steamer almost lying parallel to the shore, and the soldiers on the fore-deck, with their beds up against the hand-rails, returning fire It was now getting dark. I had the anchor carried out severa times, at the same time going full spead ahead. But the force o the sea proved too strong. The firewood being now finished in th stoke-hole, my next consideration was to get some along from th fore-hold, which proved a difficult matter owing to the boys bein exposed to a heavy fire which the enemy kept up. However, boma was made along the side of the ship with firewood, provisie boxes, trusses (bales) of calico, private boxes (baggage), &c. B this means all on board were sheltered to a considerable exten The making of the boma lasted all night under a heavy fire. Earl next morning, Wednesday, the 16th, the lake being much mor calm, another attempt was made to get the steamer off by stear and anchor, until I was wounded at 9 A.M., and consequently don't know what transpired between 9 A.M. and 6 P.M., at whic time I resumed duty again, working all night.

Thursday, 17th.-All attempts made to get the steamer o without being hurt, but failed again. Mr. Keiller decided to hoit the white flag next morning.

Friday, 18th.-The flag was hoisted, and the enemy stoppe firing and hoisted another on shore. Dr. Boyce and Mr. MacEwa conducted the business on deck, and in the afternoon went ashore with the sad result that they were killed.

Saturday, 19th, and Sunday, 20th, were spent in trying to ge the steamer off, which floated on Sunday, 20th, at 8 P.M. As far at I could hear from below, one shell (fired) was sent into the village, which caught on fire. With reference to the peace negotiations conducted on board by Mr. MacEwan and Dr. Boyce, I would state that I was down below while these were being carried on. I however, saw through the port-hole Makanjira's men sitting close to the water's edge unarmed, and heard they had asked that two Yao-speaking boys be sent on shore to them; this was done. The boys returned with the following statement :

Makanjira did not want war; he wanted to be friends with the white man, who should, on their side, prove their friendship by sending off a piece of blue and white calico as a pledge. This was done, and the negotiators departed with the pledge, ostensibly to lay the matter before Makanjira. Returning shortly after, two of their number came on board the steamer. I saw a quantity of cloth going on shore, and was told by Dr. Boyce that it was given as payment for a number of men who were to come to haul off the steamer, the two negotiators going on shore with the calico. Two hours passed without anything happening.

The next incident was our being hailed from the shore by

kanjira's men, who stated that they wanted one of the white 1 to come on shore, giving no reason so far as I know. MacEwan for some time hesitated whether he should comply a their request, but on being reassured by Dr. Boyce, who red to go with him, this step was taken, they being carried shore on men's shoulders. They took with them a log of what I previously happened, in order to add particulars of what transed on shore.

MacEwan was the first to land, but both disappeared together o the bush, and were never again seen by us.

Some time after we heard the report of what seemed to me to be ink cartridges, and our people took them to mean an expression joy on the part of Makanjira's people, and that negotiations had en peacefully concluded. Shortly after, on being asked by us at had become of the white men, they replied they were killed. fter dark Kutsapa, alias Juma, came on board, wounded, with the llowing statement :—

On the arrival of Mr. MacEwan and Dr. Boyce, messengers resent to Makanjira, returning with a message that the white en were to be put to death.

Kutsapa states that the party was surrounded, MacEwan shot in everal places, Dr. Boyce speared, Nalusa, a steamer boy, and three wahilis shot.

With reference to the fate of Captain Maguire, I saw his body ying on the beach, where it had been washed up by the sea. As r as we could tell, nothing would lead us to suppose that the Arabs intended any mutilation of the body. The bodies of the Sikhs lay on the beach close by that of Captain Maguire.

Dr. Boyce was particularly anxious to obtain the bodies of Captain Maguire and the Sikhs, hoping to persuade Makanjira to allow him to take them on board.

One point I wish to emphasize. As I happened to be viewing the shore with a glass through the port-hole, I saw Captain Maguire's orderly coming out of the bush, followed by several of Makanjira's people, and making straight for the spot where Maguire's body lay, and examining the dead bodies. This was while we supposed MacEwan and Dr. Boyce were conducting peace negotiations in the village. He subsequently came on board

unburt.

Witnesses:

ANGUS A. URQUHART, Engineer,
Steam-ship Domira

JOHN GIBBS, Acting Manager, African Lakes Company.

W. A. MORGAN.

No. 4.-Commissioner Johnston to the Marquess of Salisbury.— (Received May 2.)

MY LORD,

Zomba, February 16, 189: As I informed your Lordship by telegram, I returned to th Residency at Zomba on the 10th February last from Lake Nyasa.

I arrived at Fort Johnston (opposite Mponda's, and near th south-east end of Lake Nyasa) on the 8th January. I found th garrison there in good spirits, and prepared to resist any attac from Makanjira. I had been preceded a few days before Mr. J. G. King (formerly in charge of the Lower Shiré district Dr. Watson, Medical Officer to the Administration, and Mr. Georg Stevenson (now in charge of the Lower Shiré district). I appointe Mr. King to be Collector of Revenues and Magistrate for th Upper Shiré district to reside at Fort Johnston, and Dr. Watsc also was transferred thither in place of the late Dr. Boyce.

Shortly before my own arrival Mr. Monteith Fotheringham, th Manager of the African Lakes Company, and an engineer an carpenter, had arrived at Fort Johnston, off which the steam-shi Domira was lying, and had proceeded to put that vessel into repai The injuries the Domira had sustained in the stranding and warfar at Kisungule, on Makanjira's coast, were not serious, and on th 11th January she was able to start for the north end of Nyasa o her routine journeys. (She returned thence at the beginning February, and is now being docked for her annual overhauling.)

When I had had time to take in the situation at the south en of Lake Nyasa which had been brought about by the news o Captain Maguire's death reaching all the surrounding native Chie's I found, briefly, that Mponda, Jumbe, and Kazembe, on Lake Nyasa, remained friendly to us, but that we were threatened by a confederacy of the Yao Chiefs, Zarafi, Likoro, Mkata, Makandan.. and Msamara, who had of late made common cause with Makanj, secretly preparing to attack us, even while they were making Treaties with us and protesting their friendship.

Makanjira, however, who should have stood at the head of this confederacy, had suffered such severe losses in the late attack or Kisungule, where, although we lost Captain Maguire and thre Sepoys, and (by treachery) Mr. MacEwan and Dr. Boyce, our soldiers had, nevertheless-so Makanjira informed Mponda by letter-killed nearly 200 of his men and allies, including twelve Arab slave-traders from the coast, had burnt two more of his towns, and destroyed his last two dhows. Makanjira, therefore, had to heart to carry the war into the English men's country, and urged the

He holds a Commission under the Africa Order in Council.

er members of the confederacy to have their turn at the white (In the week's fighting at Kisungule Zarafi lost eight men,

kandanji five, and Likoro five.)

Twice, it is reported, Zarafi sent 1,000 men to attack Fort uston, but on neither occasion did they venture within gunt. The confederacy, therefore, decided to "take it out of" onda whilst they gathered up courage to attack us. They refore raided his outlying villages and plantations, and carried off r sixty prisoners, whom they promptly sent away to the coast to sold as slaves.

Mponda had, from the first inkling of the disaster, been heartily Fal to us. He had not only abstained from any hostile action and eserved a cold neutrality, which alone at that crisis would have en commendable, but he had immediately declared his active artizanship for the English; he sent over 300 men to assist in the fence of Fort Johnston, and, what was still more important at at juncture, he supplied the Indian garrison with large quantities I food, so as to prevent any shortness of supplies happening until lief could arrive from the lower river. These services were really great, and should outweigh much that Mponda has done in the ist and much that he may do in the future of a reprehensible. nature. When it is remembered that in the middle of October ast he had bad his chief town bombarded and utterly destroyed, had been heavily fined and otherwise punished for his participation in the Slave Trade, it says much for his frank acceptance of our rule that when two months later Fort Johnston and the steam-ship Domira lay for a week at his mercy, he not only repelled the invitations of the Makanjira confederacy to join their league and drive the English once for all from Lake Nyasa, he not only refused, when wealth beyond his avaricious dreams was within his grasp, but he made common cause against the enemies of the new order of things, and afforded us active assistance instead of the pasive neutrality which was the utmost we were entitled to expect.

He was soon made to suffer for his alliance with the English. Msamara, his rival and half-brother, attacked his territories on the west of the Shiré and carried off twenty prisoners, and Zarafi and Likoro raided his plantations on the east bank and captured forty of Mponda's villagers who were filling their farms. These, as I have already mentioned, were sold into slavery. Mponda's enemies were threatening further attacks when the news of the arrival of numerous white men at Fort Johnston caused them to desist and

retreat.

I was rather surprised at Msamara's treachery, because he had hitherto affected such friendliness for the English, and also because

I had several of his Headmen in my keeping as hostages at Fort Johnston.

Msamara, I now ascertain, sent a deputation of his Counsellors to Fort Johnston to meet Captain Maguire prior to his setting out on the last expedition which proved so fatal. These men came t propose, amongst other things, that Maguire should attack Mpoud again and hand his country over to Msamara.* Maguire naturall refused, but proposed instead a friendly arrangement of boundarie between the two conflicting parties, and for this purpose asked th deputation to await his return from Kazembe's at Fort Johnston This they somewhat reluctantly did; but when the news o Maguire's death arrived they were about to take to flight, when 'Ali Kiongwe,† my Swahili Headman, who had been left in charge of the fort, wisely retained them as hostages, for he had learnt tha Msamara only awaited the return of these men to join Makanjira't confederacy against us. In fact, it became known that an arrange ment had been made between Zarafi and Msamara for a joint attack on us and on Mponda. Msamara was to attack Mponda and sc distract him from his helping us; Zarafi, simultaneously, was to attack Fort Johnston. The scheme, however, was happily baulked by Kiongwe's wise prevision. The retention of Msamara's envoy

The late Mponda, a celebrated Yao conqueror known to Livingstone, invaded the Upper Shiré district in about 1858, and formed it into a powerful Mahommedan kingdom of considerable extent. He left numerous sons, of whom Msamara was one, the present Mponda being the eldest. The late Mponda's legal successor, according to the intricate Yao law, was his eldest sister's direct descendant, who is a little boy aged about 10. The present Mponda was appointed Regent by his late father during the child's minority. The incessant civil wars which have since prevailed have been the result of the attempts of the other brothers, led by Msamara, to snatch the Regency from the present Mponda.

+ 'Ali Kiongwe is a notable man. He is a native of Zanzibar. When a lad of 16 he journeyed with an Arab caravan across Nyasaland to the Loangsa. When 18 years old he joined Stanley's caravan (in 1874), and with Stanley explored the Victoria Nyanza and descended the Congo. In 1879 he returne! with Stanley to the Congo, where I first met him, in 1883, and where he served till the end of that year. In 1884 he went with me to Kilimanjaro as y Headınan. In 1885 he worked for the Universities Mission. He then joiLei Count Teleki, and accompanied him throughout his remarkable East African journeys. After this he was engaged as Headman by the late Mr. Gy Dawnay, and for the manner in which he rescued the body of that unfortunate gentleman, his rings and watch, from the Masai, he was rewarded bv Mr. Dawnay's family with a gold watch and chain. In 1889 he accompanied me throughout my journeys in Nyasaland, to Tanganyika, &c. In the early part of 1890 he carried out an important political mission to the north end of Tanganyika, and in 1891 he returned with me to Nyasaland as native officer u the Zanzibari police.