On January 25th, 1899, at 7.54 a.m., a loud noise as of an explosion was heard at the settlement of Zomba, British Central Africa, and for many miles around ; almost simultaneously therewith, several small stones were seen to reach the earth in the neighbourhood of Zomba and were collected by the observers of their fall.

Mr. Alfred Sharpe, C.B., His Majesty's Commissioner and Consul. General for the Protectorate of British Central Africa, Mr. J. F. Cunningham, Secretary to the Administration, and Mr. J. McClounie, the Acting Collector of Revenues, on hearing the detonation, surmised that it had an origin in the entry of a meteorite into the earth's atmosphere, and with praiseworthy zeal and energy at once proceeded to collect, by aid of the telegraph and by personal interviews with the witnesses, all the reliable evidence that could be obtained relative to so extraordinary a phenomenon.