44 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



The Uganda Protectorate lies at the Equator ; the Equator 

 passes through it. By rights it should be called Equatorial 

 Africa, but this name has already been appropriated by Gordon 

 Pasha, Emin Pasha, Casati, and others to territories lying far 

 north of Uganda and of the Equator. A glance at the map 

 shows that Uganda is nearer to the centre of Africa than the 

 territories, known as the British Central Africa Protectorate, 

 which lie around the Shire river and Lakes Nyassa and Tan- 

 ganyika. 



The Uganda Protectorate stretches around the Lakes Victoria 

 Nyanza, Albert Nyanza, and Albert Edward Nyanza ; it therefore 

 contains the principal sources of the White Nile. The districts 

 into which the Protectorate has been divided are the Eldoma 

 Ravine, Kavirondo, Usoga, Uganda Proper, Unyoro, and Toru. 

 Further subdivision may be expected with every increase in the 

 number of officials. 



It is a little misleading to say that the climate of Uganda is 

 a sort of unbroken English summer, because there is a con- 

 siderable difference between the cold of Mau and the heat of 

 parts of Unyoro. There are areas where white clothing is the 

 most comfortable to wear all the year round, and there are 

 other areas where white clothing is never worn. The heat is 

 never anywhere excessive, nor is the cold. On the whole the 

 climate is suitable for Europeans. 



Local labour is che:ip, about threepence a day, but the diffi- 

 culty has been, and still is, to get the native to work for hire ; 

 gradually, however, natives are coming forward of their own 

 accord as labourers. The principal export is ivory, on which a 

 duty of 15 per cent, is levied, whether it be elephant-ivory or 

 hippo-ivory. An import tax of 5 per cent, is levied on all im- 

 ports of whatever nature. Trade in gunpowder and in arms, 

 except under conditions as laid down by the Brussels Act of 

 International Law, is prohibited, and so is the sale to natives of 

 alcoholic beverages. Bv recent regulations neither are stills 

 permitted, except under certain restraints. Smaller taxes, under 

 various names, such as a road-tax of half a rupee per load, and 

 an annual compulsory registration-fee of two rupees and a half 

 on every British subject, are also enforced. 



At present the expenditure, not counting the millions spent 

 on the Uganda Railway, is greatly in excess of revenue. The 

 reasons which influenced the British Government to proclaim a 



