NYASALAND AND LOWER ZAMBESI 129 



and I longed to get a sight on him, for he carried 

 a truly magnificent head. 



The country hereabouts is fairly densely popu- 

 lated, and the main road leads past large numbers 

 of kraals, the majority of the inhabitants being 

 Achipata and Achewa, whilst a few Angoni and 

 Yao are occasionally met with. 



The Nyasaland Administration takes every 

 care of its native population, for it is, of course, 

 not only an obligation on Great Britain to take 

 up the white man's burden in Nyasaland, as 

 she has done in other parts of Africa, but the 

 population of this Central African Protectorate 

 is great in comparison to the size of the country, 

 and contributes a very large percentage of the 

 revenue in the shape of hut taxes — in one recent 

 year nearly 43 per cent, of Nyasaland's income 

 was contributed directly by the natives. Then, 

 too, much of the transport work of the country 

 — particularly in Angoniland, where there are 

 neither railways, lakes, nor navigable rivers — is 

 done by natives. The system of native ad- 

 ministration in vogue in the Lake Protectorate 

 is good, although there are one or two directions 

 in which reform might well be instituted. For 

 instance. Native Commissioners and Assistant 

 Native Commissioners might, one would think, 

 be spared the ghastly task of personally super- 

 intending the hanging of murderers. 



The average Englishman of good family and 

 custom — and this type represents the average 

 Nyasaland official — naturally thoroughly dreads 

 such duties — and I cannot see why he should 

 not be excused from undertaking these gruesome 

 tasks. It is quite right that native murderers 

 should meet the extreme penalty of the law 



