208 



EAST AFRICA. 



inces the native chiefs rule over their own people, 

 .subject to European control. The number of 

 Europeans in the protectorate in 1900 was 300. 

 There are 4,000 troops under British officers, in- 

 cluding a contingent of Indian soldiers enlisted 

 for three years. The local revenue for 1901, 

 derived mainly from a hut tax and a tax on arms, 

 was estimated at 40,000. The British special 

 commissioner and commander-in-chief in 1901 

 was Sir Harry H. Johnston, in whose absence 

 the administration is managed by the deputy com- 

 missioner. F. J. Jackson. The soil is very fer- 

 tile and the country is rich in iron, which is ex- 

 tracted and wrought by native processes. Copper 

 is mined in the central part, and gold is found. 

 The chief products for export are ivory, woods, 

 rubber, and cattle. German and British mer- 

 chants are being supplanted by East Indians. 

 Sir Harry Johnston, whose connection with 

 Ugunda ceased in 1901,, was sent out as special 

 commissioner after the capture of Kabarega and 

 Mwanga. He inaugurated reforms in the ad- 

 ministration and devised plans for increasing the 

 local revenue, which he expects before many years 

 to be sufficient to provide for the government, pro- 

 tection, and development of the country. Since 

 the establishment of the protectorate in 1894 the 

 British Government has spent, besides nearly 5,- 

 000,000 on the railroad, 1,394,000 for military 

 and administrative purposes in Uganda. Uganda 

 was taken by the British for political reasons, 

 chiefly to guard the sources of the Nile, which en- 

 gineers could divert so as to deprive Egypt of the 

 irrigating flood on which its fertility depends. 

 East Africa is, moreover, an outlet for Indian 

 commerce and emigration. The most promising 

 part of Uganda is the salubrious eastern part, a 

 region of about 12,000 square miles, to a great ex- 

 tent uninhabited by any native race, covered with 

 forest, well watered and fertile, having an altitude 

 of over 6,000 feet, perfectly adapted for European 

 colonization. The valuable rubber-vine and rub- 

 ber producing trees thrive here. In various parts 

 of the protectorate coffee, indigo, cotton, sugar, 

 and many fiber plants are grown, but cultivation 

 brings little profit. Cattle and sheep may be 

 reared at a profit. Iron, copper, and coal exist. 

 Wild animals abound, from the elephant down. 

 Experiments are being made in the domestication 

 of zebras and wild asses, in ostrich-farming and 

 in training young elephants that are brought in 

 by the Baganda. The hut and gun tax imposed 

 by Sir Harry Johnston produced in the first year 

 34.000, and is expected to produce before long 

 an annual revenue of 165,000. The rest of the 

 revenue necessary for the administration will be 

 raised from Europeans in the form of customs 

 duties, licenses, etc. The products of Government 

 forests, salt-mines, royalties on minerals, and sale 

 and rent of lands will yield a surplus from which 

 the cost of the Uganda Railroad may be refunded 

 to the British Government. The armed force of 

 the protectorate will consist of a nucleus of 400 

 Indian troops and of native recruits raised in the 

 Nile provinces and in Uganda. An expedition led 

 by Lieut.-Col. J. Evatt, consisting of 105 Indian 

 and 268 local troops, marched in the autumn of 

 1900 against the warlike Nandi tribe in the moun- 

 tainous forest region east of the Victoria Nyanza. 

 These people have always resented the entrance of 

 strangers into their country, and when the rail- 

 road survey was first made the caravan route 

 which avoided Nandi was followed. The Govern- 

 ment decided on a shorter route direct to the shore 

 of the lake. The Nandis attacked the surveying 

 parties, and in 1897 Col. Ternan conducted a puni- 

 tive expedition against them, but had to leave 



the task unfinished when the Soudanese mutiny 

 began. After that the Nandis harassed caravans, 

 destroyed the telegraph, and grew so bold as to 

 attack military posts and ambush detachments 

 of the Uganda rifles. The punitive expedition of 

 Lieut.-Col. Evatt was unable to accomplish any- 

 thing in the difficult Nandi country after arriving 

 there. Patrols were ambuscaded, and one detach- 

 ment of 19 men was wiped out. The troops were 

 practically shut up in the forts until 300 Masai 

 spearmen came to their aid and quickly turned 

 the fortunes of w r ar. Columns of about 40 rifles 

 and 100 Masais raided the country in all direc- 

 tions, capturing cattle and inflicting heavy losses 

 on the Nandis. The fighting was" done by the 

 Masais. The main body meanwhile moved slowly 

 through the country from west to east after the 

 cave strongholds on the edge of the Nandi escarp- 

 ment had been captured. The British were re- 

 enforced by 296 Uganda troops. After the zariba 

 of their medicine-men was taken by Col. Evatt on 

 Oct. 13, 1900, the Nandis made a final determined 

 attack on the British camp which was almost 

 successful, and was only repelled with a loss of 11 

 killed and 19 w r ounded, the Nandi tribes sued for 

 peace, having lost most of their live-stock, which 

 constitutes their property. Peace was not finally 

 concluded until February, 1901, when Sir Harry 

 Johnston held a palaver with the Nandi chiefs in 

 their forest. The route of the railroad does not 

 traverse the mountainous region which is the 

 Nandi country proper. It passes by their moun- 

 tains through a land that had been rendered unin- 

 habitable by their incessant raids. The Nandis 

 and other self-governing tribes outside of the 

 limits of British administration do not pay the 

 hut tax,, which is collected from the semicivilized 

 agricultural Bantu tribes who inhabit the country 

 between the lakes, from the Baganda and the 

 kindred races of the Unyoro, Toru, Ankole, and 

 Busoga. These are still ruled by their own chiefs, 

 and the British do not interfere except to pro- 

 tect the natives from oppression. An armed 

 steamboat was launched on the Victoria Nyanza 

 late in 1900. Sir Harry Johnston reduced military 

 expenditures considerably, and at the same time 

 increased the armed force by more than 1,000 

 men not soldiers, but armed police. Mwanga 

 and Kabarega, the captive deposed Kings of 

 Uganda and Unyoro, were deported in October, 

 1901, to the Seychelles Islands. 



The sultanate of Zanzibar, reduced to the 

 islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, was made a Brit- 

 ish protectorate in 1891. The Sultan is Seyyid 

 Hamud bin Mohammed bin Said, born in 1856, 

 who was placed on the throne by the British after 

 the death of Hamed bin Thwain, in 1896. The 

 British agent and consul-general is Sir C. N. E. 

 Eliot. 



The area of the island of Zanzibar is 640 square 

 miles, with about 150,000 inhabitants; that of 

 Pemba 'is 380 square miles, with 50,000. The 

 population includes 50 English, 50 Germans, sonle 

 Greeks, Americans, French, Italians, and Rou- 

 manians, and about 7,000 East Indians, most of 

 them traders, some of them constituting the firms 

 that carry on the main commercial business of 

 East Africa. The town of Zanzibar has 30,000 

 inhabitants. The military force, under Col. Raikes, 

 consists of 900 soldiers and police. The revenue, 

 derived from customs duties and taxes on cloves 

 and other produce, is expended by the British offi- 

 cials, except the sum of 120,000 rupees assigned 

 for the maintenance of the Sultan and his house- 

 hold. The value of imports in 1899 was 1,596,- 

 606, and of exports 1,513,407, including the 

 trade of the port of Zanzibar with the rest of the 



