo (0-1STdonga) ; Ma-Cuancalla. Ova-Herero Groups (Damara Lowlands) Kamaherero ; Therawa (Zerawa) ; Kavingava ; Cambathembe (Kamba- zembi) ; Kamaretti (Kamureti) ; Kandjye (Kandyii) ; Omugunda ; Ova- Mbanderu ; Kukuri ; Ova-Tyimba. Note.—All but the last three are named from their headmen. These are the Cattle, or Lowland, Damaras of English writers; the Kamagha Damaras of the Hottentots. Hau-Khoin, i.e. " True Hottentots," ) or > (Damara Uplands). Hau-Damop, i.e. 4' True Damaras." ; Note,—These are the Hill Damaras of English writers ; the Ova-Zorotu of the Hereros. They are not " true Hottentots," but rather Hottentot- speaking Bantus (Hereros) with a strain of Hottentot blood. Kama Groups (Namaqualand) I.—Pure Namas (full-blood Hottentots); Geikou ("Red Men"); Topnaar ; Khoro-oa ; Khogei ; Ogei ; Khau-Goa ; Karagei-Khoi ; Gaminu (Bondlezwaarts); Habobe (Velschoen-drager); Gunungu (" Lowlanders "). II.—Orlams (Hottentots from Cape Colony); Eishaai; Kuwisi; Ama ; Khaua ; Gobabi (Gei-Khaua). III.—Bastaards ; Dutch - Hottentot half-breeds from the Cape. No tribal divisions.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 187 Population according to Races (1894) Ova-Mpo . Ova-Herero Hau-Khoin. Namas proper Orlams Bastaards . Bushmen . Whites 100,000 70,000 20,000 10,000 4,000 1,000 2,000 1,200 Total 208,200 German Policy—Prospects of the Colony Even before the German occupation, both the Namas and Hereros appear to have been steadily decreasing, and this tendency has been stimulated by the action of their present rulers. It was reported in Berlin, in December 1890, that the officers of the German force stationed in Damaraland had bought up the stores of the insolvent German Colonial Company, and are at present carrying on a flourishing trade with the natives, " bartering," amongst other things, " alcoholic liquors and ammunition." As soon as the indigenous element are sufficiently thinned down by these and similar processes, the inten- tion is to introduce white settlers wherever the conditions are favourable for European colonisation. Imperial aid has already been obtained for this purpose, and one of the items in the Foreign Office estimates for 1893-94 is a vote of £13,600 for the German Colonies in South- west Africa, including £5000 "towards establishing German farmers in those regions." No settlements of this sort can be formed in great Namaqualand, that is, anywhere south of Walvisch Bay, although this is the very region where treaty rights were first secured by Herr Liideritz, and which for a time188 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL was known as Llideritzland. So far back as 1819 Moffat had described it as a country yielding much sand and stones, with a scattered population baked like toast in a broiling sun. Later, Andersson, who had traversed it in all directions, declared that, not even excepting the Sahara, there was probably on the surface of the globe no region of equal extent so thinly peopled, so barren, so unproductive. " It is in the strictest sense of the word a cursed land." The Imperial Commissioner himself, Dr. Nachtigal, was obliged to confirm these descriptions, while the mission sent out in 1885 to study the resources of Liideritzland concluded that there was nothing to justify the hopes that had been entertained regarding Herr Liideritz's brilliant colonial scheme."1 In 1894 the imports were £45,000; exports, £6500; revenue, £52,000, mostly from Imperial funds. Some agricultural settlements might be established in Ovampoland, but for the malarious climate and the com- petition of the settled Ova-Mpo populations, who are too numerous and too intelligent to be got rid of by the " civilising agencies " introduced by German officials and speculators. Consequently there is no future for any part of the German protectorate except Damaraland, which might afford support to a limited number of European stock-breeders. But even here there are many serious drawbacks. Standing feuds continue to prevail amongst the hostile Bantu and Hottentot populations; cattle-lifting raids are a normal condition of these feuds ; the coastlands are mostly sandy and unproductive, while there is no access to the fine grazing grounds of the plateau except through the British enclave of Walvisch Bay. 1 Petermann's Mitteilungen, 1886, viii. p. 238.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 189 Seaports and Inland Stations In German territory the only harbours are Ogden on the Damara coast, about 180 miles south of Cape Frio, formed by a line of coral reefs which enclose a tolerably safe sheet of water, but of difficult access and surrounded by an arid waste; Sandwich Haven {Porto do Ilheo), just south of Walvisch Bay, well sheltered from all winds, but very small and in danger of being choked by the silting sands ; lastly, Angra Pequena, on the Namaqua coast, somewhat more than midway between Walvisch Bay and the Orange Biver. Despite its name, meaning in Portuguese u Little Bay," Angra Pequena is a spacious island-studded inlet penetrating five miles inland, with good anchorage in seven or eight fathoms of water, pro- tected from all except the north winds. But the great hopes regarding the future prosperity of this port have not been realised. It lies in a barren district absolutely destitute of fresh water beyond the turbid stream occa- sionally sent down by the Little Orange Biver during the rainy season. Hence no trade has been developed except in a little fish, minerals, and cattle, and the Ger- man factory established here in 1887 has already been abandoned. The neighbouring islets of Ichaboe and Halifax are frequented by myriads of aquatic birds, and yield considerable quantities of guano, which in some years is shipped to the value of £20,000. In the interior of the German possessions there are no towns of any kind nor even any permanent centres of population, beyond a few missionary stations scattered about the whole region and some trading-places in the northern provinces. Such are Omaruru, the chief market of the Hereros, some miles north of Walvisch Bay;190 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Otyimbingue, on the Tsoakhub ; Ohahanja and Otyikango (New Barmen), on the upper course of the same river; Reboboth, in the Kuisip basin. All these places are dis- posed round about Walvisch Bay, which is the only- possible outlet for their trade. In Namaqualand the only settlements are the missionary stations of Bethany, on the plateau due east of Angra Pequana, Nisbetfs Bath (War?nbad), on a little affluent of the Orange River, and the new agricultural station of Stolzenfels, on the north bank of the Orange below the Hundred Falls. Administration In German South-West Africa the Imperial authority scarcely extends beyond the coastlands, which are under the jurisdiction of the " Deutsche-Kolonial Gesellschaft fur Siidwest Afrika." The protectorate forms the two administrative regions of Deutsch-ISTamaland in the south and Deutsch-Damaraland in the north, the whole being under the nominal authority of an Imperial Com- missioner. In 1892 a concession was granted to an Anglo-German Company to work the mines in the northern part of the territory. Walvisch Bay The British enclave of Walvisch Bay lies about exactly midway between the Cunene and Orange estuaries. It has a total area of some 700 square miles, though the actual limits have not yet been determined, being reserved, with the question of a disputed German right-of-way through the south-eastern corner, for future settlement. The importance of this question lies in the fact that theOKAHANJA—KAMAHERERO'S KRAAL.192 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL contested district gives access from the German station of Sandwich Haven to the interior, and also contains the only supply of fresh water to be had within a radius of 100 miles. The geographical and political importance of Walvisch Bay can scarcely be overrated. It gives direct access to the two great watercourses Tsoakhub and Kuisip, which here converge from the north-east and south-east; it is thus practically the only natural outlet for a region some 400,000 square miles in extent, stretching from the seaboard inland to Zambesia, and from Angola south- wards to Cape Colony. The whole of this region is at the mercy of the political masters of Walvisch Bay, which in the hands of an alien Power might serve as a convenient base of operations directed against the British possessions between the Zambesi and Orange Bivers. At present this vitally important strategical point is an administrative dependency of the Cape, and it is politically held by England in trust for her future South African empire, the consolidation of which has already begun. Hence it is not surprising that both the Imperial and Colonial Governments are at one as regards the policy of holding this commodious naval station and declining to treat with Germany for its surrender on any terms. If Germany cannot retain profitable possession of her hastily, perhaps rashly, acquired South-West African protectorate without Walvisch Bay, she must abandon it, for Great Britain cannot certainly afford to abandon Walvisch Bay. The harbour, easily approached by a channel four fathoms deep, affords good anchorage in depths of four to - five fathoms, and is completely sheltered from all winds except those blowing from the north-west, which are rare on this seaboard. It takes its name from the whalesGERMAN SOUTH WE ST AFH IT A. Cunde Mbtimbe, --n_ „ °$l,y Musbindi fucneSfnfiivya little I Fish Bag J&ahm* wZle ')■ ^.Ihuufuia, P 0 RTU/GU ES B fe.0 LOQ % \® . KsMabblcL TKf ^ •SMbemba V S H9211 :yfpacfri Grtabfs. \JS^0^Oxombtxrt ^Ombcu^nbong^ iteka-anbci S$Ambro#e\, Ogden Ro cks1 °Ohaiyoxc 3 y •e^fOtjitcmoTWombe ajpe°'o**h . \ Cape Cross"L 3 \ SierraB^ §\ Simdxllooh JELeitZonteiii Iiuwbitf Jtyosazu \ / merpnsHqpe M.S.fOkahafafja) ten M.S. (O^UiQngo) / L £-, . :®P \GobaJoies . Shod JfookV; > %\ I^^ub; "Vfalfish J8a^ PeliixuiJ^k y-j SaiixLJPf} A Kooibla \ Port IUieo L of Capricorn', SandMdchSTJt Cmhwei filceko Twees 0Tuiras .i o nW>'v Jbwiieqiis ■ Hollands « o?- HoUams Birdl. Spencer»^ Mercury I\ ^~*JQien-\ Q foptehi 'MolteixtotBA \ Ichaboe■ I: Zwcutj Mocraj \ /i3f4^5"T1,5a-v Possession 'sajjetJi Albatross ift^luaihiktiiiqBh .Pomonal.'X \. " VajvSeenens fove\ / \ Whale b\ V-y,,,, Rietfontei riquas Puts Jfairtoits Aiitfra .Tiuita \ Sirwlctir or "Roast Beef I? aSweet Kod-dfcr U ° 11 dl ^ jpfe^L C. 37? Z><7 „ \ f miMuie&D/'ift pin lis ]¥. a m. a , ^Kab <>&£' jToslan / Upingtoj XrrecitFcJls ■sioiuur L a ii d/^A V'armbtul ) yisbets.Ba&vJf uosten Kop "Eakamas 7ona Longitude East of Greenwich londarv: Stxirdbrds Gexxj^Estdb SCALE, 1:5,977 382, 94- /' ENGLISH MILES TO I INCH Loudon: Edward Stanford,26 & 27 Cockspur St.Charing Cross, S!W.GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 193 which formerly abounded in the neighbouring waters, but which are now rarely seen. The ostrich and elephant, at one time numerous on the surrounding grassy uplands, have also disappeared, so that the ivory and feathers formerly shipped at this port have now given place to hides and cattle exported chiefly to the Cape. Since the German occupation of Damaraland, Walvisch Bay has been declared a free port for all exchanges with Europe and the colonies. It has thus retained the foreign trade which might else have been diverted to the neighbouring German station of Sandwich Haven. The Walvisch Bay territory is inhabited by the Top- naar tribe, who are a branch of the Nama Hottentots. VOL. II oCHAPTER YI cape colony Extent, Boundaries, Coast-line—Dependencies, Areas, Populations—His- torical Survey ; the Portuguese Pioneers—The Dutch in South Africa —The English in South Africa—The Kafir Wars ; Kafir Genealogies —Geographical Research—Physical Features—The Karroos—River Systems—The Orange Basin—Climate—Flora—Fauna—The Native Populations—The Cape Hottentots—The Bantus—The Ba-Sutos— The Kafirs—The Bushmen—Chief Tribal Divisions—Towns and Stations—Railway Development—Griqualand West and its Diamond Fields—Resources: Tillage, Pasturage, Industries, Trade—Education, Finance, Religion, Communications—Administration—Political Fore- cast; Confederation. Extent—Boundaries—Coastline Ever since the permanent occupation of the southern extremity of the Continent by Great Britain at the beginning of the present century, the expression Cape Colony has almost continuously undergone a modification of meaning nearly always in the direction of enlarge- ment. At first restricted to the original Dutch settlements on the seaboard, limited east by the Great Fish River, it was gradually extended northwards to the Orange, then eastwards successively to the Kei, the Umtata, and theCAPE COLONY 195 Umzimkulu rivers, until, either by peaceful annexation or conquest, the whole region has been absorbed, which is conterminous in the north-west with German South- West Africa, in the north-east with the British colony of Natal and the Orange Free State, in the north with the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and at one point with the south-west corner of Transvaal. The northern frontier coincides with the course of the Orange to the 20th meridian, where a conventional line is drawn northwards and eastwards round to the Yaal, so as to enclose the trans-Orange districts of Bechuanaland and Griqualand West. Then it is deflected along the Free State border southwards to the Orange just above Hope Town, whence it follows that river to the Basuto plateau, where it again turns north to the Caledon, which forms the boundary to its source at the Natal frontier. Here the frontier line is marked by the crest of the main Drakenberg range to the source of the Umzimkulu, whence to the Indian Ocean the boundary is contermin- ous with that of Natal. Between the Orange and Umzimkulu estuaries there is a total coast-line of over 1200 miles, washed in the west by the Atlantic, in the south by the Indian Ocean, and broken by several bold headlands, such as, going eastwards, Cape Castle, Cape of Good Hope, Danger Point, Cape Agulhas, southernmost land of the Con- tinent, Cape St. Francis and Cape Eecife. These head- lands enclose a number of open inlets or exposed roadsteads, such as St. Helena Bay, Table Bay, False Bay, Mossel Bay, Plettenbergs Bay, and Algoa Bay, besides one really good natural haven, Saldanha Bay, just south of St. Helena Bay on the Atlantic. Like most of the African seaboard, the coast is also absolutely destitute of any islands, with the solitary exception of196 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the small Eobben Island in Table Bay, a little north of Cape Town, interesting to zoologists for its peculiar fauna. Dependencies—Areas—Populations Within the above-described frontiers are included, not only Cape Colony proper, which is mainly limited eastwards by the Kei river, and which has long enjoyed parliamentary representation with a responsible ministry, but also certain outlying dependencies almost exclusively inhabited by native populations, which still enjoy a measure of self-government, but without representation in the Cape Parliament. These dependencies, which have continually fluctuated in extent, and even in name, during the progress of conquest or annexation since the middle of the present century, comprise, besides the Crown Colony of Basutoland on the Free State frontier, the whole seaboard between the Cape1 and Natal. From their geographical position beyond the Kei, they are officially known as the "Transkeian Territories," while from the dominant race the whole region takes the name of Kaffraria or Kafirland. Including these satellites and the recently incorpor- ated districts of Griqualand West and Bechuanaland2 beyond the Orange River, Cape Colony constitutes a com- pact imperial dominion nearly 600 miles long from ocean to ocean, and 450 miles broad between the Orange River 1 In accordance with a convenient and historic use of the word, the term "Cape," that is "Cape of Good Hope," will here be taken as synonymous with Cape Colony, whose official title is " Colony of the Cape of Good Hope." 2 The colony of Bechuanaland recently incorporated with the Cape is described in chap. viii. together with the Bechuanaland Protectorate.CAPE COLONY 197 and the south coast, with a total area of about 230,000 square iSiles, and a heterogeneous population of nearly 2,000,000 as under :— Area in Population sq. miles. 1 (1891). Cape Colony proper with Griqu aland West 263,400 1,053,000 Transkei proper, with Fingoland, Idutywa Reserve, and Gcalekaland .... 2,500 154,000 Tembuland proper with Bomvanaland and Emigrant Tembuland..... 4,000 180,000 Griqualand East, with Port St. John's terri- tory, Nomansland, and the Gatberg . 7,500 152,000 Pondoland . . . . . 3,600 200,000 Basutoland, Crown Colony .... 10,300 220,000 Total . 291,300 1,959^000 and the south coast, with a total area of about 230,000 square iSiles, and a heterogeneous population of nearly 2,000,000 as under :— Historical Survey—The Portuguese Pioneers It is noteworthy that the Portuguese, by whom the whole of the South African seaboard was first surveyed, seldom attempted to found any permanent settlements south of Angola on the west and Sofala on the east coast. After discovering the Congo estuary in 1482, they penetrated boldly into the austral seas, advancing so rapidly that in 1486 Bartholomew Diaz had already reached and doubled the conspicuous headland at the south-western extremity of the Continent. Owing to the fierce winds which here retarded his further progress eastwards to Algoa Bay, he named this headland Cabo dos Tormentos (" Stormy Cape "); but his sovereign, John II., who already divined the vast importance of the discovery for the development of Portuguese power and commerce in the eastern seas, changed this for the more auspicious designation of Cabo de Boa Esjperanza (" Cape of Good Hope "), which it has since retained. No further advance was made till the year 1497,. 198 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL when the Cape was again doubled by Yasco de Gama, who coasted the southern shores of the Continent, and opened the direct route to the East Indies. America had been discovered five years previously, and twenty- four years later the circumnavigation of the globe was completed by the Magellan expedition. These memor- able events ushered in the modern era of European expansion, which was destined to embrace the whole world, but which was longest resisted in the African Continent. The arrival of the Portuguese in the eastern waters was rapidly followed by the overthrow of Arab ascendency in the Indian Ocean, and by the occupation of innumerable trading stations in the Persian Gulf, India, and Malaysia; nearly the whole of Central and South America was in the same way overrun and occupied by the Conquistadores within a few decades of the discovery. But for centuries no progress was made in Africa beyond the establishment of a few factories and slave markets round the seaboard. Even in the extreme south, with a climate and environment analogous to those of the Mediterranean regions themselves, no settlements of any kind were made for nearly 150 years after Yasco de Gama's voyage to the East. During this intermediate period, however, the Cape continued to be a port of call or victualling station for the Portuguese and the other seafaring nations on their long voyages to the eastern seas. The whole seaboard was also roughly surveyed by the Portuguese, as is sufficiently evident from Livio Sanuto's Geografia and accompanying charts published in 1588, and Pigafetta's Map of Africa CI 5 91), where the nomenclature is exclu- sively Portuguese from the Congo estuary on the west to the " Bocas de Cuamas " (Zambesi delta) on the east coast. Much of this terminology still remains, whenceCAPE COLONY 199 the occurrence of such names as Cabo Frio, Angra Pequena, St. Helena and Saldanha Bays, False (Falso) Bay, Cape Agulhas, Algoa and Delagoa Bays, Natal (Terra do Natal), Cape Delgado, etc., on a seaboard most of which was never occupied by a single Portuguese station. The Dutch in South Africa Before the close of the sixteenth century the Dutch, following in the track of Yasco de Gama, had found their way to the East. But although the account of their first voyage of 1595, published at Amsterdam in 1609, already contains a notice of the "Hottentot" aborigines, they made no attempt to occupy any territory at that time. It was significant for the future political destinies of this region that the first actual occupation of the Cape was made in 1620 by two passing ships of the English East India Company in the name of England. But this formal act of possession was not ratified by the British Government, and the first per- manent settlement was effected by the Dutch in 1652. Four years previously a Dutch vessel had been ship- wrecked on the coast of Table Bay, and some of the crew while waiting to be rescued had occupied their time in exploring the district. Induced by their report, the Dutch East India Company sent out a few settlers under Jan Anthon van Biebeek, who built a small fort and laid down the very lines along which the future capital of South Africa was developed at th3 north foot of Table Mountain, on the south side of Table Bay. The Dutch remained for over 140 years in undis- turbed possession of this vitally important station on the ocean highway between Europe and the East. Till200 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL about the year 1700 the settlement was confined to a small district enclosed by a curved line drawn from the mouth of the Oliphant Eiver southwards to False Bay. But during the eighteenth century the territory was gradually extended eastwards to the Gamtoos River, at that time forming, the boundary between the Hottentot and Kafir races, and thence, in 1786, to the Great Fish River. The first Boers,1 or peasant farmers, mainly Dutch, with a few Germans, had begun to arrive as early as 1654, and after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) they were joined by a considerable number of French Huguenots, as well as other Protestants (Wal- denses) from the Piedmontese Alpine valleys. Owing to their great intelligence, energy, and agricultural skill, these immigrants took a leading part in the development of the colony, and to them is especially due the success- ful introduction of viniculture. Having brought their families with them, they increased more rapidly than the Dutch, many of whom were officials and soldiers who had intermarried with the native women and given rise to the still existing mongrel element commonly known as " Bastaards." Nevertheless, the French and other non - Dutch settlers were gradually absorbed in the dominant race after the year 1724, when all languages except Dutch were officially banished from the school and the pulpit. Thousands of the present Boers, how- ever, are still proud of their Huguenot descent, and numerous family and geographical names remain to attest the former widespread influence of the French settlers. 1 Boer, pronounced b&r, is the same word as the German Bauer and English boor, in its nndegraded original meaning of a free peasant farmer ; from a Teutonic root bu, as seen in the Anglo-Saxon buan — to till, culti- vate, dwell, etc.CAPE COLONY 201 Almost from the first the attitude of the Boers towards the natives was characteristic of the policy per- sistently adhered to by them throughout the whole of their colonial history. They began by purchasing their lands from the " Quaiqusei.e. Khoi-Khoin (Hottentots), who were in exclusive possession of the whole region east to the Gamtoos, and north to and beyond the Orange River. Then, as they grew more powerful, the squatters dispossessed the original owners, passing at last to the extreme measure of retaining them as slaves to till the land. But the Hottentots, being essentially a pastoral people, proved indifferent agriculturists, and were gradually replaced by Negroes or Bantus, mainly from the east coast, hence to this day known in the colony by the general name of " Mozambiques." This foreign slave trade began within ten years of the founda- tion ' of the settlement, and at first was carried on so extensively that for a time the blacks outnumbered the free peasantry. Later the importation of Negro labour fell off, so that at the time of the emancipation (1833) not more than. 25,000 were found scattered over the agricultural districts. Most of these have since been absorbed in the mongrel class, the constituent elements of which are therefore Whites, Hottentots, and Blacks, not Whites and Hottentots alone, as is commonly sup- posed. These social relations, combined with other causes, tended to promote another movement, which proved to be of great importance in the future evolution of South African politics. The settlement had originally been founded merely as a " factory" or fortified trading station, with no view to the acquisition of land beyond what might be required to raise supplies for the garrison and officials, and for victualling vessels plying between202 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Holland and the Company's eastern possessions. But when the prosperous plantations round about the station became over - stocked and over - peopled by substantial burghers fretting under the heavy taxes and arbitrary measures of the colonial governors, the desire to escape from their jurisdiction irresistibly drove the settlers to move landwards in search of " fresh fields and pastures new." Despite all the efforts of the officials to keep them concentrated in the small coast district round about the Cape,1 the movement continued to spread until these pioneers of South African colonisation at last reached Graaf Eeynet in the north-east, and the Great Fish River beyond the frontier of the Kafir domain, some 500 miles from Table Bay. Thus also was acquired that restless spirit, by which, under the stimulus of various political and social causes, the forward movement has been continued down to the present time, until the primitive Boer element has been thinly diffused throughout the greater part of South Africa from the Cape northwards to the Cunene, and north-eastwards to the Limpopo. This element has thus 1 So anxious were the authorities to prevent the settlers from leaving the lands assigned to them, that edicts were frequently issued forbidding them to " trek " under pain of death and confiscation of their property. They were in fact regarded as rebels, and the policy pursued towards them was mainly dictated by the fear of complications with the natives caused by the trekkers encroaching on their territories. The small garri- son maintained at Cape Castle was at no time strong enough to protect the settlement from a combined attack by the inland tribes. The reduc- tion of these tribes and the creation of a colony in the strict sense of the term had never occurred to the Dutch East India Company, which con- tinued to regard the Cape merely as a port of call and convenient victualling station on the route to the Eastern Archipelago. Hence down to the British occupation it was still officially known as "The Cape," and so it continues to be known to this day, no comprehensive territorial expression having ever been applied to a dominion which at present covers an area of over 200,000 square miles.CAPE COLONY 203 gained in expansion what it has lost in concentration ; but the expansion itself has become its main source of weakness, rendering it less capable of resisting the absorbing tendencies of the more energetic and progressive British race. Another result was a change of social condition. As the trekkers penetrated from the arable coastlands to the drier inland plateaux, they found the soil every- where less suitable for tillage, and they thus necessarily passed from the agricultural to the pastoral state. This again became a bar to the development of large centres of population, so that in the Transvaal, for instance, the Boer live-stock breeders are already outnumbered by the British settlers, attracted by the discovery of exten- sive gold - fields in that region. The influx of these settlers has also tended to raise the value of the land, in consequence of which the Boers have been tempted to part with large tracts to purchasers willing to pay them remunerative prices. Thus the very land tends to change hands, while the younger generations are com- pelled to learn the English language in order to compete on equal terms with their rivals in the struggle for existence. In this wTay the uncultivated Dutch dialect sinks more and more to the position of a rude provin- cial patois, the disappearance of which can only be a question of time. But its extinction means absorption in the dominant race, so that the whole current of events since the beginning of the century has tended to merge racial and linguistic differences in a homogeneous English-speaking South African nationality.1 1 Where two languages are current, literature is the best test of their relative position, and South African literature is essentially English. Thus in 1875 English newspapers and other periodicals were already six times more numerous than Dutch, and since then the proportion has204 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL The English in South Africa With the growth of the British Empire in the far East the attention of English statesmen had been more and more directed towards the most convenient station for provisioning purposes on the ocean highway between London and Calcutta. A first attempt made in 1780 to seize the Cape was frustrated by a French fleet under Suffren. But a more favourable opportunity presented itself in 1795, when the French revolutionists having occupied Holland, the settlers hoisted the flag of inde- pendence, and looked to England for protection. The colony was accordingly occupied by a British fleet on behalf of the Prince of Orange, at that time a refugee in London. After its restoration to Holland (the " Bata- vian Eepublic ") at the Peace of Amiens in 1802, it was again occupied in 1806, after the renewal of the Napo- leonic wars, and since that time it has formed an integral part of the British Empire. Under the English administration the progress of the colony has been continuous, if not always rapid. Its natural development was retarded at first by contentions with the burghers, chiefly in connection with the ques- tions of slavery and taxation, leading at one time to open revolt (1815), and giving a fresh impulse to the trek movement. At the time of the British occupation, the total population was about 75,000, composed in nearly equal parts of burghers,1 pure and mixed Hottentot even become greater. In the Cape all educated Boers speak English, and their somewhat rude Dutch speech is thus yearly acquiring the character of a mere patois. 1 In South Africa there is practically little difference between the terms burgher and loer. In its narrower sense, the former is restricted to those enjoying full rights of citizenship, with the privilege of bearing arms in defence of their country.CAPE COLONY 205 serfs, and Negro slaves. But the burghers regarded them- selves literally as " the chosen people/' with a divine, consequently an indefeasible, right to the ownership of " the cursed children of Ham." Here their religious prepossessions and material interests were in complete harmony, and they accordingly offered the most strenuous resistance to the movement for the emancipation of the slaves in the British possessions, which was at that time the watchword of English philanthropy. Nevertheless, they might have accepted the situation when slavery was abolished in 1833, had the legal compensation, three- fifths of the market value of their human chattel, been promptly paid. But the remissness of the Government in this and other matters created such widespread dis- content that they prepared to break up their homes and remove with their families, slaves, and herds beyond the jurisdiction of the British authorities. Thus began the so-called "Great Trek"1 about the year 1834, when thousands of pastoral Boers plunged' into the wilds of South Central Africa, crossing the Orange, the Vaal, and even the great Drakenberg Border Bange, and after sanguinary collisions with the warlike Zulu nation, founding the temporary state of Natalia and the republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal. Meantime systematic British emigration, at first pro- moted by State aid, had begun in 1820, when 4000 selected English farmers landed at Port Elizabeth, on Algoa Bay, and founded flourishing agricultural settle- ments in the Graham's Town district, on the eastern frontier of the colony. Others soon followed, so that as 1 Trek has nothing to do with the English track, as in the slang ex- pression "to make tracks." The Dutch trekken is the English drag, draw, and especially to draw a cart or waggon ; hence to travel by waggon, to migrate in search of new settlements. The movement was always made by means of huge waggons drawn by long teams of oxen.206 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL the Boers moved northwards from their scanty settle- ments in the Gamtoos and Great Fish Kiver valleys, the vacated lands were occupied by British settlers. Thus it happened that for a time the colony was divided into an eastern or British, and a western or Dutch division. But a process of fusion has long been going on, and while Cape Town, in the west, has already become almost an Eng- lish city, in some of the eastern districts the majority of voters are of Boer descent. And here it should be observed that, despite the prevalent popular opinion to the contrary, there is no real antagonism between the English and Dutch burghers. Both are fundamentally of the same hardy Germanic stock ; the higher political aspirations and social interests of both are practically identical; and as a matter of fact the opposition of the Boers always has been directed, not against their English fellow-citizens, but against the too often arbitrary measures of the British administration. They had suf- fered so much under their own rulers in pre-British times, that they had learnt to detest all government, and they were naturally somewhat slow to perceive that an organised alien administration, mainly just if at times vacillating, was preferable, with all its shortcomings, to the absence of all control.1 The Kafir Wars—Kafir Genealogies Even before the arrival of the first English settlers, the British Government had come into collision with the 1 At a recent meeting of the Imperial Federation League, Sir Gordon Sprigg paid a just tribute to the natural intelligence and political capacity of the South African Boers, whom he spoke of as men of '' wonderful political aptitude," not certainly possessing much " acquaintance with books," but by no means " ignorant," and often even better speakers in the Cape Parliament than the English members.—Times, January 15, 1891.CAPE COLONY 207 fierce Kafir (Ama-Xosa) tribes on the eastern frontier of the colony. During a period of over half a century (1811-1877) history records as many as six so-called "Kafir wars," usually brought on either by official errors or by cattle-lifting raids and other depredations on the part of the aggressive native populations, and invariably ending in their discomfiture, followed by the inevitable confiscation of fresh territory, and resulting in the virtual extension of the eastern frontier from the Great Fish River to the borders of Natal. Two of these wars, those of 1811 and 1818, had already taken place before the occupation of the eastern province by English squatters, and the second was mainly due to a serious blunder, which lay at the root of most of the subsequent troubles, but the nature of which it is impossible to understand without some reference to the tribal relations, and even to the genealogies of the Kafir1 nation. Like the Highland clans (Macdonalds, Mac- phersons, MaeCallum Mores, etc.), all the Kafir tribes are assumed to be blood-relations, and consequently take their several tribal designations, not from the land but from their chiefs, the reputed founders of their respective 1 The Arabic term Kafir, (^, meaning " infidel," or " unbeliever," is of course unknown to the natives themselves. It has no ethnical value of any kind, being indiscriminately applied by the Mohammedans to all non-Moslem peoples with whom they come in contact. Hence there are Siah-posh Kafirs ("Black-clad infidels ") in Kafiristan (" Land of the In- fidels") in Central Asia, while all the Pagan populations on the east coast of Africa were collectively called Kafirs (Caflfres, Cafres, Kaffres, etc.) by the Moors (Arabs) when the Portuguese first reached those regions. De Barros himself uses the word in this sense, and speaks, for instance, of "os Cafres" employed "nestas minas de Manica," in those (gold) mines of Manica. Dec. I. Book x. cli. 1, p. 376. In a more restricted sense the term is now applied by English writers exclusively to the native populations of Kafirland (Kaffraria), that is, the whole seaboard between Natal and Cape Colony.208 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL groups. Thus the Ama-Xosas, for instance, are a people claiming common descent from a chief, Xosa, supposed to have flourished at some former period, whose name is preserved in the national traditions. But all the Kafirs south of Zululand, except the Ama- Tembus, Ama-Mpondos, and Ama-Fingus, do actually trace their descent in two collateral lines from this very mythical hero; consequently all are Ama-Xosas, and this term becomes nearly coextensive with Kafir, as used by English writers. Then the paramount authority belongs, according to national usage, to the chiefs of the elder branch and their lineal descendants, in this instance Gcaleka, Klanta, Hinza, Kreli. To these are subordi- nate those of the younger branch, Khakhabe, Omlao, ISTgqika (Gaika), Macomo, Tyali, Sandili, and the various septs are, for the time being, Gcaleka's, Kreli's, Ngqika's, Sandili's, etc., though the reigning chiefs name may at times be overshadowed by the traditional greatness of some previous chief, such as Gcaleka, Ngqika, etc. Here it will be convenient for purposes of reference to give the complete genealogical table of all the Ama-Xosa tribes, as preserved in their oral records:—CAPE COLONY 209 Zuide (1500 ?) reputed founder of the nation. i Tembu I Ama-Tembus (Tambookies) I Bamvana XOSA (1530 ?) i Toguh Mpondo •I Palo {ob. 1780 ?) 10th in descent from Xosa Ama-Mpondos Ama-Mpondumisi I Abelungu (dispersed) Gcaleka , I Klanta i Hinza Kreli Ama-Gcalekas (Galekas) Rarabe (Khakliabe) I Omlao i Kgqika (ob. i Macomo i Tyali I Sandili Ama-Xgqikas (Gaikas) i Mbalu 1828) Ama-Mbalus Ama-Gwali Ama-Ntinde Ama-Gqunukwebi Ama-Yelelo Ama-Baxa Imi-Dange Imi-Dushane i Ndhlambe Ama-Ndhlambes (Tslambies) Ama-Xosas.1 From this table it is evident that Lord Charles Somerset, governor of the colony, made a great mistake when in 1817 he recognised Ngqika of the younger (Khakhabe) branch as paramount lord of the Ama-Xosas, the true head chief being Hinza, second in descent from Gcaleka of the elder branch. The blunder led to the 1 A. H. Keane, Encyc. Brit., new ed., art. "Kaffraria." The apparently redundant consonants in some of these names are orthographic expedi- ents to express the three click sounds of the Zulu-Kafir language. Thus the c in Gcaleka, the q in Ngqika, and the x of Xosa represent the dental, palatal, and lateral clicks respectively, and are uttered by thrust- ing forward and then suddenly withdrawing the tongue from the front teeth, the palate, and the side teeth. Note also that r expresses the guttural Jch ; hence Rarabi = Khakhabi. There is no r sound in Zulu- Kafir, where, as in Chinese, it is replaced by I. VOL. II P210 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL war of 1818-19, which after much bloodshed terminated with the outlawry of Hinza and of his ally Ndhlambe, and the annexation of the district between Koonap Kat and the Great Fish Eiver. After Ngqika's death in 1828, and during the minority of his son Sandili, his half-brothers Macomo and Tyali claimed the paramount lordship. But the con- sequent tribal feuds and vacillating action of the central government brought about the terrible war of 1834-35, in which Colonel (afterwards Sir Harry) Smith greatly distinguished himself, and which was followed by the annexation of all the country as far as the Kei Eiver. Then came the long series of hostilities known as the "War of the Axe" (1846-1848), in which the power of Sandili and of his Tembu allies was greatly reduced, and the district between the Keiskamma and the Kei definitely annexed under the name of " British Kaffraria," in contradistinction to the Kafirland of the still inde- pendent tribes. But when the whole region was finally reduced this expression fell into disuse, having no further political significance, just as we no longer speak of " British Burma," since the annexation of the whole of the Burman empire in 1885. An attempt made in 1850 to depose and capture Sandili gave occasion to the most formidable of all the Kafir wars, in which both Gaikas and Gcalekas took part, and which spread even to the Hottentot tribes of the Kat Eiver and other districts. It was conducted on the British side first by Sir Harry Smith, and afterwards by General Cathcart, the latter bringing it to a successful issue by the defeat of the paramount Gcaleka chief, Kreli, in 1853. But hostilities broke out again in 1856 and in 1863, and it was on the former occasion that occurred the memorable episode which for ever broke the powerCAPE COLONY 211 of the Gcaleka nation. Despairing of further resistance by natural means, they allowed themselves to be beguiled by the false prophet Mhlakaza,1 who announced the speedy resurrection of all their legendary heroes and their own rejuvanescence, on the condition of showing their faith by the voluntary sacrifice of all their effects, their weapons alone excepted. Then followed the wholesale destruction of their cattle, their standing crops and general stores, which were also to be restored in greater abundance than ever. But while waiting for these revivals, fully one-third of the whole nation perished of want, and the rest were reduced to a state of absolute destitution. The frontier of Cape Colony proper was permanently advanced to the Kei Eiver, and some 2000 German immigrants were settled on the depopulated lands of the broken Kafir tribes. Nevertheless fresh troubles occurred in 1877, when the Gcalekas, joined by the Gaikas, attacked their hereditary foes, the low-caste Ama-Fingoes, who since 1835 had been under British protection. These dis- turbances having been quelled by the intervention of the imperial troops, all further serious resistance was at an end, and orderly government was extended to the semi- independent nations of Kafirland proper by mutual agreement, orders in council, proclamations, or other peaceful means. The Ama-Xosa confederacy was finally broken up by the deposition of the paramount chief, Kreli, in 1877, when the territory between the Kei and the Bashi Rivers was constituted a distinct administrative province under the name of the " Transkei District." About the same time was effected the pacification of the whole of Tembu- land between the Bashi and Umtata Eivers, and the 1 Mr. Maedonald (Light in Africa, p. 175) calls him Umlanjeni.212 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL acceptance of British magistrates, by the Ama-Tembu (Tambookie) and Bomvana nations. Then followed in rapid succession the recognition of British supremacy by the Ama-Mpondo (Pondo) nation between the Umtata and the Natal frontier, and the transition of the numerous septs from independence to a state of mild vassalage, a process still going on; the appointment of magistrates amongst the Ama-Xesibe and other Kafir peoples of East or New Griqualand, inland from the Mpondo territory; the occupation of "Nomansland" (now included in Griqualand East) by a remnant of the Dutch-Hottentot Griquas, under their leader Adam Kok,1 and its annex- ation to the Cape in 1879; the extension of British protection to Basutoland, between Griqualand East and the Orange Eree State, in 1871, the protectorate being changed to a Crown Colony in 1884; the occupation of Port St. John's territory about the Lower St. John (Um- Zimvubu) Eiver on the Pondo coast in 1877, and the extension of direct British administration to this district in 1887, and to the whole of Pondoland in 1894; lastly, the annexation of Griqualand West beyond the Orange Biver in 1871, and the incorporation of the Crown Colony of Bechuanaland in 1895. Geographical Research Although daring and skilful navigators, the Dutch were at no time distinguished as geographical explorers in the strict sense of the term. Such illustrious names as Barentz and Tasman are associated exclusively with 1 Hence the expression Adam Kok's Land, sometimes applied to the eastern part of Griqualand East towards the Natal frontier. These Griquas had originally passed in 1852 into Griqualand West in two bands, led resx3ectively by their chiefs, Waterboer and Adam Kok. Waterboer ceded all his territorial rights to the British Government in 1871.CAPE COLONY 213 maritime expeditions, and even their own possessions in the eastern seas, such as the large islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, remained almost unknown lands till the British occupation during the Napoleonic wars. So also in South Africa, no important journeys were made to the interior before the change of flag at the close of the last century. Our knowledge of this region towards the end of the seventeenth century is summed up in Dapper's Africa (1685), and in Yalentyn's more ample descriptions published in 1726.1 In this work mention is made of Van der Stel's five months' excursion to the Namaqua country (Little Namaqualand), to which he was attracted by the reports of extensive copper mines, reports which have since been fully verified. During the eighteenth century our knowledge of the coastlands, their natural history and Hottentot inhabit- ants, was enlarged by the visits of Kolbe (1705-13), La Caille (1751, 1752), Sparmann and Thunberg (1772- 76), Paterson (1777), Levaillant (1780-85).2 The explorations carried on during the British period may be said to have begun with Sir John Barrow (1797-78), followed in 1801-2 by Truter and Somer- ville, the first who crossed the mountains bounding the Great Karoo on the north. These were followed in 1803-6, that is, during the temporary restoration of Dutch rule, by the German naturalist, H. Lichtenstein, to whom we are indebted for the earliest account of the great Bechuana nation. With the restoration of the British sway the work of research was actively resumed 1 Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, vol. v. part ii. 2 The substance of all these excursions is given in Walckenaer's large but unfinished History of Voyages, vols. xv. and xvi. Vols. xvii. to xxi. contain detailed accounts of the far more numerous and important expedi- tions undertaken during the first decades of the nineteenth century, after the British occupation.214 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL by Burchell (1811-12), Campbell (1812-20), G. Thomp- son (1821-24), Ch. Bunbury (1846). Then follows the strictly modern era ushered in by Moffat and Living- stone, and practically concluded by Andrew A. Anderton, whose Twenty-Jive Years in an African Waggon (1887) embodies a vast amount of information regarding the physical geography, natural history, and ethnology of Cape Colony proper and its recent annexation, Griqua- land West. Physical Features The terrace formation generally characteristic of the continental periphery is nowhere more clearly developed than in the extreme southern region limited northwards by the Orange Eiver. Here the terraces are all disposed nearly parallel with the south coast, and are flanked on the north side by mountain ranges continually increasing in altitude landwards. The first, and consequently the lowest of these ranges, stretching from False Bay in the direction of Algoa Bay, is interrupted at intervals by several coast streams, the various sections thus formed being known in their order from west to east as the Zouderand Swellendam, Lange Berge, Attaques, Outeni- qua, Lange Kloof, and Karadouw ridges. They run at a height of 3000 to 5000 feet, and at a distance of from 12 to 50 miles from the sea, towards which they throw off several spurs terminating in sharp headlands, such as Cape Agulhas (20° E., 34° 51' 15" S.), southern- most point of the Continent. This first chain, whose seaward slopes are mostly clad with verdure, forms a buttress supporting a first inland plateau, which, from its generally arid aspect, takes the Hottentot name of Karroo, that is, dry orCAPE COLONY 215 barren.1 It is distinguished as the " Little Karroo" from a second but much larger formation of like character, which in the same way abuts against a second and more elevated escarpment running at an altitude of 5000 to 7000 feet nearly parallel with the first, and known in the west as the Witte, or White, in the east as the Groot Swarte, or Great Black Mountains. This range terminates north-west of Algoa Bay in the Cockscomb, or Groot Winterhoek, 6000 feet above the sea. The second plateau, or Great Karroo, standing at a mean height of 2500 to 3000 feet, is similarly skirted on the north side, and at a mean distance of over 120 miles from the coast, by the third and loftiest mountain system, which forms the main water-parting between the streams flowing south to the sea and north to the Orange Biver. Its several sections, going from west to east, take the names of the Komsberg, Boggeveld, Nieuweveld, Sneeuwberg, Zuurberg, and Stormberg,2 ranging from 6000 to over 8000 feet, and culminating in the Com- pass Peak (8500 feet), highest point of the Sneeuwberg (Snowy Range), and loftiest summit in the whole of Cape Colony proper. At the Compass the main range throws off a south- eastern branch, which, under the names of the Tandtjies and Groot Winterberg (7800 feet), traverses the eastern provinces, terminating on the coast at the mouth of the Kei Biver. The only traces of relatively recent volcanic action occur in the Stormberg, where are still seen old craters extinct since the triassic period. Here also are found 1 From Tcarusa = hard. 2 In the local usage veld (the Norse fjeld and English fell, as in Drayton's "mossy fells") indicates the more rounded crests, while berg is applied to the more rugged heights.216 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL extensive coalfields, which stretch along the northern slopes of the range northwards in the direction of the Orange Free State. In the extreme west the Great Namaqua uplands-are continued beyond the Orange estuary by a series of single or double ridges, some diverging eastwards to the central table-land, others running in nearly parallel chains southwards to the western extremity of the southern coast ranges. The various sections of this somewhat confused and interrupted mountain system are known as the Kamies, Olifants, Cedar, Bokkeveld, and Drakensteenberg, and form collectively the seaward escarpments of the inland plains and karroos. Here the culminating points are the Winterhoek (6900 feet) in the Olifant range, and the Sneeuw Kop (6600) in the Cedar Mountains. The whole system has a mean altitude of scarcely more than 3500 feet, so that on the landward side they rise but little above the dreary gneiss plateau of Great Bushmanland, which itself stands at a mean elevation of over 2000 feet above sea-level. At the south-western corner of the Continent, where all the main orographic systems converge, the two pro- montories of Cape Point (the Cape of Good Hope) and Hangklip form the southern extremities of an ancient and greatly denuded coast range, which advances west- wards between St. Helena and False Bay beyond the normal coast-line. This range, of which only some frag- ments now remain, terminates northwards in the low headland of Cape St. Martin, below which a few scattered heights enclose the fine harbour of Saldanha Bay. Farther south the system culminates in an amphitheatre of bold sandstone crests disposed round about Table Bay. Here the conspicuous truncated mass of Table Mountain c5c TABLE MOUNTAIN, FROM TABLE BAY.218 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL rises from its granite base abruptly above the south side of the bay to a height of 3500 feet, but slopes gradually southwards to the terminal point of the Cape, which encloses False Bay on the west. Eastwards the semi- circle of hills terminates in the so-called Devil's Peak, and westwards in the famous " Lion Mountain," whose superb head faces the, austral seas, while the back falls northwards to the " Lion's Bump," near Green Point, at the south-west extremity of Table Bay. Considerable uniformity characterises the geological structure of these mountain ranges, nearly all of which have a granite base underlying enormous masses of quartzose sandstones. Where the granite crops out it generally assumes rounded contours, whereas the sand- stones affect the flat formation of which Table Mountain is a typical instance. In some places these sandstones cover the primitive rocks to a thickness of 1500 or even 2000 feet, and are of such regular outline as to present the aspect of artificially constructed rocky walls. With the granite are often associated primitive schists, whose disintegration seems to have supplied the chief con- stituent in the thin bed of argillaceous clays covering the Karroos. The Karroos "and Northern Plains Although the term Karroo is restricted in geographical nomenclature to the two plateaux between the parallel outer ranges, the same arid formation prevails throughout the vast tableland stretching at a mean elevation of fully 3000 feet from the great divide northwards to the Orange Biver. The central region north of the Meuwe- veld is traversed east and west by the low chain of the Karree hills, and still farther north by the more elevatedCAPE COLONY 219 Hartzogs Rand, which trends north-eastwards across the Orange into Griqualand West. These ridges consist mainly of very old igneous rocks, traps, and dolerites, which have been here and there weathered into pinnacles, colonnades, and other fantastic forms. In all the Karroos, and generally throughout the northern plains, the surface consists chiefly of ferruginous reddish sands and clays, which during the long droughts acquire the hardness and somewhat the appearance of firebricks. But this surface soil rests on a blue slaty rock, which retains the rain-water, and thus keeps alive the numerous bulbous and other alkali plants, which in the wet season again burst into blossom, converting the arid undulating plains into flowery meads. Like so many other parts of South Africa, the whole region was formerly far more abundantly watered than at present. This is evident from the remains of vast multitudes of huge saurians and other reptiles, which during the later triassic period frequented the extensive swampy tracts at that time strewn over the now arid tableland between the Orange Eiver and the southern ranges. Many of these extinct amphibians, which present forms not occurring elsewhere, appear to have been of herb- ivorous habits, and their presence consequently implies an exuberant vegetation, where little is now seen except some thorny scrub, lilies, mesembryanthemums, amaryllis, and similar alkali growths. Over all the Karroos are still dotted numerous vleys (pans or shallow basins), where the rain-water collects, leaving, after evaporation, a thick incrustation of saline efflorescences. These shallows, alternately saltpans and lagoons, are all that now remain of the vast lacustrine basins which probably at one time covered the greater part of all the Karroo formations, and which were drained either to the220 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL southern ocean by the streams flowing through the deep kloofs or gorges in the outer circles of escarp- ments, or else to the Orange Eiver by those trending northwards from the main water-parting. River Systems In its broad features the hydrography of Cape Colony is characterised by great simplicity. The inner escarp- ments culminating in the Sneeuwberg dispose the whole region in two great fluvial systems, a northern draining through the Orange Eiver to the Atlantic, and a southern draining through several independent coast streams mainly to the Indian and austral seas. The only exceptions to this disposition are the Doom, Oljfants, Berg, and a few other intermittent rivers or wadys which also reach the Atlantic in separate channels. The streams rising on the southern watershed of the great divide have to traverse both Karroos, and to force a passage through the two intervening barriers of the Witte-Zwarte Bergen and the coast range, on their rapid course seawards. Owing to the obstacles thus en- countered, and also to the arid nature of the regions traversed, not one of them is navigable even for small craft, except only the Breede in the extreme west, and for a short distance the St. John in the east. The Breede, that is, " Broad," River descends from the heights east of Cape Town in a south-easterly direc- tion to the south coast at Port Beaufort; it is accessible for a few miles to ships of 15 0 tons burden. Eastwards follow the Gauritz, formed by the union of the Groote from the south-west and Olifants 1 from the north-east; 1 There are several rivers of this name, recalling the " elephants " met by the early trekkers in districts from which they have long disappeared.CAPE COLONY 221 the Gamtoos (Gamtoa), noted for the romantic gorges through which it forces its way to the coast at St. Francis Bay. The Kareka, its farthest headstream, rises, not on the southern, but on the northern slope of the great divide behind the Compass Berg. Beyond the Gamtoos follow the historical streams of the original Kafir domain—Sunday flowing from the foot of the Compass to Algoa Bay; the Great Fish, which, after a remarkably sinuous course, reaches the coast, where it begins to take a north-easterly trend; the Kei, that is, " Great," though sometimes redundantly called the " Great Kei," long the frontier river towards the independent Kafirs, and, like the Gamtoos, famous for its foaming cataracts and romantic scenery; the equally romantic St. John (Um-Zimvulu),1 blocked by a bar, but at high water accessible to small vessels for twelve miles to the first falls above the " Gate," where the current is hemmed in between steep wooded banks; lastly, the Um-Zimkulu on the Natal frontier. One of the wildest and deepest river gorges in South Africa occurs in the valley of the Umga in Griqualand East, where the stream rushes for twenty miles between steep rocky walls rising 2000 feet above the swirling waters. Here the wind at times sweeps like a hurricane down the narrow kloof, with a sound " as if ten thousand dis- cordant instruments were being twanged by the hand of a giant." 2 The Orange River In the extent of its catchment basin, if not in volume, the Orange (Nu Gariep, or Garib3) ranks first amongst 1 TJm in Zulu-Kafir = "river," as in Um-Tafana, Um-Zimkulu, Um- Volosi, etc., following on this seaboard. 2 Rev. J. Macdonald, Light in Africa, p. 132. 3 .Gariep appears to be a Dutch corruption of Garib, meaning in222 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL the secondary African streams, such as the Senegal, Ogoway, Coanza, Limpopo, and Juba. Its farthest head- streams, Caledon and Yaal, have their sources on the western slope of the Drakenberg, within about 100 miles of the Indian Ocean, while its great lateral arms, Hygap and Great Hartebeeste, spread their numerous ramifica- tions northwards to the Damaraland uplands in 22°, southwards to the Nieuweveld water parting in 32° S. Its basin thus stretches east and west across 16° of longitude, and from north to south across 10° of latitude, with a total length of nearly 1300 miles, and a drainage area of not less than 360,000 square miles, or about three times the extent of the British Isles. Under the name of Senku, its furthest headstream rises at the foot of the Champagne Gas tie (10,500 feet) in the section of the Drakenberg separating Basutoland from Natal. After receiving the Semena from the Giant's Castle (9700 feet) in the same range, and the Senkuyane (" Little Senku") and Maletsunyane lower down, the main stream is joined on the Free State frontier by the Cornet Spruit, and a few miles farther on by the Caledon (Mogokare), both on its right bank, and by the Zeekoes (Zuku) on its left. At Eamah Spring, a little above Hope Town, the Orange, hitherto a frontier river towards the Free State, enters the Colony, and is soon after joined by the Yaal (Hai Garib, or "Yellow Water "), which by some is regarded as its truer upper course. The Yaal, which throughout most of its course forms the boundary between the two Boer republics, receives the Hart (Kolong) on its right bank from the Transvaal, and the Modder on its left from the Free Hottentot "great water," or "great river" (GrooteMvier), as it was first named by the early settlers. Its present name was given to it in 1777 by Captain Gordon in honour of the House of Orange.CAPE COLONY 223 State, and a few miles below its confluence the Orange is joined from the south by the Ongar, an almost water- less watercourse nearly 200 miles long. A like description, applies to all the other affluents of the main stream, such as the Hartebeeste from the south and the Hygap from the north, whose vast basins are mostly dry, corresponding at the southern extremity of the Continent to such northern wadys as the Baraka, Takazza, and Draa, flushed only during the rainy season. The consequence is that throughout the remainder of its course of over 500 miles the Orange receives no perennial contributions, but loses a great part of its volume by evaporation in this dreary arid wilderness of the Kalahari Desert and Great Namaqualand on the north and Great Bushman- land on the south. Hence, before reaching its estuary at Alexander Bay, the current is nearly exhausted except during the freshets, so that this vast watercourse is absolutely unnavigable, in the dry season through lack of water, in the rainy through its impetuous floods. In any case the dangerous bar at its mouth, where the surf breaks with fury, prevents the approach of shipping, while twenty or twenty-five miles higher up the stream is completely obstructed by rapids. Still farther up, between the Hartebeeste and Hygap confluences, occur the famous " Hundred Falls," as they were recently named by Farini, though already known as the Great Anghrabies (" Great Falls") and also as the George IV. Falls. Within a distance of 16 miles, the Orange here descends a total height of 400 feet through a continuous series of falls and rapids, above which its rocky walls affect the outlines of lofty towers or obelisks. " On every side fresh cascades spring up as if by magic from the rocks. At Niagara there are two gigantic cataracts falling side by side at one bound into the head224 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL of a gorge seven miles in length. Here there is a succession of cascades and falls^probably a hundred in THE ■'HUNDRED FALLS"—ORANGE RIVER. number—extending along the whole length of a gorge no less than 16 miles long, into which they plunge one after the other, sometimes at a single bound, sometimes in a series of leaps. During the dry weather many ofCAPE COLONY 225 these cataracts are of great volume, but at the wet seasons, when they are magnified a hundredfold, their mass must be immense. At Niagara the gorge is no- where deeper than 200 feet; here the chasm is half as deep again." 1 Climate Although it is customary to speak only of two seasons, summer and winter, in extra-tropical South Africa, the year may be divided here, as in the corresponding zone of the northern hemisphere, into four tolerably well- defined periods; spring from September to December, summer from December to March, autumn thence to June, and winter from June to September. The moisture- bearing clouds brought by the strong south-east winds, which prevail from September to April, are intercepted by the outer escarpments, where they are condensed and consequently discharge nearly all their contents before reaching the inland plateaux. Corresponding to these summer south-easters are the winter north-westers on the Atlantic seaboard, where the moisture is similarly arrested by the western coast ranges. Thus it happens that, except on the southern and south-eastern coastlands, there is everywhere a deficient rainfall, and the great drawback of the climate is its excessive dryness. The evil is intensified by the general absence of snowy and forest-clad uplands, where the supplies drawn from the occasional downpours might be husbanded. Notwith- standing Mr. Hutchin's views regarding cycles of wet and dry seasons,2 these supplies themselves are extremely 1 G. A. Farini, Through the Kalahari Desert, p. 417. 2 Cycles of Brought and Good Seasons in South Africa, by D. E. Hutchins, Conservator of Forests, Knysna ; London 1889. This writer's statement that " the climate of Africa varies in cycles," such as the VOL. II Q226 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL irregular, and in the interior the whole year sometimes passes without any refreshing rains. Such protracted droughts, which can neither be foreseen nor provided against by any general system of artificial storage, often cause widespread disaster and the destruction of thousands of cattle, especially in the districts aptly termed Dorst- veld (" Thirst Lands ") by the Boers. On the other hand, this absence of excessive humidity, combined with the general elevation of the land traversed in the south by parallel lofty ranges fully exposed to the cool southern winds and marine currents,1 tends to render the climate one of the healthiest in the world. Even in the hottest summers the glass seldom rises above 90° F. in the shade, while in winter it stands usually some ten degrees above freezing point.2 Nevertheless snow "storm cycles " of nine or ten years, and the "cyclical mitigation" of twelve or thirteen years, is not supported by any trustworthy evidence. In the records of Karroo rainfall he himself admits years of '£ irregular mitigation," and years of heavy rainfall not reducible to any cycle. 1 With these currents, which set steadily from the Antarctic regions, numerous floes and even huge icebergs often drift northwards in the direction of the Cape. But they are normally deflected to the west coast by the warm current from the Indian Ocean, sweeping round the Mozam- bique Channel and penetrating as far west as Cape Agulhas, hence locally known as the " Agulhas Current." 2 This statement, however, does not apply to the far interior, where at times northern winds, hot as blast furnaces, sweep over the land, withering up the scanty vegetation and raising the temperature to 100° and even 105° F. in the shade. But the normal conditions of heat and moisture are expressed in the subjoined table :— Height above the sea. Mean Temp. Mean Extremes. Rainfall. Cape Town . 40 feet 62° F. 91° ; 40° F. 27 inches. Simon's Town . 50 „ 63° „ 92°; 43° „ • 20 „ Port Elizabeth . 240 „ 62°.8„ 95°; 42° „ 24 „ Graham's Town . 1800 „ 62°-4„ 102°; 34° „ 29 „ Graaf Reynet . 2550 „ 64°.4„ 103°; 33° „ 25 „ As a rule the climate becomes more and more continental, that is, subject As a rule the climate becomes more and more continental, that is, subjectCAPE COLONY 227 occasionally falls in certain parts of the Great Karroo, and especially on the plains overshadowed by the Sneeuwberg and Meuweveld. Such a climate in a region lying entirely beyond the torrid zone (28°-34° south), and also mainly free from malaria, is perfectly suited for the European constitution, as in fact has been practically demonstrated by an experience of over two hundred years. The present descendants of the early Dutch and Trench settlers nowhere betray any symptoms of physical decay, but, on the contrary, are, in some respects, a more vigorous people than their European kindred. They are completely acclimatised, or rather they never needed to go through any process of climatisa- tion, any more than did the early British settlers in the corresponding latitudes of Australasia. In some districts the birth-rate is three times higher than the mortality, an excess unapproached in any region of the north temperate zone. Hence the southern seaboard has always been regarded as a kind of health resort, not only by officials enervated by long residence in the Indies, but even by European invalids themselves, who find the pure atmosphere of Cape Town, Graham's Town, and other districts highly beneficial in the case of chest diseases and other ailments. It is noteworthy that the Cape has never been visited either by cholera or yellow fever. The district about Cape Town, remarkable in so many other respects, also presents some atmospheric phenomena of a striking character, which appear to be to greater extremes of heat and cold, the farther it is removed inland from the equalising influences of the marine breezes and currents. But at Somerville, in the Transkei district, 3500 feet above the sea, Mr. Macdonald registered 108°-2 in the shade in summer, and 7 degrees of frost in winter. According to this observer, the average extremes are 85 to 90 and 60 to 70, according to aspect, elevation and other local conditions.228 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL due to the greater dryness of the lower aerial strata. In the summer months the moist south-easters, striking against Table Mountain, rise above its south - eastern slopes, and the moisture becoming condensed in the cold upper regions, spreads out in a dense whitish cloud over the plateau. This " table-cloth," as it is locally called, does not terminate abruptly at the brink of the precipice, but rolls over down towards the city spread out at its foot. Magnificent cascades of sunlit mist descend some 200 or 300 yards, floating on the breeze like folds of delicate drapery, and gradually dissolving in the lower atmospheric regions. Here all the moisture brought by the trade-winds becomes absorbed, and, except on the cloud-capped summit of the mountain, the whole land remains bathed in sunshine under the bright azure sky. In winter, when the north-west wind prevails, the phe- nomenon is reversed, and then the billowy mists roll down from the plateau on the opposite side towards Simon's Tovrn.1 Flora and Vegetable Products Despite the climatic conditions, so unfavourable to vegetation, except in privileged districts, the whole life of the colony depends upon agricultural and pastoral pur- suits, which, with mining, must long continue its almost exclusive industries. But, as might be expected, pastur- age prevails largely over tillage, which, however, is not confined, as is supposed, to the slopes of the hills, where water can be best utilised for irrigation purposes. Lower down, the extensive level or rolling grounds, which are not absolutely desert, are mainly utilised as grazing lands for horned cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and mules. 1 Keane's Meclus, xiii. p. 98.CAPE COLONY 229 These animals thrive even in districts where herbage has been replaced by brushwood, reedy, saline or sour growths, to which they have become accustomed, just as they have learnt to drink muddy, yellowish, and even fetid waters. But even on the plains patches of culti- vated land are often found interspersed amongst the grazing grounds. Live stock, and especially sheep, yielding the finest wools, flourish best in the central provinces, where some of the larger runs contain from 15,000 to 20,000 sheep. Since 1840 the broad fat-tailed and almost woolless native breed has been largely replaced by the best English and other European stock. Even the Angora goat has been successfully introduced in several districts, and with wool-growing is now also combined ostrich farming, which, during the last twenty years, has made considerable progress. The plumes, however, of the domesticated ostrich are inferior in quality to those of the wild bird. Wherever water is available the apparently indifferent sandy and argillaceous soil is surprisingly productive under the powerful South African sun. Everything seems to spring up almost spontaneously; wheat, millet, barley and maize yield excellent returns, most European fruits grow to a great size, the potato thrives everywhere, even as far north as Zambesia, and as many as three crops of vegetables are successively raised during the season. All the towns and villages within a radius of fifty or sixty miles round about Cape Town are connected by avenues of magnificent trees such as the oak, poplar, alder and the Australian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus). Here also are cultivated the famous vines of French origin, which were originally introduced by the Dutch230 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL East India Company, and which yield prodigious returns incomparably greater than the vineyards of any other country in the world.1 The chief wine-growing districts are those of Constantia on the eastern slopes of the hills between Table and Simon's Bays, and the inland districts of Worcester and Oudtshoorn. The indigenous flora is especially remarkable for an extraordinary variety of heaths, heathers, ferns, bulbs, flowering shrubs and thorny, pulpy plants, such as the aloes and acacias which cover vast tracts of arid soil, and which constitute the so-called "bush." In this respect the extremity of the Continent forms an inde- pendent botanical world developed during the long ages that it was separated from the rest of the mainland by the lacustrine basins formerly flooding the extensive inland plateaux. The number of independent species is said to exceed 12,000, or at least twice as many as occur in the whole of Europe, while nearly 450 distinct genera have already been enumerated. Highly characteristic are the heaths, of which over 400 varieties have been found, and which during the flowering season clothe the mountain slopes with one mass of purple or pink blossom. But these and the other endemic forms, such as geraniums, iris, bulbs and rhenoster (rhinoceros wood), are chiefly confined to the western and southern districts, being replaced farther east by forms more peculiar to the warmer and more humid zone of the Indian Ocean. Here also the forest growths, of small size and few in number in the extreme west, become larger and more 1 Elsewhere the average production ranges from 150 to 400 gallons per acre, but at the Cape it rises to 800 and 1000, and in some districts even to 1500 gallons. But, with few exceptions, the quality is indifferent and appears even to have deteriorated since the beginning of the century. The Cape vines have been attacked both by oidium and (1886) phylloxera.CAPE COLONY 231 varied, while the thorny scrub, such as the dornboom (" thorn-tree "), the " wait-a-bit" {Acacia detenens), and the numerous monocotyledonous forms characteristic of the Karroos, disappear altogether. In respect of their vegetation the inland plains beyond the mountains may be regarded as a southern extension of the Kalahari Desert—vast expanses of arid steppes varied here and there with patches of tall, tufty grasses, thorny acacias and other stunted scrubby growths. Fauna Few regions of the globe abounded more in animal life than the southern extremity of the Continent before the arrival of the first European settlers. Even for some time after that event the immediate vicinity of Cape Castle continued to be infested by the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, lion, and leopard, or " tiger " as it is locally called.1 But at present the elephant, which gives its name to so many " Olifants" rivers within comparatively short distances from the Cape, may be said to have disappeared altogether from the colony proper.2 The last rhinoceros was killed near Port Eliza- beth in 1853 ; about the same time the hippopotamus disappeared from the Great Fish Eiver, but is still fre- 1 This confusion between the striped and spotted Felidse is widespread, and the term " tiger" is popularly applied to the leopards and panthers of Africa and even to the jaguars of America, though the true tiger has throughout the historic period been entirely confined to Asia. 2 No doubt the elephant, as well as the buffalo, still frequents the dense Knysna forests on the south coast between the Gauritz and Gamtoos rivers and also, some of the Sneeuweberg districts ; but its survival in these last retreats is due to the protection of the game laws, and may be compared to the survival of the aurochs in the Lithuanian forests, and of the Caledonian wild cattle on the Hamilton estate in Scotland.232 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL quently seen both in the Lower Orange1 and in most of the coast streams of Kaffraria. The panther also is still common enough, and even the lion is occasionally met in Queenstown, Albert, and perhaps some other eastern divisions. But the South African beast cannot compare in size or majesty with those of Nubia and the Atlas highlands ; here also his nightly roar is seldom heard, as he appears to have discovered that, under the altered conditions of the chase, it serves less to paralyse his prey than to attract skilful sportsmen now armed with the deadly rifle. South Africa may be said to be the true home of the antelope family, which is here represented by nearly thirty distinct varieties. But the hartebeest, the kudu, the graceful kama (dorcas), and most other members of this group have gradually withdrawn from all the settled districts in company with the giraffe, gnu, buffalo, hysena, jackal, baboon, zebra, and quagga. The quagga is said to be absolutely extinct, and few of the other forms are now met anywhere south of the Orange River, except the baboon, the leopard, hyaena, jackal, and wild dog, which still continue to prowl round about the farmsteads in many districts. The reptile order is represented by a great diversity* of forms, many of which, such as the puff-adder, garter snake, and cobra, are venomous. In this respect the little Robben (" Seal") Island, three miles north of Cape Town, is remarkable for the possession of some forms quite distinct from those of the mainland. A formidable enemy of the snake family is the secre- tary bird (Serpentarius reptiiivorus), which preys upon 1 It is noteworthy that although the remains of the hippopotamus occur in the alluvia of the Oaledon River, this animal has never been seen alive in the streams of the Upper Orange basin.CAPE COLONY 233 all kinds of reptiles, striking them senseless with a sudden blow of its powerful spurred wing, then seizing them in beak and claws and dropping them from a great height on the stony ground to break their vertebrae. In the crop of one of these birds Levaillant found three ZEBRA. snakes as long as his arm, eleven large lizards, and other " small deer." Owing to its peculiar habits the secretary is regarded as a public benefactor, admitted to the farm- yard and even protected by game laws. Another remarkable bird is the Social or Republican Grosbeak (Philceterus socius), about the size of a bullfinch,234 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL which lives together in large societies, building on some thorny mimosa a common residence, divided, like the great houses of the New Mexican Pueblo Indians, into family apartments. " The nests are composed of a fine species of grass closely woven together, and so arranged THE SECRETARY BIRD. that from 800 to 1000 are supposed to be sometimes supported on a single tree and covered with a large roof. Round the edge there are numerous entrances, each of which is continuous with a sort of passage, and on each side of this are nests placed about two inches apart. It is probable that, as the colony increases in number, theyCAPE COLONY 235 continue adding to the common nest, until at length the weight becomes so great that the tree gives way under it, and the birds are then compelled to seek other situa- tions in which to found fresh colonies."1 The ostrich, whose range coincides with the northern and southern steppe lands of the Continent, exists both in the wild and domestic state in the Colony, where, according to Anderson, there are two distinct species, both differing from the Saharan variety. Ostrich farm- ing, which began about 1864, continued to make rapid progress during the next twenty years, when its develop- ment was arrested by disease and a depreciation of the plumes in the European markets. But the industry has again revived, and in 1890 there were over 150,000 birds on the farms, about the same number as in 1882, just before the first check was experienced. It is re- markable that similar essays at domestication made in Algeria, California, and Australia have mostly proved failures, so that the Cape enjoys almost a monopoly of the trade in farm-grown feathers. To retain this mono- poly prohibitive dues of £100 and £5 are respectively imposed on every full-grown bird and egg exported from the colony. The insect world is extremely varied, and the butter- fly family is specially remarkable both for its gorgeous colours and extraordinary mimetic forms. So close is the resemblance to the flowers on which they alight, that it is often impossible to tell one from the other even at a few yards' distance. Even the larva " gathers round itself bits of very slender grass stems about an inch in length." These are glued together so firmly that • one cannot be separated from the bundle without destroy- ing the whole, and so closely does this envelope resemble 1 W. S. Dally, Nat Hist. pp. 5-38, 539.236 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL a thick bit of withered stem from the same grass, that one can hardly see any difference between them, even when closely examined. . . . The very pith is imitated by a thin fold of tough fibrous substance with which the ends are closed."1 The widespread mantis tribe always adapts itself to the varying hues of the environment, and • there are spiders which feign death and look exactly like the shrivelled brown berries of the bush on which they live. Lizards and scorpions put on the very markings of the surrounding soil, and this imitative faculty extends even to snakes, antelopes, and other large animals. The South African rivers, so useless for navigation and mostly even for irrigation purposes, are also ex- tremely poor in animal life. But the absence of fresh- water fish is largely compensated by a varied and abundant marine fauna; all the bays and inlets round the seaboard are well stocked, and amongst the charac- teristic forms are several species of electric and poisonous fishes. Inhabitants There can be no doubt that the whole of the Orange basin, together with all the land extending thence south- wards to the ocean, was originally in exclusive possession the Bushmen and the allied Hottentot race. But long before the arrival of the Europeans their domain had already been largely encroached upon by the con- quering Bantu peoples advancing from the north, or pushing forward along the eastern seaboard. Thus it happens that throughout the South African historic period, 400 years computed from the first appearance of the Portuguese on both coasts, the southern regions have been divided in two nearly equal parts between the 1 Rev. J. Macdonald, p. 246.CAPE COLONY 237 primitive yellow and the intruding black populations. A line drawn from Algoa Bay in the direction of Lake Ngami will roughly indicate the respective limits of the conterminous ethnical territories. All the land stretch- ing from this line east to the Indian Ocean mainly belongs, or rather belonged before the European settle- ment, to the two great Bantu families of the Bechuanas in the centre, and the Zulu-Kafirs in the east. All the land stretching from the same line west to the Atlantic belongs, with a similar reservation, to the San and Khoi- Khoin divisions of the Bushman-Hottentot family. Of course here and there dislocations and overlappings have taken place, as when the mongrel Griqua Hottentots passed under Adam Kok into Nomansland# in the very heart of the Bantu domain, and when the Ba-Mangwato Bechuanas penetrating westwards nearly joined hands with the kindred Ova-Mpo, thus excluding the primitive San element and all but completing the Bantu zone right across the Continent from the Zambesi delta on the Indian Ocean to Cape Frio on the Atlantic. But on the whole the ethnical parting-line appears to have under- gone little modification during the last four centuries, except so far as it has been deflected to the right or to the left, or else completely effaced by the rapid expan- sion of the European element in later times. And here it is to be noticed that the vigorous and aggressive Bantus have resisted contact with the intruding white race far more successfully than have the indolent and passive Khoi-Khoins. The latter have everywhere been broken into fragments, dispersed or altogether eliminated throughout most of-the colony proper, whereas the Zulu-Kafirs are still found in compact masses in Eastern Kaffraria, parts of Natal and Zululand. Even the less warlike Bechuana branch has held its ground in Basuto-238 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL land, for the Ba-Suto are merely an outlying eastern division of the Bechuana family, separated from their western kindred by the intruding Boer trekkers of the Orange Free State. Hence, so far as regards the natives, therfc is no longer a Hottentot, but only a Bantu ques- tion in South Africa, for the Hottentots, at least of the colony proper, are doomed to speedy extinction. The Cape Hottentots The very names of the numerous Hottentot tribes that occupied the Cape at the time of the Dutch settle- ment—names such as Gauri-qua, Shirigri-qua, Sussi-qua, and many others, survive only in musty official records, and all tribal organisation may be said to have ceased within the limits of the colony in 1810, when the last Hottentot chief was deposed and replaced by a European magistrate. At present the only distinct groups outside Great Namaqualand are the Kora-qua (Koranas) of the Middle and Upper Orange, Yaal and Modder Eivers, and the mongrel Griqua of West and East Griqualand.1 In all the settled districts the natives are dispersed amongst the general population, with whom they have partly amalgamated, and whose language, costume, usages, and religion they have everywhere adopted. In fact, they have ceased to be interesting as a race, and little would be known of their distinctive characteristics but that they were carefully studied by Kolben, Levaillant, and some other observers during the last century, that 1 Besides these, there are the so-called Gona-qua, that is, 4' Borderers," a term applied generally to the Hottentot - Kafir half - breeds, thinly scattered over the eastern provinces. But in the whole colony the Hottentots pure and mixed cannot greatly exceed 180,000, and of these the mongrels and half-castes of all sorts certainly form the immense majority,CAPE COLONY 239 is, before they had been brought entirely under European influences. These early writers never fail to contrast the sluggish mental habitus of the Hottentots with the more active temperament of their Bantu neighbours. Thus the Kafirs are " more open and lively than the Hottentots, without anything approaching to their taciturnity" (Levaillant, p. 379) ; and elsewhere "the humour of the Hottentots is a little phlegmatic, and their temperament cold" (p. 271). To Campbell also they appeared to be "a dull, gloomy and indifferent people" (p. 382), while for Kolben " they are without doubt both in body and mind the laziest people under the sun. A monstrous reluctance to thought and action runs through all their tribes, and their whole earthly happiness seems to lie in indolence and lethargy."1 Nevertheless, under the stimulus of strong motives they were capable of extreme excitement, only they hated the motive which obliged them even to think, and would neither work nor reason except under some kind of compulsion. Then they could both work and reason to some purpose, so that, according to Kolben, we should not say, " as stupid as a Hottentot, but as lazy as one." 2 These half-civilised " Tots," as they are locally called, occupy socially a position somewhat analogous to the lowest European proletarian classes. They are still grouped together in their as, or kraals,3 that is, clusters 1 Cape of Good Hope, ch. iv. 7. 2 Cape of Good Hope, ch. xix. Introduction. 3 This word kraal, applied by the Boers generally to all native villages, is of uncertain origin, either from the Dutch Koraal—coral, which they are supposed to resemble, or more probably a corruption of the Portuguese mrral, an enclosure, and especially a cattle pen. It would, therefore, seem to be the same word as the English corral, which is of Spanish origin, from corro = a circle, and even a gathering of people.240 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL of frail huts, which simply afford a little shelter from the weather, but are useless for any other purpose, being seldom little more than four feet high. For the national Kaross (see p. 184) a leather apron is often substituted, and the usual diet are fruits, vegetables, milk, butter, game, and dried or powdered meat. Like the Namas, they are inveterate smokers, using the very strongest tobacco, or. else dakha (hemp), and even swallowing the smoke. All are now outwardly Christians, chiefly Moravians and Wesleyans; but the primitive religion appears to have been mainly associated with ancestry worship. Even the Tsu-Goab, adopted by the missionaries as the nearest equivalent for a supreme being, was probably nothing more than the name of some mythical hero preserved by tradition. Thanks to the custom of raising heaps of stones over the graves of famous chiefs, their migrations may be traced far beyond the present limits of the Hottentot domain. Such cairns are found scattered over many of the. northern and eastern districts, which from time immemorial have been exclusively occupied by peoples of Bantu stock. The Gape Bantus Although politically Cape Colony now extends east- ward to the Natal frontier, the Kei River still roughly marks the ethnological parting-line between the white and Bantu populations. With the exception of some Germans in Pondoland, a few English settlers about the lower St. John's River, and half-caste Griqua Hottentots in Nomansland, nearly the whole of the region lying between the Free State and the coast, and stretching ' o from the Kei to Natal, is still mainly occupied by tribalCAPE COLONY 241 groups belonging either to the Bechuana, or to the Zulu- Kafir division of the Southern Bantus. The Ba-Sutos The Bechuanas are entirely restricted to the Crown Colony of Basutoland, where they are represented by the Ba-Suto people, who have long been subjected to Euro- pean and Christian influences. So true is this that the primitive tribal organisation has practically ceased, the Ba-Tau, Ba-Puti, Ma-Kolokwe and other tribes being now merged in a single agricultural and pastoral Ba-Suto nationality professing a Calvinistic form of Protestantism. This transformation has been effected mainly by a devoted band of French Protestant missionaries, who since 1833 have maintained flourishing stations at Bethel, Carmel, Berea, Thaaba-Bossigo, and other places, and who have translated the whole of the Bible into the Se-Suto language.1 Physically the Ba-Suto approach the Kafir type, but have softer features, perhaps thinner lips and shorter stature, and, though brave, are certainly of a less warlike character. Insignificant as they are as a political factor, the Ba-Suto people are well worthy the attention of those to whom have been entrusted the future destinies of the South African populations. More, perhaps, than any other ethnical group, they serve to emphasise the distinc- tion, that has been insisted upon in this work, between 1 Like all Bantu idioms, this language, which differs little from the western Se-Chuana, presents some dialectic variations in its prefix par- ticles (see p. 112). Thus Le — the land, >Sk=the language, etc., hence Le-Suto = Basutoland ; jSe-jSWo = the Basuto language, etc. The radical Suto means '4 paunch," and appears to have been originally applied by the Zulu-Kafirs collectively to all the Bantu populations of the interior, who are more corpulent than the hardy coast tribes. VOL. II R242 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the stationary Negro and the progressive Bantu race. The contact with Europeans, fatal to the vitality of so many of the lower races, even when, like the Maori, endowed with a fair share of physical energy and intelli- gence, has acted favourably on the Ba-Suto, who have not merely outwardly adopted but thoroughly assimilated Western culture. Under the guidance of their religious teachers, they have within two generations accomplished what no pure Negro community has ever succeeded in doing even under the most favourable conditions. They have transformed the rugged upland valleys of the Orange head-waters into highly productive pastoral and agricultural lands, whence Cape Colony itself in good seasons draws supplies of cereals, fruits, vegetables, and other produce to the value of over £200,000. They have built themselves substantial brick and stone tene- ments, constructed good highways throughout the country, improved their breeds of live stock, and yet found means to support a system of national instruction more efficient than that of many European states. The greater part of the superfluous revenues is freely devoted to educational purposes, so that thousands already speak English or Dutch without neglecting their mother-tongue, in which they publish numerous religious and educational works and even periodicals. Nor is their attention engrossed by material cares, for they have learnt to interest them- selves in abstract questions of philosophy and dogma, and the missionary already finds that a spirit of scepticism has been awakened amongst these " Waldenses" of the South African alpine valleys. What the Ba-Suto have done, their Western kinsmen are equally capable of accomplishing, so that there is no reason to despair of seeing a great part of the Bechuan aland plateau occupied before many genera- tions by civilised and flourishing Bantu communities.CAPE COLONY 243 The Kafirs Of all the Bantu nations none present such a marked individuality, whether as regards their physical and mental qualities, political sagacity, warlike nature, and historic development, as the Zulu-Kafir branch, who have been in possession of the south-eastern seaboard from time immemorial. At the time of the discovery they probably held all the coastlands from about the Gamtoos to the Limpopo, which rivers may be taken as the respective southern and northern limits of their primitive domain. Here they constitute a single eth- nical group, essentially one in physique, speech, usages, and traditions, but falling geographically and politically into a northern Zulu and southern Kafir division. Each of these is again divided into numerous tribal groups, the representative members of which are the Ama-Zulu in the north, and in the south the Ama-Xosa, Ama- Tembu and Ama - Mpondo. Intermediate between the two were the Ama-Lala, still represented by the Ama- Ncolosi of Natal, and outside both stand certain low-caste tribes not comprised in the national genealogies (see p. 209) and collectively known as Ama-Fingu (Fengu).1 These Fingus are regarded by Zulus and Xosas alike as slaves or outcasts, possessing no right to the privi- leges of true-born Kafirs. They are, or were, met every- where, not only in the present Fingoland between the Kei and Bashee rivers, but also in Natal, Zululand, and even in the highlands of the interior. Yet they can scarcely be said to have any recognised territory of their own, and but for the intervention of the British authori- 1 That is, "poor," 'cmendicant," " vagabond," etc., fromfenguza = to seek service ; cf. Kongo vingu — to beg.A KAFIR KRAAL,CAPE COLONY 245 ties they would still continue to be oppressed and enslaved by the dominant tribes. Those who were driven out of Zululand early in the present century fell into the hands of the Gcalekas, from whom they were delivered in 1835 by Sir Benjamin D'Urban, and by him located in the Fort Peddie district between the Great Fish and Keiskamma rivers. Any tribes which become broken and mixed, or which might be made captives of war, would probably be regarded as Ama-Fingu by the other Kafirs. Hence the multi- plicity of groups, such as the Ama-Bele, Ama-Sembot- weni, Ama-Zizi, Ama-Sekunene, etc., all of whom are collectively called Ama - Fingu. Their position before the British intervention appears to have been somewhat analogous to that of the Laconian Helots, or the low- caste tribes of India. The numerous and politically important ramifications of the true Kafirs can be best studied in the genealogical table given at p. 209. The origin of the race has given rise to much controversy. It is obvious that they are not the aborigines of their present domain, where they have displaced and perhaps partly absorbed the indi- genous Hottentot-Bushman tribes. On the other hand, they are closely allied in physique and speech to their western neighbours, the widespread Bechuana nation, and their presence in the south - east corner of the Continent is, no doubt, to be explained by the general onward movement of all the Bantu peoples, gradually crowding out the primitive Hottentot - Bushman race. The specific differences in speech and appearance, by which they are distinguished from the other branches of the Bantu family, may in the same way be explained by contact with the aborigines, and the altered conditions of their new environment. Thus the farther they have246 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL penetrated southwards, the more they have become differentiated from the typical Negro, from whom attempts have even been made to separate them alto- gether. Certainly the Negro element is conspicuous enough -c KAFIRS TAKING SNUFF. in the black woolly hair and generally dark complexion of the Kafirs, though tinged here and there with a dash of Hottentot yellow, in their dolichocephalic or long head, broad nose, thick lips, and peculiar odour. In height they are amongst the tallest of all the NegroidCAPE COLONY 247 peoples, averaging about five feet ten inches, and in this respect ranking next to the Patagonians and Polynesians. They are slim, well proportioned, and muscular ; but Fritsch's measurements show that they are far from attaining the standard of almost ideal beauty with which early observers credited them. The women, leading the life of drudges, are generally inferior to the men, except amongst the Zulus and especially the Tembus. Hence a Xosa bride may be had for ten or twelve head of cattle, while a Tembu fetches as many as forty or even double that number. The symmetrical figures of the more warlike tribes are usually draped in leopard or ox-skins, of late years often replaced by European blankets, with feather head- gear, coral and metal ornaments, bead armlets and necklaces. Like their distant kindred the Hadendoa Hamites, they bestow much time and ingenuity on the dressing of the hair, which often assumes the most fantastic forms. Amongst the Pondomisi tribes — for each group has its own peculiar fashion—a framework is formed by a small grass ring on the crown, and into this the hair is rubbed with fat and secured with ox sinews. Every day it is freshly dressed and greased, the circlet rising with the growth of the hair to a height of several inches above the head. Then the whole superstructure, becoming overpopulated with parasites, is suddenly removed and the work begun afresh. Their weapons are the ox-hide shield, four to six feet long, the club (knob-kerrie), and two kinds of- assegai, one for throwing, the other for stabbing. The huts, all of conic shape and grouped in kraals, are mostly of a temporary character, for the Kafirs are still semi- nomadic, easily breaking up their homes in search of fresh pastures. But although cattle form their chief248 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL wealth, and stock-breeding and hunting their main pur- suits, many are also occupied with husbandry, cultivating " mealies" (maize), millet, melons, yams, and other vegetables. These, with milk, form the staple of food, meat being seldom eaten except on solemn feasts and before war; hence the order to slaughter cattle is equiva- lent to a summons to arms. Mentally, the Kafirs are greatly superior to the Negroes, displaying considerable tact and intelligence in all their political and social relations. They are remark- ably brave, loyal to their chiefs, warlike and hospitable, but certainly deceitful and treacherous ; duplicity, cun- ning, and falsehood being in fact regarded as accomplish- ments, and instilled into their minds from early youth, as a part of their military education. The national religion recognises no supreme Being, and is mainly based on a belief in the omnipresence of the spirits of their ancestors constantly interfering in their affairs, and requiring to be propitiated by offerings, but never by human sacrifices. " Every man worships his own ances- tors, and offers sacrifices to avert their wrath. The clan worships the spirits of the ancestors of its chiefs, and the tribe worships the spirits of the ancestors of the para- mount chief."1 There are no priests or idols, and but 1 Rev. J. Macdonald, op. cit. p. 191. This writer throws much light on the obscure subject of the spirit world as understood by the Kafir people. Souls are possessed neither by animals nor by inanimate objects, though souls may reside in them. On the other hand, all human beings possess souls, which, however, are not entirely confined to the body. They may occupy the roof of a man's hut, and if he changes his abode his soul flits also. The people often use the word Zitunzela (from izitunzi = shadows) to express their ideas of human spirits and the unseen world generally, and this is "the nearest description that can be obtained." A man is constantly attended by the shadows of his ancestors as well as his own, but the spirit of one who dies without speaking to his children shortly before death visits his descendants only for evil purposes, and to thwartCAPE COLONY 249 little trace of fetishism; but the prevalent belief in witchcraft has developed the " witch-doctor," or medicine man, who often becomes an instrument of cruel oppres- sion and injustice in the hands of the chiefs. Circum- cision and polygamy are universal, and the standard of morality is extremely low, so low amongst some of the under-tribes that one wonders how society is kept together. The Kafirs have developed a distinct and apparently very old political system, which may be described as a patriarchal monarchy limited by a powerful aristocracy. Although the tribal state still prevails, the organisation has thus acquired almost a feudal character. The nation is grouped in tribes, all supposed to be blood-relations, and all under an hereditary inhose or chief, who admin- isters his territory through officers chosen by himself, and who is supreme legislator with absolute jurisdiction and power of life and death. Against his decisions, if deemed unjust, the nobles or foremost members of the tribe protest in council, and their decisions form the traditional code of common law. " This common law is well adapted to people in a rude state of society. It holds every one accused of crime guilty unless he can prove himself innocent; it makes the head of the family responsible for the conduct of all its branches; the vil- lage collectively for all resident in it, and the clan for each of its villages. For the administration of the law them the wizards have to offer costly sacrifices. Great importance is also attached to dreams or visions which are attributed to spirit influence {Journal of the Anthrop. Institute, xix. 3 ; xx. 2). All this, taken in connection with Mr. im Thurn's account of Cloudland, as understood by the British Guiana Indians, tends to show that the starting-point of all natural religions are dreams, leading directly to a distinction between body and soul, then to an after-life for the soul, and so on to ancestor worship, propitiation of evil spirits, priesthood and sacrifice.250 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL there are courts of various grades, from any of which an appeal may be taken to the supreme council, presided over by the paramount chief, who is not only the ruler and military despot, but also the father of the people."1 For some years zealous Scotch and other missionaries have been at work amongst the Kafir people, and self- supporting stations have been founded at Mbulu, Love- dale, Blythswood, Somerville, Gatberg, and other places in Kaffraria. Their efforts have been as successful, especially amongst the Fingus, as those of the French missionaries in Basutoland. In 1882 these natives contributed to the Lovedale mission no less than £2000. At a public meeting at Blythswood the same people " resolved that every man liable to be taxed should con- tribute 5 s. towards the building. This sum they again repeated twice told, so that in all each man, Christian and heathen, paid a sum of 15 s. for the erection of a public missionary institution, making a total of over £4000."2 They have also cut long water-races, bring- ing much land under cultivation, and raising crops of wheat, oats, potatoes, and other produce. Numerous village schools have been erected, and Soga, one of these neophytes, has produced a Kafir translation of. the Pilgrim's Progress, which is said to be " a marvel of accuracy and lucidity of expression." 3 The Bushmen These aborigines, hunted down like wild beasts both by the Kafirs and the early Dutch settlers, have almost disappeared from Cape Colony proper. A few scattered groups still roam the steppes along the south bank of 1 Rev. J. Macdonald, op. tit. p. 194. 2 lb. p. 223. 3 lb. p. 47.CAPE COLONY 251 the Orange, and some even survive dispersed amongst the Kafir nations. A small group still inhabit a cave near the deep gorge of the Umga in Griqualand East, where they have the reputation of being great magicians and rain-makers. Elsewhere they have left memorials of their former presence in the coloured drawings of men and animals covering the rocky walls of their cave dwellings in many parts of Kaffraria. In one of these caves near Blythswood, " the colours, when grime and dirt were washed away, proved to be as fresh as when left by the hand of the savage artist. The drawings are of men—both in the attitude of warriors, dancers, and as stalkers of game—oxen, various species of antelope, elephants, hippopotami, and ostriches, and they are painted in white, terra-cotta, brown of various shades, and a pigment verging upon black. Whence they obtained their colours, or with what ingredients they mixed them, no one knows. The art, rude as it was, has been lost, and many eminent men have puzzled over the secret in vain." 1 Chief Tribal Divisions in the Cape and Dependencies San (Bushmen) .... Left bank Lower Orange, a few in Kafirland. Hottentots— Namaqua .... Little Namaqualand. Korana (Koraqua) . . . Upper Orange, Vaal, and Modder rivers. Griqua (half-caste Dutch Hot- tentots) .... Griqualand West and East. Gonaqua (half - caste Negro Hottentots) . . . East frontier toward Kafirland. Basutos— Ba-Tau "v Ba-Puti j- Basutoland. Ma-Kolokwe J 1 Rev. J. Macdonald, p. 61.252 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Kafirs— Ama-Xosa group (see p. 209) . West Kafirland. Ama-Tembu (Tambukies) . Tembuland. rKongwe, Kongwela, ^ Ama-Mpondo-j Kobala, Kwera, i-Pondoland. INyati, Bala, Yali J Ama-Baka Ama-Mpondomisi >-East Griqualand. Ama-Xexibe J Bele, Abasembotweni, ^ f Zizi, Hlubi, Kuze, I Ama-Fingu -J Sekunene, Tetyeni, Finguland W. of Tembuland. I Khelidweni, Ntuntzela, j iShwawa, Ntozake J Towns—Stations Cape Town, capital of the Colony, and, next to Zan- zibar , largest city in Africa south of the equator, lies on the south side of Table Bay, where it is enclosed on the west by the " Lion," on the south by the " Table," and on the east by the " Devil's Peak." Thus it faces due north, and not towards the austral seas, as is popularly supposed. To seafarers arriving from Europe a superb panoramic view is presented by the city creeping up the slopes of the encircling heights on the lines laid down by its Dutch founders in 1652. Westwards lie the business quarter, docks and shipping, protected by the Lion Mountain from the fierce western gales, and by extensive harbour works from the heavy seas rolling in from the Southern Ocean. On the east side the Castle occupies the site of the original Dutch fort, which, like most of the old Dutch structures, has been long replaced by buildings in the English style. Beyond the Castle follows a modern fort, and still farther east, near the Salt Eiver estuary, the observatory intimately associated with the names of La Caille, Herschel, and Maclear, andCAPE TOWN AND TABLE MOUNTAIN.254 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL at present directed by Dr. David Gill, one of the fore- most of living astronomers.1 The environs are every- where dotted over by pleasant villa residences, or laid out in parks and gardens, which penetrate far into the surrounding upland glens. Although the great majority of the inhabitants, at present (1891) numbering 51,0 00,2 are either English or English-speaking Dutch, the stranger is struck by the motley character of the people thronging the main thoroughfares and market-places. Amongst these are Mohammedan Malays, descendants of those introduced by the Dutch from the Eastern Archipelago; " Mozam- biques" (Negroes), also descendants of those originally imported as slaves; Arabs and Turks connected with the Angora trade; Kafirs, Hottentots, and every shade of transition between the black, yellow, and white races. Cape Town, whose foreign trade is exceeded by that of Port Elizabeth, exports considerable quantities of wool and of the wines grown on the eastern slopes of the neighbouring Table Mountain. The railway, about thirty miles long, connecting Table Bay with Ealse Bay, traverses the whole of this highly-cultivated and richly- wooded district, passing in succession by the thriving settlements of Rondesbosch, Claremont, and Wijnberg. Kalk Bay, being the southern terminus on the coast, lies a short distance above the Government naval station of Simon's Town, on the inlet of Simon's Bay some miles 1 This observatory, which, owing to its position at the southern extremity of the Continent, is one of the most important astronomic stations in the world, may be said to date from the year 1685, when the French erected a temporary station 011 this spot. Their work was con- tinued by La Caille (1751), who here determined the lunar parallax, and since 1772 by English astronomers. 2 With the suburbs (Cape district, or peninsula), 84,000.CAPE COLONY 255 north of Cape Point. The line has now been extended from Kalk Bay to this place. Such is the unique, configuration of the Cape Town district that the contrast between the capital, open towards Table Bay, and these almost suburban settle- ments nestling under the shelter of Table Mountain, is most surprising. All travellers, after venting their rage against the merciless south-easterly trade winds of Cape MAIN" STREET, PORT ELIZABETH Town, wax eloquent over the rural charms of such delightfully sequestered retreats as Wijnberg, surrounded by lovely groves and glades which merge higher up the western slopes in the luxuriant vineyards of Constantia. Saldanha Bay, on the west coast due north of Cape Town, is by far the finest natural haven in the Colony, of easy access, spacious, very deep, and almost completely landlocked. It was long the chief naval station of the Dutch; but since their time it has for some inexplicable reason been completely deserted. No vessel ever pene- trates into its silent waters; its picturesque shores are occupied only by a few isolated farmsteads and fishing256 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL hamlets, and the nearest town is Malmesbury, over thirty miles to the south-east. Nor are there any other centres of population on the whole of this coast except Oliphant, at the mouth of the Oliphant Biver, and Port Nolloth, a few miles below the Orange estuary. Port Nolloth is the outlet for the ores of the Little Namaqua copper mines of Ookiep, near the Vogel-Klijp peak (3400 feet), with which it is connected by a horse railway 92 miles long. The mines, with many thousand acres of unproductive land, belong to an English Company, which has been working them since 1863; the yearly output ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 tons, yielding about three-tenths of pure metal. Shafts recently sunk to a depth of over 500 feet have tapped deposits even thicker than those nearer the surface, so that the Ookiep mines have so far fully realised the expectations of those who many years ago declared that they would prove "inexhaustible." The geological system is the same as that of the Great Namaqua uplands north of the Orange River, where rich copper lodes are also known to exist. The great trunk line of railway running from Cape Town mainly in a north-easterly direction to Kim- berley, and in the year 1890 extended northwards to Vryburg, forms a kind of parting-line between two absolutely distinct regions—the arid and almost unin- habited north-western steppe lands, and the relatively well-watered, fertile, and thickly settled south-eastern provinces. North of this line there are no large towns, even the capitals of divisions, such as Calmnia, Piquetberg, and Glanwilliamy being merely rural villages. These western " chief towns" are followed north-eastward by Sutherland, Fraserburg, Victoria West, Carnarvon, and Hometown, the last on the left bank of the Orange a littleCAPE COLONY 257 below the point where it is crossed by the railway. Before the opening of the line, Hopetown was an important station on the highway going northwards, and it still retains much of its prosperity, thanks to the general development of the country and the local trade created by the Griqualand West diamond fields. Its position is also secured by the bridge which here crosses the Orange, a noble structure no less than 1400 feet long. Hopetown is 600 miles distant from the Atlantic, and from this point to its estuary the Orange has not a single permanent settlement beyond a few isolated farm- steads, some missionary stations, Bushman camping- grounds, and on the German side the little colony of Stolzenfels. Even on the main railway itself, although there are several thriving stations, there are no great centres of population. None have a population of 7000 except Paarl (the " Pearl"), which stands at the point where the line is deflected northwards by the steep Drakensteen escarpments of the outer range. Paarl, which, like the neighbouring Stellenbosch, is one of the early Dutch settlements, is a favourite summer resort, surrounded by orange groves, gardens, woodlands, and the most extensive vineyards in the Colony. Beyond it follow Worcester (2000 feet above the sea), within 75 miles of the highest point* (3600 feet) reached by the railway; Groot Fontein, already within the Great Karroo; Beaufort West (3000 feet), near the source of the Gauritz; De Aar, at the junction of the line from Port Elizabeth; and Orange River, on the left bank of the Orange, ten miles above Hopetown In the region south of the trunk line are concentrated the great bulk of the white settlers, who here find a climate, soil, and general environment more like those of VOL. II s258 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL their European homes than perhaps any other part of the Continent. It is noteworthy that during his visit to the Graham's Town district in 1875, the Eev. James Macdonald found a goodly number of the settlers of 1820 still living, men who well remembered the early days, when Albany was a wilderness and lions prowled about where are now the paved streets of Graham's Town. This cradle of the British pioneers in Austral Africa he speaks of as "a well-built, well-paved, and well-lighted town, made the ideal of rural beauty by the rows of magnificent trees growing on the edge of the footpaths. Every thoroughfare *is an avenue of oaks or blackwoods, and every garden is filled with choicest fruit trees. The situation is, besides, most romantic, being in a deep hollow surrounded by green and grassy hills, and these separated by deep narrow gorges, over- hung by thickly wooded banks and frowning preci- pices." 1 Graham's Town, which dates from 1812, is the centre of administration for the eastern provinces, and even aspires to the honour of being chosen as the capital of the future South African Confederation. It stands 1750 feet above sea-level, in a healthy district, where, however, owing to the sour quality of the herbage (" Zuurveld "), stock-breeding and wool-growing have in recent years been largely replaced by ostrich-farming. The population, chiefly English, is steadily increasing,2 and the place is now connected by rail both with Port Elizabeth in the south-west, and with the new outlet of Port Alfred, the nearest point on the coast at the mouth of the little River Kowie. Port Elizabeth, the largest place in the Colony next to Cape Town, has already outstripped the capital in the 1 Op. cit. p. 9. 2 Over 10,400 in 1891.CAPE COLONY 259 extent of its foreign exchanges/ its chief exports being diamonds, wool, ostrich feathers, and hides. The great commercial prosperity of Port Elizabeth is due to its central position, nearly midway between Cape Town and Durban, about 800 miles round the coast from both, and little over half that distance by rail from Kimberley. This seaport, which lies under the sheltering headland of Cape Eecife on the west side of Algoa Bay, may thus be regarded as the most convenient natural outlet for the whole of Austral Africa. But, although dating from the memorable year 1820, turning-point in the history of British South African colonisation, it has hitherto done next to nothing to improve its splendid natural position; and the harbour, or rather open roadstead, is so exposed to the fierce south-easterly gales, that it is visited by but few sailing vessels, nearly the whole of its foreign trade being conducted by powerful ocean-going steamers. Landing from these steamers in rough weather is a trying ordeal, not unattended by a certain risk. In other respects " Port Elizabeth is an active and thriving town, showing a wonderful amount of life in the sixty-third year of its age (1883). The buildings are exceedingly handsome, and an especial feature is the new feather, ivory, and general produce market, which is a spacious as well as a fine building. The place is healthy, but exposed to violent and piercing winds." 2 This " Liverpool of Africa," as it has been called, whose population (nearly all British) has increased from 13,000 in 1875 to over 23,000 in 1891, is the sea- ward terminus of two important railways, one running 1 Population, 1891, over 23,000; exports, including diamonds, £2,000,000; imports, £2,800,000; exports of Cape Town, £1,100,000; imports, £2,000,000. - W. M. Kerr, The Far Interior, i. p. 9.260 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL north-east to Alicedale with a branch to Graham's Town, then north through Somerset, Cradock, and Middelburg to Colesberg for Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State; another branch above Middelburg runs north- westwards through Hanover to its junction with the main trunk line at De Aar. The other line lies more to the west, running through Uitenhage, Blue Cliff, Mount Stewart and Oatlands to Graaf Beynet, where its further extension northwards is arrested by the semicircular barrier of the Sneeuwbergen, Most of the places here mentioned are little more than thriving market-towns and centres of agricultural industry; but a certain historic interest attaches to Graaf Keynet as indicating the farthest point towards the north-east reached by the early Boer trekkers over a hundred years ago. It lies in a fertile district about the head-waters of the Sunday river, just beyond the Great Karroo, whence its title of " Gem of the Desert." Between Cape Town and this district the onward march of the first Dutch squatters is marked by such old settlements as Swellendam, Olifant, Oudtshorn, Jansen- ville, and, in the extreme south, the already-mentioned Uitenhage, This place has now become completely English, and throughout the whole of the western divi- sion many British stations have been founded interspersed amid the older Dutch settlements. Such are, going west, Willowmore, Uniondale, . Melville, George, Aliwal South, Biversdale, and Port Beaufort; the last mentioned, standing at the mouth of the navigable Breede river, enjoys the distinction of being the only fluvial port in the whole Colony. In the eastern division beyond Graham's Town, to- wards the Kafir frontier, there are no Dutch and very few English settlements, the chief being Bedford, Seymour,CAPE COLONY 261 Alice, Fort Piddie, and, in the extreme east, East London, King William's Town, Cathcart, Queen's Town, Molteno, and Aliwal North on the Orange River at the Free State frontier. The six last mentioned are all stations on another railway* the respective seaward and landward termini of which are East London and Aliwal North. In the same district such names as Berlin, Potsdam, Braunschweig, and Frankfurt indicate the sites of the various settlements formed by the Anglo-German Legion when it was disbanded after the Crimean War. Here the administrative centre is King William's Town, or simply King, which has become a flourishing trading place and chief dep6t for the traffic with Kaffraria. East London, the only outlet for the whole region, can only by courtesy be called a " seaport"; despite the extensive harbour works carried out in recent years, it still remains an exposed roadstead inaccessible for days together, and locally said to be visited chiefly by vessels heavily insured at Lloyd's. Railway Development The railway from East London, which crosses the Stormberg at a pass 5750 feet high, traverses the Molteno coalfields, whence all the colonial railways draw their supplies of fuel. At Bethulie the Orange Eiver is crossed by a bridge 860 feet long, where a connection is effected with the Orange Free State system. The more westerly line from Port Elizabeth has also been continued from Colesberg across the Orange to Bloemfontein, capital of the Free State, and on to Pretoria, capital of the South African Republic. From this trunk line a branch is to run eastwards to262 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Harrismith, where a junction will be effected with a branch running from Lady smith on the Natal line across the Drakenberg. The same Natal line has also been advanced from its former terminus at Newcastle northwards through the Transvaal to Johannesburg, while the Lourenzo Marques line has at last pene- trated from Delagoa Bay across Komati Poort to Pre- toria. Thus effect has. already been given to the recommendation made at the Conference of 1888, at Cape Town, to develop the South African railways in the direction of fusion in a common continental system. The various railway schemes now contemplated by the Colonial Government include the extension of the main trunk line from Mafeking, reached in 1895, to Pala- pye for Matabili and Mashona Lands and the Zambesi, with a possible extension to Buluwayo and Salisbury, and a junction with the line which is now running down the Pungwe valley to the Indian Ocean above Beira. The general scheme would then be completed in its main outlines by branches from Mafeking or Yryburg through Transvaal to the Delagoa Bay line, from Kim- berley through the Free State, and ultimately through Basutoland to the St. John's Eiver Eailway. Griqualand West and its Diamond Fields Griqualand West, a part of Cape Colony proper lying beyond the Orange, takes its name from the mongrel Hottentot Griquas (see p. 237) who migrated thither under their chiefs, Waterboer and Adam Kok, about the middle of the century. Later, Adam Kok, with some of his followers, passed eastwards to the dis- trict since known as Griqualand East, which now alsoCAPE COLONY 263 forms an integral part of the Colony. Waterboer was thus left sole master of a desolate upland plateau 4000 feet above sea-level, producing little but scrub and coarse herbage, and at that time probably not worth a shilling an acre. Since then many " claims " a few square yards in extent have often changed hands at higher prices than freehold property in the City of London. But these claims occur in by far the richest diamantiferous district yet discovered on the face of the globe. Diamonds, however, were first found, not in Griqua- land West, but in the Hopetown district on the south side of the Orange. A sparkling " pebble " here picked up early in 1867 by the child of a Dutch farmer, or obtained from a Bushman, was pronounced by Dr. Atherstone of Graham's Town to be a genuine diamond, and next year figured at the Paris Exhibition as "the first African diamond." It was eventually sold for £500, and was followed in 1869. by a much larger stone obtained in the same locality from a Griqua or Kafir medicine man, which, when cut down from eighty-three to over forty-six carats, was named the " Star of South Africa " and sold to the Earl of Dudley for £11,200. No more diamonds were found in this district; but a diligent search down the Orange and beyond the Yaal confluence, and then up the Yaal, the Yet, and the Modder, led to several valuable finds scattered sporadically over a vast area, as far north asBloemhofnear Pretoria, in Transvaal, in the Orange fifty miles below the Yaal confluence, at Jagersfontein nearly 100 miles south of the Yaal, and even at Mamusa seventy-five miles beyond Jagersfontein. But the only valuable river diggings yet discovered are those of Pniel Kopje and Klipdrift (now Barkly), facing each other on the left and right banks of the Yaal respectively. The diamonds of this district, which are264 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL mostly associated with garnets, agates, and other chalce- donic stones, are said to be of purer water than any others, and these Yet diggings still yield over £40,000 a year, the total production down to 1893 being con- siderably over £2,000,000. But the true placer or dry diggings, where the crystals occur in situ, and have consequently to be mined with costly appliances, lie clustered together about twenty- four miles south-east of Pniel, in a district less than twelve miles in circumference close to the Free State frontier. Here have been opened the four great " pipes/' as they are called, of Bultfontein, Du Toit's Pan, De Beers, and Kimberley, the last, which gives its name to the neighbouring town, being the richest diamond mine in the world. The pipes, originally rising above the surface in the form of rounded kopjes (hills or knolls) 60 or 80 and even 100 feet high, are natural " chimneys/' most probably extinct craters, at first supposed to taper down- wards, but now found to broaden out to depths of over 2000 feet. They penetrate in descending order through tufaceous limestone, white schists, erupted diorites, augite porphyry, basalts, sandstones, clays, carboniferous schists, triassic and metamorphic rocks, down to the primitive granite and gneiss. But the diamonds are found, not in these formations, but in the yellow and lower down blue eruptive matter which fills the pipes, and which, from the inclined position of the originally horizontal enclosing shales, is supposed to have been forced upwards by the pressure of the underground gases. In the blue rock, which still contains much dangerous firedamp, the crystals are dis- tributed apparently in a certain regular order known to experienced miners. Their origin is unknown, but the pure carbon of which they consist may possibly haveDE BEERS MINE, KIMBERLEY. OPEN WORKINGS AT THE PRESENT TIME. (From a Photograph by J. E. Middlebrook, Kimberley.)266 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL been supplied by the carboniferous schists found at great depths in the encircling walls of the pipes. " It may be generally qoncluded that the diamonds were originally developed in an igneous matrix belonging probably to that large series of eruptive rocks which have burst forth through the Karroo strata at so many points in South Africa. In the dry diggings these diamonds are probably not far removed from their original position; but by denudation of the diamant- iferous rocks the gems have been carried far and wide over the country. In the river diggings they have been transported to their present position by the action of running water, whilst in some of the superficial deposits elsewhere they have been distributed by means of moving ice." 1 A peculiarity of the Cape diamond fields, as compared with those of Brazil and India, is the high proportion of large stones that they have yielded. Besides those already mentioned, several have been found weighing upwards of 100 carats in the rough state. The famous " Stewart," found in an outside claim in 1872, weighed 288 carats, being exceeded in size by only three others in the whole world. At first the stones were, so to say, quarried in open workings; but during the operations numerous landslips and disastrous fires2 and explosions occurred, disturbing the natural distribution and otherwise greatly increasing the cost of excavation. At present there are no open workings, all operations being carried on by means of shafts and underground galleries as in ordinary coal mines. With the increasing supply came the necessity of controlling the output to prevent a glut of the market. 1 E. W. Streeter, Precious Stones and Gems, p. 82. 2 The De Beers mine was nearly destroyed by tire in July 1888.CAPE COLONY 267 Individual claims were gradually bought up by the larger capitalists, sometimes at enormous prices, and thus the whole of the diamond interests became fused in one amalgamated corporation. Owing to the great depth of the pipes the mines may be regarded as practically inexhaustible. Some idea of their richness may be formed from the fact that in several years (1889, 1890, 1891) the output exceeded £4,000,000, while from 1867 to 1893 the total yield fell little short of £66,500,000. With the development of the industry, the necessity was soon felt of estab- lishing orderly administration in the district. Waterboer having been induced to cede all his rights of sovereignty to the Cape Government, the whole territory was an- nexed in 1871, and incorporated in the Colony in 1877. The disputed frontiers towards Transvaal in the north- east and the Free State in the east were settled by agreements based on various more or less accurate surveys.1 Westwards also the borders were extended beyond the Yaal, enclosing a considerable slice of the present British Bechuanaland. As thus enlarged, Griqualand West, as it was officially designated, com- prises an area of about 18,000 square miles, with purely conventional frontiers everywhere except on the south side, where they follow the course of the Orange Eiver. Kimberley, centre of the diamond industry, has a somewhat fluctuating population of about 20,000, includ- ing the neighbouring quarter of Beaconsfield. It stands at an elevation of over 4000 feet- above the sea in a hot 1 It was the award made by Lieutenant-Governor Keate of Natal, settling the Transvaal frontier, that led to the resignation of Pretorius and the election of President Burgess in 1871. The negotiations with the Free State were protracted till 1877, when the Bloemfontein Government surrendered its claims to the disputed territory for an indemnity of £90,000.268 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL but healthy district suitable for European settlement. The great drawback was a lack of water, which is now supplied from the Vaal. Distant 620 miles by rail from Cape Town and 430 from Port Elizabeth, Kimber- ley is rapidly becoming a great stronghold of British power and influeiice throughout South Central Africa. This influence is already felt by the neighbouring Ba- Tlaro, Ba - Tlapi and other Bechuana tribes, who are yearly adapting themselves more and more to the conditions of Western culture. Here was held the first " South African and International Exhibition" in the year 1892. Resources—Tillage—Pasturage—Industries—Trade Apart from the Griqualand West diamond fields, Cape Colony proper does not appear to possess much mineral wealth. There are the already described Little Namaqualand copper mines (p. 256), and the extensive coal measures of the Stormberg uplands. The copper mines yield ores for exportation to England to the yearly value of about £600,000, and the coalfields, worked only for local consumption, undoubtedly contain a vast store of fuel for future use. But the surface of the land must always constitute the chief resource of the Colony. Owing to the generally deficient rainfall pastoral pursuits necessarily prevail over tillage. At the same time the enormous dispro- portion that at present exists between the extent of land under tillage and pasture will be greatly modified by improved methods of artificial irrigation. Of the 92,000,000 acres distributed amongst 20,000 holdings less than 1,000,000 were, under cultivation in 1890,CAPE COLONY 269 the chief crops being wheat (4,000,000 bushels) and maize (3,000,000). Considerable quantities of oats, millet, barley, rye, potatoes, and tobacco are also raised ; but the cereals still fall short of the local demand. Nearly 20,000 acres are occupied by the most produc- tive vineyards in the world, yielding an average of 6,000,000 gallons of wine besides 1,250,000 of brandy. But more land is yearly brought under cultivation, especially where advantage can be taken of the natural slope to capture and store the surface waters in artificial reservoirs. Some of these basins are of vast size, con- taining from 100 to 200 and even 250 million gallons, and by their means extensive tracts in the Karroos have been reclaimed. Elsewhere the streams are utilised and distributed by canals over the surrounding lands, while the underground waters are reached by deep wells, pumps, and other appliances. Thus " large trees, orchards, and tall succulent herbage now flourish in districts where formerly nothing was to be seen but bare arid lands, relieved here and there with patches of thorny scrub. But these oases in the wilderness are occasionally exposed to the ravages of the all-devouring locusts, clouds of which at intervals of fifteen or twenty years alight on the verdant slopes and bottom lands, in a few hours consuming every blade of grass." 1 Pasturage and stock-breeding of all kinds have been greatly developed, especially in the eastern provinces, since the cessation of the Kafir wars. Cattle of the old long-horned Dutch variety are largely bred as draught animals and even as mounts; the native fat-tailed sheep are intended chiefly for the shambles, while the Angora and English breeds yield large quantities of wool for 1 Reclus. xiii. p. 141.270 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL exportation. The subjoined table shows the increase in live stock during the last eighteen years:— 1875. 1893. Cattle . . . 1,110,000 . . 1,970,000 Sheep . . . 11,000,000 . . 16,794,000 Goats . . . 3,000,000 . . 5,618,000 Horses, Mules, Asses 290,000 . . 450,000 Ostriches . . 100,000 . . 232,000 Of late years attention has also been paid to the indus- tries, and protective duties have even been introduced for the purpose of encouraging the local manufactures. Tor textiles, hardware, chemicals, paper, china, and earthenware, the Colony is still mainly dependent on the mother country ; but more or less successful essays have already been made at distilling, brewing, tanning, even spinning and weaving, carriage - building and soap - making. The foreign trade, mainly with Great Britain and carried on almost exclusively under the British flag, is also rapidly increasing, the total imports and exports having advanced from £12,000,000 in 1884 to £24,695,000 in 1893. Education—Finance—Religion—Communications Education, not being compulsory, is still in a some- what backward state. The University, founded in 1873, is, like the London University, a purely examining body, with direct control over the five colleges, which are aided by public grants, and which prepare young men for the liberal professions. There are also numerous primary schools aided by small grants, and divided into three classes according to the nationality of the pupils. ThoseCAPE COLONY 271 intended for the instruction of the half-castes and aborigines are in charge of the religious bodies and missionaries, although since 1875 there has been no State Church. By the Act of Separation vested interests were respected, but the ecclesiastical budget (chiefly pensions) had already fallen to little over £8000 in 1890. With the exception of about 13,000 Moham- medans (chiefly Malays) and 10,000 Eoman Catholics, the whole population of Cape Colony proper professes some form of Protestantism. The majority are members of the Reformed Dutch Church (193,000), the next in order of numerical importance being the Wesleyans (84,000), the Episcopalians (64,000), Independents (42,000), and Presbyterians (30,000). In the Trans- keian dependencies the great bulk of the natives are still pagans, though Christianity is slowly spreading from several missionary centres. The finances of the Colony are in a healthy condition; the revenue, derived mainly from taxation, services, and colonial estate, generally exceeds the expenditure;1 and although there is a debt of £22,000,000, the great balk of the money has been invested in useful public works, over £14,000,000 on railways alone, including the Kimberley line. The railways, which are Government property, yield an average profit of about five per cent on the capital invested. Over 2250 miles were open for traffic in 1893, and the system is being extended beyond the frontier in the direction of Zambesia. At the same date 5482 miles of telegraph with over 13,000 miles of wire had been completed. Two lines of mail steamers, the Union and Messrs. Donald Currie's, ply regularly between Cape Town and England, the run of 6000 miles being usually made 1 Revenue (1893), £6,446,000; Expenditure, £5,734,000.272 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL under twenty days. Already as much as £1,560,000 1 have been spent on the extensive harbour works at Cape Town, which is rapidly becoming one of the great coaling stations of the world. Since the close of the Kafir and Zulu wars the land forces have been gradually reduced to a corps of mounted rifles of 780 men, and about 4000 horse and foot volunteers. With the defensive forces may be included a well-trained and well-armed body of about 800 police. There is also a kind of landwehr, or territorial militia, all burghers being liable under the old Dutch law to be called out in cases of emergency. Administration Since 1853 the Colony has been in the enjoyment of representative institutions, enlarged and variously modi- fied in 1865, and completed in 1872 by an Act providing for " the introduction of the system of executive admin- istration, commonly called Responsible Government." The executive is vested in a Governor and an Executive Council appointed by the Crown, while the legislative power rests with a Legislative Council of twenty-two members elected for seven years, presided over by the Chief Justice, and a House of Assembly of seventy-six members returned by the towns aud country districts for a period of five years. Both Houses are elected by the same voters, who are qualified by occupation of house property valued at £25 or receipt of a salary of £50, or wages of £25 with board and lodging. All members of Parliament receive one guinea a day for their services, and an additional fifteen shillings a day for a period not 1 The whole of this sum has been raised by a harbour rate without the aid of any loans.CAPE COLONY 273 exceeding ninety days if residing over 15 miles from the capital. The Ministry comprises five members: the Treasurer, who is also Prime Minister (" Premier "), with a salary of £1750 ; the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney- General, the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works, and the Secretary of Native Affairs, each with a salary of £1500. English remains the official language, but since 1882 members of Parliament may address the House in English or Dutch at option. Administration of the Dependencies The Dependencies, that is, the various Transkeian territories of Kaffraria except Griqualand East, are un- represented in the Cape Parliament. They are admin- istered by magistrates on a plan of which that of Tembuland may be taken as the type. Here the administrative and judicial system consists simply of a Chief Magistrate and Resident Magistrates, the former revising the sentences of the latter, and jointly with two of them trying capital cases. The laws of the territory are embodied in the Tembuland " Eegulations" enacted by proclamation of the Governor, and based on the Cape laws adapted to the local requirements. Erom this system must be excluded the Crown Colony of Basutoland, which since 1884 is governed by a Resident Commissioner under the direction of the High Commissioner for South Africa. This official, whose functions have hitherto always been exercised by the Governor of Cape Colony, possesses the legislative authority, which he exercises by proclamation. The country is divided into six districts (Maseru, Leribe, Cornet Spruit, Berea, Mafeking, and Quthing), and these again into wards under hereditary chiefs allied to the VOL. II T274 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL family of the paramount chief, Moshesh. In Basutoland there is no public debt, and the revenue normally exceeds the expenditure.1 The jurisdiction of the Cape Govern- ment was extended to Pondoland in 1894, when five magistrates were appointed to administer justice in that territory. Political Forecast—Confederation Since the cessation of the native wars, and the growth of a more friendly feeling between the various sections of the white population, the attention of Colonial statesmen has been directed towards a possible political fusion of the various South African States and Colonies on the basis of their .common national interests. Intimately connected with this movement are the various proposals already made for the adoption of a uniform tariff, and the extension of the Colonial railway system northwards to and beyond the Boer States. It is felt that such projects, which appear to be generally accepted in principle, con- tain nearly all the elements needed for the foundation of a general international superstructure, which should obviously be based on a customs union, and the develop- ment of free and rapid communication between the interested States. Thus alone could be effaced the political barriers, often mere conventional lines, by which these States are at present grouped in separate autonomous communities. But the question of actual federation can scarcely be regarded as yet ripe for serious discussion. Mean- time the problems awaiting solution in the near future may be considered almost more of an anthropological .than of a political nature. In a region generally presenting the same physical conditions, with a -remark* 1 £43,670 and £41,300 in 1894 respectively; ;CAPE COLONY 275 ably uniform climate, hot and dry rather than hot and moist as in intertropical Africa, and almost everywhere far more suitable for pasture than tillage, it should not be difficult to reconcile ,the local, commercial and landed interests. Some trouble of this sort has been anticipated from the railway now (1895) in progress up the Pungwe valley to Manica and Mashona Lands, as being likely to divert the future traffic of Zambesia from the Cape to Mozambique. Beira, the port of the Pungwe on the Indian Ocean, is distant only 380 miles from Mount Hampden, in the heart of Mashona- land, whereas Cape Town lies nearly 1700 miles from that place. Hence the foreign traffic created by the colonisation already begun of the northern Eldorado, would necessarily follow the Pungwe route to the detriment of the Cape people, who voted the funds for the Bechuanaland railway, on the very ground that it led to the rich mining and agricultural region of Mashona and Manica Lands. Thus it is argued that the very prosperity of this region might involve the debasement of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Doubtless here may lurk the elements of a momentary conflict of interests between the cis- and trans-Orange regions. But it will be obvious enough to the wise statesmen who are at present moulding the future destinies of Austral Africa, that under no circumstances can any direct harm come to the Cape from the future development of Zambesia. The growth of a flourishing British colony north of the Limpopo must in the long- run necessarily react beneficially on the whole of the southern section of the Continent. The geographical position of the southern ports is too advantageous to dread the rivalry of any convenient outlets of trade on the eastern seaboard, and as the country progresses276 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL there will naturally be room for all. Hence the Bechu- analand railway must be regarded as prospectively a good investment, and this great continental line will doubtless ultimately be cpntinued to the Tati mines in Matabililand, and thence through the Mashonaland gold- fields to the Zambesi. When also the eastern branches through the Orange State to Natal and Durban, through Transvaal to Delagoa Bay, and down the Pungwe to the coast above Sofala are completed, the consolidation of the " South African Confederacy" will have been virtually accomplished. Tar more serious than these material conflicts are the difficulties arising from the heterogeneous character of the South African populations. In the United States there is at present but one serious racial question, that of the Negro in the " black zone " of the Southern States. Yet so complex are the problems, so grave the issues involved, that it seems to pass the wit of man to devise any adequate remedy. One scheme after another, such as miscegenation and the isolation of the black lands, is proposed only to be dismissed, and now a solution is sought in the wholesale deportation of some 8,000,000 Negroes to the land whence their forefathers originally came. But in South Africa there are, or appear to be, several racial questions, though here also that of the blacks outweighs all others combined in gravity. In fact the Hottentot difficulty may be considered as already set at rest by a somewhat rapid process of elimination (see p. 238). That of the Boers, as opposed to the British element, appears to be also settling itself in an amicable way by a natural process of fusion, and by the spread of the English language amongst all classes of the white community. But when this community has thus become practicallyCAPE COLONY 277 British in speech, social usages, free institutions, and general culture, and when all available vacant spaces have been filled by its natural increase, the black diffi- culty will begin to assume an acute phase. Doubtless the Negroid Bantu peoples of South Africa stand at a considerably higher level of culture than the true Negroes; but miscegenation with them is as impractic- able as with the blacks of the Southern States. Isola- tion also can be regarded only as a temporary remedy, for the reserved territories, such as Kaffraria, Zulu, and Swazi Lands, have already been encroached upon at various points. But much of South Africa is essentially a pastoral region, and all pastoral peoples are of more or less migratory habits. Hence, under little pressure, many Zulu-Kafir tribes might be induced gradually to remove northwards to those parts of Zambesia which are unsuit- able for white colonisation, and whence their ancestors originally migrated to their present homes. It is note- worthy, in this connection, that after the whites had found their wTay into Matabililand, the paramount chief, Lobengula, whose father, Umsilikatzi, came originally from Zululand and the Transvaal, had long been meditat- ing a further move with all his people northwards beyond the Zambesi. Twice he had a large number of boats collected for the purpose, and had he succeeded in effect- ing his escape across the Zambesi after his overthrow, he would have found that he had already been preceded by the Angoni, Maviti, and other kindred Zulu peoples, who are descended from still earlier immigrants from the region south of the Limpopo. Nor are such movements confined to the Zulus, for some years ago the Makololo (Mantatees), who were a Ba-Suto people, settled as con- querors in Barotseland about the Middle Zambesi.27§ COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL The remedy, therefore, for future racial conflicts caused by mutual overcrowding may be found in migra- tion—a far more natural and more easily effected system of deportation than that proposed by Colonel Ruffin and others for the black element in the Southern States. This question thus foreseen and provided for, ample room will be found in the healthy and cultivable regions of the Austral African Confederacy for an indefinite expansion of the English-speaking Anglo-Dutch com- munities. As far as can at present be judged, this confederacy will be developed on lines different both from those of the Dominion of Canada and of the Federal States of the North American Eepublic. Its several members—Cape Colony proper, Natal, and the two Boer republics—will continue to constitute practically autono- mous states, each with its own local legislature for the management of its internal affairs, all represented on equitable terms in an imperial Parliament charged with the general interests. The vast regions lying north of this political group—Bechuana, Zambesi, and Nyassa Lands—must long continue to be administered under imperial control through chartered corporations or other- wise. But these also will naturally be admitted to membership, whenever, in the fulness of time, sufficiently developed to be entrusted with representative institu- tions. A first step was taken in this direction in June 1895, when the Cape Parliament accepted a motion for the annexation of the Crown Colony of British Bechuana- land.16* J 20* 24* | 28* i? 32" 28' _?3 ll -+J "cd 1 0 32 * *' / A CAPE COLONY <%""" 1 NATAL, ORANGE FREE STATE 5c CO £3 to„ CO, 16° longitude East of Greenwich , StinhTV- SequxmcLa. Sal>i R- ihlahashla Marntwmfk J'omba/T° * Majimisa? Vurmtde irurwane Mokatanr 0 SerotU0 C O XJ jST; Kan/lei j Xettatrhe« i Oojrwkfaian ^ManakadoveEci ss « SIIOSJK)IIO©~> Magombas^ >Elephant EL. °JS ajidfoiitein ^ Mahwalca #»« SifooM ^ Umtoma, Imbobcait £ ,5 a . § Unzenancu '('bane --■•----------Lapepe JBoatloncu:LcvJ -L_______ "Mazibv____________ ^yMagwiancb MapuJui i JJrrdiaLcauv ; .. -Wx. JsOiibU Pinter Pietershiii!^: Crabastad J j,c law Motlohodo ' InhaTiittoe /iiBarrohWilb Pt. IVtLbenTofice Kdparigf 'fiy/ X LJ/AdyZi Kohahu6. ,/SrtZa&orcL Molep ololeCjy . Fata Lecc/Jk Baralongs Mqshx^apr-—1■ Tokojce? Mbshajieruy dKanv A Mokpjeeo * Elerldsd'T}^. f Di-roy _r is|jinuiisKf'ofdjvanaJi DlAMQJ Ro#MT*i Jfoninxh KopjeAleen aicia Bum* 'C . tidal To slan SCALE, 1:5,877,382,94 % ENGLISH MILES TO I 50 0_IOO_ London; Edvrard Stanl'oi'd.26 Se, 27 Cockspivr St..Charing Cross, S!W. JheOntiryd ; f/L^gami rfGhajisi ^ Watilbera Reittontaj jbr Tuiwbti j^ii^tir-inurl}'. Anncrso VI ei, VB E C H U AN AC A.N D LuhudLalu ^ ~\ v\ % A ...... r y .Mc.kop.mf *< 1 LgJ " > : J * . x I , 0 Pennina's Dr- ' ) ^ / t ,' Mo L ^—'\c5^ NHackslriii ^3 vlTl^i- --S5? ^ vi r;'' ^ a ^ shukulumbwe | Lands, and Bangweolo Basin British Central Africa- Nyassaland, with the \ ^ «qq Shire Basin J ' Total British South Cen- tral Africa . . . 750,000 Population. Government. 100,000 Protectorate. 400,000 Protectorate. 650,000 200,000 •250,000 2,500,000 Administered by South Africa Chartered Company. f Administered by 600,000-j British Commis- V sioner. 4,510,000 That the road from the Cape to the Zambesi should be kept open at all costs was a fundamental principle of South African politics, in which the imperial and colonial authorities were of accord. But soon after the restora- tion of the Transvaal (1881) this road began to be threatened by the Boers encroaching on the territory of Mankoroane and other Bechuana chiefs, beyond the west336 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL frontier of the republic. It was even for a short time actually seized by the filibusters, who set up the ephemeral states of Goshen and Stellaland1 in the districts north of Griqualand West, which are traversed by the main route from Kimberley to Shoshong and Palapye. In this aggressive movement the Boers were acting in secret concert with the Germans, who had occupied Angra Pequena on the west coast in 1884. The hands of the Imperial Government were thus forced, and to prevent a permanent block of the highway lead- ing northwards, the greater part of South Bechuanaland was constituted a British Crown Colony, with the consent of the local chiefs, glad thus to secure protection against their implacable foes, the Transvaal Boers. But the scramble for Africa was now in full swing, and the claims of Germany on the one hand and of Portugal on the other, again compelled the Imperial Government to take action for the purpose of safe- guarding British interests in the central region, extend- ing from the newly-created Crown Colony to thei shores of Lake Tanganyika. A protectorate over North Bechu- analand had already been proclaimed by the High Com- missioner in March 1885, its northern limits being fixed at 22° S. latitude. But it was obvious that it could not stop at this conventional line, which intersected Khama's country,2 and exposed the whole of Zambesia to the risk 1 That is, Goosen and Stille ("Still" or "Peaceful") land. But popular etymology soon transformed Stille to the Latin Stella, "star," whence " Stellaland," and even " Star-land " ; "because the war between Chiefs Massouw and Mankoroane, which eventually led to the land becoming inhabited by white people, took place in the year 1882, when the great comet was visible" (BlueBook, 1885, p. 202). 2 Khama himself objected at the time that " boundary line there is none at 22°. It speaks of nothing which haSi existence ; it is to cut my country into two" (Blue Book, August 1885, p. 45).BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 337 of being appropriated by the Germans and Portuguese. After the settlement of the frontier difficulties on the east and west seaboards by the Lisbon Convention of December 1886, Germany claimed a Hinterland, giving her access to the Zambesi from the west side, while Portugal claimed a double Hinterland, absorbing the whole region intervening between her western and eastern possessions. The German question was amicably arranged by the Anglo-German Agreement of July 1890, by which England was allowed a free hand in dealing with the extravagant pretensions of the Portuguese. The Lisbon Cortes having refused to ratify the Anglo- Portuguese Agreement of August 1890, the tedious negotiations with Portugal, which more than once threatened to end in open hostilities, were at last brought to a close by the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of May 1891. Meantime the British protectorate had been rapidly extended to the whole of Khama's territory, to Moremi's (now Sechome's) in ISTgamiland, to South and North Zambesia (Matabili, Mashona, Barotse, and Mashuku- lumbwe lands), to the Shire highlands and Nyassaland, while the rest of the region intervening between Zam- besia and Tanganyika was officially declared to lie within the limits of the British sphere of influence. Thus the frontiers of British South Central Africa, as recognised and finally adjusted by the above-mentioned international treaties and conventions, are conterminous in the north with German East Africa and the Congo Free State, in the west with the Portuguese and German West African possessions, in the east with Portuguese East Africa and Transvaal, in the south with Cape Colony. Its geographical continuity, which had been seriously threatened first in South Bechuanaland, and VOL. II z338 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL then in the Zambesi valley, is amply secured by the agreements with the several surrounding states. But its political unity must necessarily be a work of time. At present its administrative organisation is in a rudi- mentary condition, and within its broad limits are com- prised all kinds of jurisdiction, except responsible and representative government. But by agreement with the Crown, the direct government of the whole of Zambesia in its widest sense, that is, the vast region extending from Bechuanaland to Lake Tanganyika, was taken over by the South Africa Chartered Com- pany in June 1895, and is now administered from Salisbury. It will be convenient to treat the several physical sections under the two broad divisions of Bechuanaland South and North, and Zambesia South and North. I. Bechuanaland South and North We are told by the Bev. John Mackenzie1 that when he went first to South Africa in 1858 there was no region known by the name of Bechuanaland. "The country of course was there, and the Bechuana people were there, but the name Bechuanaland expresses a political fact which had no existence at that time. The country was known only by the tribal names of its people—as the country of the Batlaping, the Barolong, the Bakwena, or the Bamangwato. Bechuanaland became known to us only a few years ago as a country, the independent chiefs of which were united in their desire to come under the protection and administration of England, and thus save themselves, as they hoped, 1 "Bechuanaland and the Land of Ophir," Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. 1888, p. 725.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 339 from the uncertainties attending the advance of the energetic and sometimes reckless white man." Nevertheless the term " Bechuana " has been current in books of travel and geographical works, at all events, since the beginning of the present century. Dr. H. Lichtenstein, to whom we owe the first intelligible account of the people, already speaks of them as " Beet- juana" in a collective sense, and one of his four main divisions of Austral Africa is "the land of the great Beetjuana race."1 Yet the word Bechuana is unknown to the natives themselves, or at least has only recently been adopted by them at second-hand from the whites. It is of unknown origin, and like Damara (see p. 176), was probably due to a misunderstanding on the part of the first Europeans who visited the country, and whose inquiries about its various inhabitants elicited the remark ba-chuana} " they are alike," meaning they are all one, all of the same stock. But in the absence of a common national name the term is convenient, while the recent political remodelling of the southern continent has given a sufficiently definite meaning to the expression " Bechuanaland." It com- prises the whole of the central plateau between Cape Colony and the Zambesi river south and north, and is conterminous on the west with German South-West Africa, on the east with Transvaal and Matabililand. The southern division, forming the Crown Colony of British Bechuanaland, was at first limited on the north and west by the course of the Molopo-Hygap river; but by the proclamation of May 1891 the boundary was extended northwards to the Nosob river and westwards to 20° E. longitude, thus absorbing the whole of the so-called Bastaard's country as far as the German pro- 1 Travels in South Africa in the Years 1803-1806. Berlin, 1811.340 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL tectorate. The northern division, forming the British protectorate, includes the territories of the Towana people in the north, that is, Ngamiland; of the Bamang- wato people in the centre, that is, Chief Khame's country; and a neutral zone, which extends from Khama's south- wards to the Molopo, and which is already regarded as virtually forming part of the Crown Colony. Geographical Exploration The first recorded expedition to the Bechuana country dates from the year 1801, when Truter and Somerville penetrated from the Cape to Litaku (Lataku), which was at that time the capital of the allied Ba-Tlapi and Ba- Bolong nations with an estimated population of 15,000. These pioneers were soon followed by the memorable expe- dition of Dr. Lichtenstein (1803-1806), who found that the confederacy had already been dissolved, and that the Ba-Tlapi had removed their chief station to Kuruman, a few miles farther south, near the present frontier of Griqualand "West. Lichtenstein was accompanied by some Mozambique slaves, who were at that time mimerous in Cape 'Colony, and who felt themselves almost at home amongst the Bechuana peoples, so close was the resemblance in their physical appearance, mental qualities, and languages. Further observation led to the discovery that the Kafirs also belonged evidently to the same fundamental group. Thus it was that South African ethnology was for the first time placed on a solid founda- tion by this explorer, who formulated what may be called the Bantu theory, at the very time that the Indo- Germanic or Aryan theory was being developed by Sir William Jones and the Schlegels. His comparativeBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 341 studies of the southern peoples satisfied him that " all these tribes south of Quiloa and east of Cape Colony should be regarded as a single great nation, which is sharply distinguished on the one hand from the Negroes and Mohammedans (Arabs), and on the other from the Hottentots. I do not hesitate to extend their domain westwards to the meridian of Cape Agulhas, for Kafir tribes reach so far in the interior of the country under 25° south latitude."1 Since Lichtenstein's time their domain has been widened by every successive explorer, until it now embraces nearly the whole of the southern continent from Sudan to the Cape. Towan and Donovan's expedition of 1808, sent to the interior by Lord Caledon, Governor of the Cape, was followed by the more fruitful journey of Burchell, who in 1812 traversed most of the southern districts, and collected a great mass of information on the country and its inhabitants. About the same time the Bechuanas were visited by the Eev. John Campbell, forerunner of a long line of devoted missionaries, including the illustrious names of Moffat and Livingstone, by whom many tribes have been evangelised, and the whole nation raised to a distinctly higher level of social culture. During a second journey in 1820 Mr. Campbell passed from Litaku, where an English Protestant Mission had already been founded, northwards to the territory of the powerful Ba-Harutse (Barotse) people. Thus an important section was added to the great highway to the interior, which became known as " the English road " and " the Mission- aries' road," and which was afterwards carried by Dr. Moffat beyond Shoshong to the Matabili country, and by Livingstone beyond Koboleng to Lake Ngami and the Zambesi. This route was followed by the naturalist, Dr." 1 Reisen, vol. i. p. 393.342 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL A. Smith, who reached the Limpopo in 1834-35, and by all subsequent travellers, such as Fritsch, Mohr, Baines, MacCabe, Chapman, Shelley and Orpen, Mackenzie, Holub, A. Anderson and others, who have traversed Bechuana- land in every direction, and completed the work of geographical exploration in all its essential details. Physical Features Bechuanaland is separated by no salient geographical outlines from the surrounding lands, except towards the north-east, where a somewhat ill-defined frontier towards Matabililand is formed by the Tati hills and other irregular ridges and Tcoppjes, or isolated eminences, which appear to represent the scattered fragments of a pro- foundly eroded mountain system, at one time extending through the Matoppo range north-eastwards to the Mashona highlands. Elsewhere the transition is every- where very gradual, from the grassy steppes of Transvaal and Griqualand westwards, from Great Bushmanland across the Orange northwards, and from the sandy wastes of JSTamaqualand eastwards to the vast central region which on most maps figures as a blank space entitled the " Kalahari Desert." But with the progress of discovery the limits of this blank space have been continually contracted westwards, so as to leave a broad tract of moderately fertile and somewhat hilly land extending from G-riqualand along the Transvaal frontier north-eastwards to Matabililand. Here are concentrated nearly all the settled districts and large centres of population, such as Taungs, Yryburg, Mafeking, Kanya, Molopolole, Shoshong, and Palapye (Palachwe), which already form so many stations on the great highway ofBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 343 trade, travel and migration, running from Cape Colony through Kimberley, north-eastwards to Matabili and Mashona Lands. Thus this northern highway, like the southern section from Cape Town to Kimberley, serves to mark off the almost uninhabited arid wastes stretching thence westwards to the Atlantic from MOLOPOLOLE, TOWN OF THE BAKWENA TRIBE. the more fertile, better watered, and, consequently, more thickly peopled region extending eastwards to the Indian Ocean. Despite the copious summer rains, the districts traversed by the main northern route suffer from a deficiency of surface moisture for a great part of the year. This appears to be due to the porous nature of the soil, a red sandy loam mixed with gravel, through which the running waters rapidly disappear. But below the surface they continue to flow along the face of the344 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL hard underlying rocks, syenites, porphyries, and coarse- grained sandstones, until they are arrested by dykes or elevated igneous formations, where they accumulate in extensive underground reservoirs. According to the different character of the underlying rocks, the soil is covered with either good pasturage, or coarse tall grass, dense thickets of scrub, such as buckthorn and various species of thorny acacia (A. Giraffia, Horrida and Detenem), or else large forest trees, including the baobab and banyan1 with an undergrowth of the aromatic resinous falboss (Mahratta) shrub. Eich alluvial soil also occurs in the valleys watered by intermittent streams, and between the two parallel ranges of granite hills at Shoshong. In such localities the natives grow fine crops of maize and millet, and here also wheat, oats, and potatoes might be raised, as in Transvaal, by artificial winter irrigation. Unfortunately most of the woodlands in the southern districts have already been used up to supply the fuel required by the machinery on the Kimberley diamond fields. Hence the aspect of the country improves in the direction of the north. Beyond Kanya it is generally well wooded, especially along the water- courses, and the scenery between this place and Molo- polole is not surpassed in natural beauty by that of any part of Cape Colony (Mackenzie). The Kalahari Wilderness Westwards the land becomes rapidly more and more arid, and at last merges everywhere in a broad zone of sands separating it from the so-called Kalahari Desert. 1 The banyan,, introduced at some remote epoch from India, is locally known by the name of More-oa-Maoto, i.e. "tree with legs."BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 345 Probably to the presence of this sandy belt along its eastern margin this region is indebted for its popular reputation of an uninhabited and uninhabitable waste, differing little from the true desert of Great Kamaqualand on its western border. The sands are disposed in vast ridges from a few feet to several hundred feet high, often over 50 miles wide, and running in straight lines for hundreds of miles all the way to Lake ISTgami, and at some points even to the Zambesi. Although traversed by tracks known to the Bushmen and Valpens,1 they have always presented a formidable barrier to travellers wishing to explore the inner region of depressions and vleys, which constitutes the Kalahari proper, as indicated by its very name.2 The whole region may be described as a vast elevated plain, from 3000 to nearly 4000 feet high, of lacustrine origin, drained at a remote epoch by rivers breaking through the outer edge northwards to the Zambesi and southwards to the Orange. Thus the still extant vleys (Anderson's, Ngami, Makarikari, and many others) may represent all that now remains of this great inland sea, while the sand-belts indicate the margins of the flooded depressions which continually shifted their contour-lines with the gradual subsidence of the waters. 1 " Though a few white men and Griquas have penetrated thus far, yet the natives themselves will give no information, and are very jealous and suspicious of any traders. ... It is, however, certain that this vast tract, a blank upon maps, when explored, will prove to be anything but the desert it has hitherto been called " (Lieut. E. A. Maund, Blue Book, August 1885, p. 120). According to this authority even the sand-belts are not entirely barren, for '' they carry good grass and bush with camel- thorn trees, the bush being invariably thickest on the crest, but necessarily lack a surface water-supply" (Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. January 1891, p. 2). 2 Kalahari, Kalakhari, Kalakhadi, or Karri-Karri, is the same word as Ma-Kari-Kari, which in the Sechuana language means "salt-pans," and which is applied in a pre-eminent sense to the vast shallow basin east of Ngami.346 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL That the whole region was at one time under water is evident from, the deposits of shells and the numerous remains of aquatic or amphibian animals occurring in all directions. Its transformation to dry and even arid land has been attributed partly to upheaval, a process said on doubtful authority to be still going on, partly to the destruction of the forest and herbaceous vegetation by fire, which, according to a commonly accepted theory, tended to diminish the rainfall and at the same time to increase the evaporation. But a more potent factor than any local causes was the gradual decrease of moisture, due probably to cosmic influences, what appears to have been going on both in the northern and southern hemi- spheres from remote geological times. But this general process of desiccation has not yet reduced the Kalahari to the condition of the true desert regions, such as the Gobi, Hadramaut, the Sahara in other parts of the globe. Its proper character is indicated by its Dutch name Bosjesveld, the English " Bush," which implies an abundant if somewhat stunted vegetation, as well as a numerous fauna and even a sparse human population. The whole region from the Orange to Lake Ngami was traversed in 1885 by G-. A. Farini, who went north from Kimberley through Kheis by Shelley and Orpen's old route, returning by another route consider- ably more to the west. This traveller met plenty of scrub, a great variety of bulbous and trailing plants, edible tubers, and fine grazing grounds in several districts; and in one section of the return journey " for four days we passed through undulating country looking almost like an English corn district, covered as it was with a golden crop of Bushman grass which was now ripening, and was almost equal to oats as fodder for the horses and cattle. The spaces between the bunches were often literallyBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 347 covered with sama, or water-melons, so that we did not trouble for water. Meat too was plentiful, as we got fresh eland and wildebeeste nearly every day. We often came across the spoors of lions."1 Elsewhere, " The country gradually became more and more level. The gentle undulations, only broken here and there by a distant hoppje, and covered with ripe grass, resembled the gently-swelling bosom of a golden ocean, the similitude to which being heightened as the ripe ears of the grasses, bowing before the breeze, flashed from their under - side a silvery light like the moonlit ripples of the sea."2 Similar passages occur in several parts of Farini's book, which, however, has been received with some reserve, owing mainly to his account of certain ruins not seen or referred to by any other explorer. But later reports have all tended to confirm his description of the " desert"; while the existence of the ruins need no longer be doubted, since the unexpected discovery of even more extensive remains of a somewhat analogous character, scattered over the neighbouring Bermingwa uplands and other parts of Matabililand. The Kalahari monuments, which are situated just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, on the north side of the Nosob river, comprise " a long line of stone which looked like the Chinese wall after an earthquake, and which, on examination, proved to be the ruins of quite an extensive structure, in some places buried beneath the sand, but in others fully exposed to view. "We traced the remains for nearly a mile, mostly a heap of huge stones, but all flat-sided, and here and there with the cement perfect and plainly visible between the layers. The top rows of -stones were worn away by 1 Through the Kalahari Desert, p. 267. 2 Op. cit. p. 185.348 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the weather and the drifting sands, some of the upper- most ones curiously rubbed on the under - side and standing out like a centre-table on one short leg." 5IOLOPO RIVER. Fluvial Systems—Lake Ngami Most of the Kalahari and South Bechuanaland belong to the vast catchment basin of the Hygap, which, although comprising a drainage area of nearly 200,000 square miles, sends very little water to the Orange, which it joins below the great falls. Not one ofBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 349 its numerous branches—Nosob and Ub from the north- west ; Kuruman, Molopo, and others from the east and north-east-—-is a perennial stream ; nor are they all flooded at the same time, so that there is scarcely ever sufficient volume in the main stream to reach the Orange. When one is full another is dry, and the POOL OU THE MARITSANI. freshets nowhere last more than a few weeks, while at times long droughts prevail throughout the whole extent of the basin. Usually these southern wadys contain 110 surface waters beyond a few isolated pools, though a little moisture may generally be obtained by digging holes in the sandy depressions. After the summer rains, a good deal of water remains in these depressions, which by the gradual process of evaporation or infiltra- tions pass successively from the condition of shallow350 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL lagoons to dangerous quagmires and arid plains. Accord- ing to the nature of the soil, they assume the character either of vleys clothed with a scrubby vegetation long after the water has disappeared, or of. salt-pans where the ground is incrusted with a thick saline efflorescence after the periodical rain-water has evaporated. North of the Hygap basin the Bechuanaland plateau takes a slight tilt northwards, so that the rest of the Kalahari region drains to the Zambesi fluvial system. But so level is the ground that in many places the intermittent streams have an uncertain flow, while the two great flooded depressions of Lakes Ngami and Makarikari have become closed basins, or at least com- municate with the Zambesi only during exceptionally high floods. But considerable uncertainty still prevails regarding the drainage of this lacustrine region, which, according to some authorities, is connected both with the Zambesi and Limpopo systems. Thus, on Sir Charles Warren's official map,1 there is continuous waterway from the Chobe affluent of the Zambesi to the Maklutsi affluent of the Limpopo, the connecting links being the Mapabe (Tamalukan) flowing from the Chobe to the Botletle (Zouga) emissary of Lake Ngami, then the Botletle, which falls into Lake Makarikari, of which the Maklutsi figures as an effluent. But this connection of the Maklutsi with Makarikari is at least doubtful, and pending more trustworthy surveys the Ngami- Makarikari depression may be regarded as at present a closed basin, communicating occasionally with the Zambesi. Although its limits are far from being accurately determined, Makarikari is known to be a much larger sheet of water than Ngami, which, since its discovery in 1 Blue Book, August 1885.THE UPPER LIMPOPO RIVER.352 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 1849 by Livingstone, appears to have been continually subsiding. Recently it was even reported to have dis- appeared altogether, but this could only be during some exceptionally long period of drought, for Ngami certainly receives during the wet season a considerable contribu- tion from the Tonke (Tiogue) branch of the Kubango, formerly one of the main headstreams of the Zambesi, and still intermittently connected with that river. The Kubango has its farthest sources on the Bih£ uplands east of Benguela, and after collecting all the waters from the eastern slope of the Cunene divide, flows for hundreds of miles, first south-east towards the Ngami depression and then north-east through the Mababe lagoon district to the Zambesi at the Chobe confluence. Its middle and lower courses traverse what was un- doubtedly at one time the bed of a vast inland sea, whose waters have been mainly discharged through the Zambesi eastwards to the Indian Ocean. All that now remains of this great lacustrine basin are the flooded depressions of Makarikari, Mababe, and Ngami, which are themselves slowly disappearing. Early in the year 1891 the Ngami country was visited by Mr. H. 0. Buckle, leader of an expedition sent north by the African Exploring Company, who reports that the whole district immediately south of the lake consists of one mass of quartz reefs, twenty miles long by one or two wide. Between this block and the hills, which lie some sixteen or twenty miles farther south, the reefs seem to disappear, but crop out again in a more scattered form in the hills themselves. Large quantities of quartz may also lie concealed beneath the dense bush overgrowing this part of the country. But from various adverse causes the expedition failed to procure fair average samples, from which some opinionBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 353 might be formed regarding the gold-bearing value of the reefs. Still farther south, Anderson, who has traversed every part of the Kalahari wilderness, found clear indi- cations of considerable mineral wealth. Coal abounds in several districts, and there are extensive deposits of rich copper ores in the western districts. Gold also appears to occur in some places, and this circumstance may perhaps explain the existence so far west of the ruins described by Farini, although no traces have yet been discovered of old mining operations, as in Mashona and Manica Lands. Inhabitants of Bechuanaland It is evident from the geographical nomenclature that the true aborigines of Bechuanaland were peoples of Hottentot-Bushman race and speech. Thus most of the names of water-courses—Nos-ob, Up, Mol-op(o), Hyg-ap—contain some dialectic or corrupt form of the element ot, ib, eb, which in Hottentot means " river" or " water," as in Gar-ib, the " Great Water," that is, the Orange Biver. But long before the South African historic period these aborigines were driven south beyond the Orange, or west to the Kalahari wilderness, by peoples of Bantu race and speech pressing continually forward from the Zambesi. Hence, since their first contact with Europeans at the beginning of the present century, these South Central Bantu peoples, at present known by the collective name of Bechuanas, have been in exclusive possession of all the fertile eastern districts traversed by the South African highroad of trade and migration. Here they are grouped in large tribes or nations, a correct knowledge of whose relative VOL. II 2 A354 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL* positions is necessary to a clear understanding of recent political events in South Central Africa. In the sub- joined table all the main divisions are disposed in regular order, from south to north, between the Orange and Zambesi Eivers. Table of the Chief Bechitana Nations. Ba-Saomaka \ Griqualand West and thence north to Kuruman and Ba-Tlaro J Taungs, all now amalgamated with the Ba-Tlapi. TU Tt a-dti / Mainly between Taungs and Yryburg ; chief, Mankoroane ; \ capital, Taungs. f Between Yryburg and the Molopo river, with hunting Ba-Rolong -j grounds far to the west; chief, Montsioa; capital, Mafe- L king ; a branch at Thaba Nshu in the Orange Free State. Ba-Hartjtse \ About the headwaters of the Molopo and Marico valley ; (Barotse) / now subject to Transvaal. f From the Molopo to the Metsimashwani tributary of Ba-Wanketsi -j the Notwani river, including the Kanya district; I chief, Ghasitsive ; capital, Kanya. f From the Ba-Wanketsi territory north to the Tropic of Capricorn, and from the Notwani river north-west to and beyond Anderson's Yley ; chief, Secheli; capital, Molepolole. f Gamcohopa district, N. of Kanya, \ East of Shoshong, near the Limpopo, /Between the Ba-Silikaand left bank \ Limpopo, Ba-Kan, Shoshong Hills,2 reduced and absorbed by the Ba-Mangwato. mIIha^ettana } risht bank °f the Middle Zambesi. Ma-Den assa, Makarikari lagoon. Ba-Najoa, Mababa district south of the Zambesi. Ba-Yeye and Ma-Koba, Tonke district N. of L. Ngami. Ba-Kwena Ba-Katla Ba-Silika Ba-Chwapeng Reduced tribes, now subject to the Ba-Mangwato. Doubtful Bechuanas with no political status. -ra tv/tax™™ a-m / From the Ba-Kwena territory north to the Zambesi; JjA-MANGWATO | chiefj Khama . capital, lately Shoshong, now Palapye. 1 That is, the " Fish People." But the word occurs in a great variety of forms : Ba-Tlapi, Ba-Tlapin, Bachapin, Bahlapi, Matchapi, Maatjaping, etc. They are perhaps the most civilised and one of the mo§t numerous of all the Bechuana nations. 2 On the older maps these figure as the " Bakan Hills," from the name of this tribe.BKITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 355 Ba-Twana (Batoana) Lake Ngami, and thence west to Ovampoland ; a branch of the Ba-Mangwato;1 chief, Sechome, successor (1891) to Moremi ; capital, Denokane. Formerly several of these divisions, such as the Ba- Tlapi, Ba-Botse, Ba-Wanketsi, and Ba-Kwena, were power- ful nations, which have been gradually weakened by internal dissensions, aggressive neighbours, and frontier wars with the Boers and Matabili. At present all recognise British supremacy, and most of them are practically ruled by the High Commissioner, whose edicts and proclamations have force of law far beyond the actual limits of the Crown Colony. The only really self-governing peoples are the Ba-Mangwato and the kindred Ba-Twana, who between them rule over more than half of North Bechuanaland. After the death (1890) of King Moremi, the Ba-Twana have been governed by the chief headman, Dithapo, on behalf of the heir, Sechome, who is a minor, and related on the mother's side to Khama, King of the Ba-Mangwato. Khama has for many years been the most distin- guished native ruler anywhere south of the Zambesi. Under the beneficent guidance of judicious missionaries and British agents, he has long governed his people wisely and firmly, abolishing witchcraft and other savage customs, excluding strong drinks by severe excise measures, personally administering justice with equity and moderation, encouraging agriculture, the industrial arts and education, and at the same time offering a stout resistance to the incessant attacks of the fierce Matabili hordes on his eastern frontier. "In 1863, without warning and without cause, the Matabili attacked the Ba-Mangwato cattle stations, and captured 1 Yet Dr. E. Holub noticed a marked difference in the appearance of the two peoples, the Ba-Twana being "quite black," the Ba-Mangwato " brown."—J. Anthrop. Institute, 1880, p. 10.356 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL a number of cattle. Khama had the courage to leave the protection of the hills and meet the Matabili in the open plain. The Ba-Mangwato, in the first instance, drove back a division of the Matabili, but were in turn compelled to retire. So severely had the Mafcabili to pay for this victory that they have not again returned to attack the Shoshong hills. They have occasionally made incursions into the Ba-Mangwato country, when some village of Ba-Kalahari or Bushmen is on the instant massacred. Lately the attention of the Mata- bili has been directed to the Ba-Mangwato at Lake Nghabe (Ngami), who have been twice attacked."1 But since the occupation of Mashonaland and the death of Lobengula, all this border warfare has ceased, and peace reigns throughout Ba-Mangwatoland. Khama, through his father Sekhome, is fourth in descent from Kari, founder of the Mangwato state. Before his time the Ba-Kwena, Ba-Wanketsi (Ba-JNTgwa- ketsi), and Ba-Mangwato were all one confederate people, of whom the Ba-Kwena were the elder branch; the sacred animal or totem common to all being the hwena, or " crocodile." Then Kari withdrew from the alliance, and adopted a new totem, the Puti, or duiker antelope, which has ever since been the emblem of the Ba-Mang- wato nation. The Bechuanas appear to be the only group of the Southern Bantu peoples who thus preserve in its integrity the primitive totemic system. The reverence or worship which they pay to their respective totems, usually animals from which the tribes themselves are often named, is expressed by the word lino, to dance. Thus the Ba-Katlas dance to the hatla, monkey; the Ba-Kwenas, as well as the Ba-Wanketsi and Ba-Sutos, to the hwena; the Ba-Tlaros and others to the hlu, or 1 Rev. J. Mackenzie, Blue Book, 1885, p. 66.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 357 elephant; and the Ba-Eotse to the chuene, or Cape baboon. The last-mentioned are recognised by all the others as the elder branch, hence the formerly powerful but now much reduced Ba-Eotses take precedence of all the Bechuana nations. At a'remote epoch some of the Ba-Eotses moved north of the Zambesi, where they founded a large " empire," which still exists, having recovered from its temporary overthrow by the Mako- lolos. The Ba-Kalahari Half-Breeds Other early migrations took place westwards to the Kalahari wilderness, where alliances appear to have been formed with the Bushman aborigines. But the Vaalpens,1 or Ma-Sarwa, that is, " Bad People," as the descendants of these unions are called, were regarded as outcasts by the full-blood Bechuanas, and were consequently despised, and till recently enslaved and ill-used in every way by the Ba-Eolongs and other neighbouring tribes. Amongst them are, no doubt, also included many pure Bechuanas, remnants of vanquished peoples, who from time to time took refuge in the Kalahari wilderness. But all alike have been subject to the same oppressive treatment- compelled to pay tribute in skins and other produce of the chase, to till the land as serfs, or tend the herds at the cattle stations. To protect them from these exac- tions severe edicts have been issued by the British authorities, and in 1888 it was officially announced that within the protectorate all these peoples, whether Ba- Kalahari (full-blood Bechuana refugees, called also Ba- Lala, "needy," or "mendicants") or Yaalpens, would be regarded as freemen, and that henceforth the magistrates i Farini, on his return journey, met some of these Yaalpens, who told him their real name was Kattea.—Op. cit. p. 349.358 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL would recognise no claims arising out of the assumed relations of master and slave as between the Bechuanas and the Ba-Kalahari. The Bushmen The Ba-Lala are generally understood to be true Bechuanas, the term Ma-Sarwa being applied to the half-breeds, who represent all shades of transition between the Bantu and Bushman races. Although scattered in small fragments or family groups all over South Central iffrica, the Bushman aborigines are at present mainly confined to the Kalahari wilderness, and here alone it is possible to study them in their primitive condition, in many cases still unmodified by contact with the surrounding peoples. The Bosjesmans or Bushmen of the Dutch settlers are known to the Cape Hottentots as San-qua or Soan- qua, and to the Namaquas as Saan-qua or Zaan-qua, while, according to Arbousset, they generally call them- selves Khwai} that is, "men." Their ethnical relation to the Hottentots has already been indicated at p. 183. The affinities are probably fundamental, both in physical type and speech, though there are many important features in which the Khwai differ greatly from the Khoi-Khoin. The expression is far more animated and wild, the glance more furtive, the gestures and move- ments quicker and more agile. The Bushman in this respect may be described as mercurial, the Hottentot as leaden, and the distinction applies with equal force to their mental qualities. Hence, although the former 1 Khwai is the same word as the Hottentot Khoi, and the Hottentot plural ending qua, Tcwa, Tcha, another indication that the Hottentot and Bushman languages are fundamentally one.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 359 occupies a much lower position socially, lie appears to be endowed with a greater share of natural intelligence, as shown both in his artistic taste and skill, in which the latter is singularly deficient, and in his folk-lore, which is so rich and varied, so charged with natural wisdom and sentiment, as to rank as an oral, national literature, fully on a level with that of the Polynesian islanders. H. H. Johnston met a Bushman who could speak Dutch fluently, besides English, Portuguese, Hot- tentot, and several Bantu languages. Like Lichtenstein, Bleek, and many others, this observer was struck by the " mental ability " of the race, so " strangely at variance with their low physical characters."1 All travellers speak in eloquent terms of their re- markable powers of observation and skill in delineation, as evidenced by their pictorial representations already referred to at p. 257. These rock drawings and paint- ings " differ much in aim and character. A large portion are of the caricature class, rudely, but very spiritedly, drawn in black paint. The class representing fights and hunts are a large and interesting one. It will be noticed that many of the drawings are representative of figures and incidents among white people, also of other native tribes. Some even suggest actual portraiture. The ornamentation of the head-dresses, feathers, beads, tassels, etc., seems to have claimed much care, and to have given the native artists great pleasure in delineation. The higher class of drawings will be seen to indicate correct appreciation of the actual appearance of objects; and perspective and foreshortening are found correctly rendered "2 1 Jour, of the Anthrop. Institute, 1883, p. 463. 2 "Notes on a Collection of facsimile Bushman Drawings," by Mark Hutchinson, Jour, of the Anthrop. Institute, 1882, p. 464.360 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL Yet these intellectually gifted aborigines live a life of extreme misery and hardships. By preference they dwell in caves on the uplands, descending from time to time to the plains to shoot game with their poisoned arrows, and collect the roots, berries, ants, locusts, lizards, or snakes, which form their chief nutriment. For they neither keep flocks nor herds, nor till the land, but depend almost entirely on the chase for their sustenance. Hence they are unattached to the soil, which for them has no value, and easily move about from place to place in quest of food. Owing to this hard struggle for exist- ence they have acquired extraordinary powers of endur- ance, and will often pass four or five days without eating. But when any large game is captured an incredible quantity of meat is consumed in a semi-raw state, and the gorge is followed by a long interval of repose, broken only by the necessity of again seeking for food to allay the pangs of hunger. The Bushman stands at the lowest stage of human culture, with no sense of property, no social organisation, 110 chiefs or established tribal usages, no religion, no domestic animals, no industries, no utensils or weapons, except the bow and arrow required for the hunt, no dwellings beyond a trench dug under some sheltering bush, no clothes but undressed skins thrown over the body in cold or wet weather, no marriage rites or family ties. In the Bushman language there are no words to distinguish the girl from the wife; a couple live together and rear their offspring by the same instinct that per- petuates the brute creation; the mother comes and goes at pleasure; infidelity is an unknown offence, and the women are often the prize of the stronger. There appear to be neither tribal nor even family groups in the strict sense of the term, but only theBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 361 rudimentary elements, out of which the community might under favourable conditions be gradually evolved. Hence it is that the remarkable Bushman folk-lore is concerned not so much with human as with animal life in general. The hare, the crocodile, the lion, or quagga plays quite as important a part in the scene as the native, who is more often absent than present. These dramatis persorw are even made to speak, each his own proper language, which is indicated each by its proper click. Thus, while the number of these strange sounds is restricted to six for the ordinary Bushman language, in the " literary " language they are practically unlimited, each animal introduced into the dialogue having its characteristic click used only by itself. The lessons of wisdom conveyed by these stories are all derived from the habits of the animal world, so that the Bushman may truly be said unconsciously to follow the advice of the inspired writer, " Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise." The Kalahari Bushmen are described as taller, and altogether a finer race than those of Cape Colony. But travellers' reports differ considerably; nor is it always easy to sift their evidence, for the term " Bushman" is often applied in a very loose way to dispossessed Hot- tentots, half-castes, or broken tribes, which own no flocks or herds. Even the Ma-Denassa of the Makarikari salt- pan, and the Ba-Yeye of Lake Ngami, have been called Bushmen, although the former are certainly Bechuana half-breeds, the latter a Bantu people originally from Nyassaland, but now reduced and degraded by the Ba-Twana conquerors. Many of the so-called western Bushmen as far north as Ngami are really impoverished Nam aquas, of the same extraction as the Topnaars of Walvisch Bay. They call themselves Aunin, and appear362 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL to be numerous, occupying the boundless plains extending far to the east and north to Lake Ngami. The above account applies to none of these, but only to the true Bushmen, or rather to such as have not yet been influenced by contact with their neighbours. These are now reduced to a mere handful, and are rapidly disappearing, either dying out or adapting themselves to the changed conditions of their environment. "The Bushmen in Bechuanaland in the present day are follow- ing their masters' lead in the ways of civilisation. They are employed as herds and waggon servants in South Bechuanaland; - and on our recent journey to Shoshong we found on entering Khama's country that that chief had entrusted a flock of goats to the Bushmen who were living at Mamabula. In the heart of the Kalahari the vassals have flocks of goats of their own, while they herd also the flocks of their masters." 1 Stations and Trade Routes—Material Progress The great highway running through Bechuanaland along the west frontiers of Transvaal and Matabililand north to the Zambesi, mainly traverses a somewhat arid region, which in places might even be called desert.2 But at certain intervals along its course occur more or less extensive fertile tracts, which owe their productivity to the presence of copious perennial springs, underground 1 Rev. J. Mackenzie, Blue Book, 1885, p. 63. 2 " "West of Shoshong it is waterless desert for hundreds of miles, which can only be crossed in rainy seasons, and lived in by Bushmen and Bakalagari (Ba-Kalahari). Between Shoshong and Molepolole is a corner of this desert. The distance between the two places is about 120 miles. I have, in some years, in this journey had to cross an interval of sixty miles through deep sand from one water to another."—Rev. J. S. Moffat, Blue Book, 1885, p. 105.MASINYA'S KRAAL—NGAMILAND.364 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL reservoirs, or surface streams. In these oases, as they may be called, are necessarily situated nearly all the chief centres of population, which have at some time been, or still are, royal residences, and which have in recent years assumed the character of market towns, trading marts, seats of British administration, centres of missionary activity, and even railway and telegraph stations. The whole present life and future prospects of the land are thus concentrated along the line of the vital artery, the possession of which is of paramount political importance to the suzerain power, and through which flows a continuous stream of civilising influences, thence diffused throughout the whole of South Central Africa. Shoshong, till lately the residence of the Ba-Mang- wato chiefs, is the largest native place south of the Zambesi, with a mixed Bechuana and Makalaka popula- tion, at one time estimated at 30,000. It has still a considerable population, although it has ceased to be the Mangwato capital, Khama having recently removed some miles farther north to the busy station of Palapye (Palachwe, Palatswie). Shoshong lies on the slopes of two parallel ridges which enclose a fertile plain at the converging point of the routes leading north to the Zambesi and north-west to Lake iSTgami. Molepolole (.Lepelole), headquarters of the famous Ba- Kwena chief, Secheli, lies between Shoshong and Kanya, capital of the Ba-Wanketsi nation, 120 miles south-west of the former, 70 miles north of the latter. In the neighbourhood of Molepolole is a celebrated cave which, according to the national legends, is the cradle of the Bechuana race. From it issued all living things, and on its rocky wall is shown the imprint of the first step taken by the first man emerging from its cavernousBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 365 recesses.1 Kanya stands on a well-wooded hill rising nearly 200 feet above the surrounding plain, and contains, with the five outlying villages at the foot of this hill, over 3500 huts. Much of the cultivated land is owned by the English missionaries, who have here a substantial church, residence, and schools. Kanya is followed 66 miles farther south by Mafe- king on a headstream of the Molopo close to the Transvaal frontier, and just within the frontier of the Crown Colony, of which it is at present the chief emporium, and residence of the British Commissioner. Mafeking is the present terminus (1895) of the South Central African trunk railway, which, before the end of 1890, had already reached Vryburg, 94 miles farther south. Mafeking was also till lately the terminus of the Cape telegraph system, which in 1890 was continued by the South Africa Chartered Company to Kamutsa, 80 miles farther north, and, since then, via Palapye to Mashonaland. Vryburg, that is, " Freetown," was founded by the Boer filibusters as the capital of their ephemeral " republic" of Stellaland, but has now been chosen as the seat of administration of the British Crown Colony. It lies 130 miles by rail due north of Kimberley, the only important intervening station being Taung (Taungs) on the Katong (Hart's river), present residence of the Ba-Tlapi chief, Mankoroane Molehabangue. Kuruman, one of the earliest Bechuana towns visited by Europeans, is noteworthy as the only important place in the country which does not lie on the main route between the Orange and Zambesi. It is situated some miles west of Taungs, at the foot of a sandstone hill on the right bank of the upper Kuruman river. 1 Livingstone, Last Journals.366 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL After the rupture between the Ba-Tlapi and Ba-Rolong nations, Kuruman succeeded Latuka (Lakatu) on the Takun branch of the river, as the new capital of the Ba-Tlapi people. Here the first missions were founded, and Kuruman is still the chief centre of missionary work in Bechuanaland. Kolobeng, Livingstone's first station, and the neighbouring Liteyani, in the Ba-Kwena terri- tory, have long been abandoned. In the Kalahari there are no settlements or perma- nent centres of population, but only a few scattered farmsteads and camping grounds near the springs and vleys. Along the routes between Shoshong or Mole- polole and Lake Ngami, such places are characteristically called " waters," and are described as a " brackish pan," a " small pit of fresh water," a " deep well," a " spring in the reeds," " water only during the rains," and so on. Two of these, Lohudatu, 275, and Ghansi, 445 miles from Molepolole, are the most important places in the whole wilderness, the former having several large pans and permanent waters supporting numerous herds of cattle, the latter (150 miles from Ngami) having a copious perennial spring near some probably auriferous quartz reefs and large baobab forests. Such places mark the necessary sites of future villages, and possibly even of flourishing agricultural and industrial centres. That this is no sanguine forecast may be inferred from the rapid settlement and material progress of Bechuana- land since the occupation of Mashonaland. In his official Eeport for 1890, the Administrator, Sir Sidney Shep- . pard, speaks of the enormous strides that have been made in opening up and developing the country, especially since the foundation of the British South Africa Company in 1889. The completion of the railway to Mafeking, the construction of the telegraphBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 367 with iron poles to the Zambesi, the sinking of wells, the making of roads, the building and fortifying of camps at commanding points, and the vastly increased traffic with waggons laden with stores and merchandise of all kinds along the great route to the north and north-east, all testify to the new life which the prospect of untold wealth in the goldfields of Mashona and Matabili Lands has already infused into the country. II. Zambesia South and North (Rhodesia) In strict geographical language the new term " Zam- besia " should be confined to lands comprised within the Zambesi hydrographic system. But convenience and political exigencies have already overridden such physical considerations, and " British Zambesia" in its widest sense includes districts in the extreme south which drain to the Indian Ocean through the Limpopo and other coast streams, and districts in the extreme north which drain through the Congo to the Atlantic. These outlying districts, however, are relatively of small extent; and, broadly speaking, the region in question may be said to coincide with the middle Zambesi catchment basin. It is nearly bisected by this great South African watercourse, which forms its salient geographical feature, while clearly separating the south- ern plateaux from the northern highlands and lacustrine depressions. South Zambesia—Boundaries—Extent The southern section of Zambesia comprises two main divisions—-Matabililand (Matabeleland), lately ruled by the once powerful Zulu chief, Lobengula, and Mashona- land, both of which are administered by the Chartered368 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL South Africa Company. Matabili and Mashona Lands, or " Rhodesia/' as they are now officially called in honour of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, founder of the South Africa Com- pany, occupy jointly the whole of the hilly plateau which stretches from the Limpopo northwards to the Zambesi, and which is conterminous west and east with the Bechuana- land protectorate and the Portuguese sphere of influence. Towards Bechuanaland the ill-defined frontier claimed by the Ba-Mangwato chief, Khama, runs from the confluence of the Shashi (Tati) with the Limpopo in a zigzag line north-westwards to the Guay ("Tobacco"), and then follows the course of that river northwards to its junction with the Zambesi below the Victoria Falls. On the west side the long-contested frontier with Portugal is only pro- visionally settled by the Anglo-Portuguese Agreement of June 1893, the Zambesi and its Kabompo affluent forming the provisional boundary. On the east the boundary is deflected along the northern scarp of the Mashonaland uplands south-eastwards to the Ruenya river at 33° E. long., and then coincides with that meridian southwards to the Pungwe river, where it is again deflected round to the west and south so as to leave to Portugal the Massi- Kessi district of the disputed Manica territory. Beyond this district the line again coincides with 33° E. long, as far as the Bosi river, where it turns south-westwards to 32° 30' E. long., which meridian is then followed south- wards to the Sabi at the Lunda confluence. Beyond this point the frontier is indicated by a line traced south-west- wards to the confluence of the Pafurie with the Limpopo, where the navigation is arrested by the falls.1 By this modification of the unratified 1890 Convention, England advances her eastern frontier so as to embrace the whole of 1 This boundary is (1895) in the hands of an eminent Italian jurist for arbitration.british south central africa 369 the breezy Mashona and Matabili uplands, which here rise abruptly above the level and marshy plains of Gazaland. The northern division of British Zambesia, now known as Northern Zambesia and British Central Africa, com- prises two very distinct political regions, the protectorate of Barotseland in the west, since 1894 directly adminis- tered by the South Africa Company, and in the east the Nyassaland highlands, administered by a British Com- missioner; with an intermediate group of petty states about Lakes Bangweolo and Moero, most of whose chiefs accepted the British protectorate early in 1891. But here -we seem to plunge into the unknown, and all the information we possess of this region is derived from the rapid journeys recently made for the first time by Mr. Joseph Thomson and Mr. Alfred Sharpe from Lake Nyassa westwards to Bangweolo and Moero, and south-westwards to the Zambesi. According to the " Concession" made in 1890 by Lumanika, king of Barotseland, in favour of the South Africa Company, the boundaries of the protectorate are—on the south, the Zambesi, Chobe, and Lomba rivers to 20° E. long.; on the west, the same meridian to where it is crossed by the Lumedzi; on the north, the watershed of the Zambesi to the confluence of the Lunga and Kafue rivers, about where 27° E. long, is intersected by 12° S. lat.; on the east, the whole of Mashukulumbweland, whose chiefs, hitherto independent, are now recognising Lumanika as the paramount ruler. Eastwards the frontier, as modified by the Anglo- Portuguese Agreements of 1891 and 1893, is laid down in such a way as to surrender to Portugal a tract of about 30,000 square miles on the north side of the Zambesi, which river, with all its affluents, is in return thrown open to the free navigation of all nations on the vol. ii 2 b370 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL same terms as the Congo. On the north-east the frontier line runs from the north end of Lake Nyassa to the south end of Tanganyika, and is traced so as to keep Stevenson's Road within British territory. British North Zambesia is thus conterminous westwards with the Congo Free State and Portuguese West Africa, south- eastwards and eastwards with Portuguese East Africa, north-eastwards with German East Africa, northwards with Tanganyika and the Congo Eree State. Although Zambesia nowhere approaches the seaboard, ample provision is made in the Anglo-Portuguese Agree- ments for easy access to the Indian Ocean, not only by the free navigation of the Zambesi with the Shire and all its other tributaries, but also by the stipulation that Portugal shall construct a railway between Mashonaland and the coast1 either by the Pungwe or the Bosi river valley, and shall also open a highroad from Beira at the mouth of the Pungwe to the British frontier. By these clauses Portugal, after 400 years of jealous exclusiveness, enters, so to say, into the comity of nations, and removes for ever the artificial barriers which had hitherto ob- structed free intercourse between her eastern possessions and the interior of the continent. British Zambesia, the region more immediately affected by this liberal measure, stretches across nearly fourteen degrees of latitude for about 1000 miles,from Tanganyika southwards to the Lim- popo ; and for nearly 900 miles west and east between the Portuguese spheres of influence on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Even after the recent cessions to Portugal north of the Zambesi, the total area cannot be less than 550,000 square miles, with a probable population of 3,000,000. 1 This railway is now complete from Fontesvilla, 40 miles up the Pungwe river, to Chimois on the plateau ; it is being extended southward to Beira and westward to Urn tali in the Mashonaland division of Rhodesia.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 371 Historic Retrospect—The Zimbabye Ruins At the southern extremity of Nyassa there is an abandoned missionary station called Livingstonia, and the lofty range rising above the north-west shore of the lake is known as the Livingstone Mountains. But the name of the illustrious explorer occurs nowhere else in Zambesia, a land which is nevertheless for ever sacred to his memory, for this is the scene of his great discoveries, and here he ended his days on the desolate shores of Bangweolo in the very heart of the vast region bequeathed by him as a trust to his fellow-countrymen. Down to the middle of the nineteenth century our knowledge of the Zambesi basin had made no perceptible advance since the middle of the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese plundering expeditions under Francis Baretto (1569) and others had already reached the Manica goldfields, and had established permanent stations (Sena and Tete) on the main stream. It is evident from the contemporary writers De Barros (1496-1570) and Ivano dos Santos (1505-1580) that the Portuguese at that time possessed a considerable knowledge of both banks of the Cuama (Zambesi), probably as far inland as Zumbo, though that station was not actually occupied by them till 1740. De Barros knew that " other people inland call this river Zambere,"1 that is, Zambese, the letters r and s normally interchanging in the southern Bantu dialects;2 and of the six tributaries mentioned by him all but one may be still identified with some certainty. They are the Panhames, that is, the Hanyani, rising at Mount Hampden in Mashonaland, and flowing north to the Zambesi a few miles below Zumbo; the Luamguoa, which 1 Asia, First Decade, Book X. ch. i. Lisbon, 1777. 2 Comp. the Seehuana Morimo with the Zulu-Kafir Mosimo.372 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL is the Lu-Oangwa, a large western affluent of the Hanyani; the Arruya, that is, the Buia or Luia, an upper branch of the Buenya, which reaches the Zambesi below Tete, after draining a large part of the north Mashona escarpments; the Buenia, which still bears the same name, now usually written Buenya; lastly, the Manjovo, which is the Majova, a northern tributary of the Zambesi just below the famous Lupata gorge. The identification is confirmed by the statement that all these rivers "water Benomotapa's country, and the greater number of them carry down much gold which is yielded by that land."1 This Benomotapa is elsewhere called Monomotapa,2 and his territory is described as " the great kingdom of Sofala," with a coast-line limited north and south by the Cuama and Espirito Sancto (Zambesi and Limpopo), and extending for an unknown distance inland, but so as to include the gold mines of Manica, " which lie nearest to Sofala," as well as those of Matuea 1 It is from these very rivers, Hanyani, Ruenya and its tributaries, that the Mashona natives still "bring gold-dust in quills for sale to the white men."—Maund. 2 Both titles have in fact the same meaning; the first components, Bena and Mono, being the still current Bantu words bwana, tana, muene, mwana, that is, "lord," "master," "chief," "ruler." The second part,motapa, common to both, probably means a "mine," from the Bantu word tapa = '4 to dig," '' excavate." Hence De Barros so far rightly explains these terms in the sense of " prince," or "king," or "ruler " in general, the full meaning being "Lord of the Mines," an appropriate title for the ruler of the auriferous Manica and Mashona Lands. Dos Santos, who resided in the country as a Dominican missionary, and was personally acquainted with this potentate, never uses either title, but always calls him the Juiteva. "The name of Juiteva is common to the sovereign lord of the country bordering on the river Sofala (Sabi or Pungwe), which at his accession to that dignity he assumes, to the exclusion of the titles he might before have been known by, this dignity in the esteem of the people placing him on a level with the Deity ; indeed, the Kafirs acknowledge no other god than their monarch, and to him they address those prayers which other nations are wont to address to heaven."—History, Book I. ch. iv. That DeBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 373 (Mashonaland), Toroa, or Butua, and others in the present Matabililand. De Barros had also a fairly accurate knowledge of the famous monuments of Zimbabye,1 near the present Fort Victoria in Matabililand, which were rediscovered by Adam Benders in 1868,2 and revisited and described by several members of the Chartered Company's memorable expedition to Mashonaland in 1890. His account of these monuments, now ruins, corresponds even in some of the details with that given by Maund, Bent, and other recent observers. " There are other mines," writes De Barros, " in a district called Toroa, which is otherwise known as the kingdom of Butua, whose ruler is a prince by name Burrow, a vassal of Benomotapa. This land is near the other which we said consisted of extensive plains, and those ruins are the oldest that are known in that Barros's Monomotapa and Dos Santos's Juiteva were one and the same person is evident from the fact that both are described as ruling over the same country about Sofala, and that the capital or royal residence of both was the same, Zemboe in Dos Santos, Symbctoe in De Barros, already mentioned in 1514 by Barbosa, who speaks of the "large town of the Gentiles which is called Zinbaoch."—Voyage to Malabar, translated from a Spanish MSS. for the Hakluyt Society, by the Hon. H. E. J. Stanley. In the Atlas of 1753 occurs the legend, Cujus rex Quitove, in reference to Sofala. 1 He even gives the correct meaning, "royal residence," of this word, the Bantu components of which are nzimba="a house," especially a substantial building, and mbuie ="a lord," or "chief"; hence nzimba- mbuie = Zimbabye = a chiefs dwelling, a royal residence, sedes regia, as on some of the older maps. Mbuie still means "a lord" in the Chi-Nyanja language of Nyassaland. (See A. Riddel's Grammar, London 1880. See also, for the general elucidation of these matters, A. H. Keane's The Portuguese in South Africa, in R. "W. Murray's South Africa, London 1891.) 2 "It was really Renders who first discovered these ruins, three years before Mauch saw them, though Mauch and Baines first published them to the world, and they only described what the old Portuguese writers talked of hundreds of years ago."—E. A. Maund, Geo. Proc. February 1891, p. 105.RUINS AT ZIMBABYE.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 375 region. They are all in a plain, in the middle of which stands a square fortress, all of dressed stones within and without, well wrought and of marvellous size, without any lime showing the joinings, the walls of which are over 25 hands thick, but the height is not so great compared to the thickness. And above the gateway of that edifice is an inscription which some learned Moorish (Arab) traders who were there could not read, nor say what writing it was. And grouped, as it were, round this structure are others on the same heights, like it in the stonework, and without lime, in which is a tower twelve bragas (72 feet) high. All these structures the people of the country call Symbaoe (Zimbabye), which with them means a court, for every place where Beno- motapa stays is so called; and as they speak of this as being a royal building, all the other dwellings of the king bear the same name. ... They lie west of Sofala in a straight line 17 0 leagues more or less under the latitude of 20° and 21° south. . . } In the opinion of the Moors who saw them they seemed to be very ancient, and were built there to hold possession of those mines, which are very old, from which for years no gold has been taken owing to the wars."—Loc. cit. With this may be compared the present state of the Zimbabye structures as described and illustrated by Mr. Baumann, who accompanied the Chartered Company's expeditionary force in 1890. The ruins, which stand on the edge of the Mashonaland plateau, are scattered 1 This latitude and relative position to Sofala corresponds exactly with the site of the chief ruins which are identified in Maund's map with Zimbabye, and which lie due west of Sofala, near the recently-erected Fort Victoria in Matabililand, 20° 15' S. latitude. But the distance (170 Portuguese leagues = 640 miles) is much too great, as the ruins in question are not more than about 230 miles "in a straight line" west of Sofala. The Portuguese league equals 3*84 English miles.376 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL to a great distance over a gentle slope, where a large koppje or knoll is crowned with a sort of fort composed of huge masses of granite. The main ruins on the slope below consist of massive circular walls, sometimes arranged in concentric rings, and a main building of the same form no less than 80 yards in diameter, within which a large solid conical tower, the most interesting feature of all, is enclosed by loftier and still more massive walls. The whole is built without mortar, in regular and neatly dressed courses, of uniform pieces of granite about twice the size of an ordinary brick, very hard, greenish-black in colour, and giving a metallic ring when struck. The work of disintegration is being slowly carried on by burrowing and climbing plants, but the wall is still 30 feet high with an average thickness of 18 feet at the base, tapering to about 8 feet along the irregularly broken top. On the entrance side the passage widens out so as to contain the great conical tower or keep 35 feet high and 18 feet in diameter at the base.1 Similar ruins, very old and very extensive, occur at the Benningwa hills about the upper waters of the Lunde river, and numerous other remains are now known to exist in various parts of the Matabili and Mashona plateaux all apparently connected with long-abandoned gold mines. Those at Massi-Kessi may possibly be of comparatively recent date, for the Portuguese had a mining station in that district down to the end of the last century, when they were expelled by the Ba-Eue natives driven to open revolt by their intolerable oppres- sion. But it is evident from De Barros that the chief monuments, both at Zimbabye and elsewhere, date from an epoch anterior both to Portuguese and Arab times. 1 Pall Mall Gazette, 13th October 1890.BKITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFEICA 377 Many7 conjectures have been hazarded regarding their builders, some looking on the ruins as of Phoenician or Axumite (Abyssinian) origin, others attributing them to the Persians of the Sassanid epoch. In 1891 Mr. Theodore Bent, commissioned by the Eoyal Geographical Society to examine the remains with a view to determining their origin, discovered some images and pottery which appeared to be of Sabaean workmanship, and which consequently tended to support the opinion of those archaeologists who identify this auriferous region with the Land of Ophir. Mr. Bent describes the ' ruins as absolutely unique, the walled enclosure, 260 yards round, containing many phallic emblems, which belonged evidently to a phallic temple, with walls in some places 16 feet thick and still 40 feet high. Some neighbouring remains of the same age and style comprise numerous walls and steps, arches and walled-up caves, built probably by Sabsean Arabs. A phallic altar has been found sculptured with birds and large vases, and with a frieze representing a hunting scene—four quaggas, at which a man is throwing a dart while holding a dog in a leash, and two elephants in the background. Some blue and green Persian pottery, and a copper blade plated with gold, have also been found, but no inscriptions. On the whole, Mr. Bent is inclined to attribute these monuments to pre- Mohammedan Arabs, probably of the Sabaeo-Himyaritic period.1 Geographical Research—British Occupation of Mashonaland After their occupation of Manicaland before the close of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese made no 1 Proc. R. Geo, Soc. May 1892.378 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL further attempt to open up or even to explore the interior till comparatively recent times. Except on the banks of the Zambesi, their stations were confined to the coastlands, and their knowledge of the country- inland from Sofala instead of advancing remained stationary, and in some respects even deteriorated. Thus the map accompanying Dapper's Africa, issued at Amsterdam in 1684, shows scarcely any improvement on Pigafetta's published at Eome in 1591. So great was the prevailing ignorance that De Barros's Monomo- tapa, that is, Dos Santos's Juiteva, paramount lord of the kingdom of Sofala, already figures in Dapper, not as a personal title but as a vast empire, "Monomotapa- land," as he calls it, and historical geographers have ever since been searching in vain for this fabulous empire or kingdom of Monomotapa, which never had any existence, but had its origin in a misunderstanding of the early Portuguese texts. Although possessing at least temporary stations on the Zambesi as far inland as Tete and Zumbo, the Portu- guese knew nothing of the extent of the great river, had never heard of the Victoria Falls, or even of the vast Nyassa basin, which lay so near their outpost at Sena, until the era of modern research was ushered in by Livingstone's brilliant achievements. They held the seaboard for purely fiscal purposes, and concerned them- selves with nothing but slave-dealing, tax-gathering, the levying of extortionate customs, and other vexatious regulations at the mouths of the water-courses giving access to the interior. Thus the coastlands between the Limpopo estuary and Zambesi delta continued to present formidable difficulties to travellers and explorers, until the barriers of seclusion were broken down by the Anglo-Portuguese Agreement of June 1891. Hence itBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 379 was that the inland regions were first reached by Livingstone and the other pioneers of South Central African exploration, not from the Indian Ocean by the natural highways of the Zambesi, Pungwe, Sabi, or other independent coast streams, but by the long overland route from the Cape through Bechuana and Matabili Lands. Livingstone had led the way along this route by the memorable expeditions of 1849-56, during which he discovered Lake Ngami (1849), reached the Liambai (1851), afterwards found to be the true upper course of the Zambesi, ascended this river and gained the west coast at Loanda (1854); then, retracing his steps, descended the Zambesi to the Yictoria Falls, first sighted by him (1855), and reached the east coast at Quilimane, thus earning the distinction of being the first European to cross the continent from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. During his next expedition (1858-63) he dis- covered and explored the Shire valley, Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, crowning these brilliant exploits by the dis- covery of Lakes Moero and Bangweolo (1868), and tracing a great part of the Luapula, or eastern head- stream of the Congo, as far as Nyangwe (1870). Thus the whole of the vast Zambesi basin was traversed in its entire length and breadth by this illustrious explorer, who left little for his successors to do except fill up the details of the picture roughly drawn by him. During the last two decades this work has been steadily prosecuted by travellers, hunters, traders, missionaries, scientific explorers, mining pro- spectors, and others, whose itineraries intersect each other in almost every direction throughout the whole of South Central Africa. In 1884 the whole region from the Cape to Nyassa was for the first time traversed in a north-easterly direction by W. Montagu380 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TEAYEL SALISBURY. Kerr, to whom we owe the first detailed account of Matabili and Mashona Lands. Yet so rapid has been the pro- gress of events in the last few years that this comparatively recent expedition seems already forgotten, and some of the districts for the first time visited by this pioneer are now being permanently occupied by British settlers. Before Mr. Kerr's expedi- tion, others, such as Mohr, Selous, and Holub, had also reached and even crossed the Zambesi farther west; missionary stations, some since abandoned, some still flourishing, had been founded in the ShirsS and Nyassa uplands (1872); the Matabili goldfields had been dis- covered and surveyed by Hartley, Baines, and Mauch (1868); and the whole region between the Limpopo and Zambesi had become the " Paradise of hunters," some of whom, notably Mr. Selous, have published valuable descriptions of the geographical features and ethno- logical relations of the great southern " Mesopotamia." Lastly, in 1890, the expeditionary force organised by the Chartered South Africa Company to take formal possession of Mashonaland, marched from the Limpopo along the eastern frontier of Matabililand to Mount Hampden, culminating point of the Mashona highlands,BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 381 constructing a permanent highway, throwing bridges across the streams, and erecting fortified stations, such as Forts Tuli, Victoria, Charter, and Salisbury, along the line of march. Matabililand By this occupation of Mashonaland, a memorable event in the history of British colonial enterprise, an end was put to the reign of terrorism which had pre- vailed in the region between the Limpopo and Zambesi ever since its invasion by Umsilikatzi and his disciplined hordes in 1838 (see p. 286). After crossing the Lim- popo the Matabili chief had established his headquarters at Buluwayo1 in the Matoppo hills, and here was founded the fortified encampment which enabled Umsi- likatzi and his successor, Lobengula, to hold military possession of the country (henceforth known as "Mata- bililand "2) for upwards of half a century. Here was 1 Usually, but wrongly, written Gubuluwayo, the gu being merely the Zulu prefixed particle of motion " to," and forming no part of the word, which has the characteristic meaning of the "Shambles," or "Place of Slaughter." The original Buluwayo stood on the summit of the Zambesi- Limpopo water-parting; but the royal residence was afterwards removed 18 miles farther north to the present or New Buluwayo, on a headstream of the Umkhosi or King river, 20° 10' S. lat., about 150 miles due west of the Zimbabye ruins, and 118 north-east of the Bechuana frontier at Tati. 2 Matabili, however, which is a corrupt form of the Se-Suto Ama- Ndabeli, is not the national name at all. "The proper name for my people is Zulu," said Lobengula to Mr. Kerr, in reply to a question on the subject {op. cit. p. 67). In fact the original tribe that Umsilikatzi led out of Transvaal was the Abesanzi branch of the Zulu family. These, though no longer full-blood Zulus, still form the first of the three Mata- bili classes, the two others being the Abemhla, originally Bechuana prisoners of war, and the Maholi, a motley gathering of Mashonas (Ama- Swina), Makalakas (Ma-Kolanga), and other broken tribes swept into the Matabili kraals during their incessant pillaging expeditions.382 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL introduced the terrible Zulu system of government, which had depopulated the present Natal and many broad tracts of the present Transvaal,- and which speedily reduced much of the region beyond the Limpopo to an uninhabited wilderness. The Matabili occupation was practically in the nature of a hostile camp planted in the midst of peaceful and industrious populations, such as the Ma-Kalakas, Ba-Nyais, and Ma-Shonas, who were partly exterminated, partly enslaved, or driven to the more inaccessible highland districts by the periodical razzias of the Zulu impis. The sphere of these raids was gradually widened, until they embraced the whole region west to Lake Ngami, east to Gazaland, north to and even beyond the Zambesi. They may be compared to the plundering expeditions of the Turkoman marau- ders, finally suppressed by the Bussian occupation of Merv, and as British philanthropists eagerly applauded that occupation, preceded as it was by torrents of blood, it is strange that many of the same philanthropists have uttered disapproval of the Chartered Company's bloodless occupation of Mashonalarid, by which the period of Matabili government by systematic plunder and massacre was closed for ever. What this regime meant for the unfortunate abori- gines has been vividly told by Mr. Kerr. "Attack is entirely a matter of cunning and stalking. A Matabili impi (army) will approach as stealthily and as invisibly as snakes, crawling as closely upon the ground, and concealed by the undergrowth, they watch the move- ments of their intended victims, the timid Mashona. Then, when a favourable opportunity occurs, up they rise like a wild black cloud of destruction. Hissing and shrieking their fiercest battle-cry, they bound and leap like the Mipsjoringer (antelope) from rock to rock, deal-BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 383 ing with fearful precision the death-giving blow of the assegai, and ever and anon shouting with a thrilling ecstasy their terrific cry of triumph, as they tear out the yet beating hearts of their victims. After a pursuit of the flying and panic-stricken horde, the ravagers herd in the straying cattle, and then the devastating cloud moves away, gathering in its circuitous route other nebulae in the shape of slave girls and boys, as well as the cattle from perhaps hundreds of hitherto quiet and smiling valleys. They return to their king with news of victory; dancing as they sing the story of their soul- stirring and daring deeds, while in feasting they drink the beer made by the hands of the girls whose parents' lives and property were the fruits of the chase, their bones lying bleaching in the sun amid the weather-worn rocks of the deserted highland home/'1 But the system could not last. The periodical raids yearly became less " profitable "; those sent against the Bechuanas and Towanas of Lake Ngami often ended in disaster; there was no source whence the losses of the Zulu impis could be repaired; the missionaries at Hope Fountain, Buluwayo, Inyati, and other stations, though making scarcely any converts, had a certain influence in mitigating the ferocity of. the Matabili hordes; the country was invaded by Boer squatters and overrun in all directions by British hunters, travellers, and mining prospectors; the indunas themselves felt that their occupation was gone; thanks to arrangements made by English agents at Buluwayo no attempt was made to interfere with the Chartered Company's expedi- tionary force to Mashonaland; Lobengula, who had suc- ceeded TJmsilikatzi in 1870, felt his position so insecure, that he more than once made preparations to migrate 1 Op. cit. vol. i. p. 104.384 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL northwards beyond the Zambesi. In the hope of saving a remnant of his waning authority, he had accepted the British protectorate, undertaking to introduce orderly government and put a stop to the periodical raids in the surrounding lands. But this arrangement did not suit his unruly subjects, who lived by war and rapine, and who, about the middle of the year 1893, began to renew their plundering expeditions in Mashonaland. This brought about the inevitable collision between the impis and the levies of the Chartered Company, which, acting in concert with the imperial forces advancing from Bechuanaland, defeated the king's best troops in every encounter, and occupied Buluwayo in November 1893. Lobengula, who had already taken flight in the direction of the Zambesi, died of fever on 23rd January 1894, at a spot some 40 miles south of that river. He had been abandoned by nearly all his followers, and after his death the whole nation ceased all further resistance. With the disbandment of the impis, the Zulu military system was brought to an end, and Matabililand was incorporated in the territory of the Chartered Company. A peaceful and equable settlement speedily followed, and the system of administration already adopted in Mashona- land has been extended to the newly acquired territory, with such modifications as were required by the changed conditions. The effective administration remains in the hands of the Chartered Company, the respon- sible authority being vested, not in the Administrator alone, as heretofore, but in the Administrator in Council, who thus takes the place of the Governor in Council of Crown Colonies. The Council consists of three nominated members, and a judge nominated by the Company with the assent of the Secretary of State, and removable by the Secretary of State alone. The arrangement, whichBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 385 applies equally to Mashona and Matabili Lands, is thus in the nature of a compromise between a Crown Colony and territory administered exclusively by a Chartered Company. The Barotse and Makololo States In the regions beyond the Zambesi, the chief part has been played in recent times, not by Zulu but by Bechuana or Basuto intruders from the south. At some unknown but apparently not very remote epoch, a branch of the Barotse nation had passed northwards and founded a large " empire " about the middle course of the Zambesi. But when Livingstone first penetrated to this region he found that the rulers of the land were no longer the Barotse but the kindred Makololo (Man- tati), a branch of the Basuto or eastern Bechuanas. These Makololos, whose name has become a household word throughout the Zambesi and Shir£ basins, moved northwards about the year 1835 under their chief, Sebituana, who, like Umsilikatzi, had been one of Chaka's indunas, and who, like him also, was thoroughly familiar with the Zulu military system. About that time a general dislocation of the tribes north and south of the Yaal was caused by the combined pressure of the conquering Zulu hordes advancing from the east, and of the Boer Voor-Trekkers moving up from the south. Thus threatened on two sides in their original homes about the sources of the Yaal, the Makololos were led by Sebituana along the eastern verge of the Kalahari in quest of new lands, but found no resting-place until they had reached the banks of the Zambesi. Here their disciplined valour enabled them rapidly to overrun the Barotse territory, and reduce the natives to a state of servitude. VOL. II 2 c386 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Sebituana was succeeded in 1850 by his son, Living- stone's friend, Sekeletu, and he by Impololo (Impororo), last of the Makololo dynasty. Constant fratricidal strife and rivalries for the leadership soon wasted the strength of the intruders, and a sudden rise of the oppressed Barotse resulted in the total extermination of all the Makololos settled in the region north of the Chobe. Those dwelling south of that river took refuge with the Ba - Twana of Lake Ngami, but only to meet a like fate ; nearly all the men were massacred, and the women and children distributed amongst the surround- ing tribes. The Barotse empire was thus reconstituted and even advanced in several directions beyond its former limits, absorbing the Mabunda and others on the terraces north of the Zambesi, and reducing either to servitude or vassalage the Masupias about the Chobe and Zambesi confluence, the Ba - Tonga occupying the north bank of the Zambesi above the Victoria Falls, and quite recently (1891) the numerous Bashukulumbwe (Ukulombwe) tribes of the Kafukwe basin, as well as some of the Manica1 people, whose little known territory appears to extend east to the Chogwe affluent of the Zambesi, and north to the Iramba country towards Katanga. At the time of Dr. Holub's visit (1875) the restored Barotse kingdom comprised eighteen large nations with over a hundred subdivisions, and stretched from the Zambesi-Chobe confluence for fifteen or twenty days in the direction of the north. At present King Lumanika, who accepted the British protectorate in 1890, rules directly or indirectly over the whole of the Middle Zambesi basin south and west to the Chobe, east to and beyond the Kafukwe, north to the head-waters 1 Not to be confounded with the historical Manica people of the auriferous region east of Mashonaland.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 387 of the Kabompo, a vast region embracing an area of at least 250,000 square miles, with a population vaguely estimated at from 600,000 to 1,000,000. Short as was the political sway of the Makololo, it lasted long enough to impose their Sesuto language on the Barotse nation and several of the surrounding tribes. Hence the curious phenomenon that, while the Makololo people have disappeared from this part of Central Africa, their speech continues to be the chief medium of com- munication amongst the riverain populations and gener- ally throughout the Barotse kingdom. Sesuto being itself merely a variety of Sechuana, it follows that this Bantu idiom is now almost exclusively current from the banks of the Orange to the confines of Katanga, where it comes in contact with Umbundu and Ki-Swahili (see p. 148). 'Nov have the Makololo ceased to exist, even as a political factor, as is asserted by some writers.1 In the year 1859, that is, some time before the Barotse " Revolution," Sekeletu sent a small party of Makololo, Barotse, Batoka,2 and other subject tribes, with Living- stone to the east coast in quest of a cure for leprosy, from which the king was suffering. This little band, which took the collective name of Makololo, never returned to Barotseland, but settled on the right bank of the Shire below the falls. Here they gradually reduced most of the surrounding tribes and founded several petty " Makololo " states which still exist, and at 1 Referring to the successful Barotse rising, Mr. Mackenzie writes : " Thus perished the Makololo from among the number of South African tribes. No one can put his finger on the map of Africa and say, 'Here dwell the Makololo.' "—Ten Years North of the Orange River. 2 Properly Ba-Tonga, of which Batoka is a corrupt Makololo form. The Ba-Tongas are closely related in speech and usages to the neighbour- ing Ba-Shukulumbwe people (Selous).388 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL present comprise the whole of the lower Shire valley between the falls and the Euo confluence. But they are Makololo states in name only, for of the original founders not more than two were of Makololo stock, and the prevailing language is not Sesuto, as in Barotseland, but the Chi-Nyanja of the Anyanja (Manganja), the dominant aboriginal race between Lake Nyassa and the Zambesi. Long before the arrival of the Makololo, the ISTyassa uplands had been invaded by other intruders from the south, who were chiefly of Zulu race, or at least passed for Zulus, and had been trained to the use of arms under Chaka or some of his military chiefs. North of the Zambesi these Landins, as they are called by the Portu- guese, bore many names, such as Ma-Viti, Ma-Zitu, Ma-Ngone (A-Ngone), U-Mgoni, Munhae, and so on; but although they arrived as invincible conquerors, exterminating whole tribes and laying waste many lands, especially between the Eovuma and Eufigi rivers east of Nyassa, they nowhere succeeded in founding a powerful state such as those of Umsilikatzi in Mata- bililand and Manikus in Gazaland. Possessing no political cohesion, and arriving in separate bands at different times, each successive horde regarded its pre- decessor in the light of an enemy, and while occasionally combining to plunder the native tribes they more frequently turned their arms against each other. At present none of the Zulu fighting bands possess any dominant power in Nyassaland. The Ma-Viti of the upper Shire districts have even made treaties with the English political agents, binding themselves to give up slave-hunting, to resist the Arab slave-dealers, to respect the missionary stations, and generally to abandon their lawless predatory habits and settle down to peacefulBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 389 ways. Thus the beneficent results of the spread of British influences are already being felt throughout North as well as South Zambesia.1 Physical Features of South Zambesia—Mineral Wealth The region between the Limpopo and Zambesi may be regarded as a northern extension of the Transvaal plateau, standing at a mean elevation of from 3000 to 4000 feet, and obliquely intersected by the Matoppo hills, which culminate north-eastwards in the Mashona highlands, and which, throughout their entire length of about 400 miles, from Tati to Mount Hampden, form a distinct water-parting between the streams flowing north- west and north to the Zambesi, south-east to the Limpopo, Sabi and other affluents of the Indian Ocean. The plateau falls abruptly northwards to the Zambesi and eastwards to Gazaland, so that the outer escarp- ments seen from these low-lying alluvial plains present the aspect of unbroken mountain ranges from 4000 to about 5000 feet high. Elsewhere the incline is much more gentle, and the main routes pass from Shoshong and Palapye through the Tati hills north - eastwards, or from Fort Tuli northwards, by a gradual but continuous ascent to Mount Hampden (5000 feet), apparently the 1 To these results the Zulu half-breeds have themselves contributed. When Captain H. J. Keane was engaged in composing the fresh disturb- ances that had broken out in 1892 in the Zambesi-Nyassa region, he found the Angoni well disposed towards the English, and received willing aid from them in his efforts to restore order. This unexpected change in their attitude was due to the fact that, since the overthrow of the Zulu empire, they have renewed relations with their kindred beyond the Limpopo, and Captain Keane ascertained that "word had been sent northwards from the Cape Zulus that their industry in the diamond and gold fields might be injuriously affected if the northern Zulus in our country were unfriendly to us."390 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL highest point in South Zambesia. The former runs from Tati (2630 feet) through Buluwayo (3500) and Umbajin (3600) to Hartley Hill (3800), while the latter, opened by the Chartered Company's expeditionary force in 1890, ascends from Fort Tuli (3000 ?) through Forts Victoria (3670) and Charter (4750) to Salisbury (4960) on Mount Hampden. A striking feature of the tableland are the numerous granite koppjes, hills or knolls which are widely distri- buted, especially over the southern districts beyond Tati and about the Lunde and Sabi river valleys. These koppjes appear to represent the harder core of rocks, the softer parts of which have been extensively eroded or we'athered during the long ages that the plateau stood out as dry land between the waters of the Indian Ocean on the east and of the great inland Zambesian sea on the west and north. The whole region has been compared to a "storm-tossed sea of granite," where huge boulders of fantastic shape are balanced upon granite hills often of considerable size, in the wildest confusion, as if result- ing from some suddenly arrested convulsion of nature. " These koppjes are formed of immense blocks of granite piled up in every conceivable form, some looking like the ruins of old castles perched on crags unassailable by aught but time, others taking the fantastic shape of animals, or standing up like obelisk monuments fashioned by nature out of one piece of granite of gigantic size, often poised on the point of a steep koppje where none but the Great Architect of the Universe could place it. The country is one bristling mass of such koppjes from the Samokwe to the Shashani river (75 miles from Tati). Thence they stretch away to the Matoppo Mountains, and culminate near Old Buluwayo in Tab Ingoko Mountain, 5000 feet above the sea" (E. A. Maund).BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 391 Quartz reefs crop out in the valleys between the granite hills, and much gold is said to be washed down by the numerous streams flowing from these hills to the Shashani, which traverses an extensive koppje district on its course to the Limpopo. The richest gold-bearing reefs, however, seem to lie mainly in the Tati hills and Mashona mountains, that is, at the south-western and north-eastern extremities of the Zambesi-Limpopo water- parting, and along the eastern escarpment of the plateau towards the Gazaland frontier. But the extensive ruins at Zimbabye, in the Benningwa Hills and many other places, all evidently associated with old mining operations, show that the auriferous deposits are probably widely distributed throughout the whole of the plateau. In 1891 large deposits of alluvial gold were discovered so far north as the district of Mount Shankuru, about 70 miles north-west of Mount Hampden, and every indica- tion tends to show that either native or alluvial gold occurs almost everywhere in the region stretching from Swaziland and the Natal frontier north to the Zambesi. Formerly the Portuguese exported from the Manica district alone about 130 lbs. weight per annum, and the quantity forwarded from their possessions in a few years was estimated at 2,000,000 metigals, or over £1,000,000 sterling. But the Manica mines were closed by the Zulus early in the present century, and the occurrence of gold in South Zambesia seemed to be almost forgotten till its rediscovery in 1865-68 by Henry Hartley, Thomas Baines, Carl Mauch, and C. J. Nelson. The glowing descriptions of these pioneers, who were either practical miners or skilled geologists, have been largely confirmed by more recent research, which so far bears out Mr. F. Mandy's assertion that the northern slopes of Mashonaland " will eventually prove to be the alluvial392 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL goldfields of the world. The neighbourhood of the Amazoe and its tributary streams is a veritable El Dorado. I have seen ignorant natives, with the rudest appliances, and practically no knowledge of gold working, wash large quantities from the surface soil. Over an area of several hundred square miles gold is to be found in every stream. Here is what will prove the largest and richest goldfield that the world has ever seen; extending from the great granite backbone in the south to within 60 miles of the Zambesi in the north, and from the Sabia (Sabi) in the east to the N"ata river (flowing to the Makaraki Salt-Pan) in the west, this huge auriferous area ever improves and grows richer to the north, north-east, and east. The immense waves of promising quartz which seam the country, cutting through the soft soapy slate in a north-easterly direction, the numberless old workings to be found everywhere, and the inability of some of the reefs to hide their gold from the prying though cautious gaze of the observant white man, all tends to prove the wonderful mineral wealth here locked up. Eight through the royal town of Buluwayo runs an immense reef carrying visible gold. Close alongside Umvuchwa, country residence of Loben- gula, streams another great reef, also unable to hide the gold imprisoned within its bosom. Two miles north-east of the old capital is still another grand quartz reef with visible gold, and all these reefs have been traced for some miles. In every direction you may chance to ride the same indications greet your gaze—soft slate on edge with intersected veins of quartz." 1 At Sinoia's kraal, near the source of the Angwa, about 60 miles north-west of Fort Salisbury, Mr. Selous lately discovered a most remarkable old working, which 1 Matabililand, 1889.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA ' 393 he describes as a vast circular pit, over 100 feet deep and at least 60 in diameter, now flooded by a lake which extends some 180 feet into a spacious cavern under the rock. The water is of a lovely deep cobalt blue, and so clear that pebbles are visible at the bottom. A slanting shaft, running at an angle of about 45° from a point 300 feet from the top of the pit, strikes the bottom just at the edge of the water. All the excava- tions appear to be the result of old workings, which, after exhausting a vein of quartz along the shaft, tapped a spring of water, which, welling up, formed the under- ground lake and flooded the works. The rocky walls of the tunnel are covered with innumerable scores, apparently made by some kind of iron instrument, and the remains represent a prodigious amount of human labour. There are no native traditions regarding these works, or about the extensive lemon and citron groves in the same district, which being here exotic plants, were no doubt introduced by the old miners from Persia or the Mediterranean.1 Besides gold, other metals, especially copper and iron, are widely distributed throughout South Zambesia. The large perennial pool near the confluence of the Tati and Shashi rivers is the centre of an old mining district, where iron and copper, as well as gold, were worked by the Mashonas before they were conquered or driven north by Umsilikatzi's impis. Hartley Hill also consists largely of rich iron deposits;2 and still farther north, in 1 The introduction of the orange and lemon is generally attributed to the Portuguese missionaries. But long before their time these plants were widely diffused throughout the eastern seaboard. Barbosa (1514) already speaks in several places of " oranges, lemons, and cedrats " as abounding in Mombasa, the island of St. Lawrence (Madagascar), and Zanzibar (op. cit. passim). 2 Its native name is Thaba Insibi, the "Iron Mountain" ; and here " virgin iron is dug out that without smelting is hammered into assegai heads and hoes " (F. Mandy).394- COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the Mashona highlands, the natives mine and smelt iron ores, working the metal into spear-heads, knives, hoes, and many other articles, well wrought despite their primitive processes. The iron is white, very tough, and malleable. In 1894 a survey of the Lebangwe affluent of the Zambesi revealed the presence of large copper deposits, and of extensive coal beds, and even gave indications of diamond-bearing ground. The seams of coal vary in thickness from nine inches to four feet, and appear to be of great extent. Matabililand Scenery—Climate—Fauna Altogether the South Zambesian uplands are one of the most highly-favoured regions in the whole of Africa. " The scenery of the country is of the grandest type, but mingled with it are the loveliest and most fairylike scenes that can be conceived. At first the hills are scattered; but the landscape becomes more broken as you proceed to the north. At last, after passing the Mangwi river, we enter a very world of mountains, where colossal granite boulders are pitched in every direction, where every valley is a rippling stream of pale-blue water, from whose bed the ground gently rises, covered with most luxuriant grass, to where those wonderful granite structures rear their time - worn sides. Then grand trees rise up, and from out the spaces between these Titanic rocks hang forth* their graceful and brilliant foliage, toning down their other- wise desolate grandeur to an aspect of almost enchanting loveliness. ... Hundreds of streams are born here; fountains are everywhere; and the curious pale-blue water, peculiar to granite formations, can be seen gliding along the bottom of every valley. Crossing the Sheshani,BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 395 and climbing a steep and very difficult ascent, we emerge on the summit of the great divide between the Zambesi and Limpopo watersheds. From here the view to the east, west, and south is indescribably beautiful. At sunrise, with the delicate purplish haze of the early morning mists mantling the distant peaks, the wondrous combination of peaceful glades rich with yellow waving grasses, the more sombre hues of the scattered clumps of forest trees, and the grandeur of the granite hills, their sides and tops shining and polished by the hand of ages; this mingling of the beautiful with the sublime, softened by distance, and the iridescent tints of the mist-charged air, forms a scene of glorious beauty, and Fairyland seems spread before one."1 The same writer, who has an extensive personal knowledge of this region, assures us that no South African country offers such splendid advantages to the British farmer as Matabili and Mashona Lands, being well suited for irrigation and small holdings, and capable of supporting a vast population. All European cereals, as well as most European and tropical fruits and vege- tables, thrive well; while the climate is for the most part quite as healthy as that of Transvaal, and European children born in the country grow up strong and healthy. The climate of Mashonaland has been declared by Mr. Selous, than whom no better authority could be quoted, to be " as good a one as any man has a right to expect in this troublesome world." The despatch of the late expeditionary force has placed beyond doubt the exist- ence of a lofty plateau from 4000 to 5000 feet high, abundantly watered, and, as a rule, well timbered, with a climate well adapted for Europeans, with a constant fresh breeze settling from the south-east, and tempering 1 F. Mandy, op. cit.396 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the tropical rays to a degree of actual coolness. A rain- fall of over 40 inches has been registered at Buluwayo; and although the glass rises at times to 105° and even 111° F. in the shade, this intense heat, thanks to the dryness of the atmosphere, is less oppressive than 85° on the seaboard, where the air is saturated with moisture. The temperature is not quite so cold as that of South Transvaal in winter, and somewhat higher in summer, during which, being the wet season, the extreme heats are tempered by frequent thunderstorms. Diarrhoea and dysentery, caused probably by the water, are the most prevalent disorders amongst strangers, ague being mainly confined to the low-lying swampy and riverain tracts. In the extensive high veldt of Matabililand proper, " fever is unknown, and white children could be reared, which is a sine qud non in a country if it is to be colonised by white men" (Lieut. Maund, Blue Book, August 1885, p. 117). Elsewhere this well-informed writer remarks that Matabililand " is probably the most healthy part of South Africa, and its agricultural capa- bilities are surpassed by none. The soil is very rich, and there is plenty of water in running streams that abound." He also declares that the climate of the Mashona highlands "is far more healthy than that of the now well-colonised seaboard of South Africa, The seasons are well marked, and the rainfall good. For eight months, from April to November, the air is par- ticularly dry and salubrious; during and just after the rains one must be careful, as in all tropical climates. But with proper precautions, dwellings placed high and above exhalations from the marshes left by the subsiding rivers, the new mining and farming communities will be as healthy as are the missionaries who have lived so long there with their families" (Geo. Proc. Dec. 1890).BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 397 The fat-tailed Cape sheep do well everywhere, but the open uplands are not suited for milch cows in winter, and although good pasturage abounds, lung sickness and other distempers are prevalent amongst the cattle and horses. The tsetse pest appears to be mainly confined to TWO-HOBNED RHINOCEROS. the Limpopo and Zambesi valleys, and even here it tends to disappear with the disappearance of large game. In former times De Barros tells us that elephants were very numerous, yielding large quantities of ivory, which, together with gold, was exported through Sofala to the Indian market in exchange for silk and cotton stuffs from Cambay. Elephants still exist, though in reduced398 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL numbers, as well as other large South African fauna, such as the lion, leopard, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, ■-........... GIRAFFES. buffalo, baboons, koodoo, water-buck, bush-buck, stein- buck, giraffe, pheasants, guinea-fowl. In fact, game is still so abundant that the expeditionary force ofBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 399 1890 was able to supply itself " all along the road" (Ellerton Fry). Inhabitants of South Zambesia When Umsilikatzi was driven across the Limpopo (see p. 286), the upland region between that river and the Zambesi was mainly occupied by three Bantu nations, forming a more or less homogeneous group different both from the Bechuanas and Zulu-Kafirs, and on the whole at a somewhat lower stage of culture than either of those half-civilised peoples. These were the Makalakas (Ma-Kolonga1), chiefly in the south, that is, about the streams flowing from the Matoppo divide, south-east to the Limpopo ; the Banyai (Ba-Nyai), chiefly in the north-west, that is, about the streams flowing from the same divide north-west to the Middle Zambesi; and the Mashonas (Ama-Swina), chiefly in the north, that is, on the highlands to which they give their name. A clear understanding of this geographical distribution of the primitive populations will enable the historical student at once to recognise the sagacity of the Matabili chief, who, by establishing his central military kraal at Buluwayo on the Matoppo divide, was able to overawe both the Makalakas and Banyai occupying its two watersheds, and at the same time to show a bold front towards the Mashonas, better protected than the others in the natural strongholds of their northern highlands. The result is that, although all three still exist, the Mashonas alone retain a semblance of national coherence ; while the Makalakas and Banyai have been effaced as distinct nationalities from the map of South Zambesia. Certainly the Mashonas have suffered terribly from 1 Ma-Kalanga, i.e. " The Children of the Sun."400 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the periodical attacks of the disciplined Zulu hordes, those dwelling on the southern slopes having been either exterminated or reduced to a hard servitude, the rest maintaining their independence only by leading the life of troglodytes in their mountain fastnesses. But nothing could save the Makalakas and Banyai, who have been everywhere enslaved except in the extreme west and north-west, where a few Makalakas have settled in Shoshong and along the Guai valley in Bamangwato territory, where some Banyai groups have found a refuge in the Mafungobuzi hills and on the right bank of the Zambesi. Some of the Makalakas have even moved across the Zambesi, and are now settled on the left bank between the Yictoria Falls and the Guai con- fluence. On the other hand the Mashona territory has been encroached upon by some Barotses (Bechuanas), who have established themselves in the district south- west of Mount "Wedza, about the head-waters of the Sabi; but they have forgotten their Se-Chuana language, and now speak the dialect of the surrounding Mashonas. The son of their chief, Sipiro, lately subject to King Gungunyana of Gazaland, but now under the British protectorate, informed Bishop Knight Bruce that they were kinsmen of the Zambesi Barotses, the Matabili having driven one section northwards, the other south- wards.1 Both the Banyai and Makalakas " are closely allied by language and customs to the Mashonas " (Mackenzie), who may be regarded as the primitive stock of this Zambesian group. Although physically inferior, they are in other respects greatly superior to the Matabili, being naturally of peaceful disposition, agriculturists rather than herdsmen, growing large quantities of rice, 1 Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. June 1890.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 401 Indian corn, and tobacco, and showing great skill in several arts, such as cotton weaving, dyeing (with native indigo), and especially iron and copper work. But morally they stand at a somewhat low level, being described as cowardly, suspicions, and selfish, and there can be no doubt that the race has been degraded by the wars, massacres, and oppression of the Matabili conquerors. The Matabili themselves have suffered by contact with these peoples, and not more than a fourth of the Abezansi, or First Class, can now pretend to be of pure Zulu blood. In their marauding expeditions their constant practice was to kill all adults and carry off the children, who were brought up in the military kraals, where they soon forgot their mother tongue, and prided themselves on being "Matabili." Thus in this region, as in so many other parts of Central Africa, the Zulu name rather than the race has been perpetuated by alli- ances and interminglings of all sorts with the aborigines. Besides the recognised tribal groups, scattered over Matabililand are certain low-caste tribes collectively known as Ama-Zizi. They appear to be survivors of the primitive Hottentot-Bushman race, 'whose domain for- merly extended north to the Zambesi. At present these Ama-Zizi lead a sort of wandering gipsy life, conjurers, and medicine-men, held in much awe for their supposed supernatural powers. The European gipsies are simi- larly credited by the ignorant classes with second sight and other " uncanny gifts." North Zambesia In no part of the continent have more surprising scientific, political, and social transformations taken place in recent years than in the region between the Zambesi VOL. II 2 D402 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL and Lake Tanganyika. ' Within less than a single decade the rough work of exploration accomplished by Living- stone has been completed in all essential details through- out the whole of the lacustrine and highland district of Nyassaland, from the Shir£ river and Lake Shirwa northwards to Lakes Rukwa and Tanganyika. These magnificent uplands, with their vast flooded basins, which had remained unknown to the Portuguese settled for nearly four hundred years at their very portals, have become the scene of British missionary and commercial enterprise. Portuguese slave - dealing has been sup- pressed in the south; Arab slave - raiding has been successfully resisted, and, it may be hoped, permanently arrested, by a handful of brave Englishmen in the north. Steamers, serving the highest interests of humanity, have been launched on both of the great lakes, which are now connected by a highway familiarly known as "Steven- son's Eoad." Temporary or permanent missionary and trading stations have been founded at Blantyre and Mandala in the Shir4 highlands,1 at Livingstonia, Band- 1 Hermann von Wisstnan, who passed through Nyassaland in 1887, describes the Scottish missionary station at Blantyre, and the African Lakes Company's station at Mandala, as the best and finest European settlements he had seen in any part of inner Africa (.Meine Zweite Durch- querung Aequatorial-AfrikcCs, etc. ; Frankfurt am Oder, 1891). Still more recently (1889) the French traveller, Captain Trivier, was struck by the rapid spread of humanising British influences throughout.the Nyassa- Tanganyika plateau. "When I met Captain Trivier at Karonga he had prepared me for the marked way. in which the people of Mambwe and Ulungu had been ' Britannicised,' more by the presence among them of the London Missionary Society's agents than by the Lakes Company. What struck Captain Trivier most forcibly was that, wherever he went through those lands, the natives invariably greeted him with 1 Good morning,' a salutation originally learnt from the missionaries (it dates back to Livingstone's days), but which has now come into common use among many of the people who have not yet seen a white man."—Consul H. H. Johnston in Proc. Hoy. Geo. Soc. December 1890, p. 73G.BLANTYRE CHURCH.404 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TEAVEL awe, Sikoma, and Karonga, on the southern and western shores of Nyassa and elsewhere. Strong military posts, garrisoned by Sikhs from India, have also been established at several points, such as Fort Fife on the plateau between Nyassa and Tanganyika, Fort Abercorn at the southern extremity of Tanganyika, Fort Eosebery on the Luapula midway between Lakes Bangweolo and Moero,Fort Maguire on the south-east side of Lake Nyassa, Fort Sharpe on the Shire below Lake Pamalombe, and Fort Johnston, also 011 the Shir£ five miles from the south end of Lake Nyassa. Successful political and exploring expeditions have penetrated from the Nyassa basin westwards and north-westwards beyond the Zambesi-Congo water-parting. A journey of great scientific interest has been made along the frontier of the Nyassaland Protectorate by Mr. Consul J. Buchanan.1 Lastly, the A-Nyanja, or "Lake People/' hitherto plunged in the deepest ignorance, and superstition, have already made some progress both in letters and European mechanical arts. Even the fierce Yao slave- hunters have been partly reclaimed, and Commissioner Johnston tells us that the entire work of setting up and printing the British Central Africa Gazette is done by members of this predatory tribe.2 According to the report for 1891 of the Livingstonia Mission on Lake Nyassa, supported by the Free Church of Scotland, as many as 4000 children are at present receiving systematic instruction in the local schools ; excellent bricks are made by the natives in large quantities at a surprisingly cheap rate; they are thus acquiring a taste for neat and com- fortable dwellings, one of the primary conditions of social progress, while the influence of their teachers is becoming yearly more widespread, discouraging the barbarous. 1 See Report in the Kew Bulletin for July 1891. 2 Beport for 1891-93, p. 24.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 405 practice of witchcraft, substituting free labour in the fields and houses for domestic slavery, and showing by precept and example the advantage of peaceful ways over chronic intertribal warfare. Since the suppression of the Arab and Tao slave-hunters legitimate trade has begun to flourish, the exports having risen from nearly £7000 in 1891 to over £85,000 in 1894, and the imports from £33,000 to £76,000 in the same period. Of the exports the most important at present are ivory, oil-seeds, and especially coffee, which appears to grow wild throughout the Congo and East African forest. Coffee-planting promises to become the staple industry of British Central Africa. The export of this article has increased in geometrical proportion since 1892, and that of 1895 "can now be definitely expected to fully double that of 1894."1 Physical Features The Mashona uplands are continued north of the Zambesi by the Shire and Nyassa highlands, the whole system forming part of the outer continental escarpments, which are here pierced both by the Zambesi at the Kebrabase Falls above Tete, and by the Shir£ at the Murchison, Pampaze, and other rapids above the Elephant Marsh. On the probable assumption that a great part of Central Zambesia at one time formed a vast lacustrine basin, it was through these flood-gates that much of the great inland sea was gradually discharged eastwards to the Indian Ocean. Although Nyassa, southernmost member of the East African lacustrine group, lies at an altitude of scarcely more than 1570 feet above sea-level, the Nyassa-Shire uplands 1 Consul-General Sharpe's Report for 1894.406 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL attain far greater elevations than those of Mashonaland. The lake itself is encircled by mountains, which even on the west or lower side rise to 5500 feet in the sandstone Chombe (Waller) peak near Florence Bay, and which in the Kirk range farther south have an elevation of over 6000 feet. West of these escarpments the Yipsha (Zipsha) plateau presents the appearance of an open grassy plain, extending westwards to the territory of Muasi (successor of Livingstone's Muasi), at a mean elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet (Sharpe). Far loftier is the imposing Livingstone range which sweeps round the north-eastern shores of Nyassa, rising sheer above the water's edge to a height of from 9000 to 10,000 feet. South of this range Mount Mtonia, at the source of the Eovuma river, is probably over 5000 feet, while the whole system culminates in the Shire highlands with the magnificent Milanji Massive, which stands 9000 feet on a pedestal already 2000 feet ai>ove the sea. Milanji extends 20 miles eastwards to a narrow pass separating it from Mount Cheza, whose wooded crests tower above the south side of Lake Shirwa.1 From Karonga on the north-west coast of Nyassa the Stevenson Eoad leads across the level N'Konde plain (60 feet above the lake) and over some very rough hilly ground up to the plateau between Nyassa and Tanganyika, which for a breadth of about 170 miles maintains an altitude of from 4000 to 5000 feet. This plateau, which is skirted north and west by the Chingambo Mountains 1 Milanji was ascended for the first time in October 1891 by Mr. Alexander Whyte, who found it more suitable for a sanatorium than many of the hill-stations in India and Ceylon. Both the flora, with its gigantic conifers (Widdringtonia) and gorgeous wild flowers, and the fauna with its immense variety of finches, honey-birds, warblers, fly- catchers and other birds, presented many features of great interest to the naturalist (Parliamentary Papers, Africa, No. 5, 1892).BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 407 (6000 to 7000 feet), forms one of the great continental water-partings. Within one and a half day's march Dr. Kerr Cross has stood on the banks of streams such as the Songwe and Loangwa, flowing, the former through Lake Nyassa, the latter through the Zambesi to the Indian Ocean; the Saisi running to the closed basin of the salt Lake Eukwa, and several headstreams of the Chambezi, farthest south-eastern affluent of the Congo.1 This upland region is generally well watered, and covered with rich herbage interspersed with clumps of fine timber presenting the park-like aspect so character- istic of the African tablelands. The whole country is evidently one of the most highly favoured in climate, fertility of soil, abundance of water, and natural products in the whole continent, its proximity to the equator being more than counterbalanced by its mean elevation of over 4000 feet, and by the invigorating south-eastern breezes from the austral seas. "The land at the north end of the lake (Nyassa) is a veritable African Arcadia. You may walk for miles and miles through banana plantations; then you may emerge upon wide-stretching fields of maize and millet and cassava. All the oozy water-meadows are planted with rice; but above all, the great wealth of the country is in cattle, which thrive remarkably in the N'Konde district, and. consequently milk and beef are cheap and abundant. The inhabitants of this happy land are a contented, pleasant-dispositioned folk, who knew no trouble until the Arabs sought to subdue them a few years ago. . . . The ordinary route to Tanganyika leads you up through the most beautiful gorge of Fwambo to and through the mountain ranges which look down on the south end of Tanganyika. The gorge of Fwambo is an exquisite bit of scenery. A 1 Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. February 1891, p. 92.408 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL beautiful stream dashes down in many cataracts and rapids through a deep but not very narrow gorge between precipitous mountain sides, and this gorge is filled with magnificent forest of a truly West African character— an ideal tropical forest with its immense umbrageous trees, its graceful oil-palms, its parasitic orchids and trailing, swinging creepers."1 Here the precious metals of South Zambesia are mainly replaced by the useful minerals, iron on the Nyassa- Tanganyika plateau and in Muasi's west of Nyassa, copper farther west in Katanga and perhaps in Iramba. " Iron- stone is found extensively, and in places old workings are observed. On the hillside I counted five smelting kilns standing in the bush not many hundred yards from one another. Each will contain half a ton of iron ore. They use charcoal when smelting, and are well acquainted with the principles of the working of iron. Spears, hoes, axes, knives are manufactured extensively. The ore found is the brown hematite, which is very hard and compact, and is often found in beds 10 feet thick. The banks and bed of the Songwe river in some places are formed of this ore."2 But gold also undoubtedly exists in the elevated region, which stretches from Nyassa westwards to the Loangwa river,8 and which was traversed for the first time by Mr. Alfred Sharpe in 1890. At Missala in Mpeseni's territory this explorer was shown specimens of alluvial gold, which betrays the presence of auriferous reefs in the hills skirting the Loangwa valley. After losing all his canoes during the descent of this rapid 1 Consul Johnston, loc. cit. 2 Dr. Cross, loc. cit. 3 That is, the large affluent of the Zambesi, not to be confused with the much smaller Loangwa which flows through Muasi's country east to Nyassa between Bandawe and Kota-Kota (Ngota-Ngota).BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 409 stream, which in some places flows at the rate of 8 or 9 miles an hour, Mr. Sharpe passed south-westwards over- land to the Zambesi 30 miles above Zumbo. Here he came upon painful evidence of the disastrous results of Portuguese rule far beyond Zumbo, their farthest station in the interior. Between the Loangwa and Kafue con- fluences the country is now an uninhabited wilderness, all the people " having been killed off or driven away by the Zumbo half-castes, I ascended the river (Zambesi) for a day's journey, but could get no food, as the country is desolate and uninhabited." In the district east of the Loangwa and north of Zumbo " population is very scanty, though the frequent remains of ruined villages showed that very recently this must have been a well-populated country. About the ruined villages and on the road we constantly saw human skulls and bones, all that the Zumbo half-castes have left of the original Asenga (A- Senga) inhabitants."1 From the Nyassa- Tanganyika plateau the Congo- Zambesi water-parting runs north-west of the route followed by Mr. Sharpe, trending south-westwards along the Lokinga range, which skirts the southern shores of Lake Bangweolo parallel to and north of the Mchinga2 mountains west of the Loangwa valley. Here also the divide between the two great hydrographic systems is so contracted that Capello and Ivens, who passed through in 1885, in a short march of three hours drank the 1 Proc. Boy. Geo. Soc. December 1890, p. 748. 2 The term Mchinga, Muchinga, Moshinga, is of frequent occurrence in this part of East Central Africa. In the local Bantu dialects it simply means any lofty ridge, and is merely another form of Livingstone's Lokinga; hence the alternative name Mushinga often applied to this range. In the Bantu linguistic group k interchanges with ch and sh, as in other groups ; compare kirk and church. Hence kinga = chinga, the first syllables being the prefixed class element lo, mo, mu, etc.410 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL waters of the Lufira flowing to the Congo, and of the Loengue (Kafue) running through Mashukulumbweland to the Zambesi.1 "West of Iramba the two great fluvial basins are scarcely anywhere separated by any distinct dividing line. Here the central plateau of Austral Africa presents the aspect of a boundless level plain from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea, so little inclined either way that in many places the headstreams of the Congo and Zambesi either intermingle their waters, as in the marshy depres- sion of Lake Dilolo, or else overlap each other, as about the sources of the Lualaba and Kabompo, which belong respectively to the Congo and Zambesi systems. In former geological times, when both basins were flooded by vast inland seas, the intervening dry land must have presented the aspect of a broad level or slightly undu- lating isthmus intersected by 10° to 12° south latitude, and stretching without interruption from the Lokinga and Garenganze uplands westwards to the Angolan high- lands. The irregular southern escarpments of this elevated isthmus are still closely followed by the irregular windings of the Zambesi from below its sources in the Dilolo depression to its confluence above Zumbo with the Kafue, its great northern affluent from the Lokinga mountains. Rivers of Zambesia—The Zambesi Apart from the Pungwe, Bosi, Sabi, Manitze, Tuli, Shashi and a few other streams flowing either directly or through the Limpopo to the Indian Ocean, all the running waters of British Zambesia find their way to the same marine basin through the Zambesi, which for length, volume, and extent of its drainage area takes the fourth 1 Capello and Ivens, De Angola & Contra-Costa, ii. p. 159.ZAMBESI AT SHUPANGA.412 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL place amongst African rivers. But although exceeded in these respects by the Nile, Congo, and Mger alone, this great artery of South Central Africa can only in a limited sense be regarded as a navigable highway. Till recently it was approached from the sea by the Kwa-Kwa, that is, the Quilimane or northernmost branch of its delta, which is at present severed from the main stream by a sandy tract several miles wide. But in 1889 Consul Johnston successfully crossed the bar at the Chinde mouth, and ascended in the steamer Stork, drawing 13 feet, through that branch up to the point, 40 miles from the sea, where the tidal influence ceases. The voyage thence to and up the Lower Shir£ to Mount Morambala was continued in a flotilla of small boats, and from this point to the head of the Zambesi- Shire navigation at Katunga, fluvial port of Blantyre, in the African Lakes Company's steamer, the James Stevenson, drawing about 18 inches. This expedition showed that the Chinde branch is the most accessible; and that through that channel there is continuous waterway at all seasons for small craft from the sea to Blantyre port. But the main stream is so shallow in parts, and so beset with shifting sandbanks, that, during the dry season, even the navigable section to the Kebrabasa rapids and Chikar- ongo Falls, 334 miles from the coast and 50 miles above Tete, is accessible only to canoes and small keel boats. The Middle Zambesi, that is, the section between Kebrabasa and the stupendous Victoria Falls, is a fine deep stream, in many places from 300 to 400 yards wide, and with a moderate current of about 3 miles an hour, interrupted only by the Kansalo Bapids a few miles above the confluence of the Sanyati-Umfuli, which descends from Hartley Hill in Mashonaland. In this section the main stream is joined, besides the Sanyati, byBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 413 the Guai, Angwa (Voangwa), Hanyani, and all its other southern tributaries from the Matoppo and Mashona watershed, with the single exception of the Ruenya, through which the auriferous Mazoe, Inyagwe, Mudzi, Gavaresi, and others converge on the right bank below Tete and above the Lupata Gorge. But all these rivers, descending from elevations of 4000 to 5000 feet down to the normal level of the Zambesi valley, have extremely rapid courses, and are, therefore, useless as navigable waterways. A similar character is presented by the Loangwa, which reaches the left bank at Zumbo, but which flows from the Nyassa - Tanganyika plateau so rapidly that the natives " do not travel up or down the river in canoes, as the current is too swift for any going down stream to return."1 Yet the Loangwa has a course of at least 400 miles, and with its great tributary the Lusenfwa (Lukusasi) drains the greater part of the uplands between Lakes Nyassa and Bangweolo, a region several thousand square miles in extent. Beyond the Loangwa, and still in its middle section, the Zambesi is joined on the same side by the far more extensive Kafue (Kafukwe, Kahowhe), which describes a figure of S in its winding southerly course through Iramba and the Barotse territory from the Katanga high- lands. The Loengwe, as its northern course is called, rises at an altitude of 4640 feet at the narrowest point of the Congo-Zambesi divide, so that a short cutting across the porterage at this point would afford continuous waterway through the Congo - Zambesi fluvial systems from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. But such a waterway would not be continuously navigable, being interrupted at many points by the falls and rapids of both systems. The Kafue itself, whose sources were 1 Sharpe, loc. cit.414 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL discovered by Capello and Ivens in 1885, appears to be navigable throughout most of its course, being obstructed only by a single cataract about a day's journey from the confluence. The Liba, one of whose headstreams has its source in the Dilolo lagoon, has been generally regarded as the true upper course of the Zambesi ever since its discovery by Livingstone in 1855. Yet Livingstone himself con- sidered that this distinction belonged rather to the Kabompo, which joins the Liba from the north-east, and which was selected by the Agreement of August 1890 as the provisional frontier b.etween the British and Portuguese spheres of influence in this part of Central Africa. The term Zambesi, that is, the "River" in a pre-eminent sense, is first applied to the main stream formed by the junction of the Liba and Eabompo in the level swampy Lobale plain above Libonta, and is then retained by the populations along its banks all the way to the delta. The Victoria Falls Below the Kubango confluence the Upper Zambesi loses its fluvial character in the wet season, when it assumes the aspect of a vast shallow lagoon, spreading far and wide over the level plains with scarcely any perceptible current. But after the subsidence of the flood-waters it is confined to a narrow channel, where it has to force its way over numerous rocky ledges, rapids, and even cataracts, such as those of Gonye and Katima Molelo, until at last it seems to disappear bodily in the tremendous chasm of the Mosi-oa-Tunya or "Thunder- ing Smoke," better known as the Yictoria Falls. These falls, below which the Zambesi enters on its more placid middle course, were discovered and so named in NovemberVICTORIA FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI. i416 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 1855 by Livingstone, whose graphic description of the magnificent spectacle has not been surpassed by that of any more recent observer. The dense volumes of vapour, rising above the narrow gorge where the whole stream is suddenly contracted to one thirty-sixth of its normal breadth, presents from a distance of five or six miles the appearance of the clouds of smoke caused by an African steppe fire. When first seen by Livingstone five columns arose, white below, darker higher up, and closely simulating smoke. "The whole scene was extremely beautiful; the banks and islands dotted over the river are adorned with sylvan vegeta- tion of great variety of colour and form. At the period of our visit several trees were spangled over with blossoms. There, towering over all, stands the great burly baobab, each of whose enormous arms would form the trunk of a large tree, beside a group of graceful palms, which, with their feathery - shaped leaves depicted on the sky, lend their beauty to the scene. The falls are bounded on three sides by ridges 300 or 400 feet in height, which are covered with forest, with the red soil appearing among the trees. Then about half a mile from the falls, I left the canoe by which we had come down thus far and embarked in a lighter one, with men well acquainted with the rapids, who brought me to an island in the middle of the river and on the edge of the lip over which the waters roll. Though we had reached the island, and were within a few yards of the spot a view from which would solve the whole problem, I believe that no one could perceive where the vast body of water went; it seemed to lose itself in the earth, the opposite lip of the fissure into which it disappeared being only 80 feet distant. Creeping with awe to the verge, IBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 417 peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream 1000 yards broad leaped down 100 feet, and then became suddenly compressed into a space of 15 or 20 yards. The entire falls are simply a crack made in a hard basalt rock from the right to the left bank of the Zambesi, and then prolonged from the left bank away through 30 or 40 miles of hills. In looking into the fissure on the right side of the island, one sees nothing but a dense white cloud, which at the time we visited the spot had two bright rain- bows on it. From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly like steam, and it mounted 200 or 300 feet high; there condensing, it changed its hue to that of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower which wetted us to the skin." At the Victoria Falls the channel of the Zambesi still stands about 2500 feet above the sea, and this appears to have been the normal altitude of the great inland sea which formerly occupied most of the region stretching south and west of the main stream. So level is the bed of the ancient lacustrine basin, that after leaving the Angolan uplands, the Ku-lSTdo (Chobe), Ku- Ito, Ku-Bango, and other western affluents fail to reach the Zambesi throughout the year. During the dry season they go wandering with uncertain flow over the plains, where they disappear in the shallow saline depressions of Lakes Etosha, Ngami, Makarikari, Chobe, and Mababe. But in exceptionally wet seasons many if not all of these depressions form a continuous sheet of water, temporarily restoring the old inland sea and sending their overflow through the Chobe and Mababe to the Zambesi for the Indian Ocean, and occasionally, perhaps, through Etosha to the Cunene for the Atlantic. VOL. II 2 E418 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Thus the Zambesi would present the rare phenomenon of at times intermingling its waters with two other fluvial systems, that of the Congo through Lake Dilolo, and that of the Cunene through Etosha. Including the Ku-Bango (Okovango), which undoubt- edly belongs to the Zambesi system, and which rises on the east slope of the Benguelan divide within 250 miles of the Atlantic, the Zambesi has a total length of little less than 2000 miles, and a catchment basin which cannot be estimated at under 1,000,000 square miles. In this estimate is necessarily included the great Lake Nyassa, which discharges its overflow through the Shir4 emissary southwards to the left bank of the Lower Zambesi, about 40 miles above the head of the delta, and 250 from the outlet at the south end of the lake. Lake Nyassa Nyassa appears to have been known by report to the Portuguese missionaries on the Lower Zambesi in the seventeenth century, and from their accounts d'Anville was able to indicate it on his maps under the name of Lake Maravi.1 Later it was again heard of as the Nyanja2 Mucuro ; but it was first discovered by Living- stone, who reached it from the Shire in September 1859. Two years later he returned in company with his brother Charles and Dr. Kirk, and succeeded in surveying the west coast as far north as the present station of Bandawe. During subsequent visits in 1863 and 1866, he continued the work of exploration, which 1 So named from tlie fierce Maravi (Zulu) hordes, who had already- penetrated to the Nyassa basin from the regions south of the Zambesi. 2 Nyassa is the Manganja form of the Yao word NTyanja, which is merely a dialectic variety of the northern Nyanza, all meaning a lake, large river, or any great expanse of water.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 419 has since been completed by E. D. Young (1875), Elton and Cotterill (1877), and, more recently, by James Stewart, L. Moir, Dr. Laws, and Key. W. P. Johnson. In form, size, contour lines, and longitudinal disposi- tion, Nyassa strikingly resembles Tanganyika, and it seems evident that both belong to the same geological formation. They occupy deep fissures in the same central plateau, where Nyassa extends north and south a distance of about 350 miles, with a mean breadth of 50 to 60 miles, a depth ranging from 50 to over 100 fathoms, and an area of 14,200 square miles, or rather less than Tanganyika. It is nearly destitute of islands and safe havens, although a few of the creeks and inlets indenting the coast afford good anchorage and some little shelter from the fierce squalls that occasion- ally sweep down from the surrounding slopes. Vast clouds of tiny midges, driving before the wind, settle at times on the surface, where they present the appearance of a light silvery haze in the bright solar beams. The water is quite fresh, and so pure that no sedi- ment is formed in the boilers of the Lakes Company's steamers which now ply on Nyassa and the Upper Shird The low-lying margin of rich alluvial or sandy and marshy plains between the lake and encircling ranges varies from about two to ten miles in width everywhere, except on the north - east side, where the Livingstone mountains approach close to the waterside. Owing to this configuration Nyassa is fed only by a few mountain torrents on the east side; but from the west and north - west, where the chains are less con- tinuous, it receives several considerable streams, such as the Songwe, Kasitu, Loangwa, Bua, and Nkanda, collectively draining a region nearly 20,000 square miles in extent. Most of these rivers, however, run420 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL out in the dry season in the swamps and sands before reaching the lake, where their mouths are visible only during the rains. The Shir£ Basin Complete equilibrium does not seem to be established between the contributions from these rivers and the losses sustained by evaporation and the discharge through the Shir& Hence, during the brief historic life of Nyassa, changes of level in both directions have already been recorded, apparently analogous to those of Tanganyika. The Shir6, which issues from the southern end in a broad sluggish stream, soon expands into the spacious but shallow Pamalombe lagoon, whose low reedy banks are the haunt of the hippopotamus and of innumerable aquatic birds. Farther on, the Shire becomes entangled in a series of rocky gorges where all navigation is arrested, and where the stream descends from the plateau through the Pampaze Eapids, the Murchison and JSTamvira Falls down to its lower course. Here it also broadens out into vast expanses, such as the Elephant Marsh, beyond w7hich it is joined from the north-east by the romantic Eiver Euo, boundary line of the British and Portuguese possessions in this direction. The Euo (Luo), which throughout the year is navigable for several miles by light draught steamers, is precipitated from the Blantyre uplands over the magnificent Zoa Falls, first seen and described by Consul John Buchanan in 1891. These falls, which lie 25 miles above the confluence, take the form of a horse-shoe, and are no less than 200 feet high. " Above the chasm on the left bank there stands a huge mass of rock, from behind which and down whose face during the wet season pours a gigantic cataract. At the time of my first visit the water fromFALLS OF ZOA ON THE RIVER RUO,422 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL various channels collected into one main stream, which thundered down the chasm, foaming and tossing between its walls, sending heavenwards clouds of vapour, and in emerging from its confinement dashes itself out into a breadth of 150 yards, and continues its angry course impinging on rocks and boulders till reaching Nakale, where it composes itself into dark-blue lakelets. The face of the falls abounds in several large and many small "pot-holes," from 18 inches to 10 feet in diameter, and from 1 to 10 feet deep. I was not fortunate enough to see the water at its work of forming these holes, but the stones lying at the bottom of them, some in the rough, others kidney-shaped, and others almost round, are con- clusive evidence of the water's action."1 Below the Euo confluence, the Shir6 winds through the great Morambala Marsh and between the jagged peaks and cones of the Pinda and Matunda ranges east and west to the Zambesi, which it enters through a sort of inland delta enclosed between the Ziwe-Ziwe or Sena branch and the navigable channel of the Shir£ proper. Lake Shirwa Neither Rukwa nor Shirwa belongs to the Nyassa catchment basin, both being, at least at present, little centres of inland drainage without seaward outflow. It seems, however, quite certain that Shirwa was formerly connected, not southwards with the Ruo-Shir^, as was at one time supposed, but northwards, with the Lujenda, that is, the southern headstream of the Eovuma. Its waters probably still at times communicate over the low intervening Chelomoni ridge (50 feet) with the chain of shallow lagoons—Mpiri, Chinta, Namaramba—where the 1 Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. May 1891, p. 268.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 423 Lujenda has its source. On the south side the divide between the Shir£ basin and Shirwa stands 230 feet- above the level of the lake, and from 600 to 700 feet above the Shire, so that " there can be no possible con- nection between these two water systems."1 Shirwa (Chirwa), which is enclosed on the west side by a range of lofty peaks, such as Chikala (6000 feet), Chaoni (5000), Malosa and Zomba (both 7000), has considerably subsided since 1880, when its waters reached quite up to the Chelomoni divide. At present it is little more than a huge permanently flooded salt-pan, nearly 40 miles long by 16 wide, very shallow, and 350 square miles in extent, a mere remnant of an extensive lagoon, which formerly covered the broad Shirwa plain far to the east, and formed a continuous sheet of water with the Lujenda lagoons. Climate of North Zambesia All that part of the Middle and Upper Zambesi valley which was formerly comprised within the limits of the inland sea, as well as the river banks thence to the coast, belongs distinctly to the characteristic malarious African climate. Here the altitude, ranging from sea- level to 2500 or at most 3000 feet, is not sufficiently elevated to counteract the malignant influences which are the inevitable result of tropical heat and a consider- able rainfall, combined with extensive swampy tracts traversed by sluggish streams and periodically flooded by stagnant waters. Hence the Zambesi basin in the narrower sense, that is, excluding the uplands comprised within its drainage area, is unanimously pronounced a hotbed of fever by all unprejudiced observers. Thus Mr. F. C. Selous, who has a wider experience of South 1 Rev. A. Hetherwick, Proc. Boy. Geo. Soc. 1888, p. 26.424 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Central Africa than any other living authority, tells us that " the Barotse Valley (Upper Zambesi) is a miserable part of the country, and about the best place to get fever in that I know of," adding generally that death " is the end of every one who remains long in the terrible climate of this part of Africa."1 This remark is equally appli- cable to the Lower Zambesi and Lower Shire, as witness the graves of Mrs. Livingstone and Bishop Mackenzie, the sad tale of British missionary records, and the fact that, after 400 years of occupation, the Portuguese find it impossible to perpetuate their race beyond a single generation at any of their riverain stations. Even on the uplands the flat and marshy tracts are not exempt, and the Tree Church had for a time to abandon Livingstonia, its first station on the low-lying promontory at the south end of Nyassa. But the higher parts of Nyassaland, and especially the Shire highlands, enjoy a climate which is said to be suited for European settlement. " The Shire highlands, with their cold bracing air, have proved by the test of many years to be well adapted to the conditions of European life. Scotch and English ladies have lived there in excellent health, and their children are robust and healthy." 2 Even Commissioner Johnston, a very cautious writer, thinks that " as life becomes less un- comfortable than at present, it would be actually possible to fouijd European Colonies on some of the highest plateaux, that is to say, in districts which are over 5000 feet in altitude. In these regions I really believe that Europeans might retain good health, and even rear children without much, if any, deterioration of race."3 1 Broc, Boy. Geo. Soc. 1889, pp. 220, 223. 2 Captain F. D. Lugard, ib. 1889, p. 692. 3 Report on British Central Africa for 1891-93, p. 33.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 425 The mean day temperature in November, the hottest month, rarely exceeds 86° F., while the night tempera- ture in May, the coldest month, is never below 59°, showing an annual range of not more than 27°. As in most tropical lands, two seasons alone can be clearly distinguished,—the rainy from December to April, the dry for the rest of the year; the mean annual rainfall being about 40 inches at Cape Maclear and nearly 100 at the more exposed station of Bandawe on the west coast of Nyassa. The north wind prevails with remark- able regularity throughout the wet season, and is followed by the south wind in the dry season, when fierce storms are frequent especially in September. Even some parts of the Nyassa-Tanganyika plateau, such as the Buntali district within 10 degrees of the equator, are favoured by a delightful and equable climate. " With its red soil, its rounded hills covered with short green turf, its many rills and rivulets, its cool misty climate and rank vegetation, Buntali is an African Devonshire perched up at an average height of 5000 feet above the trough of Lake Nyassa, and certainly fitted by its natural advantages to be a healthy home for European settlers " (H. H. Johnston). Flora and Fauna On the whole the Zambesi flora is less exuberant than that of the Congo, and far less diversified than that of the Cape. The prevailing forms are the same as in the equatorial zone, but are here and there intermingled with a few intruders from the south, such as the silver- tree (Leucadendron argenteum) of Cape Colony. The coffee shrub appears to be indigenous in the Zambesi basin, and in any case it is now successfully cultivated426 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL at the European stations in Nyassaland, where tea has also been lately in- troduced. Other valuable economic plants are rubber, of which several varieties grow profusely in the same upland region, and the picturesque BAOBABS ON THE ISLAND OF CHISUMOLU, LAKE NY ASS A. misanguti tree, which yields incredible quantities of scarlet beans, used both as food and for the richBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 427 oleaginous or fatty substance obtained by boiling. The wood of the misanguti is hard and durable, while the bark supplies an excellent mahogany dye. Fibrous plants, such as the Borassus palm, the plantain, cotton, and a hardy species of hemp, grow freely almost every- where. The Zambesi botanical zone coincides with the southern limit of the gigantic baobab, now rivalled in size by the Australian eucalyptus, thousands of which have already been planted in the Shire uplands. Euro- pean cereals, fruits, and vegetables thrive well on the uplands, but require artificial irrigation during the dry season, when scarcely any moisture is precipitated for months together. The Blantyre district " is a place of roses and geraniums, pink - cheeked English children, large-uddered cattle, and laying hens, riding horses, and lawn tennis. You may pick raspberries and strawberries in Mr. Moir's garden, enjoy all sorts of English vege- tables, and, but for the black inhabitants, really cheat yourself into the belief that you are in some agricultural village in the Scotch Lowlands " (H. H. Johnston). Nearly all the large African fauna occur in the Zambesi region, where even the giraffe was heard of by Mr. Sharpe in the Loangwa valley. Both the dry savannahs and the marshy tracts about the Upper Zambesi and the Nyassa - Shir6 highlands teem with animal life. From the steamers plying on the Shir6, the observer, provided with a good glass, may distinguish the huge forms of large-eared elephants, the gnu, water-buck, eland, buffalo, reed-buck, zebra, and pallah. The croco- diles, and especially the hippopotamuses, are a real danger to the navigation, and lions have been shot from the deck of a passing steamer. Here the marshy lagoons are frequented by myriads of aquatic fowl, such as pelicans, cranes, ibises, swans, herons, geese, and duck.428 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL In the great Morambala swamp " the air was full of screaming birds, some hovering in clouds in the way that reminded us of a great rooks' meeting, some swooping down to catch fish for their supper, others again swimming placidly on the surface, while the more shallow places were occupied by legions of storks, cranes, herons, etc." 1 Characteristic animals of the Upper Zambesi are the kishobo and nakong antelopes, which have become amphibious, their broad flat feet being more adapted for swimming than for bounding over the steppes. In this region Dr. Holub describes no less than seven varieties of rhinoceros, four of lions, and three of elephants. But, as in Mashonaland, the inoffensive white rhinoceros has almost disappeared, while the savage black variety still infests the less frequented districts. A noteworthy fish in the Middle Zambesi is the mosheba, which, like the marine flying-fish, uses its pectoral fins as wings, rising into the air and sustaining a flight of several yards. Here also the fish-eagle often snatches his prey, not from the water, but from the capacious mandibles of the pelican paralysed with fear by the sudden flap of his wings. In the same region, the widespread Parra africana has developed such broad feet that he is enabled to walk on the expanded foliage of the lotus floating on the surface of the stream. Unfortunately all the low7- lying and marshy tracts throughout the Zambesi valley are infested by voracious mosquitoes and the deadly tsetse fly, whose bite is fatal to so many domestic animals. Inhabitants of North Zambesia Here the ethnical relations are far more complicated than in South Zambesia. Doubtless all the innumerable 1 Mrs. Pringle, op. cit. p. 14*2.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 429 tribes appear, as far as is known, to belong, at least in speech, to the Bantu family. But the whole region has been in remote and recent times the theatre of so many peaceful or warlike migrations, devastating slave-hunting expeditions, and political convulsions that the national and tribal groups have everywhere been displaced, dis- integrated, and re-formed, often under new names and changed social conditions. Fierce conquering hordes have swept like a fiery tempest over the land, leaving in their wake widespread havoc, and have themselves more than once disappeared amid the ruins of cruel despotisms or peaceful agricultural communities. Twice during the present century the Upper Zambesi has witnessed the foundation and overthrow of empires created and destroyed, and again restored by intruding Bechuanas and Basutos from beyond the Limpopo and the Yaal. The Nyassa lands, especially, have for generations been sorely afflicted by the conflicts of local Mohammedan (Yao) and Pagan (A-Nyanja) peoples, by incessant Zulu invasions, and above all by the organised razzias of Arab and half-caste Portuguese slave-hunters. Recently the Arabs, thwarted and baffled at so many points in the interior, have even dared to turn their arms against the whites, and but for the heroic defence of Karonga and neighbouring stations by a handful of brave Englishmen against apparently hopeless odds, the shores of Nyassa would be again overrun, and the surrounding regions still a prey to their ruthless depredations. For two years (1887-89) these men — Consul O'lSTeill, Captain Lugard, Dr. Cross, L. Monteith Fotheringham, Agent of the Lakes Company, and historian of the episode,1 and half a dozen others—held these almost defenceless 1 Adventures in Nyassaland, London, 1891.430 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL outposts with a scanty supply of ammunition, until relieved by the cessation of hostilities brought about by Consul H. H. Johnstons skilful diplomacy. After the appointment of Commissioner Johnston to the adminis- tration of North Zambesia (British Central Africa) in 1891, the Yaos in alliance with the Arab slavers con- tinued to give great trouble until the crushing defeat and submission of their most powerful chief, Makanjira, in March 1894. This event puts an end for the present to all slave-trading in Nyassaland, and gives promise of the establishment of permanent peace in that distracted region. In the Shir£ highlands a fruitful source of confusion are the large number of captives rescued from the Arab gangers on their way down to the coast, and now settled about Blantyre and the other missionary stations between Nyassa and the Zambesi. The process has been going on ever since 1861, when Bishop Mackenzie and the other pioneers of the Universities Mission reached the Upper Shir^, under the guidance of Livingstone, and began at once to liberate the gangs of slaves passing through the district. " As we had begun, it was no use to do things by halves," was the trenchant remark of the great explorer.1 The captives were of course told they were free to stay or go as they pleased. But their homes had been destroyed, their villages burnt, their kinsfolk butchered or dispersed, they were alone in the world, and they invariably preferred to stay. Thus were gathered together in this region representatives of in- numerable tribes from every part of the interior, and these, amalgamating with the Manganja (A - ISTyanja) aborigines, have little in common except the Chi-Nyanja language, which is necessarily adopted by all. Other conditions have brought about other results 1 A Popular Account of the Expedition to the Zambesi, p. 248.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 431 on the Nyassa-Tanganyika plateau, and on the alluvial Nkonde plains, between the escarpments of the plateau and the north end of Nyassa. Here the deeds of violence and cruelty perpetrated by the Arab and Swahili slaves with their Mohammedan Wanyamwesi allies have been nowhere exceeded in any part' of the continent. " For fifty miles we came across no tokens of native prosperity, though there were abundant signs of Arab cruelty and carnage. The blackened ruins of the villages, and the bleached bones of human beings on the grass, told their own tale. ' Who has been here ?' I inquired of my carriers. ' Kabunda,' said they, and they pronounced the name with evident terror. Kabunda was a wealthy Arab, who had settled in the valley of the Lofu some ten years ago." 1 Having picked a quarrel with the local chief, here is how "this dignified and cultured Arab, full of courtesy in his dealings with Europeans," set about his work of extermination. After seizing all the chiefs cattle, he " organised a sudden raid throughout all the valley, and every man, woman, and child who could be found was seized and tied up. Very few managed to escape him or his keen hunters, and a caravan was made for the coast; but the smiling valley, that had been known as the garden of Tanganyika, from the fertility and industry of its people, now silent and desolate, was added to that already long stretch of hungry wilderness through which we had passed." 2 Elsewhere we read of the natives about the Kambwe lagoon, north of Nyassa, being suddenly set upon, when " those who did not perish by the rifle and the spear were either burnt to death or devoured by the innumerable crocodiles that infest the lagoon" (ib. p. 81). 1 Adventures in Nyassaland, p. 15. 2Fr. Moir, quoted by Fotheringham, p. 16.432 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Driven to desperation by these incessant atrocities, the fragments of various broken tribes took refuge in the somewhat inaccessible Songwe valley, where the Free Church had founded the station of Chirenje. But the missionaries being powerless to protect them against the Awemba confederates' of the Arabs, the refugees did chief's house, wankonde tribe, lake nyassa. not here merge in one community as on the Shire uplands, but each remnant of a tribe continued to occupy some remote and isolated village, fortified by stockades against the common enemy. Hence each retains its own dialect, and " one might almost imagine that it was in the neigh- bourhood of Chirenje that the confusion of tongues took place. First of all there is Mwiniwanda, who is recog- nised as the chief of the country, simply on account of his being the first settler in the locality. His peopleBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 433 speak a language of their own. Next comes Titima's village, with its distinct inhabitants and distinct dialect. Eight miles distant is Chitipa's—a people using a unique speech, which an Admirable Cricliton might despair of acquiring. Then there is ISTyondo's, the people there also talking in an uncouth tongue. Were they all huddled together round a tower, the traveller might fancy he had discovered Babel." 1 Amid all these elements of confusion in a region a large portion of which still remains to be explored, it would be premature to attempt any scientific classifica- tion of the inhabitants, hence little more than a geograph- ical grouping is attempted in the subjoined Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations in North Zambesia. Ganguella, Upper Kubango valley; a branch of the Angolan Ganguellas. Amboella, Kubango and Kwa-Ndo (Chobe) valleys. LusHAztf, Upper Kwo-Ndo valley. Ma-Hes, Kwa-Ndo valley from Linyanti to 6° south latitude. Ba-Yiko -s Muko^so° i k°wer Kubango and neighbouring lacustrine plains. Darico J Ba-LundAj Liba and Lobale valleys (Upper Zambesi head-waters). Makololo, Basuto intruders in the Upper Zambesi; extinct. fBechuana intruders in the Upper and Middle Zambesi; the Barotse | present dominant people in the Barotse Empire. f Gnoko, Lombe, and Loi rivers ; dominant people in the Mambunda | Mambunda state. Ma-Nchoia, north-east of the Barotse. Ma-Totola, north of Shesheke, are the Ba-Nyati of some writers. f south-east of the Barotse, from Sekhosi to within 30 miles Ma-Shubiaof the Chobe-Zambesi confluence. Mankoe, north of the Mambunda State. ( north-east of the Mambunda, both banks of the Liba to its ba-libale | source_ {Middle and Lower Kabompo and Liba rivers ; some also on the Zambesi. 1 Fotlieringham, op. cit. p. 132. VOL. II 2 F434 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Mabomba"\ Manengo J Kavag°la territory, Upper Zambesi. Ba-Ramba, Iraraba district, and North Manica, Upper Kafue basin. r a tw a S properly Ba-Tonga, between the Lower Kafue and the Middle da-IOKA | zambesl Ba-Shukulumbwe, left side of Middle and Lower Kafue. Makalaka, Zambesi, below Yictoria Falls. Ba-Senga ) , p t Mano ( bank Lower Loangwa, thence to the Zambesi. Badema, Zambesi, east of Ba-Senga. Ba-Nyungwe, Zambesi, about Tete, and thence to the Lower Shir£. Mpeseni } Mtjasi \ between the Loangwa and Lake Nyassa. Wa-Nkonde, north end Nyassa. A-Wiza, A-Kuntunda, A-Mangochi, ^ A-Banda, A-Tonga, A-Kamanga }west side ^yassa. Manganja 1 (A-Kyanja) J sou^"eas^ -^yassa> an^ Shire valley. A-Jawa ) (Wa-Yao) ( "^uo va^eY' an(* thence north-east to and beyond Lake Shirwa. Machinga Amasaninga,->t side n Angultj (Wa-Jenga) J J Mayiti Mazitu Mangoni (Angoni) Marayi Munyai " Landin Makololo, Lower Shire, between the falls and Ruo river. - 60 (Awankonde Awaniakyusa Awakukwe The Zulu intruders in the Nyassa region, chiefly on the south-west side, collectively called Landins by the Portuguese. £ S3 < o * £ < a Awabundali ^ Nkonde plain and southern slopes of the Nyassa- Tanganyika plateau. ^ v Awamesuko AWAWANDIA, AwATAMBO, AwAEAMBO, Kt rr, , . Awanyika, Awanyamwanga, Awemba pyassa-Tanganyika plateau. Awafipa, west side Lake Rikwa. Awakhonongo, east side Lake Rikwa. Awaungu, south side Lake Rikwa.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 435 The Ba-Lunda; Barotse; Mambunda Dr. Holub, who visited the Barotse country in 1875, gives a long list of about eighty tribes subject to that state.1 But the Jesuit missionary, P&re Depelchin, who has more recently spent some years amongst the people, finds that many if not most of those so-called " tribes " are merely trading communities, not distinguishable in an ethnical sense from the mass of the population.2 In this region the really important nations, politically, are the Ba-Lunda, the Barotse, the Mambunda, the Ba-Shuku- lumbwe, and the Ba-Toka (Ba-Tonga). The Ba-Lunda, who occupy both slopes of the Congo- Zambesi divide, appear to be a division, probably the original stock, of the powerful Ka-Lunda nation, dominant in the Muata Yamvo's territory. Like them they file their teeth, practise tattooing, and smear their bodies with vegetable oils. The Ba-Lunda are extremely ceremonious, and to the native forms of salutation they have added both the Mohammedan " Allah " and the Portuguese " Ave-ria " (Ave Maria). They are a mild inoffensive people, friendly towards strangers, addicted neither to cannibalism nor to any cruel practices, and showing marked deference to their women. Some of the Lunda tribes are governed by "queens," at whose death the settlement is abandoned, and a fresh start made in a new district. From the Lunda forests comes most of the bees-wax exported from the west coast. The cleared lands are fertile and well watered, and yield abundant produce to the industrious Ba-Lunda husbandmen. It has been seen (p. 385) that the ruling race in the "Marotse Mambunda Empire," as it is designated by 1 In Mitteilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society, 31st Jan. 1879. 2 Pricis historiques, Brussels, Feb. 1883.436 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Holub, are a branch of the Barotse Bechuanas, though now speaking the Se-Suto language, imposed on them during the temporary supremacy of the Makololos. They were probably driven north by TJmsilikatzi's impis about the year 1835, when the Zulus overran the western parts of the region now known as Transvaal. Soon after the overthrow of the Makololos, the Luinas, as the Barotse are called by their neighbours, reduced the extensive territory of the Mambunda (Ma-Bunda) nation, at that time ruled by a queen. Their system of administration is to a large extent inherited from the Makololos, and is specially noted for its Draconic penal code, which has given rise to the local saying that nobody growls old in Barotseland. It is understood that, since his acceptance of the British protectorate, the present king, Lumanika, has undertaken to modify the rigours of this drastic code. Other reforms are in progress, and, through the influence of the traders and missionaries, the bulk of the population have already substituted European clothes for the old national costume of tanned skins and flowing cotton robes. The Mambundas, living farther north on the plateau enclosing the alluvial plains of the fluvial valley, have been brought less in contact with Europeans, and still practise the old superstitious rites. They worship the sun and moon, and believe in the transmigration of souls, not from animals to man, but from man to animals; man himself apparently possessing the power to control his future destiny, by eating the flesh and rehearsing the voice and attitudes of the lion, buffalo, rhinoceros, or any other beast of his choice. The Mambunda chiefs still retain a certain degree of independence, some of them even sharing jointly with the Barotse notables in the general administration of the empire.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 437 The Ba-Shukulumbwe The Ba - Shukulumbwe savages are even still more independent, constituting a numerous nation under many separate chiefs, who have never been reduced by conquest, but who have in many instances recently acknowledged the supremacy of the paramount Barotse ruler. The Ba-Shukulumbwe (Ukulombwe) territory, occupying most of the Kafue basin, is one of the least known regions in Zambesia, having hitherto been visited only by three Europeans, Silva Porto, and Holub with his wife. Mrs. Holub was regarded by the natives as a supernatural being, and by one tribe chosen as their queen. These people are distinguished almost above all African tribes for the extraordinary care lavished on their head-dresses, which often assume the most astounding forms, towering tiara-fashion two or three feet above their heads; Farther east and north, the Manica and Iramba terri- tories are inhabited by Waramba tribes, who, at the time of Capello and Ivens's visit (1885), were ruled by Licuco, brother of Msidi, late king of Garenganze. Licuco is described by the Portuguese travellers as a ferocious tyrant and " monster, whose atrocities exceed human imagination/'1 Some of his underlings appear to be no better, and of one Iramba petty chief we are told that he "chopped up a woman with his own hand, and put her in a huge flesh-pot, which w7as at once placed on the * fire," all because she had cooked his supper badly (ib.) Certainly there is ample scope for the exercise of humanising influences in this part of the new British protectorate. 1 Be, Angola a Contra-Costa, ii. p. 171.438 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL The Ba-Tonga South of the Ba-Shukulumbwe domain follows that of the Ba-Tonga (Ba-Toka), who, though now reduced almost to servitude by the Barotse, were formerly a powerful and numerous nation. They may even almost claim to rank as an historical people, having migrated from the auriferous Manicaland, which, three hundred years ago, was ruled by the Monomotapa, and which is still inhabited by the Batoka race. Another branch has moved southwards beyond the Lower Limpopo to the dis- trict from them now known as Amatongaland. All Ba- Tongas of both sexes extract the upper incisors, as they say, to make themselves look like oxen. It is noteworthy that the same custom, based on the same motive, prevails amongst some of the western Damaras, whose traditions point to the north-east as the quarter whence they reached their present homes on the south-western seaboard. Thus it might almost seem as if, during their migrations, the Ba-Tongas had made the complete circuit of the Austral Continent. The Manganja and Makololo In Nyassaland, by far the most important indigenous element are the A-Nyanja, that is, " Lake People," who, however, call themselves Manganja. During the last quarter of a century their domain has been greatly en- croached upon by the Wa-Yao from the north-east, and by the Angoni (Zulus) from the south-west, while those dwelling along the Shire have been reduced by the Mackingas and the Makololo usurpers to a state little differing from absolute slavery. But formerly they occupied the whole region from Lake Shirwa westwardsBRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 439 to Chipata, and from the Zambesi-Shire confluence north- wards to about the latitude of Bandaw^, on the west side of Nyassa. They thus held a territory of about 40,000 square miles, and their Bantu language (Chi-Nyanja, reduced to written form by the Eev. Alexander Eiddel) is still current throughout the whole of this region. It appears to be intermediate between the Ki-Swahili of Zanzibar and the Zulu-Kafir of the south-east coast, and it is of considerable historic importance, for by its means may best be interpreted the Bantu terms, such as Benomotapa, Zimbabye, etc., occurring in the early Portu- guese writers. No people could have offered a finer field for evan- gelical labour than the Manganja, who, despite the com- bined efforts of the Universities, Free Church, and Scotch Established Church Missions, are in some places still a prey to the gross superstitions and barbarous practices specially characteristic of the African populations. Witch- craft here assumes its most repulsive forms, ordeals by the poisoned cup are universal, while the punishments inflicted on the wretched natives for trivial or imaginary offences would appear incredible were they not attested by unim- peachable evidence. The Makololo chiefs on the Lower Shire, who rose suddenly from obscurity to the position of rulers, look on their Manganja subjects as mere slaves, and treat them with atrocious cruelty. " The Makololo prepare mwai (the poison cup), call their people in great numbers, and command them to drink it. Several die in one day, who were therefore bewitchers, and deserved their fate... . Investigation by torture is one of the saddest things that the Makololo practise. It is often employed in cases of alleged adultery. When a Makololo suspects his wives, he places a stone in a jar of boiling water or oil, and orders them to fetch it up with their bare arms.440 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL He then judges of their guilt by the amount of injury they sustain. When a woman is thus convicted, he makes her confess who seduced her. Notwithstanding that her arm is severely scalded, she is subjected to the most cruel torture by a kind of ' thumbscrewJ (mbanilo), which is applied to her head. A small tree is partly divided along the middle, the skull of the poor woman is inserted as if it were a wedge for splitting the tree still farther. Great pressure is exerted by forcing the halves of the tree together with the aid of pulleys. The instru- ment works like a gigantic nut-cracker, and during its operation the chief and his assistants look on with calm satisfaction, and suggest the name of her seducer. When the woman, under this torture, indicates that the man is guilty, he is put to death without a trial. Perhaps the woman herself is quite guiltless, and has been convicted solely by the ordeal. . . . Petty theft, as of a fowl, is punished among the Makololo by flogging with whips of elephant hide. There is no formal trial. Cropping a thief s ears, and cutting off his fingers, are also practised. For theft of anything more valuable the punishment is death. A man that steals a sheep or a goat is stabbed and thrown into the river. On other occasions he is flogged to death with whips of elephant hide."1 Since their arrival in Nyassaland, under the auspices of Livingstone (see p. 387), these Makololo chiefs have always professed great friendship for the English, and from the first were looked upon by the natives as our prot^g^s. But their harsh rule, and wholesale practice of domestic slavery, for it came to that, had compromised the English name before orderly government was established in the Lower Shir6 valley under British administrators. 1 Rev. Duff Macdonald, Africana, i. pp. 200-202.BRITISH SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 441 The Awamwamba and Awawandia In the region of plains and plateaux between Hyassa and Tanganyika, the construction of the Stevenson Boad, the treaties with the Arabs following their repulse at Karonga, and the foundation of missionary stations and military posts between the two lakes, have already brought about a great improvement in the social relations. Here the Nkonde plains are occupied by various branches of the industrious Awamwamba (Wa-Nkonde) people, who had lived happy contented lives before the Arab invasion of 1887. They are a stalwart;, muscular, well-proportioned race, who raise large quantities of bananas, plantains, yams, pulse, maize and millet, and are also excellent stock-breeders. " Their language is wonderfully rich in terms descriptive of cattle. Cattle diseases are known * and healed so perfectly that the veterinary surgeon of Europe might here learn something of them. To look across the plain or down the valley and see two or three herds of these beautiful animals browsing in the long grass, and to hear the rude tinkle of the iron bells (for each cow has a bell), convinces one of the peacefulness and happiness of these primitive people. Or to look in upon one of these villages, hidden among the banana trees, in the sultry afternoon, to see the men stretched at full length, lying on mats or banana leaves, the women grind- ing the flour for the evening meal, and the cattle standing in the smoke of the dry cow-dung fires chewing the cud, unmolested by flies, is a picture of primitive happiness that may even make us envy the black man's lot." 1 The Awawandia and other closely-allied tribes on the Nyassa-Tanganyika plateau, being still more exposed to 1D. Kerr Cross, Proc. Hoy. Geo. Soc. Feb. 1891, p. 87.442 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the Arab and Wa-Nyamwezi raiders, usually dwell with their cattle and other domestic animals in strongly- palisaded villages. They are very industrious, and are noted for their skill as weavers, potters, and blacksmiths, manufacturing various iron implements, and weaving cotton fabrics in pretty patterns from the bush and tree varieties which grow wild in the district. The Stevenson Boad The Stevenson Eoad, of which so much has lately been heard, traverses this district in an oblique direction from south-east to north-west It takes its name from Mr. James Stevenson, Chairman of the African Lakes Company, who in 1881 contributed £4000 to its con- struction and maintenance. So far as completed, that is, for 70 miles from Karonga on Nyassa to a point 10 miles beyond Mwiniwanda station on the plateau, it is a * creditable piece of engineering work, running for several miles through primeval forest and involving some heavy cuttings in the ascent from the Kkond^ plains to the plateau. " With the exception of some nine miles it is practically terraced out on the hillsidps from Nkond^ to the mission station."1 From the present inland terminus to Lake Tanganyika there still remain 180 miles to be completed; but the worst obsfacles have already been surmounted, the route thenceforth lying across the tolerably level plateau. 1 Fotheringham, op. tit. p. 8.•Aifcaia Kabembo i Himanga i: ^Sorutc mwaj Lusongi^ T' Masiinoa 'oma l\ ! J&Awcu) SviujafMiinara, I. 2900 Znpandu r"^r\ (apiwiti u'Qi ur»jQn(faTT4 /( Ahilorpi/e^ ' /zp'anifa humba Aqa la M lOl/UUfl '°Qufiingwi MyfisTuJco Chiuttij ajenqe Kigonde Masasi/j-a WUM Chamas Newalci [Oiohost y yfaroni iLNandndi $ LtvulqJ nngas 42ft0$- Jiariuribo >MuatcLMaauto M! lupiime Ufryo / k - - * Mi i ori ~~T ~ " — jutvimbas 'wi lilllJfW^ - >ende Soloisho JEGIlf Lte or Kabonxpo Monakadze lMts °N\'armfan as (LvvvigstcFrwlieds. Mcuyl.lt % *SoiufiyjiJiu$c> jaina ■ ihiia Ka la *p- — Kiss&mbo larandas "McmjJcd\ ^ . aCJrimbusis Kasunaa. ^ [parawt u'aiifio IP1 Lurio or Lit pSoriscifr AlnieidtVU. Tgo^i ' fsezigaziT1^ MPiseni M*KaU) fL. Shoa Saiujon&J}. jfLrtveida/B. Menib4 B./ ^xFemdo VHosoJi. f^CMelarho J .TarigdP1 yQuiiitagon lt w I. $d3&Lt Mozamiliique ityr&ffiTtdriWd................... BajoriR J'' ^lUnibre * (TorUbuuL^ >ORL McsniiJ; laJnuiii f awe jjiasi Bills IHIKVVA i ~'--fsMo(tiiicxdc -ft. jJf liuddkrt Shy. Vcurrve [ntmiio h'i_ * SrJbutonzoi Shoal goxdR. laJumede Jj. xa I? (An^>oslia) BuilaJI- MoborrvbaJXZgj^ \ Falls of Gon ves 0 \ X Stde Co MaleJSainhw • MaitnAoJL Jwlomo PortHerdtfL *%- ShiixtTigcis Juu^elfinils JCaonka'sl^/, Qfonifibay* . Nainbi v Cc Katima m ldo-i /aims Jt.Ch.ob, tfncherche, d^o o z a ,Shupanga 3 °Bove Xxtuii Wkjagtapk JeverPorids Cfaombo'sYiU fJtobvs f^itrejuiab SVurmele 'Ghanxe MathxCUiajii' lonX UJWi Wahlberg Mo kafrrne. SerotlL( U X Kanne« Hkeko was Gajriokhuari* C ' \ f*Shiti. lamas f >dJl- .&AUSRURf| CN-A} v, r «iEur op a T . C.S'Vincent Moroi ISLAND i OF MADAGASCAR/ 20 Lon^itviiitJ East of Greenwich RHODESIA AND PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA. SCALE, 1: 5,977,382, 94 >4 ENGLISH MILES TO I INCH. 100 50 O XOO 200 London: Edward Stanford,26 & 27 Cockspnr St..Charing Cross. S.W. Zondcrv Stan/or-cCs G^otj1 Jfstai*CHAPTER IX PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA (GAZALAND; MOZAMBIQUE) Boundaries, Extent, Divisions, Population—Portuguese Maladministra- tion—Historic Retrospect; Present Relations—Physical Features ; The hamuli Highlands—Rivers ; Zambesi Delta—The Sabi, Pung- we, and Rovuma Rivers—Climate—Flora—Fauna—Natural Products —Inhabitants of Gazaland : Tongas ; Ba-Lempas ; Banyans ; The Portuguese Half-breeds—Inhabitants of Mozambique: Wa-Yao ; . Makua—Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations in Portuguese East Africa—Towns and Stations : Lourentjo Marques ; Delagoa Bay ; Inhambane ; Sofala ; Quilimane ; Mozambique ; Angosha ; Fernao Yellozo ; Ibo ; Zumbo ; Tete ; Sena. Boundaries, Extent, Divisions, Population As partly settled by the Agreement of June 1891, the Portuguese sphere of influence on the eastern sea- board extends from the conventional line at Kosi Bay, separating it from Zululand for about 1400 miles north- eastwards to the Rovuma river separating it from German East Africa. It is divided into two nearly equal sections by the lower course of the Zambesi, the southern stretching from the coast for an average distance of some 200 miles inland to the already described eastern frontiers of Transvaal and British Central Africa,444 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the northern extending also from the coast for an average distance of 300 miles to Lakes Nyassa and Shirwa and the Eiver Ruo, where it is again conterminous with British territory. But along both banks of the Zambesi a narrow Portuguese zone is also wedged in between North and South British Zambesia as far as Zumbo, 500 miles above the delta. The southern and northern sections, which roughly correspond to the regions com- monly designated respectively as Gazaland and Mozam- bique, have a collective area of about 620,000 square miles, with an estimated population (1894) of 1,500,000. Till recently the term Mozambique officially comprised the whole region, being synonymous with the expression Portuguese East Africa. But in 1891 the colony was constituted the " State of East Africa " (Estado d!Africa Oriental), and divided into two provinces—Mozambique and Lourengo Marques, coinciding with the above-described northern and southern sections. The State is adminis- tered by a Eoyal Commissioner appointed for three years, and residing alternately in the respective capitals, Mozambique and Lourengo Marques. Portuguese Maladministration Hitherto a thin bordering of green 6n the eastern seaboard has been more than sufficient to indicate the nature and extent of Portuguese power in East Africa. For nearly four hundred years, since the occupation of Sofala, Quilimane, Mozambique, Sena, Tete, and a few other stations along the coast and on the banks of the Zambesi, the authority of the Crown of Portugal has been mainly confined to the vicinity of those stations. At one or two points farther inland, such as Massara (Gouveia's) in the Gorongoza district, and Massi-KessiPORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 445 in East Manica, a certain jurisdiction has at times been exercised at least indirectly through the missionaries, the agents of the Mozambique and earlier mining companies, or the so - called Capitaos Mors (" Captains major"), generally half-caste chiefs or headmen supported and supplied with firearms and fire-water by the officials of the maritime or riverain districts. The green bordering must now, however, be extended into the interior, so as to embrace the sphere of influence assigned to Portugal by the Agreement of June 1891. But despite diplo- matic arrangements, the actual conditions remain un- changed, and are well expressed by Lord Salisbury in his speech at Glasgow on 20th May 1891 in reference to the recent negotiations : " The territory we shall recog- nise as belonging to South Africa is high land, on which white men can work and settle. All the land on the banks of the Zambesi which we have offered to Portugal in exchange, and to which we think she has some historical claim, is land which can only be dealt with by those born in the country. And I think the melancholy peculiarity of the rule of Portugal is that she does not pour her own people into the country and people it with her own blood,1 but is satisfied with ruling the natives whom she finds there. It is therefore fitting that the territory which can only be cultivated by the natives should fall under her rule, and it is fitting that the territory on which white men can work should fall to the more active and robust Anglo-Saxon race." How entirely Portuguese influence has been confined to the coast is shown by the fact that the route from 1 Efforts, however, were in former times made to introduce Portuguese women into Mozambique, and thus at least develop a half-caste race in that region. But the attempt was mainly a failure, and the Mestizoes sprung from unions between Portuguese men and native women are, as a rule, little better than the natives themselves.446 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Matabililand eastwards to Sofala, consisting of a waggon- road to a point on the Lundi river 80 miles short of the Sabi, and thence of a mere track for 260 miles through Gazaland to the coast, has never yet been used by traders, though " there appears to be no obstacle to pre- vent a waggon travelling from Umzila's (Gungunyana's) to the coast" (Lieutenant C. E. Haynes). But even on the coast communications are so irregular that in 1880 the people of Sofala had not yet heard of the Franco- German War; and when the Governor of Louren^o Marques was killed and the fort destroyed by the Zulus in 1842. it took a whole year for the news to reach Mozambique by the roundabout way of Brazil! Mozam- bique itself, capital of all the Portuguese East African possessions, is still at times dependent on the goodwill of the neighbouring tribes for its supply of provisions. It exercises scarcely any control beyond the reach of its guns and gun-boats, and the coast populations are prac- tically as independent as they were before the arrival of the Portuguese nearly four centuries ago. Till the late explorations of Consuls O'Neill, Johnston, and Last, the surrounding country had remained almost a terra incognita, for this station " had never been utilised as a starting-point for exploring expeditions in the interior, and the Portuguese continued to occupy it for three hundred years without collecting any information regard- ing the neighbouring lands and peoples that might, nevertheless, have easily been visited."1 The same picture of apathy and helplessness in the presence of the native and half-caste populations is pre- sented by all the riverain stations from Quilimane to Zumbo. Quilimane, hitherto wrongly supposed to be the indispensable gateway of the Zambesi, is mainly inhabited 1 Keane's Rectus, xiii. p. 281.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 447 by a few dozen whites, mostly convicts or descendants of convicts, and a few thousand blacks, mostly descend- ants of slaves or still virtually slaves. When the Rev. Duff Macdonald passed through the place in 1878, one of the sights he beheld was a number of natives " em- ployed in carrying enormous trees, each of which required about thirty bearers. Every party was accompanied by a man with a whip, who seemed to have as hard work as any of them."1 In fact these stations were chiefly maintained as centres of the slave trade long after the traffic had been abolished by most other Christian States. When the Universities Mission, under Bishop Mackenzie, began operations in the Shir6 valley in 1861, it was discovered that the Portuguese officials and traders were everywhere carrying on the traffic to such an extent that a clause was inserted in the treaty with the A-Nyassa (Manganja) people to the effect that " if any Portuguese or other foreign slavers came into the land, they (the A-ISTyassa) would drive them away, or at once let us know of their presence." 2 While the slave trade flourished, the Zambesi stations enjoyed a degree of murky prosperity. When the traffic was at last suppressed under pressure of European public opinion, the stations fell into a state of hopeless decay. Zumbo, where a few crumbling ruins mark the extreme limits of Portuguese influence on the east side of the continent, was entirely abandoned till 1881, when nominal possession was resumed under a Capitao Mor. But desolation reigns supreme both here and lower down at Tete, where the old Eoman Catholic Church is a picturesque forest-grown ruin worshipped by the natives 1 Africana, ii. p. 56. 2 See full text of treaty in Africana, ii. p. 11.448 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL as a kind of fetish. But despite the abolition of the traffic, domestic slavery is still rife, and the worst atrocities are practised by the local chiefs, who regard their subjects as slaves and often treat them with fiend- ish cruelty. When Montagu Kerr visited Tete (1885), the people were at the mercy of a capricious polygamist kinglet, who put his wives to death on the slightest pre- text. " Executions are carried out sometimes in the presence of the woman's father, who, through fear of giving offence to the king, will exhibit satisfaction rather than sorrow. Any appearance of grief would be fatal to him. Occasionally the king may order the father to be the executioner, and even then the horribly unnatural command is obeyed with apparent satisfaction." 1 The Portuguese do not themselves perpetrate these horrors, but they are fain to tolerate, because helpless to prevent them. Were they to attempt to enforce "orderly government, they would soon be swept from the Zambesi valley, where they are at the mercy of their Capitaos Mors, that is, of their own native and half-caste officials. Hence, even in Portugal, impartial observers are beginning to see that the Portuguese rule is a curse to the natives themselves, as well as a burden to the mother country. In 1894 the total revenue of the Colony was only £260,000, and the expenditure £520,000, while the exports, chiefly to Great Britain, scarcely exceeded £12,000. Many true patriots have openly declared that the alienation of the whole of Mozambique would be a wise step, and in the autumn of 1891 informal negotiations were actually opened by the Lisbon Govern- ment for the cession of Delagoa Bay to England, which, according to the Agreement of June 1891, has a pre- ferential right of purchase. 1 The Far Interior, ii. p. 52.POUTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 449 Historic Retrospect—Present Relations The foundation of Portuguese power in the eastern seas dates from the year 1497, when Yasco de Gama doubled the Cape, coasted the African seaboard as far north as Malindi (Melinda), and then, under the guidance of local pilots, sailed across the Arabian Sea straight for India. Within a decade of that date the whole of the east coast from Natal to Cape Guardafui was visited, and nearly all the present Portuguese stations—Inhambane, Sofala, Quilimane, Angosha, Mozambique, Ibo—were per- manently occupied, with the single exception of Lourengo Marques on Delagoa Bay, where a factory was first estab- lished by a trader of that name in the year 1545. Sofala, which had already been visited by the Portuguese captain, Peroda Covilhams, in 1480, that is, seventeen years before Yasco de Gama had opened the route to India, was cap- tured in 1505, and here was erected the Fort Ophir, the ruins of which still exist. It was so named because Sofala, the Safar of the Arabs, had from time immemorial been the outport of the gold brought down from the Manica mines, and was consequently identified with the Ophir of Solomon. For the same reason the Eiver Sabi, which reaches the coast a little farther south, was associated with the name of the Queen of Saba (Sheba), whose lineage was supposed by many to be perpetuated in the powerful Monomotapa, at that time paramount lord of the kingdom of Sofala, with all its auriferous dependencies in the interior. Farther up, Quilimane, despite its unhealthy climate, was occupied, at first in vassalage to the neighbouring chief, and afterwards in absolute tenure, because it was supposed to stand at the mouth of the chief branch of the Quama (Zambesi), and VOL. II 2 G450 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL many years passed before it was discovered that this branch scarcely belonged to the Zambesi system at all, and, in any case, only communicated with the main THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S PALACE, MOZAMBIQUE. stream during exceptional floods. Already, in Barbosa's time (1514), the Portuguese had a fort at Angosha, which, like the neighbouring Mozambique, and all thePORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 451 other seaports as far south as Sofala, had a king subject to the powerful Sultan of Quiloa.1 The island of Mozam- bique itself, which had long been a famous Arab mart, trading with Zanzibar and India, was permanently occupied in 1507, and exactly a hundred years later chosen instead of Sofala as the capital of all the Portuguese East African possessions. These possessions extended along the coast from Delagoa Bay to Cape Guardafui till the close of the seventeenth century, when the Arabs of Mombasa, aided by the Sultan of Omk, succeeded in driving the Portu- guese from all their northern stations as far south as Mikindani. Since that time Cape Delgado, at the mouth of the Eovuma, has marked the extreme northern limit of the jurisdiction exercised by the Governor-General of Mozambique. There can be no doubt that Portuguese traders and missionaries visited various parts of the interior from their stations on the seaboard. But no scientific ex- peditions were despatched inland before that of Lacerda, at the close of the eighteenth century. Hence the whole country beyond the coast-line remained unknown till the recent journeys of Erskine, Wood, Browne, Kuss, O'Donnel, and Daly in Gazaland; and those of Eoscher, Johnston, Last, and especially O'Neill2 in Mozambique. Gazaland takes its name from the Zulu, or, rather, 1 4' When the King of Portugal discovered this land, the Moors of Sofala and Zuama (Quama, i.e. Quilimane), and Anguox (Angosha), and Mozam- bique, were all under obedience to the King of Quiloa, who was a great king amongst them " (Stanley's Barbosa). 2 The first trustworthy map of the country north of the Lower Zambesi dates only from 1885, and is due to Mr. Henry O'Neill, who had long been British Consul at Mozambique. The whole country was, in fact, first opened up by this indefatigable explorer, who completed the hydro- graphic surveys of the British Admiralty between Cape Delgado and Mozambique Island, and thence to Angosha; explored the course of the452 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Swazi chief, Gaza, who, according to the national traditions, was a contemporary and rival of Chaka, King of Zululand. Gaza, however, does not appear to have made any per- manent conquests in the region north of the Limpopo, which was first overrun and reduced by his son Manikus (Manikosa, Manukuza), about the year 1833. Manikus had been sent by Chaka's successor, Dingaan, to drive the Portuguese from Delagoa Bay, but, having failed in the attempt, he escaped the tyrant's vengeance by passing with all his impis to the coastlands north of the Limpopo. Here he established his military kraal at Chamachama (Nodvengu), in the hilly district about the source of the Bosi, 3650 feet above the sea, and 120 miles inland from Sofala (Erskine). From this commanding position his impis rapidly overran the whole land, taking Inham- bane in 1834, plundering Sofala itself in 1836, and almost driving the Portuguese completely out of the country. At the same time some of his Zulu followers, known as Maviti, or Landins, that is, " Couriers/' swept like a storm-cloud right up to the Zambesi, where they levied tribute on Tete and Sena, and where their descend- ants are now settled on both banks of the main stream, and in the Shir4 basin. Manikus, the real founder of the Gaza Kingdom, was succeeded in the north by his son Umzila, a renowned chief, from whom the country often takes the name of Umzilaland; and he by his brother Umdugaza about 1882. In the south, Umzila's brother, Guzana, better known as Gungunyana,1 for a time exercised a joint Rovuma ; visited Lake Shirwa, and determined the water-parting between the Shire basin and the Indian Ocean. (Proc. Boy. Geo. Soc. 1882-1885 passim.) His work was continued chiefly by Cardoso down to 1886, and since then by H. H. Johnston, Lugard, and Keane. 1 Usually written Gungunhana; but this is Portuguese orthography, in which nh = English ny.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 453 authority with Umdugaza, but has in recent years assumed the supreme control, and has at the same time removed his headquarters from near Umzila's kraal south- wards to a place not far from Delagoa Bay. Despite semi-official Portuguese assertions to the contrary, no member of Gaza's dynasty has ever acknowledged the suzerainty of the Crown of Portugal, and in 1891 Gungunyana sent two indunas to England for the pur- pose of placing his kingdom under the British pro- tectorate. But meantime the Lisbon Cortes had ratified the Agreement of June 1891, which includes Gazaland within the sphere of Portuguese influence. Consequently, the mission ended in failure, and the Portuguese, officially masters of Gungunyana's country, continue to be de facto at the mercy of, as they have at times been tributary to, that state. In 1892 Gungunyana was with difficulty restrained from driving them out of the country. The descendants of Manikus's warlike hordes " appear not to have degenerated from the Ama-Swazi type, and in Matabililand the women of Umzila's kraal are noted for their size and beauty" (Lt. Haynes). Their general attitude towards the aborigines of the country has been much the same as that of the Matabili conquerors. The plundering expeditions have perhaps been less systematic and less frequent, because there has been less to plunder on the more sparsely inhabited marshy plains of Gazaland than on the Matabili plateau. But here, as elsewhere, the Zulu military system has been attended by the same disastrous results—the arrest of all social progress, the dispersion of peaceful settled communities, the suspension of all industrial pursuits, such as the mining industry in the Massi-Kessi district, Manica, where the gold mines were closed and the miners dispersed by Umzila's impis. During454 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL their remarkable journey of 740 miles through Gaza- land in 1891, Dr. Jameson, Messrs. Doyle and Moodie found " a great part of the country uninhabited," and for a distance of at least 150 miles the route lay through swamps. The northern tribes, such as the Ba-Rue and Ba-Tokas of East Manica, still entertain such a dread of the Zulus that, when they were visited in the spring of 1891 by some of the South Africa Company's agents, " their cry everywhere was the same : ' Take our country; only protect us from Gungunyana'; and again: ' Do not talk of the Portuguese protecting us ; they cannot save us from Gungunyana. Come, and leave us only room to save our crops.'"1 Little had been done to open up the country till the year 1892, when, in accordance with the provisions of the Anglo-Portuguese Agreement of 1891, a beginning was made with the " Beira Railway," which runs from Fontesvilla on the Pungwe above Beira north-westwards in the direction of Massi-Kessi near the British frontier. In 1894 about 90 miles of this line had been constructed as far as Chimoya, within five days' journey of Fort Salisbury. A junction will eventually be effected with the British South African system, thus giving the capital of British Central Africa access by rail southwards to the Cape, and eastwards through Portuguese territory to the Indian Ocean. Plans have also been prepared for the construction of other railways from Quilimane to the Lower Shire river, with extensions at both ends, the object being to avoid the intricacies of the delta navigation, and to turn the rapids on the main stream above the delta.2 But the 1 Times Correspondent, 26th June 1891. 2 A. de Moraes Sarmento, Carta do delta do Zambeze e Terrenos Adja- centes, Lisbon 1891.PORTUGUESE EAST AFKICA • 455 deficient local revenue, and the serious financial em- barrassment of the home government, must prevent the execution of these works, unless foreign capital can be attracted by an improved and more vigorous adminis- tration. Physical Features From Delagoa Bay the coast-line trends in a series of curves north-eastwards to Mozambique Island, and thence due north to Cape Delgado. But the escarpments of the continental plateau continue to follow a northerly direc- tion from Swaziland to the Nyassa highlands, broken only by the broad valley of the Lower Zambesi. The result of this conformation is that the whole of the coast- lands are mainly level, and often swampy, alluvial plains, broadening out northwards, and interrupted here and there either by isolated mountain masses, such as the Namuli Mountains in Mozambique, or by a few eastern spurs and offshoots of the plateau, such as the foot-hills of the Gorongoza district (Mounts Zangwe and Miranga), and of the Ubiri district (Mounts Sipumgambili and Silindi) in Gazaland. All the lowlands may thus be regarded as so much land reclaimed from the sea by the continuous action of the running waters — Limpopo, Sabi, Bosi, Pungwe, Zambesi, Lukugu, Lurio, Mtepwesi, Eovuma, and others —which, with the sedimentary matter washed down from the uplands, gradually formed banks, islands, and continuous land in the shallows of the Indian Ocean. Then the new coast-line thus projected seawards was again attacked in the north by the full force of the Mozambique current setting westwards from the high seas, and deflected southwards between Madagascar and the mainland. Hence the northern section of the sea-456 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL board is carved into numerous capes and headlands, which here and there enclose well-sheltered creeks, inlets, and even magnificent havens, such as Mwambi, Memba, Con- ducia, Mokambo, and especially Fernao Vellozo—havens crowded with shipping before the advent of the Portu- guese, since then mamly silent and lifeless. Lower down the marine stream flows southwards, parallel with the coast, which is, moreover, somewhat protected by the advanced breakwater of Madagascar. Consequently the section of the seaboard south of the Zambesi delta is almost destitute of good harbours, until it again becomes exposed at LourenQo Marques, where has been developed the spacious harbour of Delagoa Bay. In Gazaland the ground slopes from the coast through marshy, wooded, or grassy tracts up to the Matabili and Mashona escarpments. Here the porphyry and basalt Silindi, Sipumgambili, and Ubiri peaks rise to a height of some 4000 feet above the banks of the Upper Sabi river. Northwards follows the Sit a Tonga range, where the Gundi-Inyanga ("Moon-shaver") and some other crests attain an altitude of about 5000 feet. Still farther north this rugged region about the Anglo - Portuguese frontier, which forms the divide beween the Pungwe, Busi, and Sabi basins, culminates in the many-peaked Panga (6970 feet), west of the Inyamkarara valley.1 Eastwards this valley is enclosed by the precipitous slopes of Gorongoe (Gorongozo), terminating in a remark- able sugar-loaf peak 5690 feet high. Other lofty summits in this highland region are Mount Lunji, a conspicuous pyramid rising to a height of 5960 feet; the dome- shaped Mount Do£ (6725 feet), formerly supposed to be the highest point between the Zambesi and Limpopo ; lastly, the wooded granite Miranga Peak (6700 feet?). 1 Major J. J. Leverson, Geo. Jour. 1893, p. 512.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 457 The Namuli Highlands North of the Zambesi the chief physical features are the magnificent Namuli highlands, in every respect one of the finest upland districts in the whole of Africa. This delightful region, recently revealed to the outer world by the explorations of O'Neill and Last, lies in the south-western part of Mozambique, where have their rise the numerous headstreams of the Lukugu, Ligonya, Lurio, and other rivers flowing in various directions to the Indian Ocean. The whole group of peaks, cones, and crests, standing on a pedestal 2000 feet above sea- level, culminates in the precipitous and quite inaccessible twin-peaked Namuli, which is at least 8000 feet high, but not snow- clad, as was formerly supposed. This majestic summit is flanked by several other lofty heights, such as Malisani, Mruli, Pilani, Mresi, Likilakwa, and Kwiani, ranging from 6000 to nearly 7500 feet. Mr. Last, who spent three months in the country in the year 1886, speaks in enthusiastic language of its wild romantic scenery, fertile and well-watered upland valleys, healthy temperate climate, and luxuriant vegetation. " The slopes of Namuli are clothed with verdure, in which large trees, india-rubber and other vines, tree- ferns, palms, bamboos, and a great variety of shrubs and bushes all combine to add beauty to the scene. In some places deep gorges have been cut away by the ever- rushing torrent, and small streams come skipping and sprinkling down on all sides. In one place there is a beautiful double waterfall of some 500 feet over the clean rock, and on each side df it large beds of gently waving maidenhair ferns. On reaching the top of the mountain mass one sees a large extent of deeply-undulating458 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL country, gentle valleys, mountain ridges gradually rising and culminating in abrupt peaks, very deep gorges caused by some enormous force and the continual flowing of the larger streams. Nature seems to have especially exerted herself in the formation of this mountain mass. On all sides high conical peaks may be seen raising their heads from 1000 to 3000 feet high above the common level. Look a little away and you see gently-rising ridges with one or both sides forming fearful precipices from 1000 to 2000 feet deep. Along the depths of these gorges and precipices the rivers may be seen, like so many silvery lines, wending their way to the green valleys beyond." 1 The scenery of the Yolo, and especially of the Malema valley, is quite enchanting. " Here you may see a large plot of soft green grass as smooth as a lawn, there a bed of aloes in full flower; a little farther on a belt of tall trees covered with creeping plants and parasites, orchids and ferns in great variety. Underneath there is the clear sparkling brook, gaily rushing along to add its quota to the main stream. Nature here seems to have used all her power to make the place a lovely spot—a feast for human eyes " (ib.) Rivers—Zambesi Delta—The Sabi, Pungwe, Rovuma The whole of Portuguese East Africa belongs to the maritime slope of the continental plateau, draining either indirectly through a few tributaries of the Limpopo and Zambesi, or directly through the Sabi, Bosi, Pungwe, Lukugu, Ligonya, Mluli (Angosha), Lurio, Mtepwesi, Lujenda-Rovuma, and a few smaller coast streams to the Indian Ocean. None of these rivers have much com- 1 Proc. Hoy. Geo. JSoc. 1887, p. 471.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 459 mercial value, being navigable either not at all or only to a very limited extent. Even the Zambesi is accessible only for sea-going vessels as far as the Shir£ confluence through the Chinde branch of the delta. The other broad channels traced on the maps are either sluggish, shallow streams, obstructed by bars at their mouths and higher up by shifting banks, islands, and mangrove forests, or else are intermittent branches connected only during the floods with the main stream. To the former class belong the Inyamissengo, Melambe, Kongoni, and Musulo; to the latter, the Luasse and Qua-Qua, or " Eiver of Quilimane," all converging near Mopea, at the head of the delta, about 40 miles from the coast, and enclosing a marshy triangular space, with a seaward base of nearly 60 miles, and a total area of perhaps 2000 square miles. But at a former epoch, when the Zambesi was not only a great continental artery, but the emissary of a vast inland sea, the, delta was much more extensive than at present. Even still its waters are intermingled during the floods not only with the Qua-Qua and Eio Mutu on the north side, but also southwards with the Pungwe through the Eio Zangue, and a continuous chain of marshes or lagoons, collectively known as Lake Tandora Sungue. After the inland waters had been drawn off the old delta gradually contracted in size, and most of it is now represented only by numerous backwaters, stagnant pools, false or erratic rivers scattered over the seaboard between the Pungwe and Lukugu v estuaries. Meantime the main stream has itself been recently shifted several miles northwards, that is, nearer to the Qua-Qua; and should the tendency continue, the two branches will probably become merged in a single, deep, and navigable channel, accessible to large vessels fat460 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL beyond the Mopea poppy-fields at the head of the pre- sent delta. South of the Zambesi, Gazaland is watered by three considerable streams, the Pungwe, Bosi, and Sabi, all of which have some of their farthest sources on the slopes of Mount Doe in Manicaland. But the Sabi, by far the largest river between the Limpopo and Zambesi, draws some of its supplies from Mount Hampden in Mashona- land, while its great tributary, the Lunda, flows with numerous branches from the eastern watershed of the Matoppo divide in the very heart of Matabililand. Yet this extensive fluvial system, with a catchment basin of many thousand square miles, is absolutely useless for navigation purposes. Many of the headstreams travers- ing the somewhat arid districts of South Matabililand run dry for a great part of the year, while the main stream loses much of its volume by evaporation and infiltration on the hot marshy plains of Gazaland. Beeently the Pungwe has been much spoken of as offering probably the best means of access from the coast to the South Africa Company's settlements in Mashona- land. But it is to be feared that the prospective advan- tages of this river, which has a total length of nearly 300 miles, have been somewhat overrated. It has been described as navigable by small steamers for a distance of 100 miles from Beira, at its mouth, to Mpanda (Mu- panda's). But Mr. Neville H. Davies, late hydrographer to the Queensland Government, who visited it in 1890, speaks of 50 miles as the limit of its navigation for "vessels drawing between 5 and 6 feet of water."1 He adds that the Pungwe flows through low, muddy, and malarious flats, which are flooded to a vast extent during the rainy season from February to April, the swampy 1 Paper contributed to R. W. Murray's South Africa, p. 213.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 461 land extending all the way to Mpanda. Hence he con- cludes that even the proposed railway by this route from the coast to Mashonaland would prove to be a tremen- dously costly undertaking. Nevertheless, a steamer -service from the Cape to Mashonaland, ma Beira, was organised in 1891, the Pungwe having been declared free by the Anglo-Portuguese Agreement of that year. North of the Zambesi the chief watercourse is the Eovuma, which rises on the east slope of the Livingstone Mountains, and which receives on its right bank the Lujenda, flowing from Lake Amaramba, north of Lake Shirwa (see p. 422). Although much the larger of the two forks, and about a mile wide at the confluence, the Lujenda is quite unnavigable, being obstructed by rapids along its whole course. It is thickly studded with beautifully wooded islands, some of which are three or four miles long, and covered with fine trees, whose branches are festooned with graceful creepers. Below the confluence, the Eovuma, which here forms the political frontier between the Portuguese and German spheres of influence, overflows its right bank into the temporary Lidedi and Nagandi lagoons during the rainy season. At this time the Eovuma, which forms no delta, and is obstructed by no bar at its mouth, is navigable at least to the confluence for riverain craft of considerable size. The Eovuma (Lovuma) is intimately associated with the early explorations of Livingstone, who surveyed its channel during the low-water season for a distance of 180 miles in a small boat. Next in size to the Eovuma is the Lukugu, whose source west of Namuli, at the north foot of Mount Pilani, was discovered by Mr. Last in 1886. It flows through a well-watered and fertile, but sparsely inhabited country, nearly due south to the coast, a few miles north462 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL of Quilimane. Although sending down a considerable volume, and swollen by a large affluent from the north- west, the Lukugu is unnavigable even by canoes. Its mouth is closed to coasting vessels by a formidable bar, while its middle and upper reaches are obstructed by a long series of rapids and waterfalls. Equally useless is the Mtepwesi, which flows from near the Changwari hills north-eastwards to the coast at Ibo. None of the other Mozambique streams—Msalu, Lurio, Mkubure, Mikati, Mluli, Ligonya—have yet been surveyed for any distance from their mouths. But this is partly due to the fact that they are inaccessible to the smallest craft, while their course lies mainly through the fever-stricken coastlands. Climate There can be no doubt that most of the uplands, both in Gazaland and Mozambique, are salubrious, and suitable to form health resorts and permanent settlements for Europeans. During his residence in the Namuli hills, Mr. Last found the normal temperature ranging from 55° to 75° Fahr., with a maximum of 95°, and a mini- mum of 26°, when water froze at night towards the end of the austral spring. Here very strong frosts appear to prevail in the cold months; so that on the Namuli uplands, within 16 degrees of the equator, there seems to be a regular succession of four seasons, as marked as in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. But, on the other hand, all the coastlands from Dela- goa Bay to the mouth of the Kovuma, low-lying, marshy plains, in many places overgrown with mangrove, lie well within the zone of endemic African fever. Hence such places as Sofala, Quilimane, and Mozambique are notori-PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 463 ously unhealthy, while the whole of the Zambesi delta is a hot-bed of malarious exhalations. Delagoa Bay, with the district between the coast and the foot-hills, now traversed by the railway to the Transvaal frontier, is not much better, and here, as well as along the lower course of the Limpopo and Zambesi, the country is infested by the tsetse fly. On the Gazaland seaboard the mean summer temperature is 90° Fahr. in the shade, and 72° in winter, and this, combined with the miasma rising from the decaying vegetation on the low, muddy, and periodically flooded plains, supplies all the elements of a climate as murderous as any in the tropical world. Owing to the disturbing influence of Madagascar, the normal south-east trade winds, which in Gazaland are sometimes followed by heavy downpours, are little felt in Mozambique. After sweeping round the south end of the great island, the atmospheric currents, prevailing from April to September, are deflected northwards in the direc- tion of Zanzibar. During the rest of the year their course is reversed, and then the Mozambique marine current, under the influence of the northern winds, runs at an accelerated velocity of 3 or 4 miles an hour. Here the conditions are favourable for the coral builders, which have constructed a series of barrier reefs and islands from 12 to 20 miles from the coast, all the way from the Zambesi delta to Cape Delgado. In these waters cyclones are rare, none having occurred since the disastrous hurri- canes which visited the Mozambique seaboard during the summer of 1841, and again the two following years. Flora—Fauna—Natural Products In Gazaland most of the moisture from the Indian Ocean is precipitated on the terraces and escarpments of464 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the plateau, which are consequently clothed with a fine forest vegetation. Here are found a great variety of forms, including the curious odoriferous mopane, a large tree with its leaves disposed vertically, like those of so many Australian plants; and the valuable imbunga, an india-rubber creeper whose fruit serves, like the " traveller's tree" of Madagascar, to quench the wayfarer's thirst. Owing to the deficient rainfall, the low-lying plains are covered with a scanty vegetation of herbage, alternating with scrub and thorny plants, and on the coast mostly replaced by arid sands. Mozambique, where the rainfall is more uniformly distributed, almost everywhere abounds in tropical forms, and the JSTamuli uplands are especially remarkable for their rich and varied flora. The plantations, which suffer from the want of capital, yield a little coffee, tobacco, rice, and sugar, besides rhubarb, jalap, and other medicinal plants. Eecently the cultivation of opium has been in- troduced, with some success, on the left bank of the Zambesi, near the head of the delta. But the chief articles of export continue to be timber, drugs, oleaginous seeds, gold dust, ivory, cotton, coffee, rubber, gum copal, cereals, tobacco, rice, indigo, skins, honey, beeswax, and salt, all in small quantities. These items may at present be regarded rather as samples of what the country is capable of producing under a vigorous administration, than of its actual contributions to the commerce of the world. Inhabitants of Gazaland: Tongas, Ba-Lempas, Banyans Before the arrival of Manikosa with his Zulu (Swazi)1 1 These Zulus, constituting the military and politically dominant class in.Gazaland, are called Landins or "Couriers" by the Portuguese, andPORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 465 following, the dominant people in Gazaland were the Tongas, who appear to be the aborigines of this region. They are, still found everywhere, and the term Tonga is commonly applied collectively to all the natives except those claiming Zulu descent. Judging from their language, appearance, and customs, the Tongas are more closely related to the Ba-Sutos, or eastern Beehuanas, than to any other branch of the Bantu race. For Tonga, & term of contempt applied by the Zulus to all inferior races, some writers have substituted Gwamba, which appears to be the national name of one of their leading tribes about the Transvaal frontier. Here are also several other groups belonging to the same connection, such as the Ba-Hlengwe (Hlenga), who are the " Knob-noses " of the Dutch and English settlers; the Chobi ("Bowmen") of the Lower Limpopo, with a branch in the Inhambane district; the Ma-Kwakwa, north-west of the same district; the Bila-Kulu, near the Sabi delta; and the Ba-Tevi and Ba-Eue, of East Manicaland. Most of these tribes recognise the Zulu king, Gun- gunyana, as their suzerain lord, whereas the Mutandi, Chacondas, Yalenghi, Varendi, Atavaras, and other frag- mentary groups about the Zambesi, between Zumbo and Tete, have long been subjected to direct Portuguese in- fluences, and are ruled either by Capitaos M6rs, or by Ba-Nyungwi, that is, chiefs from the reduced Nyungwi people, between Tete and the Lower Shir& They all understand the Se-Shona language, and appear to belong Umgoni by the southern populations. Umgoni is the same word as Angoni (Mangoni), applied to the kindred Zulu people of South Nyassa- land, who formed part of Manikosa's conquering hordes. But while the Umgoni of Gazaland have preserved their racial purity, the northern Angoni have become intermingled with the surrounding aborigines, re- taining of their Zulu nationality little more than the name, language, and traditions. VOL. II 2 H466 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL to the same stock as the Mashona nation, though now differing from them cf in customs, appearance, and mode of living."1 Within the Portuguese sphere of influence, as extended north of the Zambesi by the Agreement of 1891, are also the Ba-Dema, Ba-Senga, Achewas, Mano, and others, of whom little is known beyond their tribal names. The Ba-Senga (A-Senga), formerly a numerous people about the Lower Loangwa, have been almost exterminated by the -Portuguese half-castes of Zumbo, under their chief Matakenya (Alfred Sharpe). Amongst the Ba-Tevi of the East Manica mining district (Massi-Kessi) dwell some scattered communities of the so-called Ba-Lempas, who are mentioned by Mauch as practising circumcision, and resembling the Jews in appearance and usages. Many, like the Polish Jews, are noted for their red eyes and fiery eyebrows. It is cer- tainly curious to find apparent traces of a Semitic element in this region, where the latest researches seem to show that the Zimbabye and other ruins are most probably of Arabian origin. Another foreign element are the Banyans, Hindoos of the trading caste, who have for generations almost mono- polised the export traffic of the east coast from Sofala to Somaliland. They were first attracted to Africa by the Portuguese edict of 1686 granting to a Banyan company the exclusive right of trading between Diu and Mozam- bique. Although deprived of their monopoly and other privileges in 1777, the Banyans continued to prosper, and the field of their operations has been steadily enlarged during the past century. " The feeling of antagonism with which these traders are regarded arises chiefly from the fact that the profits made by them are neither in- vested in, nor serve any useful purpose to this country. 1 Bishop Knight Bruce, Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. June 1890, p. 350.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 467 India is the land of their nativity, and out of it the law of their race does not permit them to permanently settle, or even to carry their women. Eesidence abroad is. therefore to them but a temporary sojourn, and the wealth they gain is naturally remitted to the only country custom allows them to call their own." 1 The Half-Breeds A race of Portuguese mulattos has sprung up in this region under somewhat peculiar circumstances. Early in the eighteenth century the home government organised a scheme of colonisation on quite an original plan. A number of Lusitanian women were sent to Mozambique, where they received grants of land in their own right, on the sole condition of marrying Europeans. These Crown lands (Prazos da Corva) were settled for three generations on the female line, that is, from mother to daughter, to the exclusion of all male issue. But the scheme soon broke down, owing to the excessive mortality, and the return of the immigrants or their failure to comply with the terms of the concessions. These terms had then to be modified, and free grants of land were made to the "daughters of Africans or Asiatics," in other words to any half-breeds of Portuguese descent on the mother's side. Several of the estates were also merged in one, and thus arose a number of powerful half-caste planters, who surrounded themselves with harems of female slaves, indulged in the worst vices of European and African culture, and found themselves at times strong enough to defy the government itself. The edicts of 1836 and 1854, abolishing this strange feudal system, remained a dead letter, owing to the lack 1 Consul H. E. O'Neill, Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. October 1882.468 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL of military force to give them effect; and matters had to be compromised by conciliating the potent mestizo lords of those vast domains, who enjoyed the status of semi- independent princelings. From their number have in recent times been selected many of the Capitaos Mors, whose black Negroid features, high-sounding Portuguese names, and truculent ways are so frequently referred to by travellers in the Portuguese East African possessions. A typical official of this class was a certain Gouveia, who lately occupied the natural stronghold of Messara, in the mountainous Gorongoza district, and who appears to have been a prime mover in the troubles that arose between the Portuguese and the British South Africa Company's Agents in the Massi-Kessi district in 1891. This local potentate resided in the village of Inyangu, from him called " Villa Gouveia," where he kept a garrison of Landins (Zulus), who, like the native troops at Tete, were armed by the Portuguese Government, and and who, like them also, were a terror to the surrounding peaceful populations. The Mozambique Tribes; Wa-Yao, Makua North of the Zambesi nearly all the aborigines belong either to the Makua or to the Yao branch of the eastern Bantu peoples. Many, doubtless, call themselves Maviti, i.e. Zulus, for this region has also been overrun by that warlike nation. But they are Zulus only in name and customs, which, after being reduced, they have adopted, proud to identify themselves with the fierce warriors who, in recent times, have spread the terror of their arms throughout East Central Africa, from Natal to Victoria Nyanza. Such are the Ma - Nindi and the kindred Ma - Gwangwara, both fierce predatory tribes,PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 469 whose original homes are on the eastern slopes of the Livingstone Mountains, and about the head - waters of the Rovuma and Rufiji rivers. The Ma-Nindi have con- verted most of the Lower Bovuma valley into a howling wilderness, sweeping the timid Ma-Tambwe and Ma- Nyanja natives into slavery, or driving them to seek refuge in the islands and the more inaccessible wooded recesses about the Lujenda confluence. " All the country along the Rovuma, from near Newala to Ngomano, was formerly well populated, as the sites of the old villages show; but now there is not a house to be seen, the district having been overrun by the Makwangara (Ma- Gwangara) and other marauding tribes, and is now become the home of a great variety of game."1 The Wa-Yao, or Wa-Hiyao, the Ajawa of Livingstone, occupy the region between the Upper Rovuma and the Lujenda, whence, during the present century, they have advanced south-westwards into the Shir£ highlands. Formerly they were a very aggressive people, much addicted to slave-hunting, and in this respect acting as a sort of middlemen between the inland populations and the Arab dealers on the seaboard. Here many acquired a certain degree of culture from long contact with the Mussulman peoples, and some have even put on a veneer of Mohammedanism. But the great bulk of the nation still adhere to the old pagan practices, and at the funeral of chiefs a few women and slaves are said to be still secretly sacrificed, or buried alive. Mr. Last states that even cannibalism is still to some extent indulged in by the great chiefs. " I have been frequently told by Yao men, who are well acquainted with the habits of the chiefs, that feasts of human flesh are frequently made in secret by the chiefs, and partaken of by them. Mtarika 1 Last, Proc. Hoy. Geo. JSoc. 1887, p. 468.470 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL has been known to make feasts of this kind, and then to invite Mohammedans and other strangers to partake of it, telling them that it is goat's flesh, of which the coast people are very fond" (ib.) Nevertheless the Wa-Yao are undoubtedly the most intelligent, industrious, and enterprising people in Mozambique. They acquire the political predominance wherever they penetrate, as amongst the A-Nyanjas of the Upper Shir£ basin. Here they have been studied by Mr. John Buchanan, who compares them favourably with the Manganja (A- Nyanja) aborigines. "In comparing the Wa-Yao with the Manganja, I have always maintained that the people of the former tribe are superior. The Wa-Yao seem to me to be a more manly and independent set of blacks than the Manganja. Amongst the Manganja there are a number of fine, intelligent old men, quiet and civil, whom one admires when they assemble to arrange a milandu (council); but many have a hang - dog look about them which you do not meet with so frequently amongst the Wa-Yao. The Wa-Yao are absolutely free when not slaves, and will not stand being curbed to the same extent as the Manganja. At the same time it must be admitted that the Wa-Yao have been a slaving tribe, and are so still whenever an opportunity affords itself." 1 Chuma, Livingstone's faithful attendant, was an Ajawa. With perhaps the doubtful exception of the Ma-Viha (Ma-Hiba) coast tribe and the Lombwe 2 (Lomwe) of the Upper Lurio valley, all the rest of the Mozambique populations may be grouped as Makuas (Ma-Kua, Ma- 1 The Shirt Highlands, 1885, p. 103. 2 Consul O'Neill regards the Lombwe as undoubtedly Makuas, though they themselves repudiate the connection. Anyhow the language seems distinct.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 471 Kwa). Already mentioned by the early Portuguese writers, the Makuas may almost be regarded as an historical people. But their history chiefly resolves itself into a series of bickerings with the Portuguese authorities on the seaboard, and with endless inter- tribal feuds, by which the whole nation has been dis- integrated. Hence a great diversity of usages, and while some have acquired a moderate degree of culture, others are still plunged in the depths of savagery, practising barbarous rites, wearing the hideous ndomya or jpelele (lip-ornament),1 common also to some of the Shir^ peoples, and even addicted to cannibalism. Thus the Ma-Wa (Maua), who occupy the southern slopes of the ISTamuli hills, about the headstreams of the Lukugu, are pro- nounced anthropophagists, eating their slaves, those killed in war, and even their own dead. " A common practice was that when it had been privately determined to kill a certain person, a public beer-drinking would be con- vened, and the intended victim invited to the festival. As soon as he was fairly intoxicated, the men told off for the purpose would seize and carry him off to the bush and spear him, then a feast would be got up, of which all would partake " (Last, ib.) None of the Makua people have founded any power- ful states, though Mweli and Mtarika, between the Namuli hills and the coast, are spoken of as "great chiefs." The Portuguese profess to have lately made treaties with these, thus acquiring a right over all their 1 "At Mkwai's I saw a woman with an enormous ndomya, or lip-ring, quite inches in diameter. This is the common ornament of the women in all these districts. In addition to this some of them wear a brass or iron nail from 4 to 7 inches in length. It is passed through a hole in the lower lip, and left hanging in front of the chin. When the lady cannot afford a metal ornament of this kind she utilises a piece of stick, which she covers with beads " (Last, Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. 1887, p. 44).472 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL lands. But Mweli assured Mr. Last that he had never made any treaty with them, while Mtarika had refused to place himself under the protection of the Portuguese Government. In any case, it is beyond doubt that none of the inland populations have ever been reduced, and even the coast tribes have even in quite recent times often defied the authority of the Portuguese officials. Subjoined is a table of the Chief Tribes and Nations in Portuguese South Africa. the dominant military class in Gazaland, chiefly in the hilly Zulus districts about the head-waters of the Bosi, here called Umgoni and Landim ; are mostly of Swazi descent. Chobi, left bank Lower Limpopo, Mindong (northern Chobi), Inhambane district. Ma-Kwalcwa, the plains north-west of Inhambane. Ma-Gwanza, left bank Middle Limpopo and affluents. Ma-Longwa (Ma-Rongwi), north of the Ma-Gwanza. Ba-Hlengwe (" Knob-nose "), inland plains between Limpopo and Sabi basins. Bila-Kulu, 'towards the Sabi delta. Maridanda -n|an(^ piains south and south-east of the Zulus. Mandowa J r Aba-Tevi ^ Ba-Rue [-East Manicaland. Ba-Lempa) Ba-ToJca, north of the Ba-Rue. Mutandi Ba-Nyai Chaconda Valenghi Varendi Atayara . Ba-Nyungwi, between Tete and the Lower Shir6. Ba-Dema \ Ba-Senga [left bank Zambesi, between Zumbo and Tete, and thence Mano j northwards in the direction of the Loangwa river. Achewa j Ma-Gwangwara so-called "Maviti," about head-waters of the Rovuma Ma-Nindi J and Rufiji rivers. broken or scattered tribes, between right bank Zambesi and the northern escarpments of Mashonaland.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 473 Ma-Tambwi \ the islands and right bank of the Rovuma, and about the Ma-Nyanja J Lujenda confluence. "Wa-Yao (Ajawa), the region between the Lujenda and Upper Rovuma. Ma- Wa (Maua), southern slopes Namuli Hills. Alolo, Mount Cheza district. Ma-Hivani, between the forks of the Lukugu river. Makua- Medo, Upper Lorio valley. AtaJcweni, between the Lower Zambesi and the Lukugu. Bororo, north of the Zambesi delta* Lombwe (?), Upper and Middle Lorio basin. Ma-Viha (Ma-Hiba), coastlands, south from the Rovuma river. Banyans, Hindu traders in the seaports. Towns and Stations : Lourengo Marques, Delagoa Bay Zourengo Marques, oil the north-west side of Delagoa Bay, has the distinction of being the only Portuguese settlement on the east side of the continent. All the other towns and seaports occupied by them between that point and Cape Guardafui are historical places, most of which were already flourishing marts long before the Portuguese " burst into the Indian Ocean like a pack of hungry wolves upon a well-stocked sheep-walk" (Sir George Birdwood). Lour en 90 Marques, founded by a trader of that name in 1545, was too far removed from the centre of authority ever to become a thriving settle- ment, even if it could have overcome the drawbacks of a pestilential climate and the neighbourhood of the fierce Zulu tribes. It was a mere factory, engaged almost exclusively in the slave-trade, and after the emancipation it sank even to a lower depth of obscurity, being for a time almost cut off from communication with the outer world. Eecently, however, Lourengo Marques has acquired considerable commercial and political importance as the terminus of the railway to Transvaal, and the natural outlet of the Boer Eepublic. The harbour, where three474 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL streams enter the bay through a common estuary, gives access to ships drawing 15 or 16 feet; while the bay itself, 12 miles wide, and over 50 feet deep at the entrance, affords well-sheltered anchorage for the largest vessels, in depths of from 40 to 120 feet. The railway, 57 miles long, enters Transvaal territory at Komati Poort, where a junction is made with the South African system. Inhambane—Sofala On the monotonous low-lying Gaza coast follow the ports of Inhambane, just above Cape Correntes; Sofala, in the swampy district between the Sabi and Pungwe estuaries; and Beira, at the mouth of the Pungwe. In- hambane,1 on a spacious inlet over 12 feet deep, has a mixed population of about 3000 natives, Arabs, Banyan and Parsee traders, with a few Portuguese officials. Here the Mohammedans have a mosque, being the southernmost centre of Moslem propaganda on the east coast. Mrs. Pringle, who visited the place in 1884, describes it as the most beautiful town she had seen in Africa. "As we approached our anchorage, the broad river became blocked with wooded islands. Everywhere we looked there were forest (cocoa-nut groves) and low- spreading bushes. The town, nestling under wooded hills, is situated at the head of a deep bay about 14 miles from the mouth of the river. . . . Then the sunset, though short, was exquisite. The whole sky was full of fleecy clouds, a mass of red and yellow, while the bay looked as brilliant as a rainbow under the evening sun, 1Inha) occurring in the names of so many places in Portuguese East Africa, answers to the Spanish n, transliterated in English by ng ; hence Inhambane = Ngambane.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 475 which slanted across its waves, lighting them up with the constantly-varying tints of green and gold."1 Sofala, formerly capital of a flourishing native state and. centre of the Portuguese administration till the be- ginning of the seventeenth century, appears to have been from remote times one of the great trading places of the Indian Ocean. Here the Arabs had a permanent settle- ment ; and long before their advent, Sofala, possibly the Ophir of the Phoenicians, was the outlet for the produce of the surrounding regions,—"amber," that is, gum copal, ivory, and especially gold from the historical mines of Manica, and the other auriferous districts of the interior. Barbosa calls it "a town of the Moors" (Arabs), who " established themselves there a long time ago on account of the great trade in gold which they carry on with the Gentiles of the mainland. And the mode of their trade is, that they come by sea in small barks, which they call zaribucs (sambuk), from the kingdoms of Quiloa and Mombaza and Melindi; and they bring much cotton cloth of many colours, and white and blue, and some silk, and grey and red and yellow beads, which come to the said kingdoms in other larger ships from the great king- dom of Gambay. . . . And the said Moors sell these cloths to the Gentiles of the kingdom of (the) Benama- tapa, who come there laden with gold, which gold they give in exchange for the before-mentioned cloths without weighing, and so much in quantity that these Moors usually gain one hundred for one." 2 But Sofala now belongs to the past almost as much as Tyre itself. The harbour, never very commodious, has silted up, and has already been to a large extent replaced by the far more convenient port of Beira, which lies a little farther north, and which gives more easy and more 1 Op. cit. p. 68. 2 Stanley's Barbosa.476 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL direct access to the gold districts of Manica and Mashona- land. Quilimane—Mozambique—Angosha A similar fate threatens Quilimane, at the month of the Qua-Qua branch of the Zambesi delta, which is greatly inferior as a waterway to the neighbouring Chinde branch. Quilimane1 suffers both from its malarious climate, and from the bar at the mouth of the estuary, which has scarcely more than 12 feet of water, though the inner port affords excellent anchorage all the way to the town, some 12 miles up the river. Till recently it also languished from the vexatious harbour regulations and customs, which have now been modified in accord- ance with the terms of the Anglo - Portuguese Agree- ment of 1890, throwing open the Zambesi to the free trade of the world. Much of the ivory, formerly conveyed to Mozambique by the slave caravans, is now brought down by steamer, and shipped at Quilimane. All the trade lately developed by the African Lakes Company between Nyassaland and the coast also necessarily follows the Zambesi-Shire route. Hence Quilimane, or some more convenient future seaport in the delta, seems destined to completely eclipse the ancient emporium of Mozambique, which has been the administrative centre of the Portuguese East African possessions since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Mozambique stands, not on the mainland, but on an adjacent coralline islet 2 miles long, which forms a natural breakwater to the spacious harbour of Mossoril Bay, where large vessels find good anchorage and shelter from the south-east monsoons in depths of from 25 to 50 feet. This bay is enclosed on the north side by the 1 Pronounced, and often written, Kilimane.PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 477 Cabeceira headland, which in its turn serves to protect the equally commodious harbour of Conducia Bay. A little lower down is developed a third haven, the port of Mokambo, an almost landlocked circular basin over 30 feet deep, forming with the others a group of magnificent harbours with little trade or shipping, and no communications with the interior except the grass- grown tracks of the former slave-routes. Thus, here, as elsewhere, the flag of Portugal waves over scenes of decay and desolation; for before the arrival of Yasco de Gama in 1498, the famous island of Mozambique was the centre of commercial relations which radiated in all directions, south to Sofala, north to Zanzibar and the Red Sea, east to Cambay and Malabar. At the mouth of the Mluli river, a few miles lower down, stands the scarcely less renowned port of Angoxa (.Angosha), now a mere fishing village with a little local traffic, but formerly a royal residence, where the Moorish traders dealt in " gold, ivory, silk, and cotton stuffs and beads of Cambay, the same as do those of Sofala. And the Moors bring these goods from Quiloa and Mombaza and Melynde in small vessels, hidden from the Portuguese ships ; and they carry from there a great quantity of ivory and much gold. And in this town of Angos there are plenty of provisions of millet, rice, and some kinds of meat." 1 Fernao Vellozo—Ibo Still nearer to Mozambique, but on the north side, are the almost deserted bays of Memba and Masasima (Fernao Vellozo), the latter penetrating like a Norwegian fjord six miles inland, and then branching off north and south to form the secondary inlets of Belmore and Nkala, both 1 Barbosa, op. cit.47 8 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL protected from every quarter, and spacious enough to accommodate whole navies. Thus Masasima, that is, in the Makua language, " Complete Shelter," forms a group of splendid landlocked basins, ranking with Milford Haven, the Cove of Cork, Eio de Janeiro, and Port Jackson, amongst the supremely excellent harbours of the world. The surrounding district also is both healthy and fertile, but it has been so entirely neglected by the Portuguese that a neighbouring Makua chief was allowed in 1870 to waste the whole country, which is now entirely un- inhabited. Farther north follow the little port of Ibo, at the mouth of the Mtepwesi river, and Tunghi Bay, at Cape Delgado, wrested by a Portuguese gunboat from the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1886, but never settled. The fine inlet of Mwambi (Pemba) Bay, south of Ibo, was the scene of another abortive attempt at colonisation in 1857. A number of Portuguese emigrants were induced to settle in the district by the offer of free lands, live-stock, pro- visions, and even firearms, to defend themselves against the neighbouring predatory tribes. But they were, at the same time, subjected to such a rigorous system of " paternal government," that they lost all personal initiative, and the colony, after languishing a little while, rapidly died out. Zumbo—Tete—Sena In the Zambesi valley, almost the only centres of Portuguese authority are Sena, Tete, and Zumbo, the last mentioned occupied intermittently since the middle of the eighteenth century, the two former more permanently held since the early period of colonisation. Zumbo, about 500 miles from the. coast, was never anything more than a trading station, visited now and then during the local fairsPORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 479 by the so-called " Canarese " dealers, that is, pedlars from the province of Canara, on the west coast of India. Full- blood Portuguese officials are seldom seen in the place, which, since its reoccupation in 1881, continues to be administered by a half-caste Capitao Mor, a kinsman of the local chief, and at about the same level of culture. Tete, on the right bank between the Kebrabasa and Lupata rapids, commands the easiest route between the British territories of Mashona and Nyassa Lands, which in fact are here practically separated by the strip of Portuguese territory extending along both banks of the Zambesi. The district, being hilly, is comparatively healthy, and enjoys the great advantage of being free from the tsetse scourge. It is the centre of a vast mineral region, occupying both sides of the main stream, and including extensive coalfields, as well as gold and iron ores. Yet Tete, formerly a flourishing place, trading in gold, ivory, cereals, indigo, and slaves, is now a picture of desolation, where little is to be seen beyond a cluster of wretched native hovels grouped round a crumbling Portuguese fort. A similar picture is presented by Sena, " Sao-Mar gal, the Moribund," as the Portuguese themselves call it. It stands also on the right bank, opposite the navigable Ziwe-Ziwe branch of the Shir6 delta; but, despite its relative proximity to the coast, it has frequently been entirely cut off from communication with the outer world, paying tribute to the neighbouring Zulu tribes, and even "barri- cading itself at night against the lions." The climate also is deteriorating, owing to the stagnant waters left by the Zambesi, which at this point is slowly shifting its channel northwards, and threatening to leave Sena a prey to marsh-fever and the beasts of the jungle.CHAPTER X german east africa Historic Retrospect—Boundaries ; Extent; Prospects—Geographical Ex- ploration ;— Physical Features — Kilimanjaro — Rivers and Lakes ; Sources of the Nile—Lakes Manyara, Eiassi, Victoria Nyanza, and .Rukwa—Climate—Flora and Fauna—Inhabitants—Wa-Zambara ; Wa-Zeguha—Wa-Sagara ; Wa-Hehe; Ma-Konde; Wa-Swahili ; Wa-Taveita ; Wa-Gweno ; Karagwe ; "Wa-Huma Migrations—Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations in German East Africa—Towns ; Stations—Kiloa ; Dares-Salaam ; Bagamoyo ; Mpwapwa ; Taborah ; Ujiji. Historic Retrospect While the history of Portuguese rule on the eastern seaboard extends over centuries, that of the Germans in the same region is covered by only a decade. Their sudden intrusion dates only from the autumn of the year 1884, when three Ma - Duchi (" German") political agents,1 in the undignified disguise of needy travellers, passed over from the island of Zanzibar to the mainland at Saadani, and at once proceeded to make treaties of annexation with the local chiefs. Some of these treaties 1 They were called " excursionists," and their names were Dr. Peters, afterwards distinguished as an explorer, Dr. Jiihlke, and Count Pfeil. Their unconventional action was supported by the famous Schutzbrief (" Letter of Protection ") of 27th February 1885, a new device of inter- national diplomacy.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 481 were absolute fictions, while all the chiefs had hitherto been recognised as vassals or subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar. The Sultan himself was virtually a protege of Great Britain, though no formal protectorate had ever been declared, and his name and authority were acknow- ledged by all the Mohammedan and many of the native communities between the coast and Lake Tanganyika. Nevertheless, the treaties were at once endorsed by the Imperial Government as " accomplished facts," and forced on the acceptance of the Sultan by the appearance of a German fleet in the Zanzibar waters. Events now followed rapidly, and by the two Anglo-German Con- ventions of 1886 and 1890, the Sultan was successively relieved of all his possessions on the mainland as well as of all the contiguous islands except Zanzibar and Pemba. Lastly, the Sultanate itself, thus reduced to two islets with a joint area of scarcely 1000 miles, was, in the same year, 1890, declared a British protectorate. Thus was extinguished the last semblance of political independence enjoyed by the later representatives of the ancient Zang empire, whose rulers claimed the proud title of " Sovereigns of the Sea," and whose dominions, before the advent of the Portuguese, embraced the whole seaboard from Cape Guardafui to Sofala. The Persian term Zang1 had reference to the dark colour of the dominant race, who are spoken of by the early Arab writers as Mohammedan Negroes, and who are still represented by the Wa-Swahili, that is, "coast people," 2 3 Zang, softened in Arabic to Zenj, explains the double forms : Zangue- bar, formerly applied to the coastlands, and Zanzibar, an Indian corrup- tion of the same word, now restricted to the neighbouring island. In Arabic, bar means ' ' land " as opposed to water ; hence Zangue-bar, the "land of the Zang people," answers to Hindu-bar, the "land of the Hindu " (India) on the opposite side of the Arabian Sea. 2 From "L: Saliil = coast. VOL. II 2 I482 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the mixed Arabo-Bantu Mohammedans of Zanzibar and the adjacent mainland. By the Portuguese writers they were grouped with the Arabs under the general designa- tion of " Moors/'1 and were carefully distinguished from the " CafFres," who were always pagans. In Edrisi's map (1154) a large section of the seaboard including Melinde and Manisa (Mombasa ?), is already comprised in the Zenj State, whose sultan at the arrival of the Portuguese had his residence as far south as Quiloa. At that time this famous capital, with its "300 mosques" (Ibn Batuta), was a flourishing emporium, "built of.handsome houses of stone and lime, and very lofty, with their windows like those of the Christians ; in the same way it has streets, and these houses have got terraces, and the wood worked in with the masonry, with plenty of gardens, in which there are many fruit trees and much water " (Barbosa). But then came Francisco d'Almeida, who captured the place after a ruinous siege (1505), and then "the King of Portugal ordered a fortress to be built, and thus he holds under his com- mand and government those who continued to dwell there" (ib.) But these were not many, and Quiloa, abandoned by commerce, which withered under the blighting rule of Portugal, soon decayed. The same fate rapidly overtook Mombasa, Melinde, Brava, Magdosho, and most of the other seaports as far north as Cape Guardafui, where the Portuguese stationed a fleet to lie in wait for the Arab vessels plying between India and the Red Sea, " and take them with all their riches " (ib.) Thus was destroyed the powerful Zenj empire, of which nothing now survives except the name, banished 1 This fact is well brought out by the language of Barbosa, who describes the Moors as " of a dusky colour, and some of them are black (Zenj) and some white " (Arabs).GERMAN EAST AFRICA 483 from the mainland to tlie neighbouring island of Zanzibar. But on its ruins rose another Mohammedan state, that of the so-called "imams" (properly "sayyids") of Mascat, who ruled over a great part of South Arabia, and early in the eighteenth century drove the Portuguese from all their stations on the African seaboard as far south as Cape Delgado. This maritime state, however, was too unwieldy to hold together, and at the death of the Sayyid Said, in 1856, a dispute about the succession was settled by the friendly interference of the Indian Government, which awarded the Asiatic section to his son, Thowayni, and the African to Tliowayni's brother, Sayyid Majid. Majid, who had selected the city of Zanzibar for his capital, and thus became commonly known as the " Sultan of Zanzibar," was succeeded at his death in 1870 by his younger brother, Bargash ibn Said. Under these rulers, both of whom were guided by the wise counsel of the British political agent, Sir John Kirk, Zanzibar rose to a considerable degree of commercial and social prosperity; the island became the centre of far-reaching humanising influences, the headquarters of the Universities and other Protestant missions, and the starting - point of nearly all the famous geographical ex- peditions which have filled up so many of the blank spaces on the map of equatorial Africa. Nevertheless, Bargash, who had visited England in 1882, lived to see the dismemberment of his dominions by a process of acquiring colonies, which for cynical disregard of inter - national rights has not been surpassed in modern times. His brother, Khalifa, who had ascended the throne in 1888, survived only till February 1890, when he was succeeded by Sayyid Ali, also a son of Said, on whose death in March 1898 the present ruler, his nephew Hamed ibn Thwain, was appointed by484 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL the British Government as the most suitable of several claimants. Boundaries—Extent—Prospects As definitely settled by the two above-mentioned Conventions and the Agreement of December 1886 with Portugal, the portion of East Central Africa assigned to Germany forms a compact territory with a base line on the Indian Ocean, extending from Cape Delgado nearly due north for about 480 miles to the mouth of the Umba. From this coast-line it extends inland along the course of the Kovuma to Lake Nyassa, and thence along the north-east side of the Stevenson Eoad to Lake Tan- ganyika, which with a conventional line running from its northern extremity northwards to 1° S. lat. forms the western frontier towards the Congo State. The northern frontier is extremely irregular and also purely conven- tional. It runs from the Umba estuary north-westwards to Lake Victoria Nyanza, making a loop round the north side of Kilimanjaro, so as to enclose that mountain. Then the line crosses Victoria Nyanza at 1° S. lat., and continues along the same parallel westwards to 30° E. long., but making another loop to the south so as to exclude Mount Mfumbiro. German East Africa is thus conterminous north with British East Africa, west with the Congo State, south with British Zambesia and Portu- guese East Africa, comprising altogether an area of 400,000 square miles and a population vaguely esti- mated (1894) at 2,900,000. But only a small part of this vast domain is actually administered under an Imperial Commissioner by the German East Africa Company, which was chartered in 1885, and which received a concession of the Usagara uplands, in all respects the finest district inGERMAN EAST AFRICA 485 the whole region. The country had hitherto been exploited almost exclusively by Arab dealers in slaves and ivory, and the attempt of the German Company to interfere with their privileges brought about a serious outbreak of hostilities in 1889. This caused the ruin or abandonment of nearly all the fifteen stations that had already been founded. But the rising was ultimately quelled by imperial aid in 1890, though a military element was thus introduced which has led to further troubles, such as the disastrous collision in September 1891 with the Wa-Hehe people south of the Rua-Ha river, involving the total destruction of a large expe- ditionary force under the command of Captain von Zalewski. Meantime the Company has received substantial sup- port in divers ways from the Government, including heavy subsidies for railways, steamers, and public works. Nothing but good can accrue to the native populations by this policy, which, however, could scarcely be inde- finitely continued unless some return were made besides empty prestige for the continual drain on the imperial treasury. Hence it is satisfactory to note that, despite the political troubles and the efforts to suppress the slave traffic, there has been a steady increase in the general trade of the country, the imports and exports having risen from about £350,000 in 1889 to £665,000 in 1894. At present the most important exports are ivory, cocoa-nuts, copra, gum copal, rubber, and sesame seed. But much other local produce, such as timber, cereals, drugs, tobacco, cotton, sugar, coffee, vanilla, will doubtless be raised for the foreign market, according O ' o as orderly government is established, the communications with the interior developed, and more capital attracted to the plantations on the rich alluvial coastlands, and on486 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the still richer southern slopes of Kilimanjaro. But the hope at one time entertained that this region can ever become a home for German settlers, or even a great storehouse of colonial produce, such as Java, Cuba, and parts of British India, must be abandoned. It lies close under the equator, a position not counteracted by any great extent of highlands or of lofty plateaux. Hence, " for the present at all events, the white man must be content to settle there temporarily to teach the natives the dignity of labour, and to lead them on to a higher plane of civilisation." 1 The extent of ground capable of profitable tillage is also relatively very limited. According to Dr. Hans Meyer, an excellent- authority on this point and quite above the suspicion of prejudice, the German East African Protectorate consists of eighty per cent "of barren, almost uninhabited steppe, savannah, and bush."2 Dr. Wissmann is also quoted as declaring that " one-fifth of German East Africa is good land, the rest is a barren waste," where " good land " includes both pasturage and arable soil. Altogether there are probably not more than 30,000 square miles available for plantations and other branches of husbandry, most of which lies in a decidedly insalubrious climate. These are the data on which must be based all calculations as to the future prospects of the protectorate. Geographical Exploration The exploration of this region was originally under- taken not so much for its own sake as for what lay beyond it. Curiosity had long been excited by the 1 E. G. Ravenstein, Proc. Hoy. Geo. Soc. January 1891, p. 31. 2 Across East African Glaciers, 1891, p. 327.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 487 native reports of great lakes in the interior, reports which seemed to confirm the vague traditions handed down from, remote antiquity. It was to verify these reports that Speke and Burton started from Zanzibar on their event- ful expedition of 1857-58, the first fruit of which was the discovery of Tanganyika. On the return journey Speke took advantage of a delay, caused by the state of Burton's health, to make an excursion to the north-east, where he had heard of a still larger basin, and where he reached the south side of Kerewe,1 renamed by him Victoria Nyanza, on 30th July 1858. In Sep- tember 1860, Speke, now accompanied by Grant, again set out from Zanzibar, and passing as before through Bagamoyo westwards to Taborah, here struck north to the Victoria Nyanza. After surveying the west side of Victoria, and visiting the native states of Karagwe and Buganda, the explorers continued their northern journey down the Nile valley to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile Nyassa had been discovered by Livingstone, and thus the vast inland sea, still figuring under the name of Lake U-Nyamezi on Erhardt and Eebmann's map of 1856, was at last dissolved into its constituent elements— Tanganyika, Nyassa, and Victoria. Somewhat different routes across the Kingani and through Taborah westwards to Ujiji on Tanganyika, and northwards to Victoria, were followed by Stanley on his quest for Livingstone in 1871, and on his great expedi- 1 Kerewe (U-Kerewe) was properly the name of the large island at the south-east corner of Victoria, though the terra was generally applied by the natives of that district to the lake itself. There was no generally accepted native name beyond the term Nyanza, applied to any large body of water, whether lake or river ; hence Speke was fully justified in retain- ing this word, and giving it a more definite sense by the addition of the epithet Victoria. The same principle was followed by Baker and Stanley in designating the other members of the equatorial group : Albert, Albert Edward, and Alexandra Nyanza.488 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL tion of 1874-77, round Victoria, and down the Congo to the Atlantic. Hence these otherwise memorable journeys already added considerably to our actual knowledge of the region between the Indian Ocean and the great lakes. The northern districts also, comprising the Kilimanjaro and Kenia highlands, had already been traversed so early as 1848-49 by the missionaries Krapf and Eebmann. Kilimanjaro had doubtless been heard of by the Portu- guese during their occupation of Mombasa (1507-1700), and is already referred to by the Spanish pilot and geographer Enciso in 1519 as the " Ethiopian Mount Olympus," correctly placed by him " west of Mombasa/' and described as "very high, and farther off are the Mountains of the Moon (Euwenzori ?), in which are the sources of the Nile." 1 The two German pioneers were followed in 1861 by B. Thornton and Baron von der Decken, and they by the Eev. Charles New in 1871, the survey of this African giant being completed by Mr. Joseph Thomson (1883), H. H. Johnston (1884), and Dr. Hans Meyer (1889). Meanwhile the caravan routes running from Bagamoyo through Usagara, Ugogo, and Unyamwezi to Tanganyika had become beaten tracks, from which Livingstone, Cameron, Thomson, Price, Kaiser, Mackay, Wilson, Cambier, Eeichardt, and Trivier had diverged right and left, and their itineraries have become gradually con- nected with those of Elton, Cotterill, and others advanc- ing from Lake Nyassa northwards to the Eufiji valley, and north-westwards to Lakes Eikwa and Tanganyika. Lastly, the various military and commercial expeditions undertaken by Wissmann, Emin Pasha, Baumann, and other German officials have now completed the survey, 1 Suma de Geographia, Seville, 1519, fol. 57, quoted by G. E. Raven- stein and H. H. Johnston in The Kilimanjaro Expedition, 1886, p. 7,GERMAN EAST AFRICA 489 at least in all its essential features, of the rugged table- land, stretching over 500 miles north and south between Nyanza and Nyassa, and 600 miles west and east between Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean. Physical Features Captain Burton, who had a keen eye for the pro- minent characteristics of the lands explored by him, distinguishes five physical zones in the region traversed by the route from Bagamoyo to Ujiji. First come the low-lying coastlands, reaching from the sea to the Usagara Mountains, which bear somewhat the same relation to the eastern seaboard that the Gh&ts do to the west coast of India. The second zone comprises the Usagara Moun- tains themselves, which are not merely the escarpments of the continental plateau, but veritable highlands which, even on the landward side, rise to considerable elevations above the normal level of the surrounding tablelands, and which have an absolute altitude of about 6500 feet. They form an irregular orographic system of granites, diorites, schists, and sandstones, disposed mainly in two parallel chains, running south-west and north-east, but nowhere very clearly defined, owing to the numerous transverse ridges branching off in all directions. The Usagara Mountains are evidently a mere fragment of a mighty range which, before its reduction by weathering and denudation, was probably connected south-westwards with the Livingstone system, and northwards through the Pare foothills with Kilimanjaro. Beyond Usagara follows the third zone, the Ugogo plateau, a dry and barren region, extending some 150 miles inland, at a mean elevation of from 3500 to 4000 feet, and forming the divide between the streams flowing490 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL north to Nyanza, west to Tanganyika, and east to the Indian Ocean. Westwards Ugogo becomes continually more arid, merging at last in the dreaded Mgunda Mkhali (" Land of Fire "), a dreary waterless plain, partly covered with scrub, partly with shingle washed down by long dried-up torrents, and here and there broken by isolated masses of syenite or granite, piled up in chaotic disorder, or affecting the fantastic outlines of towers, gateways, or frowning citadels. Nevertheless the terrors of the Mgunda Mkhali would appear to have been some- what exaggerated by the early explorers. Mrs. Hore speaks of it as " really one of the most beautiful parts of the route, abounding in game, and affording ample water for travellers about nine months of the year. It must have acquired its name rather from the effects of long marches and heavy loads, to which porters are necessarily subject in crossing it, than from any unusual natural condition." 1 After crossing this inhospitable tract the traveller enters the fourth zone, the hilly tableland of Unyamwezi, a land of comparative plenty, fertile and well watered by the numerous headstreams of the Malagarazi, eastern- most affluent of the Tanganyika-Congo basin. In Unyamwezi the most fertile and populous district is Unyanyembe, where is situated the flourishing Arab and missionary station of Taborah (Kazeh). Unyan- yembe, the " Land of Hoes," i.e. the " Tilled Land," is intersected in the south by numerous rocky ridges, but in the north is more level, and is here thickly dotted over with villages, surrounded by impenetrable hedges of the milk-bush. Before the troubles caused by the revolt of the native chief, Mirambo, the Arabs of Taborah lived in comparative luxury, occupying spacious, well-built houses, 1 To Lake Tanganyika, in a Bath Chair, 1886, p. 127.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 491 with gardens aiid fields, where they raised wheat, onions, cucumbers, and fruits. From the coast they drew their supplies of tea, coffee, sugar, and other comforts, and the station was guarded by a thousand Baluchis, in the pay of the Sultan of Zanzibar. But although reinforced by other troops from the coast, they were unable to prevent the country from being ravaged by Mirambo, who was originally the headman of a small district in Unyamwezi, traversed by the trade route to Tanganyika. Having in vain appealed to the Taborah Arabs against a trader who had defrauded him of some ivory, Mirambo closed the caravan route, fell on the Arab settlements, compelled the natives to join his bands, and for many years main- tained a desultory and determined warfare in Unyamwezi. Hence Stanley, Cameron, Livingstone, and other travellers passing to and fro between the coast and Tanganyika during the seventies were always compelled to make a long detour to the south in order to avoid the disturbed district. After Mirambo's death in 1887, the ephemeral state founded by him dissolved into its primitive hetero- geneous elements. Unyamwezi, the "Land of the Moon,"1 absurdly identified by some historical geographers with Ptolemy's " Mountains of the Moon/' extends for about 140 miles westwards to the alluvial plains of the Lower Malagarazi, which form the fifth zone, corresponding on the shores of Tanganyika to the first zone on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The coast zone rises somewhat abruptly north-west- wards to the Usambara escarpments of the continental plateau. Beyond these escarpments the rise is con- tinuous still north-westwards to the Par£ range, which is continued in the same direction by the Ugweno uplands 1 Mwezi — "moon" in many Bantu dialects.492 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL south of Kilimanjaro, and west of Lake Jipe. This depres- sion stands at an elevation of nearly 2400 feet, while some of the Ugweno crests rise to heights of 5500 and 6000 feet, culminating in Mount Gamualla (6560 llOCK HILLS, USAMBARA. feet), ascended in 1889 by Hans Meyer. The bare rounded peak of Gamualla stands like the highest island of an archipelago in a sea of emerald green, commanding a superb prospect of the neighbouring lake and of the distant Pare hills away to the south, while to the north,GERMAN EAST AFRICA 493 high above all, and monarch of all, is the twin-crested Kilimanjaro, " towering skyward zone above zone, its crown now frosted white as silver with freshly-fallen snow." 1 Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro, also for the first time scaled by Meyer in 1889, attains in the Mawenzi and Kibo peaks the respective altitudes of 17,570 and 19,720 feet. It thus appears to be loftier than its northern rival, Kenia, and is consequently the culminating point of the African continent, unless it is to be dethroned from its pre- eminence by future surveys of Stanley's Buwenzori. It is a huge, long-extinct volcanic cone, standing on a pedestal itself over 8000 feet high, nearly midway between the coast and Victoria Nyanza, three degrees south of the equator, and just within the conventional frontier line of German East Africa. The two peaks really represent two distinct volcanoes, connected by a saddleback like that of Ararat, but higher (14,400 feet), the whole forming an enormous igneous mass nearly 60 miles long both ways, with a total periphery of about 170 miles. A marked contrast is presented by the arid northern and fertile southern slopes, which are exposed to the wet south-eastern monsoons, and are consequently clothed with luxuriant vegetation, belonging in ascending order to the tropical, temperate, and arctic botanical zones. The highest slopes, where all vegetation ceases, are snow-clad for a great part of the year, and some of the deeper crevasses are permanently streaked with white. The natives, to whom snow is elsewhere an unknown phenomenon, suppose these glittering crests 1 Hans Meyer, op. cit. p. 211.494 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL to be covered with molten silver, and attempts have even been made to reach the top in quest of the precious metal. Kibo terminates in a vast crater 6500 feet in circuit and 600 feet deep; numerous well-preserved parasitic cones,1 from 60 to 500 feet high, also occur all along the southern foot of Kilimanjaro, while the western horizon is bounded by the isolated Mount Meru, 16,000 feet high. Meru lies within the great trough or volcanic fault, which is indicated by the chain of land-locked lakes, the chief links of which are Samburu (Budolf) in the north, Baringo, Elmeteita, and Naivasha in the centre, the Natron Lake and Manyara in the south. The long, rocky wall rising abruptly on the west side of the trough is not a mountain range, but merely the scarp of the central plateau, which extends from Meru westwards to the far larger depressions flooded by Lakes Eiassi and Yictoria Nyanza. Beyond Nyanza the plateau stretches still westwards to the Karagwe and Ankori uplands, culminating north-westwards in Buwenzori, possibly the highest land in Africa (19,000 to 20,000 feet?). Here another great fault, parallel with the Samburu-Manyara trough, seems to be in- dicated by another and far larger lacustrine chaiu, formed by Albert Nyanza, Albert Edward Nyanza, Kivu, Tanganyika, and Nyassa. Such appears, roughly, to be the geological structure of these equatorial uplands and depressions, flanked on the east side by Kilimanjaro and Kenia, on the west by Buwenzori and Mfumbiro. But much of this region is included in the sphere of British influence, and its description 1 When visited by Mrs. French Sheldon in 1891, one of %these craters at the south-east foot of Kilimanjaro was found to be flooded by Lake Chala, a little tarn swarming with crocodiles, and encircled by densely wooded rocky walls. Chala had already been sighted by H. H. Johnston in 1884 {Kilimanjaro Expedition, p. 290).GERMAN EAST AFRICA 495 must therefore Toe reserved for the next chapter. It may here be remarked that the conventional line drawn by diplomatists between the two political spheres violates the physical unity of the land almost at every step. MAWENZI. KIBO. KILIMANJARO. Thus Kilimanjaro is separated from Kenia, the eastern and western troughs are cut in two, and even Victoria Nyanza is divided into a British and a German section. Rivers and Lakes; Sources of the Nile 1 hanks to this eccentric political arrangement, the German protectorate belongs to three distinct hydro- graphic systems. Prom the central plateaux its surface waters flow through the Malagarazi (see p. 94), west to496 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Tanganyika and the Congo for the Atlantic, through the Kagera, Shimiyu, and some other southern affluents of Victoria Nyanza; north to the Nile for the Mediterranean, through the Eovuma, Eufiji, Kingani, Wami, Pangani, Umba, and a few smaller coast streams, eastwards to the Indian Ocean. None of the coast streams north of the Eovuma are navigable, except the Eufiji (Lufiji),1 which reaches the sea opposite the island of Mafia (Monfia), and which is chiefly remarkable for its vast delta, out of all proportion to the extent of its basin. This intricate system of shifting channels and backwaters has a coast-line of over 50 miles, and an area of no less than 600 square miles, or about one-tenth of the whole drainage area. In the same proportion the Nile or Mississippi delta would cover a space of some hundred thousand square miles. One or two of the branches are accessible to small coasters at high water; and above the delta the main stream is navigable by light river craft for 120 miles to the Pangani Palls. The Eufiji is formed by the junction of the Luwego (Luvu), rising on the eastern slope of the Livingstone Mountains, and of the Uranga, descending from the Unyamwezi plateau. Below the confluence it is joined by the Euaha, a large tributary from the south. The Kingani or Eufu, flowing from the Usagara up- lands to the coast near Bagamoyo, may be ascended by boats for a considerable distance at high water. The name of this river constantly recurs in the records of the early explorers, who, soon after leaving Bagamoyo, had to cross it on the caravan route leading to the interior. 1 The liquids I and r are not always clearly distinguished in pronuncia- tion, and constantly interchange in the different Bantu idioms ; hence lu and ru, lo and ro, lua and rua, all meaning river, as in Rufiji, Lufiji; Rovuma, Lovuma, etc.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 497 The Wami, which reaches the coast a little farther north, drains a much larger area, but is equally useless for navigation. Beyond the Wami follows the Pangani (Euvu), which drains the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro, and collects the running waters from Ugweno and the west side of the Pare range. Lastly, the Umba (Wanga), an insignificant coast stream, has acquired some importance since it has been chosen as the frontier line between the German and British East African possessions. On his route to Victoria Nyanza in 1874-75, Stanley came upon a stream variously known as the Liwumba, Luwamb^, and Mwaru, which had a northern trend, and which he supposed to be the upper course of the Shimiyu, another stream soon after struck by him, and followed along its lower course to Speke Gulf, at the south-east corner of Nyanza. He therefore concluded that the Liwumba, which rises about 5° S. lat., on the northern slope of the Unyamwezi plateau, must be the southern- most affluent of Nyanza, and consequently the farthest headstream of the Nile. Since then the Eev. Mr. Pearson has shown that the Liwumba has no connection with the Shimiyu, that it flows at a lower level than Nyanza, and that it is cut off from Tanganyika by ridges 500 feet high; consequently it cannot possibly belong to either the Nile or Congo systems, and in all probability it is the upper course of the Wembere, which is reported to flow to the great Lake Eiassi (Nyanza ya Nyalaya). This important addition to the great equatorial lakes was unexpectedly discovered by Dr. Oscar Baumann in March 1892 during his expedition from Lower Arusha on the Upper Euvu river to Speke Gulf at the south-east corner of Victoria Nyanza. After tracing from south to north the western shore of Lake Manyara, which he found to be 74 miles long, with a mean breadth of 19 VOL. II 2 K498 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL or 20 miles, this explorer struck north-west to the little salt lake Ngorongoro, west of the Natron Lake. Then turning westwards he soon reached a vast sheet of water called Lake Eiassi, and marched along its northern shore without anywhere sighting the opposite extremity. " I was exceedingly surprised," he writes, " by this discovery, as no information, even from hearsay, is possessed about the existence of so extensive a basin. The Masai, whose raids extend along its shores, informed me that it reached as far as Iramba, in which case it must be over 93 miles long, its breadth in the northern portion varying from 18 to 30 miles. The Masai follow the eastern shore in their expeditions, because the route on the west side is obstructed by a river which must be the "Wembere, about whose course little has been hitherto known." 1 The farthest absolute headstream of the Nile is probably the Kagera (Kitangula), the lower course of which was surveyed by Stanley in 1876, and which was traced to its source by Dr. Baumann in 1893. Here, according to this explorer, is the " Caput Mli," the true source of the Nile, and here also is a Missozi ya Mwezi (" Mountain of the Moon"), where the ancients supposed the Nile to take its rise. From this point it flows north-eastwards between the Euanda and Karagwe countries to the west coast of Nyanza, receiving on its left bank the Euvuvu and the Mworongo, a considerable stream descending from the southern slopes of Mount 1 Report to the German Anti-Slavery Association, 13th April 1892. It is, however, to be noted that when Dr. Fischer crossed the Liwumba in 1885 he was told that it ran out in the Wembere Steppe, where it formed a small lake in the rainy season. Is this "small lake" Dr. Baumann's Eiassi, a broad but shallow swampy depression, occasionally flooded after exceptionally wet seasons ? It is certainly remarkable that a permanent lacustrine basin of such vast dimensions should never have been heard of by any previous explorer.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 499 Mfumbiro. Beyond the confluence the Kagera floods the long lacustrine depression between the Euanda and Karagwe uplands, and, after receiving the overflow from Lakes Windermere and Uriji on its right bank, enters Victoria Nyanza in an imposing stream, which is cer- tainly far more entitled to be regarded as the true upper course of the Nile than is the Shimiyu, which, by Pearson's discovery, has been reduced to quite an insig- nificant watercourse. The Kagera, or Tengure, wrongly named Kitangula by its discoverer, Speke (1862), from a place on its banks, and re-named the Alexandra Mle by Stanley in 1875, is in any case the most copious of all the Victoria Nyanza affluents. Where it was crossed by Stanley during his second expedition (1889), at the point where it turns sharply east to the lake, " it was about 125 yards wide, with an average depth of 9 feet, flowing 3 knots per hour in the centre."1 Higher up it flows for 60 miles along the east frontier of Karagwe, in a series of marshy lagoons, varying from 5 to 14 miles in width, covered with floating fields of papyri, large masses or islands of which drift to and fro. At the northern outlet of this lagoon the Kagera contracts, becomes tumultuous and noisy, and dashes in foam and spray against the opposing rocks, till it finally rolls over a rocky ledge 10 or 12 feet deep with tremendous uproar; hence its native name Morongo, the " Noisy Falls." From this point the river trends east- ward to the Victoria in a somewhat narrow bed 150 feet wide and no less than 50 feet deep. The Lake Akenyara (Alexandra Nyanza) spoken of both by Speke and Stanley as traversed by the Kagera, appears to have no existence. Lake Windermere, so named by its discoverer, Speke, i In Darkest Africa, ii. p. 353.500 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL from its resemblance to the Westmoreland lake, lies embedded in one of the most romantic spots in Africa. Raveru, as the natives call it, stands at an altitude of 4300 feet, but is not an alpine lake, its depth nowhere exceeding 45 or 46 feet. Farther east lies the still shallower basin of Lake Uriji, a sheet of water 23 miles long by 1 to 3 broad, which at present sends LAKE URIJI. a slight overflow to the Lower Kagera, but (BP ' '' ' which was formerly accessible- to boats all the way from Yictoria Nyanza. "Its receding waters have left great extents of flat plain on the sides and around the bays running far inland into valleys. Its shores and waters are favourite haunts of birds, from cranes, herons, and pelicans, to the small black Parr a Africana, egrets, and waders, which find excellent feeding over the large spaces near the extremities and shore-line of bays, covered with closely-packed growthsGERMAN EAST AFRICA 501 of Pistia stratiotes plants, until they resemble green lawns from a little distance off. Hippos abound, and, unfortunately, armies of black mosquitoes. A large supply of fish is found in the lake, but they are infested with guinea-worm—at least those which we purchased were deemed quite uneatable from that cause."1 Lakes Victoria Nyanza and Rukwa Victoria Nyanza, Speke's great discovery (1858), was first revealed in the fulness of its magnificent proportions by Stanley's circumnavigation in 1875. It fills a vast cavity at least 600 feet deep, and some 27,000 square miles in extent,2 on the central plateau, midway between the Indian Ocean and the Congo, 3800 feet above sea- level, and almost exactly the same number of miles from the mouths of the Nile, of which it is the main reservoir. Its shores, nearly 800 miles round, are generally some- what low-lying, but rise to considerable heights at the Majita headland (3000 feet), and some other points, especially on the east and north-east sides. They are also nearly everywhere diversified by numerous bays and inlets, such as Speke Gulf and Kavirondo Bay, also on the east side, while the expanse of blue waters is broken by several little clusters of verdant islets, and even large islands, such as Sesse in the north-west, Usuguri and Ugingo in the north-east, Bambire off the west coast, Ukerewe and Ukara in the south-east corner. Some of the small islands are occupied by herds of fierce hippo- potami, who ward off all intruders; and the shallow 1 In Darkest Africa, ii. p. 381. 2 Nyanza, the "Lake" or "Sea," as it is called by the natives in a pre- eminent sense, thus ranks next to Superior (34,000 square miles), as the largest freshwater basin in the world. It appears even to exceed the Aral Sea by a few hundred square miles.SOUTH-WEST EXTREMITY OF LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 503 inlets, especially Speke Gulf, are infested by crocodiles of enormous size. Sesse, which, with the neighbouring islets, forms an extensive archipelago, is noted for its charming scenery; Battle Cove, in Bambir£, commemor- ates the punishment inflicted on the treacherous natives by Stanley during his first expedition ; and Bridge-Island, in the north-east, consists of two basalt columns connected by a natural arch with a 24-feet span, so overgrown with vegetation that nothing is visible but two columnar masses of verdure gracefully festooned with lianas. Basalts, granites, and gneiss crop out everywhere round the coast except where the margin spreads out in level treeless plains. The Nyanza catchment basin is almost every- where contracted, so that the only large affluents are the Kagera and Katonga, on the west side. The overflow is discharged through the Somerset Nile, north to the Mediterranean. The mysterious Lake Eukwa (Lukwa, Eikwa, Leopold), heard of by Speke and Burton, first sighted by Joseph Thomson in 1879, visited by Dr. Kaiser in 1882, and again in 1889 by the Eev. D. Kerr Cross and H. H. Johnston, occupies a deep depression between the JNyassa- Tanganyika and Unyamwezi plateaux, near the north-east frontier of British Zambesia. Formerly supposed to be merely a natron lagoon, it was found by Mr. Cross to be a salt lake from 80 to 100 miles long and 30 to 40 broad, fed by the Nkanna-Saisi river from the southern plateau, and without any outlet. It stands 2900 feet above sea-level, in an arid almost rainless district, where no rain had fallen for two years before 1889, but where there had formerly been an abundant rainfall. " Its waters are dark in colour, very brackish, very muddy, and quite undrinkable. Several trees were pointed out to me as having been, a few years ago, at the water's edge,504 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL but which would now be some miles from the water. Fish are numerous, but are not much sought after by the natives. I saw no hippopotami, nor crocodiles, nor canoes in its dark, uninviting waters. . . . The lake is skirted on its east shore by a range, a high range, of mountains that rise as a jagged wall of several thousands of feet, in some places as sheer precipices from the water. ... Its shores are perhaps the most uninviting we have ever seen, its country the poorest, its rainfall nil, and its tem- perature in the shade at noon stood about 98° F." 1 Climate A region of alternating low alluvial plains, grassy or scrubby plateaux, wooded uplands and alpine heights, naturally presents a great diversity of climates. Never- theless, the Protectorate, part of which lies < about the equator, is essentially a tropical land, where low latitudes are but slightly counteracted here and there by favour- able local conditions. Fever, not merely chills and agues caught by overwork or exposure to wet and draughts, but real bilious fever, from which no pre- cautions will purchase exemption, is prevalent on all the low-lying tracts and even on the plateaux. It has made fearful ravages amongst the German officials and the English missionaries, and its character is well brought out in the graphic account given by the late Mr. A. M. Mackay (himself a victim) of the death of Bishop Parker and Mr. Blackburn in the Usambiro country in 1888. " Blackburn lay a week in a semi-conscious state. The bishop was only one day ill, and quite delirious most of the time. Both had become perfectly yellow with jaundice. Bile seems a terrible poison to the blood and 1 Rev. D. K. Cross, Proc. It. Geo. Soc. Feb. 1891, p. 95.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 505 brain, rendering one dead to all outside, and the other wild with delirium." 1 It may be remarked that when introduced into the New World this African bilious fever developed into yellow fever, the two differing little from one another, except that the latter alone is infectious. The marked contrast observed between the well- watered coastlands and the somewhat arid inland plateaux is mainly due to the Usagara mountains, and farther north to the Par^, Ugweno, and Kilimanjaro uplands, which intercept the moisture-bearing clouds from the Indian Ocean. It is noteworthy that the aerial currents set normally in the direction of the coast-line, whether these are due to the south - eastern monsoons, which prevail during most of the year, or to the return- ing north-eastern trade winds of January and February. Thus the clouds drift mainly either south and north or north and south between the coast and the highlands, beyond which very little moisture reaches the inner districts, especially between Kilimanjaro and Nyanza, between Usagara and Unyamwezi, and between the Livingstone range and Tanganyika. Thus are to be explained the distinctly arid tracts extending west from Mount Meru, the Marenga Mkhali desert of TJgogo, and the almost rainless region of Lake Eukwa. But there are no very lofty ranges between the Livingstone and Usagara uplands, and a free passage is thus left for some of the rain-bearing clouds driving before the south-eastern gales over Mozambique in the direction of the elevated Unyamwezi plateau, which consequently receives a suffi- cient supply to feed the numerous perennial headstreams of the Malagarazi basin. Here the annual rainfall probably exceeds 40 inches, falling to less than 20 in Ugogo, and again rising to nearly 180 on the coast (170 1 A. M. MacTcay, Pioneer Missionary, etc., by his sister, 1890, p. 383.506 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL at Zanzibar in 1859). But the contrasts of temperature are much slighter, and the range of the thermometer, especially in the arid districts, is relatively far greater between day and night than between one season and another. Thus at Zanzibar the glass falls only about seven degrees between March the hottest and July the coldest month, 82° and 77° F. respectively ; whereas, on the dry plateaux, sultry days are followed as in the Sahara by cold nights, often visiting the unwary traveller with chills and ague.1 Flora and Fauna The irregular distribution of the rainfall fully explains the enormous contrasts in the character of the vegetation observed in the various zones between the coast and Tanganyika, as well as between the southern and northern slopes of Kilimanjaro. H. H. Johnston, who encamped for six months in 1884 on the south side of this moun- tain, found himself in the midst of a rich and endlessly diversified flora, while the opposite side was almost bare of vegetation. Continuous forest growths are mainly confined to the coastlands, the Usagara and Kilimanjaro uplands, though isolated clumps or solitary specimens of such African giants as the baobab, euphorbia, tamarind, sycamore, or calabash tree are still met on the open savannahs. The copal (msandarusi), yielding the best of all gums, abounds on the banks of the Lower Rufiji; 1 In the open plains, H. H. Johnston recorded 91° F. in the early afternoon and 58° before dawn, a range of no less than 33° within the twenty-four hours. At his higher collecting stations (10,000 to 11,000 feet) on Kilimanjaro he found the lowest night temperature 29°, the highest at 3 p.m. 65°; at Taveita 60° and 90° respectively, while " the highest temperature ever recorded on the plains between Kilimanjaro and the coast was 91°" (The Kilimanjaro Expedition, 1886, p. 323).GERMAN EAST AFRICA 507 dense jungles of reeds and grasses, 14 feet high, grow with rank exuberance in the low-lying swampy districts; a tangle of scrub and brushwood impedes progress on the dryer terraced escarpments, and are replaced in the favoured upland valleys of Usagara by flowering and THE FLOWER OF THE BAOBAB TREE. fruit - bearing arborescent growths. Plantation culture has already been introduced on the alluvial coastlands, which are specially suited for the cultivation of sugar, cotton, rice, vanilla, and other colonial produce. The Taveita district at the south-east foot of Kili- manjaro, watered by the romantic Paver Lumi, and everywhere clothed with a glorious tropical vegetation,EUPHORBIA CANDELABRUM.GEKMAN EAST AFRICA 509 seemed to Mr. Johnston " one of the loveliest spots on the earth's surface. Imagine first a charming river, of crystal clearness, winding in curves and loops through tropical forest of such an imposing grandeur that it rather recalls to one's imagination the vegetation of some more lusty epoch of the earth's youth than the present degenerate days of exuberant growth. The river flows sometimes between high banks—little cliffs of red soil— crested with gigantic trees, whose enormous roots, detached from the crumbling earth, stretch out like grey sprawling fingers high in air above the rushing water; sometimes curls itself wantonly in loops, cutting out sweet little peninsulas of forest - clad mounds and hillocks, on which one longs to go and build a little hut and live for ever; sometimes flows solemnly and slowly, with glassy look, amid winding avenues of palms, acacias, albizzias, sterculias, parinariums, sycamores, and wild bananas, through the stately architecture of a vegetable Venice. . . . Here and there amid the lofty aisles of the Taveitan forest are little clearings, pretty homesteads of yellow bee-hive huts, neat plots of cultivated ground, groves of emerald-green bananas, which are the habita- tions of the happy Arcadians who have made this tropical paradise their home." 1 The neighbouring Lake Jipe is as remarkable for its fauna as is Taveita for its flora. The vicinity is much frequented by game, and its waters teem with big fish, " principally siluroids and cyprinoids. Hippopotami and crocodiles are plentiful. Numbers of water-birds haunt the reedy shores — storks, egrets, pelicans, spur-winged plovers, ducks, and Egyptian geese." 2 Elephants and buffaloes range as high as 12,000 or 14,000 feet on Kilimanjaro, where A. B. Meyer came upon a dead 1 The Kilimanjaro Expedition, p. 208. 2 Op. cit. p. 298.510 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL gazelle near the summit. Here is the native home of the lovely black and white long-haired Colobus Guereza ; and on the plains the large red hartebeeste mimics the outlines of the tall red ant - hills, so that at a little distance it is difficult to know which is the hartebeeste and which the ant-hill.1 The plateaux are still fre- COLOBUS GUEREZA. quented by the giraffe, rhinoceros, buffalo, elephant, and ostrich, where they are still pursued by the lion and leopard. The tsetse fly infests many districts, and a few years ago proved fatal to the tame elephants that had been introduced as an experiment from India. This winged pest is now believed to be a parasite of the large African game; if so, the much-maligned British sports- 1 Op. cit. p. 65.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 511 * men, who are gradually exterminating these animals, may after all prove to be the true pioneers of civilisation in the Dark Continent. Inhabitants—Wa-Zarambo, Wa-Zeguha The whole of the Protectorate belonged, till compara- tively recent times, exclusively to the Bantu domain, in which it is still mainly comprised. But for centuries the populations between the seaboard and the great lakes have been subject to Arab influences from the coast, and to Zulu incursions from the south; while on the north side their territory has been encroached upon by Nilotic Negro peoples, such as the Kavirondo and especially the Masai, who have wedged themselves in between Victoria Nyanza on the west and Kenia and Kilimanjaro on the east. Owing to these disintegrating forces, by which territory has been lost in the north, and whole communities largely Arabised on the coast (Wa- Swahili) and even far inland (Vua-Nyamwezi), the tribes have nowhere been fused together in large nationalities; nor have any powerful native states been constituted, unless the late ephemeral " empire" of the " black Napoleon/' Mirambo, be regarded as such. On the other hand, Arab civilising influences have • not penetrated very deeply into the seething mass of heathendom, gross superstition and utter savagery being still or till quite recently prevalent among the Bantu populations between the Eovuma and Kilimanjaro. Hence the startling contrasts observed by Speke, Burton, and other early explorers between contiguous peoples, such as the Mohammedan Wa-Swahili, differing little from the Arabs in general culture, and their western neighbours, the Wa-Zarambo north of the Rufiji river, who still go512 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL naked but for a fringe of grassy fibre, slash their cheeks with deep gashes, knead their hair with clay and grease into towering head-dresses, use poisoned arrows, burn the wizard and all his family, throw twins to the bush or children born on unlucky days. Wa-Sagara ; Wa-Hehe ; Ma-Kond£ North of the Wa - Zarambo, the Wa - Zeguha of the Lower Wami are at constant feud over the succession to their petty chieftaincies. In one of these conflicts the ferocious Wa-Doe cannibals, dwelling almost within sight of Zanzibar, were nearly exterminated, the sur- vivors escaping north to the vicinity of Kenia, where a few are still found. Inland from all these coast peoples follow along the main caravan route between Zanzibar and Tanganyika the three more powerful nations, or rather tribal groups, of the Wa-Sagara, Wa-Gogo, and Wa-Nyamwezi, who give their names to their respective territories. All are broken into numerous independent communities, having little in common except a faintly developed national sentiment, their Bantu speech, and, till lately, their concerted action in upholding the traditional vexatious system of blackmail levied on all travellers and traders passing through their country. The Wa-Sagara are a widespread people, whose lan- guage extends as far north as Mombasa, and whose various branches show every transition from extreme barbarism to a certain degree of culture due to contact with the Arabs, and, in recent years, with Europeans. They occupy all the Usagara highlands, and one of their chief divisions are the Wa-Hehe, south of the Euaha affluent of the Rufiji, who, in September 1891, cut off a powerful German expeditionary force. They are fierce moun-GERMAN EAST AFRICA 513 taineers, occupying a hilly plateau over 6000 feet above sea-level, and, owing to their marauding practices, are much dreaded by the surrounding tribes. Like so many VICTORIA HYAHZA CHIEF. other peoples of this region, such as the Ma-Gwangwara of the Upper Eovuma (see p. 468), and the Ma-Konde, who hold the north bank of the Lower Eovuma, the Wa-Hehe VOL. II 2 L514 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL claim Zulu affinities, and pretend to have come originally from the south. But their language closely resembles Ki-Swahili, while that of the Ma-Kond£ is one of the few Bantu tongues which still preserve all the sixteen class prefixes of the primitive Bantu speech. The Ma-Kond^, who are related to the Ma-Viha, on the opposite side of the Bovuma (see p. 470), are still a savage people, who scarify face and body with "high relief " tattoo scorings, and whose women wear the pelele (see p. 471) in their upper lip. They were first visited in 1877 by Chauncy Maples, who was taken for a ghost, but nevertheless supplied with food. Their Masasi, Wa-Mwera, and Wa-Ngindo neighbours are all probably branches of the Makua nation (see p. 471), which for- merly occupied all the coastlands from the Zambesi delta north to the vicinity of Zanzibar. In fact, the whole seaboard from near the equator south to Algoa Bay has during the historic period been mainly occupied by three Bantu groups of Ki-Swahili speech in the north, Makua in the middle, and Zulu-Kafir in the south. Wa-Swahili The Wa-Swahili, that is, "Coast People," although numbering scarcely a million altogether, have in recent years acquired almost greater prominence than any other Bantu group. For this position they are not indebted to any special quality, such as the martial spirit of the Zulus, but simply to the fact that they have adopted the Mohammedan religion, and identified themselves with the Arabs, whose traders and raiders have overrun half the continent. The result is that not Arabic but Ki-Swahili has become the lingua franca, the great medium of inter- course throughout West Central Africa (see p. 148).GERMAN EAST AFRICA 515 But, like the people themselves, the language is the most corrupt, or at least the most affected by foreign elements, chiefly Arabic, of all Bantu idioms. About half of its vocabulary, including most abstract terms, is Arabic, although the grammatical structure remains strictly Bantu ; and it was formerly written with the Arabic characters. But in their Ki-Swahili writings (diction- aries, grammars, translations of scripture, religious treatises) Bishop Steer and other missionaries have wisely substituted the Roman system, which is in every way better adapted for expressing the sounds of all Bantu languages. The Wa-Swahili, whose domain on the mainland is confined to the strip of seaboard extend- ing from the neighbourhood of Dar-es-Salaam north to Yitu, are not a tribe, nor yet a nation, having no common political aspirations, but rather an amalgam of the most diverse ethnical elements, possessing religious and lin- guistic unity, and linked together by a highly-developed commercial spirit. Wa-Taveita, Wa-Gweno As a rule the Bantu populations in the extreme north (Par£ and Gweno uplands, Taveita, Teita, and Chaga, on the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro) are of a milder dis- position, and, if not less superstitious, at all events less cruel and ferocious than those of the central and southern districts. Travellers speak in the highest terms of the Wa-Taveita, who live in friendly association with the Wa-Kwavi, that is, the settled agricultural section of the Masai nation, as well as with their numerous other guests or visitors from all parts of the country; for Taveita, like Stanley Pool on the Congo, or Khartum on the Nile, is a great trysting-place of "tribes, tongues,516 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL peoples, and nations. You may sit here in the porch of your comfortable thatched house, and receive visits from representatives of most of the nations found in East Central Africa. Arabs, Gall as, Masai, A-Kamba, Wa- Chaga, Wa-Par^, Wa-Teita, Wa-Gweno, Wa-Swahili, Wa- Sambara, the people of Kavirondo on the Victoria Nyanza of Buganda and Bunyoro, of Njemps and Zamburu, all find their way to Taveita somehow, whether as slaves, traders, tramps, criminals, or refugees. You may hear about twenty African languages talked around you, and by searching among the slave caravans, which stop here for repose, a list of hundreds of East African tongues might be composed."1 Yet good order prevails in this refugium peccatorum, which is ruled by the Wazee, or elders, whose " gentle behaviour and kindly manners were at all times charming." Nor was there much to complain of the Wa-Chaga, who have long been at feud amongst themselves, and harassed by the marauding incursions of the Masai nomads. Mandara and other chiefs are consequently well disposed towards Europeans, to whom they look for protection against neighbouring tribes, and especially against the common enemy, the Masai raiders. The Wa-Gweno of the Ugweno uplands, first visited by Hans Meyer in 1889, are a branch of the Wa-Mbugu of Central Usambara, whose tribal mark, a round spot in the middle of the forehead, is, however, replaced by a black streak running from the middle of the forehead to the nose. All the upper part of the body is also scored with hundreds of small incisions, partly charms, partly ornamental. From the Masai the young warriors have borrowed the practice of plastering themselves with a coating of grease and red ochre. A common way of 1 The Kilimanjaro Expedition, p. 211.GERMAN EAST AFRICA 517 dressing the hair is to twist it into thin strings, which hang down all round the head, and are cut away above the eyes in a regular fringe. " Here and there a dandy of the tribe screws up the strings into rows of rigid love- locks, while another draws a handful down either cheek, and ties them together under his chin, finishing off the elaborate coiffure with a sprinkling of coloured beads." 1 The Wa-Gweno are an industrious agricultural people, possessing some skill in iron smelting and forging, and raising good crops of bananas, pulse, maize, millet, manioc and sweet potatoes in the southern and eastern districts, which are less exposed to the raids of the Masai and Wa-Chaga. Karagwe, Wa-Huma Migrations Apart from the Kavirondos of the north-east coast, who were first visited by Joseph Thomson in 1882, and who appear to be an outlying branch of the Shilluk Negroes from the White Nile, Victoria Nyanza is every- where encircled by peoples of Bantu speech. In the German section the most important tribes are the Wa- Sukuma, Vua-Zinza, and Yua-Tuzi on the south side, and the inhabitants of Karagwe on the west. When first explored by Speke, and afterwards by Stanley, Karagwe formed a large kingdom, being one of those powerful equatorial states which, like Buganda and Bunyoro, had been constituted after the dismemberment of the ancient empire of Kitwara. At that time it was ruled by the gentle and intelligent King Rumanika, who was later exposed to attacks from Buganda and Bunyoro, and from the Arab slavers, who had established themselves at Kafuro, in the heart of the country. Rumanika was succeeded by his eldest son, Kyensi, who, however, 1 Hans Meyer, op. cit. p. 223.518 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL reigned only nine months, when the throne was usurped by his brother Kakoko. This sanguinary tyrant held his ground for three years, during which he slew seventeen brothers, and put out the eyes of his youngest brother, Luajumba. Then Kakoko, while stupefied by drink, was speared by Ka-Chikonju; and, when Stanley passed through in 1889, the rightful heir to the throne was Kyensi's son Ndagara, called also Unyagumbwa, a youth at that time in his sixteenth year. It does not appear that the Karagwe rulers have ever acknowledged the German protectorate. Here the bulk of the people are Bantus; but, as in the other equatorial states, the nobles and ruling class are Wa-Huma (" North- men "), a conquering pastoral people, originally from Gallaland, who have penetrated as far south as Unyam- wezi. In different places they bear different names— Wa-Tusi (Ba-Tushi), Wa-Nyambu, Wa-Ima, Wa-Witu, Wa-Chwezi,—but everywhere present the same Hamitic features, like those of the Galla and Somali Hamites in the north-east. Besides the local Bantu dialects, they also still speak Galla amongst themselves ; and their Galla origin, first conjectured by Speke, has since been thoroughly established by Stanley and other recent explorers. They are essentially herdsmen, who despise the surrounding Bantu husbandmen, from whom they mostly keep aloof, and are then almost white, or, at all events, very fair, as in Toru (Gambaragara). Traditionally they fought their way through Somaliland southwards to Mombasa, and passed thence westwards to the equatorial lake region, where they founded the Empire of Kitwara, and afterwards moved gradually southwards to Unyamwezi. It is note- worthy that their most common national name, Wa-Witu, points to the territory of Witu (Vitu), on the east coast above Mombasa, as the district whence they began toGERMAN EAST AFRICA 519 push inland up the Tana valley, that is, the line of least resistance in this direction. Mutesa, King of Buganda, Kaba Eega of Bunyoro, and Rumanika of Karagwe, were all Wa-Huma, representing various branches of the old Kitwara dynasty. The Masai, whose true home lies north of Kilimanjaro, will be described in the next chapter. In the subjoined table are comprised all the chief Bantu Tribes and Nations of German East Africa. , „ , f North bank Lower Rovuma, akin to the Ma-Viha, south of Ma-Konde { cape delgado Ma-Nyanja l Wa-Yao tribes, Rovuma river below the Lujenda con- Ma-Tombwe/ fluence. Ma-Sasi Wa-Likdi [-Makua tribes, north side Upper Rovuma basin. Ma-Mwera J Ma-Gwangwara, pretended Zulus, east slope Livingstone range. Wa-Ngindo or\North and north-west of the Ma-Konde; called also Wa-Gindo J Wali-Huhu. Ma-Henge, Rufiji basin between Uranga and Ruaha rivers. Wa-Nyakanyaka, serfs of the Ma-Henge. Wa-Ndonde or Wa-Donde, Rufiji basin, east of the Ma-Henge territory. "Wa-Zaramo, between the Rufiji, the Kingani, and the Swahili Coast. Wa-Kwere ^ tr^eg chiefly about head-waters of the Kingani ; akin Wa-Kami y , ,, w r/ j _TT Tr to the Wa-Zaramo. Wa-Khutu ; Wa-Zeguha or Wa-Zegura, Middle and Lower Wami basin. . f Cannibals formerly in Wami basin, now scattered in small e -y groups northwards to Masailand. Wa-Sagara, the chief nation in the Usagara highlands. Wa-Hehe ) Southern branches of the Wa-Sagara, between the Ruaha and Wa-Bena ) Uranga affluents of the Pangani. Wa Megi ^ Northern branches of the Wa-Sagara, chiefly about the WA-KtJGURU y m 4. *4.1* xxt • "Wa Geja J uPPer affluen^s of the Wami. f Widespread nation on the plateau between the Usagara high- "Wa-Gogo ian(js and Unyamwezi.520 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL The dominant nation in Unyamwezi; numerous tribal subdivisions, such as the Wa-Rambo, Wa-Yui, Wa- Nyambembe, Vua-Galla, and in the extreme south Yua-Kanongo. Vtja-Hha, and other Tanganyika tribes, for which see p. 121. Wa-Sukuma^ Ytja-Zinza [-Southern shores of Victoria Nyanza. Yua-Ttjzi J Wa-Shenzi or Wa-Bondei, Lower Pangani and adjacent coastlands. f Numerous nation, Usambara highlands, west and north of Wa-Sambara| the "Wa-Shenzi. Wa-Rtjvu (" River People "), chiefly in the islands of the Lower Pangani. Wa-Pare, the Pare range, north-west of Usambara. Wa-Gweno, the Ugweno highlands, north of the Wa-Pare. Wa-Teita, hilly district east of Taveita, within the British frontier. m f The wooded district between Lake Jip6 and Kilimanjaro, Wa-Taveita | within the British frontier. {Northernmost branch of the Wa-Sambara, on the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro, with numerous subdivisions: Shiro, Kibonto, Uru, Mashame, Kibosho, Mpokomo, Moshi, Kirua, Kilema, Maranu, Mamba, Mwika, Nsai, Rombo, Useri, Kimangelia. Towns, Seaports, Stations—Eiloa Till comparatively recent times all the civilised popu- lations were confined to the coastlands; hence here alone are found towns, in the strict sense of the word. Some of these are historical places, which, like most of the seaports on the eastern seaboard, have never recovered from the ruin brought on them by the early Portuguese filibusters. Such is Kiloa, on the islet of the same name, midway between the Ukeredi and Rufiji estuaries, hence called Kiloa Kisiwani, or " Insular Kiloa," in contra- distinction to the modern Kiloa Kivinji, or " Continental Kiloa/' founded 18 miles farther north. The island forms, with the opposite shore, a sheltered inlet, which penetrates 12 miles inland, and which was frequented by Persian Wa-NyamweziGERMAN EAST AFRICA 521 shipping so early as the tenth century. Later it became the capital and chief emporium of the Zenj empire, and at one time was said to contain as many as 300 mosques. "When the King of Portugal discovered this land," writes Barbosa, " the Moors of Sofala, and Zuama, and Anguox (Angosha), and Mozambique were all under obedience to the King of Quiloa,1 who was a great king amongst them/' But " this king; for his great pride, and for not being willing to obey the King of Portugal, had this town taken from him by force, and in it they killed and captured many people, and the king fled from the island, in which the King of Portugal ordered a fortress to be built." This refers to the siege and capture of the place by Francisco d'Almeida in 1505, soon after which the Portuguese had themselves to fly from the malarious climate, and now little remains except the houses of a few Banyan and Arab traders, grouped beneath the crumbling walls of the Portuguese fortress. The new Kiloa, though possessing a far less com- modious harbour, and perhaps even more insalubrious, owing to the neighbouring swamps, rose to great pros- perity during the flourishing days of the slave trade. Now, however, it is almost as deserted as its neighbour, and the only seaports on the whole coast south of the Bovuma are Lindi, at the mouth of the Ukeredi, which does a considerable export trade in rubber, and Mikindani, farther south, which, despite its fine, well- sheltered harbour, is little frequented. Dar-es-Salaam, Bagamoyo Along the coral-fringed coast, between Kiloa and Dar-es-Salaam, no settlements occur except at Chobe, on 1 In Portuguese qu=k, hence Quiloa = Kiloa, often written and pro- nounced Kilwa.522 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the adjacent island of Mafia (Monfia). This coralline rock, some 200 square miles in extent, and mostly- covered with cocoa-nut groves, is already mentioned by Barbosa, who, however, wrongly places it with Zanzibar and Penda (Pemba), between St. Lawrence (Madagascar) and the mainland. At low water Chobe is inaccessible even to small craft, which have to anchor some miles to the south-west awaiting the turn of the tide. Dar-es-Salaam, the " Place of Peace," is a popular Arab etymology for the Ki-Swahili Dari-Salama, "Safe Roof." It stands on one of the finest harbours along the whole seaboard, formed by a deep fjord-like creek, which runs 5 miles inland, but which is approached from the sea through a narrow channel winding its way through the fringing reefs. Since the German occupa- tion, efforts have been made to make this place a com- mercial rival of Zanzibar, and for this purpose a beginning has been made with a fine highway to the interior, ulti- mately to be replaced or supplemented with a railway. After traversing the low-lying coastlands the road ascends the escarpments of the plateau, and has already reached Kola, some 30 miles from Dar-es-Salaam, on the divide towards the Kingani valley. Should this project be fully carried out, Bagamoyo, hitherto the gateway of the continent, will necessarily lose much of its importance, for it enjoys no natural advantages beyond its greater proximity to Zanzibar, and part of the scheme is to cut out Zanzibar itself. At Bagamoyo there is no harbour, nothing but an open road- stead, which shoals so gradually that vessels of any draught have to ride at anchor in exposed waters some 2 miles off the coast. Fierce hurricanes occasionally sweep in between the island and the mainland, strewing the shores with wreckage, and levelling the frail habita-IVORY AT BAGAMOYO.524 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL tions of the natives in Bagamoyo itself. Here are still equipped most of the caravans starting for the interior; several houses in the European style have already sprung up; the bazaar has become a busy mart, where travellers complete their outfits before plunging into the wilds of equatorial Africa, and the neighbouring rising ground is crowned with the extensive buildings of the Roman Catholic Mission, which, in ecclesiastical language, ranks as the metropolis of all the churches in East Central Africa. These missions had hitherto been administered chiefly by French pdres, but the policy of the German Government, warned by their attitude in Uganda and else- where, has aimed at gradually replacing them by zealous pastors from the Fatherland. The English Mission is stationed 30 miles farther north, at the seaport of Saadani, which lies a little north of the Wami estuary, about the same distance, 26 miles to the west, that Bagamoyo does to the south-west of Zanzibar. Beyond it are the two equally unimportant ports of Pangani, at the mouth of the Ruvu, or Pangani river, and Wanga, at the mouth of the frontier river Umba, also from its port often called the Wanga. Mpwapwa, Taborah, TJjiji In the interior the most noteworthy Arab and European stations going westwards are Mjpwajpwa and Taborah, both near the main caravan route, of which Ujiji is the terminus on Lake Tanganyika. Mpwapwa, 220 miles from the coast, about the frontiers of the fertile Usagara uplands and the arid Ugogo plateau, occupies one of those sites which seem prepared by the hand of nature to become great centres of population. Here many highways meet, and here travellers find a con-. GERMAN EAST APEICA , 525 venient resting-place, either after traversing or before facing the dreaded Marenga Mkhali. At present it is little more than a thriving native village, though its importance has somewhat increased since it has been chosen as a station of the Church Missionary Society. Taborah occupies a position on the Tanganyika corre- sponding to that of Mpwapwa on the Oceanic slope. It lies in the heart of Unyamwezi, 4000 feet above the sea, near the highest point of the Malagarazi basin, and is consequently a strategical site of vital importance, com- manding all the routes here converging from Nyanza, Tanganyika, and the coast. These routes, as they approach the station, pass through " an almost continuous series of gardens surrounding the numerous villages, some of which were very large, enclosing many fine conical- roofed huts, all quite superior architecture to anything we had seen since leaving the coast." 1 In the station are many large Arab houses built of adobe, with large doors and windows here a daily market is held, " and the business attendant upon this, the presence of so many well-clothed people, the various fruit trees, and the whole appearance of the place has an air of plenty and civilisation very attractive to the traveller" (ib.) The Church Missionary Society has a station at the neighbouring village of Uyui, and the whole region between Tanganyika, ltya$sa, Nyanza, and the coast is already dotted over with similar establishments, such as those of Masasi in the extreme south, and Usambiro (Makolo's) in the extreme north, all so many centres of civilising influences, where nothing but pure savagery prevailed before Burton and Speke's memorable expedi- tions to the equatorial lakes. The great Arab slave and ivory dep6t of Ujiji, from 1 A. B. Hore, op. tit. p. 130.526 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL which, before the discovery, Tanganyika itself was known by report as the " Sea of Ujiji," is admirably UJIJI, GENERAL VIEW. situated for trading purposes on the direct route from the Upper Congo (Nyangwe) across the lake and through Unyamwezi to Zanzibar. Under the changed conditionsGERMAN EAST AFRICA L. Albert __ _./> Edward/5^ : jsuffcyxvtiy Ugmgo 1^ \-;Cr tori A Pyramid, /.^ KavirondV» JV YA N Z A on/x # Warvyol'\ ^ l. Ebnaan ri STKS; f *• 1 If aia itangxil (KivoriJ, fy^^&ctkahari L^^®R;>i\iro ifer ^ J® *« * ElZlTUJ bservationyicmra. NduLa* 3740 - Stanley 3803 Dofco •> ZjJ lriqua,J.■ IS - Bnkoba fybriakp >f Wife KaVe Ni 4. I. Ihcrnd rSpapotwe> » Ukerew vma ojSbnarau ? 0 tUc&ilrs Tt®Nve^es Jordan®. Wj ./ , .. V -> ^TdlaliOTttttumln S3 "* i W S ambiijp ^&m wT~ -V rdubzcrcL 0 x Msalcila . V3W Ma90ahl % r I . --"V^ ? / .' ---.>—---~V* / JudenoiEMt Zqrarv^\v^rVfr ¥■ v-4t*ll0 ' * ,v «Ki ^V' fl&W&r ' ( \0 vbisu Usoiigo Kirambo ■'/ 2?trfChalaJ?'. Tanwa /{* (rll^Ul M' \ {( Qiyamboojp^y. {jJWGiikiibi JtiffribcLr* Tunwt C.(fasten [Trainbn^^ ^«oa BalibaliM? iiu.de !r „ ?• ., r,i- "f* rt^Wr]tjftv ^ Taboi;a CCyaRuiaridif P.o . A, Jlfil0L I ^ VCTA - • lv „ fe/^Xjoa^g'7,- Ch.ok t> ^aicL i '.fc ^ ^ \_oJZunniba \Ly4Kokol/>ni ^ v v ^ ^ uw- ^ .-CZaiizjbai SCKizui lr'^- 1 - - 1 4 M /?/> fl/rj.*/) ® 1 Jiut',1 V . '., 'Piaidx ilJfPrt*?1-!. Vznyata crga>»aw ; cosw "i 11 kl^Su ya n's1 Y\ V ^ O Igorida. y X.ixr a , *wWert o~Kakoma KapalaX^jf&fep oxubyn ■\ Jiw&ii o ^ 2imbo JVL o u. n M t ii all i \%71._!_^SSOr° JKxitirumo* 7. , l^S/A %ww' btlBriokti J a.rii^;Uari ZqntaM '' ■> V ^ ; 31pxml) H'e ft. MTU. N, S'T""K u z AK A lt'M Jisaiffu < ikmMJMzi: / '<dio^ ^ Wia . A^lw^h'1' Lain kSonwo •e^ea ^ytMnriiia I . rN^g^Mi.1) ^y/ oi ^iaii.i fe; RTTKWA OR irftttll Johhst I1IKWA >v Mkorriolcer K Ca^i.xKW£otyK Mohrrx'frT Qicwdndd. \Kipindi MS^zrq n7lrr,w.Mnj1 -(■ ■?r£rJ\r_______ _V; „., Kitope ..-■' ShuqaliFaiit fti iiilw;) m vim-. . lSfaiizisu^tylW'yei t—XCKd Wasiinoa -/% f, among a. ' ;L\. «. Soruitl L °Marema ... i.ihrrrorn ^ •»T....b.. <. . . i'Tfi/alt. i"%QKiaoma i••;»••« ! ctssr~ AbdaUatu liikoxe^Mlcapantlu o/^lphfaKLswiuir ,-' Mterxqeres unvmnhes %. :olcoul$*• rJ____i^. 5ic < ~v r'-\; ChUaiu's M , XlV7i. Madodo Tela mbcLR. ChiaJ^in^as^ *} Siite^xbo)^ "/ y^s-' . }{arum bo f o aowgits f KasanoQiI s^ ~~--------.«. ^ ^ ^ ChlkoiaveM^ m \ era ^:-^iJwiriK\md>iias Mtixrilcab j1 a JMfewtij/rA A^TS T 32 Longitude East of Greenwich ZoruLori Stanford# Gt.oqx Zstab' SCALE, 94 & ENGLISH MILES TO I INCH. London: Edward Stanford, 26 & 27 Cock spur St..Charing Cross. SWGERMAN EAST AFRICA 527 it might hope to become the great emporium of the lacustrine basin, and one of the future centres of culture in Central Africa, but for its malarious climate; for it lies low, on the very margin of the lake, and behind it spreads the swampy district of the Lower Malagarazi, which, in the rainy season, becomes an almost impassable quagmire. Ujiji, so called from the local Vua-Jiji tribe, is properly the name of this district, the real name of the station being Kahwele or Kavele. Except for the fine prospect it commands of the lake, here over 40 miles wide, Ujiji is not an attractive place; " the big Arab houses, although assuming to be built after the mode of Solomon's Temple, are after all only huge mud huts, and the general aspect of the place is squalid and unwholesome in the extreme." 1 In this respect Ujiji presents a marked contrast to Warahanje, capital of Karagwe, and the late King Rumanika's residence, which stands at an altitude of 4350 feet, in one of the most salubrious and romantic districts in Africa. It commands a charming view of the lovely Lake Eaveru (Windermere), and a little to the east lies the Arab trading station of Kufro (Kafuro). But regular communications have long been interrupted with Karagwe, and it is uncertain whether, amidst the Local political convulsions, the Arabs have been able to maintain their position at Kufro, their farthest outpost west of Yictoria Nyanza. 1 A. B. Hore, op. cit. p. 160.CHAPTER XI british east africa General Survey; Extent, Population, Political Situation—Progress and results of Geographical Exploration—The Tana, Juba, and Sabakhi Basins—Exploration of Masai and Kavirondo Lands—Exploration of the Equatorial Lake Region—Physical Features ; the Coastlands —Masailand—Lakes Naivasha, Baringo and Sambuuu—TheKeniaand Aberdare Highlands—Kavirondoland—Usoga; Uganda ; the Victoria Nile—Unyoro, Koki, Ankole — The Albertine Nile; Lake Albert Edward—The Semliki River ; Lake Albert Nyanza—Ruwenzori—In- habitants—Table of the Chief Tribes and Natives of Ibea—General Ethnical Relations in Ibea — The Bantus of the Tana Basin—The Masai, Wa -Kwafi, Andorobo — The Waganda ; the Kitwara Empire ; Historical Survey—Political and Social Institutions—The Wanyoro ; Kingdom of Unyoro — Towns, Stations, Progress and Prospects—The Zanzibar Protectorate. General Survey; Extent, Population, Political Situation The territory secured by England in East Equatorial Africa as a result of the dismemberment of the Zanzibar domain has received the somewhat fantastic name of Ibea, a term formed by the initial letters, I. B. E. A., of the full title Imperial British East Africa„ As in the Niger and Zambesi regions, this territory was organised and for some time administered, not by the British Government, but by a trading association which bore the name of the " Imperial British East Africabritish east africa 529 Company," and which held a royal charter dated 3rd September 1888. So early as the year 1824 a British protectorate had been proclaimed by Captain Owen of the Leven over part of Mombasa, the neigh- bouring island of Pemba, and the strip of coast- land between Malindi and the Pangani river. But Captain Owen's action was not ratified by the home • government, and no further attempt was made to occupy ' any territory on the east coast till the appearance of the Germans on the scene in 1884. When it became evident that they aimed at the annexation of all the mainland belonging directly or indirectly to the Zanzibar Sultanate, England was compelled again to intervene, ultimately securing as her share of the spoils all the coastlands north of the Umba river. By the Anglo-German Agree- ments of October 1886 and July 1890, the southern frontier was made conterminous all along the line with German East Africa, Germany also withdrawing from the territory of Witu (Yitu) and the neighbour- ing islets of Manda and Patta, north of the Tana delta, to which she had extended her protectorate in 1885. By the treaties of 1888 and 1889 the Sultan of Zanzibar had ceded to the British East Africa Company all his towns and possessions north of the German domain —that is to say, Mombasa and Malindi, south of the Tana river; Kau and Kipini, with Lamu Island, on the Witu coast; Kismayu, just south of the Jub (Juba) river at the equator; the ports of Brava (Barawa), Merka, Magdisho (Magadosho), Warsheikh, and Maroli along the east Somali coast, But by the Anglo-Italian Conventions of 1889 and 1891, the whole of this coast, from the Juba northwards to Cape Bo wen, has been transferred to the Italian sphere of influence, the Juba being here accepted as the common frontier as far inland vol. ii 2 m530 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL as 6° N. lat. The line then coincides with this parallel westwards to 35° E. long., which is followed northwards to the Blue Nile at Fazokl. British East Africa is thus conterminous with the Italian sphere of influence in Somaliland, Gallaland, and Abyssinia, and is bounded westwards by the Congo Free State1 and the Congo-Nile water-parting, and southwards by German East Africa. Within these spacious limits are comprised about 450 miles of coastlands, with all the adjacent islands as far south as Zanzibar; a considerable section of South Somali and Galla Lands; the Kenia highlands, with Masailand and the Lake Budolf (Sam- buru) depression; the northern section of Lake Victoria Nyanza, with the surrounding native states of Usoga and Uganda ; the " Albertine " or south-western head-waters of the Nile, with Lakes Albert and Albert Edward, the Ruwenzori highlands, and surrounding territories of Unyoro, Ankori, Mpororo, Koko, and part of Euanda; # lastly, the Bahr el-Ghazal and White Nile valleys, with a great part of Eastern (Egyptian) Sudan, north-westwards to the frontiers of Wadai. Taken in its widest sense, this vast domain probably exceeds 1,250,000 square miles, with a population vaguely estimated at about 13,000,000. But the portion actually held and directly or indirectly administered by the British Commissioner comprises little more than the coastlands, the Tana basin, the trade routes thence through Masailand and Kavirondo to Usoga and 1 Towards the Free State the limits are usually made to coincide with the thirtieth meridian, which is*claimed by Belgium as its eastern boundary. But the claim has never been formally recognised by England, and as that meridian about bisects Lake Albert Edward and the Ruwenzori highlands, it obviously encroaches on the British sphere of influence, both the lake and the mountains lying well within the Nile basin. In this direction the frontiers should fol]ow the Congo-Nile divide, which has not yet been accurately determined.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 531 Uganda, Uganda itself, with parts of Unyoro, and a few outlying stations on the Ruwenzori slopes and in the Albertine Nile valley. Even from Uganda, owing to political and financial difficulties, the Company had an- nounced its intention of withdrawing at the end of 1892, but was induced to remain till March 1893, an Imperial Commissioner (Sir Gerald Portal) being meantime ap- pointed by the British Government to visit Uganda and report on the state of affairs in that distracted region. At one time it seemed probable that the country would have been abandoned altogether, at least temporarily. But public opinion in England having pronounced emphatically against that policy, it was decided, in accordance with the recommendations contained in Sir Gerald Portal's Report, presented in April 1894, to extend the British protectorate to Uganda proper, with its natural and political dependencies. The protectorate was formally proclaimed at Mengo, present capital of Uganda, on 29 th August 1894. Progress and Results of Geographical Exploration Although the Portuguese had occupied Mombasa, Malindi, and other points on the coast soon after their arrival in the eastern waters at the close of the fifteenth century, no attempt was ever made by them to penetrate into the interior. The navigable river Tana, giving relatively easy access to the Kenia highlands, was never explored beyond a few miles above Formosa Bay and the neighbouring delta; while Kenia itself, like its southern rival Kilimanjaro, continued to be shrouded in mystery till the veil was slightly lifted by Krapf in 1849. The same pioneer explorer again sighted Kenia in 1851 from the Upper Tana, which he had reached by an overland532 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL route from the missionary station of Eabai, near Mom- basa. Our knowledge of this region was again somewhat advanced in 1865 by Baron von der Decken, who first determined the true relations of the Ozi to the Tana, ascending the former river to Kau, and passing thence through the deep and rapid Beledzoni Channel into the Tana at Charra about the head of the delta. Further progress was made in 1866-67 by the English mission- aries Wakefield and New, who reached Ngao on the Tana, and navigated Lake Ashakababo, which at that time communicated with the river, but which since the floods of 1873 has greatly subsided, and is now no longer con- nected with the main stream. The Tana, Juba, and Sabakhi Basins But the first systematic survey of this important artery was made in 1878 by the Brothers Denhardt, who ascended to Masa (Bipa), 160 miles from its mouth, and found it navigable throughout the year to this point. Its exploration was completed by the expeditions of the British East Africa Company's officials, Mr. Pigott (1889) and Captain Dundas, who in 1891 took the steamer Kenia as far as Hameye above the Ibea Company's station of Balarti, and a short distance below the Hargazo or Hoffmann Falls, at the head of the naviga- tion, some 360 miles from its mouth. From this point the course of the Tana was followed partly by canoe, partly by land, to the Grand Falls in the Wathaka country, where there is a clear drop of about 60 feet close to the confluence of a large tributary from the north- west. Beyond these falls the main stream was traced to some of its head-waters on the southern slopes of Kenia, which was ascended to a height of 8700 feet. AboveBRITISH EAST AFRICA 533 Hameye the Tana was found to be quite unnavigable, presenting the aspect of a large mountain torrent obstructed by boulders or tumbling over a succession of falls and rapids. But its navigable middle and lower course has been compared to " a miniature Nile," winding through a vast alluvial plain, and for the most part confined between low banks, which are overflowed and the surrounding districts flooded during the rainy season. A great drawback is the shallow bar at the entrance, and, like most streams flowing through alluvial tracts, the Tana has many sharp bends, " with a constantly shifting channel, caused by the water undermining the concave side of the banks and throwing up the sand on the convex points opposite, thus rendering it impossible to mark out any regular channels." 1 On his return to the coast Captain Dundas took the Kenia up the frontier river Juba to Bardera, 387 miles from its mouth, and after overcoming the hostility of the local chiefs, he ascended 20 miles farther up to the rapids at the head of the navigation, in the very heart of the Somali country. In his survey of this river he had been preceded by the disastrous expedition of Baron von der Decken (1864), who was murdered with five of his companions at the foot of the rapids, where Captain Dundas found the wreck of his steamer, the Guelph, embedded in the rocks, the funnel still standing, cylinders and boiler still in position. Since von der Decken's time, the Juba had remained closed to European enterprise till the way was again opened by the tact and skill of Captain Dundas. Beyond the rapids all navigation ceases, the stream here rushing at a velocity of 7 miles an hour between its rocky walls, with a depth in many places of little over 3 feet. But 1 Ernest Gedge in Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. August 1892, p. 529.534 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL the country was found to be highly productive, the rich and fertile Goosha lands extending for over 100 miles along the river banks, and yielding plentiful crops of tobacco, cotton, and several kinds of cereals. At Bardera the Juba is also crossed by the great caravan route, by which large quantities of ivory and other produce are brought down from the rich Boran country. Hitherto all this merchandise has been forwarded to the coast by camels, but the successful issue of the Dundas expedition shows that it may be intercepted at Bardera and sent down by the river at greatly reduced rates. Thus, despite the difficulties of their navigation, both the Tana and the Juba possess great economic import- ance, their rich alluvial valleys presenting broad belts of well-wooded fertile lands, which afford relatively easy means of access across the arid steppe to the productive plateau regions of the interior. The same remark applies even more forcibly to the Sabakhi, which reaches the coast at Malindi, and is navigable only for small craft up to the first rapids, some 60 or 70 miles from its mouth. But it offers an excellent highway to the inland plateaux, affording a supply of water throughout the year, besides an abundance of fodder in the rich grassy glades fringing its banks. The Athi, as its upper course is called, rises on the Kikuyu plateau, south of Kenia, and flows in a south-easterly direction through the arid steppe, where the cactus, prickly pear, mimosa, acacia, and other thorny or scrubby plants form the characteristic vegetation. Here the huge granite rocks cropping out above the surface often contain large natural water-worn reservoirs four or five feet deep. "These water-holes are a singular phenomenon, seeing that the country shows so few other signs of the action of running water. Through scores of years, perhapsBRITISH EAST AFKICA 535 centuries, the stone which had found its lodgment in a hollow in the rock must have ceaselessly revolved round and round, impelled by an eddying whirlpool of water, wearing for itself a larger and larger cavity, deeper and deeper, with perfectly rounded and smooth sides. And now the rock forms part of the waterless plain; the very stone which wore the strange hole is often to be seen; the cavity worn by ages of water-action is now the sole storage for water in a waterless country. Strangest of all, it seemed that these water-holes at Taru were not in the bed of a stream nor even on the low-lying ground, thereby indicating a complete change of configuration as well as of climatic conditions."1 The projected railway from the coast to Lake Victoria will probably follow the Athi valley to its source, and then continue in a north-westerly direction by Lakes Naivasha and Nakuro and across the Mau plateau to Upper Kavirondo, descending by the Nzoia valley south-westwards to the north-east corner of the lake. Exploration of Masai and Kavirondo Lands Previous to its ascent by Captain Dundas, Kenia had never even been sighted since Krapf s time till the year 1883, when it was twice seen from distances of 60 and 25 miles by Joseph Thomson during his memorable expedition through Masailand to Lake Victoria Nyanza. The most successful attempt hitherto made to reach the summit must be credited to Count Teleki and Lieutenant von Hohnel, who on their journey to Lake Samburu in 1887 ascended to a height of 15,350 feet, or within about 3000 feet of the loftiest peak. 1 Captain F. D. Lugard, 1' Travels from the East Coast to Uganda, etc.," in Proc. Hoy. Geo, Soc, December 1892, p. 819.536 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL A great blank on the map of East Central Africa was removed by the expedition of Thomson, who was the first to visit Masailand proper; that is to say, the region stretching from Kenia westwards in the direction of Lake Victoria, and northwards to Kaffaland. The route followed by this intrepid pioneer ran from Mombasa on the coast mainly in a north-westerly direction round the flanks of Kilimanjaro and to the west of Kenia, along the east side of the great lacustrine depression of volcanic origin, which traverses Masailand in its entire length from north to south. After discovering Lakes Naivasha, Elmeteita, and ISTakuro, the explorer reached Lake Baringo, which was long supposed to be a great inland sea, either a rival or an easterly extension of Victoria, but was now found to be quite a small basin, with no visible outflow. From Baringo he turned westwards across the Mau plateau and through Upper Kavirondoland to the north-east corner of Victoria, being the first traveller to reach the great lake from the east. A long series of brilliant discoveries was completed on the return journey by a preliminary survey of the lofty Elgon (Ligonyi) and Chibcharagnani cones at the north end of the Elgeyo (Mau) escarpment. Thomson also approximately deter- mined the position of the great lake Samburu, which lay some 300 miles to the north-east of Victoria, and which was discovered in 1887 by Count Teleki and by him renamed Lake Rudolf, the neighbouring but much smaller basin taking the name of Stefanie. Hitherto all the routes from Kenia to Victoria had taken a north-westerly direction, so that the tract extending from the mountain due west to the lake had remained a blank on the map of East Equatorial Africa until it was traversed by the expedition of Messrs. Jackson and Gedge, through South Masailand to UgandaBRITISH EAST AFRICA 537 in 1889-90. This important expedition, which was organised by the Ibea Company for the purpose of opening a new road to Lake Victoria, starting from the Machako station at the foot of the Ukamba Hills, in August 1889, traversed the broad grassy valley of the river Athi, which extends some 30 miles northwards to the densely - wooded Kikuyu district. Beyond the undulating Kikuyu plateau (5000 to 8000 feet), the expedition followed Thomson's route to Lake Naivasha, after which it trended westwards over the Mau escarp- ment (9620 feet), and across a rolling grassy plateau to the thickly-wooded Wandorobo country. A long and difficult march of several days, through dense forest, and across the " Elephant Plain," where the only paths were elephant tracks running in all directions through the woodlands, brought the caravan to the rugged hilly districts of Sotik and Lumbwa, which are separated by a tract of stony hills from Lower Kavirondo. Here the expedition turned north-west to a point on Victoria Nyanza at the head of Stanley's Ugowe Bay, and thence by Mount Mnioro northwards to Upper Kavirondo, where a junction was effected with Thomson's route. At this point Jackson turned aside to visit Mount Elgon, which had been discovered by Thomson, and which was now ascended to the rim of the crater (14,044 feet), apparently within 50 feet of the highest peak. The remarkable inhabited caves on the slopes of this mountain were also examined, and found not to be artificial, as Thomson had supposed. There were no indications in any of them to suggest that they could possibly be the work of man. From Upper Kavirondo the expedition continued its route westwards through Busoga (Usoga) to Buganda (Uganda), and reached the Eipon Falls at the head of the Somerset Mle on 6th538 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL April 1890, having traversed 727 miles of a n^stly unknown region in 138 marching days. Exploration of the Equatorial Lake Region The more inland regions of Buganda and Bunyoro (Unyoro) had already been visited by Speke and Grant, discoverers of Victoria Nyanza, in 1858 ; by Sir Samuel Baker, discoverer of Albert Nyanza, in 1864; and again in 1875-76, by Stanley on his great expedition across the continent. But beyond the circumnavigation, of Albert Nyanza by Mason, Gessi, and other officials of the Khedival Government during the seventies, no further progress was made in this direction till the whole region, from the Middle Congo to the great lakes, was opened up by Stanley penetrating up the Aruwimi valley at the head of the Emin Pasha Eelief Expedition in 1887-88. Then were discovered the snowy Euwenzori Mountains and the Semliki river flowing from the lake now named Albert Edward, northwards to the head of the Albert Nyanza, and all these waters were thus shown to constitute a continuous system, which may be aptly named the Albertine branch of the Nile. Some of the details of this system have since been supplied by Captain Lugard of the Ibea Company, who even established outposts on the flanks of Euwenzori in 1891. In the same year the Albertine branch was extended far to the south by Emin Pasha and Dr. Stuhlmann. In 1894 Count von Gotzen explored the almost unknown region between Lakes Albert Edward and Tanganyika, and discovered the Kifu Lake and the Yirunga Mountains, an isolated volcanic group standing in the centre of this great longitudinal trough.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 539 Physical Features; the Coastlands North of Mombasa, where the present coast-line begins to trend rapidly north-eastwards, the general rim-like configuration of the continental periphery becomes greatly modified, if not altogether effaced. Here we enter a region where the geological continuity of the eastern seaboard has been broken by the underground forces, which have been at work till comparatively recent times, and which in some places even still reveal them- selves by such phenomena as hot springs, sulphurous exhalations, and escapes of vapour from extinct or quiescent craters. All the lofty ranges and culminating peaks — Kilimanjaro, Kenia, Donyo Longonok, the Aberda-re mountains, Chibcharagnani, Elgon—are clearly of igneous origin, while the whole of Masailand is traversed south and north by a remarkable volcanic fault extending for hundreds of miles from below Lake Manyara to the foothills of the Abyssinian highlands. All travellers penetrating from the coast to the interior have been struck by the marked differences presented by the general aspect and relief of the lands traversed by the main caravan routes south and north of the parallel of Mombasa. Those proceeding from Zanzibar towards Tanganyika speak of the narrow strip of low-lying fever-stricken coastlands suddenly inter- rupted by imposing mountain ranges, or, more correctly speaking, precipitous plateau escarpments, springing abruptly from the plains, and raising an apparently insurmountable barrier to all further advance inland. But the district traversed by the route leading from Mombasa, or the Tana delta, towards Yictoria Nyanza presents " no pestilential coast region, and though travelling in the height of the wet season, we have found540 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL no swamps or marshes. On the contrary, we suffer hardships for want of water, as we traverse, upon the whole, a singularly arid region. Neither have we been called upon to ascend any plateau escarpment, or cross any mountain range. A gentle rise, not noticeable to the eye, has carried us over a smooth or slightly undulating country, culminating at Taveta in a height of 2350 feet. We have crossed, it is true, a narrow, low-lying area close to the coast, and made a sudden ascent of some 700 feet to Eabai [near Mombasa]; but this is in no sense comparable to the features we have described farther south. Geologically it has no connection, and geographically a short examination shows that the Eabai hills are a mere local excrescence, with no resemblance to the continental feature of coast mountains succeeding to lowlands." 1 Masailand North of Kilimanjaro the waterless Dogilani desert, a boundless saline steppe strewn with fragments of obsidian, is skirted along its western margin by the gloomy escarp- ment of the Mau plateau, and on the opposite side by the rugged walls of the Kapt£ and Kikuyu tablelands. Here rise, south of Lake Naivasha, the imposing igneous cones of Donyo Kisali, Donyo la-Nyuki, and Donyo Longonok (nearly 9000 feet), the last mentioned ascended in 1884 by Joseph Thomson, who from the sharp crater-like rim on its summit peered into a yawning chasm from 1500 to 2000 feet deep.2 " It was not, however, an inverted cone, as volcanic craters 1 Through Masailand, p. 202. 2 In this region the geographical nomenclature is Masai, in which language the frequently recurring donyo (dunyo, dunye) means " mountain," hence Donyo LongonoTc— " The Mountain of the Big Pit."BRITISH EAST AFKICA 541 frequently are, but a great circular cavity, with perfectly perpendicular walls, and about three miles in circum-. ference, without a break in any part, though on the south-western side rose a peak several hundred feet above the general level of the rim. So sharp was the edge of this marvellous crater that I literally sat astride on it with one leg dangling over the abyss internally, and the other down the side of the mountain. The bottom of the pit seemed to be quite level, covered with acacia trees, the tops of which, at that great depth, had much the general aspect of a grass plain. There were no bushes or creepers to cover in the stern and forbidding walls, which were composed of beds of lava and con- glomerate. Looking towards the north, the first sight that riveted my gaze was the glimmering many-isled expanse of Naivasha, backed to the west by the Mau escarpment. To the south stretched the desert of Dogilani, with the less perfect but larger crater mass of Donyo la-Nyuki." 1 Lakes Naivasha, Baringo, and Samburu Lake Naivasha, which Thomson beheld from Donyo Longonok and afterwards surveyed, cannot belong geologically to the remarkable lacustrine system of this region. It is a shallow sheet of fresh water studded with islands, and standing on the plateau at an altitude of 6000 feet. There is no present outflow, and it is evidently of comparatively recent origin, having probably been formed by the damming up of the headstreams of the river Tana by matter erupted from Kenia or some of the other neighbouring cones. It forms an irregular quadrilateral, about 14 miles by 10, and, though destitute 1 Through Masailand, p. 332.542 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL of fish, abounds in hippopotami, and is much frequented by aquatic birds. Some 22 miles farther north are the smaller salt lakes, Nakuro and Elmeteita, whose sparkling waters contrast sharply with the sombre hues of the neighbouring Mau escarpments. In this desolate region of the great median depression the land is strewn with the skeletons of thousands of dead trees, killed either by an escape of mephitic gases, or by the slower process of desiccation, due to a gradual modification of the climate. A little north of Nakuro the meridional depression inclines northwards in the direction of the lovely Lake Baringo (M'baringo), which, before its discovery by Thom- son in 1883, was supposed to be either one of the great equatorial lakes or else a north-easterly extension of Victoria Nyanza. But it was found by Thomson to be a small freshwater basin not more than 200 square miles in extent, without any visible outflow, although fed by several perennial streams from the surrounding heights. It stands at an altitude of 3217 feet, about 40 miles north of the equator, the central attraction of an extremely rugged and picturesque landscape. " Imagine, if you can, a trough or depression 3300 feet above sea-level, and 2 0 miles broad, the mountains rising with very great abruptness on both sides to a height of 9000 feet. In the centre of this depression lies a dazzling expanse of water, glittering like a mirror in the fierce rays of a tropical sun. Almost in its centre rises a picturesque island surrounded by four smaller islets, a group of nature's emeralds in a dazzling setting of burnished silver. Eound the irregular-shaped lake appears a strip of pale green, which indicates a marshy border, and in an outer circle extending up to the mountains spreads a very dark green area, which you know to be table-toppedBRITISH EAST AFRICA 543 acacia trees. A remarkable assemblage of straight lines, wall-like extensions, and angular outlines, produces an impressive and quite unique landscape. It speaks eloquently, however, of igneous disturbances; for here you observe numerous earth movements, faults crossing each other at right angles, and other features, which are clearly not modelled by surface agencies, all of them so recent in origin as to remain comparatively untouched by the hand of time."1 Beyond Baringo the great volcanic fault traversing Masailand is still continued northwards, nearly to the foothills of the Kaffa highlands, here terminating in the flooded saline basins of Basso-Narok and Basso-Ebor, dis- covered in 1887 by Count Teleki, and by him renamed Lakes Kudolf and Stefanie. Rudolf, which has been identified with the Samburu heard of by Thomson and other travellers advancing from the south, and with the Shambara heard of by M. Jules Borelli advancing through Shoa from the north (1888), is a long narrow sheet of water stretching over 160 miles north and south, with a mean breadth of about 20 miles and a somewhat shift- ing area of 3000 square miles. It lies some 300 miles north-east of Yictoria ISTyanza, in a bare arid region scantily peopled by a few Galla fishing tribes, and, like the neighbouring and much smaller Lake Stefanie, it appears to be a closed basin with no visible emissary. It may perhaps send its overflow intermittently eastwards to the Juba, but its level of about 1550 feet, as deter- mined by Teleki's companion Lieutenant von Hohnel, shows that it cannot possibly communicate with Yictoria Nyanza (3800 feet), nor apparently with the Sobat or any other south-eastern affluent of the White Nile. It is fed by two considerable tributaries from the north, one of 1 Through Masailand, p, 395.544 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL which, Teleki's " Mam-Mam/5 is evidently Borelli's Ohio flowing southwards from the Kaffa uplands. But until the gap of 60 or 70 miles is filled up between the itineraries of Teleki and Borelli, the interesting problems connected with the hydrography of this region must remain unsolved. The water of Lake Eudolf is potable, although charged with much soda in the south, and yellow and turbid in the north, where its two chief influents, the Ohio and Bass, deposit "an extraordinary quantity of dark earth." The Kenia and Aberdare Highlands Most of the so-called mountain ranges in Masailand are either plateau escarpments skirting both sides of the lacustrine depression at a remarkably uniform mean elevation of 8000 to 9000 feet, or else huge and some- what isolated volcanic masses scarcely anywhere present- ing the aspect of a continuous system. Kenia, however, hitherto supposed to be a detached cone, like its southern rival Kilimanjaro, appears, on the contrary, to be a true mountain chain, " stretching from west to east, commenc- ing in the high Leikipia (Lykipia) plateau, and rising steadily until it culminates in the great double peak. Then comes the second large peak, with five or six other smaller ones; after these again some lower mountains, all more or less connected; and, finally, an isolated hill is seen rising in the Barra to the east." 1 But the dominant snow-clad peak, rising to a height of from 18,000 to 19,000 feet close under the equator, towers so much above the surrounding crests as to present the appearance of a solitary majestic cone to observers surveying it from 1 " The Dundas Expedition up the River Tana to Mount Kenia," Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. August 1892.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 545 a distance. " The sides of this upper peak are so steep and precipitous that on many places the snow is quite unable to lie, and in consequence the rocks appear here and there as black spots in the white marble. Hence its Masai name of Donyo Egere, the speckled or grey mountain. The peak is strikingly suggestive of an enormous white crystal or stalagmite, set upon a sooty basement, which falls away gradually into the dark emerald green of the forest region round the base."1 Kenia is separated from the eastern scarp of the median depression by the Aberdare Mountains, another chain disposed at right angles with it, and running north and south for a distance of 60 miles at an altitude of about 14,000 feet. Having no collective native designa- tion, it was named the Aberdare Eange by its discoverer, Thomson, in honour of the President of the Eoyal Geo- graphical Society, which had despatched him to Masai- land. From the slopes of these mountains the traveller, looking westwards, commands an extensive view of the long dark line of the Mau escarpment, which, under the name of Elgeyo, is continued northwards to Mount Chib- charagnani (12,000 feet), facing the still loftier peaks of the cavernous Mount Elgon or Ligonyi (14,000 feet), a little farther west. This northern, more mountainous, and generally more elevated division of Masailand, with a mean altitude of about 6000 feet, differs in a marked degree from the southern and more arid section of the Dogilani wilderness, with an altitude of less than 4000 feet. " A more charm- ing region is probably not to be found in all Africa, prob- ably not even in Abyssinia. Here are dense patches of flowering shrubs; there noble forests. Now you traverse a park-like country enlivened by groups of 1 Through Masailand, p. 386. VOL. II 2 N546 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL -game; anon great herds of cattle or flocks of sheep and goats are seen wandering knee-deep in the splendid pasture. There is little in the aspect of the country to suggest the popular idea of the Tropics. The eye rests upon coniferous trees, forming pine-like woods, and you can gather sprigs of heath, sweet-scented clover, ane- mone, and other familiar forms. In vain you look for the graceful palm—ever present in the mental pictures of the untravelled geographer."1 Thomson speaks favourably of the climate of Masai- land, which, though hot, is dry, with a rainfall of about fifteen inches- on the lower desert region, and of from thirty to forty on the higher plateaux. Owing to this slight precipitation, which is almost entirely confined to the months of February, March, and April, " the lower plains are practically desert, though the soil is of the richest character. There are absolutely no marshes, with their physical discomforts and poisonous exhalations breeding disease and death. The air is dry and invigorat- ing, and, though the days are hot, yet the breezes blow with refreshing coolness, and a night of low temperature —and even frequently of intense cold—braces one up for the fatigues of the garish day. The contrast indeed is felt to be just a little too great, when you rise shiver- ing in the morning, to see the grass covered with hoar frost, and then in the afternoon find yourself perspiring in the airiest of costumes under a shady bush with the temperature above 90° Fah." 2 Kavirondoland Masailand proper is separated westwards by the extensive forest zone of the Nandi and "Wandorobo 1 Thomson, op. cit. p. 407. 2 Loc. cit. ii. p. 409.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 547 elephant hunters from the Victoria Nyanza coast region of Kavirondoland, which, like Masailand itself, comprises two distinct sections — Upper and Lower Kavirondo. The former presents the appearance of a rolling expanse of highly-cultivated fertile land, well watered by numerous streams mostly flowing from the Elgon and Chibcharanga heights through the Nzoia south-westwards to the north- east corner of Victoria Nyanza. There is a general absence of trees, but much rich pasturage; and Thomson, the first European who traversed the district, was much impressed by the surprising number of villages, the com- fortable air of the teeming population, and the apparently inexhaustible abundance of cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, milk, eggs, honey, beans, and other supplies. Upper Kavirondo extends from the equator for about 30 miles northwards to the southern slopes of Mount Elgon, while Lower Kavirondo, first visited by F. J. Jackson in 1889, stretches for about the same distance from the equator southwards to the Sotik district at the southern extremity of Ndoroboland. It is separated by a range of stony hills covered with grass and scrub from the eastern dis- trict of Lumbwa, and some of the central parts are thickly peopled and fairly well cultivated. But elsewhere the prevailing features are low hills or rolling tracts covered with grass, scrub, or bush. The drainage is to Ugowe Bay through the JTyando and a few other small coast , streams. Despite its equatorial position, the Kavirondo plateau, standing at elevations of from 7000 to 8000 feet, enjoys a cool and exhilarating climate, and, taken as a whole, is regarded by Lugard as a promising field for European colonisation. "This country," he writes, "seems to me to be one of great possibilities. To us who have spent so long in the Tropics it seemed like one of Arctic cold at an elevation of 7000 to 8000 feet and more. It is here that548 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL I should like to see the grand experiment of European colonisation tried, the experiment the result of which is to determine the future of the vast continent. The locality is admirably adapted to stock-rearing operations, and ranching on the lines adopted in Manitoba and the Far "West. This plateau is crossed by the equator . . . and should it appear that the nearer the equator the healthier the locality, given sufficient altitude to ensure the requisite climate, a point will have been established which may revolutionise our ideas of the Dark Continent and transform its history." 1 A striking feature of the local flora is a magnificent species of juniper, which shoots straight up without a branch to a height of 50 feet, with a girth of 15 or 16 feet. Bamboos also flourish in these forests, as well as the various species of fig, from the bark of which the Wasoga and Waganda manufacture the beautiful soft mbugu cloth forming the material of the national costume. Usoga; Uganda; The Victoria Nile Kavirondoland is conterminous westwards with the great empire of Uganda, which with its vassal states of Usoga, Usongora, Uzinja, Budu, and other outlying provinces comprises all the northern and north-western coastlands of Victoria Nyanza. In its physical aspects Usoga, which comprises the whole region between the frontier river Sio and the Victoria Nile, does not differ greatly from the less elevated parts of Kavirondo. But the transition is somewhat startling, from the rude and naked Wakavirondo to the semi-civilised Wasoga, arrayed in their flowing black-dyed mbugu robes. Usoga is a densely-populated region covered in many parts with a 1 Loc. cit. p. 822.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 549 continuous succession of large settlements, cassava and banana plantations. Most of the horned cattle have been swept away by the terrible plague which is even still devastating the east equatorial regions; but numer- ous flocks still remain, and such is the abundance of agricultural produce that Usoga has been called "the cook-pot of Uganda." It is ruled not by a king but by about twenty semi-independent chiefs, over whom the feudal lords of Uganda claim a sort of paramount jurisdiction. Uganda proper, which, with the provinces of East and West Singo, extends from the Upper Victoria Mle to Unyoro, is a region of interminable rounded hills of red marl, shaly gravel, and iron-ore slag, rising little more than 300 feet above the intervening gently sloping valleys of a rich black humus, which stand at a mean altitude of about 4200 feet above sea-level and 400 to 500 above the great lake. So regular are the contour lines of the billowy heights that many affect the appearance of artificial mounds or barrows usually clothed with pasturage of fair quality, or else a peculiar sharp-pointed spear-grass, while the marshy depressions are in many places overgrown with coarse elephant- grass and dense papyrus, with an undergrowth of reeds and marsh ferns. There is a great dearth of timber in East Singo, where the date palm is almost the only tree. But "West Singo is somewhat densely wooded with borassus, acacia, euphorbia, and other growths characteristic of a poor and rocky soil. In this district, which abounds with elephants, the marls and iron-ore slag are replaced by granite and sandstone, and the soil and herbage are of inferior quality. But still farther west the ground falls in the direction of Unyoro to an elevation of 3900 feet,550 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TBAVEL here broadening out in a vast plain or level plateau of great fertility. Despite its altitude and general hilly character, the whole of Uganda is characterised by a singular absence of rapidly-flowing waters. "Even in April, in the daily deluge of rain, there is no marked watershed. The valleys are merely damp or even swampy, but in almost every instance can be crossed dry-shod. The rivers are large papyrus-swamps with no perceptible current and little water."1 The Katonga frontier stream towards Budu, although figuring on the maps as a large river, is little more than a broad marshy expanse draining eastwards to Victoria Nyanza. The Mwanja, with its Mwerango tributary and most of the other sluggish swamp-rivers, drain to the Kafur, which flows north-east to the left bank of the Somerset Mle at Mruli. This characteristic absence of free-flowing water- courses is probably due to the dense vegetation on the lower slopes of the hills intercepting the tropical down- pours, while much moisture is absorbed and the natural drainage obstructed by the tangled masses of papyrus and other aquatic growths in the depressions. In Uganda there are two rainy seasons—a lesser usually from October to the middle of December, and a greater from March to the end of May. The former is followed by a period of great heat and dryness, during which the grass is burnt and the vegetation everywhere parched, except in the swampy districts. But occasionally the rainfall of both seasons is equally copious, and in 1891 the precipitation was so heavy that Lake Victoria rose fully six feet above its normal level. Hence the excep- tionally high floods recorded in the month of September of that year in Egypt, 3000 miles away. The Somerset Mle, so named by its discoverer, Captain 1 Captain Lugard, Proc. Boy. Geo. Soc. for April 1892, p. 239.BKITISH EAST AFRICA 551 Speke, in 1862, but now better known as the Victoria Nile, sends the whole of the overflow of the Victoria Nyanza northwards to the Mediterranean. Immediately after leaving the lake a little north of the Equator, it develops the Eipon Falls, where it descends 12 feet between protruding gneiss walls. This may be regarded as the first step in the somewhat rapid incline from the more elevated southern to the more spacious northern section of the continental plateau (see vol. i. p. 5). Beyond the Eipon Falls Speke followed the stream in its northerly course for 35 miles to Urondogani, where he was obliged to leave it and turn north-westwards to the kingdom of Unyoro; he did not again strike the river till he had reached Mruli, at that time capital of Unyoro, so that a stretch of about 6 0 miles remained to be explored. It was not till 1874, when Colonel Long made a perilous canoe voyage down the river from Urondogani to Mruli, that this gap was filled up, and the connection of the Victoria Nyanza with the Nile basin placed beyond all doubt. After two or three days' paddling down stream between banks covered with an impenetrable growth of papyrus, the canoe emerged in a broad expanse where the river seemed to be lost. " I looked in vain," says Long, " for the opposite shore. Stretching away to the east- ward a scarcely visible line seemed to indicate land, certainly 20 miles away."1 As he advanced into the lake, since named Lake Ibrahim, what seemed to be land towards the west proved to be a vast sea of lilies floating on the surface and growing up from great depths. A great papyrus jungle, springing from the so-called " sudd " or tangled mass of floating vegetation, surrounds the lake, which extends N.W. and S.E. a distance of some 30 1 Colonel C. Chaille Long, Central Africa, 1876.VIEW OF BIPON FALLS.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 553 miles. Detached islets of matted growths drift away with the current from the north-west corner of the lake, whence the stream flows in the same direction beyond Mruli; then north to the Karuma Fall, discovered by Speke and Grant; then due west over the grand Murchison Falls (120 feet high), first seen by Sir Samuel Baker,—and so on to the northern end of Lake Luta Nzige, renamed Albert Nyanza by its discoverer, Baker, in 1864. It would appear that the Victoria Nile, a broad, deep rapidly flowing stream, "a giant at its birth/' carries off a much larger volume from Lake Victoria than the combined contributions of the Nzoia, Kagera, Simiyu, Euwana, and all its other affluents, which are neither numerous nor copious. When the enormous evaporation of an equatorial basin 27,000 square miles in extent, is also taken into account, it seems difficult to explain this excessive discharge. Doubtless much of the evaporation is returned by the heavy local rains, and what is still required to maintain the basin at a constant level and feed its great emissary may perhaps be supplied by a subsoil drainage carried to the lake by perennial springs (Lugard). Unyoro, Koki, Ankole The middle and lower course of the Victoria Nile forms, with Lake Albert, the eastern, northern, and western limits of Unyoro, which, although separated towards the south by no very distinct physical features from Uganda, nevertheless presents in its general aspect a decided contrast to that region. Gently rounded grassy knolls give place to rugged granite heights, boulders of fantastic shape, bare rocky peaks and crags. Many of the hills are full of large caves, which, like554 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL those of Mount Elgon, are spacious enough to shelter the natives and their herds. The soil in the valleys and on the slopes of the hills is extremely fertile; the country is tolerably well timbered, and yields great quantities of crops, although the people depended largely for their support on their cattle, until the herds, as in Uganda and Masailand, were recently swept away by the plague. Bananas are not so prevalent as in Uganda, but much more maize is raised, besides cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, eaffre-corn, semsem, and dhal. Streams of run- ning water are numerous, and Captain Lugard considers Unyoro to be " healthy, and second to none in natural resources and richness of soil." 1 Beyond the southern frontier of Uganda proper the vassal states of Budu, Koki, East and West Ankole, and Kitagwenda occupy the whole region comprised between the Katonga and Kagera rivers north and south, and between the Victoria and Albert Edward Nyanzas east and west. This was practically an unknown land before its explora- tion in 1891 by Captain Lugard, who, in the summer of that year, conducted an expedition from Uganda to the relief of the Sudanese refugees at Kavalli's, on the south- west shore of the Albert Nyanza. After determining the position of Lake Kashera between the petty state of Koki and Ankole, the explorer surveyed numerous other deep circular depressions, like volcanic craters, some of which were flooded with clear blue water of great depth; while others resembled dried-up ponds sinking over 100 feet below the surrounding country, which stood about 4200 feet above sea-level. East Ankole, a rugged hilly district traversed in all directions by ranges about 5000 feet high, has a poor, unproductive soil yielding little but spear-grass, acacias, and thorny scrub, though in some 1 Loc. cit. p. 239.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 555 places abounding in game and even elephants in the wet season. "West Ankole, on the other hand, and the neighbouring Kitagwenda, are extremely fertile and well cultivated, producing great quantities of mtama (caffre- corn), bananas, cassava, maize, beans, and sweet potatoes. Iron ores occur in many places, and some mines were passed which had formerly been worked by the natives. Even the more sterile districts afford plenty of pasture, besides much babul (thorny acacia), which the Somali accompanying the expedition considered excellent fodder for camels. The Albertine Nile ; Lake Albert Edward Beyond Kitagwenda the route trended south-west to the channel, 500 yards wide, connecting the main body of Albert Edward Nyanza with the north-eastern basin of Lake Eusango; that is, the Beatrice Gulf, discovered by Stanley in 1876,, and long supposed to be a southern inlet of Albert Nyanza.1 Eusango now appears, on the contrary, to be a north-eastern extension of the Mwutan- zig6 (" Barrier to Locusts "); that is, the Albert Edward 1 This identification is established by Stanley's remark that, looking across Beatrice Gulf, he obtained a glimpse of the Usongora country, noted for its mud springs, its conical hills emitting fire and smoke, its frequent earthquakes, and its plains covered with salt and alkali. The position of Usongora is now accurately determined by recent surveys, showing that it is limited by Lake Rusango (Beatrice Gulf) and the Isango or Upper Semliki river east and west, and by Ruwenzori and Lake Albert Edward north and south. In 1891 the I. B. E. A. Company had already founded the outlying stations of Fort Edward, in the Toru district north of Usongora, and Fort George, on the tongue of land separating Albert Edward from the Salt Lake, a shallow little basin lying a short distance west of Rusango. The water of this crater-like cavity is of a deep claret-red, and its banks are covered with a fine saline efflorescence yielding a white rose- tinted salt of excellent quality. Rusango is also known by other names, such as Ruisamba, Kafuru, and Ramsakara.556 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL discovered by Stanley in 1888. Its long axis runs south-west and north-east, and its shores are free from swamp except at the north-west end, where a marshy tract, overgrown with dense jungle, and frequented by great herds of elephants, is traversed by the Wami and Mpanga rivers, through which the countless streams descending from the eastern and southern slopes of Euwenzori reach the lake. In its lower course the Mpanga flows through a romantic forest-clad gorge 700 feet deep, where its pent-up waters chafe and fret as they rush over the sunken reefs of their rocky bed. The Mpanga is stated to send down a larger volume than is discharged through the Semliki (Isango, Itiri) emissary of Lake Albert Edward to the lower basin of the Albert ISTyanza. As the Albert Edward receives several other affluents, especially from the south, the excess of inflow over outflow must be almost too great to be accounted for by evaporation. But such hydrographic difficulties, which so often present themselves on the discovery of large water systems, are usually removed by later surveys and more accurate measurements. Albert Edward appears to cover a much smaller area than formerly. "Five feet of rise would increase its extent five miles to the north and five miles to the south. Fifty feet of rise would restore the lake to its old condition, when its waves rolled over the pebbled beach under the shadows of the forests near Mtsora. . . . If we sound its depths, the pole drops through four or five feet of grey mud, to which are attached thousands of mica flakes and comminuted scales and pulverised bones of fish, which emit an overpowering stench. And atom by atom the bed-rock between the forest of Awamba and the Lake Albert Edward is being eroded and scoured away, until, by and by, the lake willBRITISH EAST AFRICA 557 have become dry land, and through the centre of it will meander the Semliki, having gathered the tributaries from Euwenzori, the Ankore and Euanda uplands, to itself." 1 The Albert Edward Nyanza was again visited in 1891 by Emin Pasha and Dr. E. Stuhlmann for the purpose of determining ' its extent and exploring the surrounding1 districts. They found that it stretched from the equator about 45 miles to the south, where it receives two considerable influents, the Euanda and the Euchuru, descending from the Euanda uplands through the broad savannah-covered plain which occupies the whole space between the plateau escarpments of Mpororo and the Kasali mountains towards the south-west.2 Here the British is conterminous with the German sphere of influence, the frontier line being indicated by Mfumbiro (11,500 feet) and several other undoubtedly volcanic peaks, culminating in Mount Kisigali, about 13,000 feet high. According to Count von Gotzen, who ascended it in 1894, Virunga (Yiagongo), the most dis- tant of these cones towards the south-west, is still active. Erom the present level of Albert Edward (3300 feet),3 the ground slopes gradually upwards to about 5300 feet at Kiaya. Here the route followed by Lugard descends to the head of a narrow glen, while the plateau trends away to the right, forming the Unyoro uplands, and from the Semliki valley presenting the aspect of a lofty range. The fertile Kiaya valley is watered by numerous streams and occupied with banana groves and much tilled land. Beyond Kiaya the route lay through a wilderness of 1 In Darkest Africa, ii. p. 309. 2 Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc, August 1892, p. 541. 3 This is Stanley's estimate, which is reduced by Stuhlmann to 2850 feet, or not more than 550 feet above Albert Nyanza.558 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL quartz under scrub, and intersected at right angles by extensive ravines of rich soil, dotted over with villages, forests, and cultivated tracts. Then followed a lower plateau overlooking the Semliki valley, and commanding a view on the one hand of the Euwenzori slopes, on the other of what seemed to be a long mountain range increasing in height from south to north, but which were in reality the escarpments of the plateaux, where the head-waters of the Aruwimi, Welle-Makua, and other great Congo affluents have their rise. Here stood the station of Chief Kavalli, whence Captain Lugard brought away some 8000 of the turbulent Sudanese troops who had caused so much trouble to the leader of the Emin Eelief Expedition in 1888. During their stay at Kavalli's these troops had added much to the distress of the unfortunate natives, already exposed on the one hand to the chronic plundering expedi- tions of Kabarega's bands from Unyoro, on the other to the slave-hunting raids of the Manyuemas penetrating east- wards from the Congo basin. How order was now restored, and protection extended to the surrounding populations, is best told in Captain Lugard's simple, dignified language : " So I brought down the Sudanese from Kavalli, and I built five forts from north to south from the Albert to the Albert Edward, and I located the Sudanese in them by regiments and companies; and I left De Winton in charge of Toru—the country bordering the base of the Ruwenzori range—with orders to protect these people both from the licence of the Sudanese and from Kabarega. And the fugitive Wahuma came out from their hiding among the mountains, escaped from their slavery among the Wanyoro, or bade farewell to Ntali, who had sheltered them, and with great rejoicing recognised the boy Kasa- gama as their king. But old men, chiefs of influence inBRITISH EAST AFRICA 559 the old time, came to me and said, 4 The people are eager to come to you. They have seen that you hurt neither man nor woman. They know Kasagama to be the true son of their old king; but they fear that you will go as Stanley went, and then there is only torture and death before them at the hands of Kabarega's armies. In old time the white men came to Mruli and Eauvera in North Unyoro, and the people did not believe they had come to stay, and they would not accept them. But they built forts and stayed, so the people came. And one day they gathered up their things and went; and Kabarega killed all those people who had been friendly to them.' And I replied, ' Do as you prefer; but these lands are British. We have taken them by the agreement of the nations of Europe, and are come to stay.' And when the people saw that we had built these forts and left these Sudanese, and a European was come to live among them, they doubted no longer that we meant to protect them, and place a barrier between them and Kabarega on the one hand, and the Manyuema on the other. And De Winton wrrote to me shortly afterwards, and said they were escap- ing from their slavery in Unyoro, and coming in on every side by thousands, with great rejoicing. " And De Winton did as I had told him, and went round the country with Kasagama, and appointed chiefs to districts, and helped him to arrange the country in peace. And in this task this brave young officer died."1 The Semliki River; Lake Albert Nyanza On issuing from Lake Albert Edward the Semliki crosses the equator, and sweeps round the western foot of Euwenzori on its north-easterly course to the south 1 Loc. cit. p. 839.560 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL end of Albert Nyanza, which it enters through two or more sluggish channels. The fluvial delta thus formed is so completely masked by a waving forest of ambach reeds growing in the shallow waters at the head of the lake that it escaped the notice of Mason, Gessi, and the other Khedival officials sent to survey this great reservoir of the Nile during the seventies. Hence it was that the existence of the Semliki was unsuspected until it was struck by Stanley in 1888 some 30 miles above its mouth. At this point it was 60 yards wide, with a velocity of about five miles, and a little lower down it broadened out to a fine, deep stream 100 yards wide. Higher up it is described as "a loopy, and twisting, crooked stream, forming a wide-stretching S in every mile of its course, and its water was of a whitey-brown colour and weighted with sediment. Out of a tumblerful of the liquid a fourth of an inch of fine earth would be deposited." 1 That section of the Semliki valley which lies under the shelter of the mighty Ruwenzori barrier is described by Stanley as a natural hothouse, where vegetation finds all the conditions necessary to promote a riotous pro- fusion of tropical growths. " Where the humus is deep we find a tall and stately forest, with impervious under- wood of young trees, bound together and sometimes altogether hidden by countless climbing vines and robust plants; where the humus is thinner, as near the foot of the range, dense crops of cane-grass, from 10 to 15 feet in height, flourish luxuriant and impenetrable. Every tree-stem has its green robe of soft moss, dripping with dew, and each tree-fern or horizontal branch has its orchids, or broad elephant-eared plant. Every rock is clothed with lichens, and if but the slightest hollow is 1 In Darkest Africa, ii. p. 237.BRITISH EAST AFKICA 561 found in it, there will be seen a multitude of tropical plants crowding every inch. In short, everywhere, except upon the perpendicular face of a late-moved boulder, vegetation thrives of every variety of greenness, form, and character." 1 During its meandering course of about 150 miles this important section of the Albertine Nile has, according to Stanley, a total fall of nearly 1000 feet between the Albert Edward and Albert Nyanzas. Long after its discovery by Baker (1864), Lake Albert was supposed to be little more than a backwater of the Yictoria Nile, which reaches its northern extremity at Magungo. Later, it was extended on the maps far to the south, so as to form a continuous sheet of water with Stanley's Beatrice Gulf, from which we now know that it is SOUTH END OF ALBERT NYANZA. 1 In Darkest Africa, ii. p. 296. VOL. II 2 0562 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL separated by the Semliki valley and the Kuwenzori highlands. Even before its discovery by Sir Samuel Baker advancing southwards from the White Mle, the exist- ence of Albert Nyanza had already been reported by Speke in 1862. But its extent and general outlines were not accurately determined till 1876, when it was first almost completely circumnavigated by the Italian explorer, Eomolo Gessi, a member of Gordon's Egyptian expedition. Gessi found it to be 25 miles wide and 100 miles long in the direction from north-east to south-west, where he came upon the already-mentioned impenetrable ambach forest filling the whole southern end of the lake. " From the mast of the boat," says Gessi, " I observed that the forest of ambach extended very far, and that beyond it there succeeded a field or valley of herbs and vegetation which reaches to the foot of the mountains." Lofty mountains, or rather plateau escarpments, enclose the lake east and west, sending down their steep slopes numerous streams and rushing torrents. In 18 7 7 Colonel Mason, an American officer in the service of the Egyptian Government, made a more careful survey of the lake, which fully confirmed Gessi's report. Ruwenzori The mountains seen by both of these explorers away to the south proved to be the Ruwenzori highlands, which were discovered and roughly surveyed by Stanley in 1888. They enclose the Semliki valley on the east, and lie nearly due west of Kenia, a little north of the equator, where they culminate in numerous snowy peaks, more than one of which appears to attain an altitude ofRUWENZORI FROM K A RIM I.564 compendium of geography and travel at least 18,000 feet. From their flanks descend to Lake Albert Edward and to the Semliki river innumer- able icy-cold sparkling streams, fed by the everlasting snows of these Alpine uplands, where the snow-line is estimated at about 13,000 feet. Euwenzori, the " Cloud King," was scaled to a height of 10,677 feet by Lieutenant Stairs, of the Stanley expedition, and again in 1891 by Dr. Stuhlmann, of Emin Pasha's expedition, to within 500 feet of the snow-line. This observer describes the range as for the most part composed of mica-slate, with old granitic eruptive rocks, and adds that it " appears to consist of a number of parallel chains running north- north - west and south - south - east."1 He distinguished several belts of vegetation, such as bananas and tall grasses, between 3850 and 5350 feet; colocasia and beans cultivated up to 6700 feet, the upper limit of native settlements ; deciduous forest trees, with erica and bamboos (6700-8530); erica forests, with bogs and vaccinium (8530-11,800); erica bushes, tree-ferns, senecio, grass, mosses, and lichens up to the snow- line. From the Semliki valley at Mtsora, Stanley enjoyed a superb prospect of the Euwenzori heights, which skirt the winding stream for a distance of nearly 100 miles. " A large field of snow and snow-peaks beyond the fore- most line appeared in view. During the whole day our eyes had rested on a long line of dark and solemn spurs, their summits buried in leaden mist; but soon after 5 p.m. the upper extremities of those spurs loomed up one after another, and a great line of mountain shoulders stood out; then peak after peak struggled from behind night-black clouds into sight, until at last the snowy range, immense and beautiful, a perfect picture of 1 Proc. Boy. Geo. Soc. August 1892, p. 543.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 565 majestic desolateness, drew all eyes and riveted atten- tion, while every face seemed awed." 1 In 1894 Mr. Scott Elliot succeeded in reaching an altitude of 12,640 feet, and made a fairly representative collection of the flora. " The conclusion I came to was that a practical mountaineer and a strong man could manage the ascent. I do not believe any peak I saw was above 16,500 feet."2 Inhabitants of British East Africa British East Africa, comprising the borderlands between the southern Bantus and the northern Negroes, Hamites, and Semites, is naturally a region of great ethnical diversity, where every race in Africa, the Bushman-Hottentots alone excepted, is more or less numerously represented. Here all the transitions may be studied between the almost pure Negro type of Lower Kavirondo and the nearly perfect European features of the Gallas of the Tana basin; between the dwarfish Batwa of the Semliki forests and the gigantic Wa- Euguru cavemen of the Kenia uplands; between the wild hunting groups of the Ndorobo forests, who have scarcely yet developed a tribal organisation, and the semi-civilised Waganda, already merged in a somewhat compact nationality. The present distribution of all these heterogeneous ethnical groups is shown in the subjoined table. 1 Op, cit. ii. p. 264. It was here that the explorer learnt the meaning of the word Ruwenzori, the "Rain-Maker" or 4'Cloud King." It is known to the surrounding populations by several other names, and much ingenuity has been displayed by commentators in their essays to identify the range with the Lunce Montes of the Ancients. Such speculations seem unprofitable in the utter impossibility of even approximately locating these shadowy "Mountains of the Moon" themselves. 2 Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc. Oct. 1895, p. 308.COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Table of the Chief Tribes and Nations of Ibea. Wa-Nyika Wa-Boni Wa-Sanieh Wa-Bura Woramule i.e. " Lowlanders," plains north, of the Sambara uplands. Wa-Duruma, near Mombasa district. Jallichaf Coast people between the Sabakhi and Tana Kalindi I rivers. Wa-Swahili, Kau district, Tana-Ozi delta. Dakalo, Coast nortli of Mombasa, serfs of the Gallas. Weichu \ Chaff a > Inland from the Jallicha people. Kofira ) ' About Formosa Bay ; also north of Witu- land and on the Middle Tana ; now speak Galla. (Teita district, between the Sabakhi and \ the German frontier. (Woramle), widespread steppe people, nortli from the Middle Sabakhi. Tjr -r, 7 \ Left bank Lower Tana, from the delta to Wa-Polcomo j Edari> & kt Wa-Kamba, Ukamba plains, south-east of Mount Kenia. Tjr 7 ( Left bank Tana, from the "Wa-Pokomo to Korokoro ] _ TT ',, ( the Hargazo Falls. JVa-Thaka \ Upper Tana basin, east and north-east of \ I Kenia. Wa-Daicho J , Cave - dwellers, nortli slopes Kenia ; doubtful Bantus. Wa-Buguru ur v '~l> f Head-waters of the Sabakhi; south and Wa-Kikuyu j south-west of Kenia. Wa-Nandi, east of Upper Kavirondo ; doubtful Bantus. Wa-Soga j Wa-Ganda I The agricultural and numerically domi- Wa-Nyoro \ nant populations of Usoga, Uganda, Wa-Du ( Unyoro, Udu (Budu), Koki, and Wa-Koki 1 Usongora. Wa-Songora )BRITISH EAST AFRICA 567 Nomad Masai (Il-Oikob) TurJcana ( Elgum I Molilian\ Between Lakes Baringo and Rudolf, and thence westwards to the east affluents of the White Nile. n I Full-blood Masai, ranging from Lake Baringo j southwards to Mount Kilimanjaro. {(Kapte), about head-waters of the Athi, west of Ukamba. Matumbatu between the Kapotei and Kilimanjaro. Kinangop ^ North-west and west of Kilimanjaro, ranging Dogilani >- north to Ndorobo and Nandi, south to Engishu ) Lake Manyara. Leteyo Ngajt Settled Masai (Wa-Kwafi) l f (Niempse), south of Lake Baringo. Kamasia\ Wei-Wei basin and Mau plateau, west Elgeyo J Lake Baringo. Kosovo, 1 West of Kavirondo- Lumbwa J of Leikijpia f About sources of the Tana, west of Kenia, I and on east slopes Aberdare Mountains. Arusha \ Meru I North-west and west of Kilimanjaro; El- Ruva ^ Konono, the serfs or slaves bilingual. JVguru Somali : Ogaden branch, between Lower Juba and Tana rivers. Gallas Proper (Oromo) Kokawe J Left bank Lower Tana, nearly exterminated ( by the Somali. Barareta, right bank Middle and Lower Tana. f (Arbore or Vuorena), Lower Omo basin, north Borani < end Lake Rudolf; two divisions — Ya and ' Yul; range southwards nearly to Mount Kenia. Wa-Nyamba, Uganda, originally from Karagwe. Lango l (Longo), both banks Victoria Nile, between Bantu Gallas (Wa-Huma) ) Foweira and Magungo. Wa-Hinda, Magungo district, Unyoro. Wa-Toru, east slopes Ruwenzori Mountains. Wa-Sambo, East Mpororo. Ruhaydna, West Mpororo. Waima (Wa-Nyavingi), Ruanda.568 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Negroes Negritoes Wichwezi Wa-Kavirondo, Kavirondoland. /'(Wa-Chopi), Unyoro, south from Murchison ShefaluV Falls, Victoria Nile ; traditionally from the I White Nile (Shilluk Land). Juaya and Baganghese districts, Unyoro. f Aborigines of Unyoro, mostly driven \ beyond the Semliki to Ulegga. Madundi, left bank Victoria Nile below Mruli. Drugu j Wa"Legga> tlie people of Ulegga, originally \ from Unyoro. Drudu I PeoP^e Lendn, west of Albert Nyanza, ( akin to the Drugu. -urr -jr . f Large nation west from the Semliki and Wo-Konjo | AglbertEdward, Wambuba, left bank Semliki, about Lulu confluence. Wa- Wamba, right bank Semliki, opposite the Wambuba. Wa-Lenga West Mpororo and Butumbi; south of Wa, Terra V Lake Albert Edward. Wa-Sigawa J Ndorobo /Dwarfish hunting tribes, scattered all over \ Masailand. Efe AkTca Ba-Iswa f Upper Ituri and Semliki forests. Wa- Twa Wa-BumboJ } General Ethnical Relations in Ibea Here are seen various Bantu, Galla, and Somal peoples in the closest proximity, and at some points even over- lapping each other in the Tana basin, which is also exposed to the Wa-Kamba and Masai raiders, and in fact from the ethnographic standpoint presents one of the most remarkable ethnical parting lines in the whole world. Tor ages it has marked the southern limits of the territory roamed by the pastoral Masai, Galla, and Somal Hamitic peoples, and the northernmost range of the Wa-Pokomo and other agricultural Bantu communities. All these races have long struggled, andBRITISH EAST AFRICA 569 are still struggling for the supremacy, with the result that the pastoral Hamite nomads have for the most part gained the mastery over the settled Bantu peasantry. The same phenomenon is witnessed through- out the whole of these borderlands, as in Uganda and Unyoro, where the intruding Wa-Huma herdsmen from Gallaland are politically the dominant element, and look with contempt on the indigenous Bantu tillers of the land. But the latter being always and necessarily the more numerous, the tendency almost everywhere is for the con- querors to merge in the conquered, whose language they have in some districts already adopted and to whom they have in other respects been largely assimilated. As in England the Anglo-Saxon serfs ultimately absorbed their Franco-Norman rulers, so in Uganda the Luganda Bantu dialect is now current even in court circles, although the late king Mutesa still retained a knowledge of his Galla mother-tongue. So also the Wa-Kwafi, a large section of the Masai pastors, have abandoned their nomad ways, and formed settled agricultural communi- ties in the Lake Baringo district, in Lumbwa and else- where. The prefix Wa-, apparently adopted by them- selves as an element of the collective national name, distinctly points at the growing social ascendency of their Bantu neighbours. On the other hand, the reverse process has, under exceptional conditions, taken place in some districts, as around the shores of Formosa Bay and along the Lower Tana, where the Wa-Boni and Wa- Sanieh Bantus are now of Galla speech. Occasionally the process of assimilation, and especially the tendency to exchange a nomad for a settled life, is stimulated by local causes. Thus the terrible plague which has already carried off millions of cattle in Masai- land and Uganda, and which is still raging, has driven570 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL many of the Masai and Wa-Huma pastors to take to agriculture. " Before the cattle all died of the plague the Wa-Huma were a purely pastoral people, like the Masai, and such cultivation as existed in the country was entirely undertaken by the Bantu races. ... Now in their distress and starvation the Wa-Huma are largely dependent on these Bautu settlers for sustenance, though they are learning gradually to cultivate for themselves"1 But the old habits are difficult to eradicate, and in the Sabakhi valley Captain Lugard met a little group of Gallas wandering aimlessly up and down the steppe. They declared that they were merely " walking about for pleasure, but on inquiry you find that this walk probably began a month or two ago, will continue a month or more yet, that he covers from 20 to 30 miles a day, has no object in walking except the Galla love of roaming, and no wardrobe or belongings of any kind except his 7-foot spear."2 But people cannot go on walking for ever, and the time may be foreseen when the wearied Galla pedestrian will find repose in some pleasant farm- stead by the shady banks of the Tana or Sabakhi. These Gallas, now located in the steppe region south of the Tana, all belong to the Barareta family, and are "a wonderfully handsome race, with high foreheads, brown skins, and soft, wavy hair, quite different from the wool of the Bantu races." 3 The Bantus of the Tana Basin During the progress of these racial conflicts the sedentary peoples almost invariably play the passive, the nomads the aggressive part. Hence it is that the Bantu tribes along the banks of the Tana have hitherto fared 1 Lugard, loc. cit. p. 832. 2 Loc. cit. p. 820. 3 Loc. cit. p. 821.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 571 no better at the hands of their hereditary Somal, Galla and Masai foes than did the Persian husbandmen of Khorassan at the hands of the Turkoman marauders before the Kussian conquest of Turkestan. They have also suffered in recent times from the attacks both of the Wa-Kamba raiders of the Ukamba plateau, and from the Swahili of the Kau district in the Tana-Ozi delta, who appear to have compelled many to become Moham- medans, and now claim all the Wa-Pokomo as their serfs along the Lower Tana as far north as the Ndera district (2° S. lat.) They "take what they require, and then present the owners with a hoe or two, or perhaps not so much, in mock payment" (Gedge). Until recently the Bantu peasantry received similar treatment from the Gallas of the coastlands; but a few years ago the Swahili formed a sort of alliance with the Ogaden Somali (between the Lower Juba and Tana), who swept down on the Galla settlements, captured their stronghold of Kitumbini, and carried off all their cattle. Since then the power of the Gallas has been broken in the Lower Tana districts. In this basin the most important Bantu nation is the Wa-Pokomo, from whom the river takes its Bantu name, Pokomani. Those of its lower course are a some- what dejected, servile people, their spirit having been broken by the long oppression of the neighbouring Galla and Swahili populations. Many have become Moham- medans, and even speak the Galla language. The up- country tribes are much more independent, and well able to hold their own against the Wa-Kamba and Masai marauders. But all alike are a kindly, affection- ate people, truthful and honest, and strict monogamists. They are skilled boatmen, pursuing the hippopotamus and crocodile with their 10-foot spears. Their settlements line the river-banks, where their bee-hive huts stand on572 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL platforms raised above the highest floods. The Wa- Pokomo, who are of a light-brown colour, are closely allied in speech and appearance to the Wa-Nyika of the southern plains, and, like them, are divided into tribal groups under district chiefs assisted by a council of elders. They are well disposed towards the British authorities, to whom they henceforth look for protection against their former taskmasters. The Masai, Wa-Kwafi, Andoroho The Upper Tana regions, beyond the Pokomo territory, are still exposed to the raids of the fierce Masai marauders, who, so recently as 1891, brought swift ruin on the unfortu- nate people of the Mbe district, on the south-eastern slopes of Kenia. On the return march to the coast the Dundas expedition found the country strewn with decomposing corpses and burnt villages, and met "groups of dis- consolate people sitting and standing about, who gave detailed accounts of the horrors of the raid. Their men, women, and children had been slaughtered indiscrimi- nately ; the children, being collected, were shut up in huts, which were afterwards burnt over them; the cattle had been seized, and the people's homes broken up and ruined."1 There is no hope of such chronic miseries being arrested until the British power is as firmly established in the Tana basin as is that of the Russians on the banks of the MurgMb. The Masai, of whom little was known until th,eir country was traversed by Joseph Thomson in 1883-84, stand out, like the Fulahs, the Fans or Zandehs, as one of the most characteristic races of the African continent. Their ethnical relations to the surrounding peoples have 1 Gedge, loc. cit. p. 528.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 573 been much discussed by anthropologists, though sufficient data have scarcely yet been collected to speak confidently on the question of their origin. At the first glance it is evident that they are neither Negroes proper nor yet Negroid Bantus, from whom they are separated by their language, which is not a Bantu dialect, but apparently a Hamitic idiom betraying some features in common with the Galla branch of that linguistic family. The solution of the problem will probably be found in this fact taken in connection with the physical type, which is nearly as fine as that of the Gallas, Bejas, or any other eastern division of the Hamitic race. But for the slightly oblique Mongolic eye, frizzly hair, and chocolate complexion, they might pass for ordinary Europeans; while the Ngaje^ Molilian, and other full-blood tribes are " the most magnificently modelled men conceivable."1 Not one of the El-moran (warrior class) is under six feet, though their figures are less suggestive of Herculean strength than of Apollonesque grace. "In most cases the nose is well raised and straight, frequently as good as any European's, though passing into the Negro type in the lower class, such as Wa-Kwafi. The lips also vary from the thin and well-formed down to the thick and everted. The jaws are rarely prognathous, while the hair is a cross between the European and the Negro, rarely in piles, but evenly spread over the head " (ib.) All this points at the intrusion, at some remote epoch, of a Hamitic people into Negroland, where, like the kindred Wa-Huma Gallas, they have become intermingled in various degrees with the indigenous black populations. The Masai proper, who affect the title of Il-Oikob or " Freemen," are grouped not so much in tribal as in territorial divisions, with no kind of political cohesion, 1 Through Masailand, p. 427.574 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL but often at deadly strife one with the other. Each district is under a Lytunu, or fighting chief, elected mainly for his prowess in battle, and a Lygonani, a kind of president of the national assembly, elected mainly for his oratorical powers. Beyond this there is no kind of government, and the whole nation may be described as an organised body of cattle-lifters, whose raids have, till recent times, frequently extended to the coastlands, and even as far south as Bagamoyo over against Zanzibar. The El-moran or young men of the fighting class are all trained to this service, for which their strange equipment and formidable weapons—spear, sword, shield, and club —are well suited. In the eyes of the natives no more terror-inspiring figure can be imagined than the young Masai warrior bounding over the grassy steppe, his face enframed in a fantastic ostrich-feather head-dress, a strip of cotton six feet long streaming from his neck, and his legs above the ankle decked with the flowing hair of the colobus monkey, simulating wings. After some twenty years of a roving life, passed amid constant scenes of murder and rapine, the El-moran settles down in his kraal with one or more wives, obtained by barter, and in any fitful mood cast to the prowling hyaena, the fate that awaits himself when his end comes. His religion rejects an after-life, takes no account of visions, dreams, or ancestral ghosts, recognises only the Ngai, or supreme being, in a vague way, and believes or fears nothing but witchcraft and the lybon, or medicine-man, accredited with the power of conjuring all evil. But in natural intelligence the Masai, like all other Hamites, far surpass the most gifted Bantu peoples. Hence those who, like the Wa-Kwafi, have exchanged the spear for the spade, show themselves excellent husbandmen, founding peaceful agricultural communitiesBRITISH EAST AFRICA 575 in several districts, and developing many civic virtues, which speak well for the prospects of the land under an orderly government.1 Scattered throughout the whole of Masailand, and as far down the Tana valley as the Hargazo Tails, are numerous groups of a wild hunting people collectively known as Ndorobo (Wa-Ndorobo), who in some respects recall the dwarfish tribes of the Congo and Semliki forest regions. They are of short stature and live entirely by the chase, slaying the elephant with a peculiar kind of poisoned spear, and pursuing the buffalo and antelope with bow and arrow. The social organisation has scarcely advanced beyond the family circle, and they stand in somewhat peculiar relations towards the Masai, whose language they speak, and whose protection they enjoy in return for various services. One group on the plateau east of Lake Naivasha has given up hunting and taken to trade, supplying the Masai with vegetable food, which they procure from their Wa-Kikuyu neighbours. The Waganda; the Kitwara Empire; Historical Survey Disorders, somewhat analogous to those of the Tana and Masai lands, but even more calamitous to the unhappy populations of the equatorial lake regions, have long prevailed in the kingdoms of Uganda and Unyoro.2 In Uganda especially racial and social antipathies have 1 Even some of the predatory tribes are becoming less lawless, and in the Annual Report of the Ibea Company for 1892 it is stated that they lately sent 400 of their people to make peace with the English and accept employment as postal runners between the coast and Uganda and as military police in the coast districts. 2 Properly, Buganda, H unyoro, like Budu, Busoga, etc., in the Luganda language ; but the Ki-Swahili forms, Uganda, Unyoro, are now too firmly established to be set aside.576 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL been aggravated by religious wranglings, direst of all disturbing elements in politically organised lands. Originally the whole of the central plateau comprised between the Yictoria and Albertine branches of the Upper Mle basin constituted an integral part of the vast empire of Kitwara (Kitara), of which the present states of Uganda, Unyoro, and Karagwe are mere fragments. According to the somewhat confused national traditions, Kitwara was founded by the pastoral Wa-Huma (Wa- Yima) conquerors from the north-east (Gallaland), who called themselves Wa-Witu, and who penetrated from the coastlands (Wituland ?) up the Tana river and across the Mau plateau to the lake districts over a hundred years ago. Here they established two centres of adminis- tration—one in Karagwe, the other in Unyoro, where they are still most numerously represented. Thus were sown the germs of a divided rule, which ended in the dismemberment of the empire probably about the beginning of the present century. The aborigines, over whom was imposed this foreign sway, were all agricultural Negro populations, sprung from one stock and speaking closely-related dialects of one Bantu language. Such were the Wichwezi of Unyoro, the Wa-Nyambo of Karagwe, the Wa-Kangara of Uzinja, and others in Uganda, Usoga, and elsewhere, all of whom gradually amalgamated in various proportions with the Galla intruders, and thus arose the present mixed Hamitico- Negroid populations of the equatorial lake region. But many of the conquerors, especially the upper classes and the dynastic families, kept aloof from the Negro peasantry, whom they despised and regarded as their slaves or serfs. In the Magungo district, at the north-east corner of the Albert Nyanza, there still survives a little group of pure "Wa-Huma, the Wa-Hinda herdsmen, whose tradi-BRITISH EAST AFRICA 577 tions bring them from the north-east, and who appear to represent the original stock, whence the Wa-Huma power was spread throughout all the surrounding lands. They claim to have even preceded the arrival of the "Wa-Witu, with whom they jointly sent out conquering expeditions, by which the political ascendency of the pastoral tribes was established on the shores of all the great lakes as far south as Tanganyika. But all these must be regarded as comparatively recent historic migrations, long subsequent to the prehistoric Hamitic movements, by which the indigenous Negro populations have been modified in various degrees throughout the southern half of the continent. Of the dismembered Kitwara State, the largest share fell to Kamanya, Kabaka (" Emperor ") of Uganda, who, as direct descendant of the " Divine Kintu," founder of the dynasty, arrogated to himself the title of overlord of IJnyoro, Usoga, Usongora, Karagwe, Uzinja, and many other lands. But most of the outlying provinces were lost during the misrule of his son, Suma (Suna), a ferocious tyrant, who died towards the middle of the century while conducting one of those sanguinary slave- hunting and plundering raids by which the Waganda, like their Wanyoro neighbours, have made themselves dreaded and hated amongst all the vassal peoples. Thus it was that the sway of Uganda was practically confined to the region between the Victoria Nile and the Kagera at the succession of Suma's heir, the young Mutesa,1 who had been enthroned a short time before the arrival (1862) of Speke and Grant, the first white men who had ever penetrated to the equatorial lake region. But the 1 "Mutesa, not Mtesa, which the Waganda could not say any more than an ordinary Englishman, who generally calls the name 4 teaser.' "— Rev. R. P. Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda, p. 47. VOL. II 2 P578 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL European explorers had been preceded by the Arab slavers or their agents, and when Stanley reached the Kabaka's court in 1875 he found it difficult to make head against the growing influence of Islam. Neverthe- less Mutesa was induced to admit the English Protestant missionaries, Shergold, Smith, Mackay, Wilson, and others, who arrived in June 1877, and who were fol- lowed, two years later, by the French Catho- lic preachers. Hence- forth Uganda became the battleground of the rival Protestant, Catholic, and Moslem factions, although held in control during the lifetime of Mutesa, who remained to the last a pagan at heart,1 and who maintained, in a slightly mitigated form, the traditions of the cruel despotism introduced by his pagan ancestors. He lived up to the title of " Causer of Tears," assumed by himself, daily shedding blood like water, and organising slave-hunting razzias, which recalled the worst days of his 1 At one time he had declared his intention of becoming a Mohamme- dan, and had even issued an edict commanding all his subjects to do likewise. But, suddenly changing his mind, he ordered a general massacre of all the neophytes. " This murderous maniac, called by good people in England4 the humane king of Uganda,' . . . one day ordered 200 youths to be burnt alive, merely because they had gone a little farther than himself in adopting the new creed, having been circumcised by the Arabs " (Mackay of Uganda, p. 183). More than once hecatombs of 2000 victims were butchered either in sheer wantonness or else as offerings to the manes of his father, Suma {lb. pp. 184, 185). KING MUTESA's DAUGHTER.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 579 ruthless predecessor. " Daily went up the terrible cries of unhappy victims, as they were deliberately hacked to pieces with strips of reed sharp enough to be used as knives, condemned very often for nothing or merely for some breach of court etiquette. Frequently furnaces were smoking, in which the agonised bodies of persons, innocent of any crime, were writhing in slow torture till death ended their anguish." 1 But even worse was to come, and during the first period of his successor Mwanga's reign, religious perse- cutions of the most atrocious character were added to the chronic woes of the land. Amongst the victims, many of them mere children, and some not even Christians, was Bishop Hannington, of the newly-founded diocese of East Equatorial Africa, who was intercepted and murdered in Usoga en route by the Masailand road for Uganda (October 1885). Usoga was looked upon as the " back- door" of Uganda, and Hannington's approach in this direction was represented as a danger to the State by Mwanga's Arab advisers, who were now in the ascendant. Both Protestants and Catholics, despite their open antagonism,2 were alike involved in the calamity, which revived the horrors of the persecutions during the 1 Ashe, op. cit. p. 82. This writer also describes in vivid language the organised slave raids in which "lust is lord and wrong is right," in which deeds of horror are perpetrated, unrelieved by a single ray of human pity, and in which " vast herds of women and cattle are swept in, as well as thousands of children, to be from henceforth chattels," doomed to a life of appalling misery (pp. 91, 92), 2 "Unfortunately, little cordiality prevailed between the French Roman Catholic and the English Protestant missions, their mutual visits serving merely to keep up an outward semblance of courtesy. No joint action was possible, even on the vital question of Mwanga's atrocious persecution, in which both parties were involved. In the interests of morality and civilisation, it seems to me that some international Church code ought to be devised forbidding the presence of two rival missions in the same district."—Junker, Travels in Africa, iii. p. 542.580 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Empire, and like them was marked by many acts of astounding heroism. The lives, however, of the mission- aries on the spot were spared, mainly perhaps through the tact and courage of A. M. Mackay (Mackay of Uganda), a splendid personality, who takes a foremost rank amongst the pioneers of civilisation in Central Africa.1 A momentary alliance of all the Christian and Moslem factions resulted in the expulsion of Mwanga in October 1888, when Mutesa's eldest son, Kiwewa, was raised to the throne, but soon after expelled by the Arabs because of his refusal to accept Islam. The same fate befell his younger brother and successor, Kalema, a sanguinary despot, who died in exile in 1890. Meanwhile Mwanga, having declared himself a Christian, was restored by the aid of the English traders and missionaries in 1889, and soon after placed himself under the protection of the Ibea Company,2 whose officer, Captain Lugard, took over the general administration of Uganda in 1891. But this brought little intermission of the politico-religious dissensions and court intrigues, the vacillating Mwanga inclining now to one side, now to another. In 1891 the Protestant and Catholic parties 8 came to open collision; 1 When Dr. Junker passed through Uganda in 1886 on his way from the Sudan to tl; e east coast, he met Mackay, to whose noble character he pays a just tribute, dwelling especially on his " wonderful energy and versatility" (Travels, iii. p. 545). After passing scathless through the fiery ordeal of Uganda, Mackay died of African fever at Usambiro, on the south side of Lake Victoria, in February 1890. 2 A general treaty with the king and chiefs, dated 26tli December 1890, was supplemented by another of a more definite character signed by Mwanga on 11th April 1892. 3 It is not to be supposed that these so-called "English" and "French" factions consisted exclusively of Protestants and Catholics. The leaders, and perhaps a few of their followers, were fanatical partisans, the masses being merely the retainers of these chiefs, whether Christians or pagans.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 581 but the latter, after a few sanguinary encounters, were routed, and Mwanga, who had been carried off by them, was " recovered" by the Company's officers, who had interfered to restore order. Peace, or at least a temporary truce, was established between the three hostile camps 011 the basis of a redistribution of territory, separate pro- vinces being assigned to the Protestants, Catholics, and Mohammedans, where they may live in harmony together under the nominal authority of the Kabaka, supported by the English Commissioner appointed in 1894, when Uganda be- came a British protector- ate. Political and Social Institu- tions —Industries The Waganda are a highly intelligent people who had already, long before the advent of the Whites or Arabs, developed a regular State organisa- tion, based on an exceed- ingly complex feudal system of land tenure. At the head of affairs stood the hereditary Kabaka, in theory UGANDA BOY.582 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL an autocrat and de facto, uncontrolled in his relations to the peasantry, who, though slave-holders themselves, were in their turn practically at the mercy not only of the paramount lord but also of their several territorial chiefs. These chiefs, for the most part hereditary, enjoyed almost royal privileges, and were by custom protected from the arbitrary action of the Kabaka, whose power was further restricted by the Lukiko, a sort of Privy Council, com- posed of the Katikiro (Lord Chief Justice and Prime Minister rolled into one), and of other great digni- taries, such as the Head Executioner and Head Cook, all appointed by the Kabaka himself. Another im- portant functionary was the Admiral of the Fleet, which till recently formed a powerful armament of large, well-built, and well-manned war canoes. Under all these were the Basolonzi, or tax-gatherers, who collected the revenue both in kind (brass and copper wire, bark cloth, and the like) and in cowrie shells, which are real currency in Uganda. There are altogether ten administrative provinces, each under a great chief responsible only to the king, and forming with the Mujasi and Kimbugwa the twelve great chiefs of the land. At present the Mujasi appears to be the leader of the common people, the Kimbugwa of the Catholic, and the Katikiro of the Protestant party, which last numbers about one-third of the entire population. Before the advent of the English the trade of the country had been chiefly in the hands of the Arabs, who took slaves, ivory, cattle, tobacco, and other pro- duce in exchange for firearms, textiles, glass ware, and other manufactured goods. The routes followed by the trading caravans have been southwards across the lake and through Tabora and Mpwapwa to Zanzibar,BRITISH EAST AFRICA 583 and northwards to Mruli, the great market on the Somerset Nile. A third route has recently been opened from Mombasa through Masailand and Kavirondo to the capital, which since 1862 has shifted from Banda to Rubaga, Nabulagala, and Mengo, the present royal residence. Mengo is overawed by the fortified station of Kampala, recently founded by the Company in the immediate neighbourhood. As formerly in Japan, all the principal feudal lords have residences in the Mengo distinct from their shambas or " country seats." Here is also the Baranza, or " Audience Hall/' the scene of so many tumultuous gatherings in recent times. In the vicinity are two Protestant churches (one large enough to hold 5000) and the ruins of two Catholic churches destroyed during the late disorders. The Masai route will certainly be followed by the projected railway from the coast to the Victoria Nyanza, the ground for which has already been surveyed, thanks to a sum of £20,000 granted for the purpose by the Imperial Parliament in 1891. This railway is the one condition essential for the development of trade, the suppression of the Arab slavers, and the establishment of permanent orderly government in Uganda. A beginning has already been made with a short line running eight miles inland from Mombasa, the necessary starting-point on the coast. Although the first section only of this line (from Mombasa to the plateau escarpment) was sanctioned by the Imperial Government in 1894, there can be no doubt that it will be eventually continued across the pMteau to Uganda. That the natural resources of the country are ample to support a profitable export trade has been made evident by the recent reports of the Company's servants, as well as by the independent testimony of Mr. Mounteney584 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Jephson,1 one of Stanley's officers in the Emm Eelief Expedition. Coffee of an excellent quality grows wild in abundance, as it does throughout all the South Ethiopian uplands (Enarea, Kaffaland, etc.), the original home of the plant. Uganda, which is also suited for tea culture, has long been a great depot for ivory, cattle, and hides. Other future sources of revenue are cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo (wild), vegetable oils, rice, and other cereals, rubber and fibre yielding plants. Nor is there any lack of minerals both in the lake regions and on the Masai plateau, where plumbago, copper sulphate, and excellent iron ores occur in profusion. Captain Lugard even suggests the presence of gold, and speaks of crystalline quartz reefs similar to the gold-bearing reefs seen by him in other parts of East Africa. In return for such products there is an excellent market for British manufactures—cotton and woollen stuffs, crockery and hardware of all kinds—amongst the more civilised and well-clothed agricultural populations of Usoga, Uganda, and Unyoro. Although the primitive tribal organisation has long been merged in the nation properly so called, traces of the old tribal divisions still survive in the clans (Kyika, plural Ebyika), each distinguished, as amongst the Bechuana tribes, by its special animal crest or totem, which is held to be sacred, and may not be eaten by any member of the group. But these clans appear to possess rather a social than a political significance, marriage between persons of the same Kyika being forbidden. The present class divisions are' based on the feudal system of land tenure introduced by the Wa- Huma conquerors; and as there is neither a middle class 1 Paper on "The Possible Expansion of British Trade in East Africa," read before the London Chamber of Commerce, March 1892.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 585 in the strict sense of the word nor an urban as opposed to a rural population, the social groups are practically reduced to three: (1) The Bataka, or landed gentry, mostly chiefs and sub-chiefs, hereditary owners of the land, protected by a traditional code of rights from eviction or capital punishment by the king. (2) The Bakopi, or peasantry, said to be so named from the Kopi (Chopi), a conquering Negro people from the north, identified by Emin Pasha with the Shifalu of Unyoro. Although little better than serfs, the Bakopi have at least the right to change their Mwami (" Masters ")', that is, may transfer their services from one to another territorial despot at pleasure, the services comprising both manual labour and military duty. They are villains, or feudal retainers, bound to follow the barons to the wars armed with spear and shield. (3) The slaves or serfs, adscripti glebce, possessing no rights, owned both by the Bataka and Bakopi, and commonly known as Badu, that is, natives of Udu (Budu), from which province they were originally drawn. At present they are brought in from all quarters, fetching, according to " quality," from 10,000 to 20,000 cowries (£3 to £6) per head. In many African countries, and especially in Mohammedan lands, domestic slavery is not the worst of human destinies. But the condition of the slave in Uganda is inexpressibly sad, " the deepest degradation that strength can inflict on weakness, the utmost depth of shame to which an unhappy human soul can be dragged."1 The Waganda have been called the " Japanese of Africa/' in reference to their remarkable acquisitive faculty and skill in many industrial arts. " Those few who have had an opportunity of learning any trade have 1 Ashe, op. cit. p. 97.586 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL become most superior workmen. They will construct you a new stock to a rifle which you will hardly detect from that made by a London gun-maker. The Fundi Kisule, who learnt his art from Mackay, is an accom- plished blacksmith and gunsmith, and will make a new spring or repair a damaged rifle with admirable work- manship. Their folding stools of rod iron and their beautifully turned out spears attest their ability as blacksmiths." 1 They excel in all the native industries, such as bark-cloth making and dyeing, house and boat building, pottery, brewing, iron, copper, and brass ware, wickerwork, leather dressing, gold and silver embroidery, ivory carving, even soap and candles. Despite the atrocious penal code (burning, semi-roasting, eye-gouging, hacking to pieces with reed splinters, hideous mutilations of all kinds), and although there is little distinction between civil and criminal procedure, the people are excessively litigious, and are constantly appealing to the courts about mere trifles, at the imminent risk of imperil- ling life or limb. They have, however, a keen sense of justice and fairplay, though " the grounds on which they base their decisions are frequently so utterly foreign to our conceptions that one never knows by what standard of discrimination any particular case is to be decided." 2 The Wanyoro; Kingdom of Unyoro Since the advent of Europeans, Unyoro has been brought into less contact with the outer world than Uganda. Although Magunyo, Fauwera, Mruli, and some other points were temporarily occupied by the Egyptian Government before the Mahdist revolt, the country has practically maintained its political independence under 1 Lugard, loc. cit. p. 828. 2 lb. p. 829.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 587 the ferocious despot Chua, better known as Kaba Eega, who succeeded his father, Kamrasi, soon after Baker's visit (1864). "I am the eighteenth king of my family/' said Kaba Eega to Casati,1 and as such he claims the proud title of Makama (" Monarch") of Kitwara. His reign has been stained by a long series of atrocities, rivalling those of his hereditary foes the kings of Uganda, and by his periodical military expeditions and slave- hunting razzias he had till recently maintained a system of terrorism, especially over the outlying provinces in the Ruwenzori and Semliki regions and as far south as Euanda, beyond Lake Albert Edward. It was his policy to lean for support on the Arab slave-dealers, who supplied him with firearms and ammunition in return for the captives swept in by his organised raids. Hence a signal service was rendered to the cause of humanity by Captain Lugard's expedition of 1891 against the Mohammedan faction, when he inflicted a crushing defeat both upon them and their Wanyoro allies, who had hastened to their assistance. This was followed by an expedition under Major Owen in December 1893 against Kaba Eega himself, who was again defeated with heavy loss. A line of forts was then established from the Albert Nyanza to Uganda, enclosing a considerable portion of Unyoro, which was formally annexed to the British protectorate in 1894. Thus was broken the power of Kaba Eega, and protection for once extended to the wretched populations hitherto harassed by his undisciplined hordes. At the time of the discovery Kamrasi's capital was at Mruli, on the Victorian Mle. It has since been shifted successively to Masindi, on a tributary of Albert Nyanza, Nyamoga, and Juaya, which occupy central positions in 1 Ten Years in Equatoria, ii. p. 46.588 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL Unyoro proper; that is, the region enclosed between the lake and the great bend of the Victoria Nile below Mruli. M'Bakovia (Bakers Vacovia) and Kibiro, on Albert Nyanza, are the centres of a large salt industry, and much excellent salt is also produced at Lake Kihok- yamonyo, north side of Albert Edward, where Lugard founded Tort George to protect the trade. The other staple products of Unyoro are ivory, cattle, hides, gums, and, till the British occupation, slaves. The Wanyoro are the northernmost of the Bantu- speaking peoples in the Nile basin, being conterminous in this direction with the Shuli, Lurs, and other Nilotic Negro tribes. Like their Waganda kindred, they go fully clothed; and, like them also, are skilled forgers, potters, and weavers of bark cloth. Islam has made great progress amongst them, and most of the Wa-Huma chiefs, as well as the majority of the people, are at least outward followers of the Prophet. Hence the with- drawal of the English from Uganda would inevitably have been followed by a Mohammedan irruption from Unyoro, reviving all the horrors of the slave trade and effacing the rival Christian factions in a deluge of blood. Towns, Stations, Progress, and Prospects On the coast the chief towns are Mombasa and Melinda (.Malindi), which, long before the advent of the Portuguese, were famous trading places and capitals of petty Moorish (Zanj or Arab) states, maintaining widespread commercial relations with India, Arabia, and Sofala, Mombasa, which has been chosen by the Ibea Company as the centre of administration, was "very large and beautiful, and built of high and handsome houses of stone and whitewash, and with very good streets in the manner ofMOMBASA, FROM THE NORTH SHORE, WITH CUSTOM-HOUSE AND FORT.590 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TKAVEL those of Quiloa." 1 But the king, " for his pride and un- willingness to obey the king of Portugal, lost his city, and the Portuguese took it from him by force, and the king fled, and they killed and made captives many of his people, and the country was ravaged, and much plunder was carried off from it of gold and silver, copper, ivory, rich stuffs of gold and silk, and much other valu- able merchandise."2 Mombasa, which stands on a coral- line islet close to the coast under 4° S. lat., never recovered this blow; and, after the expulsion of the Portuguese (1698), it sank to the position of an obscure fishing village, with no trace of its former greatness except a few ruined mosques dominated by a crumbling Portuguese fort. But the British occupation has brought about a rapid revival; and, since the completion of the harbour works, the telegraph 120 miles long to and beyond Malindi, and the first link of the railway to the plateau, Mombasa has become a busy administrative and trading centre. The island, which is connected by a causeway with the mainland, forms two deep and well-sheltered harbours, ramifying like fiords a long way inland towards the Eabai hills, where is situated the oldest Protestant Mission on the east coast. Pacing Mombasa, on the north side of the intervening channel, stands the settle- ment of Frere Town, founded for the reception of emanci- pated or rescued slaves, and named from the philanthropic statesman, Sir Bartle Prere. Malindi, on an open roadstead at the mouth of the Sabakhi, is intimately associated with Yasco de Gama's expedition to the eastern seas. It was here that he obtained the pilots under whose guidance he reached India, as commemorated by the still standing padrao (pillar) on the neighbouring headland. In Barbosa's 1 Barbosa, p. 84. 2 lb. p. 85.BRITISH EAST AFRICA 591 time it was "a very handsome town/5 with lofty stone houses, fine streets and terraces, trading in " cloth, gold, ivory, copper, quicksilver, and much other merchandise, with both Moors and Gentiles of the kingdom of Cambay, who come to their port with ships laden with cloth, which they buy in exchange for gold, ivory, and wax " (ib. p. 86). Some Persian inscriptions, discovered on its grass-grown buildings, seem to confirm the tradition of its foundation by settlers from Shiraz during the flourishing days of the Zanj empire. Beyond Malindi the only noteworthy places are Kau and Witio, north of the Tana delta; Lamu (Barbosa's Lamori), on the neighbouring island of that name; and Kismayu, twelve miles south of the mouth of the Juba, close to the equator. Kismayu, the approach to which is obstructed by a barrier reef, is the only natural harbour on the east coast of Somaliland. As the outlet of the extensive Juba basin it carries on a brisk trade with the surrounding coastlands ; but, unlike Mombasa and Malindi, it is quite a recent place, dating only from the year 1869, when it was founded by some Somali settlers from Bardera. In the interior of Ibea there are no towns properly so called; nothing but native kraals and the fenced stations recently founded by the Company to keep open the caravan routes and protect the peaceful populations from their turbulent neighbours. Of these stations, possibly marking the sites of future trading centres, the most important are Machako's in Ukamba, 240 miles in a direct line and 400 by the regular route from Mombasa ; Munnias in the Nzoia valley, Kavirondo; Wakoli in Usoga; and Kampala in Uganda, close to the present capital, Mengo. The forts and stations in the Albertine Nile basin have already been referred to.592 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL If the work already accomplished in this region under the most adverse conditions may be taken as a measure of its future progress, the prospects must be re- garded as full of promise for the material and moral advancement of the native populations. "Regard the sum of these successes/' says Stanley, " and you will find that they are unique. Freedom of thousands of slaves; the clean scour-out from Masai, Kavirondo, and Usoga of the slave-traders; the arrest of ruin in Uganda; the termination of religious rivalry; the pacification of the Mohammedan and heathen parties; the diminution of the Uganda Nero's conceit and his admission into the Protest- ant party ; the building of some thirty military stations ; the establishment of new missions, English and Scotch; the establishment and maintenance of a ' sufficient' juris- diction in Uganda; the survey of the most important sections of the territory and of an easy graded railway route; the promotion of commerce on the Tana, Sabakhi, and Juba rivers; the negotiation of treaties with hundreds of chiefs ; the diplomatic conduct of affairs during the late wave of unrest and jealousy along the coast; the erection of a telegraph line to connect the seaboard towns with the administrative capital; the providing of ocean steamers for the coastal commerce; the formation of a powerful armed police; the introduction of light railway plant; the numerous improvements and construction of offices, ware- houses, piers at Mombasa; the supplying of the naval harbour with port steamers, tugs, barges; and the remark- able moulding and transformations which the Masai cattle-lifters and marauders and the varied tribes of the interior have undergone during intercourse with the Company's officers, so that we are assured by the latest comers from Africa that there are hopes of them at last being something better than fit for extermination."BRITISH EAST AFRICA 593 The Zanzibar Protectorate Since his acceptance of the English protectorate (p. 481), the Sultan has become little more than a British pensioner. His privy purse is limited to about £25,000, the remainder of the revenue being devoted to harbour improvements and public works. Even these are controlled by the British Agent and Consul-General; while most of the higher officials, including the Prime Minister, are Englishmen. Soon after the establishment of the protectorate the Sultan ceased to exercise any jurisdiction on the mainland. By the supplementary agreement of 1891, the late Ibea Company's tenure of tifty years was made perpetual, and afterwards extended to the ports of Lamu and Kismayu, as well as to all the islands along the coast. As heir to the Company's rights, the British Government has thus acquired pos- session of the whole of the seaboard between the German and Italian territories. Lastly in 1892 Zanzibar itself was declared a free port except for arms, ammunition, and liquors. All accounts are required to be kept in Arabic and English, the two official languages, and although domestic slavery still exists, the slave trade, of which Zanzibar was formerly an active centre, has been entirely suppressed. Since the cession of Mafia to the Germans, the protectorate is reduced to the two islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, with areas and populations as under:— Zanzibar Pemba Total VOL. II Area m square _ , „ v miles. Population (1894). . 625 . 150,000 . 360 50,000 . 9S5 200,000 2 QLANDING PLACE, ZANZIBAR.BKITISH EAST AFKICA 595 Both islands, which are disposed parallel with, and at a short distance from, the mainland, are largely of coral- line formation, and the neighbouring waters are so obstructed by fringing reefs that the navigable channels, separating them from the opposite coast, are at some points reduced to a width of less than five miles. Zanzibar is traversed north-west and south-east by a range of sand- stone hills, nowhere rising above 500 feet, and separating the rocky eastern and southern from the fertile western and northern districts. In the former are grown con- siderable quantities of chillies, while the latter are covered with plantations of cocoa-nut palms and cloves. Pemba also, which is clothed with a rich vegetation to the summit of all the hills, is mostly under cloves, which were intro- duced from the Eastern Archipelago in 1830. Although the crop is subject to many vicissitudes (most of the plants were uprooted by the terrific cyclone of 1892), the yield is at present about four-fifths of that of the whole world. But since the suppression of the slave trade and the fall in the price of cloves, the Arab planters find this industry yearly less profitable. Zanzibar, how- ever, with its tropical climate, rich soil, and abundant rainfall ranging from 80 to 140 inches, is well adapted for the cultivation of many other economic plants, such as coffee, sago, vanilla, aloes, pine-apples, so that the prosperity of the island, as had been feared, is not depen- dent on its clove and palm groves alone. The indigenous flora and fauna differs little from that of the opposite mainland, and a local variety of the beautiful colobus monkey (G. Kirkii) appears to be now extinct.1 A few of the aboriginal Bantu inhabitants still survive in the eastern districts, and their language (Ki- Hadimu) forms the substratum of the Ki-Swahili, which 1 H. H. Johnston, The-Kilimanjaro Expedition, p. 38.596 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL has become the lingua franca of a great part of South Africa. . But the great bulk of the present population consists of Bantus originally introduced as slaves from every part of the mainland, and now intermingled with Arab, Persian, Indian, and other Asiatic elements. All are Sunni Mohammedans, and this, combined with a uniformity of speech, customs, and administration, has already imparted to them a certain homogeneous char- acter. The special qualities of the Zanzibari porters and caravan leaders are well known to all African travellers. The great bulk of the inhabitants are concentrated in the city of Zanzibar, which, with a population of at least 100,000, is the largest place on the African seaboard, Alexandria and Tunis alone excepted. Unguya (" The Station"), as it is called, lies at the headland of Bas Shangani, about the middle of the west or sheltered coast, where large vessels ride at anchor in six or seven fathoms of smooth water. It is equi-distant (about 2400 miles) from Cape Town, Suez, and the southern extremity of India, and is thus one of the natural centres of trade in the Indian Ocean. In 1893 the imports were valued at £1,148,000, and the exports at £1,002,000, and as a free port under British control, Zanzibar can scarcely fail to enter on a career of commercial prosperity comparable to that of Singapore, Hong-Kong, and the other great centres of British enterprise in the Indian Ocean.\ BRITISH EAST AFRICA SOMALI LAND rashoRas Gomaipf Wi\ , & rrMeliiida R*) **Ki}winnxja / lutibu B. UiiiaooiO aa^" lasoncjoo uanguo \iveCpn?, •Myssumba^ lgonda. oMtim i Liowc 3 *Mcu>soro Jhisatra Kassala. \Sunbi < iviii ambianaty (}IV^va JstUCC Panifo IP* luio orLuJz &Bav SorisaJi°r •; , Almeidd B C.Eiroh za** v > Bavato^W

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Ankobi MaiKnoha Fai| 4 mbohar AnipaslLava r lanaraiilsoi B t'rami A a/uoixm 'R.Fardoivy Jframpoln Xoharano Matitdnana, ohipeno indranambe P. (tntanar&t y.Bevat Fanhiniotsvll. fandevofsy Mdnuraiu olfffarav mm Salary uom Itampoli Eheremnasa Ranob P}AndohaLarurd amtangana osikeLv osv lV (Faxafang C apncorn oremana araR. ibomfn SaJiarttsiird Toua Sr Ail PTI stui e*B. 0 Nosibe * Itrokara boiidro 3LA ajtaUt Behelbky Pesarnha ondrobe drapona 0 §pirtianamprt.?otey HaLiv\ * omaiiga anarnbato cmiazj> maftafy Isf^L uce) £&fanartivo Say J y Raid J^uiuato. Rocks Itampoh AR MADAG *tfe leT*** ^ ^otii^rcHrv Ma.iikorx»o MAU RITi I twilroLi tmdal&i (Fenaobdev P. Barrow "X>T^('ft/u7ir.; Star* Bank SCALE, 1.5,977382, 94 /a ^GLlSH '0 • «'«CH C.S,>v*lV" 44? Longitude East of Greenwich- ZondorL: Stan/lrrdls Gzogf- jEctabt London Echvard Stanford.26 & 27 Cochspor St..Charing Cross, SiVTISLANDS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN 635 Some 430 miles south of the Seychelles lies the little Galegas group, and, much nearer to the Mascarenhas, the Cargados (Garayos, St. Brendan). These groups, which are not permanently occupied, yield nothing but copra1 and cocoa-nut oil, hence are commonly known as the " oil islands." Both are attached to Mauritius. The cocoa-nut palm is also the almost exclusive growth of the Amir antes, discovered in 1502, and named from the great "Admiral," Yasco de Gama. They lie to the south-west of the Seychelles, and comprise about 150 islets rising a few yards above sea-level; all uninhabited except about six. Between the Amirantes and Mada- gascar the waste of waters is broken only by the Providence and Farquhar rocks, also uninhabited. 1 Copra, the dried fruit of the cocoa-nut after the oil has been expressed, is much used in India as an ingredient in the preparation of curry powder.CHAPTER XIII THE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES In the North Atlantic1 there are four insular groups— Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Verd, and Azores—which are usually assigned to Africa, although the Canaries and Cape Verd alone belong geographically to that Continent. The Azores are lost, so to say, in mid-Atlantic, while Madeira, if a little nearer to the African mainland, forms in all other respects a dependency of Europe. Thanks either to their delightful climate, historic associations, or position on the highway between the two hemispheres, all possess an importance disproportionate to their size and population, which, as seen in the subjoined table, are collectively less than those of the largest English shire:— Madeira . Canaries . Cape Yerd Azores The Canaries belong politically to Spain, of which for administrative purposes they are regarded as an integral part. All the rest are Portuguese possessions, Madeira 1 For the islets in the South Atlantic, see Chap. I. Area in Population sq. miles. (1885-94). Yorkshire. 370 132,000^ 2850 301»000 [Area—6068 sq. miles. 1650 111,000 f p (1891), 3,108,828. 1005 270,000j Total 5875 814,000THE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES 637 and the Azores forming electoral districts of the king- dom, while the Cape Yerd group alone is administered as a colony. Madeira The Madeira group, comprising the large island of Madeira (the " "Wooded "), the islet of Porto Santo to the north-east, and to the south-east three rocky " desertas uninhabited and destitute of vegetation, lies 560 miles from Portugal and 430 from Cape Cantin, the nearest point on the Marocco coast, in lat. 32° 40', long. 17° W. Although surrounded by deep water (over 2000 fathoms), its geological connection with Europe seems to be indicated by the Gettysburg and other marine banks, which extend to within 150 miles of the Portuguese coast, and which are covered by scarcely more than 40 or 5 0 fathoms. The first mention of the group under its present name1 occurs in a Florentine document auted 1351, in which the neighbouring rocks are also indicated by name. But it appears to have been again forgotten until rediscovered by the Portuguese about 1420, although there was a vague tradition of two English lovers having fled from Bristol and taken refuge in Madeira during the reign of Edward III. Before the settlement the group had never been occupied by man, so that the great majority of the present inhabitants are of Portuguese descent, differing little from those of the home country. The large island, which stretches 35 miles east and west, with a mean breadth of about 12 miles, is traversed in its entire length by a mountain range at a mean elevation of 4000 feet, culminating in the Pico Euivo (6100 feet) towards the centre. On both sides the slopes are scored 1 The Italian word is Legname, which answers to the Portuguese Madeira, meaning "wood."638 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL by profound gorges descending down to the coast, so that the surface is generally rugged and in many places extremely wild and picturesque. So difficult are the communications, that the interior is almost uninhabited, nearly the whole of the population being concentrated in the capital, Funchal, on the south coast, and in a few other small towns or villages situated at the mouth of the gorges or on the lower slopes of the hills. On the south side some patches still survive of the primeval forest which at one time covered the whole island. The presence of marine shells at an altitude of about 1000 feet, shows that a great upheaval has taken place since miocene times, when the prevailing erupted rocks appear to have been discharged from the long quiescent and now obliterated craters. Running waters are rare, and mostly absorbed on the irrigation works. Water is still more scarce on the hilly and treeless Porto Santo, which attains in the Pico do Facho a height of 1615 feet. This islet, which is 8 miles long by 3 wide, yields little but a scanty crop of barley, so that its 1800 inhabitants, mainly centred in la Vilha, have to draw most of their supplies from Funchal. Madeira is renowned for its remarkably mild and equable climate, by which many invalids are attracted to the island, especially from Great Britain. The observa- tions taken at the observatory of Funchal show a mean annual temperature of about 65° F., rising to 72° in summer, and falling to about 60° in winter. There are scarcely more than 80 rainy days in the year, with a mean discharge of from 30 to 32 inches, the wettest months being November, "December, January and March. Funchal and the .whole of the south side are well sheltered from the prevailing north winds by the lofty central range, on which snow rarely descends below about 2000 feet640 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL above sea-level. The balmy atmosphere of the lower southern slopes now dotted over with numerous villas, is especially favourable to some forms of consumption.1 There are no indigenous mammals, and of the thirty species of birds one only (Regulus madeirensis) is peculiar to the group. Five others, including the yellow canary (Fringilla butyracea), occur also in the Canary Islands. The reptiles are represented only by a single lizard (Lacerta dugesii); but marine and fresh-water molluscs and insects abound, the latter mostly wingless, because, as pointed out by Darwin, those capable of flight are liable to be blown seawards by the winds. Although the primeval forests have mostly disappeared, the lower slopes are still clothed with a rich vegetation of smaller growths, including the myrtle, laurel, cypress and vine of Southern Europe, and the magnolia, mango, banana, coffee and sugar-cane of more tropical lands. Higher up, the rich pastures support numerous herds of cattle and ponies. Till lately the chief resources of the people were the vine and sugar-cane, although the former has suffered terribly from the ravages both of oidiuin and phylloxera since the middle of the nineteenth century. The wine known as " Madeira " is made from a red and a white variety of grapes, which separately yield the so-called Tinta (red) and Verdelho (white) wines. But the quantity has fallen from over 2,000,000 to a few thousand gallons in recent years. The sugar crop has also greatly fallen off owing to the competition of the beet-root sugar in Europe. Oranges, lemons, pulse, potatoes, and other fruits and vegetables thrive well, and bananas and pine- 1 Not all, as is generally supposed: "For the majority of consump- tives this sort of climate [that of Madeira] does more harm than good; but for the catarrhal form of phthisis it is, as my statistics show, a dis- tinct success" (Dr. Ch. Th. "Williams, Aero-Therapeutics, etc., 1895).THE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES 641 apples are now exported to London. The exchanges, averaging about £250,000, are mainly with England and Portugal, regular communications being maintained by the steamers of various Atlantic lines calling at Funchal. The Canaries Unlike Madeira, this group was known to the ancients probably from remote times. It is usually identified with the "Fortunate Islands," with which so many legends were associated. But in any case, Pliny men- tions one by its present name, Ganaria, or " Great Canary," and another as Nivaria, the " Snowy," obviously Teneriffe. The archipelago, which lies opposite the Draa estuary within 65 miles of Cape Juby, was first occupied towards the end of the thirteenth century by the Genoese under Lanzaroto Marocillo, from whom Lanzar- ote, easternmost member of the group, takes its name. They were succeeded by the Norman adventurer Jean de Bethencourt, who reached the same island in 1402, and by the aid of the King of Castile, to whom he had pre- sented the group, successively reduced Fuerteventura and Ferro (Hierro), at the eastern and western extremities of the chain. But the central islands long held out against all attacks, and the whole group was not completely con- quered till the close of the fifteenth century (1497), by which time nearly all the natives had been exterminated. The islands have since been repeopled by Spanish immi- grants, with whom the few surviving aborigines have been merged. The Canaries—whi(ih develop an irregular curve from east to west, between 13°-18° W. long., 27° 40'-29° 40; N. lat.—comprise, besides a few islets and rocks, seven relatively large islands, all mainly of igneous origin, and VOL. II 2 T642 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL mostly rising in depths of over 1000 fathoms. In the subjoined table of areas and populations, these are dis- posed in their order from east to west:— Area in sq. miles. Pop. 1893 (est.) Chief Towns. Pop. Lanzarote 296 18,600 Arrecife . 3,000 Fuerteventura 690 12,500 Puerto de Cabras 550 Gran Canaria . 550 100,000 Las Palm as 19,000 Teneriffe 763 111,000 Santa Cruz 17,000 Gomera . 151 12,000 S. Sebastian . 2,000 Palma . 290 41,000 Santa Cruz 6,900 Hierro . 110 5,900 Valverde. 5,200 Total . . 2850 301,000 In most of the islands erupted rocks of great age— trachytes, basalts, obsidian—greatly prevail over later volcanic and sedimentary formations. Here the under- ground forces have long been quiescent or extinct, the craters obliterated, and the surface greatly denuded, while the slopes are deeply furrowed by the erosive action of running waters. But in Lanzarote, Palma, and Teneriffe, where alone disturbances have occurred since the Spanish occupation, lavas of more recent date cover extensive tracts. Lanzarote especially was the scene of continuous eruptions during the years 1730-36 and again in 1824-25, the effects of which are still plainly visible. These disturbances were accompanied by violent earthquakes, flames mingled with vapours were ejected even from the neighbouring waters, and new headlands were formed round the coast by cones of scoriae rising above the surface. Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which seem to form a separate group resting on a common marine bed, are relatively low, with summits nowhere exceeding 2770 feet (Oreja del Asno in Fuerteventura). But .all theTHE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES 643 other islands are mountainous, with heights ranging from 4400 feet (Garojona in Gomera) and 4490 (Hierro) to 6400 (Los Pechos in Gran Canaria) and 7740 (La Cruz Palma), and culminat- ing in the superb Teyde peak of Tene- riffe (12,200), highest point not only in the Canaries but in the whole of the Atlantic Ocean. Since Hum- boldt's memorable as- cent, Teneriffe has been frequently scaled, amongst others by Piazzi Smyth, who ap- proached the triple- peaked volcano from the town of Orotava, THE BURNING MOUNTAIN, FROM YAIZA, LANZAROTE. on the north coast.1 Up to nearly 2000 feet the track winds through cultivated slopes intersected by 1 Teneriffe: An Astronomer's Experiment, 1858.644 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL an intricate system of retaining walls to protect the soil from the raging winter torrents. At 1500 feet the peach, fig, lemon, and orange groves are replaced chiefly by pear trees, and then at 2000 feet by lovely wild plants with delicate pink leaves and rich yellow flowers, followed up to 2800 feet by patches of heather and grasses. "We turn at 2900 feet, and behold! we are even with the clouds, which, but scanty this morning, dis- perse in our immediate neighbourhood when we seem just about to enter them. At 3900 feet billowy white clouds conceal all the lower landscape from view, and at 4700 feet a first specimen is seen of the codeso, a leguminous plant with closely packed composite light green leaves, yellow flowers and branches like those of a miniature cedar tree. At 5280 feet a solitary pine still lingered, a last survivor at this spot of the primeval forests which once girdled the mountain. Higher up was met the retama, a unique mountain broom, and at 6560 the path entered the circle of Canadas, valley-like spaces silted up with fine pumice between the lava streams from the crater." " The full appearance of the peak left no doubt that the ascent of the northern slope was finished, and that we were travelling over the basin of the ancient crater, a crater whose vast dimensions (eight miles in diameter) can hardly be paralleled save in the moon itself. Here the surface of the pumice-stone soil widened out; the rocks, red and jagged, became fewer, the codeso disappeared; presently, as we entered quite an African-looking desert of white sand and yellow stones, a fine range of blue mountains was seen to the south-east and south. They were merely the opposite sides of this gigantic crater! We have now transcended all the strata of clouds and have entered a most moon- like region; the flaming sun, set in the middle of thePEAK OF TENERIFFE.646 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL sky above our heads, showers down his merciless rays; light and heat revel everywhere." Then followed a fine parasitic crater, the tops of others visible in the dis- tance, while behind and above all rose the grand peak, seamed with blue-black torrents, and showing clearly the dimensions of the once active Eambleta crater at a height of 11,700 feet. Beyond Alta Yista (10,700 feet), where pack-animals are arrested, there follows the wilderness of the Malpays (" Bad Lands"), torrents of black lava rocks and stones, where not a plant, a bird, or even an insect is to be seen. At 11,600 feet occurs a jet of steam at a temperature of from 100° to 122° F., which condensing on the rocky ground nourishes a few patches of moss. " Suddenly at the elevation of 11,745 feet, we emerged from the Malpays. Instantly there rose before us, high above our heads, the Piton, or Sugar- loaf cone, forming the summit of Teneriffe, resplendent with bright red and yellow, like some huge tower gleam- ing in the brightness of the morning sun." The track still ascending about 470 feet, at an angle of 33°, leads to the brim of the culminating crater amid jets of steam and sulphurous acid vapours. The crater, some 300 feet in diameter and 70 feet deep, is often white as snow, where it is not covered with sulphur. Owing to their greater elevation and more southerly position, the climate of the Canaries is both warmer and less equable than that of Madeira, the mean annual temperature being about 70° F. at Santa Cruz, with a range of 14° between winter and summer, and of. course much greater between the uplands and the seaboard. The chief drawback are the hot winds from the Sahara, ladened with impalpable dust, and at times also with locusts, which on one occasion were wafted all the wayTHE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES 647 to Teneriffe. The vegetation suffers also from a limited rainfall; but the climate is in general salubrious, and as almost any desired temperature can be had by removing to higher or lower elevations, the archipelago is yearly attracting an increasing number of invalids. Despite its position, the flora is on the whole more European than African, as shown by the prevalence of the laurel, oak, chestnut, pine, and cedar. Of African species the most characteristic are the euphorbias and the dragon-tree (.Draccenus draco), noted for its red sap and peculiar form. The fauna is perhaps more original than the flora, the molluscs forming quite an independent group, while amongst higher organisms are some distinct varieties of lizards, but no snakes, the red partridge and the canary, now acclimatised in Europe with improved song and plumage changed from green to yellow. Some of the mammals, if not indigenous, have been considerably modified since their introduction. Such are the camel of Euerteventura, two varieties of the dog (one resembling a collie, the other a Newfoundland), and especially the goat, the chief domestic animal, which is larger and more active than the European, and which yields an abundance of excellent milk. There can be no reasonable doubt that the Guanches, as the aborigines were called, reached the archipelago from the neighbouring African mainland, and were of Berber stock and speech. At the time of the discovery they had made considerable progress in general culture, as shown by the numerous specimens of the local in- dustries—pottery, carvings, textiles—recovered from the sepulchral chambers abounding in the cavernous recesses of the rocks. Even rock inscriptions have been dis- covered at several points; but although written in a648 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL script resembling that of the Berbers, they have not yet been deciphered. The skulls of the mummies from the caves of Teneriffe are all dolichocephalous, and in other respects exactly like those of the Berbers, Egyptians, and other Hamitic peoples of North Africa. The present inhabitants are mainly of Spanish stock, mixed here and there with Norman, Berber, Guanche, and Flemish ele- ments. They are chiefly engaged in agriculture, stock- breeding, vine culture, the cochineal industry, navigation, and fishing. Since the ravages of oidium little wine is produced, and the vineyards have been largely replaced by the nopal plant, which thrives well, and which nourishes immense quantities of the cochineal insect. In some years more cochineal has been produced than in all the rest of the world; in 1871 the export amounted to five million pounds, valued at £1,300,000. Tobacco of an excellent quality is also now raised; but the ali- mentary crops (cereals, onions, potatoes, etc.) scarcely suffice for the local consumption. The trade of the archipelago, which averages nearly £4,000,000 yearly, is centred chiefly in Las Palmas, on the north-east coast of Gran Canaria. The port, which is regularly visited by numerous ocean steamers plying between Europe and Africa, is sheltered from the north winds by the headland of Isleta, and from the east by a breakwater projecting nearly 5000 feet from this headland southwards, and thus enclosing a deep harbour a little north of the city. Santa Cruz, on the north-east side of Teneriffe, is memor- able as the place where Nelson lost his right arm in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the town in 1797. Hierro, smallest member of the group, is noteworthy as the point taken for their first meridian by France, Spain, and many other countries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was supposed to be exactly 20 degreesLAS PALMAS.650 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL west of Paris, but later surveys showed that it lay 12 miles more to the east, so that the longitudes of all the old maps calculated from Hierro have to be rectified by as much as 12 miles. The Cape Verd Islands This group, comprising nine islands varying greatly in size, besides a few islets and reefs, develops an irregular curve of some 300 miles, with its convex side facing Cape Yerd, westernmost point of the African mainland, from which it takes its name and from which the nearest islands are distant about 300 miles. In the subjoined table of areas and populations, the nine larger islands follow in their order from north round to east and south:— Pop. Santo Antao St. Vincent S. Nicolau Sal (Salt) Boa-Vista Maio . S. Thiago Fogo . Brava Total Area in sq. miles. 285 100 170 120 175 100 450 210 40 21,650 5,900 8,700 1,000 3,600 1,600 46,150 13,200 8,200 Chief Towns. Ribeira-Grande Mindello Ribeira-Brava Salrey . La Praia S. Filippe S. Jao Battista Pop. 5000 4500 4200 500 4600 700 400 1650 110,000 Before their discovery by Cadamosto and Usudimare in 1456, all the islands were uninhabited, and since then they have been slowly settled by immigrants from Por- tugal, and by Negro slaves introduced from the African mainland. Geographically they belong to Africa only in virtue of their position, for the whole archipelago, lying in depths of over 2000 fathoms, is entirely of marine origin, upheaved at a very remote epoch, antecedent toTHE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES 651 the appearance of the Canaries and the Azores. Thus very old granites and other crystalline rocks crop out in many places, and although long extinct craters may still be traced in most members of the group, others, such as Maio, consist so largely of sedimentary formations that the archipelago has by many geologists been regarded rather as a remnant of some vanished " Atlantis " than as the result of independent igneous action. No eruptions or earthquakes have occurred in the memory of man, except in the south - western islands of Togo and Brava. Immense quantities of ferruginous black sands with a high percentage of iron cover the beaches, especially in the southern group (Maio, S. Thiago, Togo, Brava), which is known to seafarers as the "Leeward," in contradistinc- tion to the northern or " Windward " Islands. All are rugged and mountainous, with several peaks over 4000 feet high, culminating in the Sugar-loaf of S. Antao (S. Anthony), 8200 feet, and the still active volcano of Fogo, 8860 feet, which was the scene of a violent erup- tion in 1847. The climate, although more temperate than that of the adjacent continent, is on the whole unfavourable, sultry in the relatively dry season from December to July, oppressive during the rains, which last from August to November, and which are often accompanied by fierce westerly and south-westerly gales. These are at times replaced by the so-called leste, that is, the Saharan harmattan, bringing dense clouds of impalp- able dust. Long droughts also occur in some years, causing widespread famine, while at other times fevers are very prevalent, especially after the rains. The soil is far from fertile, and as there is a general scarcity of water, the archipelago presents on the whole a somewhat arid aspect, except on the slopes exposed to the moist trade-winds. There are no forests or con-652 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL tinuous stretches of woodlands, and the arboreal vegeta- tion is represented chiefly by a few isolated clumps of cocoa-nuts and other palms. Cotton and indigo grow wild, and some patches of rice, maize, millet, and tobacco are raised in the moist bottomlands, to which tillage is mainly confined. The indigenous fauna is very poor, comprising no mammals, and only a few birds, such as the guinea-fowl, partridge, and quail. Cattle of a poor stock are plentiful, and might be improved by crossing. Although destitute of vegetation and even of water, the arid rock of St. Vincent in the north-west is the centre of all the life and trade of the archipelago. It owes this pre-eminence to its excellent harbour, a deep basin on the north side formed by a breached crater, and sheltered from all winds. St. Vincent, which forms an intermediate station for the submarine cable between Lisbon and Pernambuco, is regularly visited by numerous ocean steamers since it has become one of the great coaling depots in the Atlantic Ocean. Hence the ship- ping of this international port approaches two million tons, although the yearly exchanges average no more than £250,000 for the whole archipelago. The coal depot was established towards the middle of the nineteenth century by an enterprising Englishman, and English is the current medium of intercourse in this busy sea- port. The Azores It is difficult to understand why the Azores (" Hawk Island ") are assigned to Africa. They lie about the 38th parallel, that is, the latitude of Lisbon, and are 100 miles nearer to the Portuguese coast at Cape Eoca than to that of Marocco at Cape Cantin, respectively the nearestTHE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES 653 headlands of Europe and Africa, 850 miles from the former, 950 from the latter. Geologically they belong to neither continent, the whole group being of volcanic formation and of oceanic origin. In all other respects— historical, ethnical, and political—they form almost an integral part of Portugal, by which they were settled soon after their rediscovery by the Portuguese navigator Gongalo Yelho Cabral in 1431-32, that is, fully eighty years after they had been surveyed and mapped by some now forgotten Genoese mariner.1 The archipelago comprises altogether nine inhabited islands disposed in the direction from north-west to south-east, with areas and populations as under:— Area in sq. miles. Pop. 1893 (est.) Chief Towns. Pop. Corvo . . 10 1,500 Rosario . 1,000 Flores . . 65 9,000 Morro Grande . 3,000 Fayal . . 70 24,000 Horta . 7,570 Pico . 186 28,920 Lagens . 12,000 San Jorge . 49 16,630 "Vellas . . 10,000 Graciosa . 25 13,300 Santa Cruz . . 9,000 Terceira . 235 44,340 Angra. . 11,000 San Miguel . . 315 125,680 Ponta Delgada . 17,000 Santa Maria . . 50 6,050 Yilla do Porto . 3,000 Total 1005 269,420 Except some limestones of miocene date in Santa Maria, all the islands are of exclusively igneous origin, the older lavas, scoriae, and other erupted matter dating also apparently from miocene times. Those at the two extremities of the chain have been quiescent throughout the historic period, but the central members of the group, and especially San Miguel, Pico, Terceira, and San Jorge, 1 This fact is placed beyond doubt by the Florentine portolan of 1351, on which the whole group is correctly figured, except that the chain is disposed from north to south instead of from north-west to south- east. Except some limestones of miocene date in Santa Maria, all the islands are of exclusively igneous origin, the older lavas, scoriae, and other erupted matter dating also apparently from miocene times. Those at the two extremities of the chain have been quiescent throughout the historic period, but the central members of the group, and especially San Miguel, Pico, Terceira, and San Jorge, 1 This fact is placed beyond doubt by the Florentine portolan of 1351, on which the whole group is correctly figured, except that the chain is disposed from north to south instead of from north-west to south- east.654 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL have been the scene of terrific explosions and earth- quakes on several occasions since the discovery. So recently as 1872 a marine eruption occurred close to Terceira, and an earthquake wave passed over San Miguel in 1852. Some of the craters are low, one at sea-level being flooded by a lake, to which boats have access through an opening in the rim. But all the islands are high, with cones ranging from 1350 feet in Graciosa, 1870 in Santa Maria, and 2250 in Corvo, to 3 0 0 0 in Flores and San Jorge, and 3350 to 3500 in Fayal, San Miguel, and Terceira, the whole system culminating in the superb Pico (7320), from which the island of Pico takes its name. The last recorded eruptions of Pico occurred in 1718 and 1720, none having previously been witnessed since the year 1572, hence the under- ground forces would appear to be on the wane in this part of the archipelago. Although exposed at times to fierce Atlantic gales, the islands enjoy on the whole an equable and healthy climate, with a range of temperature scarcely anywhere exceeding 20° F. Thus at Ponta-Delgada, capital of San Miguel and the chief centre of trade, the glass stands for most of the year at about 64°, rising during the hottest summer days to 69° or 70°, and in winter seldom falling below 54° or 55°. The north winds are usually cool and dry, those from the south warm and moist, although rain may fall at any time. For the whole year the rainfall rather exceeds 60 inches, which suffices to nourish the rich sub-tropical vegetation which clothes all the slopes facing southwards. The indigenous flora, however, is poor, comprising less than 400 flowering and seventy - five cryptogamous plants, of which not more than fifty are peculiar to the archipelago. Of the others the great majority belong to the European,Corvo VRosario Mono Grande lisboro SCALE 1:5,977,38?, 94# ENGLISH MILES TO I INCH O 50 lyo 20 Tteb&ra Grand, S .Miguel VflJajFrcuiccu Par ( : - Portuguese Sp. - Spanish •miya.8 'do Poi"to S.AutfLo S. Antonio). S-Jntohw Tarrafal B c A5nCdlt Brdoico • _ NorthPoint SaL WrechPt MastuebPt'i S.JrijcoIao S«£&s. iE astP? S.GeonjeB. Salvages Pitotv Rocks *♦« MvrdeiraJi. 2TorthReef&Poutf;^^Ihu'bwelLfis.et' Boa vis til Balcara,F L'alma P. de Taxacorte T3 artovenJto W6p),Crux £* eJSim ZiLra&fu N.Point, ^ Halo 'Porto Pray a; , GarajonaiMt, Porto WL& Scu r&bonsif S. Sebas^ ValvercLe Mkj Gran Cattai-ia 'm^Hotneral Maspcdotruisl JubTf-a^a (~y o —vV /loonof Ferro Cable to Cape Verrt K M '. , ^T-twma&iku Lon^jtude West of* Greenwich londorv Stanfords Gcog} Estab*: London: Edward. Stanford, 26 Sc. 27 Cock spur St.,('.harin^ Cross, S!W.UiSS'Vl. , )■• i»i iNOIS,THE WEST AFRICAN ARCHIPELAGOES 655 the rest partly to the African, partly to the American botanical zones. Little now remains of the woodlands which covered most of the surface before they were cleared by the settlers. The native growths, includ- ing the magnificent faya or " laurel of the Canaries," and a species of juniper, have been largely replaced by such exotics as the poplar, oak, beech, lime, tulip tree, arau- caria, acacia, eucalyptus, the vine, and the orange, besides wheat, pulse, and other alimentary plants. But the vineyards, as in the other Atlantic archipelagoes, have in late years been wasted by disease, and are now largely replaced by orange groves, especially in San Miguel, whence have been exported to England as many as 50,000,000 of the so-called " St. Michael oranges," valued at £120,000, in a single year. Lately, however, this plant has also been attacked by blight, and at present the chief crop is maize, of which a considerable quantity is left for exportation after supplying the large local demand. But the foreign trade, mainly with Great Britain and Portugal, is inconsiderable, the yearly exchanges scarcely exceeding £150,000. The inhabitants, who have preserved some quaint mediaeval usages that have died out in Portugal, are noted for their vigorous constitution and enterprising spirit. They increase so rapidly that the islands have long been over-peopled, so that considerable numbers yearly emigrate, especially to Brazil, the United States, and Hawaii. Ponta-Delgada, seat of government and chief seaport, lies on the south-east side of San Miguel, where a completely sheltered artificial harbour has been formed by a pier over half a mile long. Ponta-Delgada elects four of the eight deputies by whom the Azores are represented in the Portuguese chambers.INDEX A-Babua, 106 Abdallah, 74, 89 Abercorn, Fort, 404 Aberdare mountains, 539, 545 A-Bongos, 60 A-Bundas, 147 Ache was, 466 Adamawa, 1 Agulhas, Cape, 226 Current, 226 Ajawas, 469 Akenyara lake, 495, 499 Akkas, 60 Alantica, Mount, 1 Alaotra lake, 610 Albert Edward lake, 495, 538, 556 Albertine Nile, 76, 89, 538, 555 Albert Nyanza lake, 89, 495, 538, 556, 560 Albert ville, 108 Aldabra Island, 630 AJexandra lake, 495, 499 Algoa Bay, 195 Alice, 2()1 Alicedale, 260 Alima river, 37, 77 Aliwal North, 261 South, 260 Alta Vista, 646 Ania-Mpondos, 208, 243 Amaramba lake, 461 Ama-Tongas, 330 Ama-Xosas, 208, 243 Ama-Zizi, 401 Amazoe river, 392 Ambaca, 148, 154 Ambakistas, 148 Ambaro Bay, 604 Ambas Bay, 604 Amber, Cape, 603 Ambohinirandrana, 607 Ambohitoroa, Mount, 610 Ambrisette, 152 Ambriz, 129, 131, 152 Amirante Islands, 599, 635 Analamazaotra, 605 Andara, 165 Andovoranto, 626 Andrade-Carvo mountains, 138 Angola, 131, 135 Angosha, 477 Angra do Negro, 158 Angra Pequena, 169, 189 Angra river, 39 Island, 653* Angwa river, 392, 413 Anjuan, 629 Ankai, 605 Ankaratra, 607, 609 Ankeramadiuika, 605 Ankole, 554 Ankori, 495, 530 Antananarivo, 625 Antongil Bay, 601 A-Nyanjas, 429 Apies river, 321 Aruwimi river, 75, 87, 558 Ascension Island, 2. 26 Ashakababo lake, 531 Ashangos, 51 VOL. II658 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Ashango hills, 44 Ashankalo hills, 44 Athi river, 534 Attaques mountains, 214 Awaniba, 556 Awamwambas, 441 Awawandias, 441 Azores Islands, 636, 652 Ba-Atti, 106 Ba-Buero, 147 Badinga, 127 Bafyots, 54, 145 Bagamoyo, 522 Bahia dos Tigres, 159 Bahia Pinda, 160 Ba-Hlengwe, 465 Bakalai, 51, 56 Baken Veld, 292 Ba-Kete, 118 Ba-Kuba, 119 Ba-Kubale, 150 Bakundi, 4 Bakundu-ba-Nambele, 19 Bakundus, 16 Ba-Kwena, 355 Bakwiri, 17 Ba-Kwisse, 150 Ba-Lolo, 114 Ba~Luba, 117 Balumbo, 54 Ba-Lnnda, 435 Baly Bay, 604 Cape, 602 Ba-Mangwato, 355 Bambir6 Island, 501 Banana, 126 Point, 82 Ba-Nano, 147 Bandawe, 402, 418 Ba-Ngala, 106, 114, 121 Bangodi, 127 Bangwe, 54 Bangweolo lake, 76, 91 Bania, 4 Bantu, 12, 15, 52, 106,124, 175, 240 Banyai, 399 Banyans, 466 Ba-Nyungwi, 465 Baraka, 62 Bararetas, 570 Barberton, 302, 321 Bardera, 533 Baringo lake, 495, 536, 542 Barkly, 263 Barotse, 355, 435 Barotseland, 369, 385 Ba-Rue,' 465 Ba-Sange, 117 Ba-Senga, 466 Bashukulumbwe, 386, 437 Basileh, 24 Ba-Simba, 150 Basoko, 127 Ba-Songe, 117 Basso-Ebor lake, 543 Basso-Nasok lake, 543 Ba-Sutos, 241 Ba-Teke, 54 Ba-Tevi, 466 Ba-Tlapi, 355 Ba-Tongas, 438 Batta, Mount, 38 Batwa, 60 Bavili, 54 Ba-Wanketsi, 355 Bayaka, 54 Ba-Yansi, 114 Beatrice Gulf, 555 Beaufort West, 257 Bechuanaland North, 336, 338 South, 336, 338 Bedford, 260 Beira, 275 Belmonte, 155 Belmore, 477 Bemba lake, 91 Bemb6, 152 Benabendi, 127 Benguela, 135 town, 157 Benningwa Hills, 376, 391 Benue river, 3 Berea, 241 Berlin, 261 Bethany, 169, 190 Bethel, 241 Bethulie, 327 Betsiboka Bay, 604 river, 606, 610 Betsileos, 621 Betsimisarakas, 618INDEX 659 Biafra, Bight of, 3 Bibundi, 19 BiH, 110, 186, 139, 155 Bila-Kulus, 465 Bimbia, 19 Blantyre, 402 Bloemfontein, 260, 327 Blu-Blu cascade, 25 Blue Cliff, 260 Blythswood, 250 Boa Vista Island, 650 Boers, 148, 159, 177, 200, 313 Bogw6 river, 40 Bokkeveld mountains, 216 Bolobo, 126 Boloko river, 85 Bolombo, 114, 126 Boma, 126, 128 Bomakandi river, 87 Boran, 534 Bosch Veld, 292 Bosi river, 410, 458 Bourbon Island, 630 Bowen, Cape, 529 Braunschweig, 261 Brava Island, 650 Brazzaville, 62, 128 Breede river, 220 British Central Africa, 369 East Africa, 528 South Central Africa, 332 Zambesia, 369-70 Bua river, 419 Bubi tribe, 23 Bubye river, 294 Budu, 554 Buffalo river, 296 Buganda, 538 Buluwayo, 383, 396 Bundu, 148 Buntale, 425 Bunyoro, 538 Bushmen, 150, 183, 250, 358 Cabeca de Cobra, 152 Cabinda, 66, 67, 135 Cabindas, 54, 67 Cacullo, 155 Caculovar river, 140 Caledon river, 222 Calvinia, 256 Cambambe Falls, 139 Cameroon, Mount, 5 river, 7 Cameroons, 1, 2 town, 20 Canaria Island, 641 Canary Islands, 636, 641 Caparanga Falls, 86 Cape Agulhas, 195 Castle, 195 Colony, 194 of Good Hope, 195, 197 Point, 216 Recife, 195 St. Martin, 216 St. Francis, 195 Town, 252 Yerd Islands, 636, 650 Capororo river, 157 Cargados Islands, 599, 635 Carmel, 241 Carnarvon, 256 Cathcart, 261 Cathkin mountains, 291 Cattle Damaras, 179 Cedar mountains, 216 Chad Lake, 4 Chambezi river, 91, 407 Champagne Castle, Mount, 222, 291 Chaoni, Mount, 429 Charter, Fort, 381 Chazi river, 91 Chella mountains, 136, 138 Chelomoni mountains, 422, 423 Cheza, Mount, 406 Chibcharagnani Peak, 536, 539, 545 Chikala, Mount, 423 Chikarango Falls, 412 Chiloango river, 45 Chinde river, 412 Chinta lagoon, 422 Chippendall, Mount, 86 Chirenje, 432 Chisumulu Island, 426 Chobe river, 352 town, 521 Chombe Peak, 406 Cidade, 25 Cimbebas, 150 Clanwilliam, 256 Claremont, 254660 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TKAVEL Clarence Bay, 26 Peak, 1, 21 Town, 24 Coanza river, 137, 139 Cockscomb, Mount, 215 Colesberg, 260 Comoro Islands, 599, 629 Compass Berg, 221 Conducia, 456 Congo basin, 77 estuary, 81 Free State, 69 kingdom, 135,145 river, 77 Constantia, 230, 255 Coolies of Natal, 307 Corisco Bay, 39 Islands, 65 Corvo Island, 653 Cosmoledos Islands, 630 Cradock, 260 Cross river, 4 Crystal mountains, 38 Cunene river, 131, 140 Damaka Hills, 167 Damaraland, 166 Damaras, 179 Dando, 154 Danger Point, 195 Dar-es-Salaam, 521 Dar-Fertit, 86 Dasas, 12 De Aar, 257 Delagoa Bay, 297, 330, 473 Delgado Bay, 451 Diana's Peak, 29 Diego-Suarez, 603, 604, 628 Dilolo lake, 79, 85, 410 Doe, Mount, 456 Dogilani, 545 Dombe, 157 Donga river, 7 Donyo Kisali, Mount, 540 Donyo Longonok, Mount, 539, 540 Donyo la-Nyuki, 540 Dove Island, 24 Drakenberg, 222, 290 Drakensteenberg mountains, 216 Dualas, 17 Dum6 rapids, 42 Durban, 323 Dutch, the, in South Africa, 199 East London, 261 Edea river, 8 Eiassi lake, 497 Elephant Lake, 7 Marsh, 405, 420 Plain, 537 Elgeyo, 536, 545 Elgon, Mount, 536, 537, 545 Elmeteita lake, 495, 536, 542 Elobey Islands, 39, 65 Elongo Peak, 138 Embekelweni, 330 Encoge, 152 English, the, South Africa, 204; Natal* 311 Equatorville, 72, 126 Ersteling, 323 Eshi-ELongo, 145 Etembue river, 3, 39 Etosha lake, 141, 173 Eyo river, 39 False Bay, 169 Fans, 51, 56 Fauwera, 586 Fayal Island, 653 Fazokl, 530 Fenoarivo, 610 Fernando Po, 1, 21 Fernao Yaz, 44 Yellozo, 456, 477 Fiari river, 3 Fife, Fort, 402 Fingus, 243 Flores Island, 653 Fogo Island, 650 Formosa, 21 Fort Dauphin, 600, 626 Piddie, 261 Foule Point, 610 Franceville, 63 Frankfurt, 261 Fraserburg, 256 French Point, 82 Equatorial Africa, 35 Frere Town, 588 Frio, Cape, 131, 189 Fuerteventura Island, 642INDEX 661 Ful alis, 12 Funchal, 638 Fwambo gorge, 407 Gaboon, 3, 36 river, 39 Galegas Islands, 635 Gallas, 14, 570 Gambaragara, 518 Gamtoos river, 221 Gamualla, Mount, 492 Ganguellas, 149 Garib river, 221 Gasheka, 4 Gat Rand, 292 Gatberg, 250 Gauritz river, 220 Gavaresi river, 413 Gazaland, 388, 444 Genyi, 110 George, 260 George Town, 26 German East Africa, 480 German South-West Africa, 163 Ghansi, 366 Glorieuse Islands, 630 Gomera Island, 642 Goosha, 534 Gorongoza, 455, 456 Goshen, 336 Gough Island, 32 Graaf Reynet, 202, 260 Graciosa Island, 653 Graham's Town, 258 Gran Canaria Island, 642 Great Batanga river, 8 Great Bushmanland, 216 Great Fish Bay, 159, 161 Great Fish river, 194, 221 Great Hartebeeste river, 222 Great Karroo, 227 Great Kei river, 221 Great Mataman, 179 Green Hills, 26 Griqualand West, 195, 262 East, 262 Groot Fontein, 177, 257 Groot Swarte mountains, 215 Groot Winterberg mountains, 215 Groot Winterhoek mountains, 215 G,uanches, 647 Guay river, 368, 400, 413 Guinea, Gulf of, 1 Gundi-Inyanga, Mount, 456 Gwambas, 465 Halifax Island, 189 Halley, Mount, 31 Hambi Peak, 138 Hameye, 532 Hamilton, Mount, 291 Hanglip, Mount, 292 Hanover, 260 Hanyani river, 371, 413 Hargazo Falls, 532 Harrismith, 327 Hart river, 222 Hartley Hill, 390, 393 Hartzogs Rand, 219 Haussas, 12 Hellville, 629 Hierro Island, 626 Hikwa lake, 78 Hoffmann Falls, 532 Hollam's Bend Island, 163 Holnek, Mount, 292 Hooge Veld, 292 Hopetown, 195, 256 Horta Island, 653 Hottentots, 175, 182, 201, 238 Hovas, 618 Huguenots, Cape Colony, 200 Huilla, 158 Humpata, 159 Hundred Falls, 223 Hygap river, 222, 353 Ibea, 528 Ibeas, 18 Ibi, 4 Ibo, 478 Ibrahim lake, 551 Ichaboe Island, 189 Idia Falls, 7 Igumbi Ndele Peak, 38 Ihuru river, 89 Ikopa river, 606, 607, 610 Imerina, 607 Inhabitants of the Cameroons, 11 French Equatorial Africa, 51 Congo basin, 105 Angola, 145662 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL Inhabitants of Damaralandj 175 Cape Colony, 236 South-East Africa, 306 Bechuanaland, 353 South Zambesia, 399 North Zambesia, 428 Gazaland, 464 German East Africa, 511 British East Africa, 565 Madagascar, 616 Inhambane, 474 Inyagwe river, 413 Inyamkarara, Mount, 456 Iramba, 386, 410 Isabel Peak, 21 Isango river, 556 Isangula, 126 Isipingo, 325 Jssangi, 108 Itasy lake, 609, 611 Itiri river, 556 Ivindo river, 42 Jagersfonteijt, 327 Jamba mountains, 138, 140 Jansenville, 260 Jipe lake, 492, 509 Johanna Island, 629 Johannesburg, 321 Johnston, Fort, 404 Juba river, 529, 532 Junker, Mount, 86 Kaap, Mount, 292 Kabompo river, 132, 368, 414 Kaffraria, 196 Kafirland, 196 Kafirs, 206, 243 Kafue river, 369, 413 Kafukwe river, 386, 413 Kafur river, 550 Kafuro, 517 Kagera river, 496, 498, 499 Kaiser Wilhelm's Bad, 20 Kalabi Mine, 109 Kalahari desert, 167, 344 Kalangi river, 111 Kalk Bay, 254 Kalosa' Cave, 109 Kamies, Mount, 216 Kamorondo river, 92 Kampala, 583, 591 Kaiijamba, 129 Kansalo rapids, 412 Kanuri, 12 Kanya, 364 Kaoko Hills, 167 Kaomba, Mount, 78 Kapte, 540 Karadouw mountains, 214 Karagwe, 495, 517 Karonga, 402, 406 Karroos, 214, 218 Karuma Falls, 553 Kasagama, 559 Kasali mountains, 557 Kashera lake, 554 Kasitu river, 419 Kassai river, 71, 85 Kassali lake, 91, 93 Kassongo, 107 Kasuku river, 97 Katanga, 78, 107 Katima rapids, 132 Katonga river, 503 Katunga, 412 Kau, 529, 591 Kavalli's, 554, 558 Kavele, 527 Kavirondo, 537, 546 Kawkwa river, 7 Kebrabasa Falls, 406, 412, 479 Kei river, 194 Kenge, 128 Kengo river, 86 Kenia, Mount, 535, 544 Kerewe Island, 487 Kheis, 346 Khosib river, 170 Kiaya, 557 Kibali Falls, 87 Kibbi river, 86 Kibiro, 588 Kibo Peak, 493 Kifumaji Flat, 79, 85 Kikassa, 73 Kikuyu, 534, 537 Kilemba, 113 Kilimanjaro, 489, 493 Kiloa, 520 Kimberley, 267, 342 King Akwa's Town, J 9INDEX 663 King Bill's Town, 19 King William's Town, 261 Kingani river, 496 Kingunji rapids, 86 Kiokos, 120 Kipembwe river, 97 Kipini, 529 Kirk range, 406 Kisigali, Mount, 557 Kisimeme, 111 Kismayu, 529, 591 Kitagwenda, 554, 555 Kitangula river, 498 Kitwara, 517, 575 Klipdrift, 263 Klipstad, Mount, 292 Koboleng, 341, 365 Koki, 553 Koko, 530 Kola, 522 Komo river, 36, 40 Koranas, 238 Kosi inlet, 296, 330 Kowambe lake, 91 Kowie river, 258 Krej, 86 Kubango river, 140, 352, 417 Kuilu river, 36, 45 Kuisip river, 170, 173 Ku-Ito river, 417 Ku-Ndo river, 417 Kuruman, 365 Kwa river, 71 Kwa-Kwa river, 412 Kwamouth, 71, 84, 126 Kwango river, 86, 132, 146 Ladder Hill, 31 Ladybrand, 327 Ladysmith, 325 Lagens Island, 653 Laing's Nek, 300 Lambaren6, 63 Lamu, 591 Landana, 66 Landins, 468 Lange Berge mountains, 214 Lange Kloof mountains, 214 Lanji lake, 95 Lanzarote Island, 642 La Praia Island, 650 Las Palmas, 648 Latuka, 366 Lebangwe river, 394 Leikipia, 544 Lemuria, 597 Leopold lake, 503 Leopold II. lake, 71, 85 Leopold river, 97 Leopold ville, 126 Lepelolo, 364 Liba lake, 18 river, 414 Libonta, 414 Libreville, 62 Lidgettown, 325 Ligonya river, 458, 462 Ligonyi mountains, 536 Likilakwa, Mount, 457 Likkiti river, 90 Limon, Mount, 631 Limpopo river, 294, 368, 389 Limvuba river, 294 Lindi, 521 Lion, Mount, 218 Lipalule, Mount, 291 Litako, 341 Liteyani, 366 Little Karroo, 215 Livingstone Falls, 79, 139 mountains, 371, 406, 489 Livingstonia, 371, 402 Liwumba river, 497 Loanda, 129, 152 Loango, 63 Loangwa river, 407, 408, 413 Loangwe river, 410 Lobe river, 8, 18 Lobombo mountains, 290 Lo-Hamba lake, 93 Lohudatu, 366 Loika river, 77, 89 Lokinga mountains, 91, 409 Lomami river, 73, 85, 89 Long wood, 31 Lopez, Cape, 36, 38 Louren9o Marques, 473 Lovedale, 250 Lovili, Mount, 138 Lualaba river, 73, 92 Luama river, 97 Luapula river, 76, 92664 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL . Lubi Falls, 88 river, 73 Lubilash river, 73 Luburi river, 93 Lucalla river, 139 Luebo, 118, 127 Lufira river, 410 Lufu river, 138 Lufubu river, 97 Lufupa river, 93 Luiza river, 111 Lujenda river, 422, 458 Lukango, 151 Lukuga river, 94 Lukugu river, 458, 461 Lukungu river, 126 Lukusasi river, 413 Lukwa lake, 503 Lulua river, 73, 93, 127 , Luluaburg, 73 Lulu-Lowwa river, 97 Lumbwa, 537 Lunda, 110, 150 river, 460 Lunde river, 376 Lunga river, 369 Lungasi river, 7 Lunji, Mount, 456 Lupata gorge, 322, 413 Lurio river, 455, 458 Lusenfwa river, 413 Luvale, 150 Luwambe river, 497 Lydenburg, 302, 323 Lykipia, 544 Mababa Lagoon, 352, 417 Mabas, 12 Mabode, 106 Mabnnda, 386 Machako, 537, 591 Maclear, Cape, 425 Macloutsie river, 294 Ma-Cuancalas, 177 Madagascar, 599, 600 Madeira, 636, 637 Mafeking, 365 Mafiad, 496 Mafungobuzi hills, 400 Maga river, 40 Magalies hills, 321 Magaliesberg, Mount, 292 Maguire, Fort, 404 Magungo, 561 Magwangwaras, 468, 513 Mahe, 634 Majova river, 372 Majuba Hill, 327 Makalakas, 399 Makambitra Bay, 604 Makaraki Salt-pan, 392 Makarikari Vley, 345, 350 Makololos, 385, 387, 438 Ma-Konde, 513 Makua river, 86 Makuas, 468 Malagarazi river, 490, 495 Malagasy, 621 Malange, 137, 155 Malema valley, 458 Maletsunyana river, 222 Malindi, 534 Malisani, Mount, 457 Malosa, Mount, 423 Maluti mountains, 291 Mambirana Falls, 92 Mambunda, 435 Manda Island, 529 Mangoka river, 611 Mangoro river, 605, 610 Manica, 368, 372, 391 tribe, 386 Ma-Nindi, 469 Maningory river, 610 Manitze river. 294 Manjanga, 35 Manyango, 126 Manyara lake, 495, 497 Manyuemas, 107 Maputa river, 296 Maquassieberg, Mount, 292 Marabastad, 323 Marenga-Mkhali) 505 Maringa, 127 Masa, 532 Masai, 572 Masailand, 535, 540 Masasima, 477 Mascarenhas Islands, 599, 630 Mashonaland, 342, 367, 395 Mashonas, 399 Mashukulumbwe, 337INDEX 665 Massi-Kessi, 368, 376 Masupias, 386 Matabili, 381-3, 400 Matabililand, 342, 367, 381, 394 Matadi, 126 mji-tjityisic 1 7q Matoppo hills, 294, 342, 381, 389 Matunda mountains, 422 Mau plateau, 536 Mauchberg, Mount, 291 Mauritius Island, 630 Ma-Vambas, 67 Mavetanana, 606 Ma-Viti, 388 Mawenzi Peak, 493 Mayo Island, 650 Mayo-Kebi river, 4 Mayotte Island, 599, 629 Mazamba Bay, 604 river, 610 Mazoe river, 413 M'Bacovia, 588 Mbam river, 4, 7 Mbanza, 145 Mbengas, 52 Mbili river, 74 Mbinga, 19 Mbomu river, 74, 86 Mbrish river, 139 Mbu lake, 4 Mehinga mountains, 409 Melinda, 588 Melville, 260 Memba, 456, 477 Meme river, 7 Mengo, 583, 591 Mercury Island, 163 Meru mountains, 494 Mfini river, 71, 85 Mfumbiro, Mount, 333, 495, 557 Mgundo-Mkhali, 490 Middelburg, 260 Mikindani, 521 Milanji, Mount, 406 Mindello Island, 650 Minungos, 120 Miranga, Mount, 455, 456 Missala, 408 Mkubure river, 462 Mluli river, 458 Mnioro, Mount, 537 Moanya river, 8 Mobangi river, 74 Modder river, 222 Moero lake, 92 Moheli Island, 629 Mojanga, 625, 628 Mokambo, 456 Molongo's, 127 Molten o, 261 Mombasa, 588 Mombottuta Falls, 92 Monbuttu, 106 Monfia Island, 496 Mongalla river, 88 Monomotapa, 449 Mont aux Sources, 291 Mooi river, 322 Morambala, Mount, 412 Marsh., 422 Morro Grande Island, 653 Mosgu, 12 Mossamedes, 134, 158 Mossel Bay, 195 Mount Hampden, 275, 371, 389 Stewart, 260 Mozambique, 444, 476, 455 Mpanda, 460 Mpango river, 556 Mpiri lagoon, 422 Mpongwes, 51 Mporori, 530 Mposo river, 138 Mpwapwa, 524 Mresi, Mount, 457 Mruli, Mount, 457 town, 550, 583 Msalu river, 462 Mtepwesi river, 455, 458, 461 Mtonia, Mount, 406 Mtsora, 564 Muchinga mountains, 409 Mudzi river, 413 Mugwardie Falls, 88 Mukuru, 108 Mulondo-Zambi, Mount, 138 Mumbimba, 127 Mungo river, 7 Muni river, 39 Munnia's, 591 Mupanda's, 460 Murchison Falls, 553666 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Murchison mountains, 292 rapids, 405 Mushi-Kongo, 145 Mushinga mountains, 91 Mussamba, 111 Mussera, 152 Mussombo lake, 139 Mutu river, 459 Mwambi, 456, 478 Mwanja river, 550 Mwaru river, 497 Mwerango river, 550 Mworongo river, 498 Nabulagala, 583 Naivasha lake, 495, 535, 541 Nakuro lake, 535, 542 Namaramba lagoon, 422 Namas, 180, 182 Namieb desert, 170 Namuli mountains, 455, 457 Namvira Fallf, 420 Nata river, "392 * Natal, 279 Natron lake, 498 Nazareth Bay, 44 Ndobe river, 7 Ndoroboland, 547 Negroes, 11, 12, 124 Nepoko river, 75, 89 cascades, 90 New Barmen, 190 Newcastle, 325 Ngala river, 88 Ngami lake, 141, 172, 345, 352 Ngoko river, 4 Ngorongoro lake, 498 Ngunie river, 42 Niadi river, 44 Niam-Niani, 106 Nieuweveld, 218 Niger Delta, 3 Nightingale Island, 33 Nisbet's Bath, 190 Xjole, 63 Nkala, 477 Nkanda river, 419 Nkomi lagoon, 44 N'Konde plain, 406 Noki, 132, 151 Nomansland, 237 Nossi-Be, 599, 629 Nyando river, 547 Nyanga river, 39 Nyangwe, 97, 107 Nyangy Falls, 97 Nyassa lake, 78, 405, 418 Nyassaland, 369 Nylstroom river, 294 town, 323 Nzoia river, 535 Oatlands, 260 Obenga river, 44 Ogden, 189 Ogoway river, 37, 40 Okahanja, 190 Okavango river, 173, 418 Olifant, 260 Olifants mountains, 216 • river, 220, 294 Oliphant, 256 Omaheke district, 174 Omaruru river, 173 town, 189 Omatako, Mount, 167 Ombuengo river, 173 Omo river, 544 Ondonga, 177 Ongar river, 223 Onyamainty, 607 Ookiep, 256 Ophir, Fort, 449 Oranda tribe, 176 - Orange Free State, 279, 312 Orange river, 139, 167, 221 Orange River town, 257 Orlams, 182 Otyikango, 190 Otyimbingue, 190 Oudtshorn, 260 Outeniqua mountains, 214 Ova-Herero, 148, 179 Ovampoland, 141 Ova-Mpo race, 176 Ovimbundu, 137, 149 Ozi river, 531 Paarl, 257 Pafurie river, 368 Palapye, 336 Palma Island, 642INDEX 667 Palmeirinhas, Cape, 154 Pamba, 155 '* Pampaze rapids, 405, 420 Panga, Mount, 456 Pangani Falls, 496 river, 496, 497 town, 524 Pare hills, 489, 491 Patta Island, 529 Pepiba Island, 522, 593 Penguin Island, 163 Philippolis, 327 Pico do Facho, 638 Pico do Fogo, 1 Pico Island, 653 Pico Ruivo, 638 Pietermaritzburg, 323 Pilani, Mount, 457, 461 river, 461 Pinetown, 325 Piquetberg, 256 Plettenbergs Bay, 195 Plumpudding Island, 163 Pniel Kopje, 263 Pomona Island, 163 Pongola river, 294 Ponta Delgada Island, 653 town, 655 Port Alexander, 159, 161 Port Alfred, 258 Port Beaufort, 220 Port Elizabeth, 258 Port Louis, 631 Port Nolloth, 256 Porto Santo, 638 Portuguese West Africa, 131 East Africa, 443 Port Victoria, 634 Potchefstroom, 321 Potgieter's Rush, 302 Potong mountains,- 291 Potsdam, 261 Pretoria, 321 Prince's Island, 1, 24 Pungo Ndongo, 155 Pungwe river, 368, 410, 460 Pygmies, 60 Qua-Qua eivee, 459 Quathlamba mountains, 290 Queen's Town, 261 Quilimane river, 412 town, 446, 476 Quiloa, 451, 477 Quiteve, 140 Rabai, 540 Ramah Spring, 222 Ramboe river, 36, 40 Randberg mountains, 290 Reboboth, 190 Rembo, 127 Reunion Island, 630 Rhodesia, 368 Riba-Riba, 107 Ribeira-Brava Island, 650 Ribeira-Grande Island, 650 Riketti river, 90 Rio del Campo, 3, 8, 35, 39 Rio del Rey, 3, 8 Ripa, 532 Ripon Falls, 537, 551 % Riversdale, 260 Roast Beef Island, 163 Robben Island, 196, 232 Rodrigues Island, 630 Rolas Island, 24 Rondesbosch, 254 Rorixville, 327 Rosario Island, 653 Rosebery, Fort, 404 Rovuma river, 422, 455, 461 Ruaha river, 496 Ruanda, 534 Rubaga, 583 Rubi Falls, 88 Rudolf lake, 494, 536, 543 Ruenya river, 368, 413 Rufiji river, 496 Rufu river, 496 Ruia river, 372 Ruika river, 77 Rukwa lake, 402, 407, 503 Rumbi river, 8 Ruo river, 420, 444 Rupert Hill, 31 Rusango lake, 555 Ruvuvu river, 498 Ruwana river, 553 Ruwenzori mountains, 538, 558, 560, 562668 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Saadani, 524 Sabakhi river, 534 Sabi river, 389, 392, 410, 458, 460 Saisi river, 407 Sakalavas, 618 Sal Island, 650 Saldanha Bay, 195, 255 Salisbury, 381 Salrey Island, 650 Samba Falls, 44 Samburu lakes, 494, 536 Samokwe river, 390 San Antonio da Praia, 26 San Benito river, 39, 50 San Felipe, Fort, 157 Island, 650 San Januario, 159 San Jao Battista Island, 650 San Jorge Island, 653 San Miguel Island, 653 San Nicolau Island, 650 San Salvador, 133 San Thiago Island, 650 Sand Hout river, 294 Sandwich Haven, 189 Sandy Bay, 29 Sanga river, 436 Sankuru river, 73, 85 Sannaga river, 4, 7 Santa Cruz, 648 Santa Isabel, 24 Santa Maria Island, 653 Santo Antao Island, 650 Santo Antonio, 24 Sanyati-Umfuli river, 412 Schweinfurth, Mount, 86, 87 Semena river, 222 Semliki river, 76, 556, 559 Sena, 479 Senkuyane river, 222 Serra da Neve, 138 Serra do Cristal, 38 Sesse Island, 501 Sette Camma river, 39, 44, 128 Seychelles Islands, 599, 634 Seymour, 260 Shankuru, Mount, 391 Shari river, 4, 74, 87 Shark Point, 8 Sharpe, Fort, 404 Shashani river, 390 Shashi river, 294, 368 Shimiyu river, 496, 497 Shire river, 402, 470 Shirwa lake, 402, 422 Shoshong, 364 Siete Sierras, Mount, 38 Sikoma, 402 Silindi, Mount, 455, 456 Simon's Bay, 230 Simon's Town, 254 Singo, 549 Sio river, 548 Sipungambili, Mount, 455, 456 Sita Tonga mountains, 456 Sneeuw Kop, Mount, 216 Sofala, 474-5 Sokoto, 2 Sombwe, Mount, 109 Somerset Nile, 537, 550 Somerville, 250 Songwe river, 407, 432 Sotik, 537 Spanish Equatorial Africa, 65 Speke Gulf, 497 Mount, 86 Spitskop, Mount, 292 St. Antonio, Cape, 82 St. Augustin, Cape, 602 St. Denis, 633 St. Helena Bay, 195 St. Helena Island, 2, 28 St. John river, 221 St. Lucia lake, 296, 330 St. Mary Island, 601, 628 St. Thomas Island, 1, 24 St. Vincent Island, 650 Stanley Falls, 72, 82, 91, 127 Stanley Pool, 79 Stellaland, 336 Stellenbosch, 257 Stephanie lake, 536, 543 Stevenson's Road, 91, 370, 406, 442 Stolzenfels, 190, 257 Stormberg mountains, 215, 290 Sutherland, 256 Swakop river, 173 Swaziland, 297, 329 Swellaba Point, 20 Swellendam, 260INDEX 669 Tab Ingoko, Mount, 390 Table Bay, 195, 216, 252 , Table mountain, 216, 228 Table of the Cameroon tribes, 16 Gaboon and Ogoway tribes, 52 Congo tribes, 121 German East African tribes, 519 Angolan tribes, 151 South-West African tribes, 186 Cape Colony tribes, 251 Transvaal tribes, 319 Bechuana tribes, 354 North Zambesia tribes, 433 Portuguese East Africa, 472 British East Africa, 566 Taborah, 490, 524 Tamatave, 626 Tana river, 531 Tandora Sungue lake, 459 Tandtjies mountains, 215 Tanganyika lake, 73, 91, 94, 336 Tarabba, 4 Tati Hills, 389 Tati river, 368 Taungs, 342, 365 Tembus, 247 Teneriffe Island, 642 Tengure river, 499 Terceira Island, 653 Tete, 479 Teyde Peak, 643 Thaaba-Bossigo, 241 Thaba-Nehu, 327 Tibati, 4 Tolo Azime Falls, 294 Tongaland, 329, 330 Tongas, 465 Tonke river, 352 Topnaar tribe, 193 Toru, 518 Transkeian Territories, 196 Transvaal, 279, 315 Tristan da Cunha, 21, 31 Tsiafajavona, 607 Tsiafakafo, 607 Tsijobonina river, 611 Tsoakhub river, 173 Tugela river, 295 Tuli, Fort, 381 Tuli river, 294 Tunghi Bay, 478 Tu-Shiiange, 117 Ubangi river, 36, 74, 86, 87 TJbiri district, 455 Mount, 456 Uganda, 531, 549 Ugingo Island, 501 Ugogo, 489 Ugowe Bay, 547 Ugweno, 491 Uitenhage, 260 Ujiji, 489, 524-6 Ukamba Hills, 537. Ukara Island, 501 Ukeredi river, 521 Ukerewe Island, 487, 501 Ulenge lake, 95 Ulunda, 110 Ulundi, 289 Umba river, 484, 496, 497 Umbajin, 390 Umbundu, 148 Uinga river, 221 Um-geni river, 295 Um-Komah river, 323 Um-Komanzi river, 295 Um-hlatuzi river, 296 Um-lazi river, 295 Um-Tafuna river, 295 Um-Tata river, 194 Um-Volosi river, 289, 296 Um-Vosi river, 295 Um-Zimkulu river, 195, 221, 295 Um-Zinzwane river, 294 Uniondale, 260 Unkeya, 108 Unyamwezi, 490 Unyanyembe, 490 Unyoro, 538, 553, 586 Upington, 195 Upingtonia, 160, 177 Upoto, 127 Uranga river, 496 Uriji lake, 499 Urindi river, 97 Urondogani, 551 Urua, 110, 113 Usagara, 484 mountains, 489 Usambara, 491670 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL Usoga, 531, 548 Usongora, 548 Ustiguri Island, 501 U-Sutu river, 296 Utrecht, 302 Uzinja, 548 Vaal river, 222, 263 Vaalpens, 357 Vn-Chibokwe, 120 Vacovia, 588 Va-Luvale, 156 Vazimbas, 616 Yellas Island, 653 Verulam, 325 Vet river, 263 Yiagongo, Mount, 557 Victoria (Cameroons), 3, 19 Victoria, Fort, 381 Victoria Falls, 412, 414 Victoria Nyanza, 495, 501 Victoria Peak, 6 Victoria West, 256 Villa do Porto Island, 653 Vipsha plateau, 406 Virunyo, Mount, 557 Vitu, 529 Vivi, 128 Vogel-Klip, 256 Volo valley, 458 Vryburg, 364 Wa-Boni, 569 Wa-Chaga, 517 Wa-Doe, 512 Wagauda, 575 Wa-Gogo, 512 Wa-Gweno, 516 Wa-Helie, 512 Wa-Huma, 13, 518 Wa-Kangara, 576 Wakkerstroom, 302 Wakoli, 591 Wa-Kwafi, 569 "Walker Peak, 406 Wa-Lunda, 149 Walvisch Bay, 163, 190 Wa-Mbugu, 516 Wambutti, 60 Wami river, 496, 497, 556 Wa-Mwera, 514 Wa-Ndorobo, 575 Wanga, 524 Wa-Ngindo, 514 Wango river, 44, 497 Wa-Nyamwezi, 512 Wanyoro, 586 Wa-Pokomo, 571 Warambas, 437 Warmbad, 190 Wa-Rua, 113 Wa-Sagara, 512 Wa-Swahili, 511, 514 Wa-Taveita, 515 Waterberg, Mount, 292 Wathaka, 532 Wa-Witu, 576 Wa-Yao, 469 Wa-Zarambo, 511 Wa-Zeguha, 512 Weenen, 285 Welle river, 86 Welle-Makua river, 74 Wembere river, 497 Werre river, 86 Wijnberg, 254 Willowmore, 260 Windermere lake, 499 Witte mountains, 215 Witte-Zwarte mountains, 220 Witu, 529, 591 Witwater Rand, 292 Worcester, 230, 257 Wuri river, 7 Yacoas, 145 Yambuya, 90, 127 Yao tribe, 429 Yellala Fails, 80, 146 Yola, 3 Yzerberg, Mount, 302 Zaire river, 77 province, 160, 161 Zambesi river, 85, 132, 410 Zambesia, 275, 337, 338, 367 Zangue river, 459 Zangwe, Mount, 455INDEX 671 Zanzibar, 481, 593 Zimbabye, 371, 373 Zipsha plateau, 406 Ziwe-Ziwe river, 422, 479 Zoa Falls, 420 Zomba, Mount, 423 Zonenghway lake, 42 Zongo rapids, 87 Zouderand Swellendam mountains, 214 Zoutpansberg, Mount, 292 Zuku river, 222 Zulu-Kafirs, 236 Zululand, 282 Zulus, 308 Zumbo, 371, 409, 444, 478 . 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