1 8 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



It must not be thought that such a state is inevitable 

 or even common, but it is by no means unknown. 

 For this state the climate should not be unduly- 

 blamed. The bulk of such cases are due rather 

 to an attempt to live under conditions, or under 

 a stress of work such as the country does not 

 warrant. As the correct method of living is 

 grasped, so year by year will this very minor 

 ill diminish. Supposing an African race were to try 

 to live in their traditional method in England, even in 

 the most balmy summer, one can imagine what the 

 death rate would be. When the high veldt in South 

 Africa was first peopled by an alien race, there was at 

 least the same tendency to nervous diseases and 

 nervous irritability. A healthy and more phlegmatic 

 race and life than exists there now it would be hard 

 to find. 



Lest from this category of ills a false impression as 

 to the real and undoubted healthiness of the Protector- 

 ate be obtained, I produce the death rate of Nairobi, 

 far from being the most healthy spot in the country. 



The death rate for 1906 was 12*5 per thousand. 

 „ 1907 „ 17*8 „ 

 „ 1908 „ 15*8 „ „ 

 „ 1909 „ 87 „ 

 », 19!° w 8*3 » 



These figures prove beyond any doubt, not only the 

 healthiness of the Protectorate, but its increasing 

 healthiness. True, it may be pointed out that the 

 population of Nairobi consists mainly of adults of 

 from twenty to fifty, and that babies and young 

 children are in less than a normal proportion. Against 

 this, however, stand the counterbalancing fact that on 



