HISTORY 
6 3 
1825-6, and in their raids and conquests almost penetrated as far as the southern 
shores of the Victoria Nyanza, whilst they were constantly heard of on the east 
coast of Tanganyika. In the west and south-west of Nyasaland they had 
founded kingdoms and enslaved the local inhabitants, when the Yao from the 
north-east hurled themselves on the fertile Shire districts. So that the unfor¬ 
tunate Nyanja people were caught between Zulu and Yao, and suffered greatly. 
The British missionaries and explorers, however, saw little of the Zulu raiders 
in those earlier days. 1 At the beginning of the “sixties” they were chiefly 
concerned with the Yao invasion. After in vain attempting to defend their 
Nyanja converts from the attacks of the Yao, the Universities Mission lost so 
many of its members from sickness, and was additionally so discouraged 
by the abandonment of Dr. Livingstone’s schemes, that it withdrew from the 
country for a time. Livingstone and his Expedition were recalled by the 
British Government at the end of 1863, and quitted Zambezia in 1864. 
The fact was that the British Government was at that time discouraged 
from any further work in the Zambezi countries by the following obstacles : 
the political opposition shown by the Portuguese; 2 the acknowledged sway 
of the Portuguese over the coast line which made it impossible to communicate 
with any British Possessions which might be founded in the interior; the 
unhealthiness of the coast lands ; and the seeming absence of any easy way 
into the Zambezi River, all the known mouths of which were cursed with 
dangerous and shallow bars. The discovery of the Chinde mouth, which 
afterwards revolutionised the whole question, had not then been made ; or. 
it may be, the Chinde branch of the Zambezi as an easily navigated river did 
not then exist, for there have evidently been great fluctuations in the Zambezi 
Delta with regard to the course taken by the principal body of its water. 
Following on Livingstone’s first journey across South Central Africa, a great 
interest had sprung up in France and Germany regarding the existence of the 
reported Central African lakes. The German Missionaries in the pay of the 
Church Missionary Society in East Africa, had discovered the snow mountains 
of Kenia and Kilimanjaro and had reported, from native information, the 
existence of the Victoria Nyanza, of Tanganyika and of Lake Nyasa. Imre- 
most amongst the African explorers of that day, and, at the time, second in 
importance to Livingstone only, was a young lieutenant in the Indian Army-— 
Richard Francis Burton—who, stationed at Aden, had attempted the exploration 
of Somaliland with a brother-officer named Speke. After some difficulty 
Burton had induced the Geographical Society and Her Majesty's Government 
to provide him with the funds for an expedition which would start from 
opposite Zanzibar to discover the great Central African lake or lakes. He 
chose Lieut. Speke as his companion, and together they discovered Lake 
Tanganyika, Speke afterwards being dispatched by Burton to look for the 
great lake of Ukerewe, which Speke declared with truth to be the main source 
of the Nile and which he named the Victoria Nyanza. Burton and Speke 
were the first Europeans to arrive on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. They 
explored its northern half, but not very much work was done in the way of 
1 Livingstone however came in contact with them when he explored the western shores of Lake 
Nyasa. 
2 But it must be distinctly stated that throughout the whole course of Livingstone’s first and second 
Zambezi expeditions though the Portuguese Government may have viewed with distaste the interest 
evinced by England in the Zambezi and the interior of East Central Africa, the courtesy and kindness 
shown by the Portuguese authorities to Livingstone and the rest of his expedition were praiseworthy 
in the extreme. For particulars of this see my Life of Livingstone. 
