FOUNDING THE PROTECTORATE 
95 
why it was possible to dispatch such a mass of important business in seven 
days, was that I was most ably seconded by Mr. J. L. Nicoll. My having 
secured this gentleman at Quelimane as my second in command really did 
more than anything else to secure the complete success to my mission. We 
started for Tanganyika on the 10th of November, 1889. To obtain as 
much territory for England as possible I journeyed at first in a northerly 
direction, and penetrated as far to the north-east as the southern shores 
of Lake Rukwa, a salt lake of considerable size. Mr. Nicoll, Dr. Kerr Cross 
(who had joined us) and myself, were the first Europeans to discover 
the southern end of this lake. The country all round Rukwa, however, was 
so desolate and inhabited by such a reprehensible set of slave raiders, that 
I concluded no treaties with them, and was thankful to get my expedition 
out of their clutches without loss of goods or lives. Returning to the 
beautiful Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau, we found ourselves again among people 
LANGENBURG, CAPITAL OF GERMAN NYASAI.AND 
who were warm friends of the British, and who everywhere concluded treaties 
with expressions of positive enthusiasm. The A-mambwe, especially, had come 
to look upon the British as their champions against the Arab slave traders, 
and were almost frantic in their expressions of friendship. Nevertheless 
the A-mambwe were very quarrelsome amongst themselves, and when I 
reached the London Missionary Society’s station at Fwambo, about thirty 
miles from the south end of Lake Tanganyika, I found the Missionaries 
were in a serious fix. In the first place they had been for more than a year 
cut off from supplies and letters and were much delighted to get their mails 
and such supplies as I could bring them, but they were still more seriously 
embarrassed because two chiefs were fighting one another, and their servants 
had left them to join the respective sides to which they belonged. A 
little good-humoured argument, however, secured peace between these rival 
chieftains, who in turn concluded treaties with us ; and I reached the south 
end of Tanganyika with no further difficulty except occasional scares amongst 
my porters caused by the dread of Awemba raiders. At the south end of 
Tanganyika I was greeted by Mr. A. J. Swann, who was the master of the 
London Missionary Society’s steamer on that lake. Mr. Swann threw himself 
heart and soul into assisting me in my projects. Unfortunately the Mission 
