FOUNDING THE PROTECTORATE 
n 7 
We were getting anxious as to our position, owing to the possible exhaustion of 
our ammunition and the fact that the enemy had reoccupied the banks of the 
Shire behind us, thus cutting us off from overland communication with the 
Shire Highlands. The boats which attempted to go up or down the Shire 
were fired at, and several boatmen and soldiers were wounded. Mr. Alfred 
Sharpe was the first to relieve the acute crisis of our position by stealing out 
with a few Atonga from the stockade, and lying in ambush along one of the 
paths which the enemy used for advancing in our direction. In this way he 
was able to pick off with his rifle several of Liwonde’s most noted warriors and 
leaders, and this considerably damped the enemy’s ardour. 1 
On the third day of our beleaguered state there arrived very welcome 
reinforcements in the shape of Herr von Eltz (who was in charge of Major 
von Wissmann’s expedition, intended to convey a steamer to Lake Nyasa), 
a German non-commissioned officer, a Hotchkiss gun, and about twenty 
Sudanese soldiers. These really relieved us from any peril, and enabled 
those who had been three days in this camp without sleep or a proper 
meal, to get both whilst the new arrivals kept watch. On the following day 
Lieut. Commander Carr, who commanded H.M.S. Mosquito on the Zambezi, 
arrived with Dr. Harper and about twenty blue-jackets. 
We had succeeded in getting the Domira off the sand-bank, she had 
gone to Matope, and returned with Mr. Sharpe and further reinforcements. 
We were now, therefore, able to advance up the river and capture Liwonde’s 
town which was done without much serious fighting; the brunt of the struggle 
falling to Herr von Eltz and his Sudanese, and Mr. F. J. Whicker. 2 3 Liwonde’s 
town was on an island and our forces advanced on both banks of the river. 
We managed to wade across one branch of the Shire to the island which the 
enemy had already abandoned on our near approach. 
Lieut. Carr and the blue-jackets assisted us in building two forts and then 
returned to the lower river, one or two blue-jackets remaining behind for a few 
weeks to assist us in garrisoning the forts. Commander Robertson and myself 
passed on up the river to the limits of Liwonde’s country in the Domira , but 
had no fighting of any serious character. Liwonde fled and we did not succeed 
in capturing him for several years, during which he occasionally gave us troubled 
The pacification of the country was ably effected by Mr. F. J. Whicker, under 
whose superintendence the Upper Shire has become one of the most prosperous 
districts in the Protectorate, with an abundant and contented population. 
In March, 1893, Captain Sclater was obliged to return to England on 
account of his health and the expiration of the time for which he was seconded. 
In April I started for South Africa to confer with Mr. Rhodes and the secretary 
of the South Africa Company, in regard to the contributions to be furnished 
by that Company towards the adminstration of British Central Africa. 
On my way down the river I met Lieut, (now Lieut.-Colonel) Edwards, who 
had arrived from India with a large reinforcement of Sikhs. For two years 
past the armed forces in the Protectorate had consisted of one English officer, 
sixty to seventy Indian Sepoys, and about fifty Zanzibaris and Makua (the 
latter being natives of Mozambique). The Indian soldiers, again, included over 
forty Mazbi Sikhs and about twenty Indian Muhammadan cavalrymen. The 
term for which these men were allowed to volunteer from the Indian Army 
1 An important settlement was afterwards founded here and called “Fort Sharpe.” 
2 Subsequently collector for the Upper Shire district. 
3 He is however now exiled to Port Herald on the Lower Shire. 
