262 



THE SPECIAL COMMISSION, ETC. 



work under contract of any description. Beyond the belt of coast population 

 the human inhabitants of the wildernesses which the railway had to traverse 

 from fortv miles at the back of Mombasa to the frontier of the Uganda 

 Protectorate were very few in numbers (anywhere near the line), weakened 



196. THE FIRST BOW WINliOW IX ENTEBBE 



by a succession of droughts and famines, and by no means disposed to 

 work hard with their hands at that period when the European was viewed 

 with great distrust, and the remembrance of the Arab and Swahili slave- 

 traders was still too strong in the minds of the natives to induce, them 

 to believe that work of this description would be honestly paid for month 

 by month. Consequently the entire labour, skilled and unskilled, for the 



