556 
TILE KILIMA NJARO EXPEDITION. 
I have no doubt some, if not many, of my readers 
have received several of these statements with irritable 
incredulity. It is, somehow or other, vaguely annoying 
to the placid nature of an Englishman, who has made 
enough to live on and only wants to live quietly, to 
come across travellers—whose works he skims through 
in his easy-chair—that insist on bringing to his notice 
new and wonderful tracts of land which are possible 
El Dorados, and in which he must take an interest 
and invest his money, or they will never leave him in 
peace and will constantly din into his ears the ap¬ 
palling news that he has let slip an unrecoverable 
opportunity of showing his patriotism and his com¬ 
mercial perspicacity. How well we know those cries 
and laments that ever and anon sweep through the 
public press and assail John Bull at his breakfast- 
table or worry his return from business. ec You have 
lost the granary of Africa, or the granary of America,” 
as the case may be. “You are about to abandon the 
garden of Asia to the French, Russians, Germans ! ” 
and so on. I must say I rather sympathize with my 
readers if they display any restless petulance after 
reading such a chapter as this. The feeling arises 
partly from a lurking conviction of an element of 
truth in the statements, and partly from resentment 
at not being allowed to ignore these advantages which 
they must either take up themselves or see pass into 
the hands of aliens. “ Why can’t you let us alone?” 
they feel inclined to exclaim, “ we’ve got quite enough 
for our immediate wants, we have no need to embark 
in fresh enterprises.” Or they try to satisfy them¬ 
selves and crush their disturber by anxiously en¬ 
deavouring to oppose argument to argument and 
disprove all beguiling statistics. Yes, I am very sorry. 
