12 ENGLAND TO EAST AFRICA 



enthusiastic, about British East Africa and its future 

 prospects and possibiHties as a colony for Europeans. 

 Everybody was agreed, even the most sanouine of 

 them, that it was no place for a poor man. A 

 capital of several hundred pounds at the least was 

 regarded as an absolute necessity, and this at once 

 puts the country on a different footing from such 

 colonies as Canada or Australia or New Zealand. 

 People in England are accustomed to hear East 

 Africa spoken of as a ' white man's country,' but it 

 can never really be a white man's country when 

 the smaller trades and the labour are efficiently 

 carried on by Indians and natives, whilst only the 

 officials and the employers of labour are Europeans. 

 And in any case the extent of healthy upland 

 country suitable for permanent settlement by 

 Europeans, after allowance has been made for 

 native reserves, game reserves, and forests, is 

 exceedingly limited. Great things were expected 

 from rearing stock in some parts of the country, and 

 a large consignment of sheep from Australia had 

 just arrived ; but the experiment has not yet lasted 

 lone enouoh to show whether or not it will be a 

 success. Africa is cursed with such a host of 

 parasites, and so little is known of horse sickness, 

 and red-water, and cattle disease, and the other ills 

 that affect domesticated beasts, that one hesitates 

 to predict a very brilliant future for the stock- 

 breeder in East Africa. 



The agriculturists were talking hopefully of cereals 



