AFRICA.

British Central Africa [No. 2722].-Mr. Commissioner Sharpe's Report for the year ending March 31st, 1901, says that the year had been a trying one for the Protectorate:

The country may be said to have two leading interests-viz., planting (mainly coffee) and trading, which consists to a large extent of the transport of goods of all descriptions, not only to the Protectorate, but to territories beyond. At the date of my last report it was already foreseen that the planting interest would suffer severely during the then coming year from a want of labour, almost the whole available supply in the Protectorate being used up by transport of merchandise through the Shire Highlands, from the Lower to the Upper Shire River. The development of transport work has been larger than was anticipated, and consequently planters have suffered more even than was expected. The result has been that a number of coffee plantations have been abandoned. Evidence of the existing state of affairs caused by the want of a railway through the Shire Highlands, and the consequent employment of every available labourer in carrying loads is seen in the fact that the exports from the Protectorate during the past 12 months (mainly coffee), instead of increasing have gone down in value from £79,300 to £38,700. Transport companies have done well, and have had, financially, a successful year; and the position briefly put is that while the Protectorate has come still more into favour as a route into Central Africa, the commercial development of the country itself has already begun to decrease. The existing means, moreover, for transporting goods have now been used to their utmost limit, and the transport trade cannot be much further increased without a railway. Waggon transport is made use of to some extent, but mortality among oxen and the awk

ward nature of the roads to be traversed render this a difficult and expensive method. More than one of the transport companies have proposed to bring in their goods for the Nyassa-Tanganyika Plateau from Lindi or Kilwa, ports on the German East African coast, by direct routes through German territory, passing to the north of the British Central Africa Protectorate, thus opening up a new route which would not traverse British territory. The decrease in exports is in coffee, which has fallen from £62,000 to £26,000. The cultivation of tobacco, though still an industry of no great importance, has increased, and the plant is now being grown on many plantations, as it seems to show a better profit than coffee at present. Provided that an arrangement can be arrived at with our South African possessions for the removal, so far as the Protectorate is concerned, of the duty of 2s. per lb. imposed on imported tobacco, there is a promising future for this product in British Central Africa if labour can be procured. At present most of the tobacco produced finds a market within the Protectorate. The amount of rubber exported is less than it was during the previous year, the value being £9,300, as against £13,100. A larger amount of rubber has, however, come in transit through the Protectorate from outside countries than during the previous year. The transit trade has increased from £31,000 to £51,000, a growth of over 60 per cent.; and this trade would very largely increase were there a railway. There is a fallingoff in the export of ivory, which now shows as an insignificant item. In the total imports of the Protectorate there is a falling-off of £29,971 (excluding specie), the figures being £146,063, as compared with £176,034. The total exports have fallen from £79,349 to £38,723, a decrease of £40,626; there is thus a net decrease of £70,597 on the total of imports (excluding specie) and exports for the year 1900-01.

B

East Africa Protectorate Uganda Railway-Sir C. Eliot's Report [Cd. 769]. -On June 10th, 1901, Sir C. Eliot, His Majesty's Commissioner, in response to a request by Lord Lansdowne, sent a special report on the East Africa Protectorate, which he describes as follows:

The East Africa Protectorate consists at present of four provinces: Jubaland, Tanaland, Seyidiye, and Ukamba, the capitals of which are Kismayu, Lamu, Mombasa, and Nairobi, respectively. It also includes a certain amount of territory between the north-western parts of these districts and Abyssinia, which has not yet been organised or brought under our administration.

These provinces correspond roughly to natural divisions of the country. Jubaland, the north-easterly province, is the least civilised and productive of the four, and, but for the military operations rendered necessary by the murder of the Sub-Commissioner in November last, might have been dismissed as the least important. It is divided from Italian territory by the Juba River, and consists mostly of sandy soil, covered with a thick scrub of thorny acacias. There are occasional patches of open ground available for grazing, and also occasional lakes, but these latter are mostly not permanent, and are liable to dry up in warm weather. The district known as Gosha, on the bank of the Juba, possesses a rich black soil, and is very fertile. A small margin near the river is cultivated by the natives, and behind this is a dense forest, believed to yield rubber.

South of Jubaland lies Tanaland. The adjoining portions of the two provinces are very similar, both in physiography and population; but on reaching the system of islands, which begins about 2 degrees south, we arrive at a new country, characterised by a deeplyindented shore, bordered everywhere by mangrove swamps, behind which extend india-rubber forests. Some of the islands -for instance, Lamu, on which is the town of the same name-are exceedingly fertile and covered with palm trees.

The most important feature of Tanaland, however, is the river from which it takes its name. The Tana rises near Mount Kenia, and, after descending various falls, becomes navigable for about 200 miles. It overflows every year, and forms on either bank a strip of rich cultivated land, much like Gosha, on the Juba.

The country beyond this strip is little known, but appears to be sparsely inhabited and covered with brushwood.

The coast-land from the mouth of the Tana to the German frontier forms the fertile district of Seyidiye, behind which rise the plateaux of Ukamba.

The population he describes under three

headings: the Arabs and Swahilis, or coast inhabitants under Arab influence; the Bantu tribes, and the non-Bantus, such as the Masai, the Somalis and the Gallas. The power and influence of the Arabs are, he says, distinctly on the wane. The Bantu tribes are of low intelligence and lazy. Their inability to combine and their want of warlike training are guarantees for the preservation of peace. The intermediate tribe on the Kikuya escarpment are bolder and more disorderly; "but fortunately for us show no greater power of cohesion or disorganisation." Of the other races Sir C. Eliot says:

The Masai are perhaps the most remarkable people of East Africa. They are sharply distinguished in manners and customs from their neighbours, and are believed to have come from the Nile region. Though a portion of the tribe have adopted a settled life, the greater number are still warlike nomads, who roam about over the Rift Valley and the plains between Kilima Njaro and Nairobi. They do not till the soil, but possess large herds of cattle; their food consists entirely of meat and their drink of milk or blood. Formerly they were a considerable power in East Africa, and a formidable obstacle for the earlier explorers. Their raids extended from Lake Baringo to the coast on one side, and from the middle of the present German East Africa to the Tana on the other, and they took toll from all caravans proceeding to the interior.

The spread of law and order has somewhat curtailed their exploits, but the men are still all warriors by profession. When youths they serve as pages, and from seventeen to twenty-five they are considered as Elmorans or warriors, after which age they are allowed to marry and settle down. All the work, except fighting, is done entirely by the women.

The Masai have an elaborate military organisation, and the Chief, or Lebon, exercises absolute authority over them. His power is based partly on superstition, for he is principal medicine man as well as commander-in-chief. On certain occasions he takes drugs, called Royal medicine, which it is believed would poison all other people, and then falls into a trance, during which he is thought to possess supernatural knowledge, both of the future and of what is happening in other places. It is said that his reputation for more than human wisdom is maintained by a very thorough system of espionage. The whole of the country known to the Masai is patrolled by runners, who are charged to observe everything they see and report it to the Chief, but, under pain of death, to no one else. Consequently, if it is proposed to attack a distant place, the Chief is able to give a detailed description of the locality and its inhabitants, and

when his warriors find that what they see exactly corresponds with what they had been told before starting, their superstitious awe is confirmed.

The Masai are found in both German and British territory. When the last Chief, Batyan, died, a dispute arose between his sons, Lenana and Sendeyo, as to the succession, and the tribe was divided. The former is now recognised as Chief of the Masai in the British sphere, and the latter of those in the German. Sendeyo has several times had trouble with the German authorities, but has always been defeated. Fortunately for us, Lenana's familiar spirit advised him that he had better make peace with the white men, because they were invincible, and he has proved our best friend and ally among the natives. In return he receives about £6 13s. 4d. a month, which is a very moderate stipend for a monarch of such considerable powers, both real and imaginary. Though I see no reason to anticipate that Lenana will change his present attitude, I regard the Masai as the most important and dangerous of the tribes with whom we have to deal in East Africa, and I think it will long be necessary to maintain an adequate military force in the districts which they inhabit.

Like the Masai, the Somalis are a nation of warlike nomads, whose only occupations are keeping cattle and raiding. They are organised in several tribes, each under a Chief, who bears the misleadingly imposing title of Sultan, and inhabit northern Tanaland and Jubaland, whence a kindred population extends up to Berbera and Cape Guardafui. The principal tribes in East Africa are the Herti, near Kismayu on the coast, who are more or less settled and friendly; the Ogadens of the interior of Jubaland; and the Biskayas, of Tanaland. Neither of the two latter have towns or villages, and both continually cause serious trouble to the Government by their raids.

The Somalis are exceedingly intelligent. When they visit towns they show a remarkable adaptability to the conditions of civilised life; they are not only traders, but engage in large cattle transactions which entitle them to the name of merchants; but each rising generation is brought up to believe that they cannot take their place as respected members of the tribe until they have killed a man or otherwise distinguished themselves by some warlike exploit. Neither is it easy to suggest any method of bringing them under civilising influences, for they will not remain long in one spot. They wander about with marvellous celerity in the thick scrub, which I have already described, determining their movements according to the varying positions of water-holes and pasture. As a rule, their tactics are not bold. They rarely attack fortified places, and usually surprise

villages when the men are away; but they sometimes show considerable audacity in unexpectedly rushing on a comparatively large force, spearing all they can, and retiring as suddenly as they came.

The Gallas, who are found chiefly in Tanaland, appear to be akin to the Somalis in race, and, like them, invaders from the north. Their incursions were earlier than those of the Somalis, before whose advent they were the dominant tribe. Afterwards they were driven southwards and occupied a distinctly inferior position to the newcomers, though they claim a sort of lordship over the Wapokomo and some helot tribes. They are a pastoral people, but no longer warriors.

Another section of the Gallas live in the little known country of Boran, into which our administration has not yet been introduced, although it falls within the sphere of the East Africa Protectorate. Native imagination attributes to this district the riches and beauty of some city of the "Arabian Nights.' Trustworthy accounts of it are meagre, but it is undoubtedly rich in ivory, and the inhabitants keep not only sheep and cattle, but also horses, a unique feature among the natives of this side of Africa who are averse to riding any animal. They are also said to have acquired some Christian rites from the Abyssinians.

To the races mentioned must be added a large and increasing Indian element. There has always been a considerable trade between Western India, especially Bombay, and East Africa, which has resulted in large settlements of Goanese, Parsees, Khojas, Bohras, and others both in Zanzibar and on the coast. In the last few years this immigration has been greatly augmented by the Uganda Railway, which, finding native African labourers difficult to engage and entirely unsatisfactory, has imported many thousands of coolies. The Indians seem likely to become like the Swahilis-intermediaries between Europeans and natives, and if they were allowed by the Indian Government to settle would probably do much to develop the natural resources of the country by cultivating rice and practising other forms of agriculture.

It is impossible to give any trustworthy statistics of the population of the Protectorate. The four provinces must contain between a million and a million and a half inhabitants. The population of the unorganised territories has been conjectured at 1,150,000, but this must be a mere guess.