FOUNDING THE PROTECTORATE 
9 1 
headman, and my small expedition of fifteen Makua in some considerable 
trepidation. The Lakes Company half feared that Jumbe was going to join 
the Arab movement at the north end. At this time, too, all Arabs in Central 
Africa were much incensed against Europeans by their quarrels with the 
Germans and the Belgians. The way in which they would receive me, there¬ 
fore, was very doubtful. Makanjira on the opposite coast had recently stripped 
and flogged a British Consul and held him up to ransom, and no measures had 
been taken to avenge this insult. After landing near the mouth of the Bua 
river I sent Ali Kiongwe ahead to interview Jumbe and to deliver to him the 
letters that I had brought from the Sultan of Zanzibar. On my journey down 
the east coast of Africa I had stopped at Zanzibar, and had conferred with the 
late Sir Gerald Portal, then Acting Consul-General at that place, on the subject 
OUTSKIRTS OF KOTA KOTA 
of my mission to Lake Nyasa. Mr. Portal (as he then was) had interested 
himself very much in this undertaking to make peace with the Arabs, and 
urged the Sultan Khalifa bin Said (whose own envoy previously dispatched 
had been unsuccessful in bringing the Arabs to reason) to provide me with 
the most authoritative letters to his representatives on Lake Nyasa, notably to 
the Jumbe of Kotakota, who was the Sultan’s ostensible wali, or representative. 
The Sultan Khalifa willingly gave these letters, which were most potent in 
effecting the subsequent results. 
Some hours after Ali Kiongwe had started for Kotakota, a Swahili soldier 
of Jumbe’s came rushing down into our camp, dropped on one knee and seized 
me by the leg, as an act of homage. He then said, “ Master, do not be alarmed, 
Jumbe sends us to greet the representative of the great Queen and of the 
Sayyid of Zanzibar, and he has told us to fire a salute of guns in your honour.’’ 
Shortly afterwards a tremendous fusilade commenced, much to the alarm of my 
porters, who had not understood the purport of Jumbe’s message. We then 
started for Kotakota, Jumbe’s men insisting on carrying me in a machilla. 1 
Jumbe was waiting to receive me as I entered the town. A large house 
and compound was set aside for my use. Oxen were killed for myself and 
1 Machilla is a Portuguese word (Latin Maxilla), which is universally applied in Eastern Africa to a 
hammock or chair slung on a pole and carried by porters. 
