CAMPAIGNS IN EASTERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA. 804 numerous raids into British territory, alwaysescaping over the border when pursued. At last the co-operation of the Portuguese authoritieswas secured, and Mataka and his protege were simultaneously attacked by a Portuguese force, commanded by the Governor of Mozambique, and the Nyassaland forces under Captain Pearce,anda permanentdanger toboth colonies was thus got rid of.

'nineties,tocarry on a waron asmaller scale with the Arab slavers of that district. When Mr. (now Sir H. H.) Johnston took charge of the country in 1891, thechief of these traders was a half-Arab half-negro chief, named Mankanjila, who had a fleet of dhows and a fortified port at the south end of the lake. Mr. Johnston's policy was to stop aggressive slave raiding at once, and gradually to put an end to slavery itself. Mankanjila,however, wasdefiant,andin 1892 a small force, under Captain Maguire, was sent to seize hisdhows. The attack wasrepulsed withheavyloss, andits gallant youngleader was wounded,thrust into the lake and drowned.

Zanzibar, once the centre of the Arab slave trade in Africa,is now a Protectorate,ruled byitsSultan,under the supervision of an English Resident. Inthe autumn of 1896,on thesudden death of the Sultan, Seyyid Hamid ben Thwain, one of his cousins, Seyyid Khalid, who was known to be hostile to British influence, seized the vacantthrone. His arrangementsfor prompt action were so complete that it was generally suspected that he had poisoned ben Thwain. Howeverthis may be, he was informed by the British Consul-General that his usurped authority could not be recognised. The Cape Squadron, under the command of Admiral Rawson, appeared before Zanzibar, and, the usurper having rejected an ultimatum, fire was opened on his palace and the batteries he had erectedin front of it. In a few minutes the guns in the batteries were silenced,the palace was in flames, and an armedsteamer flyingthe Sultan's flag, that had run out to engage the squadron, was sunk in theharbour. Landingparties from the ships then took possession of the town and the ruins of the palace. Khalidescaped capture and took refuge in the German consulate, whence he was afterwards conveyed to German territory on the mainland. Another prince of the Sultan's family, Seyyid Hamid ben Mohammed, who was thoroughly loyal to the British Protectorate, was placed upon the vacant throne.

It wasnot tillthe end of 1893 that Mr. John ston felt himself strong enough to retrieve this defeat. By that time Mankanjila had been assassinated by oneof his kinsmen, and another chief of the same name reigned in his stead. Early in 1894 the attack was made upon his stronghold. Mr. Johnston directed the operations,bringing up by landaforce of Sikhs under Major C. E. Johnson,and on the lake a couple of gunboats, the Pioneer and the Adventure, commanded by Commander Robertson, R.N., and Lieutenant Villiers,R.N. The slavedealer's fortress was destroyed, and a fort was built on its site and namedFort Maguire, inmemoryof the leader of the first unsuccessful attack. In 1896 the stronghold of another slave-hunting chief on the lake, named Kazunga, was destroyed by a mixed force of Sikhs and local levies under British officers.

In the summer of 1891a a joint British and Portuguese expedition was sent against a chief named Mataka, who had a fortified stronghold south-east of Lake Nyassa, near the border of Portuguese territory. Mankanjila had taken refuge with him after the fall of his fortress on the lake, and the two freebooters had made