660 REPORT — 1889. 



4. Buganda (Uganda'). By the Rev. R. P. AsHE. 



Geographical investigation includes much more than the merely physical fea- 

 tures of any country. Speke's discovery of the source of the Nile was hardly so 

 wonderful as his bringing to light the nations and kingdoms about the shores of 

 the Victoria Nyanza. Events of recent years add a deepening interest to Buganda. 

 The author referred, among other matters, to Livingstone's death, Stanley's 

 travels, the Nyanza mission of the Church Missionary Society, Gordons death, 

 and Stanley's effort to relieve Emin (surviving Egyptian pasha) ; the English and 

 Germans competing for this market for European manufactures, and key to the 

 lake regions. The author then went on to describe the great lake and its islands ; 

 tropical forest scenery ; the contrasts between Buganda and districts further south •, 

 the nature of country ; the products of the soil ; roads ; villages ; buildings. 



As to the people, the author pointed out that the non-negro element is derived 

 from the royal Bahuma (Wahuma) tribe, lie then described the Bahuma ; referred 

 to the great native, slave, and cattle raids ; the organisation of the Buganda people, 

 kings, chiefs, peasants, slaves, manners and customs. He then spoke of the African 

 problem ; the Arab trader ; slaves ; ivory ; guns. 



5. The Commercial Oeography of Yoruha,\West Africa.^ 

 By His Excellency Governor Moloney, C.M.G. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Great Central Asian Trade Route from. Peliing to Knlja and 

 Semirecheiisli, and to Yarkand and India. By Colonel Mabk S. Bi;ll, 



F.O., n.E. 



Kashgaria is reached from Peking by the Ala-shan or, generally speaking, 

 desert camel route, via Kwei-wha-cheng and Barkul, and the Wei Valley route, a 

 cart road leading through Pau-ting-fu, capital of Chili ; Tai-yuen-fu, capital of 

 Shansi : Si-nan-fu, capital of Shensi ; Lan-chow-fu, that of Kansuh and Hami, 

 crossing the Gobi desert between An-si-chow and this latter place. The route 

 would be classified by the Chinese into stages as below, and would be each assumed 

 to take eighteen days of travel — i.e., Peking to Tai-yuen-fu, 375 miles ; Tai-yuen-fii 

 to Si-nan-fu, 438 miles; Si-nan-fu to Lani-chow-fu, 449 miles; Lan-chow-fu to 

 Su-chow, 482 miles; Su-chow to Hami, 418 miles; and thence onwards, Hanii to 

 Ilung-miot-za, 408 miles ; Ilung-miot-za to Hi, 400 miles ; Hami to Karashahar, 

 420 miles ; Hung-miot-za to Karashahar, 256 miles ; Karashahar to Aksu, 373 

 miles ; Aksu to Kashgar, 311 miles. 



Few Europeans have traversed this route since the days when the conquests of 

 Ghenghis Khsm and his successors opened Asia to the inspection of Christendom, 

 and none have done so in its entirety since theMahammadan rebellion in the north- 

 west of China before 1887, when the reader of this paper did so. 



After describing the route through Shansi to Si-nan-fu and touching upon lateral 

 communications and the mineral and agricultural resources of the districts traversed, 

 the commercial importance of the Wei Valley is dwelt upon, and it is shown how 

 this centre of gravity and of resistance of Mid-China is cut off from the rest of the 

 empire by mountainous or hilly regions at present most difficult to traverse. The 

 routes possible to be followed by railways are reviewed, and the necessity of this 



' See Proceedings of the Royal GeograjJhlcal Society, October, 1889. 



