CH. xiii] VICTORIA NYANZA 365 



by clearing all the forest and brush in tracts, which 

 serve as barriers to the fly, and whicli permit passage 

 through the infected belts. On the western shores of 

 Victoria Nyanza, and in the islands adjacent tliereto, 

 the ravages of the pestilence were such, the mortality it 

 caused was so appal Hng, that the Government was finally 

 forced to deport all the survivors inland, to forbid all 

 residence beside or fishing in the lake, and with this end 

 in view to destroy the villages and the fishing fleets of 

 the people. The teeming lake fish were formerly a 

 main source of food supply to all who dwelt near by ; 

 but this has now been cut off, and the myriads of fish 

 are left to themsehes, to the hosts of water birds, and 

 to the monstrous man-eating crocodiles of the lake, on 

 whose blood the fly also feeds, and whence it is supposed 

 by some that it draws the germs so deadly to human- 

 kind. 



When we landed, there was nothing in the hot, 

 laughing, tropical beauty of the land to suggest the 

 grisly horror that brooded so near. In green luxuriance 

 the earth lay under a cloudless sky, yielding her increase 

 to the sun's burning caresses, and men and women 

 were living their lives and doing their work well and 

 gallantly. 



At Entebbe we stayed with the acting-Governor, 

 ]Mr. Boyle, at Kampalla with the District Commissioner, 

 Mr. Knowles, both of them veteran administrators, and 

 the latter also a mighty hunter ; and both of them 

 showed us every courtesy, and treated us with all 

 possible kindness. Entebbe is a pretty little town of 

 English residents, chiefly officials, with well-kept roads, 

 a golf course, lawn-tennis courts, and an attractive 

 club-house. The whole place is bowered in flowers, on 

 tree, bush, and vine, of every hue — masses of lilac, 



