Geology.—The whole formation is Archean and Primary (with a few modern plutonic outbursts), and chiefly consists of granite, felspar, quartz, gneiss, schists, amphibolite and other Archean rocks, with Primary sandstones and limestones in the basin of Lake Nyasa (a great rift depression), the river Shiré, and the regions within the northern watershed of the Zambezi river. Sandstones of Karroo age occur in the basin of the Luangwa (N.E. Rhodesia). There are evidences of recent volcanic activity on the summit of the small Mlanje plateau (S.E. corner of the protectorate: here there are two extinct craters with a basaltic outflow), and at the north end of Lake Nyasa and the eastern edge of the Tanganyika plateau. Here there are many craters and much basalt, or even lava; also hot springs.
Metals and Minerals.—Gold has been found in the Shiré Highlands, in the hills along the Nyasa-Zambezi waterparting, and in the mountainous region west of Lake Nyasa; silver (galena, silver-lead) in the hills of the Nyasa-Zambezi waterparting; lead in the same district; graphite in the western basin of Lake Nyasa; copper (pyrites and pure ore) in the west Nyasa region and in the hills of North Western and North Eastern Rhodesia; iron ore almost universally; mica almost universally; coal occurs in the north and west Nyasa districts (especially in the Karroo sandstones of the Rukuru valley), and perhaps along the Zambezi-Nyasa waterparting; limestone in the Shiré basin; malachite in south-west Angoniland and North Western Rhodesia; and perhaps petroleum in places along the Nyasa-Zambezi waterparting. (See also Rhodesia.)
Flora.—No part of the country comes within the forest region of West Africa. The whole of it may be said to lie within the savannah or park-like division of the continent. As a general rule, the landscape is of a pleasing and attractive character, well covered with vegetation and fairly well watered. Actual forests of lofty trees, forests of a West African type, are few in number, and are chiefly limited to portions of the Nyika, Angoniland and Shiré Highlands plateaus, and to a few nooks in valleys near the south end of Tanganyika. Patches of forest of tropical luxuriance may still be seen on the slopes of Mounts Mlanje and Chiradzulu. On the upper plateaus of Mount Mlanje there are forests of a remarkable conifer (Widdringtonia whytei), a relation of the cypress, which in appearance resembles much more the cedar, and is therefore wrongly styled the "Mlanje cedar." This tree is remarkable as being the most northern form of a group of yew-like conifers confined otherwise to South Africa (Cape Colony). Immense areas in the lower-lying plains are covered by long, coarse grass, sometimes reaching 10 ft. in height. Most of the West African forest trees are represented in British Central Africa. A full list of the known flora has been compiled by Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer and his assistants at Kew, and is given in the first and second editions of Sir H. H. Johnston's work on British Central Africa. Amongst the principal vegetable products of the country interesting for commercial purposes may be mentioned tobacco (partly native varieties and partly introduced); coffee (wild coffee is said to grow in some of the mountainous districts, but the actual coffee cultivated by the European settlers has been introduced from abroad); rubber—derived chiefly from the various species of Landolphia, Ficus, Clitandra, Carpodinus and Conopharygia, and from other apocynaceous plants; the Strophanthus pod (furnishing a valuable drug); ground-nuts (Arachis and Voandzeia); the cotton plant; all African cultivated cereals (Sorghum, Pennisetum, maize, rice, wheat—cultivated chiefly by Europeans—and Eleusine); and six species of palms—the oil palm on the north-west (near Lake Nyasa, at the south end of Tanganyika and on the Luapula), the Borassus and Hyphaene, Phoenix (or wild date), Raphia and the coco-nut palm. The last named was introduced by Arabs and Europeans, and is found on Lake Nyasa and on the lower Shiré. Most of the European vegetables have been introduced, and thrive exceedingly well, especially the potato. The mango has also been introduced from India, and has taken to the Shiré Highlands as to a second home. Oranges, lemons and limes have been planted by Europeans and Arabs in a few districts. European fruit trees do not ordinarily flourish, though apples are grown to some extent at Blantyre. The vine hitherto has proved a failure. Pineapples give the best result among cultivated fruit, and strawberries do well in the higher districts. In the mountains the native wild brambles give blackberries of large size and excellent flavour. The vegetable product through which this protectorate first attracted trade was coffee, the export of which, however, has passed through very disheartening fluctuations. In 1905-1906, 773,919 lb of coffee (value £16,123) were exported; but during this twelve months the crop of cotton—quite a newly developed product, rose to 776,621 lb, from 285,185 lb in 1904-1905. An equally marked increase in tobacco and ground-nuts (Arachis) has taken place. Beeswax is a rising export.
Fauna.—The fauna is on the whole very rich. It has affinities in a few respects with the West African forest region, but differs slightly from the countries to the north and south by the absence of such animals as prefer drier climates, as for instance the oryx antelopes, gazelles and the ostrich. There is a complete blank in the distribution of this last between the districts to the south of the Zambezi and those of East Africa between Victoria Nyanza and the Indian Ocean. The giraffe is found in the Luanga valley; it is also met with in the extreme north-east of the country. The ordinary African rhinoceros is still occasionally, but very rarely, seen in the Shiré Highlands, The African elephant is fairly common throughout the whole territory. Lions and leopards are very abundant; the zebra is still found in great numbers, and belongs to the Central African variety of Burchell's zebra, which is completely striped down to the hoofs, and is intermediate in many particulars between the true zebra of the mountains and Burchell's zebra of the plains. The principal antelopes found are the sable and the roan (Hippotragus), five species of Cobus or waterbuck (the puku, the Senga puku, the lechwe, Crawshay's waterbuck and the common waterbuck); the pallah, tsessébe (Damaliscus), hartebeest, brindled gnu (perhaps two species), several duykers (including the large Cephalophus sylvicultrix), klipspringer, oribi, steinbok and reedbuck. Among tragelaphs are two or more bushbucks, the inyala, the water tragelaph (Limnotragus selousi), the kudu and Livingstone's eland. The only buffalo is the common Cape species. The hyaena is the spotted kind. The hunting dog is present. There are some seven species of monkeys, including two baboons and one colobus. The hippopotamus is found in the lakes and rivers, and all these sheets of water are infested with crocodiles, apparently belonging to but one species, the common Nile crocodile.
Inhabitants.—The human race is represented by only one indigenous native type—the Negro. No trace is anywhere found of a Hamitic intermixture (unless perhaps at the north end of Lake Nyasa, where the physique of the native Awankonde recalls that of the Nilotic negro). Arabs from Zanzibar have settled in the country, but not, as far as is known, earlier than the beginning of the 19th century. As the present writer takes the general term "Negro" to include equally the Bantu, Hottentot, Bushman and Congo Pygmy, this designation will cover all the natives of British Central Africa. The Bantu races, however, exhibit in some parts signs of Hottentot or Bushman intermixture, and there are legends in some mountain districts, especially Mount Mlanje, of the former existence of unmixed Bushman tribes, while Bushman stone implements are found at the south end of Tanganyika. At the present day the population is, as a rule, of a black or chocolate-coloured Negro type, and belongs, linguistically, entirely and exclusively to the Bantu family. The languages spoken offer several very interesting forms of Bantu speech, notably in the districts between the north end of Lake Nyasa, the south end of Lake Tanganyika, and the river Luapula. In the more or less plateau country included within these geographical limits, the Bantu dialects are of an archaic type, and to the present writer it has seemed as though one of them, Kibemba or Kiwemba, came near to the original form of the Bantu mother-language, though not nearer than the interesting Subiya of southern Barotseland. Through dialects spoken on the west and north of Tanganyika, these languages of North Eastern Rhodesia and northern Nyasaland and of the Kafukwe basin are connected with the Bantu languages of Uganda. They also offer a slight resemblance to Zulu-Kaffir, and it would seem as though the Zulu-Kaffir race must have come straight down from the countries to the north-east of Tanganyika, across the Zambezi, to their present home. Curiously enough, some hundreds of years after this southward migration, intestine wars and conflicts actually determined a north-eastward return migration of Zulus. From Matabeleland, Zulu tribes crossed the Zambezi at various periods (commencing from about 1820), and gradually extended their ravages and dominion over the plateaus to the west, north and north-east of Lake Nyasa. The Zulu language is still spoken by the dominating caste in West
Nyasaland (see further Zululand: Ethnology; Rhodesia: Ethnology; and Yaos). As regards foreign settlers in this part of Africa, the Arabs may be mentioned first, though they are now met with only in very small numbers. The Arabs undoubtedly first heard of this rich country—rich not alone in natural products such as ivory, but also in slaves of good quality—from their settlements near the delta of the river Zambezi, and these settlements may date back to an early period, and might be coeval with the suggested pre-Islamite Arab settlements in the gold-bearing regions of South East Africa. But the Arabs do not seem to have made much progress in their penetration of the country in the days before firearms; and when firearms came into use they were for a long time forestalled by the Portuguese, who ousted them from the Zambezi. But about the beginning of the 19th century the increasing power and commercial enterprise of the Arab sultanate of Zanzibar caused the Arabs of Maskat and Zanzibar to march inland from the east coast. They gradually founded strong slave-trading settlements on the east and west coasts of Lake Nyasa, and thence westwards to Tanganyika and the Luapula. They never came in great numbers, however, and, except here and there on the coast of Lake Nyasa, have left no mixed descendants in the population. The total native population of all British Central Africa is about 2,000,000, that of the Nyasaland Protectorate being officially estimated in 1907 at 927,355. Of Europeans the protectorate possesses about 600 to 700 settlers, including some 100 officials. (For the European population of the other territories, see Rhodesia.) The Europeans of British Central Africa are chiefly natives of the United Kingdom or South Africa, but there are a few Germans, Dutchmen, French, Italians and Portuguese. The protectorate has also attracted a number of Indian traders (over 400), besides whom about 150 British Indian soldiers (Sikhs) are employed as the nucleus of an armed force.[[2]]
Trade and Communications.—The total value of the trade of the protectorate in the year 1899-1900 was £255,384, showing an increase of 75% on the figures for the previous year, 1898-1899. Imports were valued at £176,035, an increase of 62%, and exports at £79,449, an increase of 109%. In 1905-1906 the imports reached £222,581 and the exports £56,778. The value of imports into the Rhodesian provinces during the same period was about £50,000, excluding railway material, and the exports £18,000. The principal exports are (besides minerals) coffee, cotton, tobacco, rubber and ivory. A number of Englishmen and Scotsmen (perhaps 200) are settled, mainly in the Shiré Highlands, as coffee planters.
From the Chinde mouth of the Zambezi to Port Herald on the lower Shiré communication is maintained by light-draught steamers, though in the dry season (April-November) steamers cannot always ascend as far as Port Herald, and barges have to be used to complete the voyage. A railway runs from Port Herald to Blantyre, the commercial capital of the Shiré Highlands. The "Cape to Cairo" railway, which crossed the Zambezi in 1905 and the Kafukwe in 1906, reached the Broken Hill mine in 1907, and in 1909 was continued to the frontier of Belgian Congo. There are regular services by steamer between the ports on Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. The African trans-continental telegraph line (founded by Cecil Rhodes) runs through the protectorate, and a branch line has been established from Lake Nyasa to Fort Jameson, the present headquarters of the Chartered Company in North Eastern Rhodesia.
Towns.—The principal European settlement or town is Blantyre (q.v.), at a height of about 3000 ft. above the sea, in the Shiré Highlands. This place was named after Livingstone's birthplace, and was founded in 1876 by the Church of Scotland mission. The government capital of the protectorate, however, is Zomba, at the base of the mountain of that name. Other townships or sites of European settlements are Port Herald (on the lower Shiré), Chiromo (at the junction of the Ruo and the Shiré), Fort Anderson (on Mount Mlanje), Fort Johnston (near the outlet of the river Shiré from the south end of Lake Nyasa), Kotakota and Bandawe (on the west coast of Lake Nyasa), Likoma (on an island off the east coast of Lake Nyasa), Karonga (on the north-west coast of Lake Nyasa), Fife (on the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau), Fort Jameson (capital of N.E. Rhodesia, near the river Luangwa), Abercorn (on the south end of Lake Tanganyika), Kalungwisi (on the east coast of Lake Mweru) and Fort Rosebery (near the Johnston Falls on the Luapula [upper Congo]).
Administration.—The present political divisions of the country are as follows:—The Nyasaland Protectorate, i.e. the districts surrounding Lake Nyasa and the Shiré province, are administered directly under the imperial government by a governor, who acts under the orders of the colonial office. The governor is assisted by an executive council and by a nominated legislative council, which consists of at least three members. The districts to the westward, forming the provinces of North Eastern and North Western Rhodesia, are governed by two administrators of the British South Africa Chartered Company, in consultation with the governor of Nyasaland and the colonial office.