52 
NEW AFRICA. 
Much of the history of the Nandi and Kavirondo tribes is written 
in the past tense, as they are among the unfortunate people who are 
victims of the Sleeping Sickness, which has killed two hundred thousand 
people in the regions tributary to Lake Victoria Nyanza; and as no cure 
has yet been found for the terrible plague the order has gone forth that 
all tribes inhabiting the infested area shall be removed back into a safe 
country. The Sleeping Sickness had been especially destructive to the 
Kavirondo, as the tsetse fly, which produced it, had free access to their 
naked bodies. 
NATIVE KINGDOM OF UGANDA. 
One of the chief objects in building the Uganda Railroad was to 
tap the rich native kingdom of Uganda west of Lake Victoria Nyanza. 
It is a well organized state, composed of a union of the most intelligent 
and progressive of the Baganda tribes. They have well been termed 
the Japanese of Africa, as they possess a wonderful power of absorbing 
and practically applying the knowledge derived from European contact. 
Even before Cameron and Stanley came among them, rumors had 
reached the outside world of a far-advanced native confederation hold¬ 
ing the country between lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza. But it was 
not until its last autocratic King was banished by the British and a 
protectorate assumed that the state was organized along modern lines, 
although the Catholic and Episcopal missionaries had planted many seeds 
which had borne good fruit. The territory is now divided into twenty 
counties, each county ruled by a chief, and the entire state is governed 
by King Daudi Chwa, who, as he is only about thirteen years of age, 
is under the guardianship of three regents. The native parliament con¬ 
sists of the regents and county chiefs named, sixty Notables (three from 
each county) and six Persons of Importance, all appointed by the King 
and subject to the veto of the British government. Besides the estab¬ 
lishment of a virtually modern monarchy, Uganda has also made a great 
advance toward modern standards in the abolishment of the most ob¬ 
jectionable features of polygamy—such as the selling of women for 
wives. 
Physically, Uganda is a land of beauties—gorgeous landscape effects, 
highly colored birds, enormous moths and butterflies and tropical lux¬ 
uriance of vegetation. The soil is wonderfully rich. The country is 
simply unctuous with bananas. Cotton grows everywhere, and other 
