Livingstonia Mission

Livingstonia Mission was based on a suggestion made by Dr Livingstone that Lake Nyassa (q.v.) was the best position for the establishment of a mission with a view to the annihilation of the Portuguese and Arab slave-trade on the east of Africa. Its first settlement was at Cape Maclear at the south end of the lake; but this was abandoned in 1883 for a healthier site at Bandawe, half-way up the west shore. An expedition, costing about £6000, was equipped in 1875 by the Free Church of Scotland for establishing the mission here; and another station, called Blantyre, after Livingstone's birthplace, was planted in 1876 by the Established Church of Scotland in the Shiré Highlands, within easy distance of the lake. As yet the chief industries are iron manufacture, basket-making, and cloth manufacture from the bark of trees and cotton. With the exception of the 70 miles of the Murchison Falls, there exists unbroken water-communication between the head of Nyassa and the Indian Ocean. The African Lakes Company has done much to promote missions, civilisation, and commerce. It blasted a road from the north end of Nyassa up the heights to the plateau between it and Tanganyika, at a cost of £4000, supplied by Mr Stevenson, after whom the road is named. It launched steamers, educated the natives in handicrafts, and had to stand the brunt of attacks from savage neighbours, Arab slave-traders, and Portuguese hostility. But since 1890 the country is under the British flag, and is part of Nyassaland (see NYASSA) or British Central Africa.