HISTORY 
73 
results of a fight with the Arabs might seriously prejudice the Lakes Company’s 
position, and cut off communication with Lake Tanganyika ; but he was not 
long left the choice of remaining neutral, for the Arabs appear to have come to 
the conclusion that the conquest of all the Nkonde country was impossible 
until they had first driven out the British traders and Missionaries ; for two 
missionaries, the Rev. Mr. Bain and Dr. Kerr Cross, 1 had already settled at the 
north end of Lake Nyasa in the service of the Free Church Mission. Of 
course much of the friction that had arisen between the Arabs and the Lakes 
Company's agent came from the undoubted sympathy which the British traders 
showed for the Wankonde in their hopeless struggle against the Arab forces. 
One fact may be cited in particular as an example of the atrocious way in 
GROUP OF WANKONDE (NORTH NYASA) 
which the Arabs conducted this war of conquest. The Wankonde, who were 
entirely and only armed with spears, had been defeated in an engagement with 
the Arabs, and took refuge on the banks of the Kambwe lagoon, on the shore 
of Lake Nyasa. The Arabs surrounded them, set fire to the dry reeds, and 
compelled the wretched Wankonde to enter the water, where hundreds of them 
were devoured by crocodiles, and large numbers were shot, stabbed, or 
drowned. 2 Several refugees from this and other fights found their way into the 
Lakes Company’s station, which was then unfortified. Mr. Fotheringham’s 
refusal to give them up and his answering the Arab threats by commencing to 
fortify Karonga were no doubt the causes which decided the Arabs to make 
an attack on the Karonga station. Fortunately before this attack took place 
1 Dr. Kerr Cross is still serving as a medical missionary in this part of Africa, where he has done 
great good amongst the natives, as well as having nursed into recovery many sick Europeans. 
2 For a faithful description of these horrors see pp. 8o, 8i, and 82 of the late Mr. Fotheringham’s 
book Adventures in Nyasaland (Sampson Low). 
