9 2 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
my men, and quantities of provisions of all kinds were sent in for our 
sustenance. After a day’s rest I had a long conversation with Jumbe, to 
whom I exposed frankly the whole political situation. As soon as I had 
quitted the Shire River I had felt free to take open political action, as 
after my stay in Lisbon there had been a tacit understanding between 
the Portuguese and ourselves that although the Shire province and a portion 
of the east coast of Lake Nyasa were territories not to be seized by either 
Power without arrangement, the west coast of Lake Nyasa was admittedly 
open to British enterprise. I therefore 
advised Jumbe, who was now practi¬ 
cally recognised by the Sultan of 
Zanzibar as an independent Prince, 
to place his country under British 
protection, and to mobilise a sufficient 
number of his men to compel the 
North Nyasa Arabs to agree to make 
terms of peace; and in the event of 
their not so agreeing to place this 
force at my disposal for their coercion. 
Jumbe, in return for all these services, 
was to receive a subsidy of ^200 per 
annum. The slave trade was to be 
declared at an end in his dominions. 
After one day’s deliberation with his 
head men, Jumbe assented to my 
propositions. Treaties and agreements 
were signed, the British flag was 
hoisted, and the first portion of British 
Central Africa was secured. I should 
then have been picked up by the 
Ilala and conveyed to the north, but 
unfortunately the Ilala , unknown to 
me, had been wrecked in a storm, 
and she did not resume her voyages 
on the lake for several years after¬ 
wards. Meantime I waited on and 
on at Jumbe’s, treated by that chief 
with unwearied hospitality, though I 
used up almost all his stock of candles, 
and consumed all his supplies of tinned 
fruits. The only thing I could offer 
him in return for all his hospitality 
was a bottle of yellow Chartreuse. 
J umbe was a very strict Muhammadan, 
especially on the subject of alcohol, but he suffered much from asthma. He 
appealed to me repeatedly for medicine, and as I had no drugs with me I 
was in despair, until it occurred to me that a small glass of Chartreuse might 
at any rate distract his thoughts if it did not remedy the asthma. I gave 
him a taste of what he called “ the golden water.” He at once declared 
himself cured, and the least 1 could do was to hand him the entire bottle, 
which he spent, I believe, several months in consuming. It was the one 
THE LATE TAWAKALI SUDI 
JUMBE OF KOTAKOTA, WALI OF H.H. THE SULTAN 01 
ZANZIBAR ON LAKE NYASA 
