The natives of British Central Africa

								

unlike most tributaries, goes up-stream to join its river—in this case in
a south-westerly direction), and meeting the Portuguese border about 14°
S. Thence it keeps on to the south-east, as far as the point on the Shiré
already mentioned, where the notice-board is affixed to the tree.
Measurements in square miles convey little or nothing to my mind, as
a rule, and I shall abstain as far as possible from inflicting them
on the reader; but it may as well be noted here that the area of the
Protectorate is estimated at 40,980.
West of the territory thus defined, and between the Zambezi and the
upper waters of the Congo, lies a vast region known officially as
North-east Rhodesia, and reaching up to the south end of Lake Tanganika.
We shall have something to say about the tribes living in this part
of the country; some of them, indeed, are identical with those in the
Protectorate proper; but it is with the latter that we shall chiefly have
to do.
We have seen that British Central Africa is a land of lakes and rivers;
it is a land of mountains also. ‘Before the discovery of Lake Ng’ami and
the well-watered country in which the Makololo dwell,’ said Livingstone,
‘the idea prevailed that a large part of the interior of Africa consisted
of sandy deserts into which rivers ran and were lost.’ His great journey
of 1852-56 dispelled this idea, and ‘the peculiar form of the continent
was then ascertained to be an elevated plateau, somewhat depressed in the
centre, and with fissures in the sides by which the rivers escaped to the
sea.’ The great lakes all lie on this central plateau, and the rivers
which drain them to the sea escape over its edge in the cataracts which
for so many centuries, by interrupting navigation, have prevented the
exploration of the interior. The Zambezi first throws itself into a huge
crack in the earth in the Victoria Falls, and afterwards, between Zumbo
and Tete, come the Kebrabasa Rapids.
Lake Nyasa is a narrow trough, 360 miles long, between mountain-ranges
which hem it in closely on the west (sending down, during the rains,
innumerable small torrents from their steep slopes), and retreat
somewhat from it on the east, leaving room for a few larger, but still
inconsiderable streams, such as the Songwe, the Rukuru, the Bua, and one
or two more. The Shiré is the lake’s only outlet, flowing through a level
alluvial valley (something like a delta reversed) till, a little below
Matope, it comes to the edge of the plateau and plunges over in a series
of falls known as the Murchison Cataracts. These extend over forty miles
of river, and make a difference in its level of some 1200 feet, though
none of them, individually, are of any great height.
The level of the lake, and consequently of the river which it feeds,
is very different at different seasons of the year. During the rains,
and for some time after, steamers can go to the foot of the Murchison