The Eastern Congo 



Belgians eventually bagged the lion I did not hear, but it 

 served its purpose as far as we were concerned by putting 

 our whole " safari " on the qui vive when night came on, and 

 prepared us for any eventualities that might occur in the 

 lion-infested country we were about to visit. 



We were now to leave the Awa-ruanda for the last time. 

 Concerning their country enough has perhaps been said to 

 show how great it is, and what potentialities lie dormant 

 within it for the future. It only remains to be seen with what 

 courage and administrative ability the Belgians will meet 

 their task. But I am bound to say this much, that they seem 

 to have struck the right note in their dealings with Sultan 

 Msinga, and also that their policy is at present paternal and 

 lenient with every chance of working smoothly, providing 

 no further friction aris^ between the Church (or the many 

 Roman Catholic Missions — who are inclined to be rather too 

 assertive of their authority over the natives), and the State. 

 Further, there can be little doubt that the class of Belgian 

 official employed in administering the Ruanda to-day com- 

 pares favourably with his English neighbour across the border. 



The boundaries of the Belgian Tanganyika territory 

 have now been fixed, but as they are a little complicated 

 my reader had best refer to the map bound up with this 

 volume, and so save the tedium of reading a written descrip- 

 tion of them. 



It was not generally known at the commencement of the 

 war that the Germans had advanced so far with their pro- 

 jected railway from Tabora past the south end of Namirembe 

 Bay to Kaseke on the southern bend of the Kagera River. 

 As a matter of fact, work on this railway had proceeded at 

 such a pace that the construction of the line had reached 



92 



