1 42 Transactions. 



of lakes, the Kagcra ;iiid t)»o Nile, you would liave a water way 

 from the inoutli of the Zambesi right to Cairo, interrupted only 

 by land carriage for a very short distance. It had been his ideal 

 for many years to see the country inside that chain entirely in 

 the hands of England, Italy, and Egypt. The German territory 

 might safely be left out of consideration, because if the Germans 

 did succeed in colonising it, they were on the whole friendly to 

 ourselves. He saw no reason why this enormous stretch of 

 Africa, practically one third of the continent, should not be given 

 up to British enterprise. (Cheers.) He was not against a rail- 

 way to Mombasa by any means, if he could see any prospect of 

 one being constructed ; but the cost was estimated at three and a 

 half millions sterling. As far as he had been able to calculate it^ 

 the series of steamers and railways which were necessai-y along 

 the route which he had indicated would cost very much less ; and 

 whereas the railway from Mombasa would only open up our own 

 possessions, this route would open up the whole continent, and 

 practically it would destroy the slave trade. (Cheers.) In 

 the district of Bugufu, which had not before been visited 

 by a European, Mr Scott-Elliot was regarded as a person 

 who had descended from the gods, and treated with be- 

 coming honour ; but in Burundi he had a different experience 

 frequently feeling himself in great danger from the large troops 

 of armed men who persistently accompanied the little party of forty 

 under his care, and experiencing also great dilHculty in obtaining 

 food supplies. Of the Ullambzene, Kikuyu, and Masai country, 

 stretching from 250 miles of the coast to a few miles of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, the lecturer spoke highly as a field for colonisa- 

 tion, being healthy, extremely fertile, and of enormous extent. 

 It was destined in the future, he thought, to be a British colony, 

 of perhaps the same importance as Cape Colony and Natal 

 together. Regarding the countries bordering the Victoria 

 Nyanza, he obse.rved that we had here a tremendous market and 

 a very excellent prospect of a good supply of the products which 

 we wanted. Surely, then, it was our duty simply to take what 

 was offered to us ; but by some curious kind of timidity the 

 Government were said to have publicly declared that they would 

 confine themselves to Uganda, leaving o>U altogether Usoga, 

 Kavirondo, Torn, and Unyoro, well peopled, fertile, rich countrie.s, 

 all of which are subject to Uganda, and could be kept up at very 

 little more expense than would be incurred in keeping up 



