86o 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[June  i,  1896. 
continental  manufactnrera,  is  apparently  competing 
against  them,  and  has  just  issued,  through  his 
Loudon  agents,  a circular  in  which  after  quoting  bells 
in  1 to  5 cwt.  lots  at  Is  lOd  per  lb.  (the  other  refiners’ 
quotation  of  Is  lOd  per  lb.  only  applies  to  10  to  20  cwt. 
parcels),  he  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  it  is  pretty 
safe  for  buyers  to  take  advantage  of  the  presnt  state 
of  the  market  to  lay  in  supplies  on  that  basis.  To 
that  view  we  should  he  very  loth  to  subscribe. — Chemist 
and  Diufigist,  April  25. 
DEATH  OF  MU.  JOHN  BUCHANAN 
BUITLSH  CENTRAL  AFRICA. 
Me.ssrs.  W,  H.  Davies  Co.  write  to  us!  — 
We  have  received  the  following  notice  fifon 
Mr.  Robert  Buchanan  dated  .Michiru,  British 
Central  Africa,  March  14th,  ISOO  : — “ I gricvt*  to 
intimate  to  yon  that  I have  receive<l  a telegram 
today,  stating  that  my  brother  John  Buchanan, 
who  left  here  on  the  2nd  inst.  for  Enro])e  was 
taken  ill  on  the  River  .Journey,  ami  diet!  in 
high  fever,  soon  after  reaching  Chinde  on  Monday 
9th  March.” 
In  the  British  CtnUal  Africa  Gazette  of  the 
1st  nit.  we  read  : — 
We  deeply  regret  to  announce  the  death  ot  Mr. 
.John  Buchanan.  C.M.G.,  British  Vice-Consul  in  this 
Protectorate.  Mr.  Buchanan  had  started  to  return 
to  England  with  his  wife  and  child.  Upon  reaching 
Chinde  he  became  very  ill.  presumably  with  fever, 
and  died  in  a few  hours.  Mr.  Buchanan  left  Blan- 
tyre  seemingly  in  good  health.  His  illness  comnicuced 
as  he  was  travelling  down  the  Lower  Shire  and 
culminated  in  this  serious  attack  at  Chinde  which 
proved  fatal. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  dilate  on  the  loss  to  this 
community  which  is  brought  about  by  Mr.  Buchan- 
an’s death.  He  was  almost  the  only  pioneer  left  of 
the  first  band  of  Scotchmen  who  took  up  the  work 
which  Livingstone  laid  down.  Mr.  Buchanan  c ime 
out  to  this  country,  we  believe,  in  1870,  having  been 
appointed  horticulturist  to  the  Church  of  Scotland 
Mission  stations.  After  a change  in  the  Mission 
staff,  which  occurred  consequent  on  a dissidence  of 
feeling  between  the  manag.ng  committee  of  the 
Mission  and  its  servants  in  Africa,  Mr.  Buchanan  re- 
signed his  appointment  and  set  up  as  a coffee 
planter.  He  was  practically  the  first  person 
to  introduce  the  cultivation  of  coffee  in  a practical 
way.  It  was  stated  by  the  Commissioner  in  his  1894 
report  that  Mr.  Buchanan  first  introduced  the  coffee 
plant.  There  is  some  doubt  about  this  detail— the 
priority  of  the  experiment  being  credited  to  one  or  two 
other  people — but  for  all  practical  purposes  it  is  cor- 
rect to  s ly  that  “Mr.  Buchan  in  started  coffee 
planting  in  British  Central  Africa.  Assuredly  with- 
out his  dogged  perseverance  and  persistent  efforts 
during  some  seven  or  eight  years,  British  enterprise 
in  this  part  of  Africa  would  have  perished  still- 
born, or  would  have  been  confined  to  the 
evangelising  efforts  of  the  missionary  societies. 
Though  ceasing  to  be  a lay  member  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  Mission,  Mr.  Buchanan  never  lost  his 
interest  in  Mission  work,  and  being  almost  the  best 
Yao  linguist  that  this  country  has  yet  produced  he 
was  able  to  assist  the  Mission  by  translating  portions 
of  the  Bible  into  the  Yao  language.  He  also  maintained 
for  years  a school  in  connection  with  the  Mission 
at  Mlungusi.  When  Consul  Hawes  was  transferred 
from  the  Nyasa  Consulate  to  another  post,  Mr. 
Buchanan  becamo  Acting  Consul  and  remamed  so 
until  September,  1891.  In  fbe  year  1889  he 
afforded  great  assistance  to  the  Commissioner  in 
making  treaties  with  the  native  chiefs  and  in  lay- 
ing the  foundations  of  the  present  British  Vrolec- 
torata.  For  these  services  he  was  made  a C M.G. 
Unon  the  lapse  of  his  appointment  as  Acting  Consul 
he^  received  that  of  Vice-Consul  which  he  retained 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 
It  would  seem  a.s  though  Mr.  Buchanan,  like  so 
many  others,  had  fallen,  victim  to  the  terribly  un- 
healthy Zambezi  valley.  Only  a few  weeks  ago  he 
was  at  Zomba  paying  firevvcll  viiits  aul  remukal 
to  he  writer  of  this  notice  th  it,  althoug’i  he  was 
thot  in  good  health,  he  dreaded  the  journey  to 
Chinde  as  he  had  never  dreaded  it  before;  he  had 
an  instinctive  feeling  that  he  would  suffer  severely 
in  passing  through  this  malarial  district,  and  referred 
to  the  analogous  case  of  the  late  Mr.  Monteith 
Fotheringham  as  one  which  had  caused  him  con- 
siderable uneasiness. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  this  fact  of  the  200  miles  of 
unhealthy  Z imhezi-Shire  marshy  country,  which  is 
our  present  road  to  and  from  the  coast,  is  a moat 
serious  obstacle  to  the  satisfactory  settlement  of 
British  Central  Africa.  The  days  and  days  which  are 
passed  in  uncomfortable  little  steamers  in  these  fetid 
marshes  are  quite  sufficient  explanation  of  the  deaths 
wliich  occur  from  time  to  time  amongst  the  people 
arriving  at  Chinde.  Chinde  itself  is  noLan  unliealthy 
place,  neither  is  Blantyre,  nor  Zomba,  nor  many 
other  settlements  in  the  highlands  of  British  Central 
Africa.  It  is  the  intervenning  malarial  lowlands  that 
cause  so  much  damage  with  their  generation  of 
poisonous  malaria  In  the  days  to  come,  when  the 
railway  is  made  from  Blantyre  to  Quelimane  via 
Chiromo,  and  when  in  one  day  we  can  pass  from 
our  healthy  highlands  to  a comfortable  ocean- 
going steamer,  the  dangers  of  residence  and  travelling 
in  British  Central  Africa  will  be  almost  at  an  end. 
VARIOUS  PLANTING  NOTES. 
Fiukf.  Machineuv. — We  would  draw  attention  to 
the  adverasemeiit  in  .another  column  on  this  .sub- 
ject. I\Ir.  Lehmann  has,  we  learn,  made  the  laigest 
coir  fibre  plant  for  the  West  India  Fibre  Company, 
an  American  concern,  ever  ordered,  to  produce  per 
day  10  tons  of  fibre  for  spinning  and  mattress 
purposes. 
Tea  Company  Dispute. — In  February  last  the  Dim- 
bula  Valley  (Ceylon)  Tea  Company,  Limited,  was  is 
sued  with  a capital  of  i'200,000,  and  it  met  with  a very 
good  reception  amongst  investors.  According  to  the 
l ist  mail  advices  from  Ceylon, a difficulty  his  arisen  in 
connection  with  the  sale  of  the  Belgravia  and  Elgin  es- 
tates to  the  company,  and  Sir  John  Muir,  who  has 
been  in  the  Dimbula  District,  is  understood  to  have 
telegraphed  to  England  to  stop  the  transfer  of  the  pro- 
perty until  his  arrival  home.  In  the  meantime  the  sale 
was  completed,  aud  the  estates  have  been  worked  for  the 
company. — G'tVy  Leader,  April  25. 
Toij.acco  in  India  la  an  article  in  the 
rioiiccr,  it  is  pointed  out  that  not  only  ha.s 
India’s  ex))ort  trade  in  the  raw  article  fallan 
aw.a3G  but  also  that  the  trade  in  the  manufactured 
article  remains  practically  what  it  was  20  3'ears 
ago,  i.e.,  confined  to  insignificant  ilealings  with 
the  Maldives,  the  Straits  Settlements,  C'e3lon  and 
Arabia  &c.,  the  total  value,  of  which  in  1894-95 
was  R34..382.  On  the  other  hand  imports  of  manu- 
factured tobacco  (other  than  cigars)  valued  in 
1893-94  and  1894-95  at  17J  and  14s  lakhs  respec- 
tively have  about  trebled  in  valpe  <luring  the 
above-mentioned  period.  The  only  satisfactory 
feature  is  stated  to  be  the  rapid  progress  made  in 
the  export  tr.ade  in  cigars,  which  during  the  past 
ten  years  has  increased  from  230,924  lb.  and 
valued  at  Rl58,892  to  593,539  lb.  valued  at 
R(5,08,944  (in  1894-95)  the  United  Kingdom  being 
the  chief  ma  ket. 
The  Best  Soaps  for  Warm  Climates  are 
CALVERrS  TOILET  SOAR  (fid.  Tablets)  and 
PRICKLY-HEAT  SOAP  (fid.  and  Is.  bars),  plea- 
santly perfumed,  for  Bath  or  Toilet  coutainiug 
10  (ler  cent,  of  Pure  Carbolic.  Very  .serviceable 
as  preventives  of  Piickly-heat  and  other  skin 
irritation.  Sold  at  Chemists,  Stores,  &c. 
F.  C-  CALVERT  & C0->  Manciiester. 
