CHAPTEE XIV. 



KABAGWE. 



r PHE country of Karagwe was in a marked 

 -*- decline when I passed through it. 



If one reads Speke and Grant's account of the 

 district, it is easy to see that it was then in a very 

 prosperous and thriving condition. 



The present state is so much the reverse that 

 it serves as a good object lesson of the rise and 

 fall of an African native kingdom. A true and 

 thoroughly unprejudiced account of the changes in 

 a small community like this would be of use even 

 in European politics. 



It is really a case of individuality. Kumanika, 

 the former ruler, was a kind of African Gustavus 

 Adolphus. A man of extremely strong character, 

 energetic, exceedingly shrewd, and hampered by 

 no scruples whatever, he pushed forward the limits 

 of his country beyond the point at which its real 

 resources in men and products were able to main- 

 tain them. All these characteristics, as well as 

 Rumanika's humour and imagination, appear quite 

 clearly in his interviews with Mr. Stanley, who 



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