BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
116 
received me well in 1889, and had made a treaty with me ; blit he was incurably 
addicted to the slave trade. An old Arab, named Abu Bakr (a white Arab of 
Maskat), lived with Liwonde, and acted as go-between for the supply of slaves 
to the Swahili caravans. At the beginning of 1893 one of these caravans had 
kidnapped and carried off some boys at Zomba who worked in Mr. Buchanan’s 
plantations. Captain C. E. Johnson, who happened to be staying at Zomba, 
hurried off in pursuit of the caravan, accompanied by Mr. George Hoare 
(formerly a N.C.O. in the 
Royal Engineers) and a few 
Makua police. They came up 
with the caravan in Liwonde’s 
country, and succeeded in re¬ 
leasing the Zomba boys, to¬ 
gether with a large number of 
other slaves, but the slave 
traders managed to elude them. 
On the return of the rescue 
party to the banks of the 
Shire, in Liwonde’s country, 
they were attacked by Li¬ 
wonde’s men. One of the 
Makua police was killed, and 
others were badly wounded, 
while Mr. Hoare had to swim 
for his life down the river till 
he was out of the range of 
the enemy’s guns. Fortunately 
the rescued slaves were not 
recaptured. The whole river 
now was up in arms wherever 
there were Yao. A boat of 
the African Lakes Company 
was coming down in charge 
of some Atonga. It was seized 
by Liwonde’s men, and one of 
the Atonga had his throat cut in Liwonde’s presence. Others, though 
wounded, managed to escape. Finally, the Domira unfortunately chose this 
moment to make one of her rare periodical trips down the Upper Shire to 
Matope, and stuck on a sandbank opposite to one of Liwonde’s towns. When 
we heard the news at Zomba, we scraped together all the forces we could 
collect, but these only consisted of Makua police and Atonga labourers. With 
these men Captain Johnson and I started for the Upper Shire. At Mpimbi 
we were joined by Messrs. Sharpe, Gilbert Stevenson, and Crawshay. We 
fought our way up the river to the place where the Domira was stranded. Here 
we were over three days in a very disagreeable position. Our camp was com¬ 
manded by the higher ground in the vicinity, from which the natives continually 
fired into us. They also kept up a steady fire on the Domira, and Mr. Steven¬ 
son, in going on board that steamer, was gravely, almost mortally, wounded. 1 
1 He was shot through the body just in front of the kidneys, but made a marvellous recovery, and 
subsequently did excellent service in the Protectorate in the Mlanje district. When out shooting game in 
September, 1896, his gun went off accidentally and killed him. 
MR. J. F. CUNNINGHAM 
