Sir H. Johnston: The Man and his Book. (By W. T. Stead, in the Review of Reviews.)

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue LXIV, 13 September 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

Sir H. Johnston : The Man and his Book. (By W. T. Stead, in the Review of Reviews.)

Tho exact height of Napoleon Buonaparte, neither more nor less, is Sir Harry Johnston, late Special Commissioner for the immense territory known as British East Africa, nnd author of the splendid book on '* The Uganda Protectorate," which waa published last month by Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. It is eighteen years since I first set eyes on this remarkable man, when ho was a youth of twenty-six years old by the almanac, but not more than eighteen in appearance. I interviewed him for the Pall Mall Gazette in an article -■(vhich, by way of recalling impressions, I reproduce here : — " A little slip of a. boy, apparently fifteen yea in -of age, with a pleasant smile and intelligent blue eyes, standing a little more than five feet iv height, and whh a chin topeiing off to a point, and contrasting strongly with the broad jaw behind — that is Mr. Johnston, the chief authority on the Congo, and the latest of African travellers. In reality he is twenty-five, but he talks as if he was fifty-two. When ho started tho other day en route for Zanzibar and the Kilimanjaro mountain, one of the most remarkable young men of Our time- betook himself to the Dark Continent. Since Gordon left England we have met few more interesting individualities than Mr. Johnston ; but no contrast could possibly be more marked than that which is presented by these two men — the GovernorGeneral of the Soudan, and tho author of 'The River Congo.' The one is to the other what Cromwell is to Darwin. In their own way they represent the two great forces of religion and science-^ Gordon, full of an intense and enthusiastic belief in the Unseen, constantly regarding himself and all his fellow-men but as passive instruments in the hands of an Almighty Power, yet ever glowing with a fervid philanthropy ; Johnston, cool, calm, full of intelligence, and though not without some of the enthusiasm inseparable from youth, yet looking out upon the world and all things therein as «. great laboratory in which Nature ruthlessly pursues those murderous experiments which result in tho ' survival of the fittest." That is the man whose book on the Congo is runuing through its second edition (published by Sampsou Low and Co.), and wlio has now gone to climb the highest mountain peak in the whole of tho African Continent. " The race of the future," said he, " will be somewhat of an olive tint with more of African blood in its veins than ttt present, but it will have a white brain. The old continents are. overcrowded : Africa will yet bo peopled with tho swarming surplus of Europe and Asia. The pliable organisms which cau adapt themselves to uh altered environment will survive, those that cannot will perish. Wo may not wnnt the Congo, nor the fertile valleys of Central Africa; but it will bo needed for our children or our children, who will require the outlet which we should take care is not barred against them." From that time to this, Sir Harry Johnston's career has been one of brilliant and uninterrupted success. It culminates for the moment — but only for the moment — in the production of his book on " The Uganda Protectorate," a work for wbjch, from a patriotic point of view, I cannot but feel profoundly grateful, not so much because of any of the sentiments which he expresses therein, but because it is a magnificent monument of patient industry, of rapid work executed under great difficulties, •• 1 produced in a style which, for illustration, letterpress, nnd general get-up, will compare favourably with tho best work that is producpd either in France or Germany, if we exclude those books

which are practically subsidised by tho Government. When I published ihe first number of tho Review of Reviews, twelve ycais ago, 1 selected tho portrait of Sir Harry Johnston as our first frontispiece, and I have a little natural pride- in finding that he continues to acquit himself so creditably, and to render such excellent service to his country. ' Nowadays, in the stress of international competition, wo are all haunted more or less with a horrid fear lest we are. being left behind, in the race. It is, indeed, welcome to find now and again some Englishman of whoso work v>a have no need to bo ashamed, and whose achievements arc distinctly of the first rank among those of tho workers of the world. For myself, I eonfe«s that 1 turn over the pages of these two handsomo volumes ot " The Uganda Protectorate" with a feeling of admiration and despair. What a demon of energy must posse?s this man for him to have- pio duced such a book in such a. time ! He was only twenty months in Uganda altogether. During thai time, y.."» (Special Commissioner, ho was charged with arduous and responsible dilties, which might well have occupied the Svholo of his time, and which would have occupied the whole energies of almost any other man. But hero nre these two volumes of nearly 1000 pages, containing a full, vivid, graphic, and illustrated account of the vast region known as British East ( Africa, dealing with the subject nofc as the mere bonk of travel, but as the work of an anthropologist and naturalist, written with the bright and plensing pen of an accomplished man of letters, and illustrated with a multitude of pictures painted by the not less fa<;ile brush of the artist. Xlvere is something absolutely uncanny in such phenomenal, almost su perhunian, demonic energy. Sir Harry Johnston attributes no smull portion of the credit for such an output of good wovk in so short n time to his devoted secretaries, Mr. Cunningham .and his own younger brother. He had also the assistance of the natural history follector attached to his 'staff, and tho help of many others, to whom he pays due tribute in his preface. But 'when all such deductions are made, there still remains a sum of Rolid work lit which we can only stand lost in amazement. The hook is, at once a history, a political treatise, and an elubo rate signed report upon the country and its inhabitants. Many a man who has spent five-and-twenty years of patient labour lias often, less* to show for it than Sir Hurry Johnston has produced tn hii» book. Having said this much by way of preface, I huKten to give some account of the man nnd his career, and then rapidly glance over tho salient features ,of "The Uganda Protectorate." 1.-TIJE MAN. • Sir Harry Johnston is only fortvfour years old. Ho has already won Iv.C. B and G.C.M.G., which is sufficient proof that his official superiors »Ye thoroughly well satisfied with his work, and that his literary and scientific labours have in no way impaired the work which ho is able to render to the Kmpico in East, South, West, nnd Central Africa. He is also a D.Sc. of Cambridge, a gold medallist of the Royal Scottish GeoogrHphical society and of tho Zoological Society Strange to say. Sir Hairy Johnston was born in London — a place which is not very fertilo in the production of groat travellers. Tho mystery is, however, explained by the fact that, although born in London, he is n. Scotchman, both father and mother being Scotch. His j father was a Johnston descending from The Aiiuandnlo clan* and his mother a Hamilton, with a legendary claim to be in some way connected with tlie ducal family of that name. From his mother's mother, .who was one of the first women who ever studied at the school of the Royal Academy, ho appears to have inherited that extraordinary fuciliiy with the brush which 1 at one time tlucatened to divert him from the career in which he has achieved so much distinction. If he had concentrated on art, he might have risen to the first rank. As it is, painting only ad it were in tho spare moments of an extremely busy life, he has achieved no small measure of success, and his pictures have been hung in the Academy. He was a delicate boy, the third son in a family of twelve. Like President Roosevelt, his health gave his parents great oause- for anxiety, nor did either parent- dream that, after spending twenty yours in the most malarious regions of Africa, and. having beeu down half a dozen times at least with blackwater fever, he would still be halo and strong, ond fit to go anywhere and do anything. He was educated first at Stockwell Grammar School, und ititorward at King's College, from which it was intended lie should proceed to Cambridge ; but his health tailing him, he was sent to Spain, Portugal, and the South of France, where he studied the languages of these countries and paintiug, while at the same time striving for health. He had an almost Slavonic capacity for the acquisition of languages. At the present moment he is more or less master of French, Spanish , Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, and an indefinite number of African dialects. Tho study of languages was one of his boyish passions, As a youth, his imagination caused him tb fall under the glamour of Lord Beaeonsfield, and he conceived a corresponding detestation of Mr. Gladstone, whom he regarded as the enemy of tho Empire. It was fated that in after years Mr. Gladstono should give him the kindest encouragement in his African work. He was only twenty-one when ' he made his first visit to Africa, aud spent somo time in /.Tunis, where he mastered Arabic, ond became more than ever enamoured of the Imperial idea. He Wivs hardly one-and-twenty when his ideal was hurled from power by the .general election of 188J&, and for a week he was so much upset lie could not put a brush to canvas. The Gkdstonian triumph of that year seemed to him almost the end of all things, and for seven days ho brooded gloomily over the shattered dreams of empire. At the end of tho seven days, however, the thought occurred to him whether it might not be more sensible if, instead of merely wringing his hands in vain lamentation over the untoward fortune which had befallen the Empire, he did something himself to servo his country. It was this thought which changed the , whole course of his life. At first conceived as almost a fantastic dream, it speedily became a fixed idea, and gave him no rest until he had discovered some method of giving effect to his ambition. His first idea wa# to use his pen in journalism. Not knowing exactly what to begin with, he wifely decided to begin with the subject lying to his hand. He wrote nn niucle on Tunis, sent it to tho Globe, and waited with the usual feverish interest for tho lesult of his venture To his immense delight ho received a letter from the' editor enclosing a cheque for three guineas, nnd offering him a commission to write | fivo other articles on a similar subject. Thio success confirmed him in his resolution, no wrote the articles, which apPWiJin tlie Globe from M,arob. to July,

1880, and thus planted his foot firmly on tho iiist rung of the ladder which led him to his present position. Returning to Kngl.tnd with the intention of going to Cambridge, he throw himself heartily into the .study of biology. This took him to the Zoological Gardens, wheio ho spent much lime with the Prosector, and acquired a. practical knowledge of natural history which afterwards was destined to" stand him in good stead. Before he went to Cambridge Loid Mayo was thinking of an expedition to West Africa, and as Johnston had a knowledge of Portuguese, and was intensely interested in African questions, he accepted an invitation to accompany him to tho Portuguese possessions. He was about twenty-four Tears of ape when he made his first acquaintance with the d.uigeis and delights of tropical Africa. When Lord Mayo's expedition terminated, Johnston ■travelled on alone to the (Jonpci. and tbovo he threw himself with whole hearted avidity into the study ot the yittat n\er aucry oi Central Afrioa, mudo tho acquaintance of Sir 11. M. Stanley, who m.ls touched by his enthusiasm, and gave him every encouragement and assistance in his power. It was on his return from Africa, at the end of 1883 nnd beginning of 3884, that I fust made his acquaintance. I awis im mensely struck by the intelligence nnd •><;lt'-posses-.sioit ot the young traveller. On account of the publication of his book on tho River Congo, he was selected to conduct the Killimanjaro expedition. This brought him for the first time to Enst Africa in 1884. The expedition which had been organised by Sir John Kirk was successful, and if Sir William Miwkinnon had had but a. little moie courage and oonfideuce, the result of this expedition would have been to have secured the Killimanjaro mountain for the British Protectorate. Unfortunately, however, he shrank from proceeding further in that direction, and tho mountain fell to the Germans, who were at that time just at the beginning of their colonial expansion. In the autumn of 1885 he was appqinted as Vice-ConMil to tho Cameroons and ! Oil Rivers;. His chief Consul, Hewett, began to fail in health, and ho shortly afU'i-wiirds took « long lesvvo of absence, leaving Johnston v charge of \vhut is now known as Southern Nigeria. He was intensely intoicsteil in the country, in tho people and their customs, and found grot delight in sending home to tha Foreign Office vivid pictures of life in the oil country. Tho achievement which brought him before the attention of the public in \Vo«t Africa was his deposltiou of King Ja-Ja, jui ex-slave who, for twenty yenrs, had practically monopolised all thVtrade of the district, and hnd scandalised civi lisa) ion and humanity by innumerable atrocities, the penalty for* which he hnd evaded by an unscrupulous diplomacy' which diet much more credit to tho cunning of the savage than to tho lepnlntioti of tlio^e with whom he had to deal. Johnston having made up his mind that J:i-Ja must be got out of the way, • secured the awsistnnco of the King of Bonny and various oilier native potentates who had long groaned under tho monopoly of Ja-Ja, and then, when nil was ready for the delivery of his stroke, he telegraphed home asking for permit sion to Cake the recalcitrant potentate in hand. With a crazy old gunboat he wont up tho river nnd summoned Ja-Jn to a pulaver. Ja-Ja arrived with 1700 armed men, but consented to leavo them in tho creek at somo distance, while he met the Con-nil with a man interpreter. By sheer bluff, Sir Harry Johnston succeeded in inducing Ja-Ja to consent to come to the Gold Coast to be tried, on « euavuntee that his private property would not bo interfered with, that his life would be spared, and that the worst punishment he would receive would bo either for life, or for a term of years. Ja-Ja was duly tried nnd sentenced to fiyo years' deportation to the West Indies. At the end of that term ho was brought back, but died on his way homo, firmly believing that Johnston's " JuJu " -was stronger than his own, and that tho fetish of the Consul had done him to denth. After Sir Harry Johnston's return k> Knglnnd in 1888, he brought out through the Graphic a careful study of negro life, entitled, "Tho History of i\ -Slave," which I had occasion tb treat somewhat severely in a review, ns I thought its horrible episodes better relegated to the pages of ;i fccientilic treutise- thin produced in tho pages of a popular newspaper. At tho clo*e of 1888 Sir Harry Johnston was appointed by Lofd Salisbury Consul for Portuguese East Africa, but before proceeding to his post ho was sent to Lisbon to assist Sir George Polro in negotiating a friendly arrangement with Portugal for tho 'sottleme.nl of the East and Central African questions. The immediate outcome of these negotiations did not satisfy Lord Sulisbury, though it formed tho basis of tho eventual agreement of 1891. Lord Salisbury remained persistent, however, in his desire to extend British South Africa up to Lake Tanganyika, but financial difficulties for it time barred tho way. The British Treasury felt unablo to pledge the Exchequer to an African enterprise which might swallow up many millions of tho taxpayers' money without profitable results. At this moi inent (May, 1889) Cecil Rhodes appeared on tho scene, and resolved all hesitation on Lord Salisbury's part by his promised formation of a chartered company which would, if need be, relieve the British taxpayer of the financial burden of these new territories. Johnston accordingly started for Mozambique, and in the summer, autumn, and winter of 1889 had, with (lie assistance of Mr. Alfred Sharpc, secured all " British Central Africa " and Northern Rhodesia for tho British Empire under Crown or Company. In 1890 he was made a. Companion of the Bath. In 1891 he was appointed as Commissioner and Oonsul-General in British nnd Central Africa, a, position which he united with that of Consul to the Portuguese possessions in East Africa. For six years he administered Nyaisaland. The years of his administration^ were not rendered easier by the subsidies of the Chartered Company. Rhodes mid Johnston did not see always eyo to eye, especially as until 1895*R"hodes seems to hnve cherished an idea of bringing British Central Africa tinder Cape Colonial management". Johnston, though williuf, to sec the native territories north of the Zambesi taking their place in a South African Confederation, was strongly opposed to placing millions of Central* African negroes under tho not always farsighted ni'e of Capo politicians. In 1897 he was appointed Consul Genpral for Tunis, and returned -with much delight to the/pli'oe vli rli hurl l>e-u the cradle of his early political ambitions. There ho remained * till \i&y, uhen he was sent out as special Commissioner to Uganda. Ho had a difficult task. Tho country was in considerable confusion ; tho exiled king wna nn enemy of England, and the country was much disorganised in its administration owing to thrco jeurs of civil and foreign warfare.

In the twenty mouths of his administration ho succeeded in establishing peace, <md theieby J3riti.su authority, throughout the whole vast region committed To his care. At the end of his administration he returned to London, and spent last year in the preparation of his book on the Uganda Protectorate. li.— THE BOOK. # " The Uganda Protectorate " is a book in two volumes which embodies the lesult of Sir Harry Johnston's discoveries and researches in British East Africa. lie describes it in tlie tille-pago as "an attempt to give soino description of the physical geography, bolauv, '/.oology, anthropology, languages, and history of tho territories under British protection in East Central Africa." Aa its frontispiece it has a more or less imaginative picture of the okapi, the name of the new animal the discovery of which is tho chief scientific (.ensation of the book. When quite a child Sir Harry Johnston's imagination had been fired by descriptions of a horse-like- ainmul, which was said to have existed in the depths of the equatorial forests. He resolved, if ever he had the opportunity, to try to discover that animal ; and to his intense delight he was able to do so. Ho has never seen a live ono yet, and his drawings are moie or less imaginative, being based upon the putting together of its s-kull and its skin. The discovery may be said to have been a kind of reward of virtue, for one of his first acts after assuming the Commissionevship was to roscuo a band of pigmies who hud been kidnapped by an enterprising German who Mas carrying them off to exhibit them at Paris at thfe Exhibition. The little pigmies, when released by the benevolent Commissioner, told him a great deal about this creature, that seemed to be a kind of cross between « hoise and a zebra, and their narrative revived all his boyish enthusiasm to discover it. The Belgian officers in the Congo told him that they had frequently seen .its dqjid body broujrhl in by native* for eating. Sir Harry Johnston phmjred into the rocion which it was supposed to haunt. >The forest was far from being a delectable region. The atmosphere was almost unbreathitble with its Turkishb«th heat, its rainy moisture, and its powerful smell of rotting vegetation. They seemed, in fact, to hu transported b>k to Miocene tim.eo ; black men and white were prostrate with fever, and they had to re' race their steps with nothing more than a few fragments oi; okapi skin. Some months afterwards, however, Mr. Eriksson, a Swedish officer in the service of tho Congo State, procured tho body of a recently-killed okapi. Ho had the skin removed with much care, and bent it to Sir Harry Johnston, with its skull and the skull of a smaller specimen vhich he obtained separately From this skull and its skin he reconstructed the animal. Its size- is that of a large stag or ox, but it is higher in the legs than any mom' • of the ox tribe. It hnn only two hoofs, .ike the giraffe. 7t reocmbles a gintil'e-like animal which existed in the Tertiary Epoch. It has probably survived from a remote period of tho world's history by slinking in tho densest parts of tho Congo forests, where the lion never penetrates ; and its only enemies were the Congo dwarfs ond' a few negroes who dwell on tho. fringe of the Congo forest. In that vast, nil but impenetrable feVer-laden forest Sir Harry Johnston thinks there aro other unknown animals still to be discovered, including enormous gorillas, larger than any yet seen. His account of the okapi, however, although the most remarkable, is only one among a multitude of other interesting Licta iii natural history which are brought to light in this book.' It is, indeed, a fascinating natural- history book, as well as a delightful .volume of travels. Sir Harry Johnston was fortunate in having so interesting a region as the subject for his book. As lie says in his preface, the territories comprised within tho limits of the Protectorate contain, within an area of some 150,000 square miles, nenrly nil the wonders, most of the extremes, the most signal beauties, and somo gf tho honors of the Dark Continent. . The naturalists, finds therein the most remarkable known forms among the "African mammals, beasts, fishes, butterflies, and earthworms. It includes the snowcovered peaks of the highest, mountain in Africa, which rises to a. height of 20,000 ft above the sea level. It contains over 100 square miles of perpetual sno^ and ice, lying immediately on the equator. It has ihe largest lake in Africa, and the biggest extinct -volcano in thrf world, the vastest forest and the greatest continuous area of marsh in the whole of Africa. Yet, despite its snowclad mountain and 100 square miles of^snow, th£' average daily heat is hisjiier than in any other part of Africa. There are all manner of human beings, from the pigmies up to tho highest type of African humanity: — " Cannibalism lingers in the western corners of the Protectorate; while the natives of other parts are importing tinned' apricots, or ore printing and publishing in their own" language summaries of their past history. This is tJio country of the okapi, the whale-headed j stork, tho chimpanzee, and the five- j horned giraffe, the rhinoceroses with the J longest horns, and the elephants with { tho biggest tusk«." | It is a strange wonderland, which re* minds Sir Harry Johnston of Mnrtin's famous picture of the Plains of Pleaven ' iv somo places, and in others seems to be almost like a vision of the Valley of tho Shadow of Death. In the north-east-ern Province a " Drought and the Abyssimnns between them appear to have depopulated nearly all the east, coast of Rudolf, and even the camels have died of the drought, and 1 strew the country with their whitened bones. Tho late Captain Wellby, who visited these regions two yoars ago, wrote to me that the aspect of much of j th© east coast of Lake Rudolf was the most desolate he could conceive — like a picture of a dead work 1 strewn with the ' whitened bones of huge mammals and of men, no vegetation to bo seen within reach of the eye — nothing but salt water and sun-baked rocks, themselves perhaps congealed lava." The book is full of vivid descriptions of the vicissitudes of existence in Tropical Africa. Qno of the most striking passages is that -w Inch describes the thunderstorms which occur evory other day in the kingdom of Uganda. * These thunderstorms generally come on at 3 o'clock in tho afternoon or 3 o'clock in the morning. Purple clouds begin to form on tho horizon of the lake, and the whole sky is covered before tho storm bursts. Ynu henr the sound of a rushing wind approaching whilo all around is deadly calm: — " Then the blast strikes you, being preceded possibly by a cloud of blinding dust or a squall of leiwes. "If you are in a tent or watching the storm, in all probability the first impact of the wind has levelled your canvas to * "The Uganda Protei* orate." By Sir H. Johnston, G.C.M.G. London': Hutchiuson. Price, 42s net.

tho ground, and all your treasured belongings on your cajn.p-t.able and your bed are exposed to the rain, which is now approaching. This is nothiug less than a cubic mile of grey water which is being driven towards you at fifteen miles an hour. In this moving showerbath you remain for thirty minutes or more ; then, if you have survived this, thero may be a lull. Then another cubic mile of water will be driven up and over you. " Almost simultaneously with the arrival of the hurricaaic wind conies tho first flash of pink lightning, followed immediately by an explosion, of thunder, which seemS to be tho crack of doom. "These terrible flaming swords ot fire reveal to you the grey wall of water by which you are surrounded. Gradually they become less vehement, and are accompanied, after much greater intervals of time, by rumbles of thunder more bearable than the' artillery crashes which, first accompanied the forked lightning." All theso different drawbacks, however, seem nothing to Sir Hairy John- ; ston, who revels in the country, which seems to be one enormous zoological garden, full of all manner of strange, beautiful, wild creatures, many of which w«re surprisingly tame. On Lako Hannington be estimates that there must be at least a million flamingoes: — "On the north coast of the kke the belt of flamingoes must be nearly a mile brond from tlie edgre of the lake outwards. Seen from above, tnis mass of birds on its shoreward side is grey-white, then becomes white in tho middle, and has a lakeward ring of the most exquisite rose-pink, the reason being that the birds on the outer edge of the semi-circle are the young ones, while those farthest out into tho lake are the oldest." ■ Tlie railway from the coast to Lake Victoria Nyanza has scared away the lions which used to eat up its construct tors ; it seems almost to have attracted all other kinds of animals. Tlie country abounds in elephants, zebras,. i%hinoceroaes, aud antelopes of ail kinds ; and tho butterflies are dreams of beauty : — "It is a glorious sight-, say an hour after tho sun has ri?en and the shadows are beginning to shorten, to traverse this grass country and see this zoological gardens turned looser Herds of zebras and Jackson's hartebeest mingle togethei, and in face of the sunlight become a changing procession of silver and gold, the Kleek coats of the zebra* minorlinc their black stripes and snowy intervals into a uiiilorm silver-grey, 1 white the coats of the harlebeests are simply redgold. Dotted about on the outskirts of this throng are jet-black cock-ostriches with white wings, a white bobtail, and long pink neck*. Red and silver jackals slink und snap; grotesque wart-hogs oi a dirty grey, with whitish bristles and erect tails terminating in a drooping tassel, scurry before the traveller till they can bolt into some burrow of the ant-bear. Males of the noble waterbuck, strangely like tho English red-deer, appear at a distance, browsing with their hornless, doe-like females, or gazing at the approaching travellor with head erect and the maned neck and splendid carriage of Landseer's stags. Grey-yellow • reedbuck bend their lissom bodies into such a bounding gallop that the spine seems to beeomo concave as th* animal's vcur is flung, high -into th© ah.* The dainty' Damaliscus, or sable antelope, with v coat of red, mauve, black- and-yellow satin bordered with cream colour, stands at gaze, his coat like watered silk as tho sunliglit follows tho wavy growth of tho glistening hair." Of the results of European influence in Africa- Sir Harry Johnston gives a good account. His deliberate verdict is that tho Europeans, even in the Congo Free State, have distinctly improved the conditions of human existence for the African population. Speaking of the Belgians, he says: — " I can only state, in common fairness, that that very small portion of the Congo Free State which I have s«en since theso new countries were administered by Belgian officials possessed excellent buildings, well-made roads, and was inhabited by cheerful natives, who repeatedly, and without solicitation on my part, compared the good times they were now having to the misery and ' terror which preoeded them, when the Arabs and Manyema had established themselves in the country aa chiefs and slavetraders." Both in Ea-st and West Africa his verdict is clear and emphatic. The European may have brought q, good many evils in his train, but he has extingtiished fai* greater miseries than any of those which the natives hjive suffered at his hands. Peace now reigns, and law and order prevail over vast regions which, before onr advent were given over to the wide-wasting . atrocities of the Arab slave-traders and their Afrfcan allies : — " The population of parts of Kavirondo j on tho slopes of Mount Elgon of the ! Nyando Valley, and of much, of the J Nandv Platea-u has been absolutely ex- j languished — men, women, and children being slain, «nd the remnant starving to death in the bush. One can only say that in every district there prevailed absolute insecurity for life or property." As itt Ea-st Africa, so he declares it has been on the Western Coast: — "The bloodshed and misery that went on in these regions was incomparably more awful than the whole sum of "atrocities" inflicted by ill-conducted Europeans, or produced by European warfare with the natives incidental to the extension of European rule over the western third of Africa. I for one, with eveiy desire to be unprejudiced, cannot come to any other conclusion than that the natives of Nigeria have immensely gained in liappiness and security of life and property "wherever we have undertaken the direct administration and control of the countries in which they live. Visit the rivers of the Niger Delta now. and sec if you can state with truth that , the negroes are not happy, numerous, and commencing to lead a civilised and comfortable life." i Of the railway ho speaks most enthu- i siastically. He says that the blessings i of the railway to inner Africa aro almost incalculable. If there had been omniscience at headquarters and no engineering strike in England, it might have j been built for £750,000 cheaper than its actual cost. The journey from London to Entebbe, the capital of Uganda, can now be effected in twenty-four days, as against something like four months in former times. AH the accumulated commerce of East Africa, will gravitate to tho fertile shores of Victoria .Nyanza, where there is everywhere abundance of food. The railway has almost entirely abolished the caravan trade through a considerable slice of East Central Africa. This has done away with tho need for slaves, and promises to open up a whole region to peaceful commerce. Not only so, but in the Nandy region, which is served by the railway, there is a vast tract of fertile country in which Europeans can live and thrive, and winch Sir Harry Johnston believes could. iffoid land and healthy homes for 500,000 British, colonists. The country is extraordinarily fertile. Fjioin a single tomato plant *s many as j

3000 tomatoes have been gathered in two months. Tho sugar-cane growa luxuriantly in. all the tiopical parts of the Protectorate. Tobacco grows almost everywhere ; oats thrive well in the higher ground ; Indian corn flourishes ; wheat has not hitherto prospered much. Ther« are four or five kinds of indiarubbor iv the Protectorate ; coffee plantations thrive well, and the supply of timber is almost inexhaustible. The country has not yet been prospected for minerals, and Lake Victoria Nyanza has never been surveyed. There are 1 strange rumours*that it is haunted by a huge marine creature, which may be a sea-serpent or some monster the remuihs of whose ancestors ye to bo found in fossils. In the Nandy region, which Sir Harry Johnston proposes to colonise, there is not a single settled native inhabitant, nor any human being except an occasional wandering hunter. 'Jihe missioifary-public will turn witU great interest to Sir Harry Johnston's account of the struggles of the great' rival groups — Catholic, Protestant, and Mohammedon — which caused aa_ much trouble in the early days of the Protectorate. Seldom was there a more vomantio beginning of missionary enterprise than, that which Stanley initiated when, after his interview with King Mtesa, he sent forth his invitation to. the Christian world to undertake , the conversion of the people of Uganda: — . " Stanley resolved to write Ms famou» hatter to the Daily Telegraph, inviting. English missionaries to proceed to the evangelisation of Uganda, ne had no means of, sending thiß letter back to Europe save by way of the Nile, and Linant de Bellefonds volunteered to tale* ity As the unfortunate Belgian waa travelling down the Nile through th» Ban country in the vicinity of Gondokoro his expedition was attacked by th# Bai-i, who had suffered recently great wrongs at the hands of the Nubian slavetraders. Linant de Bellefonds was murdered by tho Bari, and his corpse waa thrown on the bank, to lie there rotting under the sun. A Government expedition, sent to enquire into the cause of* this attack and to punish the Ban, recovered Linant de Bellefonds's body, and removed therefrom the long knee-bqot« which he was wearing at the time of hir death. In one of the boots — he hadi tucked ib between the boot and leg at tho time of the attack — was found Stanley's famous letter to the missionaries.. This was sent on to Gordon Pasha- at Khartoum, and forwarded by him to th» Duily Telegraph, wioi an explanation of circumstances under which it had been found." A very extraordinary story is told by the author, on the authority of Mr. Geo.i Wilson, as to a method of hunting pursued by the Chiope hunters in the northern part of Unyoro. They are accustomed to catch the deadly puff-adder in a noose. They then nail> tho living snake upon the tip of his tail iv th» middle of a buffalo track, so that the enraged reptile might strike at the body. of the buffaloes as they passed by. In. this manner it is asserted that as many is ton buffaloes have been killed in ono day by one puff-adder. The body of the liist buffalo killed would be described as being poisoned, but the bodies of the other victims would be considered whol*^ some for e:itvug. r ' Nearly the whole of the second volume is devoted to a description of the variout ' tribes, copiou&ly illustrated by severely Bowdlerised photographs.^ There seems to be an infinite difference between the various races as to their morality. Uganda seems to be almost eaten up with syphilis, although it has prevailed to such an extent that the people aro now «aid to be becoming immune. This disease was introduced by the Arabs or by the traders from the * coast. One of the finest races, the Masai, is dying out. owing to the increasing reluctance of the men to settle- down ih the married state and beget children. The women, also, who are very immoral, are becoming increasingly infertile. On the other . hand, the pigmies appear to be extremely moral, and a sense of\decency is often very highly developed, especially among those races who dispense with clothes as a. superfluity. But the habits of human beings in the matter of dress are quite' inscrutable. Among the Baganda it wasa punishable offence for a. man to expose any part of his leg above the knee. .At; the same time the wiv^s of the king were in tho habit of attending his oourb perfectly naked. The. Baganda, however, regard nudity on the part of the male *s one of the worst offences whichhuman beings can commit; but on the other hand, Sir Harry Johnston describe* tribe after tribe in vrhich both male and females are innocent even of fig-leave^ Sir Harry Johnston declares that the . naked races are much less prurient-mind-ed than is the case among clothed peoples. ' r One of the most extraordinary ihingt for which Sir Rarry Johnston vouches. i« the extent to which a single chief is sometimes able to' stamp liis own physique upon the whole tribe. An old veteran of the Nilotic race, of the name of Liada, is said to have been the father of ono thousand children, more or less. He is still living at the age of ninety.^ Another chief is known to have seven hundred children, most of whom bear an unmistakable resemblance to thedr sire. Of the- natives, as a whole Sir Harry speaks well. He does not believe, despite all that is said concerning their savagery, that they are primarily responsible for outrages on white men. If Europeans pass through their country, taking no liberties with the women, and respecting tho rights of property, and, what is most important of all, seeing that their native porters are equally scrupulous, they will seldom or never be interfered with; but when the natives who accompany a European traveller" seize every opportunity "for outrag* and 1 rapine, it is natural that the inhabitant* of tho country upon trnich they enter should take every opportunity of exterminating such noxious creatures from the face of the earth. f The influence of climate and environment upon life, both physical and moral, is frequently insisted upon. One of tb+ oddest instances of this is tho tendency of the natives who live in the marshy Nilo Valley to approximate to the physi* cal appesranco of storks. They are tall, lean, ami spare, with small heads, long necks, and legs with powerful thighs, but singularly lean and lank between the knee and the heel. They stride through tho rushes just like storks, and, more curious still, are accustomed for an hour at a. time to stand motionless on one log, supporting the other from above the knee. Sir Harry Johnston thinks that the * ancient Egyptians not only tamed the African baboons, but trained them to be useful animals in gathering fruits and performing other services. He regret* the loss of this art. He knows from personal experience that baboons can very easily be tamed, but work he finds abhorrent to their nature. If only we can re-l«irn the secret we might recruit our servants, our hewers of wood and drawers of water, from these simian relatives of mm