A LAND OF GIANTS AND PYGMIES 
By the Duke Adolphus Frederick of Mecklenburg 
No section of Africa is so crowded ivith variety of interest as the large province 
of German Bast Africa. Its neighbor on the north, British East Africa, has been 
traversed by many big-game hunters and colonists, and described in scores of 
hooks, but the German possession is comparatively unknown. The Diike Adol- 
phus Frederick of Mecklenburg has recently published a large volume describing 
two years' explorations in the German province. His book is packed with graphic 
and 'poiverful descriptions of the strange peoples and remarkable group of active 
volcanoes in the territory. Through the courtesy of the American publishers, 
Cassell & Company, we are able to publish the following chapter from the book. 
RUANDA is certainly the most in- 
teresting country in the German 
East African Protectorate — in 
fact, in all Central Africa — chiefly on 
account of its ethnographical and geo- 
graphical position. Its interest is fur- 
ther increased by the fact that it is one 
of the last negro kingdoms governed 
autocratically by a sovereign sultan, for 
German supremacy is only recognized to 
a very limited extent (see map, p. 388). 
Added to this, it is a land flowing with 
milk and honey, where the breeding of 
cattle and bee-culture flourish and the 
cultivated soil bears rich crops of fruit. 
A hilly country, thickly populated, full 
of beautiful scenery, and possessing a 
climate incomparably fresh and healthy ; 
a land of great fertility, with water- 
courses which might be termed perennial 
streams ; a land which offers the brightest 
of prospects to the white settler. 
Ruanda is doubtless, with the exception 
of Urandi, the last sultanate or "king- 
dom" in Central Africa which is gov- 
erned today, as in centuries gone by, by 
a prince clothed with absolute and illimit- 
able powers. There is only one ruler, 
and no rival sultans are allowed. 
To any one with an intimate knowl- 
edge of African afifairs it seemed a sheer 
impossibility that so powerful a sover- 
eign, the ruler over some one and a half 
million people, would voluntarily submit 
to the new regime and agree to enter 
upon no undertakings within his vast, 
thickly populated, and unexplored realms 
except by permission of the European 
Resident. 
To compel him to do so would have 
meant bloody wars and an enormous 
sacrifice of human life as the inevitable 
consequence. The sudden change of 
existing conditions, too, would have in- 
volved a heavy pecuniary sacrifice, as the 
government would have found it neces- 
sary, with such a large population, to 
appoint a relatively large number of 
European officials. As such measures 
would have proved impracticable, com- 
plete anarchy would have followed. 
So the country was therefore allowed 
to retain its traditional organization, and 
the Sultan was given full jurisdiction 
over his fellow-people, under control of 
the Resident, who was to suppress cruelty 
as far as possible. In one word, the gov- 
ernment does not acknowledge the Sul- 
tan as a sovereign lord, but fully recog- 
nizes his authority as chief of his clan. 
Kindred tribes, non-resident in Ruanda, 
are therefore not subject to the Sultan's 
jurisdiction, but are under the adminis- 
tration of the Resident. 
The fundamental principle is the same 
with all Residents. It is desired to 
strengthen and enrich the Sultan and 
persons in authority, and to increase 
thereby their interest in the continuance 
of German rule, so that the desire for 
revolt shall die away, as the consequence 
of a rebellion would be a dwindling of 
their revenues. At the same time, by 
steadily controlling and directing the 
Sultan and using his powers, civilizing 
influences would be introduced. Thus 
by degrees, and almost imperceptibly to 
the people and to the Sultan himself, he 
369 
