Chapter II. 



inferiority and weakness of the negro are too strong a 

 temptation to his economic exploitation. In many places a 

 state of social security appears to have hred sloth and 

 dissoluteness among the natives, together with intemperance 

 and lack of self-control, while every species of disease devastates 

 the wretched and degenerate population. The civilized nations 

 have hut tlieir own love of justice from which to draw the 

 strength and consistency of purpose needful to carry on 

 without hesitation a humanitarian work which demands 

 disinterestedness and self-denial, gifts unfortunately rare in 

 social aggregates. 



On the morning of the 7th of May, hy dayhreak, tlie 

 Winifred proceeded on her way, no longer in the muddy 

 and colourless Gulf of Kavirondo, but in the open lake, 

 whose waters are limpid and transparent, of a rich colour 

 between emerald and blue, and as pure as crystal. A few 

 hours after leaving the shore the land fades out of sight, 

 giving the illusion of being on the high sea. The Victoria 

 Nyanza is, in fact, surpassed in size only by Lake Superior in 

 North America, and is so vast that it is possible to voyage along 

 or across it for more than 200 miles without seeing land. It 

 is like the sea, too, in its sudden and dangerous storms which 

 raise up waves as high as those of the ocean. 



The hydrographic survey of the shore was only finished 

 last year, 1907. Tlie shore line measures 3,200 miles and the 

 survey occuj)it'(l ( uptaiii B. Whitehouse seven years. The 

 centre of the lake is still in great part unexplored and gives 

 rise to numerous legends wliich are current in the country 

 about islands inhabited by cannibals, ships swallowed by 

 Aviiirlpools, monsters which inhabit unexplored abysses, and 

 other sucb matters. 



50 



