glish, is a cousin of Makanjira's, and has aided him in most of recent raids, especially a singularly cruel one on Mpemba and indi. Captain Maguire and myself went to Kazembe's town I invited him to a conference. He came, and, after a long palaver, mitted he had broken his Treaty of 1889 in following Makanjira his raids, signed a fresh Treaty abolishing the Slave Trade, and reed to pay a fine of ten tusks of ivory (of which six were paid fore we left), part of which was to be sent to Mpemba to comnsate him for his losses. We then showed him how he could help by stopping and detaining the large slave-caravans arriving on e south-west coast of Lake Nyasa. Kazembe seemed thoroughly illing to carry out our policy, but pleaded that in that case we ould defend him against Makanjira's vengeance; that Makanjira ad still two dhows left which ought to be destroyed by us if we ished to completely cripple his power. One of these dhows, he aformed us, we should find at Saidi Mwazungu's town on the pposite coast, whither also had fled the seven slave-traders who had scaped from Fort Johnston. Accordingly, we decided at once to start for Saidi Mwazungu's. We arrived off this place on the morning of the 2nd November. No dhow was there; it had evidently made off on seeing the steamer's smoke to some more secure refuge. What happened at Saidi Mwazungu's I give in an excerpt from Captain Maguire's Report: "November 2.-We heard that one of Makanjira's dhows was at Saidi Mwazungu's, a village nearly opposite Monkey Bay, so we visited it this morning. The water near the shore is so shallow that the barge had to stop some 400 yards from the village. There were no traces of the dhow. My interpreter went before me to ascertain the attitude of the villagers. He sent me word that the people were desirous to treat, so that I had better land, but only bring five or six soldiers with me in order not to alarm them. I took four Sepoy's and a non-commissioned officer from the twenty on board the barge, and went ashore. I left my men on the beach and went by myself to the verandah of a large house some 20 yards off, where a crowd of Datives had collected round my interpreter. When I arrived the crowd dispersed. There remained to converse with me a Zanzibari and an old Arab, who told me he came from Hodeidah, near Aden, and was employed as a dhow-maker by Makanjira. I thought it suspicious that all the other people had gone away when I came on the scene, as the custom in this part of Africa is for such negotiations to take place in public, so I sent my interpreter to call the rest of the people. A few seconds afterwards I heard three shots South-west shore of Lake Nyasa. fired. I sprang from the verandah, when my interpreter ran past me, and two shots were fired at me by the party who had fired at the interpreter. Almost immediately afterwards a bullet whizzed past my head fired by the Arab dhow-maker. I fired two shots at him with my revolver as be retreated, but missed him. I then rejoined my men on the beach. The enemy were here so numerous and well placed that we had to hold our ground until the remainder of our party arrived from the boat. We then advanced, driving the enemy before us to the other side of the village, which we destroyec We then returned to the shore, and saw that there was another village about a mile north of the one destroyed, which was also composed for the most part of large foreign-built houses. W advanced along the shore against it. Two volleys were fired at us from a large brake of reeds that lay in front of our advance. We fired a couple of volleys into it, and advanced through it. dense that we had to traverse it on our hands and knees. emerged at the other side we found that the enemy, who were in considerable force, had retired to a safe distance. The second village was then destroyed. It was so When we "We had one casualty during the day: Private Prem Singh, 23rd Pioneers, who was severely wounded. We returned to Fort Johnston the same evening." After remaining for seven days at Fort Johnston settling the affairs of Mponda's kingdom and arranging for leaving a garrison of twenty Sepoys, ten Zanzibaris, and fifty Makua in Fort Johnston, with an Indian Sergeant-Major in command, and my Swahili Headman, Kiongwe, intrusted with the construction of temporary barracks, we left for Zomba, following the course of the River Shiré. On our way we were enabled to come to very satisfactory arrangements about the suppression of the Slave Trade with the Chiefs Liwonde. Tshingwalu-ngwalu, and Msamara. We reached Zomba on the 16th November, our wounded arriving three days afterwards. Three days after our return I found that Kawinga, a powerful Chief dwelling on the north-west shore of Lake Shirwa, had been very active of late in the Slave Trade. Indeed, we had intercepted and freed a small convoy of slaves (eleven in number) at Mkata's. near Pamalombwe, on their way to Kawinga's, from the west bank of the Shiré, under charge of three of his men, who ran away at our approach; and besides this fact there were numerous complaints of his slave-raiding among the A-Nyanja peoples dwelling on islands in Lake Shirwa. It was also reported that he was gathering together a slave-caravan for the coast. In the preceding spring Kawinga was stated to have dispatched as many as 1,000 slaves to the sea-board. This number is probably an over-estimate, but it is certain that winga has been one of the biggest slave-traders in Nyasaland. e had reason to believe that Kawinga would come to terms with as he had not long since concluded a Treaty which placed his ritories under British protection. I therefore dispatched Mr. John chanan, C.M.G.,* with whom Kawinga had made the Treaty, to monstrate with him on the subject of the Slave Trade, and to luce him to abandon it and sign an Agreement to do so. T. Buchanan was escorted by Captain Maguire and thirty Sepoys. What occurred is so correctly and succinctly related by Dr. Henry cott, M.B., of the Church of Scotland Mission at Domasi, that I annot do better than give the account in his own words. [Dr. Scott as good enough to place his medical services on this occasion at e disposal of the Administration, our own surgeon, Dr. Boyce, eing detained at Zomba with the men who had been wounded at lakanjira's.] Extract from "Life and Work," the Blantyre Mission Supplenent for December 1891 : "An expedition under Captain Maguire set off lately to secure Kawinga's promise to renounce slavery. Camping several hours from that Chief's village they entered into negotiations with him, which resulted in his agreeing to speak with them the following day. In the afternoon, a Headman of Kawinga's, Tshe Mposa by name, came forward in a most friendly spirit and assured them that although Kawinga had failed to appear that day he certainly would present himself next morning. Again Kawinga was false to his i romise. Captain Maguire, after delaying all the morning, advanced towards Kawinga's village. At this point a most unfortunate event took place. A large number of Tshe Mposa's men came along the hill side and threatened to interfere with Captain Maguire's advance. A long appeal made to them by Mr. Buchanan at considerable risk to his own safety was not enough to prevent the use of fire-arms ; and once begun, firing did not cease till many were at least wounded. From the path where fighting began Captain Maguire's soldiers turned aside, rushed the hill in front of Tshe Mposa's, entered and burned down the village. This was done with but a handful of men, only some thirty Sikhs taking part in it, but of these thirty there were no fewer than six wounded. On their return Tshe Mbera's village was destroyed. This Headman had long oppressed his neighbours by his slave-trading customs. Just two days before Captain Maguire bad liberated two of his slaves, very cruelly tied in slavesticks. Dr. Henry E. Scott, who had been called to attend the wounded, arrived there just before dark. The most serious case was that of an Indian, who had lost much blood from a wounded wrist. Ex-Acting Consul for Nyasa. Collector of Customs for the Zomba district. After chloroform it was found the bullet had pierced the right wrist splintered the end of one of the bones, and torn through the main artery. A troublesome hemorrhage in a dusky light is a true source of anxiety, but ultimately the bleeding was controlled by ligatures. Two other men were wounded through the thigh, one it the knee, and one in the abdomen. Only after all the soldiers were dressed would Captain Maguire allow the doctor to examine his own wound. A bullet of slag had pierced him over the breast bone, an thence had glided off to the left, following for a short distance th course of a rib. By means of a bullet forceps it was got hold of an In the morning the whole body of men returned t extracted. Mlungusi."* A severe punishment having been inflicted on Kawinga by the destruction of his villages, it was thought advisable to leave him little time for reflection before renewing the war, especially a Captain Maguire's force had been selected rather as an escort that as a military expedition. Accordingly, Captain Maguire returned to Zomba, and, as had been foreseen, he was soon followed by mes sengers from Kawinga and Mposa asking for peace. Peace was made on the condition of the abolition of the Slave Trade and the payment of a fine of five tusks of ivory and two oxen, which payment was promptly made by Kawinga. Hoping afterwards to show that we did not come here solely to punish evil-doers, but to help them to a better way of making a livelihood than by enslaving and selling one another, I distributed among Kawinga's Envoys a quantity of wheat, oats, and barley, and twelve different kinds of vegetable seeds, inviting them at the same time to go in industriously for agriculture. I have made the same gifts to Mponda, Liwonde, and all the Chiefs on the Upper Shiré who have made friends with us. The result of the past four months' action against the slavetraders of South Nyasaland has been to arrest decisively-I hope beyond recovery-the Slave Traffic in South Nyasaland. It wil soon become patent to the unscrupulous rascals of the East Africa littoral, from Kilwa to Quilimane, that slave-trading in the Shire Province is a dangerous and unprofitable pursuit, and that being s they will either transfer their energies to other spheres of acti whence they will again be ejected, or give up the Slave Trade onec and for all, and settle down to less nefarious pursuits. We have also brought all the powerful Yao Chiefs to accept British domination, except the irreconcilable Makanjira, who will probably rea an implacable, but, I hope, impotent, foe for the remainder of his days; but appearances tend to show that there will be important * Zomba. +16th July to 24th November. ections from his rule, and it is not unlikely that, in time, his own >ple may eject him from power when they find friendship with the glish more profitable than enmity. These satisfactory measures taken against the Slave Trade were, will be patent to any one reading this Report, mainly dependent success on the courage, energy, and untiring activity of Captain ecil Maguire and of his gallant little force of Sepoys. I would venture to hope that the approval of Her Majesty's overnment may be conveyed in some way to Captain Maguire, f whose valuable co-operation I cannot speak too highly or grateally. I also cordially indorse the terms of praise which Captain Laguire, in his official report to met of the proceedings herein elated, bestows on the Indian contingent of the British Central African Police. He specially selects for honourable mention the names of the following men: Lance Naïk Badawa Singh (23rd Punjaub Pioneers). Sowar Kifayat Khan (1st Haiderabad Contingent Lancers). Private Thola Singh (23rd Punjaub Pioneers). Sowar Warir Khan (2nd H. C. Lancers). Private Tabha Singh (23rd Pioneers). All these men have been wounded at different times, though I am glad to say they have most of them recovered from their wounds, and, with one exception, are not permanently disabled. That exception is Lall Singh, who has lost his right arm as the result of the wound inflicted in the attack on Kawinga's position. I must also, in conclusion, say a word of praise for the section of the Zanzibari Police who accompanied us in these expeditions. They had not, of course, the discipline or military skill of the Sepoys, and their aim as marksmen leaves much to be desired; but they were very useful as scouts and skirmishers. They were willing, obedient, and able to stand much fatigue, and there is, fortunately, an excellent feeling of comradeship sprung up between them and the Sepoys. The Zanzibaris are also useful (having been recruited by the * This recommendation, alas! comes too late.-H. H. J. 29th December. Forwarded to the Commander-in-chief for India. |