348  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [Nov.  2,  1896. 
COFFEE  PLANTING  IN  BRITISH  CENTRAL 
AFRICA. 
{Appendir  No.  2 to  Sir  II.  Johnston’s  Iteport.) 
In  1S78  a Mr.  Jonathan  Duncan  wits  appointed 
by  the  Chuioh  of  Scotland  Foreign  jNlission  Com- 
mittee to  join  the  Mission  in  what  is  now  British 
Central  Africa  as  a lav  member  and  horticulturist. 
Before  leaving  Edinburgh  the  present  Curator  of  the 
Botanical  Gardens  there  gave  him  three  small  coffee 
plants,  which  he  took  out  with  him  and  planted  in 
the  Mission  gardens  at  Blantyre.  Prior  to  this,  iii 
187C),  the  late  Mr.  John  Buchanan,  C.M.G.,  nad  joined 
the  same  Mission  at  Blant3're  as  a lay  memoer,  es- 
pecially in  charge  of  horticultural  work.  Mr.  Buchanan 
took  a special  interest  in  the  cultivation  of  coffee. 
In  the  year  1680,  the  sole  survivor  of  the 
three  plants  brought  out  by  Mr.  Duncan  boro  a crop 
of  about  l,0n0  beans,  which  were  all  planted,  and  from 
which  400  seeolihgs  were  eventually  reared  in  the 
Blantyre  Mission  gardens.  “ In  1880*,  from  the  400 
trees  i4g  cwts.  of  coffee  was  gathered.  The  S'ze  of 
the  pits  in  which  the  trees  were  planted  were  0 feet 
wide  by  3 feet  detp.  They  were  liiied  up  witli  .alluvial 
soil,  cow  manure,*  and  wood  ashes.  1 believe  this 
accounts  for  the  eiiornious  crop.” 
In  lh79  IvIp.  Henry  Henderson,  a weii-known  lay 
member  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  Mission,  now  dead, 
who  found  'd  the  ihantyre  Station— wlio  may  be  said, 
in  fact,  to  have  founded  Blantvro,  siucc  the  selection 
and  purchase  of  the  site,  was  his  own  doing— brought 
out  wdtb  him  5(1  lbs.  of  Ijiberian  coffoo  seen,  liut  tiic 
introduction  of  this  vai'iety  met  ^^ith  liut  scant  suc- 
cess, and  although  there  are  still  some  survivors 
traceable  to  this  introduction,  it  has  been  found  far 
more  profitable  to  plant  the  small  51ocha  coJiee 
which  was  tlie  kind  originally  introduced  through  the 
j,2edium  of  the  Botanical  Gardens  .it  Bdinbuigb. 
Later  ou,  varieties  of  Jamaica  coffee  were  introduced 
bv  the  Moir  Brothers,  whilst  managers  of  the  African 
Lakes  Company,  Mandala.  The  blue  mountain 
variety  thus  introduced  has  succeeded  vei'}  well  in  the 
Shire  HigblamB,  and  to  a lesi  extent  the  orange 
c jffcfi  naspioopcved.  , , t 
In  1878  Iifr.  John  Buchanan  planted  some  tedeo 
for  the  Church  of  Scotland  Mission  at  Zoiiiba,  on 
the  Mluugusi  St, -cam,  doss  to  ihe  present  site  oi 
the  llesidoncy.  In  1880  Mr.  Buchanan  has  left  tne 
service  of  the  Mission,  for  whom  ho  Inid  worked  four 
years,  and  started  with  first  one  and  tlien  two  of 
nis  brothers  as  coffee  planters.  It  uas  a plucky 
enterprise,  as  they  had  pr.ictically  no  capital,  and 
but  for  the  generosity  with  which  they  were  helped 
and  supported  by  Dr.  Hankin  itheir  parish  minister 
at  Mutbill,  ill  Perthshire)  they  would  probal  ly  liave 
broken  down  for  want  of  funds.  After  Mr.  Bucha- 
nan left  the  service  of  the  Mission,  nothing  fiirtlicr 
was  done  by  that  body  as  regards  coifee  planting 
other  than  to  keep  in  good  order  the  parent  trees, 
one  or  two  of  which  are  said  to  be  still  growing  in 
the  Mission  grounds  at  Blantyre.  For  nearly  ten 
years  (1380  to  1890)  Mr.  Buchanan  and  his  bothers 
were  the  onlv  coflec  planters  in  Ryasaland.  In  my  Re- 
port on  the  tu-st  three  years’  admiuisiratioii  of  this  Pro- 
tectorate I somewhat  oiTOiieously  gave  Mr.  Buchanan’s 
name  as  that  of  the  original  introducer  of  coffee  into 
Briiish  Central  Africa.  This  was  not  quite  correct, 
though  it  was  not  wholly  incorrect.  Mr.  John  Buchanan 
arrived  in  this  country  two  years  before  Mr.  Duncan, 
and  it  was  on  account  of  his  energetic  representations 
to  his  friends  in  Scotland  interested  in  botanical  work 
that  the  Cnvator  of  tbo  Edinburgh  Botanical  Gardens 
iutrustod  these  tliree  clfee  plants  to  Mr  Jonatham 
Duncan  to  convey  to  Blantyio.  Tins  coupled  with  the 
long  ten  years’  work  as  the  sole  coflee  planter  in  what 
is  now  the  British  Central  Africa  Piomctoratu,  may 
f'iiTv  entitle  Mr.  Buchanan  to  be  considered  the  in- 
troducer of  coffee  culture  into  British  Cenlr.al  Africa,  a 
more  potent  factor  of  civiligation,  pgrliaps,  tlian  any 
* 1 quote  iroiii  an  ai  tide  on  tlie  subject  written  by 
Mr.  Jonathan  Duncan,  now  a coffee  planter  in  Central 
Africa,  to  a local  newspaper  published  at  Zoniba,  the 
“ Ceut’ral  African  Planter.” 
other  form  of  commerce  or  futerprise,  and  far  more 
wholesome  than  the  feverish  rush  for  minerals.  In 
1884  Mr.  Buchanan  returned  to  Scotland,  and  wrote  an 
interesting  book  on  his  attempts  to  create  coffee  plan- 
tations in  the  Shire  Highlands.* 
In  1881)  and  1887  the  Buchanan  Brothers  were 
much  encouraged  and  helped  by  Mr.  Consul  Hawes, f 
who,  finding  their  finances  at  a low  ebb,  and  struck 
with  their  eagerness  to  turn  their  abilities  to  account, 
employed  them  to  build  the  Residency  at  Zomba, 
which  is  still  the  best  and  largest — and  perhaps,  one 
may  add,  the  most  durable — building  erected  up  to 
the  present  lime  in  Central  Africa,  north  of  the 
Zambezi  and  south  of  the  Congo.  The  Government 
grounds  at  Zomba  are  a piortioii  of  Mr.  Buchanan’s 
original  coffee  estate,  and  were  sold  by  him  to  the 
Government  for  a nominal  sum.  lu  1888  Mr.  Buchanan 
became  Acting  Consul,  and  when  the  Administration 
of  the  Protectorate  was  started  in  1891,  he  received 
the  appointment  of  Vice-Consul  at  Biantj're,  which  he 
held  up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  His  services  in  re- 
gard to  this  coumry  were  early  recognised  by  Her 
Majesty’s  Goveiiiirient,  and  he  received  a C.M.G.  in 
1890.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  which  took  place  on 
the  9th  March,  1896,  as  he  was  on  his  way  home  for 
a long  holiday,  he  was  still  by  far  the  most  emsidera- 
blo  coffee  planter  in  Briiish  Central  Africa. 
At  the  close  of  1889  Mr.  Eugene  Shairer  arrived 
ill  this  country  to  start  coffee  jilauting.  Mr.  Sharrer 
had  previously  visited  the  Shire  Hi^ihlands  before 
Consul  Hawes’  return  to  England  in  1889,  and  had 
been  assisted  by  the  latter  to  acquire  some  estates  in 
the  Zomba  district,  and  encouraged  to  start  coffee  plan- 
ting. Then  ensue.l  the  declaration  of  the  British  Pro- 
tectorate and  the  immigration  of  British  and  other 
European  planters  became  so  general  as,  in  the  course 
of  a few  years,  to  increase  the  luimber  of  planters 
in  the  Shire  Province  alone  to  something  like  100. 
Coffee  planting  was  now  established  as  the  chief 
industry  of  Nyasalaud,  and  undoubtedly  it  is  almost 
wholly  coffee  planting  which  has  brought  about  such 
a prosperous  change  in  this  part  of  Africa,  and  has 
enabled  our  local  revenue  to  rise  from  nothing  to 
20,000/.  per  annum  in  five  ye.ars. 
Out  of  the  approximate  100  which  forms  about  the 
present  total  of  the  planters,  12  are  Europeans  of 
other  than  British  nationality,  and  consist  nf  4 Dutch- 
men, 3 Germans,  1 Fceuchmaii,  1 Italian,  2 Austrian 
Poles,  and  1 Portuguese  (recently  established  in  Mlanje.) 
Besides  lliese  European  planters,  it  is  pleasant  to 
bo  able  to  record  that  six  natives  who  liave  risen, 
most  of  them  from  the  position  of  scholars  at  the 
Mi.ssion  schools,  have  started  and  are  doing  well  as 
coffee  planters.  One  of  tlicse  men  is  a native  Chief, 
who  surrendered  his  governing  rights  to  ttie  British 
Government,  and  has  gone  in  vigorously  for  coffee 
planting.  The  ether  natives  are  George  Chokobwino, 
“David  Livingstone,”  Tom  and  Sam  Makwito  (these 
two  were  educated  at  the  Lovodale  Institute,  South 
Africa),  and  Donald  Malota.  In  addition  to  these,  I 
may  mention  the  Chi  f Mliainliu,  lire  senior  member 
of  the  native  Council  at  Kotakota,  on  Lake  Nyasa  (a 
Muhammadan),  who  has  shown  himself  intensely  in- 
terested in  all  these  questions  of  planting  and  stock- 
breeding,  and  who  lias  started  coffee  planting  on  a 
small  scale  in  the  Marimba  district.  The  Church  of 
Scotland  Mission,  which  was  the  pioneer  in  the  intro- 
duction of  coffee,  but  which  until  quite  recently  never 
went  in  for  coffee  planting,  has  now  started  a small 
estate  worked  by  its  scholars. 
The  Zambezi  Industrial  Mis.sion  makes  coffee  plant- 
ing its  principal  industry,  and  hopes  in  time  to 
become  self-supporting  from  the  proceeds  of  its  planta- 
tions. 
Tlie  African  Lakes  Corporation,  though  mainly  a 
trading  Company,  have  some  nourishing  coffee  plan- 
tations. 
Coffee  planting  is  at  present  almost  entirely  confined 
to  the  Shire  Province,  and,  indeed,  to  the  much  more 
* “ The  Shire  Higlilinds,”  published  by  Black- 
wood. 
I Now  Her  Magesty’s  Coinmissionor  and  Consnl- 
laeiicr  in  Hawaii. 
