EAST AFRICA. 



251 



pees, against 3,925,507 rupees in 1897; of exports, 

 1,087,266 rupees, against 1,172,020 rupees in 1897. 

 The vessels entered at Mombasa in 1898 had an 

 aggregate tonnage of 196,030 tons. The railroad 

 under construction from the port of Mombasa to 

 the coast of Victoria Nyanza will have a total 

 length of about 550 miles, of which 300 miles 

 were completed by May 1, 1899, bringing it to 

 the healthful and populous country of Kikuyu, 

 the exportable products of which will afford some 

 return traffic. In the malarial coast zone the 

 rate of mortality among the Indian coolie labor- 

 ers was high. No fewer than 28 men were killed 

 by lions before measures were taken to protect 

 the workmen. The supplies for the German set- 

 tlement on Kilimanjaro are conveyed over the 

 railroad, and the downward traffic in ivory is 

 already considerable. The route of the railroad 

 as originally surveyed by Major MacDonald ter- 

 minated at the northeast shore of the lake. A 



later the official excuse was that the high prices 

 paid for labor on the Uganda Railroad would 

 cause all the slaves, if they were set at liberty, 

 to desert the plantations of their masters and 

 leave the whole coast district uncultivated. Slav- 

 ery is recognized as legal only in the territory 

 leased from the Sultan of Zanzibar, the 10-mile 

 strip of coast, within which are situated the 

 plantations of the Arab slaveholders. The opin- 

 ion was given by the Attorney-General of Great 

 Britain in 1897 that it was an offense against 

 British law when British subjects anywhere in 

 the world were themselves concerned in the send- 

 ing back and restoring to slavery of persons 

 claiming to be free, simply because they were 

 slaves. This was hailed by the members of the 

 Antislavery Society as a final blow to slavery in 

 the protectorate, for no runaway slave could be 

 returned to enforced servitude if the British con- 

 sul and subcommissioner, sitting as judge of the 



GONYE FALLS, ON THE ZAMBESI. 



later survey makes the railroad turn to the 

 southwest and terminate at the southern end 

 of the lake, close to German territory, shortening 

 the route by 100 miles. The sum voted by the 

 British Parliament for the construction of the 

 line was 3,000,000. Of this, 1,700,000 had 

 been spent before September, 1898, when about 

 170 miles were completed. The cost in the moun- 

 tainous country beyond the Kikuyi escarpment 

 is certain to be greater, so that the original esti- 

 mate will be exceeded by a large sum. 



The pledge of the British Government, given 

 by Mr. Balfour, that slavery should be abolished 

 on the mainland at the earliest possible moment 

 has for years afforded the theme for embarrass- 

 ing reminders to the antislavery agitators, espe- 

 cially Bishop Alfred E. Tucker, of the diocese 

 of East Equatorial Africa. The rebellion of 

 Mbaruk furnished for some time a plea for delay. 

 The rebellion in Uganda was put forward as the 

 ground for inaction in the beginning of 1899, and 



Mombasa provincial court, did not decide on the 

 rights of the master and had not the power of 

 the protectorate at his back to enforce his de- 

 cree. In March, 1899, the Attorney-General ex- 

 plained in the House of Commons that he did 

 not mean to say that a British subject was not 

 allowed to express his opinion that a man com- 

 ing before him in a court had established his 

 right to slaves. The missionaries who harbor 

 runaway slaves formerly refused to admit the 

 policemen sent to return them to their masters, 

 but when the authorities of the protectorate as- 

 serted the right to compel missionaries to restore 

 slaves who had fled to their stations they gen- 

 erally allowed them to be taken away. After 

 the Attorney-General uttered his dictum that it 

 was a criminal offense to restore persons to slav- 

 ery, some of the missionaries declared that they 

 would in the future resist any search for fugitive 

 slaves on their premises. Sir Arthur Hardinge 

 complained that several of the missions encour- 



