102 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Auc. i, i8 94 . 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA. 
NEWS OF OLD FRIENDS. 
Our file of the British Central Africa Gazette, ex- 
tends up to 30th April and ccntaiue a great deal of 
interestDg information. Before leaving for Europe, 
Mr. Johnston o.u , the (Jornmusioner wan, oa the4lh 
April, entertained at luncheon by the Shire High- 
land readouts, at the Court House, Blautyre. At 
the meeting beld afterwards, the following subjects 
(itter a'ia) were discuteed -. — The future prospeots 
of the country ; Begulations dealing with native 
labourers • the protection of caravans cn roadd ; 
the route to be taken by the proposed railway, 
Import duties; measures to prevent the intro- 
duction of coffee leaf disease into this country, 
etc. The meeting was a satisfactory one, and has 
been of much asristenoe to H. M. Commissioner 
in enabling him to ascertain on the eve of his 
departure for England, the views of the European 
residents on various questions. — Mr. Vice-Consul i 
Sharpo who acts for Mr. H. H. Johnston, Jl M. 
Commissioner and Consul-General, during bis 
absence, returned in the middle of March from a 
journey round Lake NyaEa — As evidence of how 
the people seek British protection wo learn, that the 
native population clustered round Fort Maguire 
now numbers over twelve hundred. 
Wo read that April was to 
witness a considerable exodus of Adroinittralion offi- 
cials Being home on leave of absence. Mr. Alexander 
Whjte P.Z.S., returns to England after three years' 
hard work in Britieh Oenr<il Africa. During hie 
absence his place will te taken at Zomba by Mr. 
McOlounie who will be glad to receive and acknow- 
ledge Natural History Specimens. Messrs. King, 
rnillier, Whicker, Bell, and Houro are all leaving 
during April lor a visit to Englsm!. Vice-OoHbul 
King will be replaced duriug his abtence from 
Tehiude by Vice-Ooneul Belcho who has arrived there 
from Delugoa Bay. 
Another Ceylon man's work is referred to: — 
Mr. T. H. Lloyd is surveying the Central Shire 
Cataract region) a part of the riv.r which has been 
left untouched by the map maker since Li »ir gst< ne's 
first rough survey. Mr. Vice-G nnul Sharp e has fixed 
by latitude and longitude the positions of all im- 
portant places from Tshikwawa on the Lower Sh rj 
to the stores of Lake Mweru aid to Fort Rosebery 
the north end of the Johnstone Falls on the river 
Luapula. The Commissioner has made surveys of 
the Shire from Tahiromo to Tshikwawa acd from 
Matope to Lake Nyasa and has besides laid down 
on the map a good deal of the country rouud Zomba, 
Mlanje, Tshiromo, and Blautyic. Tho late Mr. 
Peile surveyed the whole of the Lower Shire Pro- 
vince, Cap'nin Sclater r, e. mapped out the Mwauza 
basin, M'anje, and ether Shire districts. Oth. r 
work has been done by Mr. Crawshay on the North 
West of Lake Nyasa and is being iens by Captain 
Edwards on the South Ea3t and South West of the 
same Lake. In addition Commander Carr R.N. has 
surveyed the Lower Sbire from Tshiromo toPinda. 
All this wo k is beiDg forwar ed to the R'yal Geo- 
graphical Society and^it is hoped that in time a 
really accorate map of the Eastern pa-t of British 
Central A'rica may be produced. 
NOVELTIES FOR ENGLAND : MR. WHYTE's COLLECTION. 
Amongst the Natural History collections recently 
sent to England there were many novelties in 
beasts, birds, reptiles, fish, molluscs and inlets. 
It is a very rare thing n w a doys to discover 
new mammals : nevertheless in the last consign- 
ment of specimens despatched by the Commissioner 
there were a new antelope from Lake Mweru and 
a new species of Cgrcopithecus Monkey from Mt. 
Mlanje. The Antelope — a handsome water buck — 
was discovered by Mr. Crawshayi and has been 
named after him — Cohus Crawshayi 
Mr. Whyte's journey home will be no sinecure. 
He has in charge an extensive managerie of unruly 
beasts and querulous birds which he hopes to deposit 
safely, living or dead, in the Zoological gardens. 
Among them is a larce Wart H"p, orginally from 
Lake Mweru. By a /aeon <le porta this nnin-ti) is 
described aR" tame "; that is to say he will not run 
away from his native attendants who however not 
infrequeutly have to yield place to bis impetuous 
charges. The lower incisors and can nee of this wart 
hog can be used on timber with the effect of a 
sharp chisel: it is therefore merely a matter of 
mathematical calculation to those that know him 
how long he will take to eat his way through the 
planks and beams of his travelling cage. A native 
carpenter travels in attendance to build up and 
repair as the pig destroys. In this way it is hoped 
that he may reach the dock of the ocean steamer 
still in his cage. 
Mr. Whyte conveys to Eneland at least a doren 
creatures which have never been exhibited before in 
tie Zoological Gardens. We therefore wish him 
eood luck and warm weather between Madeira aD<l 
Londor. The English Channel is a sore trial to 
tropical animals. 
We mu?t warn our readers againat the ritk of 
confuf ion between this division and that of Britten 
Eastern Africa or "Ibea"esit used to be called— 
hetween Nyassaland or Blantyre, for instance, and 
Uganda. About the latter Lord Stanmore has been 
holding forth in the House of Lords, and it is quite 
evident that attractive as the country is from Kiokiyu 
to Uganda — and we have more to say about it — some 
time must elapse before it is ready for planters. At. 
Blantyre. on the other hand, great progress has 
been made in settlement and planting, and the 
London ccrrespondtnt of an evening contemporary 
—who, however, seems rather mixed over Central 
and EaEt Africa — shows that Messrs. John Gordon 
& Co , formerly of Kendy, and still of London, 
have been forwarding pulpers to Blantyre. This 
firm could not give tbe ccrre spondent tbe infor- 
mation which has repeatedly appeared in our 
columns from Blantyre correspondents— ex-< eylon 
residents— as to coffee fields and crop : the yield 
of young ceffee being 5 cwt. per sore- Tbe 
pioneer planter is Mr. John Buchanan, c.m.o., (no 
connection of any gentleman of tbe name in 
Ceylon or Assam,) who went out as a lay Mission 
Agent and began planting coffee 10 or 12 years 
ago. The area now planted altogether, we should 
say, must cover a few hundred acres, and the 
cost of labour is very favourable, while land is 
got on very easy terms 8nd good sport must be 
readily available. We are thus answering our 
correspondent " £5,000 " offhand ; but in a few 
days we shall be able to give him more definite 
information, on most of the points raised by him. 
Meantime to resume our notice of the latest 
African Gazette, an interesting account is given of 
Tete, a town in Portuguese East Africa :— 
Lieuteoaut Commander Carr, r. n. has recently paid 
a visit to Zomba to see the Commissione'. He left 
Tete after the middle of March having landed mo<t of 
the Tele .raph gear safely. Captain 0«rr enjoyed his 
visit to Te'e and made some very interesting jour- 
neys about the Central Zambezi penetrating as far 
inland as the Jesuit Mission in Buroma (beyond the 
Juebrabaco Falls). This was tho first time British 
Sunboats has ever visited Tete, but it evidently will 
not be the last judging from the ease with which 
they got there (never touching bottom) and the 
plewsan' nf ss of their stay, rap'ain Ca-r speaKs warmly 
of the kindness an'! hospitality received at the hands 
of the Enroptan Portuguese, prominent among whom 
is the wideU -known SeHier Nune', the frierd and 
g- iide of Livine-tone. [Senhor Nnnes is the bretter 
of thelate ex-British Vice-Cnsul Nures at Qr"elimau6~|. 
Cap'atn Carr pooh pooh' J the ide»of a quarn 1 \ e'wern 
the Euglish ai d Portuguese at T^te in the matter of 
the Telegraph and poinie l out that a ereat dis'inr- 
tion should be drawn between the Pcrtuunese of Eu- 
ropean birth and the half Castes and Goanese. 
