146 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
Alston on the site of Zarafi’s town at Mangoche Mountain. Zarafi’s former 
capital was situated on a neck or pass between high mountains and constituted 
one of the most obvious and frequented roads into British Central Africa. The 
boundaries of this Protectorate are so well guarded by lofty and inaccessible 
ranges of mountains or by broad lakes and swamps that there are not many 
routes by which it can be easily approached from the East Coast. The road 
through Zarafi’s country however is so easy that it will always require to 
be specially guarded if the slave trade is to be stopped. 
In the month of May, 1896, I had a serious relapse of bilious remittent 
fever which ultimately developed haematuric symptoms. I therefore returned to 
England on leave of absence, being relieved by Mr. Sharpe, who had been 
in England during the second half of 1895. Since my return the progress 
of the country has continued almost without check or interruption. Raids 
on the part of the southern Angoni into the south-western portion of the 
Protectorate occurred in the autumn of 1896, apparently as a reflex of the 
agitation amongst their Matabele kindred in the south. These were sharply 
punished by a force dispatched against the chiefs Chikusi and Odete under 
Captains F. T. Stewart and W. H. Manning, and Lieut. Alston. The latter 
had previously captured a slave-raiding chief named Katuri who lived near 
Fort Mangoche, and who might be described as the last unconquered adherent 
of the Zarafi clan. With these exceptions the tranquillity of the Protectorate 
has not been further disturbed. The Imperial Government has placed the 
British South Africa Company’s forces in the adjoining Sphere of Influence 
under an Imperial Officer who is subordinated to the control of Lieut.- 
Colonel Edwards, or whoever commands the armed forces in the British 
Central Africa Protectorate. The efficiency 
of the Administration was further recog¬ 
nised by the Admiralty who proposed 
handing over to us the gunboats on the 
Zambezi and Lower Shire, in a way 
similar to the transference of the lake 
gunboats in 1895 ; but for various reasons 
it has been deemed preferable to retain 
these vessels under the White Ensign. 
A brief summary of the results of 
the British administration of this 
Protectorate from 1891 to 1896 
may be expressed as follows:— 
At the commencement of our 
administration in July, 1891, 
there were, as far as I can 
calculate, fifty-seven Europ¬ 
eans resident in the British 
Central Africa Protector¬ 
ate, and in the adjoining 
Sphere of the British South 
Africa Company. Of these 
MR. Alfred SHARPE in 1896 one was French, two were 
Austrian Poles, and the 
remainder were British. In the summer of 1896 the European settlers in the 
Protectorate alone exceeded 300 in number, and probably amounted to forty- 
