PREFACE 



With the exception of the case of the clove 

 industry of Zanzibar, which has been carried on 

 by the Arabs for nearly a hundred years, agri- 

 culture on the east coast of Africa is in its 

 infancy. This is especially so in Portuguese 

 East Africa. Hence no handbook of the agri- 

 culture of that country with any pretence to 

 authority could as yet be written, and this book 

 lays no claim to be such. It is an epitome of 

 the conclusions come to after an eighteen months' 

 examination of the territory and its agricultural 

 resources and prospects, and an attempt to reveal 

 Portuguese East Africa to the investor ; that and 

 no more. The tropics are centuries behind the 

 temperate climates in systematic agriculture, and 

 as nature yields up her secrets grudgingly, progress 

 must necessarily be slow with new products among 

 a new people in a new country. 



It has been necessary to travel beyond the 

 limits of agriculture proper, and the views ex- 

 pressed on some of the questions I have discussed. 



