BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
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goes on there. Smedley, the Missionary doctor, says a white man ought not to touch 
alcohol in Africa except when it is given to him as a medicine. That is all very well but 
I can’t see that a little lager beer does much harm, or a glass of good claret; and as the 
drinking water at Blantyre is not first rate and one can’t always be swilling tea the entire 
teetotal plan does not suit me ; at the same time I am willing to admit that a deal too 
much whisky is consumed here. Somehow or other most of the chaps who come out 
here to plant seem to get into the way of it. Perhaps I shall do the same. I must say 
on these very cold nights before one turns in, whilst you are sitting round the pleasant 
log fire a glass of hot whisky and water is very tempting and surely can’t be harmful ? 
The Doctor says it is, under all circumstances, and that all spirits have a most prejudicial 
effect on the liver in Central Africa. 
******** 
“Pazulu, September io th. 
“This is the name of old Major McClear’s plantation. I believe it means‘up 
above.’ It is on a hill-side looking down on the River Lunzu and the bush is being 
burnt in all directions. I am awfully fit and have been very busy clearing my land 
of bush. This is how I have had to set about it. I found that a man named Carter 
had just come down from the Atonga country on the west coast of Lake Nyasa with 
a huge gang of Atonga labourers. Some of the chaps do this every now and then when 
they have got time on their hands — go up the west coast of Nyasa (where they get 
very good sport) and come back with a gang of men for work. After supplying their 
own plantations they pass on the others to planters and traders who want men. All 
these men are registered at the Government office, either in the country they come from 
or at some place like Blantyre. You have to engage them before a Government official 
and everything is written down fair and square—the time you engage them for, the 
amount you are going to pay them, and so on. Each man gets a copy of the contract 
and you have to pay a shilling for the stamp on it, that is to say a shilling for each 
labourer. You may not engage them for more than a year even if you want to, and 
if they want to stay. Ordinarily one takes them for six months and you have to give 
a deposit or a bond to provide for the cost of their return passage money to their homes. 
If a man runs away before the time of his contract is completed without any breach 
of the agreement on your part he can be punished and you can proceed against him for 
damages up to a certain amount if he refuse to complete the term for which he is 
engaged ; of course you have a further hold over them because you do not pay them the 
full sum for their services till their time is up. When you pay them off you have to 
do so before the Government officer who sees that wffiat you give them is that which 
is owing to them. 
“I have got a gang of fifty men and a‘capitao.’ They are all Atonga—a cheery 
lot though rather unruly at times and ready to knock off work if you do not keep a 
sharp look out. The head man of any gang is called a ‘ capitao ’ which I believe is 
a Portuguese word—the same as ‘ captain.’ My ‘ capitao ’ when he is at work wears 
precious little clothing, but on Sundays he puts on a long coat with brass buttons and 
a red fez which he has bought at a store or which was part of his last year’s payment. 
His name is Moses. Of course he has got an Atonga name of his own but the 
missionaries in this country will give them all Biblical names (which I think is awfully 
bad taste, but the Atonga do not share my views and Mosesi, as he calls himself, admires 
his Bible name tremendously). I am to pay these men three shillings a month each and 
the ‘ capitao ’ five shillings. Besides this they get their food allowance or ‘ posho ’ as 
it is somecimes called. This I generally give to them in white calico (which costs me 
2a yard). I give my men four yards a week each with six yards for the ‘capitao.’ 
This with occasional extras brings up the cost of their food to 2 d. a day with a little 
extra for the head man. Some of the other traders here only give out food allowance 
at the rate of three yards a week per man, but food has become very dear, relatively 
