FOUNDING THE PROTECTORATE 
97 
at Mozambique, when matters had been in a most critical state with Portugal, 
was promoted to be Her Majesty’s Vice-Consul ; Mr. Alfred Sharpe and Mr. 
Alexander Carnegie Ross 1 (who had been British Vice-Consul at Quelimane) 
were equally made Commissioned Vice-Consuls; Mr. J. L. Nicoll (who had 
remained a year at Tanganyika to strengthen the British position at the south 
end of that lake) was given an important post in the Administration of the 
new Protectorate ; Mr. John Buchanan, when he ceased to be Acting Consul, 
was made a Vice-Consul; Mr. Crawshay, Mr. Swann, and Mr. Belcher (the 
Commander of the Universities Mission steamer on Lake Nyasa) 2 all subse¬ 
quently joined the Administration of the British Central Africa Protectorate. 
Mr. Monteith Fotheringham, the agent of the Lakes Company at Karonga, 
who had rendered me very great services, preferred, however, to remain in the 
employment of the African Lakes Company, as he was subsequently offered 
the important post of manager at Mandala. 
In the autumn of 1890 Her Majesty’s Government began to consider the 
administration of these new territories. It was finally decided to confine the 
actual Protectorate to the regions adjacent to Lake Nyasa and the River Shire, 
and to administer that Protectorate directly by a Commissioner under the 
Imperial Government, and further to place all the rest of the Sphere of 
Influence, north of the Zambezi, under the Charter of the British South Africa 
Company, subject of course to certain conditions. I was appointed to be 
Commissioner and Consul-General to administer the Protectorate, and was 
chosen by the British South Africa Company as their Administrator north of 
the Zambezi, an unpaid post which I held for nearly five years. 3 
By an arrangement between the Chartered Company and Her Majesty’s 
Government, the former contributed annually for a certain number of years 
the sum of ,£10,000 per annum, for the maintenance of a police force to be 
used by me indifferently in the Protectorate and in the Company’s Sphere. 
The Company also met the cost of administering its own Sphere of Influence 
north of the Zambezi, and further agreed to provide us, by arrangement with 
the African Lakes Company, with the free use of that Company’s boats and 
steamers. 4 * * * * * 
On my return to British Central Africa as Commissioner and Consul- 
General and Administrator for the British South Africa Company’s territories 
to the north of the Zambezi, I appointed to my staff Lieut., now Captain, B. L. 
Sclater, R.E. (who took with him three non-commissioned officers of the Royal 
Engineers); Mr. Alexander Whyte, F.Z.S. (as a practical Botanist and Natural 
History Collector); and, with the consent of the Indian Government, engaged 
1 Now H.M. Consul at Beira. 
2 Now H.M. Vice-Consul at Quelimane. 
3 I preferred to receive no pay from the Company, so that I might not in any way compromise my 
position as an Imperial Officer. 
4 Roughly speaking the Company thus pledged itself to spend about ^17,500 a year on British 
Central Africa. For the first two years, however, the average amount spent per annum did not reach 
this sum, but in the third year it was deemed advisable that I should come to some definite agreement 
with the Company in regard to their annual contribution, which was then fixed at 1 ° addition 
to this allowance Mr. Rhodes agreed to provide as much asZ I0 > 000 for the special purpose of conquering 
the chief Makanjira, who persistently raided the south-eastern portion of our territories. Of this sum a 
little over ^4,000 was actually spent. In 1894 this arrangement came to an end. At the beginning of 
the financial year 1895, the Company ceased to provide any contribution whatever towards the adminis¬ 
tration of the Protectorate, and the Imperial Government returned to them a proportion of the amounts 
already contributed. The Company in 1895 undertook the administration of its own Sphere at its own 
expense, and the Protectorate was thenceforth assisted by contributions from Her Majesty’s Government 
only. 
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