ABSTRACT
OAPTAIN BURTON says, "It is always apleasure, after travelling through the semirepublican tribes of Africa, to arrive at the headquarters of a strong and sanguinary despotism." Only those who have lived in Africa can understand how it is so. Journeying inland from Quilimane, I passed the then powerful Matshinjiri tribe at war with the Portuguese on the Shire river, and met a detachment of their army under the famous Raposo, a man of great dignity and valour. Further on I passed through the Makololo remnants of Livingstone's caravan, established as the powerful chiefs on the Shire river. These were fine specimens of humanity and raised one's enthusiasm for work in Africa among such noble people. Getting up to the highlands above the Shire, and meeting with the very mixed people, "a people scattered and peeled," it became at once evident that slavery and war had crushed the spirit of the remnants of
Yao and Mang'anja peoples living there. Every tenth man one met might be set down as a chief, and the usual results of a few people and many chiefs were very evident. The life of the people seemed to consist in a talking mirandu. Petty quarrels of petty chiefs were abundant, and those Europeans who had people living on their ground were oppressed by their attempts to settle their quarrels. It was a thankless business, certainly, where the people delight in talking, and can conveniently keep the questions open over many years and even for generations. For such people one of the greatest blessings which have come to them in recent years is that the British Government has become their chief and united all.
