UGANDA, AND THE NYANZA LAKES 371 



the fly, and which permit passage through the infected 

 belts. On the western shores of Victoria Nyanza, and in 

 the islands adjacent thereto, the ravages of the pestilence 

 were such, the mortality it caused was so appalling, that 

 the Government was finally forced to deport all the sur- 

 vivors inland, to forbid all residence beside or fishing in 

 the lake, and with this end in view to destroy the villages 

 and the fishing fleets of the people. The teeming lake 

 fish were formerly a main source of food supply to all who 

 dwelt near by; but this has now been cut off, and the 

 myriads of fish are left to themselves, to the hosts of water 

 birds, and to the monstrous man-eating crocodiles of the 

 lake, on whose blood the fly also feeds, and whence it is 

 supposed by some that it draws the germs so deadly to 

 human kind. 



When we landed there was nothing in the hot, laughing, 

 tropical beauty of the land to suggest the grisly horror 

 that brooded so near. In green luxuriance the earth lay 

 under a cloudless sky, yielding her increase to the sun's 

 burning caresses, and men and women were living their 

 lives and doing their work well and gallantly. 



At Entebbe we stayed with the acting-Governor, Mr. 

 Boyle, at Kampalla with the District Commissioner, Mr. 

 Knowles; both of them veteran administrators, and the latter 

 also a mighty hunter; and both of them showed us every 

 courtesy, and treated us with all possible kindness. En- 

 tebbe is a pretty little town of English residents, chiefly of- 

 ficials; with well-kept roads, a golf course, tennis courts, 

 and an attractive club house. The whole place is bowered 

 in flowers, on tree, bush, and vine, of every hue masses 

 of lilac, purple, yellow, blue, and fiery crimson. Kampalla 



