FOUNDING THE PROTECTORATE 
ri 5 
through Nyasaland ; but Captain Stairs, who had been very ill with black-water 
fever, died at Chinde before he could embark on the ocean steamer. 
1893 dawned on us with somewhat brighter prospects. I had spent a very 
pleasant Christmas at Blantyre, and had been cheered by the safe return of Mr. 
Sharpe from an extensive journey through the Tanganyika, Mweru, and Upper 
Luapula districts, where he had added to our geographical discoveries, and had 
settled many outstanding difficulties with Arabs and native chiefs. M. Lionel 
Decle arrived at the beginning of 1893 on a scientific mission for the French 
Government. In the course of this mission he had already travelled over 
South Africa from the Cape to Nyasaland. He eventually continued his journey 
CAPTAIN SCL'ATER’S ROAD TO KATUNGA IN PROCESS OF MAKING 
through British Central Africa to the south end of Tanganyika, and thence to 
Uganda and the east coast of Africa. 
In January, 1893, came Mr. J. F. Cunningham to be my private secretary. 1 
In the month of February, 1S93, however, we found ourselves face to face 
with a serious outbreak on the Upper Shire, an outbreak of slave traders 
that had long been threatened. The upper portion of the Shire was ruled over 
by a chief named Liwonde, who was a relation of Kawinga’s. 2 Liwonde had 
1 In 1894 he became Secretary to the British Central Africa Administration. Mr. Cunningham, 
besides organising our printing establishment and Gazette, was—among many other accomplishments—a 
great road-maker. He constructed the road between Blantyre and Zomba as a “holiday task” while I 
was absent in South Africa in the spring of 1893 To praise one’s private secretary is scarcely less 
difficult than to praise oneself; such commendation must be private. Still I should like to acknowledge 
here how much I owe to this gentleman’s unflagging industry and zealous co-operation during the period 
between 1893 and the present day. 
2 Kawinga, to whom constant allusion will be made in the pages of this History, was a powerful Yao 
chief of the Machinga clan, who had settled on Chikala Mountain, near the north-west end of Lake 
Chiloa, at the end of the fifties or beginning of the sixties. He is referred to by Livingstone in his 
Last Journeys as Kabinga. The chief Liwonde was his relation, and had, with some Yao followers, 
acquired the sovereignty of the Upper Shire about thirty years ago. 
