382 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA part hi 



contrary, I must admit that no great commercial prosperity 

 can be immediately expected. In this, however. East Africa 

 is not exceptional. I am not aware that any purely agricultural 

 colony has been a financial success in the first or second 

 generation. The United States were founded as a refuge from 

 oppression ; the Cape of Good Hope was occupied for stra- 

 tegical purposes as a half-way house to Batavia ; Australia 

 made no important progress until it began to yield gold. 

 There is no reason, therefore, why we should expect from 

 Equatorial Africa what these richer countries of the temperate 

 zone have failed to do. The development of the country must 

 proceed slowly and tediously, and will require to be carried on 

 with caution, perseverance, and self-sacrifice. But it is not a 

 task to be shirked by the country which has succeeded in the 

 more difficult feat of ruling India and of spreading her colonies 

 over the globe. England ought at least to beat any rival in 

 this field. She has the best opportunities, the truest colonising 

 instincts, and by remarkable good fortune has secured the 

 most promising districts in Africa. No one who has travelled 

 through the German and British protectorates in East Africa 

 has failed to be struck by the fact that in the partition of this 

 region England has obtained the better share. British East 

 Africa includes more fertile, healthier, and more thickly 

 populated districts than those of the German sphere ; and in 

 Uganda England holds the most important strategical position 

 in the Continent. German East Africa contains nothing so 

 rich as the Kapte plains or so fertile as the Tana delta, and 

 has no such intelligent and comparatively civilised people as 

 the Waganda. The fact that more progress has been made in 

 the German protectorate than in the British, speaks volumes 

 for the energy of our rivals and the wisdom of her administrators. 

 England, however, can well afford Germany her start, for 

 our position is a strong one, and the construction of the Uganda 

 Railway will secure our unrivalled supremacy in Central Africa. 

 The French attempts in the Niger and on the Congo have so 

 far led to nothing but heavy burdens and light glory. The 

 successes achieved in the German sphere are hardly com- 

 mensurate with the enormous sacrifices of men and money. 

 The Congo Free State has certainly lost ground since the 

 dismissal of the English staff. Of all the countries which have 



