803 however,in the end naturallyovercame Captain Bell and his two companions. First the three were speared, then cut up,andafterwardseaten."

A larger expedition under van Wert was sent up to attack the tribe that had cut off the unfortunate officer, and in the course of some weeks of bush fighting killed a lot of the cannibals and burned their villages.

IntheNyassalandProtectorate (whichincludes the highlandsof the Shire and the westernshore ofLake Nyassa) the British had,in the earlier sent on the expeditionCaptain Bell was in bad health and very weak from repeated attacks of fever. After leaving the commandant, Captain Bell and his small force of fifty black troops proceeded in the direction of a village called Mondimbc. While marching in Indian file through a dense sorest they were suddenly surrounded by 300 spearmen. The soldiers, ere mereboys,and,likeall their comrades, arrant cowards, no sooner saw the natives approaching than they threw down theirrifles and THE TROUBLE IN NYASSALAND.

cartridgebelts andcleared into the bush,leaving Captain Bell, his native sergeant, and one boy t:> resist the attack. Aided by his boy,Captain Bell loaded and fired his rifle again and Egam, and when at close quarters used his revolvei with such effect that he accounted for fully ten natives before the end came. The cannibals, was with his soldiers and porters. Of Captain Bell's expedition Ihave full information from the commandant's runners,from fugitive soldiers, and from Bell's own boy, all of whom told the same story, which was subsequently confirmed by the Belgian punitive expedition afterwards sent to avenge theBritish officer'sdeath. When SIR II. H. JOHNSTON, K.C.li.

(Photo: Elliott t Fry.)