EAST AFRICA. 



ECUADOR. 



189 



jections to the proposed changes. Some commerce 

 has been developed since the end of the last in- 

 ternal disturbance, the mutiny of Soudanese troops, 

 who were chased out of the country in the spring 

 of 1899. The articles of export are wild coffee, 

 ivory, cattle, and rubber. The inhabitants, three 

 fourths of whom are of Bantu stock, are expert 

 in working iron, making pottery, and other native 

 crafts. The revenue raised locally is about 23,000 

 a year. Church of England missionaries are very 

 active among the natives, and two Roman Catholic 

 missionary societies have long been at work in 

 Uganda. 



German East Africa. The German protecto- 

 rate is under the administration of an imperial 

 governor, at present Major-Gen. Liebert, residing 

 at Dar-es-Salam. The population consists of tribes 

 of mixed Bantu race, with a strong admixture of 

 Arab and Indian blood near the coast. The Euro- 

 pean residents on July 1, 1899, numbered 1,090, 

 of whom 881 were Germans, 38 English, and 34 

 Greeks. There are 7 Protestant and 3 Roman 

 Catholic missionary societies working among the 

 natives. The military force in 1899 consisted of 

 176 Germans and 1,572 colored troops, besides a 

 military police numbering 15 Germans and 482 

 Askaris. The Government has several experi- 

 mental stations to test methods of tropical agricul- 

 ture and the breeding of animals. A scientific in- 

 vestigation of the forests has been begun. Near 

 the coast the forests contain mangroves, cocoanut 

 palms, baobabs, and tamarind trees, and those of 

 the higher lands in the interior consist of the 

 acacia, cotton tree, sycamore, banyan, and many 

 other species. The minerals already discovered in- 

 clude iron, coal, malachite, and salt. Gold is 

 known to exist, whether in paying quantities it 

 has not been determined. German planters raise 

 eocoanuts, vanilla, tobacco, rubber, and cacao in 

 the coast region, and on higher ground coffee. 

 They have displayed great enterprise in these un- 

 dertakings, looking far ahead for the profits of 

 their investments, and some are already obtaining 

 satisfactory results. The authorities are trying to 

 {rente a thorough system of roads throughout the 

 protectorate. Mules have been introduced as 

 transport animals because they resist the tsetse fly 

 better than horses or asses. The native planters 

 have large groves of banana trees and cultivate 

 maize and pulse. Their common domestic animal 

 is the goat, though cattle and sheep are also reared. 

 The chief seaports are Dar-es-Salam and Baga- 

 moyo, with about 13,000 inhabitants each; Saa- 

 dani, Pangani, and Kilwa, with 10,000; and Lindi, 

 Mikindani, and Tanga, with 5,000. Their harbors 

 are too shallow for large ocean steamers, and 

 therefore the trade centers in Zanzibar, as it has 

 for centuries. Indian merchants carry on a great 

 part of the commerce of the German as well as of 

 the English possessions, and they complain of the 

 heaviness of German taxation, not appreciating 

 that the attention given by the German authorities 

 to police, navigation, industry, commerce, agricul- 

 ture, roads, transport, schools, and public health 

 enables them to carry on a larger, safer, and more 

 profitable trade than they did before the advent 

 of the German administration. The imports and 

 exports increase year by year. In 1898 imports 

 amounted to 16,852.656 marks and exports to 

 f>.99.~>,929 marks. Cotton goods amount to nearly 

 half the imports, foodstuffs coming next. The 

 main exports are ivory, rubber, copra, gum copal, 

 sesame, and coffee. Ivory is decreasing, as Congo 

 ivory goes now to the west coast, and that from 

 Uganda is exported through Mombasa. The Ger- 

 man authorities take elaborate measures to coun- 

 teract the effects of the climate, including sub- 



stantial stone houses, hospitals, an ample medical 

 staff, inspection of meat, covered wells, vaccina- 

 tion, inspection of native houses in the towns, 

 drainage, and a study of the blackwater fever and 

 other endemic diseases by medical investigators. 

 Steps have been taken to check the spread of 

 Texas fever among cattle. The smallpox has 

 caused great mortality among the natives, and the 

 plague and leprosy have appeared. The drought 

 which occurred in the winter of 1898 brought the 

 people to the verge of famine, and their distress 

 was prolonged by the ravages of locusts. The rev- 

 enue for 1900 amounted to 8,495,000 marks, includ- 

 ing the imperial contribution of 5,985,000 marks. 

 A hut tax was introduced which yielded 300,000 

 marks where only 100,000 marks were expected. 

 For 1901 the imperial contribution was fixed at 

 6,830,000 marks. The Government encourages the 

 building of railroads by granting subsidies, which 

 are given also to steamship companies. A railroad 

 from Tanga, of which 10 miles were completed in 

 1899, is being built to Karagwe and Nomba, and 

 one from Dar-es-Salam to Norogo. A telegraph 

 line is being built from Dar-es-Salam to Kilossa. 

 The coast stations are connected with one another 

 by telegraph and with Zanzibar by a cable. 



ECUADOR, a republic in South America. The 

 Constitution, amended last in 1897, vests the legis- 

 lative power in the Congress, consisting of a Sen- 

 ate of 32 members, 2 from each province, elected 

 for two years, and a House of Representatives 

 containing at present 33 members, 1 for every 

 15,000 of population, elected likewise for two 

 years by the suffrage of all adult male citizens who 

 can read and write. The President is elected for 

 four years by direct vote of the people, and the 

 Vice-President, who in certain cases is called upon 

 to act as President, is elected in the same manner 

 after an interval of tw r o years. The President 

 elected for the term beginning Feb. 6, 1897, is Gen. 

 Eloy Alfaro. The Vice-President is Freila Zal- 

 dumbide. The Cabinet at the beginning of 1900 

 was composed as follows: President ex-officio, 

 Vice-President Zaldumbide; Minister of the Inte- 

 rior, Police, Public Works, Agriculture, and Pub- 

 lic Charity, Gomez de la Torre; Minister of For- 

 eign Affairs and Justice. Jos6 Peralta; Minister 

 of War and Marine, Gen. Nicolo Arellano; Min- 

 ister of Finance, Public Instruction, and Immigra- 

 tion, Abelardo Monscayo. 



Area and Population. The area of Ecuador 

 is about 120,000 square miles. The Peruvian 

 boundary has not been determined, and the treaty 

 arranged on May 2, 1890, having been altered by 

 the Peruvian Government in 1893, was revoked 

 altogether by the Ecuadorian Congress in the fol- 

 lowing year. Ecuador also disputes with Colom- 

 bia the territories on the left bank of the Napo 

 river. The population of the republic is 1,271,861, 

 of whom about 100.000 are whites of Spanish de- 

 scent, 300,000 are of mixed race, and the rest are 

 Indians. Quito, the capital, has about 80.000 in- 

 habitants; Guayaquil, the seaport, 50,000. Public 

 education is provided free and is compulsory. 

 There are 9 superior, 35 intermediate, and 1,088 

 primary schools, with 1,498 teachers and 68,380 

 pupils. 



Finances. The revenue for 1897 was 6,760,545 

 sucres, of which 5,358,629 sucres came from cus- 

 toms, and the expenditure was 5,690,220 sucres. 

 The estimate of revenue for that year and for 

 1898 was 9,093,551 sucres, and that of expenditure 

 at 11,005,141 sucres, and the same estimates were 

 officially adopted for 1899, except that military 

 and naval appropriations were omitted, reducing 

 the expenditure to about 7,000,000 sucres. The 

 foreign debt of Ecuador was inherited from the 



