INTRODUCTION 



excuse they may offer, a body of askaris would be sent 

 to investigate, and, well, I will not say any more, except 

 that native troops should not be allowed to roam 

 about without a responsible officer in charge ! 



To you at home in Europe it is inconceivable that 

 parts of Africa are to-day as they were before the first 

 white man set foot on the continent. 



The heights of snow-clad mysterious Ruwenzori 

 cannot yet be reached by a funicular railway, nor can 

 the great Kibali or Welle boast of Pullman cars and 

 comfortable steamers such as are to be found on the 

 Lower Nile. 



Long years must elapse before the average traveller 

 abroad shall gaze upon the country that lies between the 

 Upper Nile and the Ubhangi river. 



Various opinions have been given regarding the 

 utility of the great Cape to Cairo railway. The combina- 

 tion of boat and rail from Tanganyika upwards will, in 

 the opinion of some people, make through traffic expensive 

 because of the necessity for transhipping goods. There 

 will be no through traffic, it will be local feeding for the 

 nearest fine leading to the coast, or for the interchange 

 of local produce. No other enterprise, commercial or 

 missionary, can be so instrumental as a railway in 

 striking at the root of the innumerable obstacles which 

 prevent civihzation from reaching the people. Cannibal 

 raids, the slave trade, and other atrocities will all vanish 

 as the line with its arteries stretches north, east, and west, 

 opening up the country, establishing channels into which 

 trade can be directed. No amount of mission work can 

 ever hope to accomplish the result seen clearly by the 

 late Cecil Rhodes when he planned the line destined to 

 link the Cape to Cairo. The idea that it will compete 

 with the great ocean liners is absurd, but it can and will 

 do for the heart of Africa what the line between Mombasa 

 and Port Florence has done for British East Africa. 



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