PREFACE 
viii 
Treaties indeed were obtained which advanced British Territory from the 
south end to the north end of Lake Tanganyika, where the British flag was 
planted at the request of the natives by Mr. Swann in the spring of 1890; 
but the said Treaties arrived too late for them to be taken into consideration at 
the time the Anglo-German Convention was drawn up. 
Consequently all our Government could do was to secure from Germany a 
right of way across the intervening strip of territory; and the boundaries 
of German East Africa and of the Congo Free State were henceforth con¬ 
terminous in the district immediately north of Tanganyika. 
Similarly the agents of the King of the Belgians were able to make good 
their claims to the country west and south-west of Tanganyika. Therefore 
British Central Africa did not ultimately attain the geographical limits to which 
I had originally aspired, and which would have amply justified its title. I 
write this in (perhaps needless) apology for a name, which after all is a fairly 
correct designation of a territory in the South Central portions of the continent 
separated by several hundred miles from the East or West Coasts and 
stretching up to the equatorial regions. An almost exact geographical parallel 
to the British Central Africa Protectorate is the State of Paraguay in South 
America; which, like British Central Africa, has only free access to the sea 
by the course of a navigable river under international control. 
This book, however, will deal only with that Eastern portion of British 
Central Africa which has more or less come within my personal experience, 
that is to say it is principally confined to the regions bordering on Lakes 
Tanganyika and Nyasa and the River Shire. 
Although for seven years I have been connected with these countries, and 
have been gathering notes all that time, it is not to be supposed for a moment 
that the results of my work which I now publish deal more than partially with 
the many aspects and problems of this small section of Central Africa. The 
careful reader will be conscious of gaps in my knowledge; but I think he 
will not find his time wasted by vague generalisations. Such information as I 
have to give is definite and practical. During my present leave of absence 
I have deemed it wise to gather together and publish the information I 
possess while an opportunity offered and before such information is useless 
