The urgency of the question of Portuguese as against British supremacy in Equatorial Africa must not blind us, however, to another and scarcely less important point—the general European, and especially the recent German, invasion of Africa. The Germans are good, though impecunious colonists, but it cannot be said that they or any of the other European nations are as alive to the moral responsibilities of administration among native tribes as England would desire. And though they are all freely entitled to whatever lands in Africa they may legitimately secure, it is advisable for all concerned that these acquisitions should be clearly defined and established in international law, in order that the various Powers, the various trading-companies, and the various missions, may know exactly where they stand. The almost hopeless entanglement of the Foreign Powers in Africa at present may be seen from the following political "section," which represents the order of occupation along the Atlantic seaboard from opposite Gibraltar to the Cape:—
POLITICAL "SECTION" OF WESTERN AFRICA.
Spain . . . Morocco.France . . . "Spain . . . Opposite the Canaries.France . . . French Senegambia.Britain . . . British SenegambiaFrance . . . French "Britain . . . British "Portugal . . . Portuguese "France . . .Britain . . . Sierra Leone.Liberia . . . Republic of Liberia.France . . . Gold Coast.England . . . Gold Coast.France . . . Dahomey.Unappropriated . . . "England . . . Niger.Germany . . . Cameroons.French . . . French Congo.Portuguese . . . Portuguese Congo.International . . Congo.Portuguese . . . Angola.Portuguese . . . Benguela.Germany . . . Angra Pequena.England . . . Walvisch Bay.Germany . . . Orange River.England . . . Cape of Good Hope.
These several possessions on the western coast have at least the advantage of being to some extent defined, but those on the east, and especially as regards their inland limits, are in a complete state of chaos. It seems hopeless to propose it, but what is really required is an International Conference to overhaul title-deeds, adjust boundary-lines, delimit territories, mark off states, protectorates, lands held by companies, and spheres of influence. England's interest in this must be largely a moral one. Her ambitions in the matter of new territories are long ago satisfied. But there will be certain conflict some day if the portioning of Africa is not more closely watched than it is at present.
As an example of the complacent way in which vast tracts in Africa are being appropriated, glance for a moment at the recent inroads of the Germans. On the faith of private treaties, and of an agreement with Portugal, Germany has recently staked off a region in East Central Africa stretching from the boundaries of the Congo Free State to the Indian Ocean, and embracing an area considerably larger than the German Empire. To a portion only of this region—the boundaries of which, contrasted with that arbitrarily claimed in addition, will be apparent from a comparison of the maps—have the Germans procured a title; and the steps by which this has been attained afford an admirable illustration of modern methods of land-transfer in Africa. What happened was this:—
Four or five years ago Dr. Karl Peters concluded treaties with the native chiefs of Useguha, Ukami, Nguru and Usagara, by which he acquired these territories from the Society for German Colonization. The late Sultan of Zanzibar attempted to remonstrate, but meantime an imperial "Schutzbrief" had been secured from Berlin, and a German fleet arrived at Zanzibar prepared to enforce it. Britain appealed to Germany on the subject, and a Delimitation Commission was appointed, which met in London. An agreement was come to, signed by Lord Iddesleigh on 29th October, 1886, and duly given effect to. The terms of this Anglo-German Convention have been recently made public in a well-informed article by Mr. A. Silva White (Scottish Geographical Magazine, March, 1888), to which I am indebted for some of the above facts, and the abstract may be given here intact, as political knowledge of Africa is not only deficient, but materials for improving it are all but inaccessible. In view, moreover, of the spirit of acquisitiveness which is abroad among the nations of Europe, and of recent attempts on the part of Germany to claim more than her title allows, the exact terms of this contract ought to be widely known:—
I. Both Powers recognize the sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar over the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, Lamu and Mafia, as also over those small islands lying within a circuit of twelve nautical miles of Zanzibar. Both Powers also recognize as the Sultan's possessions on the mainland an uninterrupted coast-line from the mouth of the Miningani River at the entrance of the bay of Tunghi (south of Cape Delgado) as far as Kipini (south of Wito). This line encloses a coast of ten nautical miles inland for the whole distance. The northern boundary includes Kau; north of Kipini, both Powers recognize as belonging to the Sultan of Zanzibar the stations of Kisimayu, Brava, Merka, and Makdishu (Magadoxo), each with a land circuit of ten nautical miles, and Warsheikli with a land circuit of five nautical miles.
II. Great Britain engages herself to support those negotiations of Germany with the Sultan which have for their object the farming out (Verpachtung) of the customs in the harbors of Dar-es-Salaam and Pangani to the German East African Association, on the payment by the Association to the Sultan of an annual guaranteed sum of money.
III. Both Powers agree to undertake a delimitation of their respective spheres of influence in this portion of the East African Continent. This territory shall be considered as bounded on the south by the Rovuma River, and on the north by a line, commencing from the mouth of the Tana River, following the course of this river or its tributaries, to the intersection of the Equator with the 38th degree of east longitude, and from thence continued in a straight line to the intersection of the 1st degree of north latitude with the 37th degree of east longitude. The line of demarcation shall start from the mouth of the river Wanga, or Umbe, and follow a straight course to Lake Jipe (south-east of Kilimanjaro), along the eastern shore and round the northern shore of the lake, across the river Lumi, passing between the territories of Taveta and Chagga, and then along the northern slope of the Kilimanjaro range and continued in a straight line to the point on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza which is intersected by the 1st degree of south latitude.
Great Britain engages herself to make no territorial acquisitions, to accept no Protectorates, and not to compete with the spread of German influence to the south of this line, whilst Germany engages herself to observe a similar abstinence in the territories to the north of this line.
IV. Great Britain will use her influence to promote the conclusion of a friendly agreement concerning the existing claims of the Sultan of Zanzibar and the German East African Association, on the Kilimanjaro territory.
V. Both Powers recognize as belonging to Wito the coast stretching from the north of Kipini to the north end of Man da Bay.
VI. Great Britain and Germany will conjointly call upon the Sultan of Zanzibar to recognize the General Act of the Berlin Conference, save and except the existing rights of His Highness as laid down in Art. I. of the Act.
VII. Germany binds herself to become a party to the Note signed by Great Britain and France on 10th March, 1862, in regard to the recognition of the independence of Zanzibar.
This is the only document which can have any validity, and such German claims—outside the limit here assigned—as are represented on the newer German maps, are to be treated as mere chartographical flourishes. Encouraged, however, by this success in securing territory in Africa, and without stopping to use or even to proclaim their protectorate over more than a fraction of the petty states comprised within it, the Germans instantly despatched expedition after expedition to secure further conquest in the remoter and unappropriated districts. Dr. Karl Peters himself led one large expedition; Dr. Jühlke negotiated agreements with the tribes on the distant Somal coast; and other explorers brought back rare and heavy spoil—on paper—to Berlin. So the swallowing up of Africa goes on. The slices cut are daily becoming bigger, and in a few years more not a crumb of the loaf will remain for those who own it now. The poor Sultan of Zanzibar, who used to boast himself lord of the whole interior, woke up, after the London Convention, to find that his African kingdom consisted of a ten-mile-wide strip of coast-line, extending from Kipini to the Miningani River. Even this has already been sold or leased to the English and Germans, and nothing now remains to His Highness but a few small islands.
Since turning her attention towards Africa, Germany has not only looked well after new territory, but seized the opportunity to inspect and readjust the title-deeds to her other African property. We find a new treaty concluded in 1885 between her and the British Protectorate in the Niger regarding the Cameroons; another towards the close of the same year with France on the same subject, and securing rights to Malimba and Great Batonga; and a third with Portugal in 1887, defining, in the interest of the latter, the boundaries of Angola, and ceding to Germany, as aquid-pro-quo, an acknowledgment of the claim of the Germans—which, of course, England repudiates—to East Central Africa from the coast to the south end of Tanganyika and Lake Nyassa, as far as the latitude of the Rovuma.
These facts prove the genuine political activity of at least one great European power, and offer a precedent to England, which, in one respect at least, she would do well to copy. Her title-deeds, and those of certain districts in which she is concerned, are not in such perfect order as to justify the apathy which exists at present, and her interests in the country are now too serious to be the prey of unchallenged ambitions, or left at the mercy of any casual turn of the wheel of politics.
Thanks, partly, to the recent seizure by Portugal of the little Zambesi steamer belonging to the African Lakes company—on the plea that vessels trading on Portuguese waters must be owned by Portuguese subjects, and fly the Portuguese flag—and to influential deputations to head-quarters on the part of the various Missions, the Foreign Office is beginning to be alive to the state of affairs in East Central Africa. The annexation of Matabeleland will be a chief item on the programme with which it is hoped the Government will shortly surprise us; but, what is of greater significance, it will probably include a declaration of the Zambesi as an open river, and the abolition or serious restriction of the present customs tariff. Important as these things are, however, they affect but slightly the two supreme English interests in East Central Africa—the suppression of the slave-trade and the various missionary and industrial enterprises. The most eager among the supporters of these higher interests have never ventured to press upon Government anything so pronounced as that England should declare a Protectorate over the Upper Shiré and Nyassa districts; but they do contend, and with every reason, for the delimitation of part of this region as a "Sphere of British Influence."
Granting even that the shadowy claims of Germany and Portugal to the eastern shore of Lake Nyassa are to be respected, there remain the whole western coast of the Lake, and the regions of the Upper Shiré which are reached directly from the waters of the Zambesi without trespassing on the soil of any nation. These regions are not even claimed at present by any one, while by every right of discovery and occupation—by every right, in fact, except that of formal acknowledgment—they are already British. It will be an oversight most culpable and inexcusable if this great theatre of British missionary and trading activity should be allowed to be picked up by any passing traveller, or become the property of whatever European power had sufficient effrontery at this late day to wave its flag over it. The thriving settlements, the schools and churches, the roads and trading-stations, of Western Nyassa-land are English. And yet it is neither asked that they should be claimed by England, annexed by England, nor protected by England. Those whose inspirations and whose lives have created this oasis in the desert, plead only that no intruder now should be allowed to undo their labor or idly reap its fruits. Here is one spot, at least, on the Dark Continent, which is being kept pure and clean. It is now within the power of the English Government to mark it off before the world as henceforth sacred ground. To-morrow, it may be too late.
The Lake Nyassa region of Africa knows only two seasons—the rainy and the dry. The former begins with great regularity on the opening days of December, and closes towards the end of April; while during the dry season, which follows for the next six months, the sun is almost never darkened with a cloud. At Blantyre, on the Shiré Highlands, the rainfall averages fifty inches; at Bandawé, on Lake Nyassa, a register of eighty-six inches is counted a somewhat dryish season.
The barometer in tropical countries is much more conservative of change than in northern latitudes, and the annual variation at Lake Nyassa is only about half an inch—or from 28.20 inches in November to 28.70 inches in June. The diurnal variation, according to Mr. Stewart, is rarely more than twenty-hundredths of an inch.
The average temperature for the year at Blantyre, where the elevation is about three thousand feet above sea-level, is 50° Fahr., but the mercury has been known to stand ten degrees lower, and on one exceptional occasion it fell 2° below freezing point. At Lake Nyassa, half the height of Blantyre, 85° Fahr. is a common figure for mid-day in the hottest month (November) in the year, while the average night-temperature of the coldest month (May) is about 60°. The lowest registered temperature on the Lake has been 54°, and the highest—though this is extremely rare—100° Fahr. When the Livingstonia Mission occupied the promontory of Cape Maclear, at the southern end of Nyassa, in 1880, one of the then staff, Mr. Harkess, had the energy to keep a systematic record of the temperature, and I am indebted to his notebook for the following table. The figures represent observations taken at 6 A.M., 12 noon, and 6 P.M. A dash indicates that the observation was omitted for the hour corresponding. The wet bulb reads on an average 10 degrees lower.
TABLE OF TEMPERATURES AT LAKE NYASSA.
May June July Aug. Sept.1 70 62 64 67 6880 75 73 74 7975 76 74 73 752 -- 60 64 68 6977 78 74 -- 79-- 73 -- 74 753 67 65 62 65 6676 78 74 -- 7576 74 70 -- 744 68½ 64 -- 62 7179 71 73 -- 7778 70 -- -- 795 68 64 63 76 --79 74 -- -- --76 74 71 -- --6 -- 64 64 70 6575½ 77 72 77 8175 76 74 -- 777 66 67 64 61 7279 78 71 79 8075 75 71 -- 778 65 66 64 -- 7074 74 -- -- 8074 74 71 -- 819 -- 68 65 62 7077 76 75 79 81-- 73 73 -- 7710 67 68 66 61 --75 75 -- 81 8074 73 71 -- 7711 69 66 -- 62 7075 76 76 79 79-- 75 73 -- 7912 -- 66 69 65 --75 75 77 81 --71 72 -- 76 --13 65 -- 70 7276 73 80 7974 -- 77 7814 67 63 68 7173 74 77 8171 -- 75 7815 68 64 -- 66 7276 74 -- -- 7575 72 76 -- 7716 71 64 68 67 --77 74 79 75 7975 70 78 73 7717 68 64 65 -- --78 74 77 -- --77 72 -- 76 7618 72 71 68 68 7380 74 75 75 7878 72 76 72 7719 65 64 69 -- --74 -- 77 75 --76 77 79 74 --20 63 -- 67 68 7574 76 76 -- 8276 74 74 75 8021 67 65 64 64 7175 72 75 -- 8575 68 75 75 7822 70 63 67 -- 7275 66 75 78 81-- 65 76 75 7923 58 65 -- 7067 77 79 8270 74 77 7824 -- 62 64 68 7376 -- 76 69 8276 -- 74 66 8125 67 61 66 63 7477 -- 74 75 --75 -- 75 71 7826 67 63 67 64 --75 75 79 72 --75 -- 76 73 --27 69 -- 65 65 7377 72 74 77 8474 -- 71 77 8228 70 -- 65 70 7378 72 76 79 8177 -- 74 78 7929 68 63 65 -- 6880 71 72 76 8277 72 75 -- 8030 -- 64 63 67 7475 74 78 79 8276 -- 75 77 8031 67 65 6674 76 7974 76 83