Page:The empire and the century.djvu/907

 Africa. They occupy, roughly speaking, the eastern third of the continent, and the extreme western boundary of Uganda is on about the same meridian as Alexandria.

It may be said, without undue national pride, that the British sphere is the most important and hopeful part of the east coast In the Italian and Portuguese territories European influence is practically confined to a few ports, and little effort has yet been made to control or develop the interior. The Germans have seriously undertaken the task of investigating and improving their possessions, and their long coast line, which in many parts possesses a rich and fertile hinterland within easy distance of the sea, has enabled them to obtain gratifying results. But they also suffer, though in a less degree than the Italians and Portuguese, from want of communication with the interior, and the consequent difficulty of maintaining order or encouraging trade. Though the British Protectorates are in some ways less favourably situated, inasmuch as the healthy and fertile interior is separated from the coast by a jungle from 70 to 200 miles wide, yet there is easy communication by rail and steamer from the Indian Ocean to Entebbe, on the further side of Lake Victoria, and a good road from Entebbe to Lake Albert.

Our equatorial possessions are organized as two Protectorates, known as East Africa and Uganda. The former, which is a definite administrative division, and not merely a general designation for this side of the continent, is the country between Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean. It is traversed by the Uganda Railway, which connects the lake with the port of Mombasa. The Uganda Protectorate, on the other hand, consists of our territories which lie to the west and north of the lake, and is not very definitely divided from the southern Sudan.

It is a curious fact that Uganda, though about 700 miles from the sea, created considerable interest some time earlier than the nearer, and in some ways more important, territories which now form the East