_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]). Entry: BRITISH
The whole of this part of Africa is practically without any stretch of desert country, being on the whole favoured with an abundant rainfall. The nearest approach to a desert is the rather dry land to the east and north-east of Lake Mweru. Here, and in parts of the lower Shiré district, the annual rainfall probably does not exceed an average of 35 in. Elsewhere, in the vicinity of the highest mountains, the rainfall may attain an average of 75 in., in parts of Mount Mlanje possibly often reaching to 100 in. in the year. The average may be put at 50 in. per annum, which is also about the average rainfall of the Shiré Highlands, that part of British Central Africa which at present attracts the greatest number of European settlers. Entry: BRITISH
_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 [v.04 p.0596] 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. Entry: BRITISH
As regards orographical features, much of the country is high plateau, with an average altitude of 3500 ft. above sea-level. Only a very minute portion of its area--the country along the banks of the river Shiré--lies at anything like a low elevation; though the Luangwa valley may not be more than about 900 ft. above sea-level. Lake Nyasa lies at an elevation of 1700 ft. above the sea, is about 350 m. long, with a breadth varying from 15 to 40 m. Lake Tanganyika is about 2600 ft. above sea-level, with a length of about 400 m. and an average breadth of nearly 40 m. Lake Mweru and Lake Bangweulu are respectively 3000 and 3760 ft. above sea-level; Lake Chilwa is 1946 ft. in altitude. The highest mountain found within the limits previously laid down is Mount Mlanje, in the extreme south-eastern corner of the protectorate. This remarkable and picturesque mass is an isolated "chunk" of the Archean plateau, through which at a later date there has been a volcanic outburst of basalt. The summit and sides of this mass exhibit several craters. The highest peak of Mlanje reaches an altitude of 9683 ft. (In German territory, near the north end of Lake Nyasa, and close to the British frontier, is Mount Rungwe, the altitude of which exceeds 10,000 ft.) Other high mountains are Mounts Chongone and Dedza, in Angoniland, which reach an altitude of 7000 ft., and points on the Nyika Plateau and in the Konde Mountains to the north-west of Lake Nyasa, which probably exceed a height of 8000 ft. There are also Mounts Zomba (6900 ft.) and Chiradzulu (5500 ft.) in the Shiré Highlands. The principal plateaus or high ridges are (1) the Shiré Highlands, a clump of mountainous country lying between the river Shiré, the river Ruo, Lake Chilwa and the south end of Lake Nyasa; (2) Angoniland--a stretch of elevated country to the west of Lake Nyasa and the north-west of the river Shiré; (3) the Nyika Plateau, which lies to the north of Angoniland; and (4) the Nyasa-Tanganyika Plateau, between the basin of the river Luangwa, the vicinity of Tanganyika and the vicinity of Lake Mweru (highest point, 7000-8000 ft.). Finally may be mentioned the tract of elevated country between Lake Bangweulu and the river Luapula, and between Lake Bangweulu and the basin of the Luangwa; and also the Lukinga (Mushinga) or Ugwara Mountains of North Western Rhodesia, which attain perhaps to altitudes of 6000 ft. Entry: BRITISH
_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. Entry: BRITISH
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA, the general name given to the British protectorates in South Central Africa north of the Zambezi river, but more particularly to a large territory lying between 8° 25' S. on Lake Tanganyika and 17° 6' S. on the river Shiré, near its confluence with the Zambezi, and between 36° 10' E. (district of Mlanje) and 26° 30' E. (river Luengwe-Kafukwe). Originally the term "British Central Africa" was applied by Sir H.H. Johnston to all the territories under British [v.04 p.0595] influence north of the Zambezi which were formerly intended to be under one administration; but the course of events having prevented the connexion of Barotseland (see BAROTSE) and the other Rhodesian territories with the more direct British administration north of the Zambezi, the name of British Central Africa was confined officially (in 1893) to the British protectorate on the Shiré and about Lake Nyasa. In 1907 the official title of the protectorate was changed to that of Nyasaland Protectorate, while the titles "North Eastern Rhodesia" and "North Western Rhodesia" (Barotseland) have been given to the two divisions of the British South Africa Company's territory north of the Zambezi. The western boundary, however, of the territory here described has been taken to be a line drawn from near the source of the Lualaba on the southern boundary of Belgian Congo to the western source of the Luanga river, and thence the course of the Luanga to its junction with the Luengwe-Kafukwe, after which the main course of the Kafukwe delimits the territory down to the Zambezi. Thus, besides the Nyasaland Protectorate and North Eastern Rhodesia, part of North Western Rhodesia is included, and for the whole of this region British Central Africa is the most convenient designation. Entry: BRITISH
On the death of Ninoslav in 1250, vigorous efforts were made to exterminate the Bogomil heresy; and to this end, Béla IV., who appeared as the champion of Roman Catholicism, secured the election of his nominee Prijesda to the banate. Direct Hungarian suzerainty lasted until 1299, the bans preserving only a shadow of their former power. From 1299 to 1322 the country was ruled by the Croatian princes, Paul and Mladen Subic, who, though vassals of Hungary, reunited the provinces of Upper and Lower Bosnia, created by the Hungarians in order to prevent the growth of a dangerous national unity. A rising of the native magnates in 1322 resulted in the election of the Bogomil, Stephen Kotromanic, last and greatest of the Bosnian bans. Entry: 15
_Hungarian Supremacy: 1091-c. 1526._--Amid the strife of rival claimants to the throne, Helena, the widow of Stephen, appealed for aid to her brother Ladislaus I., king of Hungary. Ladislaus took possession of the country in 1091. He founded the bishopric of Agram and introduced Hungarian law. His death in 1095 was the signal for a nationalist insurrection, but after two years the rebels were crushed by his successor Coloman. This monarch reorganized the administration on a system which has been maintained, with modifications in detail, by almost all subsequent rulers. He respected the existing institutions of the conquered territory so far as to leave its autonomy in domestic affairs intact; but delegated his own sovereignty, and especially the control of foreign affairs and war, to a governor known as the ban (q.v.). This office was sometimes held by princes of the royal house, often by Croatian nobles. Coloman also extended his authority over Dalmatia and the islands of the Quarnero, but the best modern authorities reject the tradition that in 1102 he was crowned king of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. In 1127 Syrmia, which had been annexed to Bulgaria from about 700 to 1018, and to the Eastern empire from 1019, was united to Slavonia. The Hungarian government left much liberty to the Croatian nobles, a turbulent and fanatical class, ever ready for civil war, rebellion or a campaign against the Bosnian heretics. Their most powerful leaders were the counts of Zrin and Bribir (or Brebir), whose surname was Subic. This family played an important part in local politics from the 13th century to 1670, when Peter Subic was its last member to hold the office of ban. Paul Subic (d. 1312) and Mladen Subic (d. 1322) even for a short period united Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia and part of Dalmatia under their own rule. From 1322 to 1326 the Croatian nobles successfully withstood the armies of Hungary and Bosnia; from 1337 to 1340, instigated by the Vatican, they carried on a crusade against the Bosnian Bogomils; and in the Krajina (Turkish Croatia) hostilities were resumed at intervals until the Turkish conquest. Entry: CROATIA
_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] Entry: BRITISH
(39) The extensive _Yao_ genus of languages stretches from just behind the coast of the Lindi settlements in German East Africa (_Ki-mwera_) south-westward across the Ruvuma river to the north-east shores of Lake Nyasa (_Ki-kese_), and thence back to the valley of the Lujenda-Ruvuma (_Cingindo_), and southwards in various dialects of the _Yao_ language to the south-east corner of Lake Nyasa and the region east of the Shire river, between Lake Nyasa, the Shire highlands and Mt. Mlanje. It is only since the middle of the 19th century that the _Yao_ language has conquered territory to the south of Lake Nyasa. There still remain within its domain colonies of Nyanja-speaking people. Entry: 39
The name cedar is applied to a variety of trees, including species of several genera of Conifers, _Juniperus_, _Thuja_, _Libocedrus_ and _Cupressus_. _Thuja gigantea_ of western North America is known in the United States as White (or Yellow) cedar, and the same name is applied to _Cupressus Lawsoniana_, the Port Orford or Oregon cedar, a native of the north-west States, and one of the most valuable juniper trees of North America. The Bermuda cedar (_Juniperus bermudiana_) and the red or American cedar (_J. virginiana_) are both much used in joinery and in the manufacture of pencils; though other woods are now superseding them for pencil-making. The Japanese cedar (_Cryptomeria japonica_) is a kind of cypress, the wood of which is very durable. Another species of cypress (_Cupressus thyoides_, also known as _Chamaecyparis thyoides_ or _sphaeroidea_), found in swamps in the south of Ohio and Massachusetts, is known as the American white cedar. It has small leaves and fibrous bark, the wood is light, soft and easily-worked, and very durable in contact with the soil, and is much used for boat-building and for making fences and coopers' staves. The Spanish cedar is a name applied to _Juniperus thurifera_, a native of the western Mediterranean region, and also to another species, _J. Oxycedrus_, a common plant in the Mediterranean region, forming a shrub or low tree with spreading branches and short, stiff, prickly leaves. The latter was much used by the Greeks for making images; and its empyreumatic oil, Huile de Cade, is used medicinally for skin-diseases. A species of cypress, _Cupressus lusitanica_, which has been naturalized in the neighbourhood of Cintra is known as the cedar of Goa. The genus _Widdringtonia_ of tropical and South Africa is also known locally as cedar. _W. juniperoides_ is the characteristic tree of the Cederberg range in Cape Colony, while _W. Whytei_, recently discovered in Nyasaland and Rhodesia (the Mlanje cedar) is a fine tree reaching 150 ft. in height, and yielding an ornamental light yellow-brown wood, suitable for building. The order Cedrelaceae (which is entirely distinct from the Conifers) includes, along with the mahoganies and other valuable timber-trees, the Jamaica and the Australian red cedars, _Cedrela odorata_, and _C. Toona_ respectively. The cedar-wood of Guiana, used for making canoes, is a species of the natural order Burseraceae, _Icica altissima_. It is a large tree, reaching 100 ft. in height, the wood is easily worked, fragrant and durable. Entry: CEDAR