[Footnote 430:  J. Scott Keltie, The Partition of Africa, ch. xv.]

The Blue Book dealing with Zanzibar (Africa, No. 1, 1886) by no means solves the riddle of the negotiations which went on between London and Berlin early in the year 1885.  From other sources we know that the most ardent of the German colonials were far from satisfied with their triumph.  Curious details have appeared showing that their schemes included the laying of a trap for the Sultan of Zanzibar, which failed owing to clumsy baiting and the loquacity of the would-be captor.  Lord Rosebery also managed, according to German accounts, to get the better of Count Herbert Bismarck in respect of St. Lucia Bay (see page 528) and districts on the Benue River; so that this may perhaps be placed over against the losses sustained by Britain on the coast opposite Zanzibar.  Even there, as we have seen, results did not fully correspond to the high hopes entertained by the German Chauvinists[431].

[Footnote 431:  Bismarck:  Some Secret Pages of his History, vol. iii. pp. 135, 144-45.  Parl.  Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), pp. 39-45, 61 et seq.; also No. 3 (1886), pp. 4, 15.]

In the meantime (June 1885) the Salisbury Cabinet came into office for a short time, but the evil effects of the slackness of British diplomacy were not yet at an end.  At this time British merchants, especially those of Manchester, were endeavouring to develop the mountainous country around the giant cone of Mt.  Kilimanjaro, where Mr. (now Sir) Harry Johnston had, in September 1884, secured some trading and other rights with certain chiefs.  A company had been formed in order to further British interests, and this soon became the Imperial British East Africa Company, which aspired to territorial control in the parts north of those claimed by Dr. Peters’ Company.  A struggle took place between the two companies, the German East Africa Company laying claim to the Kilimanjaro district.  Again it proved that the Germans had the more effective backing, and, despite objections urged by our Foreign Minister, Lord Rosebery, against the proceedings of German agents in that tract, the question of ownership was referred to the decision of an Anglo-German boundary commission.

Lord Iddesleigh assumed control of the Foreign Office in August, but the advent of the Conservatives to power in no way helped on the British case.  By an agreement between the two Powers, dated November 1, 1886, the Kilimanjaro district was assigned to Germany.  From the northern spurs of that mountain the dividing line ran in a north-westerly direction towards the Victoria Nyanza.  The same agreement recognised the authority of the Sultan of Zanzibar as extending over the island of that name, those of Pemba and Mafia, and over a strip of coastline ten nautical miles in width; but the ownership of the district of Vitu north of Mombasa was left open[432]. (See map at the close of this volume.)