Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/348

 but the surrounding district is barren, and for a space of over 60 miles going southwards the coastlands are entirely uninhabited.

Great expectations were originally formed respecting Livingstonia, the first station founded on the shores of Nyassa, where were supposed to be united all the elements of future greatness — geographical position, well-sheltered harbour, fertile soil. But there was one fatal drawback, a relaxing and unhealthy climate, which compelled the missionaries to abandon all their establishments so pleasantly situated on the peninsula here projecting into the lake and separating its southern extremity into two spacious bays. When Livingstonia was visited by Kerr in 1885 nothing wus to be seen except the cheerless sight of abandoned houses which lined

the streets, The missionaries, as the natives assured him, were "all dead, all gone to Bandawee."

In the interior of the Zambese basin the chief focus of European activity is at present the town of Blantyre, which is situated about 90 miles to the south of Nyassa in a valley of the Shire uplands, whose geographical position has been fixed with astronomic accuracy by the explorer O'Neill, and connected with the whole network of routes between the Zambese and Tanganyika. Blantyre was so named in 1876 from the little Lanarkshire village where Livingstone was born. Thanks to its elevation of nearly 3,400 feet above the sea, it is a relatively healthy place for Europeans, who are here able to perform manual labour without risk. The surrounding district has also the great advantage of being free from the tsetse fly. The community of missionaries, its original founders, has since been reinforced by some traders and by a few planters, who cultivate coffee and the sugar-cane. The