A RAILWAY REQUIRED 113 



difficulty, and furnishing stone, timber, and other 

 material in abundance, so necessary an adjunct as 

 railway communication should have been so long 

 neglected, fills one with astonishment, especially 

 when account is taken of the number of lines which 

 have been established for purposes which seem 

 trivial in comparison. Not only would a railway 

 from Quelimane to the western frontier bring 

 Blantyre to within a few hours of the sea, but it 

 would serve to remove the unpleasant uncertainty 

 attending the arrival, and at times even the safety, 

 of important consignments of merchandise so 

 frequently nowadays ruined, or lost perhaps, during 

 the more precarious periods of the Zambezi river 

 transport. 



I suppose some day this railway will come. It 

 is almost as necessary for British as for Portuguese 

 purposes — I had almost said more so — and would 

 assuredly serve a most desirable end if it led to the 

 abandonment of Chinde, and the transfer of the 

 British Concession, the d^p6ts of the Zambezi 

 shipping companies et hoc genus omne to Quelimane. 

 The latter would then become a thriving and busy 

 centre, the port of entry into Zambezia, Nyasaland, 

 North-Eastern Rhodesia, and the countries soon 

 to be opened up by the Ime from Cape Tovm to 

 Cairo, and, in addition, would go far to throw 

 open to the extensive travelling public those magni- 

 ficent sporting regions of mountaui and lake which 

 South Central Africa possesses in such numbers 

 and variety. 



