BMTI^H EAST AFRICA 185 



The rapid development of British East Africa is little short 

 of marvellous in view of the many dilficulties \vith which settlers 

 have had to contend. To the Imperial East Africa Company 

 is due the credit of first opening up the country, but after years 

 of struggle its charters were surrendered to the Crown, and 

 some eighteen or nineteen years ago, the only importance the 

 country had in the minds of outsiders was derived from the 

 fierce political strife which took place over the construction of 

 the Uganda railway as a backdoor to Egypt. This undertaking 

 was derided as a useless waste of money which would never 

 bring an adequate return, yet within ten years of its com 

 pletion it earned nearly 2 J per cent, on its extravagant cost of 

 over £5,000,000, in 1913 it earned 3^ per cent., and since then 

 has been increasing in prosperity yearly. It is now inadequate 

 to the needs of the country. The main line has a length of 

 584 miles, and links the Indian Ocean with Lake Victoria 

 Nyanza, upon which is a fine fleet of steamers. Feeders or 

 branch lines have come into existence, and further extensions 

 are being carried out. 



The climate, although the country is on the Equator, is mag- 

 nificent. This is accounted for by the fact that the area suit- 

 able for white settlement consists of vast tablelands running up 

 from 4000 to 9000 ft. in height, and culminating in the perpetual 

 snows of Mount Kenia at an elevation of over 16,000 ft. These 

 tabelands are of great fertility, blessed with an abundant rain- 

 fall, and in little more than fourteen j^ears over 7000 white 

 people have made their homes in a country which for centuries 

 supported nothing but savages and teeming herds of game. 

 Civilisation now exists in the midst of savagery. A scantily- 

 clad native may be seen intelligently using a telephone or seated 

 in his master's motor car. The settler when tired of working 

 may take up his rifle and shoot a gazelle for meat, or seek the 

 excitement of a battle with elephant, lion, or rhinoceros, and 

 then return to his comfortable club or electric-lit home ! 



Fourteen years ago land could be bought or leased from the 

 Government at a nominal figure, but settlers found it hard to 

 make both ends meet owing to the absence of markets for their 

 produce. Picked farms change hands for a mere song, and 

 many were surrendered to the Government. To-day well- 

 developed coffee and sisal hemp plantations are yielding rich 

 returns to their owners. Thousands of acres are under wattle, 

 maize, wheat, and beans. Sawmills are at work in the forests; 



