BRITISH EAST AFRICA 



The rapid development of British East Africa is little short of 

 marvellous in view of the many difficulties with 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\ per cent on its extravagant cost of 

 over £5.000,000, in 1913 it earned 3| per cent, and since then it 

 has been increasing in prosperity yearly. It is now inadequate 

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

 584 miles, and links the Indian Ocean with Lake Victoria 

 Xyanza, 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 per- 

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

 These tablelands are of great fertility, blessed with an abun- 

 dant rainfall, and in little more than fourteen years over 7000 

 white people have made their homes in a country which for 

 centuries supported nothing but savages and teeming herds of 

 game. < ivilisation 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 



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