permit passage through the infected belts. 
On the western- shores of Victoria Nyanza, 
and in the islands adjacent thereto, the 
ravages of the pestilence were such, the 
mortality it caused was so appalling, that 
the Government was finally forced to de¬ 
port all the survivors inland, to forbid all 
residence beside or fishing in the lake, and 
with this end in view to destroy the villages 
and the fishing fleets of the people. The 
teeming lake fish were formerly a main 
source of food supply to all who dwelt near 
by; but this has now been cut off, and the 
myriads of fish are left to themselves, to 
the hosts of water birds, and to the mon¬ 
strous man-eating crocodiles of the lake, on 
whose blood the fly also feeds, and whence 
it is supposed by some that it draws the 
germs so deadly to human kind. 
- When we landed there was nothing in 
the hot, laughing, tropical beauty of the 
land to suggest the grisly horror that brood¬ 
ed so near. In green luxuriance the earth 
lay under a cloudless sky, yielding her in¬ 
crease to the sun’s burning caresses, and 
men and women were living their lives and 
•doing their work well and gallantly. 
At Entebbe we stayed with the acting- 
Governor, Mr. Boyle; at Kampalla with 
the District Commissioner, Mr. Knowles; 
both of them veteran administrators, and 
the latter also a mighty hunter; and both 
of them showed us every courtesy, and 
treated us with all possible kindness. En- 
Vol. XLVIII.—16 
tebbe is a pretty little town of English 
residents, chiefly officials; with well-kept 
roads, a golf course, tennis courts, and an 
attractive club house. The whole place is 
bowered in flowers, on tree, bush, and vine, 
of every hue—masses of lilac, purple, yel¬ 
low, blue, and fiery crimson. Kampalla is 
the native town, where the little King of 
Uganda, a boy, lives, and his chiefs of state, 
and where the native council meets; and it 
is the headquarters of the missions, both 
Church of England and Roman Catholic. 
Kampalla is an interesting place; and so 
is all Uganda. The first explorers who 
penetrated thither, half a century ago, 
found in this heathen state, of almost pure 
negroes, a veritable semi-civilization, or 
advanced barbarism, comparable to that of 
the little Arab-negro or Berber-negro sul¬ 
tanates strung along the southern edge of 
the .Sahara, and contrasting sharply with 
the weltering savagery which surrounded it, 
and which stretched away without a break 
for many hundreds of miles in every direc¬ 
tion. The people were industrious tillers 
of the soil, who owned sheep, goats, and 
some cattle; they wore decent clothing, and 
hence were styled “womanish” by the sav¬ 
ages of the Upper Nile region, who prided 
themselves on the nakedness of their men 
as a proof of manliness; they were unu- 
usally intelligent and ceremoniously cour¬ 
teous; and, most singular of all, although 
the monarch was a cruel despot, of the 
i45 
