2
IRllRD OP 10051M)KnS OTCAM iXIMMTlM)
v II XsuMJz' Win Be Made A,on9 East Africa's Backbone, Froni-Nalrobl to tho Great Lake Victoria Nyanza; and the Hunting
J iTaa I. I", S iTi a. i .T as a a. . e-. a . .. -fBBBBBBBii
ir k 57; nj ailu wier lauui iviivus ; i iisi DGTeii rum win tio aimiidr to inose nere Described n
I Jstt-,. -.It, V . ' - . ... ll II iir 4
yiwMw y .... t -
T THE RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL
UndT aacratary of Stat for the colonies of
?rt Britain.
WJian Theodora Roosevelt eftda his six
niontlia of hunting; In the tola same country
round about Nalrubl. tha next staae of his
Journey Into the heart of Africa will b
over the aame country deacrtlied by Wlnaton
t'hurchlll In thla article. Thla third atage
of Rooaevelt'a African Journey will be made
from Nairobi to the great Iake Victoria
Nvanaa. alons tha backbone of Kail Africa
because he waa royally entertained while
maklnc this part of hia trip. Mr. Churchill
enent four daya covering ground that ordi
narily can be put behind In a day: and
heeauae the otrnere of treat eatatea and the
rovernment officials alone; the "backbone"
are planning; to entertain Mr. Ttoosevelt
alinilarly, he, too. will ha compelled to s;iva
aeveral daya to thla part of his trip. Ed.)
WE are off attain on the Uganda
Railway. Interesting and beau
tiful as ia the country through
whtc-h the line passes from Mombasa to
Nairobi, It Is surpassed by the magnifi
cent scenery of the journey to the Lake
Victoria Xyansft.
First In order and rank 1 the Great
Rift. This etirious fault In tho earth's
surface, which geologists trace across
the 4000 miles of land and sea which
separate us from Palestine, and onward
till to the southern end of Lake Tan
ganyika. Is traversed by the Uganda
Hallway at one if Its mott remarkable
stages. For 60 miles the highland plat
eau has been rising steadily by a suc
cession of wooded undulations to a level,
of over 6000 feet. Now it falls abruptly,
almost precipitously, more than 2000 feet.
Thla ft owning wall of rock and forest,
which extends straight as a ruler far
ther than eye can see. Is the Klkuyu
Kscarpment. As the train claws Its way
downward by slant and slgzag along lta
face, a majestic panorama breaks upon
the view. Far below, bathed In sunshine,
-(retching away to misty purple hori
zons, lio tho croad expanses of the Rift
Valley. Its level surface Is broken by
-strangely molded volcanlo hills and shat
tered craters. The opposite mountain
wall looms up in the far distance, brown
tnd blue. We gase down upon the plain
si from at balloon, mistaking forests for
patches of green grass and mighty trees
for thorn scrub.
Another hour or so and Lake Nalvnsha
comes Into view. This sheet of water
Is about ten miles square, and the rim
f the submerged crater makes an odd,
crescent-shaped Island In Its midst. Its
brackish waters repel the Inhabitants,
but afford shelter to numberless wild
Jowl and many hippopotami. At Nal
vaaha there Is trie government stock
farm. One may see In their various
flocks the native sheep, the half-bred
English, the three-quarted-bred. etc.
The Improvement . is amazing. The
natlvo Eheep is a hairy animal, looking
to the unpractlced eye more like a goat
than a sheep. Crossed with Sussex or
Auatralian blood, his decendant is trans
formed Into a wooled beast of familiar
aspect. As the next cross the progeny
Is almost Indistinguishable from the pure
bred English In appearance, but better
adapted, to African sun and climate. It
Is the same with cattle. In the first gen
eration the hump of the African ox van
ishes. In the second one he emerges a
reapectable shorthorn.
The object of this farm Is two-fold:
First, to find the type best adapted to
local conditions; secondly, to supply the
settlers and the natives with a steadily
broadening fountain of good b'cd, by
which their flocks and herds may be
trebled and ouadrupled In value. The
enthusiasm and seal of those In charge
of this work were refreshing. At pres
ent, however, their operations are re
stricted by insufficient funds and by the
precautions which must be taken against
F.sst Coast fever. The first of these Im
pediments may be removed; the second
is less tractable.
Science Against Ticks.
Kuet Coast fever comes across the Qer
man border, and since then. In spite of
such preventative measures as our
scanty means allow. It has been gradu
"v and slowly spreading through the
I '" ' . I i "
Protectorate. A dit-euMed cow may take
80 days to die. In the meantime, wher
ever it goes the swarming ticks are In
fected. They hold their poison for a
year. If during that time, other cattle
pass over the 'ground, the ticks fasten
upov mem and inoculate them with the
sickness. And each new victim wanders
off to spread the curse to new ticks,
who cast it . back to new cattle, and so
on till the end of the story.
So here we see the two principles of
nature at work simultaneously the
blood-stock rams and bulls spreading
their healthy, fruitful life in everwiden
lng circles throuKh the land; the in
fected cattle carrying their message of
death in nil directions. Every point that
either attains becomes at once a new
centre of vitality or dissolution. Both
processes march deliberately, forward to
limitless multiplications.
The native is helpless In the face of ad
vancing ruin. L-eft to Itself,' the evil
would assuredly devour the good, till
the cattle were exterminated and the
sickness starved to death for lack of
prey. But at this moment the white
biped, with faculties of ratiocination, in
tervenes from the tin-roofed Department
of Agriculture, discovers, for Instance,
that ground may be purified by putting
upon it shee-p, into which the ticks dis
charge their poison harmlessly and are
thereafter purged: erects ' hundreds of
miles of wlro fencing to cut the country
up into compartments as a warship i
divided Into bulkheads: Incloses Infected
areas; destroys suspected animals;
searches methodically and ever more
hopefully for prophylactics and remedies;
with one hand arrests the curse, with the
other speeds the blessing, and In so do
ing; Is surely dischartrtns; rather an Im
portant function from a good many
points of view.
My friends ejid I took four daya In
traveling to the Victoria Kyaaza, al
though the distance can be coverad in S4
hours, for we turned aside every day for
sport or businese, while .our train wait
ed obligingly on a siding. Then at the
stations came farmers, surveyors and
others, with word of w!come or .com
plaint, and a deputation of Boer settlers
with many expressions of loyalty to the
crown, and the chiefs of the Lumbwa
and Nandl tribes, with a crowd- of war
riors, and their L&ibon with his four
wives, all In a row. till I was tired of
making "brief and appropriate speeches"
as my companions must have been of
hearing them. ,
How Roat.rvelt Will Be Entertained.
But Elnientella was all holiday. Lord
Delamere met ua at the station with
Cape carts, ponies , and hogspears-, and
we drove off In search of pig over an
enormous plain thickly people with ante
lope and gazelle. I cannot pretend to
the) experience of both countries neces
sary to compare the merits of pig-etick-ing
in India and In Kant Africa In re
spect to the fighting qualities of the ani
mal, nor the ground over which he is
pursued. But the courage and ferocity
of the African wart-hog and the ex
treme roughness1 of the country, heaped
aa it Is with boulders and pitted with
deep ant-bear holes concealed by nigh
grass, make pig-sticking In Kast Africa
a sport which well deserves the serious
and appreciative attention of the most
ardent sportsman. The wart-hog Is re
garded as dangerous vermin who does
incredible damage to native plantations,
and whose destruction by any method.
THE SUNDAY OKEGOXIAN, PORTLAND. MAT 9, 109.
Bf T'iT' Xv T: ' ww-tjx... .t. immiwih mini
i.ivi.,;.. ;. t fl-r.,v,..-Ty."j" ' - ..'I - - Jjf
even the most difflctilt is useful as wen
as exciting.
Our first pig was a fine fellow, who
galloped off with his tail straight up in
the air end his tusks gleaming mis
chievously and afforded a run of nearly
three miles before he was killed. The
risk of the sport consists in this that
the pig cannot be overtaken and effect
ively speared except by a horse abso
lutely at full gallop. The ground Is so
trappy that one hardly cares to take
one's eyes oft It for a moment. Yet dur
ing at least 100 yards at a time the whole
attention of the rider must be riveted on
the pig. within a few yards of whom he
is riding, and who may be expected to
charge at any 6econd.
A fall at such a climax is nccessarily
yery dangerous, as the wart-hog would
certainly attack the unhorsed cavalier;
yet no one can avoid the chance. I do
not know whether your , true sportsman
will shudder, but I should certainly rec
ommend the intending hunter In East
Africa to strap a revolver on his thigh
in case of accidents. "You do not want
it often," aa th American observed, "but
when you do, you want it badly.
Vte passed a Jolly morning in riding af
ter these brutes and shooting a few
Gazella Grantl and Gazella Thomsonl.
or "Grants" and "Tommies" as they are
familiarly called, and in looking for
elands In the intervals. At the end of
Lake Elmentelta. a beautiful sheet of
water, unhappily brackish, a feast had
been prepared, to which a number of
gentlemen from Lord Delamere's estates
and the surrounding farms had been bid
den. A long array of flocks and herds
was marshalled on both sides of the
track in due order, native bred, half
bred, three-quarter-bred. pure. Through
these lnslgna of patriarchal wealth,
which would have excited the - keenest
interest in any traveler less hungry and
mora instructed In such matters than L
we maoe our way to an excellent lunch
eon, which, be sure, was not unaccom
panied by the usual discussion on East
African politics.
Charged by a Monstrous Pig.
It was late in the afternoon when
we started bacJc to the train, which
lay eight miles off on a siding. On
the way we fell In with a most fierce
monstrous pig. who led us a trice dance
through the bush and grass and boul
der. As he emerged into a patch of com
paratively smooth, open ground I made
up my mind to spear him, urged my
pony to her top speed, and was Just
considering how best to do the deed
when, without the slightest 'provoca
tion, or at any rate, before he had
been even pricked, the pig turned
sharp round 'and sprang at me, as if
he were a leopard. Luckily, my spear
got In the way, and with a solid jar,
-which made my arm stiff for a week,
drove deep into his head and neck be
fore it broke, so that he was glad to
sheer off with IS inches of it sticking
in him, and after a dash at my com
panions he took refuge in a deep hole,
from which no inducements or insults
could draw him.
Later we rode and killed another pis
and chased a fourth unsuccessfully,
and It was nearly dark before the rail
way was reached. , As I was getting
Into my coach they calmly told me that
six lions had walked across the line a
quarter of a mile away and a quarter
of an hour before. A settler who
had been to lunch at Elmentelta waa
loading a hastily borrowed revolver be
fore starting on his homeward ride to
Nakura, and as I gave him some car
tridges, I reflected that, whatever may
be the shortcomings of East Africa, the
absence of an interesting and varied
fauna la certainly not among them'
Next day our train i a cllmblnar
through dense and beautiful forests
to the summit of the Mau Escarpment.
Admiration Of the wealth and splen
dor the leafy kingdom Is mingled with
something very like awe at Its. aggres
sive fertility. The great trees over
hang: the line. The creepers trail down
the outtlngs, robins; the red soil with
cloaks of flowers and foliage. The em
bankments are already covered. Every
clearing is densely overgrown with sin
uous plnnts.
But for the ceaseless carei with
which the whole line is scraped and
weeded it would soon become impas
able. As It Is. the long ringers of the
encroaching; forest are everywhere
tretching out enviously tow-rd the
bright rails. Neglect the Uganda Rail
way for a year, and it would take an
expedition to discover where it had
run. -
A Trip Through the Jungle.'
At Nyoro station nearly 800 natives
were at work cutting timber for the
railway, which is entirely dependent
on wood fuel. The contractor in
charge, a young English gentleman,
who was described to me as being a
model employer of native labor in Gov
ernment contracts, had taken the trou
ble to cut a path through the forest
across a loop of the line In order that
I might see what it was like inside.
Through this leafy tunnel, about a
mile and a half long, we 11 according
ly dived. -
There waa nothing sinister In the as
pect of this forest, for all Its density
and confusion. The great giants towered
up maenincently to a hundred and fifty
feet. Then came the ordinary forest
trees, much more thickly clustered. Be
low this again was a layer of scrub and
bushes, and under, around and among
the whohs flowed a vast sea of convolv-uius-lookins
creeper. Through all this
fourfold veil that sunllaht struaaled down
tiMB&ZBZ jrOCAC ocsrrjcz TV
S3
every 20 yards or so in gleaming chequers
of green and gold.
On the way the method of fuel-cutting
is explained. So far as the laborer is
concerned, it Is n elaborate system of
piecework, very accurately and fairly
adjusted, and. as is so often the case
where the white employer takes personal
care of his men. there aippeared to be
no difficulty in finding any number of
natives.
But they are a plaguey company. Few
will stay for more than a month or two.
however satisfied they may be with their
work and its rewards, and just as they
begin to get skilful, off they go to their
villages to cultivate their gardens and
their families, promising .to come back
another year, or after the harvest, or at
some other remote and indefinite date.
And meanwhile tho railway must have
its fuel every day and day after day,
with the remorseless monotony of the
industrial machine.
But what a way to cut fuel! A floating
population of clumsy barbarians pecking
at the trees with native choppers, more
like a toy hoe than an ax, and carrying
their loads when completed a quarter of
a mile on their heads to the woodstack,
while, the forest laughs at the feebleness
of man.
I made a calculation. Each of the 900
nativox employed costs on the whole $30
a year. The price of a tree-felling plant,
with a mile of monorail tram complete.
Is about J2500. The interest and sinking
fund on this capital outlay represent the
wages of four natives, to which must
be added the salary of a competent white
engineer, equal to the wage of 40 na
tives, and the working expenses and de
preciation, roughly estimated at the wage
of 20 natives more; in all the wage of 65
natives. Such a plant, able to cut trees
six feet in diameter through in four or
five minutes, to cut timber as well as
fuel, to caw it into the proper lengths
for every purpose with the utmost rapidi
ty, and to transport it by whole truck
loads when sawn to the railway siding,
would accomplish a week's work of th
66 natives it replaced in a single day and
effect a sevenfold multiplication of power.
It is no good trying to lay hold of
tropical Africa with naked fingers. Civ
ilization must be armed with machinery
if she is to subdue these wild regions
to authority. Iron' roads, not jogging
porters; tireless engines, not wary men.
Strange Creatures of tire forest.
' Presently our guide began to tell us
of the strange creatures who live in the
forest., and are sometimes seen qisite
close by the fuel-cutters very rare ante
lope, enormous buffaloes and astonishing
birds and butterflies beyond Imagination.
He had managed to make friends with
the Wondorobo a tribe of forest-dwelling
natives Who live .plunged in these
impenetrable shades, who are so shy that,
if a stranger does but set eye upon their
village, forthwith they abandon it; yet
who are at the same time so teased by
curiosity that they cannot resist peeping,
peeping ever nearer and nearer to the
fuel-cutters, umttl one day commercial re
lations are established on the basis of su
gar for skins. I was UFt becoming In
terested in these wood squirrels when
we broke Into the hot blaze of the noon
day sun beating down on the polished
railway track, and had to climb upon our
cowcatcher in order to hurry on to a real
steam sawmill ten miles farther up the
line.
As the journey advances, the train
mounts steadily higher and the aspect
of the country changes. The forest, which
has hitherto lapped the line closely on
every side, now makes a fair division
with rolling hills of grass. And there
Is this extraordinary feature about it
P. i..
i'-J'''tfrilifli nfirf-a'
where the forest areas end. they end
abruptly. There is no ragged belt of
trees less thickly grown; no transition.
Smooth slopes of grass run up to the
very edge of virgin foresL Just as in.
ISngland the meadow runs to the edge of
the covert. The effect is to make the
landscape surprisingly homelike. It Ik
like traveling through a series of gigantic
parks, where the hand of man has for
hundreds of years decided exactly where
trees shall grow and where they shall
not.
Geographically, we have now reached
the culminating point in this long Jour
ney. Henceforward, to find our way
home, we have only to descend, guided
by the force of gravity, first swiftly
along the railroad to Victoria Lake, then
sedately with the stream of the Nile to
the Mediterranean. The lofty tablelands
of East Africa, with their crisp, chill air
and English aspect, must now be left
behind not without many regrets and
the traveler will alight upon a middle
world spread at a level of about 400 feet.
In which an entirely different order of
conditions prevails. Downward then at 30
miles an hour, along the shoulders of
the hills,, across thfn-cpun iron bridges,
through whose girders one glances down
at torrents flashing far below, onward to
the lake.
Within an hour the temperature has
sensibly altered. An overcoat Is no
longer nece&sarv. even If von rld in
front of the engine. In two hours the
climate is warm and damp with the
steamy heat of tho tropics. The fresh
ness has gone out of the air, and in its
place is that sense of sultry oppression
which precedes the thunderstorms so com
mon at this season of the year.
In order to avoid a hot night on the
lake shore we stopped at Fort Ternan,
a placeless name, some 40 milea from
Kisumu, and rather more than a thou
sand feet above It. And here the storm
which had tieen brooding all the after
noon over tho western face of the Mau
Escarpment burst upon us. Even after
ten months on the South African veldt
I was astonished by Its fury. For near
ly two hours the thunder crashed and
roared in tremendous peals
"Like water flung from some high crag.
Th lightning fell with never a jag.
A river steep and wide,"
wh'Ie the rain dashed down in sheets of
water, one single gust of which would
drench you to the skin. But our train
is an effective shelter. We dine com
fortably In the midst of the tempest,
and afterward In a cooler atmosphere
look up toward repentant stars and a
tear-stained sky.
End of the Railway.
At dawn we are at Kisumu. There Is
a stir of men, a crowded platform, sol
diers n order, groups of Indian traders,
hundreds of Kavirondo natives in their
fullest undress, bunting and introduc
tions. Large white steamers lio slor.g-.
side the Jettv, and teyorid theee tho
waters of the lake gleam their broad
wolcqmo to the sunrise.
Kisumu. or Port Florence as it is some
times called, is the western terminus of
the Uganda Railway and the chief port
on Lake Victoria, It possesses what I am
told is the highest dockyard hi the world,
and is the place at which all the steam
ers now plying on the lake have been put
together.
The Kavirondo tribe, the greatest in
this part of the country, had organized
an Imposing demonstration. In dense
array they lined the road from the rail
road station to the commissioner's house,
and our party walked through their midst
in a. perfect hubbub of borns and drums
and shrill salutations. All the warriors
carried their spears, shields and war
paint, and most of them wore splendid
plumes of ostrich feathers.
I woke up next morning to find my
self afloat on a magnificent ship.' It4
long and spacious decks are as snowy
as those of a pleasure yacht. It is
equipped with baths, electric light and
all modern necessities. There is an ex
cellent table, also a well-selected library.
Smart bluejackets- with ebon faces are
polishing the brass work: dapper, white
clad British naval officers pace tha
bridge.
We are steaming ten miles an hour
across an Immense sea of fresh water
as. big as Scotland and uplifted higher
than the summit of Ben Nevis. At
times we are in a complete circle of
lake and sky, without a sign of land.
At others we skirt lofty coasts covered
with forests and crowned with distant
fclue-forown mountains, or thread our
course between a multitude of beauti
ful islands. The air is cool and fresh,
the scenery splendid. We might he
yachting off the coast of Cornwall in
JulV. We are Unon the PViiih t.r in hj
heart or Africa: and crossing the Vic- .
toria Nyanza. 4000 feet above the sea.
(Copyright 1909. by Winston Churchill.)
(In next week's article Mi Churchill
gives a wonderfully vivid picture of the
deadly but beautiful Kingdom of Ugan
da, where, on account of the presence
of the dreaded tsetse fly. Mr. Roosevelt
will be In the greatest danger of his
life while in Africa. Mr. Churchill's ac
count of the ravages of the tsetse fly is
by all odds the most Intimate yet written
bv any African traveler.)