"Nyasaland, or British Central Africa as it is officially called, is now [1898] in a fair way of becoming one of the richest coffee and tobacco growing districts of the world. It enjoys the immense advantage of direct water communication with the coast and, with the exception of a stretch of one hundred miles, the River Shiré, which runs out of Lake Nyasa, is navigable along its whole course. Before long the Upper and Lower Shiré will be connected by a railway line, and goods will then be landed at the northern extremity of Lake Nyasa—a distance of 700 miles from the mouth of the Zambezi—at a trifling cost. At present the journey can already be accomplished in a week. Ten steamers navigate Lake Nyasa, and double that number run on the Zambezi and the Shiré Rivers. This mighty task—accomplished, we must not forget it, without the cost of a single penny to the British tax-payer—did not benefit Great Britain alone. The Portuguese, who, for the last three centuries were slumbering in their East African possessions, were aroused by the extraordinary activity which was displayed at their door. At first they raised objections, but they soon understood what advantages they would derive from the situation, and gave their hearty co-operation to Great Britain. It brought more wealth than they had ever dreamt of to their Zambezi provinces, now a busy centre of trade, in telegraphic communication with the Cape in the South and Lake Nyasa in the North. The Portuguese port of Beira, a sandbank some years ago, has become the most important harbour between Zanzibar and Delagoa Bay, and owes its present position to the railway line which runs to Mashonaland." _L. Decle, The Fashoda Question (Fortnightly Review, November, 1898)._ BRITISH COLUMBIA. See (in this volume) CANADA. BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895. Territory transferred to the British Government. See (in this volume) AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BRITISH EAST AFRICA). {56} BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895-1897. Its creation and extent. Existence of slavery. War in the Province of Seyyidieh. Report of the commissioner.