draws involuntary tears from our eyes, to escape the smarting pain of their venomous bites. The night is a weary one, for no mosquitonet seems proof on the Kwakwa; and in our very dreams we wonder what human fiends the Buddhist creed deems to be fit tenants after death of the mosquito world. The indispensable morning dip is somewhat hazardous, for the river is full of crocodiles. So we reach the end of the Kwakwa journey, where we must transfer ourselves and effects across to the Zimbesi, a portage of four miles. It is a noble river, perhaps three-quarters of a mile wide here. We are still in the fever zone, and shall be till we leave the river. Almost opposite is the mighty baobab-tree, under which lies Livingstone's wife; other graves around testify to the fatal malaria of the place. The fever is bad enough; I will not inflict on you a description, which would perhaps be worse! Soon we branch off to our right and ascend the Shiré, a broad, fine river running into the Zambesi, and push on through the Moram bala marshes, with the great mountain looming in front and on our right. And if you have not already experienced an attack of fever, I can promise it to you here. As we wind in and out along the dead flat country, the Morambala mountain assumes new shapes, and is now on our right, now on our left, and anon almo-t behind us, so interminable are the windings of the river; but it seems to get no nearer. Isands of water-cabbage and vegetable debris of all kids flat past us, and s we reach and pass through the Elephant marshes. Doubtless, in no very distant past, all this country was a shallow lake, over which the great Morambala kept silent watch in the times when these dreary swamps had never echoed to the sound of the white man's rifle. Many, indeed, believe that the ancient Portuguese discoveries of a great lake with a mountain rising out of it referred to these swamps, then flooded, and not to the real Nyassa, as now alleged. So we reach the Makololo chief Mlauri. A quaint old man and a fine-looking old chief he is. He will talk to you only in English, for it is the boast of his life that he was Dr Livingstone's private servant, and followed him here from far-off lauds in the far, far interior. His English, however, is altogether unique, and to me was unintelligible. He has ever been our loyal friend; but they say that the Portuguese have lately been telling him that it is due to the English that the supply of powder and guns has b en stopped. He is a keen elephant-hunter, and the result is that (persuaded the Portuguese will give him. arms) he is beginning to waver in his loyalty to us; and lately the little steamer on the river was fired on almost opposite his village. We hear that Consul Johnston has presented the British flag to the Makololo chiefs quite recently; and a telegram in the Times' an nounces that war was imminent btween them and the Portuguese expedition under Major Serpa Pinto. Already treaties of all sorts are in existence between these Makololo and the British. If these and our flag mean anything, we earnestly hope our allies will not be left in the lurch when the time comes-and it would seem to have come now-to fulfil our part of the contract. Next day we are at the end of our first river voyage. A weary climb for 30 m les up gradients which Highlanders may think trifling (for we are among Scots men now), but which an average man is glad to see below and behind him, and we are at Mandala, and Blantyre on the Shiré Highlands, some 3000 feet above the sea. We have agreed to journey on the lake, but you must halt here a moment, or you would outrage the generous Scotch hospitality; besides, there is only one Blantyre in Africa, and nothing like it anywhere else. Savage Africa lies all around, but passing up the long avenue of blue eucalypti, we find ourselves in an oasis of civilisation, the more striking and complete from the contrast. Wellbuilt and neatly thatched houses of solid brick, enclosing a square beautifully kept in shrubs and flowers, all watered by a highly skilful system of irrigation channels (which bring the water from a distant brook), give a British homely charm to the picture, and disarm surprise, when we find wellstocked kitchen-gardens, carpenters' shops, brickmaking, and laundry establishments all around us. The mission children are dressed in spotlessly clean clothes, and look bright and happy. It is a mission under peculiar circumstances. Unlike most others, it is not situated in the midst of a filthy and arrogant tribe, who, while dreading and respecting the superiority of the white men, are yet fully cognisant of their own brute force. Few villages lie even near it, and over most of these the head of the mission exercises a right of arbitration and rough jurisdiction. The children are not haphazard comers, here today and absent by some whim to morrow, but boarders-many coming from far, the sons of chiefs and head-men. Over this little model colony preside the genii loci-Rev. D. C. Scott and his wife-and I know not which exercises the greater influence for good. This influence is extraordinary, for no one more quickly recognises the real gentleman than the African savage. It is a tempting spot to linger in, either in fact or on paper. I would like to write fully of the Shiré Highlands; of the very pretty church, so pretentious in its architectural beauty as to have gained the sobriquet of the "Blantyre Cathedral"; of Dr. Bowie and his work; of Mandala, and Mr Moir's many experiments with dogs, goats, horses, poultry; or of the coffee plantations, and of Mr Buchanan's sugar and coffee at Zomba;-but we must push on to Nyassa, and I must refer you to Mr Buchanan's interesting book.' After the first mile or two, it is a gentle, almost imperceptible, downward slope, which takes us to the Shiré again, above the cataracts. Beautifully tinted gladioli, and a thousand lovely flowers and flowering shrubs, are around us on our way to Matope-the Lakes Company's depot on the upper river. Hence we ascend the river again by the little steamer, the Ilala-whose history is a chapter of African romance in itself-or by open boat, according to the time of year and the amount of water in the river. As we near the south end of the lake, on our left lie village after village, some of huge size, and densely populated. This is Mponda's, a semi- Arab chief, wholly under Arab influence. The river is narrow here, and his guns command the entrance to the lake. It is the point of the greatest strategic importance in this part of Africa. For years friendly relations have been maintained 'The Shire Highlands. By J. Buchanan. thither, and the entrance to the manu between the British and him; the lake, when the whole waterway nothing would have been easier than to make a fair and advantageous treaty with him. We had no rivals. No other nationality had come so far, except a fortuitous explorer or two. Twelve months ago, those interested in the good of this land urged by all means in their power that steps should now be taken to establish our rights here; the r voice was a voice crying in the desert. The result they foresaw has recently happened. The Portuguese, who, whatever they may have done in prehistoric periods of African exploration, were unable in modern times to penetrate to these parts-so great was the dislike to them and their ways by Mlauri and the lower river chiefs have taken advantage of the peaceable relations established by the British, and of the prohibition to the import of arms, which allowed them to equip expeditions and prevent others importing an ounce of powder, and pushing their way up (about last January), have presented their inevitable flag to Mponda, and washed down the dose by the present of an express rifle and other goods, regardless of the fact that the gift of arms to natives and Arabs was contrary to the terms of their compact with the blockading Powers. So now they have a treaty and a piece of land in possession, and claim a right to the south of the lake,— and recent news says that they are fortifying Mponda's. He is a noted slaver, and with the Portuguese will come the introduction of spirits hitherto rigorously prohibited by our missionaries and traders; and I fear lest the good results of years of patient work be lost. Should these claims be allowed unopposed by England, it would be useless for traders to attempt to work at the north of among which we now know gold to be included,-will they allow this to lapse into the hands of a nation who has no claim beyond certain ancient and disputed documents of discovery, of the existence of which they were themselves, it appears, ignorant for a number of years, and which had lapsed through their own oversight,-a nation who has done nothing worth speaking of for her East African possessions, who levies a polltax on the wretched negro, and gives him nothing in return, and has made neither bridge, nor road, nor rail, nor irrigation during the three hundred years she boasts to have occupied certain places on the Zambesi and coast? Guns, powder, and spirits she largely imports,these do not improve the status of the natives! It is not yet too late for Britain to repudiate these claims, and insist on her own undeniable rights to the Shiré Highlands and the territories to the south and west of Nyassa. Once proclaim with no wavering voice our policy there,-only let it be understood that we mean to stand by our rights, and companies and charters will spring up speedily, to work the gold and other products of the land; and with their advent will disappear the Arab aggression and slave-trade of this country, at present acknowledged to be the headquarters of the slave-trader's hunting grounds. Our present object is to visit Nyassa and its people, and to spend with them a more intimate half-hour than can be gained by a study of the map. The view, as we steam in the little Ilala round Cape Maclear, into the old mission station of Livingstonia, is picturesque in the extreme. A few fect from shore we are in blue water many fathoms deep, yet so clear that we can see the bottom as it were but a foot below us, and the water-growths and shells, and many coloured fishes. Above and behind us tower the rugged boulders of the hills, and in front of this fairy port are a series of islands standing out to sea, behind which the setting sun shows with a glory that is superb, as it sinks below Nyassa Lake. Much as I have travelled, I have seen, I think, no lovelier spot in my life. Clear as crystal to look at, the water of Nyassa proves under analysis to be as good as it looks. There is singularly little flotsam cast ashore by the waves, and no floating debris on the waters, spite of the large quantity of wood and vegetation borne into the lake by the rivers then in flood. Nyassa is c'ose on four hundred miles long, with a breadth varying from fifteen to sixty miles. On the east the lofty Livingstonia range of his, some 6000 feet high in many parts, run almost sheer down into the water. On the west the coast is rarely precipitous, and for the most part is . beautifully wooded. Here and there it is rocky, is rocky, and great weather - worn boulders rise ike beacons out in the lake, whose waters surge round and over them with the sound of the ocean. In other reaches there is a sandy beach where the waters roll softly in on the shore; beyond are woods and forests, or plains of grass leading to the range on range of hills, which form the higher plateaux of Africa and the watershed of the lake. One or two islands are dotted here and there, some very small, others a mile or more in length,-al crowned with trees and vegetation, with bright - coloured lizards, and huge centipedes and other insects. One wonders how the animal and vegetable life found its way here from the mainland. The level of the lake is constantly and regularly falling year by year, and the exit by the mouth of the Shire is gradually getting blocked by a bar of sand. Theories are various to account for this. It may be that the detrition of the rocks in the Murchison Cataracts allows a larger body of water to pass through and drain from the lake. Or it may be that the rainfall has decreased in the area drained by the lake; for there are those who maintain that it does so decline during a nine years' cycle,- though from what causes has not been explained. The silting up of sand at the de bouchment of the Shiré is harder to account for, and is apparently exactly paralleled by the phenomena described by Captain Hore and others on Tanganyika. It would seem probable that a constant decrease in rainfall has been going on for a large number of years, which would account for the drainage of the Shiré marshes and the rapid shallowing of Lakes Pamalombe and Shirwa. The east coast of the lake is mostly under Arab influence; on the west the largest settlement is Jumbe's at Kota-Kota, about S. lat 13°. These so-called Arabs draw their supplies of guns, powder, and calico from the coast, to which the more influential of them send a caravan annually, and give in exchange for their requirements slaves and ivory. They are, how ever, themselves domiciled in the interior, where they own villages and lands, and collect slaves. They have several dhows on the lake for transporting goods, especially slaves. These men, there. fore, must not be confounded with the "white Arabs" on the coast, who, owning a direct allegiance to the Sultan, are to some extent under his control, by reason of the lands or houses they may possess on the coast. In the Nyassa region the white Arabs are comparatively few, and are looked up to as the leading men of their class. The commoner slave-hunting folk are mongrels, with but little Arab blood in them,-Swahilis and Beloochs, with a large admixture of negro blood. They have few of the redeeming traits of the true Arab, and all his vices. They settle invariably, it would seem, in the lowlands, never ascending the higher plateaux. Skirting up the west coast, we come to the mission station of Bandawé, on the lake shore, S. lat. 12°. Dr and Mrs Laws have effected wonders here; their schools are thronged, and the practical nature of the work is invaluable. But I must not again allow my self to digress into a description of an African mission station, how ever tempting. Dr Law's contributions to science, and his extensive information, have made his name celebrated as the scientific referee on all Nyassa 'ologies The people among whom he lives and works are the Atonga. The features of most of the men one sees are distinctly good, but each tribe has unmistakable characteristics of its own, and to detail these would prove uninteresting, even if space permitted. On the whole, they are intellectuallooking people. The forehead high and broad, the profile good, the prognathous types of Western Africa are rarely seen here. The mouth is generally large, but not excessively thick-lipped in most of the tribes. In some, indeed the lip is thin and delicately cut. The nose is generally small and badly shaped; but many individuals, on the other hand, have well-shaped and even aquiline noses. In physique they are often very fine indeed, some of those I remember were both tall and muscular in the extreme. They are symmetrically built, and have deep chests and well-developed arms and legs. Their colour varies greatly. The prevailing tint is deep black; but often in the same tribe, and even in the same family, you may find the black and the pale-chocolate colour side by side with no apparent reason. In temperament these children of nature are lazy and good-natured. They are very excitable, driven to frenzy by the war dance and the drums and shouts that accompany it; now ready to fight like heroes and face certain death, anon equally prone to panic and dismay. As a rule they are plucky, if that be true pluck which has little conception of danger till it stares them in the face, and no stronger motive for facing death itself more weighty than the offchance of looting their neighbour's cow! Vices and virtues are strangely mixed in these wild African savages; falsehood and |