EAST AFRICA. 



Company, as well as over those of the Zanzibar 

 Government. The East Africa Company was 

 left to administer the coast ceded to it by the 

 Sultan of Zanzibar and the Hinterland as far as 

 Victoria Nyanza; but meanwhile negotiations 

 were opened regarding the retrocession of the 

 coast to the Zanzibar Government, and the Im- 

 perial Government took under consideration the 

 question of the revocation of the company's 

 charter. 



Zanzibar. The dominion of the Sultan of 

 Zanzibar is now limited to the islands of Zanzi- 

 bar and Pemba. The area of Zanzibar is 625 

 square miles, and the population 150,000. Pemba 

 has an area of 360 square miles and 50,000 in- 

 habitants. There are about 50 Englishmen, 50 

 Germans, some Americans, Frenchmen, Greeks, 

 and Roumanians, and about 7,000 British In- 

 dians, mostly engaged in trade, in the town of 

 Zanzibar, which has a population of 30.000, and 

 elsewhere on the islands. The Sultan or Seyyid, 

 Earned bin Thwain bin Said, who was placed on 

 the throne by the British on the death of Seyyid 

 Ali, in March, 1893, has little to say about the 

 Government, which is carried on by a staff of 

 officials selected by the British Government and 

 controlled by the British agent and consul-gen- 

 eral. The revenue is mainly derived from cus- 

 toms and a tax on cloves. The value of the im- 

 ports in 1892 was 1,185,330, of which 726,169 

 came from foreign countries, 233,883 from Ger- 

 man East Africa, 184,035 from the Sultan's 

 dominions, and 41,243 from the territory of the 

 British East Africa Company. The exports were 

 valued at 908,035. The chief exports were 

 ivory, 148,108 ; cloves, 118,432 ; copra, 60,- 

 476; rubber, 29,010: gums, 19,597; hides, 

 16,182 ; chillies, 8,422. Labor on the islands 

 and on the mainland protectorate is performed 

 by slaves, although their importation has been 

 illegal since 1873. The slave trade nevertheless 

 goes on in spite of the patrol of the coasts by 

 British cruisers. The right of slaves to purchase 

 their freedom was formerly allowed, as it is by a 

 recent decree in the German territories, but this 

 right was revoked by a decree of Aug. 20, 1890, 

 which further directs slave-owners to punish 

 their slaves when they run away. The porters 

 in the British expeditions to Uganda and all 

 caravans of the East Africa Company have been 

 hired directly, but have paid over to their own- 

 ers three fourths of the pay, enabling the latter 

 to purchase two new slaves for every one sent out. 



The Uganda Protectorate. Sir Gerald 

 Portal, as special commissioner of the Imperial 

 Government, took over the administration of 

 Uganda from the East Africa Company's officers 

 in March, 1893, pending the decision of the Brit- 

 ish Government on the question of retaining or 

 evacuating the country to be based on his re- 

 port. This report was sent on Nov. 1, 1893, from 

 Zanzibar, after his return from the interior. He 

 found a fertile soil, a temperate climate, and a 

 race of people of much higher intellectual de- 

 velopment and civilization than any other Cen- 

 tral or East African tribe, ruled by a monarch, 

 nominally absolute, but of weak moral charac- 

 ter, and practically shorn of his authority since 

 his restoration to the throne by the British, 

 though still reverenced by the peasantry. The 

 people were divided into three mutually hostile 



political and religious parties: the Waingraza 

 (that is, the English or Protestant party), the 

 Wafranza or French party (that is, the Catholics), 

 and the Mohammedans. A considerable num- 

 ber of European missionaries, Catholic and Prot- 

 estant, exercised both religious and political in- 

 fluence. While Christianity had taken a firm 

 hold on the country, it was menaced by Moham- 

 medanism on the north among the Mahdists. and 

 on the south among the Arabs, Manyuema, etc. 

 On the one frontier was Unyoro, of almost equal 

 power with Uganda, rich in ivory, with a king 

 hostile to European influence, said to have re- 

 cently been joined by Soudanese troops who had 

 revolted from Emin Pasha. There were 500 

 partly trained armed Soudanese soldiers in 

 Uganda, with 6,000 women, children, and fol- 

 lowers, who had been brought from Kavalli by 

 the company's officers. These soldiers, by deeds 

 of cruelty practiced on native men and women, 

 inspired "hatred and terror. The British East 

 Africa Company, which had publicly acknowl- 

 edged the failure of its attempt to administer 

 the country, had neglected to improve the road 

 to the coast, and transport was still dependent 

 on human porterage, costing 300 a ton. There 

 were no products that were likely to be profitable 

 articles of export excepting ivory and perhaps 

 coffee. The people were eager to possess books, 

 opera glasses, and other European commodities, 

 but all save the lowest classes have a great antip- 

 athy to any sort of work. The company's offi- 

 cers had made many pledges and treaties with 

 the king, chiefs, and people, conveying the im- 

 pression that these engagements were of the 

 same value as though they had been made by 

 the Imperial Government. On May 29, 1893, 

 Sir Gerald Portal concluded a treaty between 

 Mwanga and the British Government, one pro- 

 visional and temporary in its terms. Sir Gerald 

 Portal recommended that an English commis- 

 sioner be appointed for Uganda and its depend- 

 encies and neighboring countries as far as the 

 eastern border of Kavirondo, with a staff of 13 

 English officers and 500 Soudanese soldiers: 

 also the appointment of a road commandant to 

 control the transport service from Kikuyu to the 

 lake, and of a commissioner at Kikuyu with a 

 staff of 4 Europeans, with 60 Zanzibar soldiers 

 and 239 porters. The expense of the various 

 establishments he proposed should be defrayed 

 as far as possible from customs duties and sur- 

 plus revenues of Zanzibar, the Government of 

 Zanzibar to be placed once more in possession 

 of its ports on the coast, and the British East 

 Africa Company to be deprived of its political 

 and administrative powers and converted into a 

 commercial, agricultural, or transport company. 

 A railroad was considered the only means of 

 developing the prosperity of the country and 

 checking the slave trade. The execution of the 

 whole scheme, including the railroad, was ex- 

 pected to cost the British Government about 

 50,000 a year. After Sir Gerald Portal's re- 

 turn from Uganda Col. Col vile went out to 

 take over the administration. The British Gov- 

 ernment announced in April the intention of 

 establishing a protectorate and administration 

 confined to Uganda. Parliament voted 50,000 

 for the purpose. The railroad project and the 

 question of the future status of the company 





