EAST AFRICA. 



ned slaves to leave their masters by allowing 

 them to have ground to cultivate and build upon 

 without exacting in return either rent or services, 

 but only that they attend church and send their 

 children to school. The chief cause of the dis- 

 content of the coast Arabs, which led to the 

 rebellion of Mlmruk and Raschid bin Salmi m 

 1895 and 1896, is the antislayery policy actively 

 pursued by many of the missionaries, and identi- 

 fied with the Government also, since the suppres- 

 sion of the maritime slave traffic was the object 

 of the earliest interference of Great Britain m 

 Zanzibar. The British Government, guided by 

 the reports of Sir Arthur Hardinge, is not yet 

 prepared to abolish slavery on the mainland, al- 

 thou'h the legal status of slavery has been abol- 

 ished in Xan/.ibar. Although slaves have been 

 running away in greater numbers since the rebel- 

 lion, the condition of slavery is represented m 

 reports as beneficial to the slaves and necessary 

 to the economic life of the country, as even a 

 natural and necessary social relation, because 

 all ordinary Africans feel the necessity of depend- 

 ing on a chief or master. The slave owners in 

 tins part of Africa give their slaves a piece of 

 ground to cultivate in return for a part of the 

 produce or for service at stated times, or they 

 allow them to go forth to trade or to work on 

 condition of their handing over a part of their 

 profits or wages. In this relation the slave looks 

 to his master and to his fellow-slaves for care 

 and aid in times of sickness or distress. He oc- 

 cupies a fixed social status, as does also the 

 freedman voluntarily manumitted by his master; 

 one who has obtained his freedom by the inter- 

 vention of Englishmen, on the other hand, is 

 regarded as an outcast, and is avoided and de- 

 spised by all. The policy of the British Govern- 

 ment was defined in instructions sent by Lord 

 Salisbury to Sir Arthur Hardinge on Feb. 11, 

 1899, that no British official shall hand back 

 slaves; that the native courts, how r ever, will not 

 be deprived of any powers they exercised before 

 the proclamation of 1890, but in every case the 

 master will be required to prove clearly that the 

 slave has been and is legally owned. In taking 

 over the Government of Zanzibar in 1890 the Brit- 

 ish Government gave a pledge that all slaves pos- 

 sessed at that date by subjects of the Sultan 

 should remain as they were, and their status 

 should be unchanged. 



Uganda. The British protectorate declared 

 over Uganda on June 19, 1894, was extended in 

 July, 1896, to Unyoro and other countries to 

 the west as far as the agreed boundary of the 

 Congo Independent State, which is 30 of east 

 longitude northward to the water parting of the 

 Nile and Congo basins; and in the east it w r as 

 made to include Usoga. The protectorate is ad- 

 ministered by a commissioner and consul general, 

 E. J. L. Berkeley, although in Uganda there is 

 a nominal king, the infant son of King Mwanga. 

 Close to Mengo, the capital, is the fort of Kam- 

 pala, where British troops are quartered. Indian 

 soldiery has been introduced to take the place 

 of the Soudanese troops, who mutinied and fled 

 across the Nile. The residence of the commission- 

 er is Port Alice, on Victoria Nyanza. The rail- 

 road that is being constructed from Mombasa to 

 the east shore of the lake will have its terminus 

 at Ugove Bay; 260 miles had been completed 

 by Feb. 1, 1899. The soil of Uganda is fertile 

 and adapted for coffee culture. The natives of 

 Uganda, who are divided in religion into Catho- 

 lics, Protestants, Mohammedans, and heathen, 

 are skillful in ironwork and pottery. The im- 

 ports in 1895 were valued at 222,006 rupees, ex- 



clusive of Government stores; exports, 244,728 

 rupees. 



The first mutiny of the Soudanese troops in 

 Uganda, of whom there were 1,600, constituting 

 at that time the sole military force in the pro- 

 tectorate, was checked by Major MacDonald, who 

 had come to lead an expedition to the source 

 of the Juba and into the Nile country. The mu- 

 tiny started among the Soudanese companies 

 assigned to him, which were companies that had 

 previously been overworked and not paid up, as 

 the trade goods intended for their pay could not 

 be brought up in time from the coast. Major 

 MacDonald with the loyal Soudanese and a de- 

 tachment of regulars drove the mutineers out of 

 Uganda to the northward. On the arrival of 

 Indian troops early in 1898, the rebels were pur- 

 s,ued and dispersed when on the point of cross- 

 ing the Nile into Unyoro, where the Soudanese 

 garrisons were known to be ripe for revolt. The 

 departure of Major MacDonald for Lake Rudolf 

 and the head waters of the Juba, followed by that 

 of Major Martyr down the Nile, deprived the 

 protectorate of a part of the available force for 

 maintaining order, though this part consisted 

 largely of Soudanese troops taken over from 

 Emin'Pasha, the element which had caused the 

 disturbance, and which it was now the policy 

 to replace with other troops. The Soudanese 

 Uganda Rifles were formerly considered a model 

 corps by the officers who commanded them and 

 obtained from them stanch and efficient service 

 in many difficult situations. In the course of 

 time the men became discontented, because their 

 work was heavy and continuous, their pay and 

 clothing frequently in arrears, the pay smaller 

 than porters earned, scarcely exceeding that of 

 native laborers, and only a fifth as much as sol- 

 diers received in the neighboring German pro- 

 tectorate. When the mutineers had been pursued 

 across the Nile and broken up, Mr. Berkeley, the 

 commissidner of Uganda, believed the crisis to 

 be over. The British administration had, how- 

 ever, other foes to cope with besides these Nubian 

 soldiers. Kabarega, the slave-raiding King of 

 Unyoro, whose power was great until his army 

 was severely defeated by the Uganda Rifles at 

 the end of 1893, recovered from that disaster, and 

 in 1895 attacked a British fort. In 1895 his new 

 army w r as almost annihilated, and from that 

 time lie carried on a guerrilla war, moving about 

 with a few hundred followers, stirring up disor- 

 ders in districts where the British power was not 

 vigorously displayed. Mwanga, the ex-King of 

 Uganda, who had reversed the friendly policy of 

 Mtesa, his father, toward British missionaries 

 and explorers, and in 1885 murdered Bishop Han- 

 nington and begun the active persecution of na- 

 tive Christians, was deposed in 1888 and suc- 

 ceeded by his brother Kawewa, who was over- 

 thrown by the Arabs. After that Mwanga with 

 British help regained possession of the kingdom, 

 professed Christianity, and expelled the Arabs 

 in 1890. The British control became irksome to 

 him, and the oppression of Catholics and Moham- 

 medans led to a revolt in 1897, in which he joined. 

 After his defeat he fled to German territory, and 

 his infant son was proclaimed King with a re- 

 gency. In 1898 Mwanga escaped from German 

 surveillance and began an irregular war in the 

 western districts of Uganda, going about with a 

 smaller or greater body of followers, and taking 

 reprisals from the British party. After the de- 

 parture of Major MacDonald's expedition Kaba- 

 rega and Mwanga joined forces and entered into 

 communication with the Nubians, who recrossed 

 the Nile to take part in a campaign against the 



