228 INFLUENCE OF TSETSE ON HISTOEY. 



145. 1897. Sir H. H. Johnston, K.C.B. 



"British Central Africa" (London: Methuen «k Co.), 

 pp. 54, 64, 367, 377-380. 



In Chapter III., dealing with the " History " of British 

 Central Africa, the author writes (p. 56) : — " At first 

 Sena, on the Lower Zambezi, was the headquarters of the 

 Portuguese Administration, and from hence various expe- 

 ditions, during the sixteenth century, were sent southwards 

 to discover the gold mines of Manika — expeditions which 

 were mostly unsuccessful, owing to the unhealthiness of 

 the climate and the presence of the Tsetse-fly," 



Indian buffaloes, introduced into Africa by Livingstone, 

 not affected by the bites of the Tsetse-fly. — "Livingstone also 

 tried [in 1866] to introduce the Indian buffalo,* an experi- 

 ment not repeated until my reinti-oduction of this animal 

 from India in 1895. It is interesting to note that Living- 

 stone's buffaloes passed through the Tsetse-fly country, 

 and, seemingly, were not aflected by the bites of that 

 insect, though they all subsequently died as the result of 

 maltreatment at the hands of the sepoys " (p. 64). 



" And now we come to the Tsetse, pei'haps the most 

 serious of all the many insect pests of Africa in its check 

 to European enterprise. It is difficult to overestimate the 

 importance of the part played by this noxious little insect 

 in preventing the opening up of Central Africa. 



"This was first experienced by the earlier Portuguese 

 expeditions of five hundred or six hundred mounted men 

 which would set out from Sena on the Lower Zambezi in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to secure the gold 

 mines to the north and south. We read in Portuguese 

 records how their horses soon succumbed to the attacks of 

 a fly. The riders were left without steeds and the expe- 

 ditions came to an abortive termination, many of the 

 Europeans dying of fever or succumbing to the attacks of 

 the natives through having to make their way on foot. 

 But for the Tsetse-fly the whole history of South-Central 

 Africa Avould be different. It would have been rapidly 

 traversed by mounted men, not nearly so much ill-health 

 would have pursued explorers and pioneers forced to travel 

 on foot, and the whole question of transport would be 

 rendered infinitely more easy, as coaches and waggons 



* Cf. [49]. 



