NYASALAND AND LOWER ZAMBESI 133 



tionally late, the rivers were all low, and water 

 scarce all over the Protectorate. But if there 

 was not much water in the Shire there were 

 plenty of mosquitoes hovering around it, and 

 the night I spent by its banks at Matope was a 

 bad one indeed. The next day I passed through 

 the Lirangwe cotton and tobacco estate, and 

 reached Blantyre the day after, only to find that I 

 had just missed steamer connection down the river. 



Blantyre, the commercial capital of the Shire 

 Highlands, is certainly a town, as towns go in 

 Central and East Africa. It is chiefly note- 

 worthy on account of its beautiful cathedral, 

 built by the late Dr. Ruffel-Scott, and because 

 of Mandala, the business suburb of Blantyre 

 proper, which constitutes the headquarters of 

 the African Lakes Corporation in Africa. At 

 Blantyre, too, is the terminus of the Shire 

 Highlands railway, so that the place is one of 

 very considerable importance. 



The great problem of Nyasaland is the question 

 of transport. In the earlier days of British 

 Central Africa, communication with the coast 

 was effected by means of the Shire and Zambesi 

 rivers. With one or two small breaks — the 

 Murchison Cataracts near Katungas, a few miles 

 south-east of Blantyre, being the only really 

 formidable obstacles — communication by means 

 of these rivers was maintained between Lake 

 Nyasa and the Indian Ocean during the greater 

 part of the year without difficulty. Such a 

 method of transport had naturally much to be 

 said for it. It was cheap, no great capital 

 charges were involved, and the efficiency of the 

 service was by no means bad. Of recent years, 

 however, Lake Nyasa has sunk many feet. The 

 Shire is merely an overflow pipe from Nyasa, 



