I oo 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
Whilst Captain Maguire was thus engaged I had to spend two months at 
Chiromo, settling a great many matters in connection with the Lower Shire 
districts. I did not reach Zomba till the month of September 1891, and here 
I was joined by Captain Maguire. After a brief rest we were both obliged to 
start with a strong expedition for the south end of Lake Nyasa, owing to 
troubles of a complex kind which had broken out between Mponda and other 
Yao chiefs, and between Mponda and Chikusi, a chief of the Southern Angoni. 
We took with us a force of 70 Indian soldiers and 9 Zanzibaris; also a 
7-pounder mountain gun, and marched up the east bank of the Shire. 
Although we had come to mediate between the chiefs whose fighting was 
temporarily stopping communications on the Shire and were not bent on any 
punitive measures except in regard to Makanjira, we were obliged to take 
considerable precautions against Mponda, who was uncertain in his attitude 
towards the British, and who waged these wars chiefly with the intention 
of securing slaves for the Kilwa 1 caravans which visited his country. To 
avoid coming into collision with him unnecessarily we encamped on the 
uninhabited reed wilderness opposite his main town on the east bank of the 
Shire, about three miles distant from the south end of Lake Nyasa. Though 
some of these Yao chiefs had invoked our intervention at a distance, their 
attitude became suspiciously hostile upon our entering their country with an 
armed force. Accordingly Captain Maguire deemed it prudent to throw up 
fortifications round our camp opposite Mponda’s town. These had to be 
erected with stealth as Mponda was continually sending to enquire what 
we were doing, and we were anxious to avoid any attack on his part until we 
were capable of defending ourselves and our stores. Accordingly the defences 
of what Captain Maguire called, half in fun, “Fort Johnston,” were constructed 
during the day-time in separate sections, which apparently had no con¬ 
nection with one another. Mponda was informed, when he came to see 
what we were doing, that these pits and sections of embankment were 
intended as sleeping shelters for the men. We then took advantage of 
a moonlight night, when the moon was half full, to work almost twelve 
hours on end, and by the next morning our camp was completely 
surrounded by mud and sand breastworks behind a revetement of bamboo. 
Before this point was reached, however, an engagement had taken place with 
one of our enemies. Makandanji, a chief who dwelt on the south-east corner 
of Nyasa, had tied up and imprisoned our envoys. His town was about seven 
miles distant from Fort Johnston. Captain Maguire resolved on the true 
Napoleonic policy of crushing our enemies singly, and not waiting for them 
to come to terms as to a combined movement against us. He suddenly fell 
on Makandanji and drove him out of his village, releasing our imprisoned men, 
and scattering Makandanji’s forces, which were never again able to take the 
field against us. Mponda, however, instead of joining Makandanji, seized the 
opportunity to capture nearly all the runaways, whom he forthwith marched 
off to his own town and sold as slaves to the Swahili caravans waiting there. 
Over seventy of the captives he had the insolence to drive through our camp at 
Fort Johnston, at a time when Captain Maguire was absent and I was left with 
only ten men. As soon as Captain Maguire was back and the little fort was 
completed, I summoned Mponda to set all these slaves at liberty. He declined 
to do so, and commenced warlike proceedings against us. We had timed our 
ultimatum for a day which was followed by full moon, and resolved to attack 
1 Kilwa, on the east coast of Africa, was formerly the great distributing depot of the Nyasa slaves. 
