142 Transactions. 
of lakes, the Kagera and the Nile, you would have a water way 
from the mouth of the Zambesi right to Cairo, interrupted only 
by land carriage for a very short distance. It had been his ideal 
for many years to see the country inside that chain entirely in 
the hands of England, Italy, and Egypt. The German territory 
might safely be left out of consideration, because if the Germans 
did succeed in colonising it, they were on the whole friendly to 
ourselves. He saw no reason why this enormous stretch of 
Africa, practically one third of tne continent, should not be given 
up to British enterprise. (Cheers.) He was not against a rail- 
way to Mombasa by any means, if he could see any prospect of 
one being constructed ; but the cost was estimated at three and a 
half millions sterling. As far as he had been able to calculate it, 
the series of steamers and railways which were necessary along 
the route which he had indicated would cost very much less ; and 
whereas the railway from Mombasa would only open up our own 
possessions, this route would open up the whole continent, and 
practically it would destroy the slave trade. (Cheers.) In 
the district of Bugufu, which bad not before been visited 
by a European, Mr Scott-Elliot was regarded as a person 
who had descended from the gods, and treated with be- 
coming honour; but in Burundi he had a different experience, 
frequently feeling himself in great danger from the large troops 
of armed men who persistently accompanied the little party of forty 
under his care, and experiencing also great difficulty in obtaining 
food supplies. Of the Ullambzene, Kikuyu, and Masai country, 
stretching from 250 miles of the coast to a few miles of the 
Victoria Nyanza, the lecturer spoke highly as a field for colonisa- 
tion, being healthy, extremely fertile, and of enormous extent. 
It was destined in the future, he thought, to be a British colony, 
of perhaps the same importance as Cape Colony and Natal 
together. Regarding the countries bordering the Victoria 
Nyanza, he observed that we had here a tremendous market and 
a very excellent prospect of a good supply of the products which 
we wanted. Surely, then, it was our duty simply to take what 
was offered to us; but by some curious kind of timidity the 
Government were said to have publicly declared that they would 
confine themselves to Uganda, leaving out altogether Usoga, 
Kavirondo, Toru, and Unyoro, well peopled, fertile, rich countries, 
all of which are subject to Uganda, and could be kept up at very 
little more expense than would be incurred in keeping up 
