NEIV AFRICA. 93 



products, either native or introduced, are cocoa, coffee, tea, oranges, 

 pineapples, lemons, rubber, hemp, vanilla and cinnamon. More wonder- 

 ful still, most of the fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone thrive 

 well. Is it wonderful that the British wanted to get into railroad con- 

 nection with such a country? 



It is one of the sad and most dramatic features of modern history 

 that this wonderful country — this intelligent people, so eager for knowl- 

 edge and so capable of absorbing and profiting by it — should be devas- 

 tated by the mysterious plague of the Sleeping Sickness. The efforts of 

 modern scientists and philanthropists to discover its causes, eradicate it 

 and save Uganda itself from extermination are noted at the last of this 

 chapter. 



WHITE BELT. 



The White Belt of British East Africa comprises the country north 

 of the Uganda Railroad from Kapiti Plains (or perhaps Nairobi) to 

 Port Florence, for an average of forty miles inland, wherein is studded 

 most of the plantations, stock farms and private hunting grounds of 

 British, German, Boer and American proprietors — many of them set- 

 tlers. There are those who assert that, on account of the remoteness 

 of the producing territory and South American competition, coffee will 

 never be a profitable crop, although so readily raised from the soil — 

 the same objections applying to fruits and vegetables, especially potatoes. 

 It is naturally a fine live-stock country; but the fever tick has been im- 

 ported from German East Africa and has made such inroads among the 

 cattle as to' discourage many live-stock raisers. The native cattle are 

 usually black and white, and small compared with the English species. 

 If left to themselves and the devices of the native African they would 

 undoubtedly perish under the attacks of the fever-spreading tick ; but 

 new and vigorous blood is being introduced into the native herds from 

 European sources, and the white scientist has discovered that by wiring 

 a herd of sheep in a tick-infested area the insects are soon exterminated. 

 Their bites are harmless to sheep, which also eat the insects without loss 

 of appetite or health. So that the live-stock industries of British East 

 Africa may eventually flourish exceedingly; but a majority of the 

 prophets seem to vote in favor of King Cotton as the coming monarch 

 of the soil, pointing to the fact that both in the lowlands and uplands 

 it has been grown with success. 



