PROSPECTS OF E. EQUATORIAL AFRICA . 535 
CHAPTER XXI. 
THE COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS OF E. EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 
As an anticipatory reply to the inquiries of such of 
my readers as maybe of a commercial turn, I conclude 
this work on the district of Kilima-njaro by a short 
summary of its commercial prospects and capabilities. 
If in my natural history or geographical statements 
I occasionally repeat information already given in 
previous chapters, I deprecate the critic’s impatience; 
I do so because the general reader is not likely to 
peruse this chapter, and my commercial friends will 
probably not have wasted their time over the other 
portions of the book ; consequently it will be suggested 
to neither that he has seen these facts stated before, 
while at the same time their reiteration may serve to 
accentuate—what I believe to be—their great import¬ 
ance from the point of view in which this chapter is 
written. 
Let me, then, first sketch out the physical geography 
of this country, which I have broadly described as 
Eastern Equatorial Africa. For present purposes, it 
may be delineated as follows By the River Rnvu, or 
Pangani, on the south ; then westwards, following the 
4th degree of south latitude to the 32nd degree of 
east longitude, including the basin of the Victoria 
Xyanza lake, and round again to the east, from the 
