PREFACE 
N ORTH of the Zambezi and in the South Central portion of the continent 
of Africa, bounded on the north by Lake Tanganyika and the Congo 
Free State, on the north-east by German East Africa, on the east, south-east 
and west by Portuguese possessions, lies what is now termed British Central 
Africa, Protectorate and Sphere of Influence. The Sphere of Influence is 
much larger than the actual Protectorate, which is chiefly confined to the 
districts bordering on Lake Nyasa and on the river Shire. The Sphere of 
Influence is at present administered under the Charter of the British South 
Africa Company; the Protectorate has always been administered directly 
under the Imperial Government from the time of its inception. Circumstances 
were so ordered that I happened to be the chief agent in bringing all this 
territory, directly or indirectly, under British Influence, both on behalf of the 
Imperial Government and of the Chartered Company; and though I was 
ably seconded by Mr. Alfred Sharpe (now Her Majesty’s Deputy Com¬ 
missioner), the late Mr. Joseph Thomson, Mr. J. L. Nicoll, and Mr. A. J. 
Swann, it lay with me to propose a name, a geographical and political term 
for the mass of territory thus secured as a dependency of the British 
Empire. 
On the principle that it is disastrous to a dog’s interest to give him a 
bad name, it should be equally true that much is gained at the outset of 
any enterprise by bestowing on it a promising title. I therefore chose that of 
“ British Central Africa ” because I hoped the new sphere of British influence 
might include much of Central Africa where, at the time these deeds were 
done, the territories of Foreign Powers were in a state of flux, no hard and 
fast boundaries having been determined ; therefore by fair means Great Britain’s 
share north of the Zambezi might be made to connect her Protectorate on 
the Upper Nile with her Empire south of the Zambezi. 
