7° 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
of Livingstone, bnt after establishing itself in the Shire highlands in 1862 had 
been obliged to quit that country owing to the hostilities shown by the Yao. 
Since that time the Mission had concentrated itself at Zanzibar, and had 
founded stations on the East Coast of Africa. That really great man, Bishop 
Steere, the third of the Missionary bishops to Central Africa, had set his heart 
on reopening work in Nyasaland. He walked overland from the Indian 
Ocean to the east coast of the lake. Subsequently Lake Nyasa was reached 
by the Rev. W. P. Johnson, accompanied by Mr. Charles Janson. The latter 
fell ill, and died on the shores of Lake Nyasa In his will he bequeathed a 
sum of money for the construction of a Mission steamer to be placed on the 
lake. Other subscriptions were raised, and eventually the Charles Janson was 
launched on Lake Nyasa, where she still exists. The Rev. Chauncey Maples 
and other recruits from the Mission had meantime joined Mr. Johnson. Bishop 
Steere had been succeeded by Bishop Smythies, 1 who if anything took an 
increased interest in the establishment of his Mission on Lake Nyasa, to which 
lake he paid repeated visits. The Rev. Chauncey Maples was made Arch¬ 
deacon of Nyasa. 2 Seeing the troublous condition of the Yao countries, and 
the shores of Lake Nyasa, where the unfortunate A-nyanja inhabitants were 
alternately raided by Magwangwara, 3 Arabs and Yao, the Universities Mission 
resolved to establish its headquarters on the Island of Likoma, which is distant 
about eight miles from the east coast of Lake Nyasa, and consequently is not 
so subject to the attacks of the Magwangwara or Yao. 
The Livingstonia Mission under the able guidance of Dr. Robert Laws, M.D. 
had been for years making steady progress on the west coast of Lake Nyasa. 
Their first experiments at Cape Maclear, 4 a promontory which divides the 
southern end of the lake into two gulfs, were not very successful. The settle¬ 
ment of Livingstonia,—which still exists but where only native adherents of 
the Mission dwell at the present time,—proved to be extremely unhealthy for 
Europeans, and many missionaries died there. Dr. Laws decided, therefore, 
to transfer the headquarters of the Mission to Bandawe, about midway up the 
west coast of the lake, a place in the middle of the Atonga country. Here the 
Free Church Mission was confronted with an immediate difficulty in the shape 
of the Angoni.-Zulu of the interior, who were gradually exterminating and 
enslaving the indigenous people of the lake-coast, known as the Atonga, who 
were related in origin to the A-nyanja stock. The Free Church Mission, 
therefore, set itself to work to conciliate the Angoni, and obtained such 
influence over them, after some years, that they stopped to a great extent their 
raids over the coast people. At any rate the Mission stations served as a 
harbour of refuge for the harried Atonga, who were eventually able to recover 
their position and assert themselves against the invaders. 
About the end of the seventies the London Missionary Society resolved 
to take up Tanganyika as a sphere of work. Their journeys thither were made 
overland from Zanzibar; but when they decided to have a steamer placed 
on Tanganyika they found it easier to send its sections by the Lake Nyasa 
route. The explorer, Joseph Thomson, had reached the north end of Lake 
Nyasa in 1880, and had journeyed thence to Tanganyika. This exploration 
1 Died at sea on his way back to England in 1894, worn out by ten years of incessant toil and physical 
fatigue. 
2 Became Bishop of Likoma in 1895, and was drowned in Lake Nyasa a few months afterwards by 
the capsizing of his boat in a storm. 
s A section of the Angoni-Zulu. established east of Lake Nyasa. 
4 Named by Livingstone after the Astronomer-Royal of Cape Town. 
