CLOSING INCIDENTS. 405 



and you will have come as near the ideal of an earthly paradise as seems 

 possible on this side the grave. 



But a terrible and baneful fate hangs like a Damocles sword over the 

 sunny field of this benign region. We have already mentioned the frightful 

 epidemic plague which during the last seven years has been Uganda's curse 

 and swept away over 300,000 of its natives and killed off almost all cattle 

 and domestic animals they possessed. Mr. Roosevelt everywhere came upon 

 traces of the fearful ravages of this horrible destroyer. The beautiful vil- 

 lages were abandoned, the natives having either succumbed to the deadly 

 disease or fled to the woods. The regions along the rivers and the lakes, 

 where the fatal tsetse fly lives, were devastated, and it was impossible 

 to buy provisions. Millions of poisonous insects swarmed around them and 

 covered their faces and hands, so that they often had to march by torches at 

 night to protect themselves against these unwelcome intruders. One of the 

 most troublesome of these pests was a species of tick which aimed right at 

 the eyes and whose bite often caused a severe eye disease sometimes resulting 

 in blindness. Another not less disagreeable disturber of their peace was the 

 termite or red ant, millions of which crawled along their path and when 

 stepped upon or otherwise irritated would attack them by the thousands and 

 bury their stings in their tender flesh. 



Now and then they passed some of the isolation camps for the sufferers 

 of the terrible sleeping sickness which the British government had estab- 

 lished. It was pitiable to see the poor children, men and women who were 

 found there in all stages of the disease, some immediately after the inocula- 

 tion of the poisonous germ and others battling for life in the last throes of 

 death. 



A redeeming feature of this sombre picture of death and desolation was 

 the kind and courteous behaviour of the Bagandas. The natives the Ameri- 

 can expedition met were generous and extremely polite. Whenever they 

 went to visit them in their huts they always gave them a present, which var- 

 ied according to the wealth of the tribe. Sometimes it was a cow, but often 

 it would be only a big woven basket with a few eggs in the bottom, but the 

 owner invariably presented it with great politeness and ceremony, and asked 

 them to take it with them. 



The Baganda boys would sometimes accompany them on the march and 

 it was considered polite to preceed them on the journey for several hours — 



