9° 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
Mr. Joseph Thomson in 1890 came out with Mr. J. A. Grant, on behalf of 
the British South Africa Company, and supplemented Mr. Sharpe’s work by 
securing further treaties and concessions in the central region of British Central 
Africa, but the main credit of having secured all this portion of our new 
dependency to the British Flag emphatically lies with Mr. Sharpe, who 
traversed the country with a following scarcely exceeding fifteen to twenty 
men, and, by the weight of his personal influence only, secured these countries 
to British interests, besides adding a great deal to our geographical knowledge. 1 
In my journey from Blantyre to Lake Nyasa along the Upper Shire, my 
progress was beset with great difficulties owing to the civil war which was 
raging between the Yao chiefs, Mponda and Msamara. 
My assistant, Mr. Nicoll, took charge of that portion of the expedition 
which travelled by water, whilst I marched overland. As we neared the south 
end of the lake we were stopped by Msamara’s forces in the belief that we 
were about to render assistance to Mponda. I managed, however, to pacify 
Msamara by making a treaty of friendship with him, and months afterwards I 
succeeded in patching up a peace between him and Mponda. 
Mponda’s reception of us was rather doubtful. He denied having concluded 
any treaty with the Portuguese, but was averse to concluding even a treaty 
of friendship with Great Britain, at any rate without the sanction of the Sultan 
of Zanzibar's representative on the lake—the Jumbe at Kotakota. Mponda 
was a very repellent type of Yao robber, alternately cringing and insolent. 
1 lad not the Universities Mission steamer arrived by good chance to give me a 
passage to Likoma (where I was to see Bishop Smythies) I might have 
been robbed and murdered by Mponda. As it was my retreat to the Mission 
steamer was very like a flight. However, I got away safely with all my goods 
and proceeded to the Island of Likoma. My object in seeing Bishop Smythies 
was to obtain the use of the Charles Janson for a period, in order to enable me 
to bring about peace with the Arabs. At that time the Lakes Company had 
only one steamer plying on the lake, the little Ilala —which besides being 
much out of repair, was too small for the conveyance of even my limited 
expedition. The Bishop was good enough to place his steamer at my disposal, 
for though the Universities Mission then and always declared its intention 
of remaining absolutely neutral in political matters, they were anxious to do 
all in their power to assist me to bring about peace between the Lakes 
Company and the Arabs. 
We then crossed to Bandawe on the west side of the lake. From this place 
Mr. Nicoll proceeded direct to Karonga in the Ilala, bearing letters from me to 
the North Nyasa Arabs. I remained some days at Bandawe, concluding 
treaties with the Atonga chiefs. Then the Charles Janson called in and took me 
down to a point fifteen miles distant from Jumbe’s capital at Kotakota, where 
its commander landed my expedition on the lake shore. His reasons for not 
proceeding to Kotakota arose from two considerations. One was that Jumbe, 
after all, was an Arab and might make common cause with the north-end 
Arabs and seize the steamer. The second was that at that time the harbour 
at Kotakota was unsurveyed and was not thought to be safe. for steamers 
of considerable draught. I must admit that I landed with Ali Kiongwe, my 
1 The late Mr. Joseph Thomson’s claims to fame and to our gratitude are so numerous that it is no 
loss to him to spare a few laurel leaves to Mr. Sharpe. The treaty which Mr. Thomson made with 
the Emperor of Sakatu on behalf of the Royal Niger Company, was alone a transcendent benefit to 
llritish interests never to be forgotten. 
