CHAPTER XIV 



Beautiful Uganda and the Nile 



WHEN the traveler in the "dark continent" crosses the great 

 East African lake, Victoria Nyanza, and lands at the port 

 of Entebbe, he finds himself on the threshold of one of the 

 most fertile and beautiful kingdoms in the dark continent, lovely 

 Uganda. This was formerly the seat of the most remarkable of the 

 African native governments, and is now of as remarkable a colonial 

 realm, for the old governmental system has been left unchanged under 

 the shadow of the British protectorate. What the British have 

 brought are the blessings of peace, of civilized habits, of education 

 and Christian teaching; while no burden of foreign rule rests upon 

 the neck of the natives, whose old system persists unchanged. 



What is to be found there can best be indicated by a brief descrip- 

 tion of this singular civilization in the heart of East Africa. Extend- 

 ing westward and northward from the Victoria Nyanza, reaching 

 to and embracing the Albert Nyanza, and traversed by the upper 

 channel of the Nile, Uganda is an extensive equatorial realm, its 

 administrative capital of Entebbe lying nearly on the Equator, yet its 

 elevation of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet gives it a partly temperate 

 climate, while its vegetation has all the regal luxuriance of the 

 tropics. 



Nowhere else in Africa is there a region to be compared in charm 

 and attractiveness with Uganda. Diflferent from all others in scenery, 

 in vegetation, and in the character and condition of its people, it 

 stands alone. In reaching it by sail, we leave the breezy uplands 

 lying east of the great lake and enter a garden spot of the tropics. 

 Entebbe glows with floral beauty — violet, yellow, purple and crimson 

 blooms. Plants and trees of beautiful form and coloi grow in pro- 

 fusion, before the Government House is a stretch of level green lawn, 

 and in the distance the great blue lake and purple hills attract the 



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