OVER-SEA BRITAIN OVER-SEA BRITAIN A DESCRIPTIVE RECORD OF THE GEOGRAPHY, THE HISTORICAL, ETHNOLOGICAL, AND POLI¬ TICAL DEVELOPMENT, AND THE ECONOMIC RESOURCES OF THE EMPIRE BY E. F. KNIGHT AUTHOR OF " WHERE THREE EMPIRES MEET," ETC. THE NEARER EMPIRE THE MEDITERRANEAN, BRITISH AFRICA, AND BRITISH AMERICA WITH MAPS NEW YORK E. P. BUTTON AND COMPANY 1907 jL . Xondon. JohiL Mirrray ALtemsurTe Street. Tha honAarv Gw>ffTyj:fn/:aX' Miistituixj Northwestern University Library INTRODUCTION A INTRODUCTION The British Empire extends overnearly 12,000,000 square miles—considerably more than one-fifth of the earth's surface—and contains a population of about 410,000,000, more than one-fifth of the earth's population. Of this population, according to the census of 1901, approximately 54,000,000 are of European—mainly of Anglo-Saxon— race, of whom 42,000,000 inhabit the British Isles, and 12,000,000 the Colonies. The British Isles, the cradle of the British race, have an area of a little over 120,000 square miles; this little kingdom has therefore acquired an over-sea empire nearly one hundred times its own size. That Britain has pos¬ sessed herself of so large a share of the earth's richest lands, and has become the pre-eminently colonising Power, is due to a variety of causes, of which the following are the most important:— Geographical Position,—Even in these days, water affords the easiest and cheapest means of transport; and still more so was this the case of old, when land travel was difficult, slow, and attended with peril. Thus the sea-coasts and the banks of great navigable rivers became the seats of the trading and consequently colonising communities. The position of the British Isles, lying as they do in the Atlantic, within the northern temperate zone, and having an extensive seaboard and a multitude of excellent natural harbours, was exceptionally favourable for the development of maritime enterprise. The Qualities of the British Race.—The British, a people of mixed blood, a blend of several strong races, developed under their temperate climate into a hardy 4 INTRODUCTION people, of strong physique, energetic, warlike, disposed to adventurous travel, and displaying the best seafaring qualities. They became keen and bold over-sea traders, and had the true colonising spirit, inasmuch as they were not content merely to exploit the resources of conquered territories, but made of them a new home, settling per¬ manently, and founding in them large Anglo-Saxon communities. The race, too, was a prolific one, so colonies were needed in the habitable regions of the earth for the settlement of a surplus population. Manufacturing Facilities. — The existence of vast deposits of coal and iron in close proximity made Britain a manufacturing country. Her manufacturing districts are also close to seaports and navigable rivers, so that she has cheap transport to all parts of the world for the goods she manufactures. Favoured by these con¬ ditions, and, later on, by the discovery of steam power, the British became the greatest of manufacturing peoples. This compelled them to protect their trade routes, and by colonial expansion to secure to themselves markets that would otherwise be closed to them by the commercial jealousy of rival Powers. History of the Empire's Growth.—Notwithstand¬ ing these natural advantages, Britain, for reasons which will be explained, was the last of the European maritime Powers to enter the field of colonisation. The British over-sea Empire is of recent origin. It is but three centuries since the British made their first attempts at colonisation on the American coasts; the great bulk of the British dominions were acquired within the last century and a half; and the area of the British Empire has more than doubled within the memory of living man. But there is a continuity in the history and development of every nation, and it must be borne in mind that Britain had a European Empire long before she had a Colonial Empire, and lost it just before she turned her attention to the acquisition of territories beyond the narrow seas. The Imperial spirit was no new development of the Tudor HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE'S GROWTH 5 period. For centuries Britain had fought wars for empire. From the time of the Romans, conquest and expansion were familiar ideas to the people of these islands. The empire of Canute included Norway and Denmark. After the Norman Conquest, the rule of the English kings was extended by the prowess of English armies until it in¬ cluded the bulk of France. England lost the last fragment of this empire in the reign of Mary Tudor, but only to recommence her empire-making in more distant regions. The early civilisations of Europe were on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean, penetrat¬ ing deeply the continent of Eurasia, afforded easy access to the rich and civilised countries of the East—then as now the chief goal of commercial venture. The Mediter¬ ranean states were engaging in a prosperous trade with the East, while the British Isles, still uncivilised, remote from trade centres, looked out westwards upon an unknown ocean which no ships ploughed. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, in their turn, and still later Venetians and Genoese, obtained the command of the Inland Sea, monopolised the trade with the East, and founded their commercial settlements and colonies. At last two great geographical discoveries prepared the way for Britain's career of colonial expansion. In 1484 the Cape of Good Hope was for the first time doubled by the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, and in 1492 Christopher Columbus, the Genoese, under¬ took the first of those westward voyages which resulted in the discovery of America. The first of these discoveries opened a clear ocean route round the Cape to the East Indies, by which were avoided the hostility of the masters of the Mediterrenean, the menace of the pirates of that sea, and the other perils and difficulties of the old route. The second discovery opened out to the sea-adventurers of Europe a new world of wealth. One result of these discoveries was that the centre of commercial activity was gradually shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic seaboard; and now the British Isles were placed in a favourable position for over-sea enterprise. 6 INTRODUCTION But Britain was not yet a united nation; she was still a poor country with a small population; she had lost her French dominions, and she had not yet developed her naval power; so she was unable for some time yet to avail herself of her natural advantages. Other stronger maritime Powers swiftly possessed themselves of the newly discovered lands, and monopolised the world's ocean-borne trade. Portugal, during her comparatively short career of wonderful enterprise, explored and conquered and founded prosperous trading settlements all round the African coast and in the East Indies, and seized Brazil. The Spaniards, who were in search of gold rather than of trade, claimed the lordship of all America. When Portugal became temporarily united with Spain in 1580, her enterprise decayed, and Holland, obtaining the command of the seas, ousted her from most of her settle¬ ments and seized her Eastern trade. France too, ignoring the claims of Spain, commenced to establish her colonies in North America. But it was not until about one hundred years after the discovery of the New World that Britain acquired the earliest of her over-sea possessions. It was, however, at a somewhat earlier date than this that England, feeling her strength, prepared the way for the making of her colonial empire by becoming a sea- power. Her sea adventurers sailed in search of heathen lands that had not yet been seized by the European nations. Eager to grasp a share of the rich East Indian trade, the English sought new routes to the Orient by which they would avoid the fleets of their rivals. Thus, in 1496 Henry VII. despatched the Cabots to find a north¬ west passage to Cathay, through the ice-bound seas to the north of the American continent. They failed in this, as did so many after them, but discovered Newfoundland. In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby vainly attempted an eastern passage along the northern coasts of Europe and Asia. In 1583 the first English merchants travelled to India overland and attempted to open trade, despite the Portuguese monopoly. In 1600 the first English East HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE'S GROWTH 7 India Company was founded, and English ships sailed by way of the Cape of Good Hope to trade with India. The adventurous Elizabethan sailors, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and the others, fought for the freedom of the ocean, disputed the arrogant claims of Spain (between which kingdom and Portugal the Pope had divided all the non-Christian and unexplored regions of the world by an imaginary line—the Pope's Line—drawn down the length of the Atlantic), and asserted their right to trade on the American coast. The Spaniards defended their claims by force of arms, and the English ships harried the Spanish colonies and captured the Spanish treasure-ships, even when the two nations were nominally at peace. It was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that Sir Humphrey Gilbert annexed our senior colony, Newfound¬ land; but it was not until the reign of her successor James I., that England, from this time rendered stronger by the union of the English and Scottish crowns, began in earnest to lay the foundations of her colonial power. In 1607, British merchants founded our first small colony on the North American mainland; and within the following quarter of a century Britain had established her settlements in the Bermudas and West Indies, on the west coast of Africa, and in the East Indies. But these possessions were but small, and for many years civil wars at home and the settlement of political and religious problems of great moment occupied the energies of the British and retarded colonial expansion. Holland, moreover, having thrown off the yoke of Spain, attained great commercial prosperity, became mistress of the sea, and tried to monopolise the trade of the East. A bitter rivalry was aroused between the two sea-powers. Throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century England and Holland struggled for the command of the sea, and were engaged in the wars which the Dutch Tromp and the English Blake, and other famous sea-captains on either side fought so valiantly, Ultimately Holland lost the supremacy of the sea to us, a result largely due to her own internal dissensions and to her continental position, which placed her at the mercy of 8 INTRODUCTION the strong military nations and dragged her into their quarrels. On the accession of William III. commenced our long sea struggle with the most powerful and determined of our rivals, France. In whatsoever part of the world England attempted the founding of colonies—on the west coast of Africa, in India, in North America, in the West Indies— there she met France, and had to fight for colonial supremacy. It was during her commercial wars of the eighteenth century that Britain became the great colonial Power, acquiring by conquest from France and her allies rich possessions, both in the Old and the New World. At last the defeat of Napoleon I. and the victories of Nelson gave Britain the undisputed command of the sea, and secured to her the possession of her colonies. She had lost the best portion of her American colonies when the United States obtained their independence, but, seeking expansion elsewhere, developed her Canadian possessions and colonised Australia. Britain brought all India under her sway, and in recent times took her share in the partition of Africa. The expansion of Great Britain has been caused by irresistible forces which her rulers did not set in motion but could only direct. The growth of this vast empire has been brought about not so much by the deliberate action of the British Government as by the individual enterprise of the British people, the explorers, the merchant companies, and, in earlier days, the bands of men who left the mother country to avoid political or religious persecution. A settlement once being established, the British Government found itself obliged (often against its will) to acknowledge and protect it. Our people, while thus creating the Empire, chose for themselves the richest unoccupied regions of the earth, in all quarters of the globe, by the shores of every ocean, under every climate from the Equatorial to the Arctic. But the greater portion of the British possessions —and the reverse is the case with foreign colonies—lies within the temperate zone, and is admirably adapted THE COLONIAL SYSTEMS 9 for the permanent settlement of a white race. Within the Empire are found all the animals, all the vegetable life, of every climate of the earth; everything required by man is produced in it; it is rich in every sort of mineral, and contains the most valuable gold and diamond fields in the world. The great oceans separate the various portions of the Empire, which are linked together by telegraph cables, and by the thronged sea-routes used by the British merchant vessels, these ocean highways being divided into stages by the numerous coaling stations which Great Britain has acquired. The British mercantile marine has a total tonnage (17,000,000 tons) which nearly equals that of the shipping of all the other nations put together, and it does half the carrying trade of the world. The British Empire has now practically reached the limits of its expansion, for since other European Powers, at the close of the nineteenth century, engaged in a scramble for colonial possessions, all the available regions of the world have been portioned off. It will now be the work of the British peoples to consolidate their Empire and develop its resources. The British rule hundreds of millions of alien peoples, and it must be said in fairness that in these days they are conscious of the higher responsibilities which should attend the taking up of "the white man's burden." They have carried civilisation and Christianity to many races; they are abolishing slavery in the dark regions of the earth; and everywhere scrupulous care is taken, both by the Home and Colonial Governments, that justice is done to the natives, and that their welfare is provided for. The Colonial Systems.—The European nations that preceded us in colonial enterprise regarded their colonies as existing solely for the benefit of the mother country. The mother country either directly exploited the wealth of a colony, as Spain bled America of its gold, or indirectly favoured home merchants by enactments which taxed and otherwise hampered the trade of the colony. England, 10 INTRODUCTION although she was far more liberal in her dealings with her colonial possessions and allowed them to manage their own internal affairs, adopted a somewhat similar policy. Thus the Navigation Acts of the seventeenth century prohibited other than British ships from importing goods from our colonies; the colonies were not permitted to export their staple products to any save the mother country, and prohibitive duties were imposed upon any but British goods entering a colony. The British Govern¬ ment further protected home manufacturers by prohibit¬ ing the export of woollen goods from our American colonies, and preventing the establishment in them of iron manufactures. On the other hand, the colonies were favoured by a preferential treatment; their products when landing in England paid much lower custom duties than did the products of foreign countries. British statesmen, while blundering, had for their aim the federation of the Empire; and the Navigation Acts, with all their faults, fostered shipbuilding in England and the colonies, and so provided for an Imperial Naval Defence. Spain lost her colonies because her policy was to bleed them for her own profit; and our attempt to tax a people who were allowed no representation in our Parliament—even though the tax was to meet a fraction of the cost of their defence against a foreign foe—lost us our New England colonies, and led to the creation of that great new nation of our kinsmen—the United States. Great Britain learnt her lesson, and now a new theory of Empire began to find favour. It was held that the different important sections of the Empire should enjoy equal rights under the Crown, no section being subordinate to another; that each colony, so soon as it had become firmly established and held a sufficiently large white population, should be permitted to manage its own affairs for its own ' benefit. In the middle of the nineteenth century, therefore. Great Britain granted to all her great colonies in suc¬ cession the right of self-government in the fullest sense of the term. The mother country went even further, and from a THE VALUE OF COLONIAL MARKETS 11 system of centralisation and rigid control of the colonies, passed to the opposite extreme of attempting the renuncia¬ tion of her imperial responsibilities. There existed a school of politicians who would have welcomed the complete separation of the colonies. But the craven arguments that supported that view are now seldom heard. Throughout the Empire an Imperial sentiment has grown up which seeks a closer union between the mother country and the colonies. The keen and ever- increasing commercial competition of other Powers, and the vast colonial expansion of France and Germany within the last few years, has made thinking men in all parts of the Empire look forward to some form of Imperial Federation. The Value of Colonial Markets.—The great value to the mother country of her over-sea possessions has been forcibly brought home to the people of these islands within the last few years. Since the abandonment by Great Britain of her old colonial system, it has been her policy in her crown colonies to levy the same duties on goods imported from Great Britain as on those imported from foreign countries, and the self-ruling colonies followed her example. The colonies, in short, open their doors to the foreigner, who is at liberty to trade with them on exactly the same terms as does the mother country; but other nations, while availing themselves fully of the equal opportunities which we give them, and benefiting by our colonial development, do not extend to us the same generous treatment. France, for example, protects her own industries by levying heavy, sometimes pro¬ hibitive, duties on goods imported into her colonies from foreign countries, and in some cases also on goods exported from her colonies to other than the mother country. In nearly all foreign colonies British trade is heavily penalised. It is noticeable that when any territory in which we have established our trade (Madagascar, for example) comes under any other flag than our own, our trade there rapidly diminishes, or disappears. Trade undoubtedly follows the 12 INTRODUCTION flag. For example, the returns for 1904 show that the exports from Great Britain to British South Africa are thirteen times more valuable than the exports from Germany to British South Africa, whereas the exports from Germany to German East Africa are seventeen times more valuable than the exports of Great Britain to that German colony. It is well, therefore, for our com¬ merce that the British over-sea possessions are extensive and rich, and that we secured our share of Africa when the nations of Europe began to scramble over its partition. Colonial Fiscal Policy.—The British self-ruling colonies have adopted protection as their fiscal policy— that is, they develop and favour their own industries by placing discriminating custom duties on imported goods, imposing the heavier duties on such articles as they can manufacture themselves. They thus differ from the mother country, which for sixty years has adhered to free trade principles. The colonies themselves have taken the first steps towards imperial commercial union. Within the last few years Canada and the South African states have accorded preferential treatment to the United Kingdom and to certain British colonies, by reducing the custom duties chargeable when the imported goods come from these countries, and now other colonies are following their example. Great Britain's Trade with her Colonies.— Roughly speaking. Great Britain now sends one-third of her exports to her colonies, and receives from her colonies one-quarter of her imports. A very large trade is also carried on between the various colonies. The develop¬ ment of the resources of a great portion of the Empire is but now commencing, so the trade between Great Britain and her possessions is likely to increase steadily in im¬ portance as compared with that between her and foreign countries. The commercial relations between the mother country and the colonies are furthered by the fact that most of the BRITAIN'S TRADE WITH HER COLONIES 13 articles which Great Britain needs but cannot produce herself are the chief products of her colonies, whereas the articles which the colonies mostly require are the principal products of British industry. The colonies, though some of them have successfully engaged in manufacturing enter¬ prise, are mainly agricultural and pastoral; while Great Britain, favoured by her immense coal areas, has become essentially a manufacturing and commercial country, her agriculture having steadily diminished. The food pro¬ duced in the United Kingdom is now altogether insuffi¬ cient for the support of the population; for example, only about one-fifth of the wheat that is consumed in the British Isles is home-grown; the rest is imported from other countries. Consequently, Great Britain imports from her colonies articles of food, and the wool and the other raw material necessary for her manufactures, and in return exports to her colonies her manufactured goods. The following figures taken from the reports for 1904 will explain the nature of Great Britain's trade with her colonies. Only the principal exports and imports are mentioned, and round numbers are given. In that year Great Britain's exports to her colonies and her imports from them practically balanced, the value in either case being about ;£'i20,ooo,ocx). The principal Imports into Great Britain from her colonies were:— 1. Foody Drinky and Tobaccoy ;^56,000,000; the most important articles being: grain and flour, ;£"21,000,000; and meat and live animals for food, ;^io,ooo,ooo. 2. Raw MaterialSy ;£'48,ooo,ooo; the most important articles being: wool, 18,000,000; oil seeds, fats, etc., ;f8,ooo,ooo; timber, ;£'5,000,000; cotton, ;£"2,ooo,ooo; other textiles, ;S"5,000,000. 3. Manufactured Goodsy 14,000,000; the most im¬ portant articles being manufactures of other metals than iron and steel, and leather goods. The principal Domestic Exports from Great Britain to her colonies were:— I. Manufactured Articlesy 98,000,000; the most im- 14 INTRODUCTION portant articles being; cotton fabrics, ;£"35,ooo,ocx); iron and steel, 13,000,000; machinery, £7poopoo; wool and textile fabrics, ;£"i 1,000,000. 2. Food^ Drink^ and Tobacco, £S,000,000. 3. Raw Materials, ;£'3,ooo,ooo; principally coal and coke. Probably the time is not far off when Great Britain's exports to her colonies will exceed in value her exports to the rest of the world. With regard to Great Britain's three principal imports, it is noticeable that this country imports nearly four times as much wool from her colonies as she does from foreign countries (a fact due to the vastness of the pastoral regions contained in her colonies); but imports from foreign countries two and a half times as much grain and flour, and twenty-five times as much cotton, as she does from her own possessions. These conditions are rapidly changing. In Canada and in other British possessions enormous areas of good land have yet to be brought under cultivation, and before long Great Britain should be able to take all the cereals she needs from her own colonies. In the five years 1901-1905 the imports of grain and flour into the United Kingdom from the British colonies doubled in amount, and in the latter year more than half the wheat consumed in the British Isles was of home growth or imported from British territories. To supply far the most important of her manufacturing industries Great Britain has to import raw cotton to the value of about 50,000,000 yearly; of which a small fraction only is produced in British colonies. However, the climate and soil of large portions of our Asiatic, African, and Austral¬ asian possessions are favourable to the growth of cotton. Successful efforts are being made to extend the cultivation of cotton throughout these regions; but this can only be done where labour is cheap and plentiful; for the amount of human labour needed on cotton plantations bears a higher ratio to the other expenses of production than is the case with most agricultural industries. The corners " formed by the speculators in the United States, the FORMS OF COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 15 country from which Great Britain imports 80 per cent, of the cotton she uses, inflict serious injury on our manu¬ factures ; so it is a matter of importance that there should be a great increase in the production of British-grown cotton. It must be borne in mind that one of the chief uses to Great Britain of many of her yet undeveloped and un¬ civilised possessions and protectorates in the tropics, lies in the fact that the native inhabitants of these regions purchase our cotton goods in ever-increasing quantities. Forms of Colonial Government.—The Crown is the supreme head of the entire Empire; it has a veto on all legislation; appoints the governors of all the colonies, and alone has the power to make war or peace. It has been explained that the right to manage their own affairs has been granted to some of the British possessions, more especially to the agricultural and pastoral colonies within the temperate zone, where the white people, favoured by the conditions, make permanent homes and have formed large communities. But some of the British possessions are either not yet politically ripe for self-government, or are for various reasons unfitted for it. Among the latter class are the tropical colonies, as on the west coast of Africa, where the white settlers are greatly outnumbered by the natives, and being prevented by the climate from working in the plantations, or from settling permanently, merely superintend the labour of the natives or engage in trade; and the smaller dependencies, such as Gibraltar, which Great Britain holds merely for strategical purposes, naval or military. In these the Crown has either retained the complete control or has granted a limited measure only of self-rule to the inhabitants. Consequently our colonies may be divided into three classes:— i. The Self-governing Colonies^ having both represent¬ ative institutions and responsible government. These have parliaments which carry on allfthe legislation, subject to the rarely exercised veto of the Crown, and control the administration. 16 INTRODUCTION 2. Colonies having Representative Institutions^ but not responsible government. This form of government is often given temporarily to a colony not yet ready to undertake the entire management of its affairs. It may thus be regarded as a preparatory stage of training for the greater responsibilities. Colonies of this class possess legislative powers, but the administration is in the hands of British officials, and the finances are partly under control of the Home Government. 3. Crown Colonies; in which the Hojne Government controls the legislation, the finances, and the entire admini¬ stration. But these must not be regarded as hard and fast definitions. The constitutions that have been given to the various colonies vary much in character. Thus, some Crown Colonies have a measure of self-government, the legislative councils being partly elective, while in others the governor is the sole authority. Within the Empire there are also territories which are not under the above category. Such are the Dependencies^ which are subordinate to other governments, colonial or otherwise, and are administered by these; Rodriguez Island, for example, is a dependency of the colony Mauritius; and the Protectorates^ which though under British control, are to a certain extent internally inde¬ pendent. Thus, in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, the native tribes are under the rule of their chiefs. Great Britain, having accepted the principle that a colony should be administered for its own benefit, makes no attempt to derive direct profit from the Crown Colonies whose finances it controls. The taxation of a colony has for its sole object the defrayment of the necessary expenses of administration. Some of Great Britain's more recently acquired possessions in Africa do not yet pay their way; and the British taxpayers have to make good the excess of expenditure over revenue. For it is a sounder policy to thus act generously to a new country, than to make revenue and expenditure balance each other by the imposition of high custom duties that cripple the development of trade, and an arbitrary taxation of the FORMS OF COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 17 native peoples that would retard our opening out of the interior. But these possessions will soon become self- supporting, and in the meanwhile the burden upon the home country is not a heavy one. Chartered Companies. — From early days European governments have granted charters to companies of private adventurers, which either gave them a monopoly of trade in certain regions, or authorised them to establish colonies in unoccupied lands beyond the seas. A patent of this description was given by Henry VII. to John Cabot, when the latter sailed to discover new lands in the West. Queen Elizabeth's Charter of Colonisation to Sir Walter Raleigh initiated the settlement of the English in North America. To English merchants were granted the royal charters, under which were founded our settlements in the East Indies and on the west coast of Africa. In modern times chartered companies have established and developed great colonies in South Africa, East Africa, Nigeria, and Borneo. These chartered companies do not enjoy the monopolies that were conferred upon their predecessors in the days of our old colonial system; but, under certain restrictions specified in their charters, they administer their territories, raise taxation, and maintain their own military forces. Their power is limited by the control which is reserved by the Imperial Authority. Where the territories administered by a chartered com¬ pany have not been definitely annexed by the British Government, the latter proclaims a protectorate over them, so as to establish a right as against foreign Powers. The modern chartered companies, organised as they have been by men of commanding ability and patriotic spirit, and well served by officers of marked administra¬ tive capacity, have justified the trust that was reposed in them, both with regard to government and colonisation. What private individuals could not, what the British Government was unwilling to undertake in view of the large expenditure and the responsibilities involved, these companies have successfully carried through; securing to Great Britain vast regions which would otherwise have B 18 INTRODUCTION been seized by other European Powers, rapidly opening them out with railways, developing their resources, intro¬ ducing civilisation, suppressing slavery and tyranny, pro¬ tecting the native peoples by the prohibition of alcohol and other enactments, and ever showing themselves ready to forego immediate profits, rather than shirk the high responsibilities imposed upon them. It will probably be more fully recognised by posterity than it is now, that the Empire owes a deep debt of gratitude to the founders of the chartered companies of the nineteenth century. Imperial Defence.—The possession of this far- spreading Empire, and the fact that the bulk of the food consumed in these islands, and of the raw materials used in British manufactures, is imported from beyond the seas, makes it a vital matter to Great Britain that she should hold the command of the seas in time of war. She is therefore compelled to maintain far the most powerful navy in the world, at least equal in strength to the navies of any two other maritime Powers put together. It is also necessary that she should secure her lines of communication by holding coaling stations and naval dockyards along the ocean routes. Thus, for example, on the Suez Canal route from England to India and the Far East, Great Britain has the following fortified coaling stations:—Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Bombay, Trincomalee, Singapore, Labuan, and Hong Kong, at convenient dis¬ tances one from the other, all of which, with the exception of Aden and Labuan, have naval dockyards; while on the Cape of Good Hope route to the East, the British coaling stations are:—Sierra Leone, Ascension, St Helena, Simon's Town, Durban, Mauritius, and Victoria in the Seychelles Islands. The enormous cost of maintaining a navy strong enough to protect the entire Empire, practically falls upon the taxpayers of the British Islands only. The colonies, however, recognise their obligation to contribute to imperial naval defence. Australia now maintains a local squadron, while India, Australia, and other British over- IMPERIAL DEFENCE 19 seas possessions contribute annual sums, which together amount to only about one-seventieth of the total naval expenditure of the Empire. More comprehensive schemes, by which all the self-ruling colonies should contribute their fair quota, were advocated by the representatives of these colonies at recent Colonial Conferences. The British Regular Army supplies a large force to India, and garrisons to the Mediterranean stations, some of the African colonies, Egypt, and various Crown Colonies; while several local forces, such as the Royal Malta Artillery and the West India Regiment, are raised at imperial expense. Of the great Indian Army, and other native forces of the Empire, mention will be made in the proper place. With regard to the great self-ruling colonies, when these were given the control of their own affairs in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was acknowledged that they should in fairness provide the expenses of their own land defence. In some cases they paid the cost of the imperial garrisons, and of the necessary fortifications and barracks. They also raised local forces; and at last it was possible for the British Government to withdraw nearly all British troops from the self-governing colonies, leaving only such garrisons as were necessary to guard the British coaling stations and arsenals, and to serve other imperial purposes. Recently the defence of even these has been left to the Colonial Governments, the British garrisons having been withdrawn from the important Canadian naval bases Esquimalt and Halifax, and from other stations. The Colonial Permanent Forces and Militia in Australia, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand number about 110,000 men, and for the most part are composed of splendid material. In some of the colonies so complete is the public school cadet system, and so readily do men enlist in the volunteer corps, that a considerably larger proportion of the male population has some degree of training in arms than is the case in the mother country. The sentiment of imperial unity made itself clearly manifest to the world at the time of the Boer war of 1899- 20 INTRODUCTION 1902, when the colonies, displaying a keen imperial patriotism, vied with each other in sending large con¬ tingents—to the total number of 80,000 men—to fight for Great Britain in Africa. But though the imperial sentiment is strong in the over-sea dominions, the necessary unity of defence is lacking in the Empire. Each part of the Empire has its own forces, which can only be employed at the initiative of the local government. When Great Britain is at war, the co-operation of her colonies is a matter of voluntary contribution. Most essential of all is the unity of the navy; local squadrons confined to local defence may prove of little avail in a great war; the sea battles for the defence of Australia in all probability would be fought in European and not in Antipodean waters. As regards land defence, it has been justly said that ''the ideal organisation for war would be one by which the whole military strength of the United Kingdom and the colonies would, in time of war, be under the unfettered control of a central authority." But if the self-ruling colonies are to contribute unreservedly to imperial defence, they should naturally have a voice in the framing of the imperial policy, and some representation in the central authority. Imperial defence in the full sense of the term is impossible without imperial federation. Imperial Federation.—The self-governing colonies are growing into great and powerful nations, and the need for some form of imperial federation for the common good which would give to them a voice in the control of imperial affairs is now largely recognised. The Imperial Conferences, which will now be held periodically, may show the way to the achievement of this great end. In that somewhat loosely knit collection of democratic states that make up the bulk of the British Empire, it can scarcely be expected that the democratic parliament of any one state—even though it be the mother of all parliaments—can exercise an invariably intelligent and unselfish control over the interests of all the other states; IMPERIAL FEDERATION 21 and it is natural that to an electorate, home affairs should loom disproportionally larger than those imperial interests beyond the seas of which it can know but little. An imperial council, in which representatives of all parts of the Empire met to deal with imperial questions, should promote a mutual understanding and bring unity and strength. The first step towards imperial federation is the union of the colonies themselves into powerful groups, each of which could speak with authority. The federation of the North American Provinces into the Dominion of Canada and of the Australian states into the Commonwealth, has already been effected, and the early federation of the South African states is the aim of statesmen. The interests of the Crown Colonies would also be furthered by bringing each group under a central control. Thus the West African colonies could be united under one government, the East African possessions under another, and the West Indian and adjacent colonies on the main¬ land under another. THE MEDITERRANEAN THE MEDITERRANEAN To secure the trade of the East Indies was the aim of the rival maritime Powers of Europe and was the chief motive of colonial expansion. It was in order to find an ocean route to the East that the Cape of Good Hope was rounded; and the Cape Colony was founded as a calling place for ships bound for the Indies. It was for the same end that bold adventurers crossed the Atlantic, and, dis¬ covering America, thought that they had reached the western borders of Asia. In these days Great Britain's trade with British India far exceeds that between her and any other of her possessions, and an immense commerce is carried on between Europe and China and the other countries of the further East. It has been shown that from the earliest days the Mediterranean, piercing the Old World from the Atlantic deeply eastwards, and connected by short overland routes with both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and so with the Indian Ocean, has been the natural channel for commerce between West and East. Napoleon I. vainly attempted the conquest of Egypt that he might colonise it with Frenchmen, and so use it as a base from which to undertake the destruction of the growing empire of England in India. The discovery of the Cape route to the East diverted the current of the Eastern trade from the Mediterranean; but the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 restored its pre-eminence to the Mediterranean route, affording the most direct water¬ way to India, the Far East, and Australia. So, even as of old, the Power that would hold dominion in the East must secure her right of way through the Mediterranean. Great Britain has either temporarily possessed or 26 THE MEDITERRANEAN placed under her protection various places in the Mediter¬ ranean—for example, Tangiers, Port Mahon, Corsica, and the Ionian Isles—and on that sea she has fought some of her most desperate battles with her rival, France, during the struggle for India. At the present day the position of Great Britain in the Mediterranean is as follows:— she possesses Gibraltar and Malta, guarding the route to the East; occupies and administers the Turkish island, Cyprus; and has firmly established her influence in Egypt, through whose territory passes the Suez Canal. GIBRALTAR Gibraltar is a rocky headland at the southern extremity of Spain and at the eastern or Mediterranean end of the Straits of Gibraltar. The opposite coast of Africa is about thirteen miles distant from it; so " the Rock," as it is called, commands the narrow outlet of the Medi¬ terranean into the Atlantic, and the bulk of the world's shipping trading between West and East passes within sight of it. Gibraltar is a very small possession, being only three miles in length and three-quarters of a mile in breadth. It is the first British post on the route from England to the East, and is 1050 nautical miles from Plymouth. It is a practicably impregnable fortress, a naval base, and a naval and commercial coaling station. This narrow promontory is formed by an isolated ridge, attaining at one point a height of 1400 feet. Connecting it with the mainland of Spain is a low sandy isthmus, where a belt half a mile in breadth is by treaty a "neutral ground" separating the British from the Spanish lines. On the north side, facing Spain, and on the east side facing the Mediterranean, the promontory has a precipitous front; but on the west side it is not so steep, and here the town with its narrow streets and steep lanes borders the shore of Gibraltar Bay, the inlet that provides the commodious anchorage. Gibraltar was the Calpe of the ancients, which with MALTA 27 the opposite height Abyla on the African coast formed the Pillars of Hercules, the gateway to the unknown ocean. The Moors fortified it in the eighth century, and called it, after the name of their leader, Tarik, " Djebel el Tarik," the hill of Tarik, of which the modern name of Gibraltar is a corruption. Moors, Spaniards, and Algerine pirates seized it in turn; often it changed hands, and it had already endured eleven sieges when it was captured from the Spaniards in 1704 by Sir George Rooke. Since that date it has remained a British possession, and has been besieged three times, the most memorable siege of all being the fifteenth and last, when Gibraltar was successfully held for four years, 1779 to 1783, against the combined land and sea forces of France and Spain. It was during this investment that Sir George Elliot with red-hot shot destroyed the enemies' floating batteries and a number of their ships. The fortifications of Gibraltar are of immense strength. Formidable forts and batteries with heavy guns are on all the points of vantage up to the highest summits, while miles of sheltered galleries, pierced with portholes, have been cut into the face of the cliff. There is a naval dockyard, and now a more extensive one is in course of construction. There will be an enclosed harbour capable of containing a fleet, and graving docks which will accommodate the largest battleships. Gibraltar is governed as a fortress. The civil population is subject to strict regulations. The Governor, who is also the Commander-in-chief of the forces, is the sole legislative and executive authority. The civil population numbers 20,000, for the most part Italians and Maltese. Gibraltar is a free port, and is an important place of call for the ships of all nations, as they can conveniently coal and provision here. MALTA Half-way down the length of the Mediterranean, being nearly 1000 miles from Gibraltar and 940 from the 28 THE MEDITERRANEAN entrance to the Suez Canal, is Great Britain's second post on the main waterway to the East. The Crown colony of Malta includes the island of Malta, about 20 miles long and g broad (that is about two-thirds of the size of the Isle of Wight); Gozo, about a quarter the size of Malta; Comino, and other small islets forming the Maltese archipelago. Malta, the southermost of the group, is 60 miles to the south of Sicily. It is an arid, rocky island rising to a height of 700 feet. The soil is scanty, but very fertile, and is carefully preserved on the irrigated terraces, where corn, cotton, oranges, grapes, etc., are cultivated. The climate is dry, delightful in winter, but very hot in summer, especially when the sirocco blows from the south-east across the deserts of Africa. The inhabitants, of whom there are about 200,000 in the whole group, are of mixed blood—Arab, Spanish, Italian, French, and other Mediterranean races—and speak a language of which the bulk of the words are of Arabic origin. But the upper classes, descending from European families, speak Italian. Successive masters of the Mediterranean—Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, and others—possessed them¬ selves of Malta. For centuries it was a fief of Sicily. From 1530 to 1798 it was the headquarters of the Knights of the famous Order of St John of Jerusalem, whose mission it was to be the defenders of the religion of the Cross against the infidel Turks and Saracens. They made Malta the bulwark of Christianity, and one of the strongest fortresses and most flourishing trading centres of the Mediterranean. In 1798, Napoleon, while on his way to the invasion of Egypt, seized Malta. In 1800, the British captured it from the French; and in 1814, Malta and its dependent islets were definitely ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris. Valetta, the chief town of Malta, is on a rocky promontory projecting into a deep bay which forms one of the safest and most commodious harbours in the world. It is one of the most picturesque of cities, with streets CYPRUS 29 paved with stone running along the ridges, and descending in long flights of steps to the quays. On every available jutting rock are the massive fortifications erected by the Knights of John. The island has been most strongly fortified by the British. Malta is a naval and military station of the greatest importance to Great Britain. It is the headquarters of the Mediterranean fleet. We maintain here a garrison of about 10,000 men. There is an extensive arsenal, a dockyard, large graving docks, depots of coal and stores; everything that is needed for the repair and outfit of war¬ ships. Valetta is also a commercial coaling station and port of call of the first importance. CYPRUS The island of Cyprus is at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, at about 50 miles distance from the coast of Asia Minor. Its length from east to west is nearly 150 miles, and its greatest breadth is 60 miles. Two parallel mountain ranges traverse its length, a northern range skirting the coast, and a loftier southern range whose culminating peak attains 6600 feet Cyprus, like the other Mediterranean islands, has had many masters—Phoenicians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, Venetians, and others. The Turks captured it from the Venetians in 1571. It remained in the hands of Turkey until 1878, when she by treaty delivered the administration of the island to Great Britain; but Cyprus still remains a part of the Ottoman Empire, paying tribute to it. Formerly Cyprus was fertile, well watered, and clothed with magnificent forests, whence the ancients obtained the timber with which to build their fleets. But under the Turkish rule the forests nearly disappeared; the perennial streams became dry channels down which, during the rainy season only, water rushed wasted to the sea; and richly cultivated plains became deserts. The exceedingly fertile strips, however, between the 30 THE MEDITERRANEAN mountains and the sea were still well cultivated, and at the time of our taking over the government, there was a considerable export of produce from the island. Cyprus was also famous for its mineral wealth, more especially for its copper mines, the island indeed giving its name to that metal—aes Cypriuniy from which our own word copper is derived. Under British administration the condition of Cyprus has greatly improved. The Government is carrying on extensive irrigation works, protects the remaining planta¬ tions, and has undertaken reforestation; but agricultural progress is somewhat retarded by the prejudices of an ignorant peasantry. The principal exports are wine and spirits, corn, cotton, silk, wool, cattle, and mules of the excellent Cyprus breed. The summer heat is great, but the climate is healthy, save in the swampy lowlands. Nikosia, in the interior, is the capital. The chief seaport is Larnaka; but the harbour, Pamagusta, is to be improved by extensive works, and will be connected by railway with the capital. The population, about 240,000, is partly Greek and partly Turkish. About one-quarter of the inhabitants are Mahomedan; the remainder, for the most part, belong to the orthodox Greek Church. The British Colonial Office administers Cyprus through a High Commissioner. There is a Legislative Council, in which the majority of the members are elected by the inhabitants. The revenue of the island largely exceeds the expenditure; the surplus is not paid to Turkey, but is retained to meet the interest on the Guaranteed Loan raised by Turkey in 1855. jN o rth w ts 0113 rn University Library BRITISH AFRICA THE AFRICAN CONTINENT Exploration and Settlement.—Africa, though its northern coast, facing Europe, was the seat of civilisations more ancient than any in Europe, and gave to the Europeans their earliest knowledge of art and science, commerce and navigation, was the last continent to be explored and colonised by the European peoples. Up to within the last few years Africa was still literally the " Dark Continent." Four hundred years ago, the Portu¬ guese established their trading stations on the west and eastern shores of Africa, and other nations followed them; but all that lay behind the unhealthy coast-line remained practically a terra incognita. It was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that our maps ceased to represent the centre of Africa as an unexplored space, with the fabled Mountains of the Moon extending across the continent from ocean to ocean. Africa is rich in natural resources, and that these were so long neglected by Europeans is principally due to the following causes:—Africa is essentially the tropical con¬ tinent, the equator traverses its centre, only the extreme northern and southern parts are within the temperate zones; Africa is therefore the hottest of continents, and the greater portion of it cannot be colonised by Europeans. It is a continent of huge deserts, and in the north the Great Sahara forms an almost insuperable barrier between the fertile Mediterranean coast strip and the rich central regions. The Mediterranean coasts are occupied by warlike Mahomedan peoples who, up till modern times, successfully opposed the intrusion of Europeans into their countries. The west and east coasts, often fringed with 34 THE AFRICAN CONTINENT malarious mangrove swamps, are exceedingly unhealthy for Europeans. The very configuration of the continent makes it difficult of access: Africa is a huge pear-shaped land-mass with a regular coast-line; the uniformity of its outline is broken by no great promontories or deep gulfs penetrating the interior; the harbours are few; even the largest rivers are navigable for short distances only, for mountain ranges nearly everywhere border the coast, and where the rivers pass through these their courses are interrupted by cataracts and rapids. Until railways were constructed, communication with the interior was a difficult matter, and even now native carriers supply the only means of transport over the greater portion of the continent. Africa is mainly inhabited by barbarous peoples of negro stock, who produce but little that can be traded with Europeans; and the slave trade—itself an obstacle to the development of the interior—was, until recently, the most important industry of Central Africa. Thus for centuries this continent afforded little attraction to European adventurers, whose ships sailed past its inhospitable shores on their way to the rich marts of civilised Asia. The discovery of America, and still later of Australia, withdrew the attention of Europeans to those lands which seemed to be so far more fitted for colonisa¬ tion than torrid Africa. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Carthagenians, the earliest civilised occupiers of the coast, did not penetrate far into the interior of Africa, and the real precursors of the European explorers were the Arabs, whose camels enabled them to make long desert journeys and reach the fertile inner lands. They were the first people to introduce any form of civilisation into the interior of the barbarous continent. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Arabian conquerors swept over the north of Africa, spreading the new creed of Islam among the pagan peoples. Important Mahomedan states were founded on the coasts and in the interior, and at last nearly all Africa to the north of the Congo basin became practically Mahomedan. The negro races proved singularly re- EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT 35 ceptive of these forms of religion and civilisation so well adapted to their natures; and the spread of Islam in Africa is even now steadily proceeding. The Arab traders opened out the interior of the continent, and to them we owe our first knowledge of its geography. Islam was undoubtedly an influence for much good in the Dark Continent, but it brought with it the institution of slavery, which the European Powers by joint action are now with difficulty stamping out. The Portuguese were the pioneers of European explora¬ tion and colonisation in Africa. In 1415 they commenced their career of conquest by making war upon the Moors, and capturing Ceuta. Then, under the patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator, who devoted his life to forwarding the maritime enterprise of his country, Portuguese expedition after expedition, under great sea captains, sailed down the Atlantic coast of Africa, rounding cape after cape, explor¬ ing new coast after coast, establishing trading settlements. After the death of Prince Henry, the great work he had initiated was carried on. In i486 the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Bartholomew Diaz; and in 1497-1499, Vasco da Gama having doubled the Cape, explored the east coast of Africa, and discovered what had been the main object of these adventures, the ocean route to the East Indies that opened the way for the foundation of Portugal's Asiatic Empire. Within twenty-five years of Vasco da Gama's great voyage, the Portuguese settlements were scattered along all the western and eastern shores of Africa. Portugal claimed a sovereignty under the famous papal bull of 1494, which, even as it had given the Americas to Spain, gave to Portugal Africa and all the undiscovered pagan lands to the east of it. And even as the English, French, and Dutch disputed Spain's pretensions in the Americas, so did they those of Portugal in Africa; and by the middle of the sixteenth century, despite Portugal's monopoly, both English and French ships were trading on the Guinea coast. In Africa, as in America and Asia, the maritime nations struggled for supremacy, and settlements frequently 36 THE AFRICAN CONTINENT changed hands. But these coast possessions were not colonies in the proper sense of the word; most of them were merely fortified trading dep6ts, and the monopoly of the slave trade was the chief prize for which the Powers contended. Portuguese travellers appear to have penetrated far into the interior of Africa three centuries ago, but their records afford little information, and the early published descriptions and maps are so incorrect that they were probably made up from the reports of Arabs and natives, and not from the observation of Europeans. It was not until the nineteenth century that a succession of brave explorers, mainly British, gradually discovered and mapped out the main geographical features of the interior. Of these, Mungo Park may be regarded as the pioneer; between 1795 and 1806, when he was murdered, he explored the southern Sahara and traced a considerable portion of the Niger's course. Expedition after expedition followed to investigate the Lake Chad and Niger regions; and then between 1850 and 1877 were undertaken the wonderful journeys of Livingstone, Burton and Speke, Baker, Cameron, Stanley and others, which laid bare to the civilised world the secrets of the Dark Continent—the courses of Africa's great rivers, the Nile, Congo, Niger, and Zambesi, the vast lakes of the equatorial plateaus that are the head-water reservoirs of these rivers, the great central forest, the snowy peaks of Kilima-Njaro. To the ancients, Africa was a torrid region of deserts and impenetrable forests and swamps. But the explorations of the nineteenth century revealed the important fact that Africa is a continent of plateaus, and that the mountain ranges at the back of the low-lying unhealthy coast belt form the buttresses of vast fertile tablelands, which attain in Abyssinia a height of 9000 feet above the sea. The plateaus of North Africa are much lower than those of Southern Africa, and the northern half of the continent has a mean altitude one-third less than that of the southern half. The consideration of an orographical map of Africa will show that the highest land lies to the south of a line THE PARTITION OF AFRICA 37 drawn diagonally across the continent from Suakim on the Red Sea to the Cameroons on the west coast. This southern portion of the continent is filled up by the Great Central Plateau, drained by the Congo and its tributaries ; the Great Southern Plateau, extending from the watershed of the river Congo to the Cape of Good Hope, with a mean altitude of nearly 4000 feet; and the still loftier East African Plateau, from which rise the snowy peaks of Kilima-Njaro and Kenya and the high mountain ranges of Abyssinia. This high mean elevation of Africa greatly modifies the temperature of these tropical regions, and renders vast areas of the interior healthy for Europeans and suitable for colonisation. The Partition of Africa. — These discoveries aroused the keenest interest throughout Europe, and it was realised that in Africa were valuable new fields for colonial enterprise, and new markets for European manufactures. The explorers and missionaries prepared the way for annexation, and the partition of the continent followed. An examination of a map of 1870 will show that Great Britain and France were the only European Powers that then had a really fijm foothold in Africa. The British pos¬ sessions at the southern extremity of the continent—then consisting of the Cape Colony and Natal—and the French possession Algeria in the extreme north, were colonies in the true sense of the word, and held considerable popula¬ tions of European race. From her west coast colony, Senegambia, France had also extended her influence for some distance into the interior. But the other African possessions of the European Powers, whether of Great Britain, France, Spain, or Portugal, were still little more than coast trading settlements. There was practically a whole continent to divide when the time was ripe for the great partition. The Franco-German War of 1870 had left the con¬ queror Germany a strong and united nation, stirred by new energies, eager to possess herself for the first time of a colonial empire. France, too, when she had recovered 38 THE AFRICAN COxNTINENT from her defeat, sought to compensate herself for her losses in Europe by an expansion of her colonial posses¬ sions ; thus when Leopold, king of the Belgians, took the first step that set the game of partition going, France and Germany showed the greatest eagerness to secure their full share of the spoil. In September 1876 the king of the Belgians sum¬ moned to a conference in Brussels the representative geographers and explorers of the various European countries, and with their assistance formed the International African Association, whose object it was to organise the exploration of Africa, to open the interior to civilisation and trade, and to exterminate the institution of slavery. The association effected but little good and, as might be expected, soon lost its international character. As will be shown further on, the explorers who were sent out by the branch national committees of the association, though they were supposed to represent the interests of united Europe, hoisted the flags of their respective countries, and in the name of the latter attempted the annexation of territories in divers parts of Africa. It was in 1884 that the scramble for the continent com¬ menced .in earnest. Rival claims and pretensions had brought matters to a crisis in the Congo valley. Stanley, as representative of the king of the Belgians was advancing up the river,'founding stations; de Brazza, as representative of France, was attempting to anticipate Stanley, and made treaties with the native chieftains; and Portugal, protesting, put forward her ancient claims to the possession of the river mouth and the adjoining coast-line. The main object of the famous Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, to which all the principal European Powers and the United States sent their representatives, was the settlement of the Congo question; but the congress likewise enacted con¬ ditions affecting the trade and navigation of the Niger basin, and undertook to frame the international rules that were to apply to the partition of Africa. Thus it was laid down that any Power annexing a portion of the African coast must give notice of such annexation to the signatory THE PARTITION OF AFRICA 39 Powers, and that any such occupation of territory would not be valid unless it were effective. It came to be under¬ stood, too, that a Power having effective occupation of a coast strip was entitled to a sphere of influence behind that strip, but might forfeit its right to this " hinterland " if it did not bring it under its control and develop it within a reasonable time. The Conference decreed that the basin of the Congo should be free to the trade and shipping of all nations, only such dues being chargeable as were needed to defray the cost of administration. This free trade zone was also carried beyond the Congo watershed to the east coast, where it extends from the mouth of the Zambesi to 5° N. lat. The most remarkable result of the Berlin Conference was the creation of the Congo Free State under the sovereignty of the king of the Belgians. The International African Association had thus definitely abandoned its international character, and the bulk of the territories which it had explored became an independent and practically Belgian state. Thus were the rules of the game of partition laid down, and at once the agents of the rival Powers raced against each other over Africa, making treaties with native sove¬ reigns, and annexing vast territories for their respective countries. The rivalry was bitter, the rules were not too strictly observed, and were variously interpreted by those interested. The "hinterlands" of the different Powers were extended, until they met in the centre of the continent. France rapidly carried her influence across the Sahara until she had joined her Mediterranean to her Atlantic colonies, so cutting off the British west coast colonies from their legitimate hinterlands. Germany, too, displayed great activity. She annexed Togoland and the Cameroons and a great portion of South-West Africa; and pushing on from the east coast she extended her posses¬ sions, until they became conterminous with the Congo Free State, and so foiled Cecil Rhodes' ambitious plan of con¬ necting the possessions of Great Britain in the south of the continent with her sphere of influence on the Upper Nile. France, too, later on, made a bold attempt to thrust her sphere 40 THE AFRICAN CONTINENT of influence between British East Africa and the Nile Valley. At the time that the scramble for Africa commenced, not only did Great Britain possess more territory on the continent than any other Power, but she also exerted an indefinite sway over extensive territories that had been brought under her influence by British missionaries, traders, and explorers. As Great Britain had not officially asserted her protectorate of these regions, France and Germany, by virtue of the clauses of the Berlin Agreement, contrived to possess themselves of a considerable portion of them. For example, Germany; outwitting the British government, seized Great Namaqualand, a country that was clearly within the British sphere of influence, but had not been effectively occupied. Great Britain had the largest interests in Africa, but she was the last of the Powers to join in the scramble. For whereas the expansion of France and Germany in Africa was energetically promoted by their respective governments, the government of Great Britain held aloof. The British Parliament had for several years resolutely opposed the further extension of our territories and responsibilities beyond the seas. So France and Ger¬ many were permitted to acquire territories that had been virtually though not officially British; and Great Britain would have lost much more had it not been for the enterprise of individuals, of missionaries and traders, of powerful groups of British merchants. We should have fared badly in the partition of Africa had it not been for Cecil Rhodes, and the founders of the three great African Chartered Companies. The British people, too, alarmed at the often aggressive policy of France and Germany, began to realise that in self-defence this country should secure her share in this division of a continent. Thus public opinion forced the hands of a reluctant parliament and prevented the abandonment of Uganda. So it came about that, after all. Great Britain did not come badly out of the scramble, and now possesses the most valuable regions in Africa. THE PARTITION OF AFRICA 41 And now at last, after no little quarrelling, which some¬ times brought the nations to the brink of war, the whole continent of Africa—outside the empire of Morocco, the Turkish province of Tripoli, Egypt proper, and the native state Abyssinia—has been definitely portioned out among the European Powers. Great Britain, France, Germany, the Congo Free State and Portugal have divided the bulk of the continent between them; Italy has her colony Eritrea on the Red Sea and her Somali coast Protectorate ; and Spain has some small possessions on the west coast. As regards area, the British sphere of influence in Africa— over 3,CX)0,000 square miles—comes second in order; for France has obtained the largest share of territory, of which, however, the greater portion is contained within the desert of Sahara. As a glance at the modern parti-coloured map of Africa will show, the frontiers of the various spheres of influence, which were defined by a number of international treaties and agreements, are in many cases but conven¬ tional boundaries, parallels of latitude or longitude, imaginary lines which not seldom traverse unexplored regions, where the natives know nothing of the partition which has assigned them to this or to that Power. Within some of the spheres of influence, in the French Sudan and in British Nigeria, for example, there exist powerful inde¬ pendent native kingdoms. The partition of Africa has been completed on the map, but the development of the greater part of the continent has scarcely commenced. Africa may be roughly divided into three parallel belts —an almost desert northern Africa: a somewhat arid southern Africa: and a humid central Africa which forms an intervening belt of equatorial rains and dense tropical forests. The colonies of Great Britain are in Central and Southern Africa, while in Northern Africa Great Britain controls Egypt. The British possessions in Africa form three groups — British Southern Africa, British West Africa, and British East Africa. SOUTHERN AFRICA INTRODUCTORY Physical Features. — Southern Africa and South Africa are tetms to which geographers have assigned various definitions, some making the Orange River, others the Zambesi, and others the 22nd degree of south latitude, the northern boundary of the region thus described. The following definition, which seems the most convenient both from a geographical and a political point of view, will be employed here. Southern Africa is all Africa to the south of the Congo basin. It therefore includes the basins of the Zambesi and the rivers to the south of it, and comprises all the British possessions between the Cape of Good Hope and the north of Rhodesia, together with Portuguese East and West Africa, and German South-West Africa. Southern Africa presents the same general physical features as the rest of this continent of monotonous outline. The coast is regular, having no deep inlets, and providing few convenient harbours. Few of the rivers are navigable even for a short distance. Africa has been described as the continent of plateaus. Mountain ranges running parallel to the coast form the outer rim to the tablelands of the interior. It has been explained that the plateaus of Southern Africa have nearly thrice the elevation of the upland plains of North Africa. The vast deserts of North Africa are represented in South Africa by the far less extensive and not so hopelessly arid wastes of the Kalahari. North and South Africa each contain a large continental basin, where the rivers do not find their way to the sea but 42 PHYSICAL FEATURES 43 drain into two great inland lakes, Lake Chad in the north and Lake Ngami in the south. The Great Southern Plateau, which has the watershed of the Congo as its northern limit, practically covers the whole of Southern Africa. Round all the semicircular coast-line of the southern portion of the continent, extend the mountain ranges which buttress the inland plateau. A maritime belt, having a maximum height of six hundred feet above the sea, fringes the mountain ranges. This belt is narrow, the base of the mountains in places being close to the seashore, except in Portuguese East Africa, where the low coast plain is often more than one hundred miles in breadth. The highest mountains are in the east, the peaks of Basutoland attaining a height of ii,ooo feet above the sea. On the west coast the maritime ranges are often broken up into isolated masses, and the water¬ sheds are not so well defined as they are on the east coast. On the eastern side of the great tableland, isolated ranges, running as a rule transversely to the main ranges on the coast, intersect the rolling steppes, while to the west extend vast expanses of unbroken plain. The southern portion of the great plateau trends towards the west, so that the only river of any magnitude in that region, the Orange River, which rises in the eastern highlands, flows westward to the Atlantic, draining with its many tributaries the greater portion of the Cape Colony, Basutoland, the Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal. On the other hand, the northern portion of the plateau dips towards the east, so that the principal rivers of that region, the great Zambesi, the Limpopo, and the Sabi flow eastwards into the Indian Ocean, draining between them the northern Transvaal and the greater part of the vast territories now administered by the British South Africa Company. The rivers above mentioned, having flowed across the tablelands of the interior, force their way through the passes in the en¬ circling coast ranges, and so find their way to the sea. But the majority of the rivers of Southern Africa rise on the seaward side of the mountains, and therefore have 44 SOUTHERN AFRICA short courses and limited basins, are rapid and subject to flood, and often disappear in the dry season. The Orange River, and, with few exceptions, the other rivers of South. Africa, having scoured away their beds in time of flood, flow between high steep banks, and are often as much as forty feet below the level of the surround¬ ing country. It is, therefore, difficult to irrigate the land with their waters, and the ox-waggons with which the bulk of the transport is conducted in these regions can only cross the streams at the "drifts"—fords at which the river banks either incline naturally, or have been dug away by man, so as to provide a comparatively easy approach. Climate.—Southern Africa enjoys a more temperate climate than that portion of Northern Africa which lies between the corresponding degrees of north latitude. This is due to a variety of causes—ist, the greater mean elevation of Southern Africa; 2nd, the cold currents and winds that set in from the Antarctic Ocean; 3rd, the relative narrowness of the southern portion of the continent, and the fact that it is surrounded by broad oceans; whereas Northern Africa is hemmed in on its windward side by the land masses of Europe and Asia, the winds blowing from which have already parted with their moisture. Consequently, whereas Northern Africa contains the hottest regions in the world, and is, for the most part, an almost waterless desert. Southern Africa has a relatively moderate temperature, and a sufficient rainfall over a great portion of its area. The south-east trade winds carry the moisture from the warm Indian Ocean to the east coast of Southern Africa. This moisture is largely expended upon the maritime belt and the mountain ranges behind it. There is consequently a continuous diminution of the rainfall as one proceeds westward. Along the 30th degree of south latitude, for example, the annual rainfall decreases from forty inches in Natal to four inches in Namaqualand. Along the greater portion of the east coast there is found VEGETATION 45 the warm, moist, and rather uniform climate characteristic of tropical and subtropical seaboards exposed to the trade winds. But on the tablelands of the interior, where the rainfall is small and the atmosphere is dry, the climate is continental; and extremes of temperature are experienced. Snow falls upon the higher parts of the plateau in the winter, while the heat is often intense in the summer. The mean daily ranges of temperature are also great. But, despite the occasional high temperature, the Great Southern Plateau, with its dry atmosphere, is perfectly healthy for Europeans, and in this respect is better adapted for colonisation by the white races than any other region in the world lying between such low latitudes. The mean annual temperature, of course, becomes higher as one pro¬ ceeds northward from the Cape of Good Hope; and as one approaches the broad zone of tropical forest and heavy equatorial rains that lies between arid North Africa and Southern Africa, the rainfall too gradually increases. The rainy season occurs in the summer months throughout the whole of Southern Africa, save in the southern and south¬ western extremities of the Cape Colony. In the northern part of Southern Africa, within the torrid zone, there are two summer rainy seasons in the year, coinciding with the two annual crossings of these latitudes by the sun. Vegetation.—As Southern Africa extends from the 35th degree of south latitude to within eight degrees of the equator, the character of the vegetation undergoes a gradual change as one proceeds northwards from the Cape Colony, with its flora of a temperate climate, to Northern Rhodesia with its characteristically tropical forests of mahogany, teak, ebony, and sandal wood. But throughout the tablelands of the interior, though the difference of latitude is made manifest by the varying flora, the same general features may be remarked. The scarcity of moisture prevents the growth of a luxuriant vegetation. On the southern part of the plateau the steppes are almost treeless, and on the generally parched yellow veldt are only to be seen at long intervals 46 SOUTHERN AFRICA the small green oases of willows and fruit-trees with which the farmers surround their homesteads. One of the most conspicuous forms of South African vegetation is heath, of which there are hundreds of varieties, some of them attaining a height of over twelve feet. Such bush as there is, is that peculiar to a dry country—euphorbia, and thorny mimosas, and acacias. The woodlands of the " Bush Veldt" cover the uplands in some portions of the Transvaal and Rhodesia, but here, too, the trees are generally of stunted growth, and are for the most part of the spinous acacia variety. That portion of the plateau known as the Karroo is, for the greater part of the year, a stony wilderness cloven by dry water¬ courses and studded with bare ironstone kopjes ; but here the low grey shrub called the Karroo Bush, flourishing on hot, dry soil where grass cannot find sufficient moisture, affords nourishment to myriads of sheep and goats. It is only for a short period after the spring rains that there is herbage on the Karroo, and at that time the whole veldt becomes a sea of verdure thickly sprinkled with the beautiful blossoms of many varieties of bulbous plants. But at all seasons these solemn interminable steppes exert a great fascination on those who travel upon them. On nearly every portion of the plateau the farmers are compelled to collect the rain within large dams for the use of their cattle; and crops, as a rule, can only be raised by means of irrigation. But almost everywhere, even on the stony Karroo, the soil is exceedingly fertile, and water only is needed to convert the desert into a garden. As the abundant crops already produced sufficiently prove, irrigation works on a large scale, such as are projected in British South Africa, to save the water that is now allowed to run to waste during the rains, will bring vast tracts, now barren, under cultivation. Throughout the greater part of the country, water is found in abundance at a moderate depth below the surface of the soil. All the cereals and fruits of Europe thrive on the plateau, while all the products of the tropics are successfully cultivated in the lowlands of the eastern seaboard. ZOOLOGY 47 Oaks and other trees have been introduced into British Southern Africa from other countries; far the most wide¬ spread species is the Australian eucalyptus, valuable on account of the rapidity of its growth, and its property of rendering malarious districts healthy. It is found, forming avenues in the towns, and groves round the farmers home¬ steads, throughout these regions from the Cape of Good Hope to Lake Tanganyika. Zoology.—The wild animals characteristic of Africa —lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, buffalo, giraffes, zebras, baboons, etc., not long since swarmed over all Southern Africa, the great hunting- ground of the world. But these have been gradually driven northward into the wilder regions by the advance of civilisation. Lions still abound in Portuguese East Africa, and Rhodesia. Some species of animals are threatened with extinction. So rare have elephants become in British South Africa, that the once flourishing trade in ivory has been practically destroyed. Wild ostriches are not nearly so numerous as they were. Hippopotami and crocodiles are now only to be found in the rivers of the northern parts. Various species of antelope still roam over the veldt, but in very diminished numbers. Herds of thousands of these creatures could once be seen in the neighbourhood of Cape Town itself. Among game birds, bustards, pheasants, partridges, guinea fowl, geese, ducks, quail, and teal are plentiful. Venomous snakes—among others the deadly cobra and puff-adder—abound as, too, do various noxious insects, including the locusts which ravage the country in immense swarms, and the tsetse fly whose bite is fatal to horses and domestic cattle, but is innocuous to man and to wild animals. But the tsetse fly is disappearing before civilisa¬ tion; it exists chiefly where big game is abundant, and* has retired to the wilds with the latter; it is now only to be found in confined belts of forest in the lowlands of the Portuguese territory, in the Northern Rhodesia low veldt, and Nyassaland. The rinderpest, a disease that a few 48 SOUTHERN AFRICA years since destroyed 97 per cent, of the cattle in Rhodesia, also killed off the bulk of the big game in that region, and so indirectly led to the extermination of the tsetse fly over large areas of country. Despite the devastations caused by diseases peculiar to the country, domestic animals are very plentiful in Southern Africa, which is pre-eminently a pastoral land. The vast pastures of the plateau support millions of horses, sheep—including the merino and the flat-tailed species—and goats. On the treeless steppes of the south, ostriches, indigenous to that region, are reared for their feathers. Native Population.—The native population of Southern Africa probably numbers ten millions, whereas the white population amounts to about one million and a quarter only. Even in the long-since settled Cape Colony, the natives are to the Europeans as four to one; in Natal they are as nine to one; in Southern Rhodesia as fifty to one; and as one proceeds northwards the disproportion becomes greater. Contact with European civilisation apparently exerts no destructive influence on the natives of Southern Africa. Preserved by our rule from the internecine wars in which they formerly engaged, and protected by liquor enactments and other legislation, they steadily increase in number, while their prosperity is ever advancing, as the result of the security to property now enjoyed, and the development of the resources of the country by the whites. In Southern Africa the true negro is not found, and from the Equator to the Cape the continent is mainly populated by the various negroid branches of the great Bantu-speaking stock. The Bantu hordes, emigrating at various periods from the north of the Zambesi, possessed themselves of all the richer lands that were occupied by the aboriginal Hottentots and Bushmen. The Bantus are distinguished for their fine physique, notably in the case of the Zulus. Many of them are handsome, even from the European standpoint, with aquiline features and sometimes a complexion not darker than that of Southern NATIVE POPULATION 49 Europeans. They are a pastoral and agricultural people, breeding cattle in immense quantities, and cultivating cereals, principally " mealies " (maize) and " Kafhr corn " (millet). The Bantus are capable of a considerable degree of civilisation, and their mental and moral qualities are higher than those of any negro race. The Bantus of the east coast on either side of Natal are called Kaffirs by the Europeans. This name, signifying " unbeliever," was originally given to these pagan peoples by the Arab traders. The Kaffirs include the Zulus, the most warlike and intelligent of the Bantu stock, the Galekas, the Swazis, and other tribes. The term Kaffir is often popularly applied to all the Bantu peoples of South Africa. Among other of the better known branches of the Bantu family are the Basutos, the Bechuanas, and the Hereros of German South-West Africa. The communal system of land tenure prevails among the Bantus. In the yet undeveloped regions under British rule, there are semi- independent states governed by powerful chieftains, such as Khama in Bechuanaland, and Lewanika in Barotseland. In the older colonies the natives either occupy large reserves or intermingle with the European settlers. Of the inferior aboriginal races, the Hottentots, who were once spread over the greater portion of Africa south of the Zambesi, are now chiefly to be found in the north¬ west of the Cape Colony. They are of short stature, of a yellowish brown colour, ill-favoured, with prominent cheek bones, flat noses, pointed chins, scanty beards, and black woolly hair. They are indolent, but not wanting in intelligence. The Bushmen are the most degraded of the aboriginal races of Southern Africa. They are dwarfish of stature, of a dirty yellow complexion, and have hideous features. They are nomadic, and having been driven by the higher races into the high mountains and into desert regions such as the Kalahari, they there subsist by hunting, using poisoned arrows with their bows. Expansion of Britispi Possessions in Southern Africa.—British Southern Africa extends northwards d 50 SOUTHERN AFRICA from the Cape of Good Hope through twenty-seven degrees of latitude to the shores of Lake Tanganyika, and has an average breadth of about six hundred miles. This vast region covers about one and a half million square miles, that is, twelve times the area of the British Isles. Of all that strange episode in the world's history, the recent rapid partition among the European Powers of Africa, perhaps the most remarkable feature has been the great expansion within the last few years of the British possessions in the southern portion of the continent. This expansion has practically reached its limit, for in the eager scramble for African colonies, other European Powers have secured their share, and now the British territory in the south, where not bordered by the ocean and by the frontiers of the old Portuguese possessions, is hemmed in by the colonies of the new-comers—German East Africa, the Congo Free State, and German South- West x^frica. The limits of British dominion have now been definitely fixed by international treaties. In 1815, when the Cape Colony was ceded to Great Britain by the Dutch, a line drawn from thirty degrees south latitude on the west coast to the mouth of the Great Fish River on the east coast, would have roughly represented the northern boundary of the British possessions. All the country to the north of this line was wild and unknown. Settlers were only to be found in the neighbourhood of the coast. Elephants, lions, and other wild beasts then abounded within a few miles of Cape Town. For many years the northward expansion of the British possessions was very slow, following the gradual opening out of the interior by traders and missionaries. Natal was annexed; then native troubles and wars compelled the British to assume the rule of other territories to the north of the Cape Colony; and the Cape itself, having been granted self-government, advanced its boundaries by various annexations. But it was not until 1884 that Great Britain, stimulated by the action of other Powers, commenced in earnest that struggle for the EXPANSION OF BRITISH POSSESSIONS 51 possession of the rich plateaus which extend from the frontier of the old colony to the head-waters of the Congo. Germany and the Transvaal endeavoured to occupy the region lying between German South-West Africa and the Boer Republic, and so, by joining hands, to cut off British South Africa from the possibility of northern expansion. Portugal, too, revived her ancient claims to the interior. It was a race for the north between the British, Germans, Portuguese, and Boers. It was now that there came to the front the Englishman, Cecil John Rhodes, had it not been for whose foresight, statesmanship, and vigilance, the South African plateau, with its gold-bearing reefs and its vast tracts of rich arable and pastoral lands, would have fallen into the hands of one or other of the Powers which keenly contested with Great Britain its possession. First the gate to the country, the right of way to the north, was secured to Great Britain by the annexation of Bechuana- land, the territory that lay between the German and Boer possessions. Then treaties were entered into between the British and native chiefs, which gave Great Britain the protectorate over vast regions. Lobengula placed Matabeleland and Mashonaland, coveted by our rivals, under British protection. A royal charter was granted to the British South Africa Company, whose rule now extends to the tropical lakes. And finally the two Boer republics were annexed at the close of the war of 1899- 1902. This great expansion was accompanied by a correspond¬ ingly rapid development of resources and improvement of communications. The narratives of travellers made men realise the value of the northern wilds. The richest diamond and gold mines in the world were already being worked in Griqualand and the Transvaal. It was now shown that gold was also to be found throughout Zambesia. It was the prospect of gold that led the pioneers into Mashonaland. Great as are the agricultural possibilities of these regions, the development of their resources would have been much slower had it not been for their reputed mineral wealth. Nothing accelerates the development of 52 SOUTHERN AFRICA a new country so much as the discovery of gold, for it causes the rapid introduction of colonists, the establish¬ ing of mining centres, and so affords to agriculturists a market for their produce, while it warrants the imme¬ diate opening out of the country by the construction of railways. In this race for the possession of the interior, Great Britain was favoured above the other nations inasmuch as she had for a base, from which to advance, the long since settled Cape Colony, lying outside the tropics, fertile, healthy to white men, containing a considerable European population, and having seaports and railways— advantages not enjoyed by the other Powers that attempted to rival Great Britain in Southern Africa. The Germans, for example, in South-West Africa had a desert coast-line, mostly within the tropics, for their starting-point, with uncolonised regions behind, the arid wastes of the Kalahari also lying between their new possessions and the rich interior which they coveted. The British possessions occupy the richest portions of Southern Africa, and include the one region adapted, in the fullest sense of the term, for colonisation by Europeans —that is, the southernmost part of the plateau lying within the temperate zone. Productions, Industries, and Trade.—In British Southern Africa the existing industries are either mining, pastoral or agricultural. The chief exports are gold and diamonds, and raw animal and vegetable produce, such as wool, hides, ostrich feathers, angora hair, and the produce of the gardens, orchards, and forests. The manufactories are small and unimportant: waggons, saddlery, and harness are made; there are iron foundries, breweries, sugar-mills, mineral-water factories, brickyards, saw-mills, and flour- mills in the various colonies; but the cloth and other articles used in the extensive native trade, the apparel, cotton and woollen goods, cutlery, tinned provisions and hardware, the machinery, whether mining or agricultural; in short, almost every manufactured article of importance PRODUCTIONS, INDUSTRIES, AND TRADE 53 needed by the population, is imported from Europe, mainly from the United Kingdom. Manufactures may be said to be practically non-existent in Southern Africa, a fact that differentiates the possessions of Great Britain in this part of the world from her other great self-ruling colonies (in which extensive manufacturing industries have been created), and tends to make Southern Africa the most valuable of all her colonial markets—India excepted—to the mother country. In 1903 the United Kingdom exported to the Cape Colony manufactured goods to the value of ;^21,500,000, that is, considerably more than she exported to the Australian Commonwealth or the Dominion of Canada. It is true that that was an excep¬ tional year, and that trade has since fallen off temporarily in South Africa; but there is much to indicate that within a few years the sub-continent will be one of the best customers in the world to the mother country. In 1903 the various British colonies in South Africa agreed to accord preferential treatment to the United Kingdom, and now British manufactured goods imported into South Africa are charged 25 per cent, less custom duties than goods imported from foreign countries. The minerals form the principal source of wealth in British Southern Africa. The diamond and gold mines are the richest in the world. The greater part of this region is highly mineralised. There are valuable deposits of copper, iron, tin, and other metals, and also considerable coal measures. The pastoral wealth of Southern Africa comes second in importance to its mineral wealth. The rearing of oxen, sheep, and horses is carried on on an extensive scale ; there is a large export of wool; but though this is so essentially pastoral a country, there is comparatively but little dairy produce, and it is only recently that, at the initiation of the Government, creameries have been established in the Transvaal and other parts; wherein, though cattle abounded, the inhabitants consumed imported tinned milk and butter. In Southern Africa the agricultural products are third 54 SOUTHERN AFRICA in importance as a source of wealth. The Boer settlers, a purely pastoral people in the early days, are still somewhat disinclined to engage in agriculture. The agricultural resources of Southern Africa have so far been but slightly developed. In this land of various climates, all the cereals and fruits of Europe and of the sub-tropical and tropical zones can be successfully cultivated. In the southern parts of the plateau, fine crops of wheat and other cereals are raised ; and there is little doubt that, with an organised system of irrigation. South Africa could be made a great grain-growing country. Grapes are plentiful in the south, and wine-making is an important industry in the Cape Colony. On the warmer coasts of Natal sugar is grown. In Northern Rhodesia wild india-rubber and cotton of high commercial value cover great tracts of country. Tobacco is cultivated in nearly every part of Southern Africa. The forests, whose extent is comparatively small, supply valuable timber and dye-woods. The day may come when in Southern Africa agriculture will take the first instead of the third place in order of importance as an industry. Communications.—Everywhere in Southern Africa the ways of ancient barbarism and those of modern civil¬ isation exist side by side. So, too, is it with the modes of travel and transport. Throughout this vast region the open steppes, the jungles and the forests, are intersected by the innumerable narrow tracks worn by the naked feet of the savages, who for countless generations have journeyed along them pack-laden in single file. Everywhere, too, are to be seen the broader, deep-rutted, often very rough roads made by the passing of the heavy waggons drawn by long teams of oxen, with which, even as in the early colonial days, white men still carry on the transport of goods, and travel for immense distances into the wilds. In 1890 the only railways in British Southern Africa were those in the Cape Colony and Natal; and Kimberley was the northernmost point attained. But since then there has been a rapid development of railway communi- COMMUNICATIONS 55 cation, and thousands of miles of line have been constructed, linking the British possessions, opening out rich districts, and providing them with access to the sea. A reference to a map will show that the earlier settled countries, the Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange River Colony are now intersected with lines which traverse the more valuable farming districts, tap the principal gold and diamond fields, and bring them into communication with the chief seaports—Cape Town, Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, and Delagoa Bay. These railways are all on the eastern and richer side of Southern Africa, and no line yet traverses the continent from east to west to connect the British possessions with the Atlantic coast. But railways that will connect the Rhodesian railways with German South-West Africa and Portuguese Angola are in course of construction, and other similar schemes are contemplated. It will be observed that one great trunk line extends from Cape Town northwards through Bloemfontein and Johannesburg to Pretoria, whence another railway runs still further north to Pietersburg, distant over 1200 miles from Cape Town; while another trunk line running nearly parallel to it, and skirting the western boundaries of our two newly acquired colonies, connects Cape Town by way of Kimberley and Mafeking with Bulawayo—1360 miles. Bulawayo is also connected with the port of Beira on the Indian Ocean by a railway which traverses Mashonaland and Portuguese East Africa, so that one can now travel by train all the way from Cape Town to Beira, a distance of 2000 miles, without changing carriage. Branch railways also tap the principal mining districts in Rhodesia. The construction of the Cape to Cairo Railway, whose total length will be about 6700 miles, is steadily progressing. At the time of the death of Cecil Rhodes, the originator of this great scheme, in 1902, this railway had reached Bulawayo. The next great section of this line will be from Bulawayo to Lake Tanganyika. The first three hundred miles of this section, from Bulawayo to the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, were completed in 1904. 56 SOUTHERN AFRICA By the end of 1906 it had been advanced about another four hundred miles to Broken Hill, 2100 miles from Cape Town. The Cape to Cairo Railway will traverse Africa from north to south, and will open out the interior by picking up trade along its entire route. Branch railways will connect it with the coast, and provide outlets for the trade to the seaports. Some of these branch railways have already been completed, or are in course of construction— for example, the railway through German East Africa, whose ocean terminus will be at Dar-es-Salaam; the railway from Uganda to Mombasa; the railway from the Nile to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, and the railway from Benguela on the Atlantic coast through Angola to the north of Rhodesia. Most of the railways of British Southern Africa were constructed by and belong to the various colonial govern¬ ments, but some are owned by private companies. The Cape Colony system has its northern terminus at Vryburg, and from that point northwards the lines are the property of the Rhodesian Railway Companies. The railway systems of the two late Boer Republics are now worked as one system, under the title of the Central South African Railways, by the Inter-colonial Council of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, a body established by the Imperial Government after the Boer war of 1899-1902. This Council, of which the High Commissioner is president, not only controls the existing railways, but also has the right to authorise the construction of new railways in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, administers the new force known as the South African Constabulary—to which is entrusted the protection of life and property in these two colonies—and regulates other matters common to the two colonies. The trans-continental telegraph from Cape Town to Cairo has reached Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, about 3300 miles from Cape Town. Government.—Almost every form of local govern¬ ment known in the British Empire can be seen working GOVERNMENT 57 at the present time in British Southern Africa. For example, Cape Colony has responsible government; Southern Rhodesia has a partly elective council; North- Western Rhodesia is administered by a chartered company under Colonial Office control; Basutoland is directly administered by the Crown; and Bechuanaland is a Crown protectorate. The federation of the South African colonies and states under the British flag has been the dream of British and colonial statesmen from the time of Sir George Grey, when, as governor of the Cape in 1859, he all but effected this great end. Again in 1877 that great admini¬ strator, Sir Bartle Frere, was sent to the Cape as High Commissioner of South Africa to bring about a confedera¬ tion that would secure a real peace to that distracted land. It yet remains for wise and patriotic statesmenship to make of South Africa a strong and united political whole, even as is Canada. The High Commissioner is the supreme officer of the Crown in South Africa ; he is the head of the local admini¬ strations in the protectorates, and before the late Boer war, it was he who had to direct any business that might occur between the British Government and the two Boer Republics. Statesmen and administrators of great eminence are appointed to fill this most responsible office. Formerly the High Commissioner was also governor of the Cape Colony; but the two offices were dissociated in 1901, when Lord Milner, the then High Commissioner, while retaining that office, was made governor of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, the governorship of the Cape Colony becoming a separate appointment. The High Commissioner exercises direct control over all British possessions in South Africa not having responsible governments, and can indirectly influence the self-ruling colonies, inasmuch as he can summon all the colonial governments to send their repre¬ sentatives to the Inter-Colonial Conferences which meet to settle matters of common interest. 58 SOUTHERN AFRICA Political Divisions.—British Southern Africa com¬ prises the following colonies and protectorates:—Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange River Colony, the Transvaal, Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Rhodesia, and the British Central Africa Protectorate. The extreme northern part of Rhodesia, being in the basin of the Congo, is not within the geographical boundaries of Southern Africa as they have been defined in this work; but this region will be dealt with, for convenience, in the description of Rhodesia. THE CAPE COLONY History.—Bartholomew Diaz doubled the Cape of Good Hope in i486; but the Portuguese, though the discoverers of South Africa, established no settlements here, and it was not until 1652 that the Dutch, having become masters of the seas, founded the fort of Good Hope on the shore of Table Bay. For many years the Dutch used the Cape merely as a half-way house of call on the route to their East Indian possessions, a place for the repairing and victualling of the ships of the Dutch East India Company. Colonisation was not encouraged, the population increased but slowly, and when, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, about three hundred French Huguenots took refuge in South Africa, they found that the Dutch settlers were only about double their number. The rule of the Dutch East India Company was a harsh and tyrannical one, and the colonists from an early date moved as far as they dared into the unknown country behind the coast so as to avoid Dutch law, official tyranny, and an oppressive taxation. Thus, driven out into the wilds to live a lonely life among savages and rely upon themselves for protection, the Boer farmers developed the character that still distinguishes them, and became a people apart, " Africanders " who had lost all touch with Europe, who entertained no loyal sentiments towards Holland or any other country save South Africa, and resented any form of settled government whatever. For THE CAPE COLONY 59 nearly a century and a half the Cape remained under the rule of Holland. The white population in that time gradually increased until it numbered possibly ten thousand. The settlements, however, were still within a limited distance of the coast, and extended no further eastward than the Great Fish River; for the ferocious warriors of the Bantu tribes, sweeping down from the north in successive waves, were then ravaging South Africa; they almost exterminated the less warlike native peoples and, ever pushing southward, at last come in touch with the white settlements. There was almost unceasing war, accompanied by horrible barbarities, between black and white; and the perpetual menace of the savage raids prevented the expansion of the Colony until the white population had become stronger. In 1795, when Great Britain was at war with the French republic and her ally Holland—then the Batavian republic—the British invaded and captured the Cape. It was returned to Holland in 1802 under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens, and was retaken by Great Britain in 1806. Its possession was finally ratified by the peace of 1815, . when Holland, in consideration of six millions sterling, handed over to Great Britain the Cape Colony and that portion of the Dutch territory in South America which now constitutes British Guiana. Under British rule the colonisation of the country was undertaken in earnest; the British Government encouraged the emigration of families from the United Kingdom, granting free passages to the Cape and free grants of land ; the white population rapidly increased. But the history of the Cape has been a troubled one throughout our century of rule. The Bantu hordes—despite the attempts of the British government to protect the Cape boundaries with buffer native states—ever harassed the border, and, invad¬ ing the white settlements, murdered, and burnt, and looted; so that the Government was compelled to under¬ take a long series of Kaffir wars. In the meanwhile, the irreconcilability of the Dutch settlers was intensified by the well-meaning but often foolish and inconsistent policy of 60 SOUTHERN AFRICA the Home Government. Thus Great Britain was rightly desirous that justice should be done to the natives; but an ignorant and sentimental philanthropy began to favour the black people at the expense of the white, endangering the lives of the latter. The Boers, who regarded the natives as cattle, were so irritated by this policy that they rose in rebellion in 1815. The measure that emancipated all slaves throughout the British Empire took effect in the Cape in 1834. The compensation granted by the Government amounted to less than half the value of the slaves, and the unwise system of payment adopted—Government bonds redeem¬ able in London only—led to the appropriation by swind¬ ling middlemen of a large proportion of the indemnity. The Boer farmers considered that they had been robbed by the British Government, and many proudly refused to send in their claims. In the following year the Boers were still further exasperated by one of those strange acts of retrogression— possibly magnanimous in intent, but seeming cowardly to African colonists and natives—which have characterised British rule in South Africa. In 1835, a formidable Kaffir invasion poured over the eastern border, which was then formed by the Keiskamma River, crossed the Great Fish River, and fell upon the settlers, burning hundreds of farm¬ houses, murdering the farmers, and carrying off cattle and sheep in hundreds of thousands. After a war which lasted several months the invaders were driven back, and the boundary of the Cape Colony was advanced to the Kei River. The Home Government not only refused to ratify this advance of the frontier, but moved back the Cape boundary to the Great Fish River, the old border under Holland's rule, thus abandoning all the territory that had been annexed during the previous sixteen years ; and the then colonial secretary officially declared that "during a long series of years the Kaffirs had an ample justifica¬ tion of the wars into which they rushed." This retro¬ gression of the border greatly endangered the Colony, and the settlers realised that they had been handed over THE CAPE COLONY 61 to the mercy of the savage proteges of the sentimentalists at home. These events so disgusted the Boer farmers that about ten thousand of the people decided to escape from the British rule, of which they had had a twenty years' dis¬ agreeable experience. They sold their farms for what they would fetch, and undertook that marvellous exodus known as the Great Trek. In 1835 and 1836 successive parties of farmers, taking with them their families, their flocks and herds, and the great clumsy waggons drawn by long teams of oxen which contained their supplies and belongings, trekked out of the Colony. These sturdy " voortrekkers " crossed the Orange River, and journeyed into the unknown northern wilderness, the regions which the Zulu hordes had devastated. Numbers perished in conflicts with the Zulu and other warlike tribes, and from famine and hardships; the survivors ultimately founded the Orange River Free State and the Transvaal, while other bands trekking eastwards lived for a short while under a republican form of government, in what is now the British colony of Natal. As the white population of the Cape Colony increased, the boundaries were extended despite the opposition of philanthropists at home. After a succession of Kaffir wars, on the east side Kaffraria and the Transkei were annexed to the Cape, and on the west side there was an advance until the frontier reached the Orange River. Next the border was pushed beyond the river. In 1871 Basutoland was annexed to the Cape, to be taken over later on, how¬ ever, by the Imperial Government. In the same year Griqualand West, with its immensely rich diamond mines, at present the Colony's principal source of wealth, was annexed, and it became an integral part of the Cape Colony in 1880. The annexation of Pondoland, to the north of the Transkei, in 1894, made the Cape Colony conterminous with Natal, which had become a British colony in 1843. In 1895 the Crown colony of British Bechuanaland was taken over by the Cape Colony, thus advancing the frontier of the Colony to the river Malopo. 62 SOUTHERN AFRICA The Atlantic seaboard to the north of the Orange River was informally regarded as belonging to the Cape Colony, whose government appointed magistrates to some districts of that region. But the Germans, bent on obtain¬ ing a colonial empire in Africa, here as in other parts of the continent, outwitted the British Government. To the surprise of the British, the German flag was hoisted at Angra Pequena in 1884, and Germany has possessed herself of a great colony, several hundreds of miles in breadth, and extending along the coast from the Orange River to the borders of Angola. The harbour of Walfish Bay, with its forty miles long strip of coast, still remains a British possession set in the midst of the German colony, and forms part of the Cape Colony. The Cape Colony has a total area of 277,000 square miles, that is, consider¬ ably more than twice the area of the British Isles. Population.—The population of the Cape Colony (1904) is nearly two and a half millions, of whom the Europeans number 580,000, the Dutch preponderating in the Western, the British in the Eastern provinces. The Boers, the descendants of the original colonists from Holland and the French Huguenots, are mainly engaged in pastoral pursuits, speak a rough dialect of the Dutch language (the Taal), and have preserved their ancient customs and their Calvinistic form of religion. Dutch Roman law is still in force in the Colony, and the debates in both houses of Parliament can be conducted in either English or Dutch. An account has already been given of the native population, but mention may be made of the Griquas or Bastaards, as the Dutch call them, a people of mixed Boer and Hottentot blood, who under the rule of their tribal chiefs occupied Griqualand West, until that territory was annexed to Great Britain, when they removed to the eastern side of the Colony, and were assigned land in the territory now called Gfiqualand East. Malays, the descendants of natives of Java who were brought to the Cape, mostly as slaves, by the early Dutch THE CAPE COLONY 63 settlers, are numerous in the seaports. They have pre¬ served their Mahomedan religion. Government and Defence. — The Cape Colony acquired self-rule by gradual steps. At first all authority centred in the governor, who was assisted by an advisory council of officials. Next an Executive and a Legislative Council were appointed, consisting partly of official members, partly of nominees of the Crown. In 1853 the Colony was granted representative government, with an elective Legislative Council and House of Assembly; voters had to possess a property qualification, and the franchise was extended to the natives. Under this system the ministers were not responsible to the Parliament, and were not members of it. In 1872 responsible government was introduced, and now the ministers are selected by the political party in power, even as in England. Formerly the Cape Colony was divided for purposes of administration into two provinces, the Eastern and the Western Province, but in 1874 an Act of Parliament divided the country into seven provinces. The Cape Peninsula, the half-way house to India, containing the great commercial port of Cape Town and the great naval station of Simon's Bay, is very strongly fortified, and a large garrison of imperial troops is always stationed here. The local military forces consist .of the Cape Mounted Rifles (800 officers and men); the Cape Mounted Police (1700 officers and men); and about 9000 volunteers, horse and foot. Every able- bodied man in the Colony between eighteen and fifty is subject to military service in time of emergency. Physical Features.—It has already been explained that the great tablelands of the interior, enclosed by the maritime mountain ranges, and watered by the Orange River and its tributaries, cover the larger portion of the Cape Colony. From the south coast the land rises to the high plateau in clearly defined terraces, divided one from the other by parallel mountain ranges. The low 64 SOUTHERN AFRICA maritime belt is divided by the Lange Bergen from the Southern Karroo, a terrace about 60 miles in breadth and about 1000 feet above the sea. The broader Great Karroo, extending for over 3cx) miles from east to west, is 3000 feet above the sea, and is separated from the Southern Karoo by the Zwarte Bergen, whose peaks attain a height of 7000 feet. The Great Karroo is bounded on the north by the Nieuwveld and Sneeuw Bergen ranges, whose highest summit has a height of 8500 feet. And lastly, to the north of these ranges, extends the still more extensive and lofty tableland some¬ times called the Northern Karroo, which has an elevation of from 3000 to 6000 feet above the sea, and stretches to the Orange River. The Niewveld Bergen, Sneeuw Bergen, and the ranges continuing them to the east and west, form the southern watershed of the Orange River basin. The rivers that rise on the southern slopes of this watershed, the Gauritz for example, pour rapidly across the terraces into the ocean, passing through the steep " kloofs " that pierce the ranges dividing the Great Karroo from the Southern Karroo, and the latter from the coast belt. None of these rivers are navigable for more than a few miles from their mouths, even for small craft, and most of their estuaries are encumbered by bars. The Orange River is far the largest river of the Colony. Rising in the mountains of Basutoland and the eastern Transvaal, it flows across the great tableland in a westerly direction to the Atlantic. The source of its longest branch, the Vaal, is 1000 miles from its mouth as the crow flies. Like most South African rivers, it generally flows between steep banks, its bed being considerably below the level of the country. Interrupted as it is by rapids and cataracts, it is of little service for purposes of navigation; but schemes are afoot for diverting some of the waters of the Orange River and its numerous tributaries, and using them to irrigate the land. Productions and Industries.—It has been ex¬ plained that, save in the southern and south-western THE CAPE COLONY 65 parts of the Cape Colony, the annual rainfall is found to diminish as one crosses South Africa from east to west; consequently the more valuable agricultural districts are on the eastern side and the southern extremity of the Colony. The east coast has a moist and hot climate, the trade winds from the Indian Ocean sweeping over it; heavy thunder-storms and rain showers temper the summer heat, so that the country is nearly always fresh and green. Along the east coast maize and tobacco are largely cultivated. On the other hand, the south-western coasts of the Colony derive their moisture from the westerly Atlantic winds, and here the south-east trade which blows with viol^ce in the summer months is a dry wind. The strong, healthy south-easter, that at that season frequently sweeps through Cape Town, is locally called the "Doctor." Driving the hot air up the slopes of the mountain into the colder strata, it is the cause of the " table-cloth" of mist which often covers the flat summit of Table Mountain. In this south-western part of the Cape Colony, there is a well-defined dry summer season and rainy winter season, conditions that favour the production of wheat and other cereals. Here, therefore, are the principal grain-growing districts of the Colony. The vine, too, flourishes in the south-west, and wines and brandies are largely manufactured. On the Cape Peninsula are the extensive vineyards of Constantia, which were originally planted by the Huguenot refugees from cuttings which they had brought with them from France.. Peaches, pears, apricots, apples, and other fruits also thrive in this fertile region, and are now exported to England in large quantities. The principal forests of the Cape Colony are on the east and south coasts, the largest being in the neighbourhood of Knysna. But the pastoral products of the Colony are of far greater value than the agricultural. The pastures of the uplands support tens of millions of cattle, sheep, horses, and goats, and the ostrich farms contain nearly half a million of birds. E 66 SOUTHERN AFRICA In the Cape Colony, as in other parts of South Africa, a proportion of the Boers, following the example set by their British neighbours, are becoming more progressive in their methods of farming. But men of British blood, chiefly north-countrymen and Scots, some colonial born, others from home, are far the most successful farmers and own the best and largest farms, not only in the eastern provinces, but on the pastures of the high plateau; as, for example, in the Colesberg and Middelburg districts on the Northern Karroo. It is the British farmers, almost exclusively, who improve the breeds of horses and cattle. They raise twice as much forage or crops of any sort out of an acre as does the usually careless and indolent Dutchman. Some of the great pastoral farms held by the British cover as much as 24,000 acres of excellent veldt. As one approaches the homesteads of one of these lords of great flocks and herds, one finds it set, not amid the small patch of verdure like that enclosing the usual Dutch farm—where there is often little but a ragged patch of pumpkins in the shape of cultivation—but in an extensive oasis, pleasant to look upon after the brown veldt. From the vine-covered verandah of the house— itself a comfortable and refined English home—one looks out on a broad tree-shaded garden of roses and old English flowers, hollyhocks, sunflowers, and others. Beyond this are carefully irrigated, well-tended grounds, with orchards of peach, mulberry, and other fruit-trees; strawberry beds and vines; plots of potatoes, onions, beans, cabbages, artichokes, and other vegetables, all thriving wonderfully; for almost anything will grow on this rich though arid soil, if it be but sprinkled with a little water. Still further stretch the irrigated fields of wheat, oats, mealies, and lucerne, with here and there clumps of poplars and willows. And encircling all is the boundless veldt, where the cattle and sheep are grazing in their thousands. From the homestead, veiled as it is by rich vegetation, one cannot see the brown wilderness that surrounds this green spot. One might imagine oneself to THE CAPE COLONY 67 be far away from Africa in fair Normandy, were it not for the ostriches that one sees stalking beyond the wire fence. Such is the typical British farm on which ranching is the main business. But now the purely agricultural farms are increasing in number. The land can support a far larger population than it does now. Irrigation syste¬ matically carried out by British enterprise could in time make vast tracts of now barren veldt blossom like the rose. The waters of a hundred rivers pour wasted into the sea. One sees many a place, where the damming of a valley bottom would form a lake that would irrigate great plains. Of the mining industries, diamond mining is far the most important; gold is found in several parts of the Colony; and there is a considerable output of coal from the Cape collieries. The rich copper mines in Namaqua- land have been worked for fifty years. The richest diamond mines in the world are those near Kimberley, in Griqualand West. The discovery of diamonds in this neighbourhood in 1870 led to a great rush of adventurous diggers, and to the annexation of the district by the British Government. Here, as on the gold mines, joint- stock companies soon took the place of the individual claim owners. The various diamond companies of this region are now amalgamated under the de Beers Corpora¬ tion, the annual value of whose output of diamonds is about five millions sterling. The following list of some of the principal exports from the Cape Colony for the year 1903 will show the relative importance of the various industries:—Diamonds, ;^5,472,7oo; wool, 1,818,000; ostrich feathers, ;£"945,000; Angora hair, ;^652,5oo; hides, ;^468,6oo; copper ore, ;£"457,000. The exports of agricultural produce were relatively insignificant, the most important article being wine, £20,600. Towns.—In the Cape Colony there is no concentra¬ tion of the bulk of the population in a few great cities, as is the case in Australia. Four towns only in the 68 SOUTHERN AFRICA Colony have a population of over 20,000, and of these far the largest. Cape Town, is no bigger than Coventry. There are numerous small towns, however—most of them would be called villages in England—which serve as the centres of the agricultural and pastoral populations. With the exception of Kimberley, the larger towns are all seaports. As elsewhere on the African coasts, good harbours are lacking. Saldanha Bay, on the west coast, is the only inlet wherein ships can find safe and com¬ modious anchorage with all winds. Up till now it has been little used save by weather-bound vessels; but works are in progress that should make Saldanha Bay a very important place. Table Bay, at the head of which is Cape Town, is the principal harbour of the Colony. Exposed as it is to westerly winds, it afforded but a dangerous anchorage in winter, before the construction of the immense harbour works and breakwater. Simons Town, in Simons Bay, to the south of Cape Town, is the British Naval Station, with dockyards, graving docks, etc. The remaining important seaports, going from west to east, are :—^^Mossel Bay; Knysna; Port Elizabeth, the chief harbour of the Eastern provinces; Port Alfred; and East London. Gape Town.—The capital of the Colony and of the Western provinces, the seat of government, and the most important seaport town of Southern Africa, is beautifully situated on Table Bay under the steep slopes of Table Mountain. Cape Town was founded by the Dutch in 1652. It is the oldest town in South Africa, and though laid out with handsome modern streets, and possessing stately public buildings, this city has preserved many of its old-world Dutch features, the older houses having their characteristic stoeps and gables and stuccoed faces. The ancient Dutch castle, with its picturesque but now obsolete style of fortification, is still standing. The population in 1904, exclusive of that of the suburbs, was over 77,000. The slopes of Table Mountain and all the environs of Cape Town present most charming scenery. Throughout the entire Cape Peninsula THE CAPE COLONY 69 the vegetation is luxuriant. The country is covered with woods and heaths, and at all seasons there is an extraordinary profusion and variety of beautiful wild flowers. The flat summit of Table Mountain is 2 miles in length and nearly 3600 feet above the sea. Table Mountain is typical of the isolated flat-topped " kopjes " which stand out, prominent landmarks on the veldt, in all the regions to the south of the Zambesi. From the sea it presents a most grand appearance, and Sir Francis Drake, who sighted it during his famous voyage round the world, described it as " a most stately thing, and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth." Port Elizabeth, the "Liverpool of South Africa," the second seaport of the Colony, had, in 1904, a population of 33,000, two-thirds of whom were whites. From the shores of Algoa Bay the houses rise in a succession of terraces up the slopes of a steep hill to the tableland above. It was on the site of this town that the British Government in 1820 landed the Albany settlers, about 3000 men, women, and children from the United Kingdom; and the town, like most of the east coast settlements, has a distinctly British and not Dutch character. Communicat¬ ing as it does with the interior by two railway lines, which aflbrd the shortest routes from the coast to both Kimberley and Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth has become a prosperous trade centre, and is the chief port of export for the hides, wool, mohair, and other produce of the farms of the rich Eastern provinces. Grahamstown (population in 1904, 17,000) is an inland town about twenty miles from Port Alfred. It is one of the earliest British settlements on the east coast, and is the capital of the Eastern provinces. Founded in 1812, it became the military centre for the defence of the settlers against the invasions of the Kaffir hordes. For a quarter of a century there was almost continuous war in " the surrounding country between the settlers and the natives. It is now the centre of a rich agricultural and pastoral district famous for its dairy produce. East London (population in 1904, 25,000), at the 70 SOUTHERN AFRICA mouth of the beautiful Buffalo River, is the terminus of the Eastern Railway, and ranks next to Port Elizabeth in importance as a port of outlet for the wool and other pastoral and agricultural produce of the Eastern provinces. Kimberley (population in 1904, 34,300) is situated amid the open plains of Griqualand West, at an elevation of 4000 feet above the sea, and is 647 miles'from Cape Town by rail. On the discovery of diamonds here in 1870, a mining camp of tents and corrugated iron buildings sprang up upon the bare and dusty veldt; and this gradually developed into the present well-built city, which, however, grew in a somewhat haphazard way, so that the streets are irregular, and do not cut each other at right angles as they do in most South African towns. Close to the town are the famous mines, where the diamonds are found imbedded in the " blue clay" (a volcanic eruptive matter) in apparently inexhaustible quantities. The quarrying and other heavy work is done by natives. The other towns of the interior are but small agri¬ cultural centres. Many of them were founded by the early Dutch settlers, and are pleasant-looking, quiet, old- world places with broad streets bordered by avenues of fine trees. The houses with their thatched roofs and stoeps 'are surrounded by their own carefully irrigated gardens and orchards. One of these little townships when seen afar off by a traveller crossing the parched brown veldt, appears like an oasis of verdure, the luxuriant vegetation concealing from view all the buildings, with the exception perhaps of the tall spire of the Dutch church round which the settlement has grown up. Among the more important inland towns are Graaf Reinet, on the Central Karoo, an old Dutch town, which is the principal place of the midland districts; The Paarl and Worcester, centres of vine-growing, and wine-making districts; and Aliwal North, on the Orange River. Mafeking, on the main railway line to the north, is 870 miles distant from Cape Town. It is situated on the Bechuanaland plateau, at an elevation of 4200 feet above the sea. Being on the Rhodesian and Transvaal borders, and being a "Free NATAL 71 Warehousing Port" under the Customs Convention, it is a prosperous trading place and centre of distribution. NATAL History.—Natal was so named because it was discovered on Christmas day, 1497, by the great Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama. In 1824, English adventurers, coming by sea, established trading stations on the coast of Natal by arrangement with Chaka, the paramount chief of the Zulus, and a little settlement grew up on the site of the modern Durban. But these attempts at colonisation were unsuccessful, owing to the perpetual menace of the Zulu raids. Chaka, the Napoleon of South Africa, welded the Zulus, a people who occupied the country to the north of Natal, into a highly organised military nation. He conquered all the tribes in this portion of South Africa with his disciplined " impis." The Zulu armies devastated Bechuanaland and nearly all the regions between the Orange River and the Zambesi. One branch of the Zulus overran the Transvaal, and ultimately founded Matabeleland. It is estimated that a million people were killed in Chaka's wars of extermination. In 1836 a large section of the Boers who had trekked from the Cape Colony to avoid British *rule, crossed the Drakensberg range, and entered what is now the colony of Natal. Dingaan, Chaka's successor, agreed in return for certain services to grant lands to the Boers. The treacherous Zulus, however, murdered the deputation of Boers which had come to the king's kraal to draw up the treaty, and Dingaan sent out his impis to massacre all the white people in Natal. The Zulus were for long successful, and the Boers and their allies, the English settlers, lost heavily in several fights. But at last in 1838 a force of under 500 Boers signally defeated an army of 12,000 Zulus. The Zulu power was crushed by subsequent defeats, and the country was delivered from their ravages up to the river Umvolosi, which became the 72 SOUTHERN AFRICA southern boundary of the Zulu territory. Later, the Tugela River was made the frontier. The Boer farmers in 1840 proclaimed the Dutch Republic of Natalia. But the British Government refused to acknowledge the independence of the new state, and after some conflicts between the British and Boers, Natal was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1843. Four years later, the bulk of the Boer farmers, once more escaping from British rule, trekked into the Transvaal. The philan¬ thropists had once again disgusted them by favouring the blacks at their expense. The Boers, having driven out the Zulus, desired to keep Natal, the most fertile region in South Africa, as a white man's country; but under British rule Kaffirs from all the surrounding countries were allowed to flock into Natal and occupy the best lands, until at last they practically swamped the white population. In 1856 Natal was separated from the Cape, and was granted representative institutions; but it was not until 1893 that it acquired responsible government. The Zulu war broke out in 1879, and the British destroyed the mili¬ tary power of the Zulus which was reviving under Cetewayo. Transvaal "freebooters" then seized a portion of Zululand and founded the " New Republic," which was incorporated with the Transvaal in 1888. The rest of Zululand was annexed by Great Britain in 1887, and in 1897 it was placed under the administration of Natal. In the same year Amatongaland, a coast strip between Zulu- land and Portuguese East Africa, was incorporated into Natal, When the Boer war broke out in 1899, the Dutch invaded Natal, and much of the severest fighting was on Natal soil. When the Transvaal became a British colony at the termination of the war, the districts of Vryheid (formerly the New Republic) and Utrecht were separated from the Transvaal and annexed to Natal. The Colony, including these new accessions, has an area of 35,300 square miles, being thus somewhat larger than Ireland. Natural Features, Climate, and Productions. NATAL 73 —Natal has the Indian Ocean as its eastern border, its seaboard being 376 miles in length. It has for its western or inland boundary the highest ridges of the Quathlamba and Drakensberg Mountains, which buttress the great South African Plateau and form the watershed of the basin of the Orange River. These mountains separate Natal from Basutoland and the Orange River Colony. Natal is bordered on the north by the Transvaal and Portuguese East Africa, and on the south by the Cape Colony. A number of rivers, of which the Tugela is the longest, flow from the mountains across the Colony to the Indian Ocean. The Umzimkulu River, at whose mouth is Port Shepstone, is navigable for a few miles. From the coast the land rises, in successive terraces, and confused ridges pierced by beautiful valleys, to the uplands, 4000 feet above the sea, which form the foothills of the mountain ranges. The peaks of the Drakensberg on the frontier attain a height of over 10,000 feet above the sea. Natal contains some of the finest scenery in Africa. It is a land of fertile valleys, forests, grand mountains, water¬ falls, and defiles. The vegetation is luxuriant, and on account of its great fruitfulness, the Colony has been well named " the Garden of South Africa." The Natal maritime belt has the same moist oceanic climate as the east coast of the Cape Colony, but it is considerably hotter owing to its lower latitude, Natal lying between the 27th and 31st parallels of south latitude. The mean maximum annual temperature at Durban is 78° Fahr., that is seven degrees higher than at Port Elizabeth. But Natal is healthy for Europeans, and there is but little malaria even in the lowlands. As one ascends inland, from terrace to terrace, towards the mountains, the climate becomes more cool and bracing, while the wild vegetation gradually changes from the palm groves and tropical jungles of the coast to the pastures and bush of the foothills. Throughout the Colony, violent thunder-storms are frequently experienced in the summer months. On the coast belt the climate is too hot for the success¬ ful cultivation of the hardier cereals and fruits; so here are 74 SOUTHERN AFRICA produced the typical crops of tropical and subtropical regions:—sugar, coffee, tea, rice, ginger, capsicum, and such fruits as bananas, mangoes, and pineapples. Natal may be roughly divided into three belts: a maritime belt, where tropical produce is raised; a higher midland belt, where the cereals and fruits of Europe are cultivated; and a highland belt, where the breeding of sheep, cattle, and horses is the principal industry. Along all the low coast of the Colony are to be seen at frequent intervals the great plantations of pale green sugar-cane and the occasional sugar-mills. Ostrich farms are to be found in the midland districts; and here, too, the Australian black wattle-tree has been introduced, whose bark, used for the tanning of leather, forms a valuable article of export. Among cereals, maize is the most important crop. The natives, who own nearly two-thirds of the land at present under cultivation, produce mealies and Kaffir corn in large quantities. Valuable timber is found in the extensive forests. The mineral resources of Natal include gold, iron, and plumbago; but these have been but little exploited, and the extensive coal-fields in the north-east of the Colony, round Dundee and Newcastle, are of far more value to Natal than her mineral deposits. The relative importance of the productions of Natal is shown by the following list of some of her chief exports for the year 1904:—Coal, ;^402,ooo; wool, ;^290,ooo; wattle bark, ;£"93,ooo; sugar, ;£"83,ooo. Natal, though so small a colony, is to Great Britain one of the most valuable of her colonial customers. Thus, in 1903 Natal was a purchaser of the manufactures of the United Kingdom to the value of ;^8,6oo,ooo; whereas the vast Dominion of Canada was a purchaser to the value of only ;^i 3,200,000. Population. — The population of Natal in 1904 amounted to about 1,109,000, of whom 97,000 were whites, those of British blood preponderating. The natives numbered 904,000, and the Indians and other Asiatics in the Colony 101,000. Of these Asiatics, some are free NATAL 75 emigrants, while others are indentured for a term of years, having been introduced to work upon the sugar and other coast plantations. Defence.—The local defence force in Natal consists of the mounted Natal Police and the Militia (horse, foot, and artillery) about 5cx)0 men in all. Rifle clubs and school cadet corps exist in all parts of the Colony. " Loyal Natal" justified her proud title during the Boer war of 1899- 1902. She spent blood and treasure without stint for the Empire, and her volunteers distinguished themselves on many a battlefield. Towns. — Pietermaritzburg (population in 1904, 31,200) the capital and seat of government, about 50 miles inland from Durban, is a cheerful looking, red-brick town, with fine public buildings. Situated 2200 feet above the sea, it enjoys a healthy climate. It is surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery. Durban or Port Natal (population in 1904, 70,000) is the principal harbour of the Colony, and is indeed the only port of importance between East London in the Cape Colony and Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa. The harbour is commodious and safe. The inner basin covers 7 square miles; a breakwater and pier prolong the points of land that enclose the bay, and the con¬ tinuous dredging of the bar that encumbers the entrance enables large vessels to pass through the channel. Before the construction of the Natal railways—there are now about 800 miles of railway in that colony—Natal was an isolated country, and Durban was a port of small im¬ portance. But Durban has now nearer communication by rail with Johannesburg and the Transvaal than any other port in British South Africa; the distance by rail from Johannesburg to Cape Town being 1014 miles, and to Durban only 483 miles. Durban has, therefore, become a great emporium, and has secured a large and ever increas¬ ing shipping business. In 1903 the tonnage entered and cleared at Durban exceeded that entered and cleared at 76 SOUTHERN AFRICA Southampton. Durban is the terminus of the Natal railway systems. From it the main line extends inland, crossing the mountains and the highland terraces, till it reaches the Transvaal border and connects with the railway to Johannesburg. From Ladysmith, a branch line crosses the Quathlamba Mountains to connect with the railways of the Orange River Colony. From Durban, railways follow the coast both northwards into Zululand and southwards towards the Cape Colony border. Durban has developed a profitable local industry in the manufacture of jams from the many varieties of tropical fruits cultivated in the neighbourhood. It is a modern city of very different aspect to old Cape Town. It is the handsomest, best laid out, best paved town in South Africa The rich vegetation of its avenues and gardens gives the city a tropical appearance; and it is very hot there in summer. The wealthier inhabitants live in a pleasant tree-shaded suburb called the Berea, whose villas and gardens line a range of hills behind the town. Ladysmith is situated nearly 3300 feet above the sea, and has a dry and very healthy climate. It is the centre of a pastoral and agricultural district. The siege of Lady¬ smith was a notable episode of the Boer war of 1899-1902. Newcastle and Dundee are the centres of what are probably the richest coal-mining districts south of the Zambesi. Eshowe, the seat of the Resident Commissioner, is the only township worthy of mention in the province of Zulu- land. Zululand is practically a black man's country; there are but few white farmers in it; but the extensive coal fields near St Lucia Bay are now being worked, and the gold reefs are attracting miners, so mining townships are springing up in the country. BASUTOLAND One who travels across the eastern portion of the Orange River Colony in a dry season under the cloudless sky, when the spruits are empty of water and the hot and BASUTOLAND 77 parching wind drives clouds of dust over the thirsty veldt, ever sees to the eastward of him the long line of fleecy cloud that tops the purple-peaked ranges of Basutoland. For that favoured country, with its cloud-attracting moun¬ tains, which are as high as the Pyrenees, catches refreshing rains in its fertile valleys when there is pitiless drought on the inland plains; where the white farmer, standing under the hopeless blue, gazes with envious eyes at the snow- white cloudland that floats over the black man's country. For this rich territory, though coveted by the white farmers, has been preserved to its native inhabitants by the British Government. The Basutos are of the Bechuana branch of the Bantu stock; while possessing high warlike qualities, they are the most intelligent, the most industrious, and the best educated of South African native peoples. They were converted to Christianity by the French Pro¬ testant missions. Having now a high standard of living, liking good clothes, comfortable houses and furniture, the men in order to earn the money needed to obtain these things, leave their country for a while in large numbers to seek work in the Kimberley and Transvaal mines and on the farms of the white men. The Basuto tribes, united under their brave and cunning chieftain Moshesh, successfully resisted Chaka and his Zulu hordes when that chief was carrying on his wars of extermination. The Basuto warriors developed into expert cattle-lifters, and, mounted on their tough little ponies, raided the neighbouring countries. This brought them into collision with the Free State Boers, who seized a considerable portion of their country. In 1869, at the petition of the Basutos, Great Britain annexed Basutoland, at the same time concluding a treaty with the Orange River Free State, by which the latter retained the tract of country on the west bank of the Caledon River, which the Boers had captured. In 1871 Basutoland was annexed to the Cape Colony. After the death of Moshesh, native rebellions led to frequent war between the Cape Colony and the Basutos, until at last, in 1884, on the appeal of the Basutos, the Imperial Government took over the 78 SOUTHERN AFRICA control of Basutoland, and it became a Crown Colony. The legislative authority is centred in the High Commis¬ sioner for South Africa, and under his direction a Resident Commissioner governs the country. But the people are practically left under the authority of their tribal chiefs, who carry on most of the work of administration. All land is held under the tribal communal system, individual proprietorship not being recognised. White men cannot settle here without permission from the Resident Com¬ missioner. Basutoland, the " Switzerland of South Africa," is the highland region, in which the Orange River and many of its tributary streams rise. It covers an area of about 10,300 square miles, and is bordered by the Cape Colony, the Orange River Colony, and Natal. This rugged highland plateau has an average height of 6000 feet above the sea, and is traversed by the Maluti Mountains (a branch of the Drakensberg), which contain the highest peaks in South Africa, the Machucha Mountain attaining a height of 11,000 feet. This land-mass of mountains and high valleys, intercepting the moisture borne westwards from the Indian Ocean by the trade winds, has an ample rainfall, is well watered by a number of perennial streams, and contains the richest agricultural and pastoral tracts in all South Africa. Splendid crops of wheat are raised here without irrigation. Cereals of various sorts, and wool, are exported in large quantities. The pastures support great herds and flocks, and the breeding of the famous Basuto ponies is a profitable industry. The climate is healthy, and is dry and keen in winter, while the summer rains are broken by spells of delicious clear weather. The population of Basutoland in 1904 amounted to nearly 349,000, of whom under 900 were whites. Maseru is the principal town, and the seat of the Resident Com¬ missioner. THE ORANGE RIVER COLONY History.—Dutch farmers from the south, seeking new THE ORANGE RIVER COLONy 79 pasture lands, established themselves on the north side of the Orange River in about 1825. At the time of the "Great Trek" of 1835-1836, numbers of Boers, emigrating from the Cape Colony to escape British rule, occupied this region. In 1848, as the Boers were in constant collision with the Griquas, who were under British pro¬ tection, all the territory between the Orange and Vaal Rivers was annexed to Great Britain. The Boers took up arms, but were defeated, whereon a large proportion of them undertook another trek to the wilds beyond the Vaal River. In 1854 the British Government gave back their independence to the settlers, and sanctioned the creation of the Orange River Free State. This new republic became engaged in frequent wars with the Basutos, and was threatened with absorption by the Transvaal, whose burghers invaded the country. In 1858 the farmers of the Free State, feeling themselves too weak to stand alone, offered, through their Volksraad, to surrender the independence of the country, and to enter into some sort of confederation with the Cape Colony; but this the Imperial Government—unwilling to incur the responsibilities attending territorial expan¬ sion— would not sanction. The Free State, however, now enjoyed a long period of peace, and became an exceedingly well-governed and prosperous country. Its frontiers were gradually delimited. As has been already explained, Griqualand West, to which the Free State laid claim, was placed under British rule, while a portion of Basutoland was added to the Free State. When the last Boer war opened in 1899, the Free State threw in its lot with the Transvaal. Consequently, at the termination of the war in 1902, the Free State was deprived of its independence, and was annexed to Great Britain. Under the title of the Orange River Colony it was made a Crown Colony, but a promise was made to introduce representative institutions at an early date. New Constitution.—Letters patent, providing for the establishment of responsible government in the 80 SOUTHERN AFRICA Orange River Colony, were issued loth June 1907. The constitution is based on the same principles as that of the Transvaal. Population and Area.—The population of the Orange River Colony amounted, in 1904, to about 387,000, of whom 143,000 were whites, the proportion of whites to blacks being thus high for Southern Africa. Of the whites the Boers compose the large majority; but numbers of British, for the most part Scots, have long since been settled here, and are the most progressive farmers in the country; under the liberal laws of the late Free State, they became burghers, and enjoyed the privilege of the franchise without renouncing their British nationality. The area of the Colony is about 50,400 square miles, about that of England. Physical Features, Products, and Industries.— The Orange River Colony is bordered by the Cape Colony, Basutoland, the Transvaal, and Bechuanaland. It lies within the fork formed by the Orange River and its confluent, the Vaal, and is drained by the tributaries of these two streams. The whole of the Colony is thus situated on the Great South African Plateau, whose vast grassy steppes—here between four and five thousand feet above the sea—are almost treeless save where the willows and mimosas fringe the deep-cut river-beds. This some¬ what dreary looking plain, strewn with strangely shaped, often flat-topped kopjes, is essentially a stock-raising region. The climate is dry, and here, as elsewhere in South Africa, the rainfall diminishes as one proceeds west¬ ward ; so that, though mealies and other crops are grown throughout the Colony, the purely agricultural farms are to be found on the eastern side only, and the great pastoral farms in the central and western parts. On the Basutoland and Natal frontiers, among the foothills of the mountains, where there is a considerable and fairly regular rainfall in the summer, cereals of all sorts are cultivated without irrigation. The richest agricultural district of all South Africa is what is now called the "Conquered THE ORANGE RIVER COLONY 81 Territory," the portion of Basutoland that was annexed to the Free State. This is a strip of land about 130 miles long and 30 miles broad, bordering the right bank of the Caledon River, which here forms the Basuto frontier. On this land, " the Granary of South Africa," magnificent crops of wheat are raised, and it has been estimated that when all the more suitable parts of the district have been brought under cultivation, the output of wheat should be thirty millions of bushels a year, that is about half the wheat output of the United Kingdom. Many of the best farms on the Basuto border are held by Scotsmen. Of old, the Boers were little inclined to occupy farms on this borderland, rich as it is, in face of the perpetual menace of the Basuto raids. The Scots were prepared to take the risks, got their farms on cheap terms, and have profited greatly. Among the valleys of these eastern hills, which often remind one of the glens of Scotland, are scattered the pleasant farms of the settlers, round some of which large plantations of oaks and other trees have been planted. Here, too, large lakes, miles in length, have been made by the construction of dams across the valley mouths, and these not only irrigate the neighbouring farms, but supply the turbines which work the great flour-mills. At the close of the Boer war the British Government settled a number of small farmers of British stock, for the most part men who had fought in the war, on lands in the Conquered Territory. The cereals, tobacco, dairy produce, vegetables, and fruit pro¬ duced by the settlers find a ready market on the gold and diamond mines. The bulk of the agricultural produce of the Orange River Colony is exported to the Transvaal. Several lines of railway, now in course of construction, will open up the wheat belt and connect with the main line from Cape Town to Johannesburg, which traverses the Colony from south to north. Coal is abundant in the Colony, and important coal¬ mines are worked near Kroonstad and Heilbron in the north. Gold has been found; but the mineral wealth of F 82 SOUTHERN AFRICA the country consists mainly in its diamond fields. The Jagersfontein mine in the south of the Colony is the richest diamond mine outside the Kimberley district, its annual output being of the value of over half a million sterling. The chief exports are wool, diamonds, ostrich feathers, hides, and grain. Towns.—Bloemfoiitein is the capital of the Colony and the seat of government. In 1904 it had a population of about 12,000 whites and 15,000 blacks. Though the chief city of a prosperous country, Bloemfontein is merely the quiet centre of a purely farming district, with no din to disturb its broad garden-lined streets, save that caused by the weird cries of the drivers and the crack¬ ing of the whips, as the long teams of oxen slowly drag into the spacious market-square the creaking waggons laden with the produce of the countryside. The town is over 4500 feet above the sea, and is environed by low grassy hills. Having an excellent climate, it has become a favourite health resort. Bloemfontein is the only town of any size in the Colony. The other townships are merely villages contain¬ ing but a few hundreds of inhabitants each; but in South Africa the population of a town bears little relation to its importance, for these little veldt townships are prosperous trading centres, and the market-towns of vast tracts of country peopled by wealthy farmers. The largest of these townships is Kroonstad, with a population of 2400 whites. Wepener, Ladybrand, and Picksburg, in the valley of the Caledon River, are the important centres of rich agri¬ cultural districts in the Conquered Territory, and being on the frontier of Basutoland, carry on an active trade with that country, exporting to it the cottons and other manu¬ factured goods which have been previously imported into the Orange River Colony from beyond the seas. THE TRANSVAAL History.—After the Great Trek of 1835-1836, a THE TRANSVAAL 83 number of the Boer farmers, pushing further into the interior than their fellows who had founded the Orange River Colony, established themselves on the northern side of the Vaal River. Later on they were joined by other Boers, who had abandoned the Free State and Natal when Great Britain took over the rule of those countries in 1848. Even before they had crossed the Vaal, the Boers were in collision with the warlike Matabele, a branch of the great Zulu nation, who had occupied most of the territory now known as the Transvaal, after exterminating the former inhabitants. The Boers, after much fighting, defeated the Matabele, who in 1837 retired to the north of the Limpopo River. In 1852 the British Government, at the Sand River Convention, recognised the independence of the Transvaal Boers, The territory was at first divided into four separate republics, jealous of, and ever quarrelling with each other. These states in 1860 were united under one government, forming the Transvaal Republic, which later on assumed the title of the South African Republic. In 1877 the Republic was practically in a bankrupt condition; the country was in a state of anarchy; an expedition against the chief Sekukuni had resulted in a Boer defeat; and the Zulu hordes were threatening in¬ vasion and general massacre of the whites. The British Government, therefore, at the request of a considerable section of the population, annexed the Transvaal. With British troops, and at the cost of the British tax-payer, the Transvaal Boers were delivered from the native foes who had so long harassed them; the Zulu power was broken, and a solvent government was established in the Transvaal. But now dissatisfaction, caused by the mis¬ takes of the British Government and its officials on the spot, and by the disinclination of the Boers to pay taxes or to submit to any form of regular government, enabled Kruger and the other Boer leaders to bring about a general rising and to proclaim the republic. The war opened in December 1880. After suffering other reverses, the small British force available was defeated at Majuba Hill in Natal tetritory. Reinforcements from England 84 SOUTHERN AFRICA had by this time arrived, but they were not employed; for the British Government came to terms, and once again formally recognised the independence of the Transvaal Republic under the suzerainty of the Queen of England— an act of magnanimity which was regarded by the Boers as a confession of weakness and fear. From that time the Boers displayed a persistent hostility to Great Britain, and repeatedly violated the conventions into which they had entered with the British Government. In despite of the Convention of 1881, by which it was laid down that the Transvaal border should be to the eastward of the great trade routes to the north, the Transvaal Boers attempted to bar the northward expansion of the British colonies, by seizing a portion of Bechuanaland. This led to the Con¬ vention of 1884, which definitely delimited the western frontier of the Republic. Further aggressions in this direction compelled Great Britain to despatch the Warren Expedition in 1885, the result of which was the safeguard¬ ing of British rights in that territory without bloodshed. The Transvaal then extended her eastern frontier by seizing a portion of Zululand, and by taking over the administration of Swaziland—a strip of territory divided from the Indian Ocean by Amatongaland. It had long been the ambition of the Transvaal rulers to open the way for the northern expansion of the Republic by the annexa¬ tion of Matabele territory, and in 1901 bodies of Boer trekkers from the Transvaal attempted to establish them¬ selves beyond the Limpopo River. But it was by this time too late to effect this; the race for the north between the Transvaal, Germany, Portugal, and Great Britain had been won by the latter; the far-seeing statesmanship of Cecil Rhodes had secured the supremacy of the British flag in South Africa. The Transvaal was now not only cut off from the sea by an intervening strip of British territory, but the acquisition by Great Britain of Bechuana¬ land and Matabeleland completely isolated the Boer Republic and finally fixed its frontiers. From the year 1873 gold had been successfully worked in the Transvaal, but it was not until 1886 that the Wit- THE TRANSVAAL 85 vvatersrand was proclaimed a gold-field. This led to a great influx of miners, prospectors, and others from the outside world, whose numbers rapidly increased as it became evident that this was the most valuable of the world's gold-fields. The Boer Government became enor¬ mously enriched by this discovery, but pursued a policy that exasperated the Uitlanders^ as these foreigners were called, the bulk of whom were of British blood. Legis¬ lation favoured the pastoral Boers at the expense of the Uitlanders, on whom, however, practically the entire tax¬ ation was imposed, while their industries were crippled by the monopolies that had been granted by the Transvaal Government. The Uitlanders, having no representation, had no control over the heavy expenditure incurred by the corrupt government. The friction between the Boers and the Uitlanders, who now formed the majority of the white population, and owned nine-tenths of the property in the country, ever intensified ; the position of the British in the Transvaal became ever more humiliating, the attitude of the Boer rulers ever more truculent; the unsuccessful Jameson Raid was made in 1895; and, at last. President Kruger's insolent ultimatum to the British Government precipitated the war of 1899-1902, at the termination of which the conquered Transvaal became a British Crown Colony. The vast ambitions of Paul Kruger and his party, whose aim it was to unite South Africa under the Dutch republican flag, made inevitable the conflict for supremacy between British and Boers. The political ideals of the two peoples were wholly at variance; there was nothing in common between the free institutions of a British self- ruling colony, and the tyrannical oligarchy of the so-called republic beyond the Vaal. The two wholly incompatible systems could not exist side by side; one of them had to disappear. Between 1897 and 1905 Great Britain fortunately had in South Africa as High Commissioner, one of those able and far-seeing proconsuls who have done so much to build up the Empire, but whose great services are often inade- 86 SOUTHERN AFRICA quately appreciated at the time by a large section of their countrymen. Lord Milner's services are understood, how¬ ever, by those who know Africa. He proved himself one of the Empire's great administrators; he was the strong and fearless man at the critical time preceding the war ; and, at the close of the war, he worked untiringly and success¬ fully to bring about the reorganisation and recuperation of the war-worn country, the reconciliation of the two white races, and the consolidation of British South Africa. After the war the districts of Vryheid and Utrecht— the portion of Zululand which had been seized by the Boers—were separated from the Transvaal and annexed to Natal, leaving to the Transvaal an area of 112,000 square miles, that is, about five-sixths the area of the British Isles. Population.—According to the census of 1904, the population of the Transvaal was about 1,269,000; the aboriginal blacks numbering about 946,000; the whites over 299,000. The country could easily support a much larger population. Natural Features.—The Transvaal is an inland terri¬ tory, of which the greater portion is upon the South African Plateau. A comparatively small section of the country is on the east side of the Drakensberg range, forming a lowland strip which extends to within 60 miles of the Indian Ocean, but is cut off from access to it by Portuguese and Natal territory. The Transvaal has a mean height of about 4000 feet above the sea, and a great portion of the tableland has an elevation of 5000 feet. On the east this tableland is bordered by the Drakensberg, a section of the mountain system which forms the rim of the Great South African Plateau, and divides it from the low maritime belt. The peaks of the Transvaal Drakens¬ berg attain a height of nearly 9000 feet. Various branches of the Drakensberg cross the Colony from east to west. Among these transverse ranges is the Witwatersrand, 6000 feet above the sea, which forms the watershed between the Limpopo River flowing eastward into the THE TRANSVAAL^ 87 Indian Ocean, and the Vaal and other tributaries of the Orange River flowing westward into the Atlantic. The Transvaal tableland is drained by these rivers and their numerous branches. Throughout the greater part of the Transvaal the watercourses do not run dry as do many of the rivers farther south; for the Witwatersrand, the backbone of the country, on whose slopes most of the streams have their sources, is largely formed of a magnesian limestone rock full of cavities, which holds the rain-water like a huge sponge and supplies a perennial reservoir. The Limpopo or Crocodile has a course of about 800 miles, and is one of the few South African rivers that is navigable for a considerable distance from its mouth by steamers of shallow draught; the navigable portion of the river is in Portuguese territory; its chief tributary is the Olifants River. The Maputi and Komati rivers rise in the eastern highlands, and flow through the Transvaal low country to the Indian Ocean. The Vaal along the greater portion of its course forms the southern frontier of the Transvaal, dividing it from the Orange River Colony; the Limpopo, flowing in a great semicircular sweep, forms its northern boundary, dividing it from the British South Africa Company's territories; on the west it is bounded by the Cape Colony and the Bechuanaland Protectorate; and on the east by Natal and Portuguese East Africa. The Transvaal tablelands, though hot in summer, enjoy a dry, bracing, and perfectly healthy climate. On the bleak high veldt it is cold in winter, and snow falls occasionally. At that season the Boer farmers drive their cattle down to the lower and warmer bush veldt of the north, where there is good winter pasture. The Transvaal, save in its more arid western parts, is a greener and more pleasant-looking country than the Orange River Colony; for here the mono¬ tony of the great grassy steppes is often varied by groves of various forms of acacia, and other trees and shrubs, while extensive tracts are covered with heavy timber both in the northern and eastern parts of the Colony. 88 SOUTHERN AFRICA From the Witwatersrand the land slopes northward to the Limpopo valley—much of which has an elevation of under 1500 feet—and eastwards to the maritime lowlands. The country can be roughly divided into four climate and vegetation zones : i. the High Veldt—6000 feet above the sea on the watershed—extending from the valley of the Vaal to the northern slopes of the Witwatersrand. 2. The Middle Veldt, which borders the High Veldt, and is warmer and has a lesser elevation than the latter. The portion of the Middle Veldt that extends eastward from Pretoria, and includes the fertile districts of Rustenburg and Marico, is a pleasant land of hills and sheltered vales; green in places as a Devon countryside, with lush pastures, shady groves, and a luxuriant undergrowth of ferns, roses, and flowering shrubs. 3. The Low Veldt, or Bush Veldt, a still hotter and lower region beyond the Middle Veldt; a wilderness of trees and shrubs, chiefly useful as providing good winter pasture. 4. The low-lying country extending from the Bush Veldt northwards to the Limpopo and east¬ wards to the borders of the Portuguese possessions. A portion of this region, containing one-sixth of the total area of the Transvaal, is within the tropics; here grow baobabs, mahogany, palms, and other plants of the tropical zone ; the climate is hot, moist, and unhealthy, malaria being prevalent, especially near the banks of the river. Agriculture. — The Transvaal is a magnificent pastoral country, and horses, cattle, and sheep are raised in large numbers. The agricultural possibilities are great; but the Boer farmers neglected agriculture; with the aid of irrigation works, the area of the land under cultivation could be increased tenfold. A great portion of the country is admirably suited for the cultivation of cereals. It has been estimated that whereas in the Cape Colony one-fifth and in the Orange River Colony one-half of the land enjoys a sufficient rainfall to allow of the cultivation of such crops as Indian corn, millet, and potatoes without irrigation, this is possible over at least two-thirds of the Transvaal. On the rich red loam of the Middle Veldt, THE TRANSVAAL 89 where the land is at present more carefully cultivated than elsewhere, splendid crops of wheat, maize, and other cereals, tobacco, and forage are raised; all the fruits of the temperate and subtropical zone thrive; and productive vineyards, orange groves, sugar plantations, and orchards of apples, peaches, pomegranates, bananas, and guavas surround many of the pretty red-brick homesteads of this fruitful region. In the sultry lowlands, for example in the de Kaap valley near the borders of Portuguese East Africa, and in Swaziland, coffee, sugar, cocoa, cotton, and other ' subtropical products can be successfully cultivated. As elsewhere in South Africa, the farmers in the Transvaal have not a few difficulties to contend with. Locusts and hailstorms destroy the crops; horse sickness, the rinderpest, and other diseases, and the poisonous tsetse fly of the subtropical lowlands kill off horses and cattle, and in the Low Veldt malaria attacks human beings. But most of these plagues disappear before the advance of civilisation ; thus the tsetse fly goes when the big game are destroyed, and is now only found in remote regions, while malaria vanishes before drainage and cultivation, as is the case, for example, in the once unhealthy Marico valley. Minerals.—The Transvaal is one of the most highly- mineralised regions in the world. The value of the annual output of gold from the Transvaal mines in 1906 amounted to nearly ;^24,000,000. Large deposits of excellent coal are found in the Transvaal. Among the principal coal¬ mines are those at Klerksdorp, Vereeniging, and Boksburg. The annual output of coal is rapidly increasing, and in 1906 amounted to about 3,000,000 tons. Silver, tin, iron, copper, and other metals are found, and valuable dis¬ coveries of diamonds have been made. The diamonds exported from the Transvaal in 1906 were of the value of over ;£"i,700,000. In 1905 the largest known diamond— four inches in length, and weighing over one pound avoir¬ dupois—was found in the Premier mine. Gold-mines were first successfully worked in the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal in 1873; 90 SOUTHERN AFRICA Komati and Barberton gold-fields attracted numbers of miners. But that which brought fortune to the Transvaal was the discovery of far the most valuable gold-field in the world on the Witwatersrand. The Rand, as it came to be called, was proclaimed a gold-field in 1886. Here the gold-bearing reefs extend for several miles along the watershed both to the eastward and westward of the city of Johannesburg. The gold-bearing reefs on the Rand differ from those in most auriferous regions. Here the gold is not found in quartz rock but in a conglomerate full of pebbles, known as the " banket." This is an ancient sedimentary deposit lying on the granite bed-rock of this region. At some remote period, a great upheaval forced the granite bed upwards to form the ridge of the Wit¬ watersrand, and it carried with it the banket and other overlying strata. The banket outcrop is worked along the top of this ridge; and by means of the " deep level" mines, gold is also extracted from the lower slopes of the upheaval, thousands of feet below the surface of the veldt. The finely divided and generally invisible particles of gold are distributed through the banket with remark¬ able uniformity, the average proportion being twenty-two shillings worth of gold to the ton of banket. When sinking into the richest quartz reefs, one cannot be certain how soon the ore may become poor and unpayable, or the gold veins disappear altogether. This uncertainty is absent from banket mining, which can be carried down the dip of the reef in fair expectation of good return until unworkable depths are reached. Experts maintain that some of the mines can be profitably worked to the depth of 8000 feet below the surface. All gold - fields are exhausted in time, but it will probably be many years before the Transvaal ceases to be the greatest of gold- producing countries. The prosperity of practically the entire white popula¬ tion of the Transvaal depends upon the development of the Rand gold-mines; for not only are about 15,000 Europeans employed to perform all the skilled labour on the mines, but the mining industry directly and indirectly THE TRANSVAAL 91 affords employment to tens of thousands of white artisans, storekeepers, and others, and also provides the farmers with a great market for their produce. It should be borne in mind, too, that this form of gold-mining is not the mere extraction of a raw material from the earth like coal-mining; for after the extraction of the gold ore from the reef comes the complicated treatment of the ore, necessitating a vast amount of skilled labour that is beyond the capacity of the black man. In order to realise how various and far-reaching are the industries involved in the working of the Rand mines, one should picture to oneself an English county crowded with coal¬ mines, cotton mills, and chemical works. More than 100,000 men are needed to perform the unskilled labour on the Rand mines. It is necessary that this labour should not be costly, else the mines, being of comparatively low grade ore, could only be worked at a loss. After the Boer war of 1899-1902, the increasing diffi¬ culty of obtaining a sufficient supply of Kaffirs for the mines led to the experimental introduction of indentured Chinese labourers. The native labour question is a troublesome one throughout British South Africa. The natives, protected by British rule, and enabled, by the opening of new markets and the introduction of railways, to secure good prices for the agricultural produce which they raise at the cost of very little labour, are ever becoming more prosper¬ ous, and therefore less inclined to work, even for high wages, whether on the mines or farms ; for the Kaffir is of lazy temperament, and when he has purchased enough wives to toil for him in his fields, to remain in his kraal and do nothing is for him the ideal life. The British on the Rand, rich and poor, mining magnate and miner, fought stoutly for the British flag during the war. Leaving the Transvaal when hostilities broke out, they formed the bulk of the rank and file of the Imperial Light Horse, the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles, and other irregular corps. After the surrender of Johannes¬ burg to the British, 22,000 men were enrolled in the Rand 92 SOUTHERN AFRICA Rifles, the force that was raised for the defence of the Witwatersrand gold-mines. The present excellent Trans¬ vaal volunteer forces, horse and foot, are the direct successors of the disbanded irregular corps that fought in the war, and they preserve the old regimental titles which these men made famous. Towns.—Pretoria, named after Pretorius, the first president of the South African Republic, became the capital of the State in 1863, and is now the capital of the Transvaal Colony and the seat of government. In 1904 the population was 36,700. It is situated in a valley on the northern slopes of the Witwatersrand, at an elevation of 4470 feet above the sea. Enclosed as it is by hills and surrounded by perennial streams, it has a hot and humid climate despite its altitude. Fruits and flowers of every description thrive here, and the town nestles among magnificent trees and luxuriant gardens. The late Boer Government, by forbidding the working of gold in the neighbourhood and by other measures, preserved this as a quiet conservative place, very unlike its bustling neighbour Johannesburg. Its broad streets, shaded by avenues of fine willows, cross each other at right angles. The hand¬ some public buildings are grouped round a spacious square, in the centre of which stands the large Dutch Reformed church. Under the new regime this peaceful agricultural centre is likely to become a prosperous and busy place, for gold-fields have been proclaimed near it. Pretoria is 1040 miles distant from Cape Town by rail, and 349 from Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa, the nearest seaport with which it is connected by railway. Johannesburg, which now has the largest white popula¬ tion of any city of Southern Africa, ^s situated on the Witwatersrand, about 30 miles to the south of Pretoria, at an elevation of over 5600 feet above the sea. Set in the dreary and barren veldt, where farms that are now worth millions were but a few years since practically valueless, so poor is the land for pastoral and agricultural purposes, the great city owes its origin entirely to the gold-reefs amid THE TRANSVAAL 93 which it is built. It began to spring out of this bleak and almost uninhabited wilderness in 1886, when the value of the "banket" became apparent. The population of the young city in 1904 amounted to 158,600, of whom nearly 84,000 were whites, the majority being of British origin. Situated as it is on the open High Veldt, Johannesburg has a dry, bracing, and healthy climate, but it is subject to frequent dust storms. The streets are regularly laid out, and there are fine public buildings and squares, but the sordid shanties and unsightly corrugated iron buildings of the old mushroom mining township still cluster round the stately edifices. Some of the principal gold-mines are on the edge of the town; and all along the Rand, both to the westward and eastward, for scores of miles, the battery houses, and hills of gleaming " tailings " line the reefs. Of all this industry, Johannesburg, with its bustling cosmo¬ politan population, is the wealthy and prosperous centre. Surrounded by its girdle of many tall smoking chimneys that tell of the never-ceasing crushing of ore and extrac¬ tion of gold, it is a city busy and noisy by day and strangely peaceful by night; but even then absolute silence does not reign, for one hears a mysterious sound— inaudible by day for the din of traffic—a melancholy murmuring like the breaking of the sea on a distant beach. It comes from no one direction, but swells up from all round one. It is the sound of the mining machinery that never stops by day or by night in the eager quest for gold. Potchefstroom (population 6000) is the oldest city in the Colony, and was once the capital of the South African Republic. It is the centre of one of the most fertile and densely populated agricultural districts of the Colony, well watered by tributaries of the Vaal. Klerksdorp is a gold-mining centre, and is surrounded by rich coal-fields. Middelburg, on a tributary of the Olifants River, is also the centre of an important coal¬ mining district. Pietersburg at the northern end of the Transvaal railway system, is near the Low Country gold- fields, and is a starting-place for travellers to the north. Among the small but important market towns of the 94 SOUTHERN AFRICA garden of the Transvaal, the fertile Middle Veldt, are Rustenburg and Zeerust. Rustenburg is the centre of the most productive agricultural district of the Colony, and here under the slopes of the Magaliesberg range, what is reputed to be the best flavoured tobacco of the Transvaal is raised. Zeerust is the centre of the Marico district, near the Bechuanaland frontier. Situated at the foot of a warm, well-watered valley some hundreds of feet below the enclosing grassy terraces of the High Veldt, it is in the middle of a beautiful and extensive oasis of pastures, corn-fields, and orchards. The New Transvaal Constitution.—The Imperial Government in 1906 decided to replace the Crown Colony form of government in the Transvaal by a constitution, under which the Colony will enjoy full responsible government. The constitution has established a Legisla¬ tive Assembly, whose members are elected by manhood suffrage on the basis of one vote one value (in the Cape Colony and Natal, voters have to satisfy a property qualification), and a Legislative Council or upper house, whose members will be nominated by the Crown for the first quinquennial parliament, but will be elected for subsequent parliaments. The constitution imposes one important restriction on the powers of the new parlia¬ ment : any legislation imposing disabilities on natives which are not imposed on Europeans will be reserved to the Secretary of State. It is also provided that Swaziland, with its almost exclusively black population, shall be placed under the administration of the High Commissioner, instead of that of the Transvaal Government as here¬ tofore. THE BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE Bechuanaland, lying as it does between the Transvaal and German South-West Africa, is the gateway to the north, and, as we have shown, it was all but closed against us by the joining hands across it of the Germans and the THE BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE 95 Dutch. Boer aggressions into the territory of the Bechuanas commenced in the early fifties, and the great missionary and explorer, Livingstone, who had established mission stations in this region, complained of the cruel treatment of these people by the Dutch, and gave warning of the intention of the Transvaalers to close Bechuanaland against the British. Khama in the north, Montsioa in the south, and other Bechuana chiefs, their countries ever being harassed by the Boers, repeatedly appealed to Great Britain for protection ; but it was not until 1885, after the Warren Expedition had ousted the Boer freebooters, who were establishing independent republics in Bechuana¬ land, that Great Britain formally proclaimed a protectorate over Bechuanaland up to the 22nd parallel of latitude. The portion of this region lying to the south of the river Molopo was made a Crown Colony under the title of British Bechuanaland, and in 1895 it was annexed to the Cape Colony. The northern portion of the territory was placed under the protection of the Crown, under the title of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. In 1890 the Protectorate was extended northwards to its present confines. The Crown is represented by a Resident Commissioner, acting under the High Commissioner for South Africa. The Bechuanaland Protectorate is bounded on the south by the Cape Colony, on the east by the Transvaal and Rhodesia, on the north by the Zambesi and Chobe rivers, and on the west by German South-West Africa. It has an estimated area of 275,000 square miles, and is therefore three times as large as the island of Great Britain. But this great territory in 1904 had a popula¬ tion of only 120,000 natives and 1000 whites. The Bechuanas are among the most intelligent of the Bantu peoples, and have shown themselves capable of acquiring a considerable degree of civilisation. The natives preserve their tribal organisation, and occupy recognised territories under the rule of their hereditary chiefs. The enlightened Khama, chief of the Bamang- wato, is the most powerful of these chieftains. He rules his people with firmness and justice, and has prohibited 96 SOUTHERN AFRICA the sale of alcoholic drinks in his country. The Kalahari Desert, on the west side of the Protectorate, is thinly populated by bushmen of low type, who were once the slaves of the Bechuanas, and now live by the chase. The greater part of the Protectorate is within the tropics, but the heat is tempered by the altitude, the mean level being over 3000 feet above the sea. Thorny bush covers much of the country. On the east side there is good pasture, the natives breed stock on a large scale, and cultivate mealies and other crops. The bush supplies wood fuel which is exported to Kimberley. Towards the west the rainfall gradually diminishes, until almost rainless tracts are found in the vast plains of the Kalahari Desert. The rivers of the interior do not find their way into the ocean but drain into Lake Ngami, once an inland sea, but now a reedy swamp which is apparently slowly drying up, and into the great Makarikari salt-pans. Most of the Kalahari streams are invisible for the greater part of the year, percolating slowly under the surface of the dry sand. The chief European settlements are at Khama's new capital Serowe, and at Gaberones and Prancistown on the trunk railway from the Cape to Bulawayo, which traverses the eastern side of the Protectorate. The British South Africa Company owns much of the land in the Protectorate, and is settling farmers in the eastern portions. RHODESIA History. — This territory, the youngest of Great Britain's colonies, has an area of 434,000 square miles, and is therefore five times as large as the island of Great Britain. It is 1000 miles in length from north to south— that is from the Transvaal border to Lake Tanganyika— and has a maximum breadth of 700 miles. It is bordered on the south by the Transvaal; on the west by the Bechuanaland Protectorate, German South-West Africa, and Angola; on the north by the Congo Free State and GtOTgo. 6^So7V,Iu'^, LcrndoiL. JolmMxiiraD/', iillDeniarle S-tJ:eet. TKbLondon. QBogTCoLhdjycdblnsxiJxite,. Northwestern University Library RHODESIA 97 German East Africa; and on the east by British Central Africa and Portuguese East Africa. The wealth of Zambesia was known to the ancients and was exploited by them. It has been argued that in this region was the land of Ophir whence Solomon drew his gold. Wonderful ruins at Zimbabwe and elsewhere show that the Arabians or Phoenicians thousands of years ago worked the gold-mines in Mashonaland; and the Semitic and Hamitic types are still distinguishable in the features of many of the natives. The Portuguese, having established themselves on the Mozambique Coast in the beginning of the sixteenth century, explored portions of Zambesia, but they never held dominion over the interior. When the power of Portugal waned, the results of these explorations became forgotten, and it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that David Livingstone rediscovered much of this country. Missionaries and hunters and traders gradually ex¬ tended our knowledge of the interior, and travellers testi¬ fied to the beauty and richness of the tablelands both to the north and south of the Zambesi. Cecil Rhodes, when on the diamond fields of Kimberley, was fired by these reports, and conceived the idea of creating a great new British Colony that should include the finest country in South and Central Africa. It was in order to get control of the capital necessary for the forwarding of his great scheme, that he brought about the amalgamation of the diamond mines into the De Beers Company. As far back as 1881 Rhodes came to the front as a member of the Cape parliament, and began to make clear the way for the realisation of his plans ; but the scramble for Africa had commenced, and he had not only to overcome the opposi¬ tion of the Cape Colony and the apathy of the British Government, but to outmanoeuvre Germany, Portugal, and the Transvaal, which were now awakening to the value of the Southern Plateau. In 1884 secured for Great Britain the gateway to the north, Bechuanaland, which the Transvaalers and the Germans were attempting to close against us. In 1888, through Rhodes' influence, a treaty G 98 SOUTHERN AFRICA was effected between Great Britain and Lobengula, the king of the Matabele, by which the latter undertook to make no concessions of territory without the permission of the High Commissioner for South Africa. President Kruger, who had sent a mission to Matabeleland, was thus forestalled, and Rhodes obtained concessions from Loben¬ gula which were ratified by the High Commissioner. The next step was the creation of the British South Africa Company, to which the Imperial Government in 1889 granted a Royal Charter, giving it powers to develop the regions lying to the north of the Transvaal and British Bechuanaland. In June 1890 the famous Pioneer Expedition—about 800 white men with ox-waggons carrying a six months' supply of stores and provisions—set out from the Bechuana¬ land border, and, guided by the famous hunter Selous, marched 500 miles into Mashonaland. The pioneers constructed a road as they went, made drifts at the rivers by which the waggons could cross, built forts at intervals, leaving small garrisons to hold them, and at last reached their objective, the height where now stands Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia. The pioneers scattered over the country, pegging out farms and gold-mining claims : townships sprang up; land was brought under cultivation ; and arrangements were made for the admini¬ stration of the country. Such was the beginning of the state now called after the great Empire-builder, Rhodesia. Rhodes had now carefully to watch and circumvent our rivals, who spared no effort short of war to keep the British from the north. He frustrated Germany's attempt to connect her eastern and western African possessions, and so place a bar against British expansion. In 1901 the Rhodesians had to guard the drifts of the Limpopo against a Boer trek. Even when the Pioneer Expedition was on its way, the Portuguese were distributing flags among the native chiefs, and trying to get concessions that would cut off Mashona¬ land from Matabeleland. In 1889, Rhodes, hearing that the Germans were endeavouring to establish themselves RHODESIA 99 on the shores of Lake Nyassa, secretly sent his agents to hoist British flags in that region as proof of our occupa¬ tion ; Barotseland, too, was placed under British protection just in time to .save it from annexation by Portugal. The hardships endured and the perils incurred by these ad¬ venturous British agents who plunged alone into these savage regions—unlike the Portuguese, who were always accompanied by armed forces—make a wonderful story of pluck and enterprise. Under Lobengula's concession, the pioneers had estab¬ lished themselves in Mashonaland, the eastern portion of the territory over which the Matabele king claimed dominion. It was not long before the Matabele warriors gave trouble to the white men. The Matabele are a branch of the great Zulu nation. Moselekatze, one of Chaka's generals and the father of Lobengula, being con¬ demned to death by Chaka, took to flight with a large portion of the Zulu army about 1816, and devastated the Transvaal regions. The Boers drove the Matabele across the Limpopo in 1837. Moselekatze thereupon led his blood-thirsty warriors into Mashonaland, the unwarlike inhabitants of which were slaughtered or enslaved, and the Matabele kingdom was founded. The Matabele resumed their murderous raids into Mashonaland shortly after the occupation of the country by the pioneers. This brought about the Matabele War of 1893, the destruction of the Matabele power, and the taking over of all Lobengula's territories by the Chartered Company. The Chartered Company gradually extended its sway over all the territories included within its sphere of opera¬ tions. The Zambesi divides Rhodesia into two portions. Northern and Southern Rhodesia, of which the latter alone has been really developed and organised. The Company derives its revenue from the native hut tax, mineral rights, customs, sales and rent of land, etc., but up till now expenditure has exceeded revenue. The Company, co-operating with the energetic settlers, is developing the resources of Rhodesia with extraordinary rapidity, considering the remote situation of the country, 100 SOUTHERN AFRICA I and the difficulties that had to be overcome. For in the course of its short history, Rhodesia has been afflicted by a succession of disasters which much retarded its progress, and surely no new country was ever so sorely tried as this. Misfortune followed misfortune. In 1896 the rinderpest came from the north and killed off over 95 per cefit. of the cattle, a terrible thing for a land which entirely depended on ox-waggons for its transport; necessaries of life went up to famine prices, and ruin faced the settlers. In the same year, shortly after the failure of the Jameson Raid, the Matabele rose; the white settlers and their families were massacred in numbers; farms were destroyed; and it was not till 1897 that the rebellion was crushed, and peace was for a little while enjoyed by the troubled land. Rinderpest was at last practically stamped out in Rhodesia by inoculation, and the land was partly restocked; but now followed a disastrous outbreak of another imported cattle disease, "red water." Locusts, too, came in unwonted numbers to devour the crops, and horse sickness was very destructive. Then in 1899 broke out the Boer war, which cut off this inland territory from communication with the coast, and, for the third time in three years, called for its manhood to abandon industry and take up arms. The Rhodesians responded well to the call, and it will be in the memory of all how they acquitted themselves in the defence of Bechuanaland and the relief of Mafeking. The young state suffered from every calamity that can befall a new country, but was too vigorous to succumb. It looks now as if the bad times were over and the era of prosperity were opening. Communications. — The resources of an inland country cannot be developed without railway communica¬ tion. Especially was this the case in Rhodesia, where rinderpest had raised the cost of transport by ox-waggon fivefold, and belts of tsetse fly on the eastern border made the carriage of packs on the heads of natives the only possible form of transport to the nearest sea-coast In 1893, when the Rhodesians were fighting the Matabele RHODESIA 101 king, the Cape railway system extended no further north than Vryburg. Between that place and the savage kraal, where now stands the handsome city of Bulawayo, ex¬ tended 600 miles of practically roadless country, to trek across which with waggons occupied several months. Rhodes, therefore, as rapidly as possible established rail¬ way communication between the Chartered Company's territories and the seaports. A railway was constructed from Salisbury in Mashonaland, through the tsetse-fly belt, to the port of Beira in Portuguese East Africa, a distance of 380 miles. In 1897 the line from Vryburg to Bulawayo was completed, connecting the latter place with Cape Town, 1360 miles. Next, Salisbury was connected with Bulawayo by rail, so that there is now through rail¬ way communication between Cape Town and Beira. Branch railways also connect the gold-mining districts with the main lines. The construction of the next great section of what will some day be the Cape to Cairo railway is rapidly advancing. Of this section — Bulawayo to Tanganyika—700 miles were open to traffic in 1906; the line passes through the Wankie coal-fields, crosses the Zambesi at the Victoria Falls, and is thence carried north to the rich copper belt on the Congo Free State border. Here the line will connect with the Benguela railway now in course of construction, and Rhodesia will be brought into railway communication with an Atlantic seaport, 1500 miles nearer to Europe than is Cape Town. Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia has an area of about 144,000 square miles. In 1904 the white population numbered about 12,600, and the native population 565,000. Southern Rhodesia, which is divided into two provinces, Matahele- land and Mashonaland, is administered by the British South Africa Company. The government consists of an Administrator, an Executive Council, and a Legislative Council of fourteen members, seven of whom are nominees of the Company, and seven are elected by the settlers. 102 SOUTHERN AFRICA The Crown is represented by a Resident Commissioner who exercises considerable control. Physical Features and Climate; — Southern Rhodesia comprises some of the fairest regions of the Great Southern Plateau. Maund, who was sent to spy out this favoured land, reported that " when compared to the country south of it, Matabeleland was as Canaan after the wilderness." Southern Rhodesia has an elevation above the sea of from 3500 to 5000 feet. Across it extends the broad highland belt which forms the water¬ shed between the Zambesi and the Limpopo and Sabi rivers. The ranges of the watershed contain beautiful scenery, and are remarkable for the rounded and some¬ times castellated kopjes of bare granite that rise above the vegetation. Among these ranges are the Matoppo Hills, on one of whose granite peaks, overlooking the vast landscape known as the " World's View," Cecil Rhodes, the great founder of the Colony, lies buried. Southern Rhodesia is a green, well-wooded land of hills and dales and upland pastures. Hundreds of perennial streams of clear water flow down either side of the watershed and wind across the country to the great rivers on its borders. There is an ample rainfall, and the .soil is rich, so that nearly everywhere the vegetation is luxuriant; on the low veldt the wild grass is often over twelve feet in height, and fine forests clothe many of the hillsides. Though Southern Rhodesia is within the tropics, the heat is rarely oppressive. During the winter the rainfall is but slight, the nights are cold, and by day there is generally a keen health-giving breeze blowing and a cloudless sky overhead. Even in the rainy season the climate is not unpleasant; the rain is not continuous, the sun shines out of the blue sky between the' showers, a fresh wind then blows from over the Indian Ocean, and the air is cool and pure. Malaria is found only on the low veldt. The climate of the high veldt is quite healthy and well suited to British colonists. It is a country RHODESIA 103 where the white man can work in the fields; and the British children reared here are as rosy of cheek and as sturdy of limb as those at home. This part of the Great Plateau is undoubtedly a " white man's land." The Zambesi.—The chief natural feature of these regions is the mighty Zambesi, which divides Southern from Northern Rhodesia. The tributaries of this river drain the bulk of Rhodesia. It has a course of about 2000 miles, and its channel in places is several miles in breadth. Luxuriant tropical vegetation lines its shores. It has been estimated that the Zambesi and its tributaries supply 4000 miles of navigable waterways, but the naviga¬ tion is interrupted by cataracts and rapids necessitating occasional portages. It forms a delta at its mouth. Shallow-draught steamers, entering from the sea by the Chinde channel, can ascend the Zambesi for 500 miles to the Kebrabassa Rapids; from these rapids the river is navigable, except when the water is low in the dry season, for 800 miles to a point about 120 miles below the Victoria Falls ; and from above the Victoria Falls it is navigable for long stretches almost up to its source. The Portuguese, who own the mouth and lower reaches of the river, have granted to the British Government a ninety-nine years' lease of a small strip of land at the Chinde mouth, where a little township and port have been established. The Victoria Palls of the Zambesi, which are within the boundaries of Rhodesia, were discovered and named by Livingstone in 1855. This is the greatest known cataract in the world, being twice as broad and two and a half times as high as Niagara. The mighty Zambesi, here more than a mile in breadth, falls perpendicularly for 400 feet into a profound and narrow chasm, which extends at right angles to the river's course. This chasm is the first bend of a great zigzag rift which the erosion of count¬ less ages has worn into the earth's surface; and through this rift the Zambesi, after making its terrific plunge, contracted in places to 50 yards in breadth, and of un¬ known depth, rages for 45 miles between almost per- 104 SOUTHERN AFRICA pendicular basaltic cliffs 400 to 600 feet in height. The roar of the Falls is heard 20 miles away. Great columns of spray, attaining a height of 1200 feet, and coloured by beautiful rainbows when the sun is shining, perpetually hang over the Falls, and, drenching the plain around with an everlasting rain, favour the growth of a luxuriant tropical vegetation — an oasis of verdure set amid the parched and dreary bushland. Products and Industries.—It was the promise of gold-reefs that first brought the white adventurers into Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and warranted the con¬ struction of the railways; and it was the gold-mining centres that afforded to the farmers markets for their produce: but it seems likely that the future prosperity of Southern Rhodesia will depend, not so much on the mineral deposits, as on the great pastoral and agricultural resources of the country. In the days of Lobengula, Matabeleland held an extraordinary number of head of cattle, and this will probably become one of the richest cattle-ranching countries in the world. Rinderpest and other diseases imported from abroad almost exterminated the cattle in the early days of the colony, but science now seems to be successfully grappling with these plagues. The farmers are restocking their farms, and are importing woolled sheep and Angora goats. Thousands of square miles of magnificent pasturage still remain unoccupied. The richest pastures are found in Matabeleland, where the grass, having been eaten down for forty years by Lobengula's vast herds, has lost its rankness and been rendered what the colonials term " tame." The greater part of Southern Rhodesia with its rich soil and ample rainfall is admirably fitted for agriculture. Maize is at present the staple cereal product, but wheat, barley, and other cereals are also raised. Potatoes and other root crops yield heavily, and all the fruits of Europe and the tropics thrive on the hill-sides and valleys of Mashonaland. Among other products are sugar, coffee, bananas, pineapples, paw-paws, vines, castor oil, and RHODESIA 105 ground nuts. Cotton and rubber, which are indigenous to the country, are now cultivated. Tobacco thrives every¬ where, and the introduction of American and Turkish seed has resulted in the production of a tobacco more suited to the European taste than any other in South Africa. Southern Rhodesia is highly mineralised, and all over the country are to be seen the shallow gold workings of the ancients. The gold is found in quartz reefs, but auri¬ ferous banket has been discovered recently. Rhodesia has now been proved to be a valuable gold-mining country: each year the output is greater; in 1906 gold to the value of 2,000,000 was extracted from the mines. Copper, iron, tin and other metals and also diamonds are found in Southern Rhodesia. There are large coal areas, and at Wankies, on the railway between Bulawayo and the Victoria Falls, inexhaustible deposits of the best steam coal in South Africa exist at a little distance below the surface of the soil—a discovery that will greatly assist the development of the country. Now that the troublous times have past, the prospects of Southern Rhodesia appear excellent. The white popu¬ lation, the area of land under cultivation, the number of stock, and the mineral output, are all steadily but rapidly increasing. It is a sign of progress that in 1906 the exports for the first time exceeded the imports in value. Towns.—Salisbury is the chief town of Mashonaland, and the capital and seat of government of Southern Rhodesia. Here, upon a grassy down 4700 feet above the sea, a straggling town of substantial brick buildings has arisen. At one end of it is the historic kopje on which the pioneers built Fort Salisbury in 1890. The market gardens in the neighbourhood testify to the fertility of the soil and the excellence of the climate of Mashonaland. The white population in 1904 numbered 1726. Bulawayo, " the place of slaughter," was the ancient capital of the Matabele. Here, on an open plain 4500 feet above the sea, hard by the site of the savage kraal whence Lobengula's impis set out on their murderous raids, now 106 SOUTHERN AFRICA stands the commercial centre of Rhodesia. In 1893, after the rout of the Matabele, there sprang up at this spot a small mining camp of tents and shanties lying under the shelter of a little fort. This has now developed into a city of broad streets of handsome buildings lined with avenues of eucalyptus and other trees. But it is still a skeleton town, for the buildings are scattered over the framework of the great city that is yet to be; there are gaps between the houses into which the growth of the wild veldt creeps, filling the open spaces; and stately public buildings of pink sandstone seem to rise out of the unreclaimed wilder¬ ness. On the veldt outside the town, the bungalows of the wealthier citizens stand amid delightful gardens, where the shrubs and flowers of the tropics and those of England bloom luxuriantly side by side. In 1904 the white popu¬ lation was 3840. Bulawayo has now become the centre of the Southern African railway systems; from it the rail¬ ways radiate to all the coasts of the continent; one line extending southwards to Cape Town, on the Southern Ocean; another eastwards to Beira, on the Indian Ocean; and a third—the Cape to Cairo Railway—northwards, which will shortly connect Bulawayo with Benguela on the Atlantic, and later, if Rhodes' dream be fulfilled, with the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Victoria, Umtali, Gwelo, and other townships have been established in the mining districts. Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia is half as big again as France; it is divided for purposes of administration into North-western and North-eastern Rhodesia, of which Kalomo and Port Jameson are the respective seats of government. These regions are still undeveloped, and the native tribes that occupy them live under the rule of their own chiefs, Barotseland in North-western Rhodesia being the most extensive and powerful of these native kingdoms. The greater part of Northern Rhodesia lies on the Southern Plateau at an elevation of 4000 feet above the sea, and is therefore suitable for settlement by whites, RHODESIA 107 though climate and vegetation are tropical. Pastures and forests cover much of the country, and the larger animals of Africa, such as lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, and baboons, are abundant. The tributaries of the Zambesi drain most of this region; but the northern part of North-eastern Rhodesia lies beyond the watershed of the Zambesi, in the Congo basin. Lakes Tanganyika, Bangweolo, and Mweru, the three huge sheets of water which form the main reservoirs of the Congo, are partly within Rhodesia. Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world. Its area is nearly twice that of Wales, and, extending as it does for 400 miles from south to north to close proximity with the head-waters of the Nile, it forms a most valuable link of communication. The shores of this great com¬ mercial highway are shared by Great Britain, Germany, and the Congo Free State. Steamers occupy three days in trav^ersing it. Tanganyika lies in what is known as the Great Central Rift Valley, a deep trough in the African Plateau which contains—in addition to Lake Tanganyika— Lakes Kivu, Albert Edward Nyanza, and Albert Nyanza, and is continued in the south by the depression in which lies Lake Nyassa. The surface of Lake Tanganyika is 2700 feet above the sea; the surrounding plateau has an elevation of over 5000 feet. Lake Bangweolo is as large as the county of Somerset; it is 3760 feet above the sea, and is surrounded by a swampy region, amid which Livingstone died in 1873. The Luapula or Upper Congo, after receiving the overflow of Lake Bangweolo, traverses Lake Mweru, whose area is half that of the former lake. Resources.—These undeveloped regions, whose white population now numbers a few hundred only, have great potentialities. In both North-eastern and North¬ western Rhodesia there are large areas suitable for both agriculture and stock raising. Cotton and rubber grow wild; and the latter, covering as it does large tracts of country, is a certain source of wealth. Gold, copper, zinc, lead, iron, and other metals are found, and the rich copper 108 SOUTHERN AFRICA belt of North-western Rhodesia promises to make this one of the greatest copper-producing countries of the world. The incalculable water-power of the Victoria Falls is to be utilised for the generation of electricity on an immense scale, and power will thus be distributed throughout Rhodesia. Great possibilities are opened out by the fact that the Wankie coal-fields, the copper belt, and the deposits of the best iron ore are at no great distance from the Falls, and are connected with them by railway. Living¬ stone, the township now rising near the Falls, enjoying these advantages, may develop into an important manu¬ facturing centre. A limited amount of trade is carried on with the natives of Northern Rhodesia, who exchange their cattle, rubber, and ivory for cloth, blankets, beads, and brass wire. THE BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE History.—Livingstone's discovery of Lake Nyassa and the regions to the west of it was followed by an influx of missionaries and traders. Some of these in 1878 formed a trading association, which became later the African Lakes Corporation, with its headquarters at Blantyre. The natives were friendly, but the company's forces—chiefly composed of native volunteers—were engaged for several years in war with the slave-trading Arabs, while the Portuguese made constant efforts to bring the country within their sphere of influence. At last the Imperial Government intervened, and in 1891 a British Protectorate was proclaimed over these regions. In the meanwhile, the agents of Cecil Rhodes had entered into treaties with some of the native chiefs. Consequently, in 1895, the larger part of the British Central Africa Protectorate was handed over to the British South Africa Company, and became the Province of North-eastern Rhodesia, while the remaining part, Nyassaland, retaining the misleading title of the British Central Africa Protectorate, was left under the administration of the Imperial Government. In 1904 the administration was transferred from the Foreign Office to NYASSALAND 109 the Colonial Office, the control being centred in His Majesty's Commissioner. The Arabs were finally sub¬ dued in 1896, and the slave-hunting raids are things of the past. The British Central Africa Protectorate, or Nyassaland, having an area of 41,000 square miles, is one-third larger than Ireland. It extends for nearly 600 miles from north to south, and has an average breadth of 70 miles. It includes the western and southern shores of Lake Nyassa, and the valley of the Shire to near the junction of that river with the Zambesi. Physical Features and Climate.—Lake Nyassa is about 350 miles in length, and has a maximum breadth of 45 miles. It occupies a huge trough, which is a continua¬ tion of the Great Rift Valley ; its surface is 1600 feet above the sea, it has great depth, and its bottom is in places over 1000 feet below the sea level. The exit of the lake is at its southern end, where its waters pour into the Shire, a tributary of the Zambesi, and so find their way to the Indian Ocean. The eastern shores of the lake belong to German East Africa and Portuguese East Africa, and the latter country encloses the British strip in the Shire valley, cutting it off from the sea. The Protectorate lies upon the high tableland, its mean elevation above the sea being 3500 feet. There are some extensive higher plateaus, where the altitude is between 5000 and 7000 feet, and the climate is suitable for Europeans. The bulk of the white inhabitants are settled on the beautiful Shire Highlands, in the southern part of the Protectorate, where the peaks rising from the Mlanje Plateau attain a height of 9700 feet. The annual rainfall amounts to 75 inches in the high¬ lands, and to about half that in the drier districts. Thus, favoured by a sufficiency of moisture, and extending to within ten degrees of the Equator, the Protectorate has a vegetation that is luxuriant and tropical in character. Long rank grass covers much of the country; forests of cedar clothe the mountains ; various palms, ebony, bamboo, and rubber flourish. The wild animals are those of 110 SOUTHERN AFRICA Equatorial Africa, and include elephants, lions, zebras, and crocodiles. The tsetse fly infests the lower-lying parts. Population. — The natives, who number nearly 1,000,000, are of Bantu stock, and are for the most part Mahomedan. In 1904 the European population amounted to only 481. Natives of India are now emigrating to the Protectorate, and serve a useful purpose as petty traders. The small force necessary for the maintenance of order is partly composed of a corp of Sikhs from the Indian Army. Products.—:Coffee and cotton are the principal pro¬ ducts of the plantations. Tobacco and rice also thrive. Wheat and other cereals are successfully cultivated. Among the articles of export are ivory, rubber, and earth nuts. Communications.—The Protectorate has the ad¬ vantage of easy communication with the sea. There are several steamers, including gunboats, on Lake Nyassa. Steamers navigate the Zambesi and Shir6 from Chinde to Katunga at the foot of the Murchison Rapids, a dis¬ tance of 275 miles. A portage has been established at the rapids; and from Matope, above them, the Shir6 is again navigable to Lake Nyassa, a distance of 60 miles. By arrangement with the Portuguese Government, goods in transit for the Protectorate enter the Zambesi free of duty. Blantyre, in the Shire Highlands, is a well-built little town 3600 feet above the sea. It has a population of 6000 natives and under 200 Europeans. It is the chief com¬ mercial centre. A railway connects Blantyre with Chiromo on the Shire. Zomba, also in the Shir6 Highlands, is the seat of government, and has a population of about 50 Europeans. Gab au/' f^teijhe rica, .'^SaUhcLW X.S/VH/I ^Bololo. Uvircbi iktmMdlm'a {X.Kwer^ CerflJSrJ CJ)^aAvo uBongweol C-MosooXo/ G^-KfibB; Ova.2d§o ,f \£^ , JOttad, / ^^SofalcL Mauritius fflr.) f-Lavas^ Omana' Sewwcy ] XA I ■ AfrliSA* \ GreSi^.]J'^iaj|Tia, Laii<: *07TU TOetbr f>t>vatersn 'oarrv/^ Marqne<£ S^Xwia BRITISH SOUTHERN^ AFRICA ^ort^oUath^ ^Ooldep Scale 1:24.000.000 Statu-te Miles ■Uvrrwo *arte^ CAPE TOmf^^ Cape erf GoodiHjype^^..,^^^ C.AgrjIHxie '9.700 The/Lcfridon Gw^aphical BiAStLtut?' Lancio;!, Joim Murra^jr^ Albemarle Street. Nortiiv^estern University Library WEST AFRICA INTRODUCTORY British West Africa lies within the vaguely defined region known as the Sudan. The Arabs named the negro-inhabited regions to the south of the Sahara, Bildd es Sudan, the " Land of the Black." The Sudan, in the modern sense of the term, extends from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, is bounded on the north by the Sahara, and on the south by the regions populated by the negroid peoples of Bantu stock, that is, roughly, by a line drawn from the mouth of the Niger to the south of Abyssinia. Physical Features.—It has been explained that a broad belt of luxuriant tropical vegetation and excessive moisture extends across Africa from west to east, from the Gulf of Guinea to the Nile and the Great Lakes. This belt, through whose centre passes the Equator, com¬ prises the whole of the Congo basin, and with its dense forest tracts divides from each other the drier and more open regions of Northern and Southern Africa. The western portion of this belt consists of a forest coast strip of from 100 to 250 miles in breadth, stretching for 1800 miles along the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea, from the Cameroons to near the mouth of the Gambia. This strip is hemmed in by the highlands, which, forming the outer rim of the plateaus of the interior, run parallel to the coast, and in places throw out their spurs to the shore. In most parts, however, the shore is low and swampy, skirted with stagnant lagoons and mangrove swamps, the unhealthiness of which has given this coast 111 112 ^VEST AFRICA so evil a name. Behind the coast swamps stretches the forest country; this gradually merges into the less rainy savannas and healthy open steppes of the Sudan; and these in their turn, as one proceeds further inland, give place to the arid and barren wastes of the Sahara. It is on this strip, known as the Guinea Coast—whose different sections still bear the names that were given to them by the early European traders: the Grain Coast, the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, and the Slave Coast—that Great Britain has established her West African Colonies. Climate.—The climate of the coast of Guinea is affected by the periodic wind, called by seamen the South¬ west African monsoon. Guinea lies at the northern limit of the south-east trade winds. The heated atmos¬ phere that covers the torrid interior of this part of Africa draws in the air from the ocean, so that the south-east trades are diverted, and the wind blows shorewards as a monsoon from the south and south-west, carrying with it clouds saturated with the moisture of the equatorial seas. In the northern winter the belt of the south-east trades moves further south, and the belt of calms that divides the north-east from the south-east trades lies along the Guinea Coast, with the result that the wind then blows upon the shore with little strength and holds less moisture. The rainy season on the coast is, therefore, in the summer months, when the south-west monsoon blows strongest. In the winter the harmattan often blows for several days at a time; this is a hot easterly wind, which, having crossed the Sahara, is excessively dry, and is accompanied by a reddish haze composed of fine sand from the desert. The harmattan, though unpleasant, is not productive of ill-health among the European population of the coast, but is a cause of disease among the natives, who thrive in the moist heat that proves so deadly to the whites. At the change of the seasons violent tornadoes prevail,^accom- panied by torrential rains, thunder, and vivid lightning. Zoology.—In West Africa are found most of the PRODUCTS 113 animals characteristic of tropical Africa—elephants, hip¬ popotami, lions, crocodiles, parrots, and snakes of many species. Apes and monkeys are numerous, including the giant species peculiar to this region, the chimpanzee and the gorilla, the latter of which is only to be met with to the southward of the Niger mouth. Products.—The vegetation of the coast belt is rich and rank, like that of all tropical countries where the rainfall is abundant. Many of the tropical plants which supply products of great commercial value are indigenous to the Guinea Coast. Palm oil, which is extracted from the kernel of a species of palm, and is largely used in the manufacture of candles and soap, is the principal article of export. India-rubber, gum copal, kola nuts, ground nuts (from which is extracted an oil resembling olive oil), ginger, cocoa-nuts, are also valuable products. Cocoa, cotton, coffee, and rice are cultivated; and among other agricultural products are maize, cassava, plantains, and yams, which thrive on this prolific soil. The timber of the forests includes teak, ebony, and mahogany. There is a considerable trade in ivory ; rich gold deposits—alluvial, quartz, and banket—are being worked on the Gold Coast; tin, silver, lead, and other minerals are also found. Population.—The unhealthy coast of Guinea is altogether unsuitable for colonisation. Here Europeans cannot work in the fields or settle permanently. In 1901 the total white population of the British West African possessions numbered only 2500, a handful of white men —officials, traders, and supervisors of native labour—set in the midst of a teeming negro population. The natives of Guinea belong to various branches of the negro races. On the coast itself and in the forest belt the pure negroes predominate. Inland, the people have a considerable admixture of Arab or Moorish blood, their features show¬ ing a Caucasian origin. They vary in colour from deepest black to light brown. Mahomedanism has spread largely through the country, and semi-independent Mahomedan h 114 WEST AFRICA sultanates exist within the British spheres of influence. But a considerable portion of the negro population is still pagan, and is addicted in some districts to cannibalism, human sacrifice, and the other cruel and revolting customs which prevailed in Dahomey and Ashanti previous to the destruction of those two heathen kingdoms. History of West African Colonisation.—The Carthagenians sailed out into the Atlantic between the Pillars of Hercules, and traded and formed settlements on the west coast of Africa. Fifteen centuries later the conquering Arabs began to found Mussulman kingdoms in the Western Sudan. But the pioneers of European enter¬ prise in Africa were the Portuguese. In the middle of the fifteenth century they began to establish their trading posts on the coast, and, sending forth expedition after expedition, explored ever further to the southward, until, in 1484, they discovered the ocean route round the Cape of Good Hope to the Indies. By 1500, Portugal had become the mistress of all the western coasts of Africa, and began to carry on a prosperous trade, first in gold and ivory, and later on in slaves. It has already been explained that the " Pope's Line" in 1493 divided all heathen lands between Spain and Portugal, giving Africa to the latter country, and the bulk ojf America to the former. Catholic Spain respected the Pope's decree, and therefore when, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, she sought African negro labour for her West Indian sugar plantations, she left it to Portugal as the owner of Africa to supply her with slaves from the West Coast. Portugal had no rivals on the coast until the middle of the sixteenth century, when English and French adventurers, attracted by the gold of Guinea, began to dispute her monopoly. Unlike the Spaniards, they had no respect for the Pope's Line, and defying the Portuguese, even as they defied the Spaniards in America, they fought for the right of trade on the Guinea Coast. This irregular trade received its first official sanction in 1588, when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to an English trading com- HISTORY OF COLONISATION 115 pany, whose sphere of operations was the coast of Gambia. Other companies were granted charters by James I. and Charles I., but none of these ventures were attended with much success. Towards the latter part of the sixteenth century the power of Portugal—after the union of that country with Spain—waned, and Holland, having shaken off the Spanish yoke in 1581, forced her way to the first place among maritime nations, entered upon her great career of colonial enterprise, and seized most of the Portuguese factories on the Guinea Coast. In 1621 Holland founded her West India Company, whose charter gave it the monopoly of trade on the African Coast, and the most profitable branch of whose business it was—as was implied by the Company's title—to supply the Dutch West India Colonies with African slaves. But England was coming to the front as a maritime power, and the trade rivalry between the English and Dutch brought about that determined struggle for the command of the sea which ended at last in the victory of the former. The Commonwealth Parliament in 1651 passed the Navigation Act, which prevented the carriage of colonial produce to England in any save British ships, a measure whose main object it was to destroy the carrying trade of Holland. It was at about this time that the English began to engage in the slave-trade; for Hawkins' slave-trading voyages in Queen Elizabeth's reign were but isolated ventures, and he had no imitators. In the war of 1665 England, victorious at sea, captured Cape Coast Castle and other Dutch forts on the Guinea Coast. The maritime powers of Europe now entered into a long struggle for the monopoly of the exceedingly profitable African slave-trade. The French, who had firmly estab¬ lished themselves in Senegambia, acquired from Spain the famous " Asiento " (previously held by Holland), which gave them the monopoly of importing slaves into the Spanish colonies. After the war of the Spanish Succession, the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, transferred the ''Asiento" to a British Company. Great Britain, obtaining in her turn 116 WEST AFRICA the command of the sea, became the great slave-trading nation, and during the eighteenth century hundreds of thousands of African negroes were carried in British ships to the American mainland and the West Indies. During the great wars of the eighteenth century, the forts and factories on the Guinea Coast were ever changing hands; but the peace of 1815 found Great Britain, France, Holland, Portugal, and Denmark all in possession of trading stations in that region. Slavery had prevailed on the west coast of Africa long before the arrival of Europeans, and apologists for the slave-trade argued that the lot of the slaves was far better in the colonies of Christian nations that it would have been had they remained in Africa; this may have been the fact, for, as a rule, the slaves were not harshly treated on the plantations; but the across-sea slave-trade greatly increased the demand for slaves in Africa, encouraged cruel slave- hunting raids, and perpetuated barbarism in the land, while it would be difficult to exaggerate the horrors of the middle passage." The conscience of Europe was awakened by the iniquities of the institution; in 1807 an Act of Parliament abolished the British slave-trade, and later the other European Powers united to put an end to this traffic in all parts of the civilised world. With the suppression of the slave-trade, the commercial prosperity of Guinea received a severe blow. Slavery itself had prevented any attempt at the development of the natural resources of the rich land, and to the European nations the West Coast now appeared almost valueless. The British Parliament on several occasions debated the advisability of abandoning the British possessions in Gambia and on the Gold Coast; but fortunately this was not done, for the plucky British traders on the coast realised that there was still a use for West Africa. The Danes and Dutch, however, apparently despaired of the future of their trading stations, for they transferred them in 1850 and 1871 to Great Britain for a very small con¬ sideration. Trade began to seek more legitimate channels, and the HISTORY OF COLONISATION 117 resources of the West African colonies were developed. Travellers, mainly British, explored the interior, and the richness of Nigeria and other regions was made known. The trade of the West Coast now fell chiefly into the hands of energetic British merchants and trading companies; but British sentiment in the middle of the nineteenth century was opposed to further colonial expansion, and when the scramble for Africa commenced in earnest. Great Britain was found unprepared, and lost much territory in which her influence, though it was not official, had been para¬ mount. France, whose aim it had long been to connect her Mediterranean with her West Coast possessions, rapidly spread her dominion, until she had brought within her sphere of influence the bulk of the Sahara and the Sudan. Her sphere of influence now extends from the Mediterranean and the boundaries of Egypt to the Atlantic, and opens out to the ocean in five coast colonies —Senegal, French Guinea, the French Ivory Coast, Dahomey, and the French Congo—her possessions thus hemming in the British colonies and isolating them. Germany, too, possessed herself of Togoland and the Cameroons. Fortunately in Nigeria, through the effbrts of our trading companies. Great Britain has secured an extensive and valuable hinterland which was all but lost to her. The West African possessions of Great Britain are Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Nigeria. The coast strips of these are organised territories governed as Crown Colonies. But the extensive hinterlands attached to these colonies are administered as Protectorates. In these protectorates Mahomedan rulers still hold sway, but have readily entered into treaties by which they accept British protection, and agree to enter into no negotia¬ tions with other Powers. Now that the European control of all the coasts of Africa has made impossible the export of slaves from the continent, and that the African home markets for slaves have been much narrowed by the exten¬ sion of European influence in the interior, the slave-trade, in which the West African potentates took a leading part. 118 WEST AFRICA is being gradually extinguished, and the ancient institu¬ tion itself is now practically confined to the relatively mild forms of domestic slavery, the hasty extinction of which would do far more harm than good. But the peoples of the Western Sudan are born traders; so, having lost the slave-trade, they soon came to appreciate the advantages of the profitable legitimate trade which we have intro¬ duced into the country. Development of the British West African Colonies.—Under British administration much has already been done to develop the resources of West Africa. Roads have been made; the networks of water¬ ways near the sea-coast, and the rivers penetrating the interior have been opened to navigation; agriculture has been encouraged, and plantations of coffee, cocoa, cotton, and other crops now occupy great clearings in the forest; the wasteful native methods of collecting rubber, and the destruction of the forests have been checked. On the other hand justice is administered; internecine wars and human sacrifice are prevented; and the education and technical training of the natives have been under¬ taken by the Government. The results of missionary enterprise in West Africa have been but small in propor¬ tion to the effort expended; for the fetish worship and polygamy of the pagans, and the faith of the Mahome- dans have a strong hold upon the people. The natives, to whom we have given security of life and property, are rapidly advancing in prosperity, and with their prosperity the value of these colonies to ourselves ever increases. The chief products of West Africa consist of the natural growth of the jungle, such as palm oil and rubber, which the natives collect and exchange for our cotton goods, cutlery, hardware, and spirits. Our hot, unhealthy. West Coast colonies, though unfitted for European coloni¬ sation, and containing, as has been said, only 2500 whites, are of great value to Great Britain. This region, after the lower Nile valley, is the most densely populated part of Africa, and it has been estimated that over 30,000,000 GAMBIA 119 natives are within the boundaries of the British pro¬ tectorates, providing a market for our manufactures and taking from us, in ever-increasing quantities, the products of our looms and forges. On the other hand, these possessions supply British manufacturers with cheap, raw material, and so encourage our industries. The tropical colonies which thus not only afford scope to British mercantile and manufacturing enterprise, but also provide work to our industrial classes, making it possible for them to stay in the land of their birth and earn a living in it, are, in their way, as useful as the colonies whose temperate climate enables them to receive our surplus population. In 1904 the exports from the British West Coast colonies were of the value of over ;^5>ooo,ooo, and the imports to them of nearly £6poo,ooo. GAMBIA History.—Gambia is the most northern of the British possessions on the West Coast, and is near the western extremity of the continent. The Gambia River, affording as it does the only safe harbour on a coast which for hundreds of miles lies open to the surf of the Atlantic rollers, attracted European traders at an early period. In 1588, the year of the Armada, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a company that was formed to trade in Gambia. 'From 1618 the English had factories on this coast, and in the reign of James II. they built a fort on an island within the river, and named it after the king. Fort James. From the first the French were our determined rivals on this part of the African coast. At the close of the seven¬ teenth century they captured the British factories, and held for a time the monopoly of the trade. The struggle was carried on through the following century, and it was not until 1783 that British dominion over the Gambia was definitely recognised by the Treaty of Versailles. But France remained dominant to the north of Gambia, and when the partition of Africa commenced, she displayed great enter¬ prise in these regions, and rapidly brought within her 120 WEST AFRICA sphere of influence every part of Western Africa that was not already occupied by a recognised Power. The British Government, in the meanwhile, remained supine and indifferent; with the result that France completely hemmed in British Gambia with her own newly acquired possessions, established her military posts at the back of the British sphere of influence, and so diverted from it the trade of the interior. The frontiers of Gambia were delimited in 1891, in accordance with the terms of the Anglo-French Agreement. The British colony and pro¬ tectorate consist of the lower half of the valley of the Gambia River, a strip of territory 250 miles in length, and about 12 miles in breadth. The colony proper has an area of only 69 square miles, and consists of some islands in the river and some small strips of land on the coast and river banks. It was a dependency of Sierra Leone until 1888, when it was created a separate Crown Colony. As in the other Crown colonies of the West Coast, the government is carried on by a Governor, assisted by an Executive Council of official members, and a Legislative Council, some of whose members are official and some nominated by the Crown. The rest of Gambia, having an area of about 3000 square miles, is a Protectorate where numerous petty chiefs govern, under the supervision of British Travelling Commissioners. Physical Features, Population, and Products. —The Gambia supplies an excellent waterway from its mouth throughout British Gambia to the French frontier, where the navigation is interrupted by rapids. Mangrove swamps line the broad estuary and the lower reaches of the river, but further up it flows through a beautiful country of richly wooded heights and grassy plains. The native population of the Colony and Protectorate numbers about 164,000. The Mandingos form the majority of the people; they belong to a negroid race of brown colour which is widely spread over this part of Africa: the Mandingos are for the most part Mahomedans; they are good husbandmen, are skilful in leather work, and weave SIERRA LEONE 121 excellent cloth from the cotton which they cultivate; are keen traders, and in every way display considerably more intelligence than the pagan negroes of the coast belt. The total British population numbered under 200 in 1901. The climate is unhealthy only during the summer rains. The annual rainfall—50 inches—is small when compared to the rainfall lower down the coast. The rich soil is very productive. The staple article of export is ground nuts, from which an oil like olive oil is made. Bathurst, the chief town and seat of government, is on St Mary's Isle, a sandy island on the south side of the estuary, which here has a breadth of 12 miles. The largest river steamers can cross the river bar and reach the secure anchorage off the port of Bathurst. SIERRA LEONE History.—About 400 miles further down the coast than Gambia, and cut off from it by the possessions of France and Portugal, is the British colony of Sierra Leone. The Portuguese, in the middle of the fifteenth century, gave the name of Sierra Leone to a conspicuous mountain on the peninsula which forms the southern shore of the estuary of what is now called the Sierra Leone River. Within this twelve-mile-broad estuary is the best and most commodious harbour of all West Africa, so that from an early time it was frequented by the slavers of various European nations, and the British slave-traders had their factories on the peninsula from the beginning of the eighteenth century. But no nation claimed any territorial rights, so that no opposition was offered when, in 1787, some British philanthropists purchased from the native chiefs the Sierra Leone peninsula, and founded here a colony for freed African slaves. In 1807, after the abolition of the slave-trade. Sierra Leone was taken over by the Crown, and became the headquarters of the squadron which was employed to prevent the smuggling of slaves from the West Coast. For several years Sierra Leone was the seat of government of all the British 122 ^VEST AFRICA possessions on the coast, but since 1888 it has been a separate Crown Colony. The original colony was gradu¬ ally extended by arrangements with the chiefs until it attained its present dimensions. It now consists of a strip of coast about 20 miles in depth, and 180 miles in length, extending from the frontier of French Guinea to that of Liberia—the independent negro republic that was founded by the Americans as a colony for freed slaves. The Sierra Leone Colony includes Sherboro and other smaller islands off the coast, and has a total area of about 4000 square miles. In 1901 the native population numbered about 76,000, the Europeans under 500. Here, as elsewhere on the West Coast, the British Government permitted the French to seize the hinterland of the British possessions and completely enclose them. But it was recognised that a large territory at the back of the colony lay within the British sphere of influence, and in 1896 Great Britain proclaimed a protectorate over this region, which extends for about 200 miles inland to the headwaters of the rivers that flow through the colony. The Protectorate has an area of about 30,000 square miles, and a population of about 1,000,000. The colony has the same Crown colony form of government as Gambia. The Protectorate is divided into five districts, each under a British Commissioner. Internecine wars, slavery, and pagan sacrifices have been suppressed within the Pro¬ tectorate, and these reforms accompanied by the imposi¬ tion of a hut tax, brought about the native rising of 1898, which was quickly put down. Physical Features! and Products.—Sierra Leone, though so unhealthy that it has been named "the white man's grave," is a very beautiful country, and the rich soil is clothed with the most luxuriant tropical vegetation. The annual rainfall on the coast amounts in places to about 160 inches. As one goes inland from the steaming malarious coast, the climate becomes drier and healthier. I ' The ranges in the north-east of the Protectorate attain a height of 4400 feet in Mount Daro, on whose northern SIERRA LEONE 123 slopes the Niger has its source. All tropical fruits thrive in Sierra Leone. Palm kernels are the staple export, and among other exported products are rubber, ground nuts, kola nuts, cocoanuts, and gum copal. Sherboro Island is an important centre of the palm-oil trade. Large tracts on the island itself, and on the mainland behind it, are covered with the oil palms, affording an inexhaustible supply of the most valuable natural product of this part of Africa. The natives carry the bundles of palm kernels on their heads from the forests to the coast factories, where they barter them for European manufactured goods. The palm oil and kernels are carried in coasting craft from the factories to Sherboro, where they are transhipped to the ocean-going vessels. Population.—The population of the colony proper is largely composed of liberated slaves from all parts of Africa, and their descendants, people of many races, who speak a great variety of distinct languages: for most of the slaves rescued by the British cruisers were landed in Sierra Leone. The confusion of tongues has led to the creation of negro-English, a grotesque lingua franca which is understood all down the coast. The imported freed negroes of Sierra Leone wear European dress, have acquired some culture, belong to several denominations of the Christian religion, and, regarding themselves as civil¬ ised, look with contempt upon the indigenous races. Some show a mental capacity in advance of their race, are well educated, and enter the liberal professions. The pagan and Mahomedan natives who occupy the rest of the colony and the protectorate behind it belong to various tribes, of which the Temne and Mende are among the most important. The Mahomedan peoples of the interior are largely of Mandingan stock. In the crowded streets of Freetown one can observe all these African types:—the imported Sierra Leone freedmen in their store clothes ; the dignified white-robed Mahomedans, the features of many of whom proclaim their Arab or Hamitic blood; the pagan barbarians; the 124 WEST AFRICA sturdy Krumen, who emigrate from the Grain Coast to this and other West Coast colonies, where they are most useful as. industrious labourers, doing the heavy work impossible to white men in the tropics, and shipping on the vessels engaged in the palm-oil trade, for they are good sailors and among the most expert surf-boatmen in the world. Conspicuous too, in the motley crowd, are the negroes from the islands beyond the Atlantic, in the brilliant zouave uniform of the West Indian Regiment; and the tough-looking native Africans of the West African Regiment. Freetown, the seat of government, is on the north side of the Sierra Leone peninsula, facing the estuary and the spacious and sheltered anchorage. It has a popula¬ tion of about 36,ocxd, the great majority of whom are the descendants of the freed negroes. It is the most important seaport in West Africa, a great trade centre, a fortified naval coaling station, and the headquarters of the Imperial forces on the West Coast. Behind it the hills swell up to the high ranges that traverse the peninsula, and cul¬ minate in the Sugar Loaf, whose summit is 4000 feet above the sea. The suburbs of Freetown, where the Europeans live, are on the relatively healthy foothills of the Lion Mountain. A rich tropical vegetation covers the country round Freetown from the hill-tops down to the beaches of golden sand that line the many deep inlets of the peninsula. A light railway has been constructed from Freetown eastward to near the borders of Liberia. THE GOLD COAST COLONY History.—The Gold Coast Colony is 600 miles distant from Sierra Leone, the republic of Liberia and the French Ivory Coast Colony lying between these two British possessions. First the trade in gold-dust, and later on the still more profitable trade in slaves attracted European traders to this coast. Portuguese, Dutch, British, French, Danes, and even Germans from Brandenburg, here estab¬ lished their forts and factories. The first British fort was THE GOLD COAST COLONY 125 erected in 1618. Ultimately Britain became the pre¬ dominant power on the coast, and the famous Royal Africa Company and other British Chartered Companies secured a large share of the slave-trade. After the abolition of the slave-trade, the Imperial Government took over the West African trading settle¬ ments, but was at a loss what to do with them, and dis¬ played on several occasions an anxiety to be rid of them. In 1821 the scattered forts on the Gold Coast were placed under the government of Sierra Leone. In 1828 the Imperial Government transferred the responsibility of controlling these settlements to a committee of merchants under a governor appointed by themselves, but approved by the Crown. In 1843 the Government resumed its direct jurisdiction, and in 1865 a committee of the House of Commons recommended the abandonment of the Gold Coast and other West African settlements, with the one exception of the negro land of refuge. Sierra Leone. But here, as in other parts of the world, the enterprise of British traders saved to the Empire territories that have been now proved to be of exceeding value. British influence had been so firmly established on the coast that the Government had to recognise its responsibilities; the settlements were retained, and the tribes under our pro¬ tection were not left to the mercy of the Ashantis. It has already been explained that the Danes in 1850 and the Dutch in 1872 sold their trading stations on the Gold Coast to Great Britain. This made the British settlements on the coast continuous, facilitated consolida¬ tion, and brought about the Ashanti war of 1873-1874. Ashanti was a powerful military negro kingdom that had been established in the dense forest lands of the interior. The Ashantis were the terror of the coast peoples, waged wars of extermination against their less warlike neighbours, and practised human sacrifice and other terrible pagan "customs" to so great an extent that Kumassi, their capital, was described as ever reeking with human blood. For many years there had been intermittent warfare between the British and the Ashantis, who claimed the 126 WEST AFRICA coast by right of conquest The British at last freed the maritime tribes from the Ashanti yoke, and placed them under a British Protectorate in 1831. The extension of British influence resulting from the taking over of the Dutch forts angered the king of Ashanti, and in 1873 he invaded the Protectorate with a large force. A British expedition marched on Kumassi, completely defeated the Ashantis, and compelled the king to enter into a treaty whereby he agreed, among other things, to keep the trade route to his capital open, and to suppress human sacrifice. The war was followed in 1874 by the separation of the Gold Coast settlements from Sierra Leone and the creation of the Gold Coast Colony, with which Lagos was incorporated until 1886. King Prempeh's refusal to abide by the terms of the treaty of 1874 necessitated another British expedition against the Ashantis in 1895-1896, when the king was deported, and Ashanti was placed under British protection. Four years later a formidable rebellion of the Ashantis was suppressed, and their country was definitely annexed to Great Britain. At the same time a British Protectorate was proclaimed over the region now officially known as the Northern Territories, extending from the north of Ashanti to the 11 th degree of north latitude. The British Gold Coast Colony and Protectorate are hemmed in by the German colony of Togoland on the east, the French Ivory Coast Colony on the west, and the French Sudan on the north. The British posses¬ sions extend for 450 miles from north to south, have a sea¬ board of 350 miles, and have a total area of about 120,000 square miles—nearly that of the United Kingdom. In 1901 the native population was estimated at one and a half million, and the European population was under 700. The Colony proper is administered as a Crown colony. Ashanti is administered by the governor of the colony, but has separate laws. The Northern Territories are ad¬ ministered by a commissioner, who is under the governor. Physical Features.—The Gold Coast is exceedingly rich in natural resources, but these so far have been but THE GOLD COAST COLONY 127 partially developed in consequence of the inaccessi¬ bility of this region. There are no harbours on the coast, and here and there only a small headland affords some shelter from the league-long Atlantic rollers that break on the exposed beaches. The mouths of the rivers are blocked by sandy bars, and their courses are interrupted by frequent rapids. The Volta alone, the longest of the Gold Coast rivers, which for some distance forms the eastern frontier of the British possesions, and has a course of 400 miles, is navigable by light-draft steamers ; but most of the rivers and the coast lagoons serve as waterways to the native canoes, which do much of the trade carriage of the country. When one has passed through the plains of lo-feet high grass that border a great part of the coast, one enters a land of almost impenetrable forest and jungle, where the luxuriant tropical vegetation with its rapid growth is ever seeking to choke up the narrow footpaths which serve as the chief means of communication—tracks worn long ago by the trains of slaves on their way to the coast, and now kept open by the black carriers, with bundles of goods on their heads, who are engaged in a more legitimate trade. The Government is opening out the country with good roads. On the coast the rainfall is often over 100 inches. The climate is hot and very unhealthy for Europeans. Ranges of hills run parallel to the sea at a distance of about 30 miles from it, and afford health resorts to the European population. Population.—The bulk of the natives of the Gold Coast belong to the Tshi-speaking branch of the negro family, which is here mainly represented by the warlike and barbarous Ashantis, and the Fantis of the maritime regions, who are more amenable to the influence of civilisation than the Ashantis, have been from early days the friends of the British, and relied on them for protection against their raiding neighbours of the interior. The natives of the Gold Coast make good cloth, and among them are silver¬ smiths and goldsmiths. In all their handicrafts the influ¬ ence of Arab art and culture is to be distinguished. 128 WEST AFRICA They are good agriculturists, and cultivate quantities of yams, plantains, maize, sweet potatoes, cotton, and other crops round their villages. Products.—On the prolific soil of the Gold Coast, oranges, guavas, mangoes, paw-paws, alligator-pears, and the other fruits and vegetables of the tropics, thrive wonder¬ fully. Large tracts of the interior abound with india- rubber. The great forests are full of cabinet woods and other valuable timber. The Northern Territories, with their drier climate, are well adapted for the cultivation of cereals and tobacco. Encouragement is given to the natives to plant cocoa-nuts, rubber, cocoa, cotton, etc. The principal articles of export are gold, palm kernels and palm oil, rubber and cocoa. Among other exports are ivory, cotton, and lumber. The commercial possibilities of the Gold Coast are undoubtedly very great. In 1903 the colony exported raw products (exclusive of gold) to the value of nearly 1,400,000, and imported manufactured goods, mainly British textiles, to the value of over ;£"2,ooo,ooo, which shows how valuable a market to the United Kingdom is this possession that we so nearly abandoned. In the old days the European traders bartered their goods with the natives for gold-dust. The Gold Coast has once more become a gold-producing country. The gold is found in banket as well as in quartz-reef, and is also extracted from the river beds by dredgers. The annual output of gold is rapidly increasing, and attained the value of ;£"6oo,ooo in 1905. The Government has con¬ structed a railway from the port of Sekondi to Tarkwa, the centre of the chief gold-mining district, and from thence to Kumassi. Towns.—Along the whole coast of the colony are scattered little trading towns, and the massive stone forts constructed in the old slave-dealing days, each with its spacious barracoons wherein the slaves were kept awaiting shipment. Accra (population 18,000) became the capital NIGERIA 129 and seat of government in the place of Cape Coast Castle in 1876. It was selected on account of its supposed superior healthiness ; for here the climate is extraordinarily dry for West Africa, the annual rainfall being below 30 inches, a condition attributed to the extensive destruction of the forests in the neighbourhood. Close to Accra is the old Dutch fort of Christiansborg. At Accra, as at Cape Coast Castle, there is but an open roadstead, and cargoes are discharged by surf-boats manned by Minas, men from the Elmina district, who are taller and of finer physique than the Krumen. Cape Coast Castle (population 29,000) is the most important town upon the coast. The large castle which gives the town its name was constructed early in the seventeenth century, and has been held by Portuguese, Dutch, and British in; succession; it fronts a sandy shore, upon which the long white line of surf perpetually breaks. Elmina, a few miles from Cape Coast Castle, the earliest European settlement in West Africa, was founded by the Portuguese in 1481; the ancient Portuguese fort still dominates the white town. The small town of Sekondi is rising in importance, as being the ocean terminus of the railway to Kumassi and the gold-fields. Here a small promontory forms a comparatively sheltered bay, and the lighters can load and disembark goods at piers. NIGERIA History.—Only 100 miles to the eastward of the Gold Coast Colony, but separated from it by two intrusive strips of German and French territory—Togoland and Dahomey—lies Nigeria, far the most extensive of the British West Coast possessions. This region, having thrice the area of the British Isles, holding a much denser population than any other tract of its size in Africa, and possessing in the Niger mouth the gateway to the richest portions of the Central Sudan, was secured, but just in time, for the Empire, not by the effort of the British Government, which stood by listless while the governments of France and Germany were seizing the heritage of I 130 WEST AFRICA generations of British explorers, missionaries, and traders, but by the energy and patriotism of British merchant companies. The British possession of Nigeria, as now delimited, consists of the former Oil Rivers Protectorate ; the terri¬ tories that were administered by the Royal Niger Company; and what was recently known as the Colony of Lagos. The Oil Rivers—the network of rivers, creeks, and lagoons that intersects the huge mangrove forests extending from the Niger mouth to the Cameroons—had been one of the chief resorts of the British slave-dealers, for here over¬ population had made negroes cheap and plentiful. When slavery was abolished, British merchants established numer¬ ous factories on the Oil Rivers, and traded with the natives for palm oil—reputed to be the best in all West Africa. British travellers diligently explored the Niger basin; trade was developed; missions were founded, and British influence became supreme along all the coasts of the Bights of Benin and Biafra. But the British Government, though often appealed to, shirked responsibility and assumed no territorial rights save at Lagos, a little island at the mouth of the Lagos Lagoon, which was annexed in 1861 for the purpose of suppressing the illicit slave-dealing of which it had become the headquarters. The island soon became densely populated with refugee slaves. Gradually the coast of the adjacent mainland was annexed for a distance of 160 miles eastwards to the mouth of the Benin River and westwards to the border of French Dahomey. The colony spread inland, and a protectorate was pro¬ claimed over an extensive hinterland embracing the great Yoruba Country. This new British possession, having a total area of 26,700 square miles, and a native population of one and a half million, proved a most valuable acquisi¬ tion, for it is rich in natural products, and is an important market for British manufactured goods. Lagos was attached to the Gold Coast Colony until 1886, when it became a separate Crown Colony. It now forms part of Southern Nigeria. But all the coast to the eastward of Lagos—though it NIGERIA 131 was studded with British trading stations, and though our merchants and missionaries, and the native chiefs, includ¬ ing those of what is now the German colony of Kamerun, repeatedly petitioned for a British protectorate—remained outside the control of the British Government. In the meanwhile the more enterprising French Government, meditating the annexation of the entire Niger basin, was extending the French sphere of influence along the upper and middle Niger; and Germany, having started on her career of colonial expansion, was also preparing to seize regions where British influence was predominant, but which a British Government neglected. Even as Cecil Rhodes saved Southern Africa for the Empire, so did Sir George Goldie save Nigeria. In iSyg he amalgamated the British mercantile interests on the lower Niger into a company, and set himself to prevent the threatened absorption of the British markets by the French and Germans. It was his aim to establish a trade with the powerful Mahomedan states of the interior, and to extend British influence eastwards from the Niger to the banks of the Nile. French companies under the auspices of the French Government began to trade on the lower Niger, and would have acquired treaty rights from the natives as a preliminary to annexation, had not Sir George Goldie, harassing them with a fierce commercial competition, made their business so unprofitable that they were glad to be bought out by the British Company in 1884. The risk of complications with a foreign Power was thus removed, and the British Government agreed to recognise the treaties which the National African Company (as Sir George Goldie's association was then named) had concluded with the chiefs of the lower Niger, and to take those regions under its protection. It was in this same year, 1884, that the British Govern¬ ment, alarmed at the aggressive activity of the Germans in Africa, at last paid heed to the warnings of the British consul and other British subjects in the Cameroons, and decided to place that portion of the coast and also the Oil Rivers under British protection. The consul was in- 132 WEST AFRICA structed to conclude the necessary treaties with the native chiefs, but when he arrived off the Cameroons River, he found that he had been forestalled; the German flag was already flying on the shore; a German emissary had travelled down the coast on a German gunboat, had pro¬ claimed a German protectorate over Togoland, and had then entered into treaties with the chiefs of the Cameroons, which gave the possession of that region to Germany. There was fortunately still time to save the Oil Rivers from German annexation, so the British consul hurried off and hastily concluded a number of treaties that secured to Great Britain all the coast between the Cameroons and Lagos. This coast strip—with the exception of the Niger Delta between the Forcados and Brass Rivers, which formed part of the National African Company's sphere of action—was placed under the administration of the Imperial Government, first as the Oil Rivers Pro¬ tectorate and later as the Niger Coast Protectorate. The coast-line had been secured for Great Britain, but Germany realised the value of Nigeria, and despatched her agents to the regions at the back of the National African Company's territories with the object of con¬ cluding treaties with the natives, cutting off the Company's hinterland, and preventing its further expansion. But Sir George Goldie anticipated these manoeuvres just in time, and in 1885 despatched the intrepid traveller, Mr Joseph Thomson, to enter into treaties with the sultans of Sokoto and Gando, and so brought those two great kingdoms within the sphere of British influence. The Company now entered into hundreds of treaties with the native rulers, and established its predominance throughout a vast region, extending northwards to the borders of the • Sahara, and containing upwards of a thousand miles of navigable waterways on the courses of the Niger and its great tributary the Benue. In 1886 a royal charter was granted to the National African Company, which then became the Royal Niger Company, and a British pro¬ tectorate was proclaimed over all the territories within its sphere of influence. NIGERIA 133 But France and Germany had established their colonies on the west and east side of British Nigeria, and were rapidly extending their spheres of influence, so that the Royal Niger Company, hemmed in between the two, had a hard struggle to hold its own against aggressions. Frontier disputes were frequent. British, French, and Germans raced against each other to secure the valuable markets of the Chad basin. At last the three spheres of influence met on the shores of the lake, and the boundaries were gradually delimited by a succession of international agreements, the last of which was negotiated in 1906. A company of British traders had secured Nigeria for the Empire; but here, as elsewhere on the west coast, France was successful in enveloping the British possessions with her own, and all the hinterland to the north of Nigeria and Lake Chad is France's, up to the borders of Egypt. The Royal Niger Company, with its handful of white men, accomplished a wonderful work. It brought power¬ ful Mahomedan kingdoms under its jurisdiction; its administration was admirable; it rapidly developed trade and agriculture; it opened roads, and its steamers navi¬ gated the Niger and Benue for hundreds of miles; where¬ soever it established effective control, it suppressed slave raiding and human sacrifice; by means of a small native force recruited in Nigeria, and commanded by a few white officers, it gave security to life and property throughout some of the most barbarous regions in Africa. It took upon itself all the expense and responsibility of admini¬ stration and defence, and only asked of the Imperial Government that it should proclaim a British protectorate in Nigeria, so that the Company might have a territorial title which would be recognised by foreign Powers. But this company of traders, hemmed in between the expand¬ ing colonies of two ambitious Powers, was in a difficult position; it could not well treat on equal terms with the governments of France and Germany. It was realised that an Imperial Government only should assume the grave political responsibilities involved. Consequently, in 1900, the Royal Niger Company surrendered its 134 WEST AFRICA sovereign rights to the Crown, but still remains a great and prosperous trading company, and takes a chief part in the development of Nigeria. The whole territory, including the Niger Coast Pro¬ tectorate, now became the Protectorate of Nigeria. It was divided into Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria, the boundary between the two crossing the Niger about 50 miles below the junction of that river and the Benue. Both divisions are administered by the Colonial Office. Finally, in 1906, Southern Nigeria was annexed to Lagos, which had hitherto been a separate Crown colony, and the name of Lagos was changed to that of the Colony of Southern Nigeria. The area of the Northern Nigerian Protectorate is about 315,000 square miles, and that of the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria nearly 80,000 square miles; so the total area of British Nigeria is equal to that of France and Spain put together. The native population has been roughly estimated at 20,000,000, the European population (1904) is under 1000. For administrative purposes Southern Nigeria has been divided into three, and Northern Nigeria into seventeen, provinces. The natives are still largely under the rule of their own chiefs, and native Mahomedan courts administer justice in the Mahomedan districts, subject to appeal to the British courts. Physical Features.—Nigeria has a coast-line of about 500 miles. The entire maritime belt is low-lying and swampy, and is intersected by innumerable lagoons, creeks, and sluggish, muddy streams which, were it not for the dense aquatic growth that obstructs the smaller channels, would afford a continuous waterway from French Dahomey to the German colony of Kamerun. Huge mangrove swamps envelop this maze of waters. The mangroves, often 60 feet in height, growing out of the water and deep soft mud, border the rivers with per¬ pendicular walls of dark green foliage as far up as the tide reaches and makes the water brackish. A typical Nigerian river, therefore, has no banks until one has ascended it NIGERIA 135 to beyond the limits of the crocodile-infested mangrove swamps, and then—60 miles possibly from its mouth—dry land begins to appear on either side, palm trees take the place of the mangroves, and plantations of plantains and other produce proclaim the settlements of human beings. To the north of this unhealthy coast belt, wherein the average annual rainfall is about 100 inches (the enormous rainfall of 167 inches was registered one year at Bonny), is a broad, undulating forest region, rich in fine timber and the valuable vegetable products of tropical Africa. In no part of the continent are more luxuriant forests found than those that cover a great part of the Colony of Southern Nigeria. Still further inland, the climate becomes drier and the forests thinner; the country assumes a park-like appearance, and is admirably adapted to agriculture. Still further north, at the limits of the British Protectorate, the savannas merge into the open steppes that fringe the arid Sahara. The greater part of Nigeria lies considerably lower than the other European possessions on the West Coast. The Niger, and its tributary the Benue, while traversing Nigeria, flow through broad and deep depressions, their valleys, even where they cross the frontiers of the French and German possessions, being only 600 feet above the sea. The most elevated part of the country is in Northern Nigeria, where a projection of the plateau of the interior forms an extensive highland region, whose peaks attain a height of 7000 feet. From these highlands, which lie to the west of Yakuba, streams flow in all directions to feed Lake Chad, the Niger, and the Benue. The Niger.—The mighty Niger, the third in length of the rivers of Africa—known to the native population on its banks under various names, such as Joliba on its upper, and Quorra on its lower course—affords a magnificent waterway through Nigeria and the Sudan to the borders of the Sahara. Rising in the mountains to the north-east of Sierra Leone, it flows for about 1900 miles in a great semi¬ circular sweep through the French Sudan j then, crossing 136 ^VEST AFRICA the Anglo-French boundary below Ilo, it flows for another 650 miles through Nigeria to the Atlantic. For the last 450 miles of its course it is broad and deep, has a gentle current, and is navigable for steamers throughout the year. At 250 miles from its mouth, the Niger receives on its left bank its most important tributary, the Benue, " the mother of waters," which, out of its total course of 850 miles, flows for 500 miles through the British protectorate, traversing a beautiful fertile country of wooded hills and cultivated fields, densely populated by an industrious people. For a great part of the year the Benue is navigated with ease by steamers, but in the dry season it is very shallow, and boats of light craft only can ascend it. At a distance of about 70 miles from the sea, the Niger divides into several branches and forms a huge delta, which extends for nearly 200 miles along the coast. The various branches of the Niger communicate, not only with each other and the coast lagoons, but also with the independent rivers to the east and west of the delta, through a multitude of transverse channels. The delta is increasing in size, the mangroves, as they spread seawards, making new land out of the ever-accumulating alluvial mud. So completely did this intricate network of creeks and mangrove swamps conceal the true character of the delta, that mariners who visited the coast never suspected that here was the mouth of a mighty river. The upper and middle courses of the Niger had been known to the Arabs for centuries, and were explored by British travellers in the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries; but the Niger was believed by some to be a branch of the Nile, and by Mungo Park to be the Congo. Its outlet to the ocean remained a mystery until 1830, when the Lander brothers solved the problem by descending the Nun, the main estuary of the great river. Lake Chad, on whose shores the spheres of influence of Great Britain, France, and Germany meet, is only 850 feet above the sea; for it lies in the lowest part of a huge depression which forms a basin of continental drainage having more than thrice the area of PTance, its waters NIGERIA 137 having no outlet to the ocean. The Shari, flowing into it from the south-east, is the principal feeder of Lake Chad. The river Chaba, which traverses Nigeria, also brings a considerable volume of water to the lake. The Sahara has for ages become more rainless and arid, so that the northern portion of the Chad basin contributes little or no water to the lake, and great wadys that used to feed it from that direction are now dry. Lake Chad is a shallow sheet of water studded with islands and • surrounded by reedy swamps. In the dry season it has an area of 10,000 square miles, but it spreads to twice or thrice that size during the autumn floods. Crocodiles, elephants, rhinoceros, abound in the swampy country bordering the lake. Native Population.—The three principal elements composing the native population of Nigeria are the Fulahs, a Mahomedan people of North African Hamitic origin; the negroes, who are for the most part pagans; and the Hausa and other negroid peoples of mixed negro and Hamitic blood. The Fulahs, though comprising a small proportion only of the population, are the dominant race in Northern Nigeria. Originally a pastoral people, scattered over the steppes of the Sudan from Senegambia to Lake Chad, they developed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, under their fanatical leader, Othman, into a nation of formidable warriors. They conquered kingdom after kingdom, and having brought the populous Hausa states under their subjection, they formed of them the great Mahomedan kingdom of Sokoto. The Fulahs have a considerable mixture of negro blood, and vary in com¬ plexion from reddish brown to black, but their regular features and intelligent expression indicate the higher Caucasian race from which they have sprung. The Hausas are the most widely spread of the negroid peoples, and number many millions in Northern Nigeria. A considerable proportion of the Hausas are Mahomedans, and all have been brought under the influence of the 138 ^VEST AFRICA Mahomedan civilisation of their Fulah rulers. They are an intelligent, industrious people, and display considerable mechanical skill. But, above all, the Hausas are a nation of traders; they were formerly great slave-dealers ; within their territories are the most important markets of the Sudan; their caravans traverse the Sahara to the Medi¬ terranean states and the valley of the Nile; and their tongue is the lingua franca of the merchants throughout a great part of Northern Africa. They are of strong build and have great powers of endurance. They make excellent soldiers, and the Hausa regiments which we raise in Nigeria have greatly distinguished themselves in the Ashanti and other wars under the command of their British officers. The Yorubas, whose country is to the north of Lagos, are another native people who are far above their negro neighbours in intelligence, industry, and culture. They are partly negroid and partly of purely negro stock. The Yoruba Empire was broken up by the Fulah conquerors; Mahomedanism has spread through the northern part of the country, and, in the south. Christian missionaries have worked with success among the pagan population. The Yorubas are good agriculturists, and weave cloth, tan leather, and work in brass and iron with some skill. The conquering Mahomedan peoples pressed back the pure negroes from the open interior into the dense forests and malarious swamps of the coast belt. The pagan blacks are practically savages, whose fetish worship is accompanied by human sacrifice, cannibalism, and name¬ less cruelties. The kingdom of Benin, between Lagos and the Niger, contains the most intelligent of the coast popu¬ lations, but was yet more infamous as a place of wholesale slaughter and torture than even Ashanti or Dahomey, until the punitive expedition of 1897 deposed the king and introduced British control. The negroes of the coast belt collect palm oil and rubber in the forests, engage in agri¬ culture, and breed cattle. They are also skilful hunters of elephants and other wild animals. NIGERIA 139 Native Cities.—Large and prosperous native cities of over 30,000 inhabitants are numerous in Nigeria. Such are the Hausa cities of Kano, Bida, and Sokoto, and Kuka, the recently rebuilt capital of the negroid Mahomedan kingdom of Bornu. These are the great emporiums of trade from which for ages the camel caravans have traversed the Sahara to the populous regions of the north. In their crowded markets are sold the products of the rich country—native cotton, cloth, kola nuts, gold-dust, ivory, ostrich feathers, indigo, wheat, horses, and cattle, and now, in ever-increasing quantities, the textiles, cutlery, and other manufactures of Europe. It was from these cities that until recently the slaves that had been captured by raids into the pagan countries were transported in long caravans to Tripoli and other countries where slavery was still permitted. Still larger than these are the walled cities of the Yoruba country, built originally to protect the people against the Dahoman invaders from the west, and the slave-raiders from the north. The Yoruba city of Abeokuta is said to contain 200,000 inhabitants, and Ibadan is but a little smaller. Products and Trade.—Throughout a great part of Nigeria industrious native populations cultivate the fertile soil, and raise various crops, which include cotton, maize, cocoa, coffee, bananas, and yams, and, in the northern regions, wheat, millet, and indigo. The soil is well adapted to the growth of cotton, and there are no finer cotton bushes in the world than those that grow in the neighbourhood of Lake Chad. Northern Nigeria promises to become one of the greatest cotton-growing countries under the British flag, and so contribute largely to the deliverance of our principal manufacturing industry from its present dangerous dependence on the American market. The British Cotton-growing Association, which has for its aim the extension of cotton cultivation through¬ out the Empire, has found in Nigeria the most promising field for its operations. The development of the resources of Northern Nigeria is steadily advancing, and the grow- 140 WEST AFRICA ing trade with the populous sultanates of the Lake Chad basin is likely to assume large dimensions. Southern Nigeria is already a prosperous dependency of the Empire. In 1905 the imports and exports—which nearly balanced each other—were of the value of nearly £6,ooofioo. The exports mainly consisted of the natural products of the country, including palm oil and kernels (by far the most important article of export), india-rubber, gum copal, shea- butter and kernels (employed in the manufacture of candles), and ivory. The principal imports are cotton goods, cutlery, and other British manufactured goods. In Nigeria, as in our other recently acquired tropical possessions, able administrators have been forthcoming to direct imperial expansion. Sir Frederick Lugard, first as servant of the Royal Niger Company, and the negotiator of treaties with the chiefs of the Hinterland, and later as High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria under the Im¬ perial Government, did as useful work here as in that other country, Uganda, which is so intimately connected with his name. Towns.—The town of Lagos, once the capital of the Crown colony of Lagos, now the seat of government of Southern Nigeria, is situated on a low island facing the Lagos Lagoon. It has a population of 42,000, and is the largest seaport town in British West Africa. As there is here the only practicable passage from the ocean to the string of lagoons that extends from the western frontier of the colony to the Niger delta, Lagos was the headquarters of the slave-trade in the old days, and has now become a thriving commercial port, and the trade centre of the western part of Nigeria. But it is a place difficult of access. The channel that leads from the ocean to the lagoon is narrow and shifting, while the dangerous bar that lies across the entrance cannot be crossed by vessels of over 12 feet draught even under the most favourable conditions. Ocean-going vessels have to anchor outside, rolling in the heavy swell that is always found in Lagos roads, where their cargoes are transhipped, often with &earge7h2ip Icoidari. Jolm l:fcrray, Aibemarle Street The-Zond/rrv GeoqrcQjTojy^ZistitiJite- NIGERIA 141 great difficulty, to the small branch steamers that cross the bar. A railway connects Lagos with the great city of Ibadan in the interior, and is now being extended north¬ wards to the Niger through Ilorin. The still further extension of this railway into Northern Nigeria is indis¬ pensable to the development of the great cotton-growing industry, which will become the mainstay of this valuable possession. The seat of administration of Northern Nigeria is Zungeru on a tributary of the Niger. All along the coast of the Niger delta and the Oil Rivers are scattered trading stations, where the factories of the palm-oil traders stand on piles, amid landscapes composed chiefly of gloomy mangrove swamps, and rivers and lagoons of scum-covered, stinking water, sluggishly flowing towards the white line which shows where the ocean breaks upon the outer bars. Among the principal ports and trading stations are:—Porcados, at the mouth of one of the branches of the Niger, with 20 feet of water on the bar and a spacious harbour within; thus vessels of considerable draught use this port, and heavy cargoes destined for Lagos are here discharged into the branch boats; Akassa, at the mouth of the Nun, the main branch of the Niger, a coaling station for trading steamers, and once the capital of the Royal Niger Company; Brass; Bonny; Old Calabar; and Benin. Wari and Sapele, inland towns, which are reached respectively by the Forcados and Benin rivers, are important centres of the palm-oil trade. EASTERN AFRICA INTRODUCTORY The partition of Africa resulted in the acquisition by France of the bulk of the western part of the continent, and the predominance of Great Britain in the eastern part. On a political map of Africa there appears red-tinted, as lying within the British sphere of influence, not only the comparatively small strip of British Somaliland on the Gulf of Aden coast, but a huge territory, as large as Europe excluding Russia, extending in a broad belt nearly 2800 miles in length from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean south of the Equator. This represents the British sphere of influence as delimited by the various international agreements that were made in the course of the scramble for Africa among the European Powers. Here, as else¬ where in Africa, the international boundaries were for the most part arranged by the Powers before there had been any occupation, in some cases even exploration, of the regions concerned. It was found convenient thus to define in advance the respective fields of European enterprise, so as to avoid as far as possible overlapping of interests and conflict during the expansion of the rival colonial empires. But, nevertheless, we had considerable trouble with our ambitious neighbours before the existing British sphere of influence in Eastern Africa was definitely secured. The British sphere of influence in Eastern Africa presents striking diversities, from whatever point of view it be regarded. It offers every variety of climate, from the intense heat of the Libyan Desert to the arctic cold of the ice-clad slopes of Kenya. It contains swampy malarious lowlands and healthy fertile uplands; humid ' regions where the luxuriant forests are bathed in the 142 HISTORY OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 143 heavy equatorial rains, and vast rainless tracts of hope¬ less desert. Within its boundaries, or on its confines, are the highest mountains and the largest lake in Africa, and practically the entire valley of the mighty Nile. It com¬ prises wild regions over which our dominion is but nominal; countries under direct British administration and partly colonised, such as Uganda; a Mahomedan sultanate under British protection, in Zanzibar; a Con- dominion in the Sudan, where the provinces are adminis¬ tered by Great Britain and Egypt conjointly; and lastly,, that most anomalous of states, Egypt proper, which forms no part of the British Empire, and is ruled by an inde¬ pendent sovereign, but in which Great Britain, though her influence is represented by consular officers only, exercises a great control, advises every department of the govern¬ ment, and maintains a permanent army of occupation. HISTORY OP THE EAST AFRICA AND UGANDA PROTECTORATES The East Africa Protectorate on the Indian Ocean coast and its hinterland, Uganda, are among the most recent of Great Britain's territorial acquisitions; but their history, short though it has been since the British flag first flew over them, has been an eventful one. The ancient history of the land may be briefly sketched. Long before the Christian era, the Phoenicians traded on the East African coast, and made it known to the civilised nations of the Mediterranean seaboard. Shortly after the death of Mahomed, the Arab invaders began to sweep all over northern Africa in wave after wave of conquest, carrying with them the creed of Islam. They began to establish themselves on the east coast in the ninth century, and their trading settlements at last extended as far south as Sofala. Portugal, here, as in other parts of Africa, was the pioneer of European coloni¬ sation. During the early part of the sixteenth century, Portugal overthrew the Arab sultanates, seized Sofala, Mombasa, and other prosperous cities, founded her 144 EASTERN AFRICA trading factories and forts, and made herself supreme along the whole coast. Then came the decay of the Portuguese power in the seventeenth century. On the east coast as on the west her influence waned; the Arabs captured her possessions; before the middle of the eighteenth century, Portugal had abandoned her claim to any territory to the north of her present colony of Mozambique. The island of Zanzibar, Mombasa, and a great portion of the coast had been conquered from Portugal by the Arabians of Oman, a sultanate at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, whose capital is Muscat. In 1824 the then Imam of Oman, Seyid Said, attempted to recover, by force of arms, Mombasa and the other former African posses¬ sions of Oman, which had long since thrown off their allegiance to the court of Muscat. The chieftain govern¬ ing Mombasa appealed to England for protection, and Captain Owen, who was in command of a squadron on the coast, proclaimed a protectorate which was, however, repudiated by the British Government. Seyid Said captured Mombasa, made himself master of the coast, and moved his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar. Under his rule Zanzibar became the most important city of East Africa and a great trading centre. He extended his dominion southwards as far as the Mozambique border, and his influence was felt inland up to the shores of Tanganyika, which he connected with the coast by a line of trading stations. On the death of Seyid Pasha, in 1856, his eldest son became Imam of Oman, and his second son. Sultan of Zanzibar. A dispute between the brothers concerning this arrangement was referred to the Viceroy of India, Lord Canning, by whose decision the Zanzibar Sultanate was made independent of Oman. British influence became supreme in Zanzibar. The bulk of the coast trade fell into the hands of British subjects. Our representatives at the Sultan's Court— notably Sir John Kirk—controlled all his policy. The Sultan, Seyid Barghash, even consented to prohibit the export of slaves from the coast, a measure that could not HISTORY OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 145 but be very repugnant to an Arab ruler. He would have welcomed a British protectorate, and he offered to hand over the administration of his territories to the British. But, as was usual in the days before foreign aggression had revived the imperial spirit in England, the British Government shirked the responsibility thrust upon it. No steps were taken to safeguard British interests in East Africa, until the dismemberment of the Sultan's kingdom by other Powers had already commenced. From the middle of the nineteenth century, travellers had been exploring the wonderful regions that lie behind the low Zanzibar coast, discovering the sources of the Nile and the great lakes, the splendid mountains, the fertile uplands of the interior. The value of Eastern Africa became known to the nations of Europe, and here as elsewhere, we found rivals in the field when the partition of the continent came about. The agents of the Society for German Colonisation made treaties with the chiefs of the interior, and early in 1885 the German Emperor granted a charter to the Society, and proclaimed a protectorate over the territories it should acquire. In the meanwhile. Sir William Mackinnon, to whom the Sultan had offered comprehensive concessions, formed the society of merchants which ultimately developed into the Imperial British East Africa Company, and acquired treaty rights from the chiefs of the Kilima-Njaro and other districts. The Sultan of Zanzibar vainly protested against the German annexa¬ tion of his territories; the German agents pushed on towards the slopes of Kilima-Njaro, making new treaties; and Germany, refusing to recognise the Sultan's suze¬ rainty over Witu, a coast territory 300 miles north of Zanzibar, established a protectorate over it. Now, at last, the British Government intervened, with the result that an international commission met to settle the conflicting claims, and in 1886 the interested Powers arrived at an agreement by which the Sultan's posses¬ sions were limited to Zanzibar, Pemba, and some other islands, a ten-mile-broad coast strip extending for 600 miles from near Cape Delgado to the fiver Tana, and K 146 EASTERN AFRICA certain scattered coast stations north of the Tana; while a line drawn from a point opposite Pemba Island round the northern slopes of Kilima-Njaro to the eastern shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza was fixed as the boundary between the British and German spheres of influence. Shortly afterwards the Sultan leased to the British and German companies respectively his coast strips to the north and south of this line; and in 1888 the British Company obtained a Royal charter, empowering it to administer and develop the territories within the British sphere of influence, and imposing upon it the obligation of suppres- ing the slave-trade so far as this was possible. The Agreement of 1886 failed to prevent conflict between British and German interests. There was for a time a danger of the German sphere of influence envelop¬ ing our own. One German expedition, starting from Witu, marched round the north side of the British sphere of influence and reached Uganda, where concessions were obtained from the king; but fortunately Great Britain's hinterland was saved for her just in time, and her sphere of influence greatly extended by some of the provisions of the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890, which removed all cause for dispute between the two nations in this part of the world. By this agreement, Germany abandoned to Great Britain, Witu, and all her territorial claims to the north of the Tana ; the boundary line of the 1886 Agree¬ ment was extended across Lake Victoria Nyanza to the Congo Free State border; and the island of Heligoland in the North Sea was ceded to Germany. In the same year Great Britain proclaimed a protectorate over Zanzi¬ bar. In 1901 the northern boundary of the British sphere of influence was delimited by an arrangement with Italy, which at that time had a nominal protectorate over Abyssinia. It was left to the Imperial British East Africa Company to develop this immense sphere of influence, which stretched from a four-hundred-miles long coast-line for an indefinite distance into the heart of Equatorial Africa. So soon as it had obtained its charter, the Company set vigorously to HISTORY OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 147 work; it improved the harbour of Mombasa, opened out roads, and founded forts and trading stations in the interior. Pioneer expeditions were sent to enter into treaties with savage native rulers, and the Company's influence was extended to the sources of the Nile. The task was no easy one; for the field of operations was one of the most turbulent regions in Africa, wherein cannibal tribes, savage kings, Arab slave-dealers, and the rivalry of religions, were the cause of unceasing trouble. About a decade before the creation of the Company, English Protestant and French Catholic missions were established in Uganda, a kingdom in which a considerable number of the natives had been converted to Mahomedan- ism by the Arabs from Zanzibar. Mwanga, the treacherous King of Uganda, favoured or plotted against each of the religious factions in turn, and once planned with his pagan following to destroy all the Christians and Mahomedans in his country. At one time, the Mahomedans would gain the ascendancy and massacre the Christians; at another time, the two Christian sections would combine and defeat the Mahomedans; and when there was peace with the latter, the Protestants and Roman Catholics used to fight each other, the quarrel between these two sections being of a political rather than a religious character, reflecting as it did the rival aspirations for supremacy of the British and French. On the conclusion of the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890, Captain, now General Sir Frederick, Lugard, who as pioneer and administrator has done so much good service in Africa, led an expedition into Uganda, entered into a treaty with the king, settled so far as was possible the dispute between the three religions factions, enlisted into the Company's service the Sudanese who had been left on the shores of Lake Albert Nyanza by Emin Pasha, defeated the savage King of Unyoro, erected forts and garrisoned them, and firmly established the Company's influence up to the westermost limits of what is now the Uganda Protectorate. But to maintain effective occupa¬ tion of so extensive and distant a region, and to construct 148 EASTERN AFRICA the railway from the coast which was indispensable for the development of the country, was beyond the resources of the Company, which had by now almost exhausted its capital, and the British Government was disinclined to come to its assistance. Consequently, the Company announced that it would be compelled to withdraw from Uganda and the regions beyond it. The importance of the interests that would be sacrificed by such an evacuation was realised in England, and public opinion declared itself so strongly against the abandonment of our sphere of influence in the interior of East Africa, that the Government at last decided to pay the Company a subsidy to enable it to maintain its forces in Uganda for a little while longer, and sent an expedition under Sir Gerald Portal to report on the best means of dealing with the country. The result of the I report was that the Imperial Government in 1894 decided to retain Uganda, and to administer it as a Protectorate. In 1895 the Imperial Government bought all the Com¬ pany's rights, and undertook the administration of the territories between Uganda and the coast, which were now formed into the East Africa Protectorate. Thus was brought to a close the rule of the Company, whose patriotic founders and enterprising pioneers had done so much for our Empire in Africa. The Uganda Protectorate gradually extended its limits, and is now conterminous, on the 5 th degree of north latitude, with the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The attempts of rival Powers to cut off British East Africa from Egypt—to which reference will be made later—were unsuccessful, and Great Britain has brought within her sphere of influence the valley of the Nile, from Lake Albert Edward Nyanza to the Mediterranean Sea. Since the Imperial Government undertook the admini¬ stration of the British East Africa and the Uganda Pro¬ tectorates, the turbulence of the natives has necessitated several punitive expeditions. In 1897 the Sudanese troops in Uganda mutinied, and were assisted by King Mwanga of Uganda and the King of Unyoro; after severe fighting, the mutiny was suppressed and the two kings BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE 149 were deported. But for some time peace has reigned in the two protectorates, the resources of the country are being developed, and its prosperity as a colony seems now to be assured. The Uganda Railway was completed in | 1901; it has a length of 584 miles, and connects Mombasa with the shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza, thus affording communication from the sea to the great navigable waterways of the interior This railway was indispensable to the development of the interior; for before its con¬ struction the cost of the transport of goods on the heads of native porters from the coast to Uganda was £'^00 a ton. In 1905 the administration of both the protectorates was transferred from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office. The British East Africa and Uganda protectorates comprise a territory nearly three times as large as the United Kingdom, extending from a coast-line 400 miles in length to the borders of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Many parts of it, especially in the north, have not yet been fully explored. THE BRITISH BAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE The British East Africa Protectorate has an area of over 200,000 square miles, the boundary between it and ' the Uganda Protectorate being a line drawn down the centre of Lake Rudolf to the north-east shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza, leaving the entire Uganda Railway and Port Florence, its terminus on the lake, within the East Africa Protectorate. Physical Features and Products. — The Pro¬ tectorate forms three parallel zones. The first of these is a narrow, low-lying, maritime belt fringed by coralline islands and reefs. Save in its northern portion, this zone has an abundant rainfall and a rich soil. Here are forests of fine timber and jungles which supply rubber, gum- copal, and other valuable natural products; extensive groves of cocoanut palms supply one of the chief articles of export, copra; and the natives cultivate cotton, sugar. 150 EASTERN AFRICA tobacco, plantains, sweet potatoes, and all the tropical fruits. The Tana and Sebaki rivers, which rise in the mountains of the interior, flow across this zone into the ocean, but are of little service to navigation. The river Juba, which forms the northern frontier!of the Protectorate, is navigable for shallow-draught steamers for 400 miles from its mouth. Behind the coast belt is the second zone, averaging 120 miles in breadth, where the land gradually slopes up to the escarpments of the high plateau. This is a parched region with poor soil, which is chiefly overgrown with thorny acacias and mimosas, aloes, and other plants characteristic of a dry country. The third and far the largest zone is formed by the Great East African Plateau. Within the Protectorate the plateau has an elevation of from 4000 to 9000 feet. From it rise numerous volcanic peaks, notably Mount Kenya, whose summit, 18,600 feet above the sea, is the centre of a great mountain mass covered with glaciers, snow-fields, and vast unexplored forests. The plateau, save in the I little explored northern part of the Protectorate, is well watered and exceedingly fertile. Park-like tracts of luxuriant pasture studded with clumps of trees alternate with magnificent forests; and rich valleys pierce the mountain masses. The vegetation peculiar to every climate is found here, from the rank, tropical growth— much resembling that of West Africa—on the lower parts of the plateau, to the arctic flora of the higher mountain slopes; while pleasant downs with their clothing of ferns and heather recall scenery in northern Europe. The plateau zone is traversed by the Equator, but a great part of it seems to be suitable for European colonisa¬ tion, the elevation of the land making the climate healthy and moderating the heat of the tropical sun. Of its pastoral and agricultural possibilities there can be little doubt. Large tracts are well adapted for stock-raising; while cotton, sugar, coffee, cereals, tobacco, potatoes, and other vegetables, apples, peaches, and other European fruits, are successfully cultivated on these highlands. But BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE 151 colonisation is in its infancy, and there are but a few- hundred white settlers in the Protectorate whose farms are nearly all in the provinces of Ukamba and Naivasha, which are traversed by the Uganda Railway. The remarkable depression or trough known as the East African Rift Valley, cleaving the plateau from north to south, is on the west side of the Protectorate, and for some distance forms the boundary between it and Uganda. Its floor is occupied by several lakes, some fresh, some brackish, which do not find their way to the sea. The largest by far of these lakes is Lake Rudolf at the northern end of the Rift Valley, a sheet of water whose area is about half that of Wales. It occupies the lowest part of the depression, being only 1250 feet above the sea, and is the centre of a basin of continental drainage. It is sur¬ rounded by a desolate volcanic country strewn with lava. Zoology.— Nearly all the wild animals of tropical Africa are found in the two protectorates, including elephants, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo, zebras, giraffes, antelope, and other game in great abundance. Population. — The native population of the Pro¬ tectorate numbers about 4,000,000. On the coast a large proportion of the people are Mahomedan; in the interior paganism prevails, but Christianity has obtained a hold among the more civilised tribes. The inhabitants of the plateau are Bantu-speaking negroes, with some admixture of the North African Hamitic stock of which the Egyptian and Abyssinian races are branches. The more purely Hamitic races are found in the north of the Protectorate, where they are chiefly represented by the fanatical Mahom¬ edan Somali of the coast belt—a turbulent people against whom it has been found necessary to undertake occasional punitive expeditions—and the pastoral Gallas of the region to the east of Lake Rudolf. The Bantus, though owning herds and flocks, are mainly engaged in agriculture, among the principal tribes being the Ukamba and the Wakikuyu, who occupy the rich country near Mount Kenya. The 152 EASTERN AFRICA adjoining country, on either side of the Rift Valley, is inhabited by the Masai, a warlike, purely pastoral people, who have a considerable mixture of Hamitic blood in their veins. Until recently, they were the terror of their agri¬ cultural neighbours, whose lands they wasted, and they robbed the caravans that passed by their territory. Some of the negro people have no herds and do not cultivate the ground, being merely savage hunters; such are the Dorobo of the fastnesses of Mount Kenya, who kill game with spears, live chiefly on the flesh of elephants, and barter ivory with the coast traders. The natives are mostly governed by their own chiefs under British super¬ vision ; but in the unorganised and but partly explored districts, they are practically independent. Slave-raiding is a thing of the past. The southern part of the coast belt is inhabited chiefly ^by Arabs and Swahili. The Swahili (coast people) are half-breed negroes with Arab and sometimes Indian blood in their veins. They are all Mahomedans, and, being a plucky people of strong physique, formed the armed bands of the Arab slave-raiders in the old days. They are useful carriers on expeditions into the interior, and serve as soldiers in the native regiments raised by the government. They are enterprising traders, and their language, a mixture of Bantu and Arab and some Hindustani, has become the lingua franca of the greater part of Africa south of the Equator. There are 25,000 natives of British India in the Pro¬ tectorate. They were established as traders on the coast long before the British Government took over the admini¬ stration of the country, and are now to be found in all the important centres throughout the interior. The European population is under 1000. Towns.—Up to 1906 the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate has been Mombasa (the island of war), which was an important Arab city at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and a stronghold of the Portuguese until, on the decay of their colonial empire, they lost the THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 153 Zanzibar coast to the Arabs of Oman. Mombasa stands upon an island of the same name which forms two land¬ locked harbours, one on its own western shore, and one on the opposite mainland at Kilindini, the latter being re¬ garded as the finest harbour on the East African coast. Mombasa is the starting-point of the Uganda Railway, which traverses a bridge from the island to the mainland. It is the chief emporium of trade in the Protectorate and the largest city, having a population of 30,000, chiefly composed of Swahili. There are several other good harbours on the coast of the Protectorate, Kismayu in the north being a valuable harbour of refuge for the exposed coast that extends from it to Cape Guardafui. Nairobi, the capital of the province of Ukamba, is the headquarters of the Uganda Railway, and the centre of ' the rich country in which the bulk of the European farmers 1 are settled. It is a rising place, with a larger European population than Mombasa, European shops, an Indian bazaar, and a Municipal Council. In 1906 the seat of government was removed from Mombasa to Nairobi. The food stuffs produced by the colonists are now being exported to Natal and other countries. But, so far, there has been but little development of the great resources of the Protectorate. The principal exports from it are ivory, copra, rubber, and hides. THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE Physical Features and Products.—The Uganda Protectorate has an area of about 90,000 square miles, and includes, not only the kingdom of Uganda on the north¬ west shores of Victoria Nyanza, but also Unyoro, Tore, Ankole, and other countries whose native rulers have accepted British protection. All the principal physical features of this planet are represented on the surface of this Protectorate—stupendous mountains, wastes of ice and snow, rain-drenched tropical forests and swamps, torrid and almost rainless deserts, volcanoes, and huge lakes. The Protectorate lies wholly on the great East African Plateau, 154 EASTERN AFRICA save in the north-west, where the land slopes to the swampy lowlands of the Nile valley. On the west side of the Protectorate the Plateau is furrowed by the Central African Rift Valley—the long trough occupied by Lake Tanganyika; the Nile's lake reservoirs, Albert Edward and Albert; and other sheets of water. This trough, like the parallel East African Rift Valley, is lined with volcanoes, some of which are active, and steaming geysers. Between the two rift valleys is the depression occupied by the Victoria Nyanza, one-half of whose shore lies within the two British protectorates, the southern half being in German East Africa. In the Uganda, as in the East Africa Protectorate, there are fine pasture lands and magnificent forests on the southern part of the plateau, and some arid and almost rainless tracts on the northern. In the south-east of the Uganda Protectorate the extinct volcano. Mount Elgon, 14,000 feet in height, with a crater 8 miles in diameter, rises from the plateau, its radiating spurs forming an extensive well-watered highland region which is largely covered with forests. Descending from the high plateau to the lake region of the Central Rift Valley and to the shores of Victoria Nyanza, one enters a hotter zone of copious rains and heavy dew, where the climate much resembles that of the west coast of Africa. Here the tropical growth of forest and jungle is most luxuriant and varied, and the elephant grass is 10 feet high on the plains. The population is agricultural rather than pastoral, and the banana is the staple food. Tropical products thrive on the prolific soil, and the cultivation includes cotton, coffee, and date palms. Elephants are numerous, and ivory is the principal article of export. The shores of Albert Edward Nyanza and Albert Nyanza are mostly within the Protectorate, but on the west side are partly in the Congo State. Lake Albert , is as large as the county of Norfolk, and Lake Albert I Edward has about half that area. The former lake has an altitude of 2100 feet above the sea, the latter of 3200 feet. The Victoria Nyanza, the Nile's great reservoir, is THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 155 the largest sheet of fresh water in the world after Lake f Superior. Having an estimated area of 26,000 square miles, it is nearly as large as Scotland. It is navigated by steamers and sailing vessels. Its surface is about 3700 ) feet above the sea. To the north of Albert Edward Nyanza, and close to the Equator, extends the great snow-capped mountain range of Ruwenzori, which was identified by Stanley with the famous Mountains of the Moon, whose snows, accord¬ ing to Ptolemy, fed the River Nile. Ruwenzori, which signifies " the rain-maker," was well named by the natives; for it attracts and distributes so much moisture, that in its neighbourhood there is an annual rainfall of 100 inches. Its summits are rarely visible for clouds and rain and mists. In 1906 the range was explored by the Duke of the Abruzzi, who named its numerous peaks, the highest of which, Margherita, has an elevation above the sea of over 16,800 feet. Population.—The population of the Protectorate is estimated at about 3,000,000, the Europeans numbering a few hundreds only. The highest native type is found in the Bantu-speaking negroes, of whom the Baganda, the inhabitants of the kingdom of Uganda, are among the most intelligent and civilised of the negro peoples. The Baganda number about 1,000,000, of whom the large majority are now Christians. The naked Nilotic peoples are of an inferior mental development, and a low type of humanity is found in the pygmies, who live in small numbers in the forests on the south-western border of the Protectorate. There are tribes of Hamitic blood speaking a Hamitic language in the Lake Rudolf region, and the Hamitic dynasties and aristocracies that exist in some of the Bantu kingdoms in the Protectorate testify to the pre¬ historic Hamitic invasion of this country from the north. In some parts of Uganda the natives suffer much from that strange disease, the "sleeping sickness," which is caused by the bite of an infected fly. 156 EASTERN AFRICA Towns.—The headquarters of the Protectorate ad¬ ministration is at Entebbe, on the north-west coast of Victoria Nyanza, the principal port of Uganda. The capital of the kingdom of Uganda is the six-hilled city of Mengo, about 20 miles north of Entebbe. It is the chief missionary centre. Kampala, one of the hills, is occupied by the British military and civil officials. The Uganda Protectorate is making rapid progress, but the development of its great natural resources has but commenced. The exports and imports doubled in the three years 1905-1907, and the increasing trade will soon warrant the extension of the railway, which, though com¬ pleted so recently, is already working at a small profit. The vast rubber forests, the fine timber, and the fibre plants, are among the more valuable natural products. The indigenous coffee and cotton are being supplanted by better imported varieties; the cultivation of grain is being largely extended. The field for cotton production is practically unlimited, and this is likely to become the main industry of the country. THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE It has been shown that the once extensive dominions ' of the Sultan of Zanzibar have been reduced to the two islands of Zanzibar and Pemba ; for of the leased mainland coast strip he has but the titular rule. Since the pro¬ tectorate was established, the administration of Zanzibar has been largely under the control of the British Govern¬ ment. The Sultan's prime minister, his financial adviser, and the officer commanding his little army and police force, are British; and a British tribunal tries cases in which a British subject is a party. Slavery ceased to be recognised legally in 1897, and an English cathedral now stands on the site of the old slave-market in the city of Zanzibar—for long the headquarters of the East African slave traffic. Zanzibar has an area of 640 square miles, and is the largest of the coralline islands which fringe this portion of THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE 157 the coast; a channel about 20 miles in breadth separates it from the mainland. Pemba Island, which is not nearly so densely populated as Zanzibar or so highly cultivated, has an area of 380 square miles. The soil of Zanzibar is exceedingly fertile. The chief industry is the cultivation of cloves, which form the most valuable article of export. Among other products are manioc (the staple food of the people), cocoa-nuts, vanilla, nutmeg, and chillies. Mahomedanism is the prevailing religion on the island. The inhabitants, numbering about 200,000, are of very mixed race, and include the dominant Arabs; Swahilis; the descendants of negro slaves captured in various parts of Africa; several thousands of British Indian subjects— Banyans and Hindis, through whose hands passes the greater part of the trade; and half-breeds of many descriptions. The Sultan's capital is the city of Zanzibar, on the west shore of the island, facing the mainland. It has a popula¬ tion of about 70,000, and is the largest seaport city between the Mediterranean and the Cape of Good Hope. The harbour is spacious and sheltered, and Zanzibar has become the great trade centre for the commerce between the east coast of Africa and India and Arabia. Its exports include, in addition to the natural products of the island, rubber, copra, ivory, and the other products of the mainland. The Sultan's kingdom, though a small one, is a very prosperous one, and when the resources of Africa becomq developed, Zanzibar will probably hold a position similar to that held by Singapore in the East. THE SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE Of the ancient Hamitic stock which occupied all Africa north of the negro zone long before the Phoenicians founded their settlements on the Mediterranean seaboard, the Somali is now one of the most widely distributed branches. The Somali form the bulk of the population 158 EASTERN AFRICA throughout a broad belt of territory extending along the eastern coast of Africa for a distance of nearly 2CXXD miles, from the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Cape Guardafui, and thence to the mouth of the Tana River in British East Africa. The Somali are not pure Hamites, having much admixture of Arab and negro blood, and they vary in complexion from black to light brown. The majority, however, have the Caucasian type of features, are of fine physique, and are singularly handsome. The Somali are fanatical Mahomedans, fiercely independent, and resent rule of any description, so that they yield but slight obedience even to their tribal chiefs and petty sultans. This trait in their character has prevented any concentra¬ tion of their small tribes into a strong state. They live a pastoral life, and a large proportion of them are nomads. Egypt having extended her influence' down the east coast, had her garrisons at Berbera, Zeyla, Bulbar, Harrar, and other places in Somaliland ; but these were withdrawn in 1884, when the military strength of Egypt had to be concentrated against the Mahdists in the Sudan. Other Powers then stepped in to occupy the abandoned stations. Italy brought under her sphere of influence the long coast strip now called Italian Somaliland; Abyssinia acquired territory in the interior; and Great Britain secured her position by establishing a protectorate over 400 miles of the Somali coast on the Gulf of Aden, thus anticipating the possible occupation by another Power of a region whose situation at the entrance of the Red Sea gives it a con¬ siderable strategical and commercial importance. The British Government exercises no direct rule in the interior of the Protectorate, but the Somali chiefs now generally submit their disputes to the British officials at Berbera, instead of fighting them out after the old fashion. The rising under the "Mad Mullah" in 1902 necessitated military operations which lasted for two years. British Somaliland is rather larger than England and Wales, and has a population of about 300,000. It lies between French and Italian Somaliland, and important caravan routes cross it from the coast to Abyssinia, which 'f- iBaoiascas Shelat' 1 Ja£2/® \ J.Shammai 'asoMfi ^ e 3 Rifra j.^lixAcw ^HcLsBeniOes DoTigdlk^. 4< OldJ)&rf0oU^ .Saclumj V»JOO KordjofaiL ElObei4°^.^ /"QSiaoia,. C. Gtuu'daftAi- ^ShcJeka. SohodZc' 'Olfina^ Gak^Ufl^^fr» iOiTTtU» atia y E GY P T BRITISH EJ^T AFRICA Scale 1:24,000,000 'B !• it, i sli Sug^rtat^ j f«E®kfriic~S: jBmvct EcTQafccg : Frincip^L Mailwc^s 19.700 -BeiupUs irv that 3 BT'itislv Bossessrions 3 F'peJieh „ 3 Oernicxrt X.ISviti TtcsXcmaor.^ (reoy-r'a^ic^XxstxiXiis.. Landan.. Johii Muitc^, ATbeanarle Street. Northwestern University Library THE SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 159 borders it on the south. It is a hot and arid country, with a scant thorny vegetation on the plains; but in the valleys of the mountainous interior there is thick bush and good pasture. There are excellent breeds of camels and donkeys, and from remote times the country has been famed for its frankincense and myrrh, the products of the aromatic resinous plants that abound on the mountain sides. Hides, ostrich feathers, cattle, and sheep are among the exports. The seat of the British administration is Berbera, a place of considerable trade, which has the best harbour on the southern shore of the Gulf of Aden. EGYPT Egypt forms no part of the British Empire ; but so large a control does Great Britain exercise over Egyptian affairs, so intimately has the recent history of Egypt been con¬ nected with the extension of the British sphere of influence in Eastern Africa and the basin of the upper Nile, that a short account of the country is necessary to make clear our present position in the African continent. Physical Features.—It has been well said that Egypt is the Nile. Egypt owes its very existence to the Nile. It is an almost rainless land enclosed by deserts, and would itself be a desert were it not for the great river that carries to it from rainy tropical regions, across a thousand miles of parched wilderness, the abundance of water and the rich alluvial soil that makes the Delta the garden of the world. The great desert of the Sahara stretches across North Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, forming a barrier a thousand miles in breadth between the Mediterranean coast belt and the fertile and populous Sudan. This desert barrier can only be traversed very slowly, with difficulty and danger, by the camel caravans of the Arabs, except on its eastern side, where the Nile valley, with its splendid waterway and its land- way along the inhabited and cultivated river banks, affords a narrow but easy line of communication across these thirsty wastes. Egypt is thus the gateway to the rich heart of Africa, and it has been realised since the time of Mehemet Ali that the possession of the fountains and 160 THE NILE 161 upper reaches of the Nile by a strong Power brings with it the control of the Delta. Egypt's position at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean has from remote times given it a great commercial, political, and strategical importance; for, holding the Isthmus of Suez, it commands both the only land route between Africa and Asia and the Red Sea maritime route to the East. Napoleon I., when he medi¬ tated the destruction of England's then rising empire in India, attempted the conquest of Egypt as a preliminary measure. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 has made it of greater importance than ever to this country, as mistress of India, that no other European Power should become supreme in Egypt. The Nile, flowing from south to north through thirty- five degrees of latitude, has a length of over 4000 miles, second only to that of the Mississippi. The main branch, the Bahr-el-Abiad or White Nile, has its sources on the high equatorial plateau, where the Victoria Nyanza and Lake Albert and Albert Edward act as gigantic reservoirs, which collect the perennial rains, and control the supply of water to the river, so that it flows with but little vary¬ ing volume to the north. Below the lacustrine region the basin of the White Nile widens greatly; the Bahr-el-Ghazal, with its many branches, the Sobat and other tributary rivers, draining an immense area. After flowing more than 2000 miles, the White Nile is joined at Khartum by the other great branch of the river, the Bahr-el-Azrek or Blue Nile, the stream to whose influence is due the phenomenon that, until quite recently, remained a mystery to the civilised world—the periodic inundation of the Nile. The Blue Nile and its tributaries drain the lofty highlands of Abyssinia, where the heavy rains occur in the summer season and convert all the dry water-courses into raging torrents. The great volume of water that is thus brought down in that season by the Blue Nile floods the combined rivers below Khartum, and causes that periodic rising of the Nile that gives to Lower Egypt its amazing productive¬ ness. L 162 EGYPT From Khartum the Nile flows for over 1800 miles in a succession of great curves northwards to the sea, receiving but one tributary on the way, the Atbara, whose bed is dry for a great part of the year. For hundreds of leagues the Nile passes down a narrow depression or rift in the hopelessly barren, almost rainless, desert plateau, its volume shrinking as its waters evaporate under the burning sun, and its basin being contracted to its own cliff-bordered valley. But this valley forms down its entire length a thin line of verdure across the dun wilderness. On either bank, hemmed in between the desert and the river, are narrow strips of cultivated land, pleasant groves of date palms, and villages with their white mosques. The patches of soil are laboriously irrigated by multitudes of droning sakiehs (water-wheels worked by oxen), or by the still more primitive shadoof with which the peasants raise the water from the river to the land, exactly as did the Egyptians four thousand years ago. In Upper Egypt these belts of cultivation are rarely a mile and often only a few yards in breadth; in places, where the bordering cliffs recede from the river, flats inundated at high Nile allow of a wider cultivation ; and on the other hand for long distances the shore is steep and rocky and the desert descends to the water edge. In Lower Egypt the lower level of the land bordering the river makes possible the irrigation and cultivation of broader belts of soil; and.the extensive depression of the Fayum, many miles away from the river and separated from it by a desert, is made fertile by the waters brought to it from the flooded Nile. The apex of the Delta is about 100 miles from the sea, a little below Cairo; here the hills receding far on either side allow the Nile to divide and spread its various branches across a great plain of rich alluvial soil deposited by many thousands of inunda¬ tions of the great river. Of these branches the Damietta and Rosetta now form the only true mouths of the Nile, and reach the sea. Networks of canals distribute the fertilising waters over the Delta, which is nearly as large as Wales. From time immemorial the Delta has been THE SUEZ CANAL 163 regarded as being one of the most productive regions of the world. It was the granary of Rome. Under Turkish misrule the area under cultivation shrunk, but under the British regime it has spread greatly. At Cairo the inunda¬ tion of the Nile commences in the middle of June, and attains its greatest height in the beginning of October. On the Delta three crops are raised in the year, the con¬ ditions being extraordinarily favourable to successful agriculture; for the soil is inexhaustible, being enriched annually by the deposits of the flooded Nile, and needs no manure ; throughout the year the sun is hot, the sky cloudless, no winter frosts or heavy rains interrupt agri¬ cultural operations ; and, lastly, the supply of water, being now controlled by dams, barrages, and great irrigation works, can never fail to a serious extent. The chief crops raised in Lower Egypt are cotton (the most important of all, Egypt annually exporting to Great Britain alone raw cotton to the value of 10,000,000), sugar, wheat, and other cereals. Vessels of light draught only can enter the Nile from the sea, as bars obstruct both the Rosetta and Damietta mouths. The Nile is navigable without interruption for over 700 miles, from its mouth to Assouan, which is at the foot of the first cataract. The historic six cataracts of the Nile are merely rapids which are ascended by small native craft at high Nile; even gunboats of considerable size have been hauled up some of them. The prevailing strong northerly winds greatly facilitate the navigation of the Nile, enabling the lateen-sailed trading vessels to ascend the river against the current. Steamers navigate the Nile as high as Gondoroko, on the Uganda border; but the upper reaches of the White Nile are much obstructed by the sudd—dense accumulations of floating aquatic growth which sometimes completely choke the river and its tributaries, causing extensive flooding of the surrounding country. The Suez Canal.—The political importance of Egypt is largely due to that wonderful engineering work, the 164 - EGYPT Suez Canal, which has become the world's great highway of commerce, and affords the shortest sea route to the East. The Suez Canal, constructed with French capital by French engineers, was opened in 1869; connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, is about 100 miles in length, and has no locks, the sea flowing freely through it. It is chiefly under French control, but the purchase of Suez Canal shares to the value of ;^4,ooo,ooo by the British Government in 1875 has given it a representation on the Board of Directors. By international convention, ships can pass through the canal in time of war. More than 4000 vessels go through it each year, and of the total tonnage more than six-tenths is British. Modern History.—The dominant peoples of the ancient civilised world—Persian, Greek, Roman conquerors —in turn made themselves masters of the rich land of the Pharaohs. The Roman Empire fell to pieces, and at last, in the middle of the seventh century of our era, the Arabs invaded and conquered Egypt, destroyed the old forms of culture and civilisation, and introduced the Mahomedan religion and the Arab tongue. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Sultan Selim I. brought Egypt under the Turkish sway; and a Turkish province, at least in name, it has since remained, paying annual tribute to the Porte. The founder of the present dynasty in Egypt was Mehemet Ali, who made himself lord of the country by force of arms, and in 1841 obtained from the Sultan the recognition of his semi-independent position as hereditary viceroy of Egypt, under the suzerainty of the Porte. Ismail, the grandson of Mehemet Ali succeeded to the throne as fifth viceroy in 1863. A firman of the Sultan changed his title to that of Khedive (ruler), established the hereditary succession from father to son, and conceded important privileges that made Egypt a practically autonomous state. Ismail set himself to carry out the ambitious schemes that had been initiated by Mehemet Ali. He extended his dominion up the Nile valley into MODERN HISTORY 165 the rich regions that lie to the south of the deserts, annexed the entire basin of the White Nile up to within a few degress of the Equator, and it is estimated that the territories under his rule at last covered nearly 1,500,000 square miles. Ismail's unbounded personal extravagance, his lavish expenditure on public works, and the heavy interest on the loans which he had raised in Europe, necessitated the increasingly oppressive taxation of a people who were ever becoming more impoverished. The creditors of the Khedive took alarm, and the threatened bankruptcy of the state brought about the intervention of Europe in Egyptian affairs. The inter¬ national Caisse de la Dette was instituted, which was to receive the revenues hypothecated for the service of the public debt, but by degrees also assumed the right to interfere in all the financial arrangements of the country. Then the Dual Control of England and France over the financial administration of Egypt was established. Ismail resented the gradually tightening limitations of his authority, obstructed the measures of reform, and was consequently deposed by his suzerain the Sultan of Turkey in 1879, at the instigation of England and France, his son Tewfik, the father of the present Khedive, being placed upon the throne in his stead The Dual Control, with now extended powers, con¬ tinued its work of reform. The discontent of the ruling class, which under the new regime was deprived of its privilege to rob the people, and the general dread of the increasing influence of the Europeans, were among the causes of the military revolt under Arabi Pasha in 1882. Armed intervention became necessary, and as the French Government refused to co-operate, England under¬ took the task alone. A British fleet bombarded and silenced the forts of Alexandria, and a British land force fought the decisive battle of Tel-el-Kebir, which brought the rebellion to a conclusion. The Dual Control was now abolished, and was replaced by the single control of Great Britain, which from that time has exercised a supervision 166 EGYPT over the finances of Egypt through a British official styled the Financial Adviser to the Egyptian Government, and has maintained an army of occupation in Egypt to support the authority of its recommendations. But even while the British were crushing the revolt under Arabi in Lower Egypt, a still more formidable rebellion was spreading in the far south, and ultimately lost to the Khedive all the vast possessions which had been won by Mehemet Ali and Ismail. The oppression and misgovernment of the people by Egyptian officials, and the Arab resentment of the European influence that was interfering with their cherished slave-trade, had made the Sudan ripe for the great Mahdist rising. The religious fanatic Mahomed Ahmed, of Dongola, in 1881 pro¬ claimed himself the Mahdi, the promised Messiah of Islam. The religious war spread like wildfire; and not only the brave Arab warriors of the deserts and the grassy steppes, but also the savage pagan negroes of the Upper Nile flocked to the Mahdi's standard. The forces that were sent by the Egyptian Government to crush the rebellion met with disaster, and in November 1883 an Egyptian army of 10,000 men, under the command of General Hicks, was annihilated. The proclaimed policy of the British Government, when it assumed the financial control of Egypt after the defeat of Arabi, was to accept no responsibility in the Sudan provinces. Egypt at that time had neither the army nor the money necessary for the re-establishment of her authority in the south, and Great Britain at the beginning of 1884 dictated to the Egyptian Government the abandonment of her Sudanese possessions. Egyptian garrisons, numbering in all 40,000 men, were then scattered over a vast territory that extended southwards as far as Lake Albert, and westward from the Red Sea to Darfur in the heart of the Continent, so that to withdraw them with safety into Egypt was a difficult matter. There is no space here to tell the well-known story of those dark days—the sending of the heroic Gordon to Khartum to carry the evacuation into effect, and the MODERN HISTORY 167 beleaguerment of that city by the Mahdists; the tardy inter¬ vention of Great Britain to rescue the garrisons; the gallant fighting of British troops round Suakim, which came too late to save the garrisons of Tokar and Sinkat; the toiling up the Nile of the expedition under Lord Wolseley, its hard-fought battles, too late again to rescue Gordon, for Khartum fell and Gordon died in January 1885, two days before the advance party of the expedition caught sight of the captured city. All the effort had been fruitless, and ended in the total abandonment of the Sudan by Egypt, and the retirement of her southern frontier to Wady Haifa. Her garrisons were withdrawn from Massawa, Berbera, and the other coast stations to the south of Suakim, these places by arrangement being taken over by Italy and England; and the outlying garrisons were left to their fate, those under Emin and Lupton being hopelessly cut off in the equatorial province and the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Mahdism was left supreme to grind the people down with a despotism far more cruel than that of Egypt, to destroy prosperous cities and put their inhabitants to the sword, to ruin and depopulate great tracts of rich country, until the Dervish reign of terror came to decay from its own abominations. In the mean¬ while, there were Englishmen in Egypt who were devoting the best years of their life to the regeneration of the country, and were so preparing the way for the recovery of the lost provinces. The complicated international arrangements that had established, among other institutions, the Caisse de la Dette, the Mixed Administrations and the Capitulations, placed certain limitations on the British control of Egypt, and enabled foreign Powers to obstruct at times, in a harassing fashion, the proposed measures of reform; but in despite of this. Sir Evelyn Baring, now Lord Cromer, whose official title of British Agent and Consul-General very inadequately described his real position in Egypt, for nearly twenty-five years carried on his great work of the reorganisation of that country, with an extraordinary success that has long since silenced jealous or ignorant 168 EGYPT criticism, and has won for his administration the ungrudg¬ ing admiration of the civilised world. The Maker of Modern Egypt, as Lord Cromer has been fittingly named, resigned his appointment in 1907. Under his control, Egypt has been raised from a state of hopeless bankruptcy to a great prosperity, her financial credit standing high among the nations; her revenue has been so increased, that a large annual deficit has been converted into a much larger and ever-growing annual surplus; vast sums have been spent, not with borrowed money, but out of revenue, in the construction of remunerative public works ; and at the same time the taxation of the people has been greatly reduced, the once oppressive land-tax has been made equitable, the corvee (forced labour) has been abolished, and the recently ground-down and impoverished Fellahin are now among the most prosperous peasantry in the world. The country has been opened up by railways, and its productiveness has been vastly increased by the great dam at Assouan, whereby the waters of the Nile are stored in a mighty reservoir and saved for irrigation, and the dams at Assiut and Zifta. It has been estimated that the two first-named dams, in conjunction with their subsidiary irrigation works, have increased the value of the agricultural land in Middle Egypt by over £26fyx>fyoo. The careful work of reform has been extended to justice, education, and to other state departments. Egypt now presents to the world a model administrative machinery, economically worked, efficient, and but little confined by red tape. The Agreement of 1904 between Great Britain and France has removed the more harassing restrictions which the international treaties had placed upon the management of Egyptian finance. England, therefore, now holds a stronger position in the country, and under her control the work of progress and reform is being steadily carried on to the undoubted advantage of the inhabitants. Great Britain, though not favoured by any preferential tariff, benefits largely from the increasing prosperity and productiveness of Egypt; for the com¬ merce between the two countries, both as regards exports MODERN HISTORY 169 and imports, is far greater than that between Egypt and any other country. The restoration of Egypt's prosperity under British control was accompanied by the reorganisation of her defences by British officers. After Arabi Pasha's revolt, the Egyptian army was disbanded and replaced by a small but efficient force. The material seemed unpromis¬ ing, consisting as it did mainly of the Fellahin descendants of the ancient Egyptians—an unwarlike people who had been enslaved by successive conquerors since the time of the Pharaohs—and partly by savage negroes from the Upper Nile, who were, as a rule, either deserters from the Mahdists or prisoners captured in the frontier wars. But the Fellahin are men of fine physique and great endurance, and proved submissive to discipline and steady under fire; while the Sudanese blacks, though less tractable, are born warriors and make a fearless soldiery. Under British leaders the Egyptian army became a fine fighting machine. The Commander-in-Chief (Sirdar) and a con¬ siderable proportion of the officers down to the rank of Major (Bimbashi) are appointed from the British army. The qualities of the force were well tested during the years that elapsed between the abandonment of the Sudan and the commencement of its reconquest in 1896; for the waves of Mahdism ever beat upon the frontier; the Egyptian troops were employed to repel the frequent raids, and in 1889, at the battle of Toski, destroyed the Dervish army which was advancing northwards to the conquest of Egypt. The Egyptian army has now been reduced to about 16,000 men. At last, after twelve years of preparation, Egypt's advisers decided that the time had come to destroy the Mahdist power and recover the lost territories. While with restored financial prosperity and reorganised army, had become strong, Mahdism, torn by dissensions, weakened by the desertion of many tribes, and having lost much of the old fanatical spirit that made the followers of the false prophet fight with so great a valour, was falling into decay. Political considerations, too, made 170 EGYPT it urgent that the valley of the Upper Nile should be secured to Egypt and Great Britain without delay. The rapid partition of Africa among the European Powers had left one great tract unapportioned, a no-man's-land, which not being effectively occupied by any recognised Power, was regarded as the legitimate spoil of the first comer. The territory in question—the upper part of the basin of the White Nile, including the Bahr-el-Ghazal—had been abandoned by Egypt after the triumph of Mahdism, and was naturally coveted by France and the Congo State, whose spheres of influence were conterminous with this debatable land. The Upper Nile valley, for an undefined distance to the north of Uganda, lay within the British sphere of influence; but the British Government had neglected to establish posts in it, or otherwise so mark its claim as to satisfy the game of partition's lenient rules regarding effective occupation. Accordingly, across this territory French and Belgian expeditions began to push from both west and south towards the White Nile, so soon as the decay of the Mahdist power made this possible. It was the aim of France to advance her sphere of influence from the French Sudan in the West, through the Bahr-el- Ghazal, to the Nile, and beyond it to French Somaliland at the entrance to the Red Sea. She would thus unite her east coast and west coast possessions, cut off British East Africa from the Egyptian Sudan, and by establishing herself on the Upper Nile, gain a control over Egypt itself. The British Government recognised the danger, and in 1894 attempted to secure our position by entering into an agreement with the Congo State, whereby Great Britain was to lease to the king of the Belgians a broad belt of her unoccupied sphere of influence extending from Uganda northwards through the Bahr-el-Ghazal to beyond Fashoda, with the object of creating a buffer between French expansion and the Nile; while King Leopold agreed to lease to Great Britain a narrow strip of terri¬ tory on her German East African border, between lakes Tanganyika and Albert Edward, which would have given Great Britain a line of communication between Uganda MODERN HISTORY 171 and her possessions in Southern Africa. Both France and Germany protested against this agreement, and it was therefore cancelled; but the Congo State was the gainer, for it was left in possession of what is known as the Lado Enclave, and so obtained that access to the Nile which it desired. In the spring of 1896, the British Government realised the necessity for immediate action on the Nile; for the Dervishes were displaying a renewed activity, had invaded the Italian colony of Eritrea, and were besieging the city of Kassala. So, suddenly, in March, the order was given for the southern advance of the Egyptian army and the commencement of the liberation of the Sudan. Under the then Sirdar, Sir H. Kitchener, now Lord Kitchener, the Egyptian troops moved up the Nile, defeated the Dervishes at Firket and Kafir, and recovered Dongola and nearly 500 miles of the Nile valley from the Mahdists. Throughout the following two summers the army continued its steady and victorious advance, until, in September 1898, a combined British and Egyptian force, about 26,000 strong, won the decisive battle of Omdurman. Mahdism had received its death blow, but lingered on for another year, when Colonel Wingate, the present Sirdar, fought the final engagement, in which the Khalifa and many of his devoted followers stood at bay and died fighting bravely. In the meanwhile the French were carrying into effect their ambitious designs on the Upper Nile. Nearly two months before the battle of Omdurman was fought, a French expedition under Captain Marchand, having crossed the Bahr-el-Ghazal from the French Congo, took possession of Fashoda on the White Nile, and there awaited another expedition which had been despatched from the Abyssinian frontier to join him. The Sirdar, receiving information of these operations, steamed up the Nile to Fashoda with a small force, a few days after his victory at Omdurman. A collision that would have plunged the two nations into war was avoided by the tact and courtesy of the British general, and it was 172 EGYPT arranged that the flags of Great Britain, Egypt, and France should fly side by side at Fashoda pending negotiations between the two Governments. This, the most serious international complication that had arisen out of the partition of Africa, was satisfactorily settled, and the French retired from Fashoda. By the Anglo- French Agreement of 1899, France was altogether excluded from the Nile basin, and it was arranged that the boundary between the spheres of influence of the two Powers in this portion of Africa should be a line drawn from the north of the Congo State along the Nile Congo watershed to the iith parallel of north latitude, and thence to the southern frontier of Tripoli, in such a way as to enclose the whole of the kingdom of Wadai within the French sphere. It was thus recognised definitely that the entire valley of the Nile, from the equatorial ■ lakes to the Mediterranean, was under the control of Great Britain. The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.—The lost provinces having been reconquered from the Mahdists, the reorganisa¬ tion of this vast territory, which covers nearly 1,000,000 square miles, was undertaken with vigour. By the Anglo- Egyptian Convention, signed in January 1899, all the Egyptian Sudan lying to the south of the latitude of Wady Haifa, and extending southwards to the borders of the Uganda Protectorate in latitude 5° north, was formed into a condominion under the title of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, in which the flags of Great Britain and Egypt are used together. This territory is administered by a governor-general, appointed by the Egyptian Government and. approved by Great Britain, who has the power to legislate by proclamation. The governor-general and the administrators of the various provinces into which the country is divided, are all British officers in the Egyptian army. The army that liberated the Sudan found deserted villages of roofless houses; once prosperous cities in ruins, and inhabited only by wild beasts; and desert plains where the broken remains of former irrigation furrows and dykes THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN 173 alone remained to show where once an industrious peasantry cultivated the soil with laborious care. But now under a just rule the land that was laid waste, and in many parts depopulated, under the Mahdist oppression is recovering, and once again multitudes of sakiehs are droning on the Nile banks as they raise the water to the green crops. The Government is doing its utmost to forward the development of the country's resources, and encourages the cultivation of cotton, cereals, and other products that thrive on the fertile soil. The primary education of the people has been organised, and the Gordon College at Khartum provides technical and scientific instruction. A railway connects Khartum with Cairo, and a line has been carried from Berber to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, the shortest and natural trade route between the Egyptian Sudan and the outer world. Branch railways are also projected which will open out the trade of the country, and tap Kassala and other centres of productive districts. AFRICAN ISLANDS The African islands belonging to Great Britain are:— Ascension, St Helena, and Tristan d'Acunha, in the South Atlantic Ocean ; and Mauritius with its dependencies, and the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. The island of Socotra is nearer to the African than to the Arabian coast, but being a dependency of Aden, it will be described with the Asiatic possessions. ASCENSION Ascension is an isolated island eight degrees south of the Equator, and 900 miles from the nearest point on the West African coast. It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1501, but remained unoccupied until the British took possession of it in 1815, its position in the main track of homeward-bound shipping making it a suitable place for the provisioning of men-of-war. The island is somewhat smaller than Jersey, and is of volcanic origin, consisting of a desolate waste of extinguished craters and lava fields, dominated by a green mountain nearly ^000 feet in height. Being in the heart of the fresh south-east trade winds it has a very healthy climate, and is used as a sanatorium for men invalided from the West African coast. Turtle are abundant, and edible bird's eggs are collected in great quantities. There is a little cultivation and pasturage. Ascension is under the control of the Admiralty and is governed as a man-of-war, a naval officer acting as governor. It is a strongly fortified coaling station, and has a naval victualling yard. Georgetown is 174 ST HELENA 175 the only settlement. The population, numbering about 400, is composed of naval officers and their families, sea¬ men, marines, and Krumen. ST HELENA St Helena, famous as the island in which Napoleon Bonaparte died in captivity, has an area equal to that of Jersey. It lies nearly 800 miles to the south-east of Ascen¬ sion, and 1200 miles from the coast of Africa. It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1501, and the Dutch, recognising its value as a provisioning place for their East Indiamen, occupied it in the middle of the seventeenth century. Taken and lost and then retaken again by the British, it finally fell into the possession of the East India Company in 1673, and was ceded by the Company to the Crown in 1834. St Helena is a fortified coaling station, but the Imperial Government, in 1906, decided to withdraw the garrison. In time of war, should the Suez Canal be destroyed, St Helena would probably become once again a valuable port of call and provisionment on the Cape route to the East, and its possession by a hostile Power would be a source of danger to England. It could easily be made an impregnable fortress. The East India Company had batteries on every commanding spot, and there are still to be seen encircling the island the stout fortified stone walls which the Company constructed across the narrow mouths of all the gorges that cleave the sea precipices and might otherwise have afforded a landing for boats. The island is of volcanic origin, and forms a crumpled mass of rugged mountains. The culminating peak is 2700 feet above the sea. Seen from the sea, the island has a barren and inhospitable appearance; but within the encircling crags is a pleasant land of green downs, fertile vales, and wooded heights. Bananas, oranges, and other fruits, cereals and potatoes are cultivated, and grassy expanses provide pasture to cattle, sheep, and goats. Prickly pears, aloes, scarlet geraniums, and a variety of 176 AFRICAN ISLANDS flowering shrubs cover the lower mountain slopes; and, higher up, the downs are overgrown with blackberries and gorse. The climate is a perfect one, extremes of heat and cold are unknown; it is a region of perpetual spring-time, and the south-east trade wind, pure and bracing, is almost always blowing freshly across the island. The population—composed of descendants of white immigrants from the Cape Colony, negroes and half-breeds —has within the last thirty years been reduced to 3500, one-half its former number. The provisioning of ships has ever been the principal business of the inhabitants of St Helena; but the opening of the Suez Canal, which deflected the bulk of the Eastern trade from these seas, and the decay of the South Sea whaling industry, greatly reduced the number of ships that called for supplies and repairs, so that numbers of the people, finding their occupa¬ tion gone, have been compelled to emigrate to the Cape of Good Hope. The internment in St Helena of 5000 Boer prisoners during the war of 1899-1902, and the consequent increase of the garrison, created a brisk demand for provisions, and brought to the island a brief spell of its old prosperity; but the withdrawal of the entire garrison has been felt as a great blow. The Imperial Government is introducing the cultivation of flax into the island, with the object of providing a means of livelihood for the inhab¬ itants. The capital is Jamestown, a picturesque little town at the foot of a steep ravine facing the anchorage. TRISTAN D'ACUNHA Tristran d'Acunha is the largest of a group of small islands lying 1500 miles to the west of the Cape of Good Hope. It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1506. Great Britain annexed it in 1816, and maintained a small garrison here for one year. Tristan is 7 miles in length; it is a mountainous island, whose highest peak has an altitude of over 7000 feet. There is no safe anchorage, but the island is bordered by a belt of kelp, a gigantic seaweed, which smooths the seas as they roll in, enabling MAURITIUS 177 boats to reach the shore in safety even in stormy weather. This desolate stormy island, far from the regular tracks of shipping, has yet attracted settlers, and contains a little community of about a hundred people, several of whom are descendants of some of the soldiers of the former garrison who chose to make this their home. There is no govern¬ ment beyond a patriarchal control exercised by the elder men, and there is no crime. The settlers breed cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats, and grow potatoes and other vegetables, bartering fresh provisions for manufactured goods with the whaling and sealing ships that call here. MAURITIUS AND ITS DEPENDENCIES Lying far out in the Indian Ocean to the eastward of Southern Africa is the group of three islands known as the Mascarenes, consisting of the French island Reunion, and the British islands Mauritius, or the He de France, and Rodriguez. Mauritius is on latitude 20° south, about 1500 miles from Delagoa Bay, the nearest port to it on the African coast, and 500 from the great island of Madagascar, which stretches between it and Africa. Mauritius was discovered by the Portuguese in 1507. Lying on the ocean track to the East Indies by way of the Cape, and being a very pro¬ ductive island, fit for colonisation, it attracted the attention of the rival Powers which were attempting to secure the monopoly of the Eastern trade. First the Dutch occupied it. Then in 1715 the French, who already owned Reunion, took possession of Mauritius, introduced the cultivation of sugar, and made of it a very prosperous colony. During the Napoleonic wars it was the headquarters of the French privateers, which inflicted great damage upon British mercantile shipping until 1810, when a British expedition captured the island. Mauritius has an area of 705 square miles, so is nearly as large as Surrey. It is a mountainous island of volcanic formation containing varied and beautiful scenery. The needle-like peaks, some of which attain a height of nearly M 178 AFRICAN ISLANDS 3CK)0 feet, rise from an undulating country covered with the most luxuriant tropical vegetation. Even in the winter months the bush that fills up the interspaces between the graceful palms and many trunked banyans, are glorious with blossoms, and the bougainvillcea flushes the hillsides with its masses of vivid purple. The soil is very fertile, and all the products of the tropics, coffee, vanilla, cocoa- nuts, mangoes, bananas, breadfruit, manioc, thrive here; but the principal industry is the cultivation of sugar. The climate is healthy save in the low-lying malarious tracts, and the south-east trade wind tempers the heat. Destruc¬ tive hurricanes occasionally visit the island, sweeping away the plantations, uprooting trees, and levelling to the ground even strongly built stone houses. The dismal marks left by the great hurricane of 1892 are still visible. The population numbers about 380,000, of whom three- quarters are Indians, for the most part coolies who were imported to work upon the sugar plantations, and have settled here with their families as traders and planters. The descendants of the former negro slaves—a consider¬ able proportion of which were natives of Madagascar— come next in number. Some thousands of Chinese have settled on the island, many of them as planters. The white population is mainly composed of the descendants of the early French settlers—a vigorous race, which displays no signs of physical degeneration under this tropical climate. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris, 1814, the French inhabitants were to be allowed to retain their own language, law, and Roman Catholic religion. The island, therefore, has preserved its French character. French is the official language, the law is largely based upon the Code Napoleon, and the judges are of French blood. Even the coolies recently imported from India rapidly acquire the French tongue, and to make oneself understood to the country people, whether they be of Asiatic or African origin, it is necessary to speak in Creole French. The capital is Port Louis, on the lee side of the island— a prosperous trade centre with a well-sheltered harbour, but an unhealthy place. It is occupied for the most part THE SEYCHELLES 179 by Indians, Chinese, negroes, and half-breeds; the Europeans have their business establishments in the town, but their residences are some miles away on the hills. The railway lines which traverse the island converge on Port Louis, bringing to it the produce of the planta¬ tions for shipment Sugar is the principal export. Rice is imported from India; flour from Australia; oxen from Madagascar; cotton, and other manufactured goods and machinery, from Great Britain. The island is administered as a Crown Colony by a governor assisted by an executive council and a legislative council, in both of which a small proportion of the members are elected by the inhabitants. Rodriguez is a dependency of Mauritius, and is ad¬ ministered by a magistrate appointed by the government of that island. It is a mountainous island as large as Jersey, with an encircling coral reef, lying nearly 400 miles to the eastward of Mauritius. It has a population of 3000, mainly the descendants of negro slaves, who breed cattle, salt fish, and grow vegetables for the Mauritius market. Several groups of coral islands in the Indian Ocean are under the government of Mauritius. The most important of these is the Chagos Archipelago, in the heart of the Indian Ocean, 1400 miles north-east of Mauritius. Diego Garcia, the largest island of the group, is a horseshoe-- shaped atoll, 13 miles in length, enclosing a very fine harbour which can be entered by the largest vessels. Lying as it does on the direct steamer route from the Red Sea to Australia, it has recently become an important coaling,station. There are about 500 inhabitants, chiefly negroes, on the island. The principal product of the Chagos and the other islets is cocoa-nut oil THE SEYCHELLES The Seychelles consist of a number of small coral-reef- surrounded islands lying five degrees south of the Equator, and 800 miles from the coast of East Africa. They have a total area of about 150 miles. They were discovered 180 AFRICAN ISLANDS by the Portuguese, were for some years occupied by the French, and were captured from them by the British in 1794. The larger islands have a fertile soil, are well watered, and are covered with a luxuriant tropical vegeta¬ tion. Cocoa-nuts thrive wonderfully, not only lining the shores, but clothing the mountain sides up to a considerable height. The French had valuable plantations of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; but the prosperity of the islands decayed after the abolition of slavery. Tropical products are once more cultivated extensively. Among the principal exports are copra, cocoa-nut oil, vanilla, cocoa, guano, and tortoise shell. The curious double cocoa-nut, the Coco de Mar, is a native of some of these islands. Fish and turtle abound in the surrounding islands. The inhabitants, numbering 20,000, include French Creoles, negroes, Malagasy, Indians, and Chinese. Creole French is the predominant tongue. There is no pauperism on these fortunate islands. The beautiful island of Mahe is far the largest of the group; it has a greater area than * Jersey, and mountain ranges as lofty as those of Cumber¬ land. Victoria, on Mahe, is the capital of the Seychelles. It has an excellent harbour, and is now an Admiralty coal¬ ing station. The Seychelles were formerly a dependency of Mauritius, but now form a separate Crown Colony administered by a governor, who is assisted by an execu¬ tive council and a legislative council, in neither of which is there any elective element. The Amirantes and other groups of uninhabited islets near them are dependencies of the Seychelles. BRITISH AMERICA BRITISH AMERICA HISTORY OP DISCOVERY AND COLONISATION Ocean-surrounded and remote, there lay unknown to the civilised world what was in many respects the most favoured continent of all—a continent larger than Europe and Africa put together, extending for 9000 miles from north to south, from the north polar snow wastes to near the edge of the Antarctic Ocean. America, a double continent of two triangular land- masses linked by a narrow isthmus, is not, like Africa, a continent of vast deserts, of torrid heat, of unnavigable rivers, of difficult access. Broad oceans separate it from the other land-masses, and deep gulfs penetrate it, so that a great portion of it is subject to the influence of the cool and rain-bringing sea winds. Both Americas present their most accessible side towards Europe, as if inviting colonisation. For a great mountain system, of which the Rocky Mountains and the Andes are the principal ranges, borders the entire west coast. All the larger rivers, therefore, that drain the continent flow into the Atlantic Ocean and not into the Pacific. These rivers, of which the mightiest are the St Lawrence, the Mississippi (the longest of the world's rivers), the Amazon (having far the largest area of basin of the world's rivers), and the La Plata, water the vast, rich, cultivable plains which are a characteristic feature of both Americas, and being navigable for great distances, facilitate communication, and render the regions of the far interior accessible. America is the continent of great rivers and lakes; of profuse vegetable growth; of fertile plains whereon are 188 184 BRITISH AMERICA the richest pastoral and grain-producing regions of the earth ; of vast forests of noble trees. Its mineral wealth is enormous; its rivers swarm with fish; the seas bordering it supply the most important fishing grounds in the world. But greatly productive as it has already become, it is still a new world whose future is before it, the bulk of whose vast resources has yet to be developed. All this marvellous continent has been practically divided between the English and Spanish-speaking peoples, of whom the former occupy the northern and more temperate part, and the latter the hotter regions of Central and South America. The Norsemen of Iceland were the first Europeans to visit the American continent. In about 877 A.D. the sea-rover Gunnbiorn discovered Greenland, and one hundred years later its coasts were colonised by the Icelanders. A Viking ship from Iceland, being driven far westward in a gale, sighted a new land covered with trees, and brought back report of it to Greenland. Thereupon, about 1000 A.D., Lief Ericson and Biarne fitted out a ship, and sailed from Greenland in search of unknown land. They came to the coast that Biarne had sighted (probably Newfoundland), landed on it, and named it Helluland. Then sailing on, they came to a low wooded shore (Nova Scotia), which they called Markland; and sailing still further, they came to a fair land where were rich pastures and trees, and an abundance of vines bearing ripe grapes, and they called this country Vinland. The explorers wintered in Vinland, and here the Icelanders founded a colony, whence they drew what was scarce in their own country, the timber whereof to build their ships. From what is said bf Vinland in the sagas— its products, its climate, and the length of its longest day, which indicates its latitude, it seems that this country must have been to the south of Nova Scotia, and was probably Rhode Island. The Icelandic colonies in Green¬ land and on the North American coast disappeared; the accounts of these discoveries in the far West did not reach the rest of Europe, and the Norsemen themselves HISTORY 185 forgot their sagas; so America remained again an unknown continent for nearly five hundred years. The East Indies and Cathay were ever the goal of the maritime enterprise of Europe. It was to secure the rich trade of the East that the Portuguese sought and discovered the waterway round the Cape, thereby supplanting their rivals the Venetians, who traded with the East by the overland route. It was for the same end that even down to recent days the north-west passage was attempted through the Arctic channels that connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. And it was while sailing across the Atlantic to find a direct ocean route to the Indies, that the navigators at the end of the fifteenth century came to the intervening continent of America, which Columbus, up to the day of his death, apparently believed to be the west coast of Asia. Christopher Columbus entertained the conviction that to sail on a westerly course from Europe across the Atlantic would bring him to India. The geographical science of his day over-estimated the size of Asia, and Columbus therefore inferred that the east coast of that continent was much nearer Europe than is really the case. Fired with his theory, Columbus appealed in vain to various courts in Europe, until at last their Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, became interested in his scheme, and supplied him with the three little ships, manned by 120 men, with which he sailed out westwards to the unknown on the 3rd August 1492. One cannot tell here the story of that wonderful voyage—the determination of the leader, the fears of the crews, who would have turned back but were reassured when they saw birds, and then a floating rose-bush covered with blossoms, showing that land was near; how at last they landed rejoicing on an island of the Bahama group, which Columbus named St Salvador, and discovered the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola (Hayti). The story that Columbus had to tell on his return to Spain filled Europe with astonishment, and the Pope by a bull granted to the Spanish crown all the heathen lands lying to the west- 186 BRITISH AMERICA ward of a certain line drawn down the Atlantic from north to south, which became known as the Pope's Line. As a previous bull had given Portugal dominion over Africa and the East, the Pope's line thus divided the whole non- Christian world between these two Powers. The line, as modified by treaty in 1494, was drawn 370 leagues to the west of the Cape Verde Islands—that is about fifty degrees west of Greenwich—and thus gave all America, with the exception of the Brazilian promontary, to Spain. In his second voyage (1493-1494) Columbus discovered several other West India Islands; for so he called them, thinking that they were outlying islands of the Indies. In his third voyage (1498) he;sailed past Trinidad, came to the mainland of South America, and realised that he was coasting down a continent when he saw the great volume of water which the river Orinoco pours into the sea. In his fourth voyage (1502) he coasted past the Isthmus of Panama, not knowing that only a few leagues of land divided him from the great ocean that washes the kingdoms of the East; for it was not until 1513 that Balboa, " silent upon a peak in Darien," first gazed upon the Pacific. Spain followed up the discoveries of Columbus with a rush of adventurous exploration and colonisation. Ever in search of the gold, which was found in abundance in this new world, the conquistadores sailed along all the coasts of South and Central America, conquered Peru and Mexico and other native kingdoms, until at last within about forty years of the death of Columbus all South America, with the exception of Portuguese Brazil, was practically Spanish; the Spanish colonies extended also through Central America and along the North American coasts of Mexico and Florida. In later years, Spain laid claim to all the Pacific coast south of Vancouver. It was in 1507 that, on inadequate grounds, a geo¬ grapher first suggested America as the name of the New World, after the Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, who between 1497 and 1504 accompanied various exploring expeditions to the American coast. HISTORY 187 Spain's arrogant claim to the monopoly of an entire continent was naturally resisted. Her rights, by virtue of the Pope's line, over territories which she had not occupied and in many cases had not even yet discovered, were not recognised by her rivals. Adventurers from all the maritime states of Europe, hearing of the fabulous wealth of America, sailed across the Atlantic to secure their share of the spoil. Elizabethan sea-rovers fought for the right of trade on the American coasts, and captured the treasure ships of Spain. Organised bands of buc¬ caneers harassed the Spanish possessions. Whether the nations of Europe were at peace or war, in America it was ever fighting, pillage, and the sacking of cities. Spain, with all her might, was unable to enforce her rule at all points of the immense empire which she arrogated. Other Powers possessed themselves of lands that had not yet been occupied, and captured others. Thus as early as 1595 Raleigh explored the mouth of the Orinoco, where the Spanish had no settlements, with the object of there estab¬ lishing a colony to work the gold-mines. From 1605 the English began to occupy West Indian islands. But it was in North America, the greater part of whose eastern coasts had been altogether neglected by the Spaniards, that other Powers, in defiance of Spain, seized territories, and laid the foundations of what were to become the greatest of European colonies. Henry VII. granted a patent to the Cabots, Venetians settled in Bristol, empowering them to discover l^nds in the West and to annex them for the Crown, while it was another object of their voyage to discover a north¬ west passage that would give England a free trade-route to Cathay. They sailed in 1497, visited Newfoundland and reached Labrador, thus anticipitating Columbus in his discovery of the mainland. In a subsequent voyage Sebastian Cabot explored a great portion of the North American coast. Within a few years of the discovery of Newfoundland by the Cabots, fishermen from Europe—for the most part English and French—were engaged in the profitable cod-fishing industry on the Newfoundland banks, 188 BRITISH AMERICA and established fishing stations on the coast. It was not, however, until 1583 that Sir Humphrey Gilbert formally annexed the island for Queen Elizabeth. British and French navigators, having the East Indies as their goal, sought a passage round the north of the American continent; in 1534 the French explorer, Jacques Cartier, while engaged in this search, mapped out the Gulf of St Lawrence, and in the following year sailed up the great river as high as Montreal. He reported to his king the beauty and fertility of the land, and it soon became evident that England and France were to be rivals in the colonisation of North America. In 1584 Raleigh obtained a charter from Queen Elizabeth, and sent expeditions to found a colony in the country to the north of the Spanish settlements, which he named Virginia after the Queen. His scheme proved a failure, and James I. granted another charter of colonisa¬ tion to a company of merchants that took over the rights given under Raleigh's Virginia charter. The coast from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Fear was granted to this com¬ pany, the Plymouth branch of the company undertaking the colonisation of the northern part of this coast strip, the London branch that of the southern part. In the spring of 1607 the first emigrants of the London branch were landed on the banks of the James River, and under the leadership of John Smith, a typical pioneer, set to work to establish themselves in their new home. Thus were founded our American colonies, and soon scattered handfuls of our countrymen had formed a string of settlements along the coast. Through the early days of disaster and suffering, plague, famine, Indian massacres, the colonists struggled on to prosperity. The persecution of the Puritans in the reign of James I. led to the emigra¬ tion of numbers of these to the American colonies; and the arrival at Plymouth in Massachusetts Bay of the Mayflowery with the "Pilgrim Fathers," in 1620, was the first step towards the peopling of the New England States with a Puritan stock. The population of the colonies was also largely recruited from England's convicts. HISTORY 189 who were transported to the settlements as indentured labourers. The Dutch colonies, with New Amsterdam (now New York) as their capital, which had been established in 1621 on an unoccupied portion of the coast lying between the settlements of the London and Plymouth companies, were conquered by the British in 1664; and so, at last, the British North American colonies, thirteen in all, formed a continuous coast strip extending from Spanish Florida in the south to the French colonies in the north. More¬ over, in the far north the British Hudson's Bay Company was founded in 1670 by Prince Rupert and other gentle¬ men, under a royal charter that gave them the sole rights of trade over an immense region. In the meanwhile, the French were establishing their colonies to the north of those of England. In the early days of American colonisation the kings of England and France, when granting territorial rights to their respective subjects, wholly ignored the claims of other nations. English and French adventurers thus laid claim under their vaguely comprehensive charters to monopolies of trade over the same regions, and it was certain from the first that there would be strife between the colonists. The French had attempted to make settlements in North America as far back as 1542, when, as the result of Cartier's explorations, "Nova Gallia" first appeared on the map. But it was not until sixty years later that the colonisation of the country was undertaken in earnest. Samuel Champlain was the real founder of Canada. From 1603 until his death in 1635, he devoted himself to the establishment of a great colony for his country. He and De Monts founded Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1604, and Port Royal rose as its capital and principal fortress. In 1608 Champlain founded and fortified Quebec as the strategic centre and capital of the French settlements. He explored and brought under French influence extensive territories, including the shores of the three great lakes and the valley of the Ottawa; and it was during his 190 BRITISH AMERICA lieutenant-governorship that the French and English first came into conflict in America. Though both English and French colonies were estab¬ lished by gentlemen adventurers under royal charters, they differed entirely in their constitution. The English colonies managed their own affairs and had their legisla¬ tive assemblies. The French colonists had practically no voice in the control of the colony's affairs, and were under the parental government of king and church. The feudal system was carried from France into Canada, and Cardinal Richelieu, when he formed his " Company of the One Hundred Associates" in 1627, and obtained from the king the monopoly of the fur trade, introduced the seigniorial tenure into Canada, and so created a Canadian nobility. The priests, notably the Jesuits, exercised a great influence in Canada. These devoted men, of whom many sacrificed their lives, established their missions throughout the wild forest lands, converted the savages to Christianity, and by their kindly treatment of the Hurons and other Indian tribes, made these the friends of the French. But European population did not pour into the French colonies as it did into those of England; the French Government, until it was too late, offered but little encouragement to emigra¬ tion. The Huguenots, though they were the pioneers of Acadia, were soon excluded from Canada, where the king and the Jesuits would tolerate no heresy. Thus when the great final struggle for supremacy between England and Canada was being fought out in Canada, the number of the British colonists was fifteen times that of the French. From the first the French were our rivals in America, and successive generations of Canadian and New England colonists fought for the supremacy. Thus as early as 1613 the newly-founded Port Royal was destroyed by the English of Virginia. Stirring is the story of the long struggle, during which, as the fortune of war turned, the possessions of either power—Acadia, Newfoundland, the Hudson's Bay Settlements, Quebec itself—were taken and retaken. Whether it was war or peace in Europe, it was HISTORY 191 ever strife in America, where the colonists of England and France fought battles, and engaged savage tribes to raid each other's territories. The quarrels of Europe were fiercely fought out in America. During the frequent wars between England and France, the fleets and armies of the two Powers contended in the West, and with each fresh treaty of peace between the two nations—from the Treaty of Susa in 1629 down to the Treaty of Paris in 1763—there was a redistribution of the border territories in America. The redistribution was often arranged without any regard to the interests of the colonists or the colonies. Thus the frequent cession of Acadia or Nova Scotia—-as this land was called in turn by its English and French possessors— from one Power to the other, meant the ousting from their homes, and the ruin, of the French and Scotch settlers in succession. Our wars with France were being fought on all the four continents, so in the treaties of peace divers interests had to be considered. Thus when by the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1748 we restored to France Cape Breton Island, which was of the greatest strategical importance to us in North America, it was in exchange for what at that time we considered to be of more value— Madras in India. It is difficult to realise in these days how hazardous was the existence of the early American colonists, whether English or French. Both lived under the perpetual menace of the Indian raids, with their ruthless waves of destruction, massacre, and torture. The French, it is true, had made friends of the Canadian Indians; but Champlain had espoused the cause of the Hurons and Algonquins of Canada in their struggle with their hereditary foes the Iroquois, or the Five Nations, the most formidable warriors of all the Indian peoples, who occupied the territory to the south of Canada between the Hudson and Niagara rivers. This made the Iroquois the inveterate enemies of France, and the allies of the English colonists in their conflict with their rivals. The Iroquois, strong enough to defy the French, raided the Huron country, and by 1650 had finally broken up and 192 BRITISH AMERICA dispersed that unfortunate nation. They also made organised attacks on the French settlements; throughout the St Lawrence valley there was massacre and pillage. The colonists, then numbering only about two thousand, were not safe outside the walls of their three chief places, Quebec, Ville Marie (now Montreal), and Three Rivers. Ruin and starvation faced them. The Company of the Hundred Associates was unable to defend them ; so in their despair they appealed for help to their sovereign, Louis XIV. In 1665 the king, granting their petition, took over the rule of Canada and made it a royal province. Troops and emigrants were despatched to America, new forts were built at strategic points, and it became evident that the colonists were about to enjoy a measure of security for the first time. The Iroquois were punished, realised the new conditions, and for many years suspended their raids. With security there came a period of bold explora¬ tion. Priests, gentlemen, adventurers, and coureurs de bois^ pushed further and further into the western wilderness, the priests to found their missions, and the others to gather the great profits that were to be made by the fur trade. Among these explorers was the adventurous trader, Jolliet, the first white man to see the Mississippi. He travelled through the forests in search of the " great water" of which the Indians had brought report, crossed the low watershed between the St Lawrence basin and that of the Mississippi, descended the latter river for some distance, and satisfied himself that its outlet must be in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1682 La Salle, continuing the explorations of this pioneer, descended the Illinois and Mississippi to the mouth of the latter river and annexed these valleys to France, calling the new possessions, Louisiana, after the king. And now commenced in earnest the struggle for supremacy between the French and English. In 1688 a successful revolution had brought William III. to the throne of England. This reversed our policy in Europe. Holland was no longer the enemy, and France became HISTORY 193 our unremitting foe, with whom we fought a succession of wars in every portion of the globe. Louis XIV. entertained the ambition of driving the English out of their colonies, and forming a great French empire in America. The Governor of Canada (1689 to 1698) was Count Frontenac, an able soldier and admini¬ strator, who greatly raised the prestige of France in America, made the Iroquois fear and respect him, success¬ fully raided the English colonies, destroyed the English fishing settlements in Newfoundland and trading ports on Hudson's Bay, and for a while made France the predom¬ inant Power in North America. France had possessed herself of the valley of the St Lawrence and the shores of the great lakes, and now fqllowing up La Salle's dis¬ coveries, she gradually extended her influence southwards along the back of the English colonies. Immigration was encouraged, and the Canadian population at last began to increase rapidly. The configuration of the country favoured France's scheme of expansion; for the head¬ waters of the Ohio and other tributaries of the Mississippi are in close proximity to the great lakes that drain into the St Lawrence; all these valleys have a general north¬ easterly and south-westerly direction, and are consequently parallel to the coast strip that England had colonised. France thus held the mouths and valleys of the St Lawrence and Mississippi, while England owned mo5t of the coast-line between the two estuaries. The French established lines of communication between Quebec and New Orleans, which was founded in 1718. Louisiana was made a separate colony, and by the middle of the eighteenth century, France had completed formidable lines of defences from the Gulf of Mexico up the Missis¬ sippi and Ohio valleys, and thence along the shores of Lake Erie, down the St Lawrence valley to the Atlantic. The French thus completely hemmed in our colonies, and prevented their expansion beyond the Alleghany Mountains, which became their inland frontier. It was the contention of the French that the Power that held the river mouths had the right to the river basins. On N 194 BRITISH AMERICA the other hand, the English colonies claimed the right, as possessors of the coast, to expand their territory westwards into the basin of the Ohio. England was at war with France from 1689 to 1697, from 1702 to 1713, and from 1744 to 1748; and these quarrels were, therefore, now fought out in America as elsewhere, all the world round, with varying fortunes, by the two great rivals. For a few years before the breaking out of the war which finally settled who was to be master in North America, there was peace between France and England ; but despite this, not only the colonists, but also troops that had been despatched from England and France, were fighting battles and besieging and capturing strongholds on the New England-Canadian frontier. Then, at last, in the spring of 1756, this nominal peace came to an end, and the famous "Seven Years' War" began. At first, under Montcalm, the French armies prevailed in America, and there, as in other parts of the world, Britain suffered severe and humiliating reverses. But, fortunately for her, in 1757, the great William Pitt assumed the conduct of affairs in England, and it is due to his genius that this war that threatened the existence of our Empire ended in Britain's triumph both in the East Indies and in America. Pitt decided to leave the fighting on European soil to our ally, Frederick of Prussia, whom we heavily subsidised; and the victories which Frederick gained against the coalition of Powers opposed to him fully justified this policy. On the other hand, Pitt, while using the entire naval strength of England to attack the fleets of France in every part of the world and obtain the command of the sea, employed the British armies almost exclusively in the colonies, there to fight to the finish with our hereditary rival for the dominion of the over-sea possessions. Pitt realised that the conquest of Canada should be the first aim of the British. He there¬ fore prosecuted the war in the most vigorous fashion in America, and despatched to the colonies large forces of our best troops under the command of able generals, while British fleets co-operated in the attack, and HISTORY 195 also prevented France from sending reinforcements to Montcalm. It was a gallant struggle, in which on either side brave troops fought under able leaders. Then came the siege of Quebec and the success of Wolfe's bold plan of attack. In September 1759, the British, after scaling the steep cliffs to the heights of Abraham under cover of the night, fought the quick and decisive battle that won Quebec and cost the lives of the two gallant leaders, Wolfe and Montcalm. Within a year of that victory Montreal capitulated, and all Canada was lost to France. At the close of the Seven Years' War, France, by the terms of the Treaty of Paris, February 1763, retired com¬ pletely from the North American continent, ceding to Great Britain all her possessions on the mainland with the exceptions of New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi, which, by another article of the same treaty, were handed over to Spain, Spain in return ceding Florida to Great Britain. All that France retained of her American dominion were two little barren islets, St Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and the much-disputed fishing rights on the Newfoundland coast. But even yet there was not peace for the war-worn colonies. The western Indians who had been the allies of France, rose in the spring of 1763 under the leadership of the. Ottawa chief, Pontiac, and for more than a year devastated the Ohio valley and the western borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania, burning the settlements and murdering the settlers. They were finally crushed and brought to terms by an ably-conducted military expedi¬ tion. On Great Britain's acquisition of Canada in 1763, she acted generously to the French population, then numbering about 65,000. The Canadians were at once granted the rights of British subjects, and the use of the French language; while religious toleration in the fullest sense of the term was extended to this Roman Catholic people, the Catholic Church retaining its right to collect tithes. Ten years later, by the terms of the Quebec Act, the 196 BRITISH AlVIERICA French Civil Law was made the law of the land, and the old seigniorial privileges were recognised. The Quebec Act also extended the bounds of Canada to the right bank of the Ohio River, to the great dissatis¬ faction of the English colonists who had fought France for the right to settle in that territory. This was one of the many grievances that united to bring about the American Revolution. By the Royal Proclamation of 1763 the rights of the Indians were protected, and it was decreed that no portion of the Indian hunting grounds could be bought or sold by private individuals, and that the Government alone had the power to acquire from the tribes by treaty, giving fair terms, such lands as might be needed for. European immigration. The result of these wise measures can be seen to-day in the loyalty of the French Canadians, and the contentment and prosperity of the Indians on the Canadian side of the border. The whole eastern side of North America, therefore, now belonged to Great Britain, the Mississippi forming the boundary between her possessions and those of Spain. But Great Britain was soon to lose the supremacy she had gained in North America. Twenty years after her con¬ quest of Canada, the Treaty of Versailles handed over the destinies of half the continent to a new nation of our own kin. No sooner had the Treaty of Peace with France been signed in 1763, than the British Parliament initiated a policy that could not but exasperate the English colonists. The following are among the principal griev¬ ances that finally drove the colonists to rebellion. The Crown asserted its ownership of the territories west of the Alleghany Mountains which had been con¬ quered from the French, a measure which was much resented by the colonists, as they claimed, under their original charters, the right of expansion through this hinterland of their coast possessions. The Navigation Acts, by which Great Britain restricted colonial trade in order to favour the manufacturing and trading interests of the British Isles, had become practi- HISTORY 197 cally obsolete, but they were now once more rigidly enforced. Their charters, granted by the Crown, gave to the colonies the right to manage their own affairs, and up to that time Great Britain had never attempted to tax the colonies; each colony had its own assembly, which like the British Parliament voted such sums as were necessary for administration and defence. But now the British Parliament, in defiance of precedent, proceed to levy a direct tax on the colonies. The tax was to pay a pro¬ portion of the cost of maintaining British garrisons in America—a necessary precaution, for the colonies were not then strong enough to defend themselves should the French invade them. But the colonists vehemently pro¬ tested against what they regarded as a violation of their constitutions. The authority of the Crown they respected. If money was wanted for the purposes of defence, let the Crown, they argued, apply through the governor of a colony to the Colonial Assembly for a grant, leaving it to the colony to raise taxes in its own way; but the colonists denied the authority of the British Parliament, which was chosen by the electorate of the distant British Isles—an electorate that had little understanding of colonial affairs—to impose taxation upon them. They maintained that there should be no taxation without representation, that the British Parliament had no more right to tax the colonies than had the Colonial Assemblies to tax England. The dispute became a vital and a bitter one. The English people thought that these colonies, having been saved from French aggression by English blood and money, displayed a gross ingratitude; and though the Stamp Acts were repealed, and some other concessions to American feeling were made, heavy custom duties were imposed on tea and other commodities, and harassing restrictions followed. So the agitation in the colonies increased, displaying itself in rioting and stubborn resistance to the legislation of the British Parliament. The Parliament retaliated by sterner measures, closed the port of Boston to trade, and deprived mutinous Massa- 198 BRITISH AMERICA chusetts of a portion of the privileges which had been granted by its charter. The inevitable followed. Blood was first shed at Lexington, between British troops and colonial militia, in the spring of 1775. The revolution broke out. The New Englanders, after in vain inviting the French Canadians and the settlers in Nova Scotia to join in the rising, invaded Canada; and, for a time, Quebec was the one place left in the possession of the British. France, eager for revenge on England, and hoping by this diversion to further her design of ousting us from India, came to the assistance of the revolted colonies, and soon Great Britain found herself at war with France, Holland, and Spain, as well as with her colonists. Ultimately the colonists triumphed, and by the Treaty of Paris, 1783, Great Britain recognised the independence of the United States. The conclusion of the struggle, which, so far as England was concerned, had for some time been a half-hearted one, was welcomed by the bulk of the English people, who had gradually changed their views, and had come to recog¬ nise that the colonists were fighting in a just cause. Thus all her original colonies on the North American mainland were lost to Great Britain; but she still retained the fair land of Canada which she had won from France, and Acadia—a dominion which was destined to expand until it reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and becajne the largest and most prosperous of all her over-sea posses¬ sions. British North America, covering an area almost as large as that of Europe, now consists of the Dominion of Canada and the island of Newfoundland. Its surface embraces one-third of the entire British Empire, and it contains one-half of the Empire's white colonial popula¬ tion. In addition to her colonies in North America, Great Britain possesses British Honduras in Central America, British Guiana in South America, and the following groups of islands lying in the Atlantic off the coasts of America : —the Bermudas, the British West Indies, and the Falkland Islands. CANADA History of Canada under British Rule. — When Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, the boundary between the two countries— so far as the then settled territories were concerned—was drawn from the Lake of the Woods to Lake Superior; down the centre of Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario; down the centre of the St Lawrence River to lati¬ tude 45°; thence along that parallel to its intersection with the river Connecticut; and thence to the Bay of Fundy, along the undefined Maine border, which remained in dispute until 1842. The frontier beyond the Lake of the Woods was not properly delimited until later, when Great Britain and the United States—after the latter had pur¬ chased Louisiana from Spain in 1803—commenced the westward expansion of their territories to the Pacific coast. When the American colonies separated from Great Britain, about 40,000 American loyalists, who, because they had remained faithful to and had fought for the mother country, were treated with little magnanimity by the citizens of the new Republic, abandoned their properties and poured over the border into British territory to settle in the regions west of the Ottawa River and in the maritime provinces, the British Government making them large grants of land. A stream of emigration from the British Isles also began to flow in. The French law, as administered under the Quebec Act, was obviously unsuited for these British and mainly Protestant com¬ munities, so new provisions had to be made. Nova Scotia 199 200 CANADA and Prince Edward Island already had constitutions on British lines; in 1786 a similar constitution was given to New Brunswick; while Canada itself was divided in 1791 into two provinces—Lower Canada, now the Province of Quebec, to the east of the river Ottawa, wherein the population, being French, retained its form of government and privileges under the Quebec Act; and Upper Canada, now the Province of Ontario, to the west of the Ottawa, to whose population, mainly composed of those British fugitives from the United States who proudly called them¬ selves the United Empire Loyalists, a separate constitution was given. Each province was allowed a considerable measure of self-rule, and managed its own affairs through an elective legislative body. And so grew up a united Canada, all the more loyal because she had a bitterly hostile Power on her southern border; for the Americans first attempted her conquest by war; and later, by tariffs, aggression on her fishing rights, and other hostile measures, sought to injure her vitally, and so drive her in despair to consent to annexa¬ tion to the United States—a persecution that produced the reverse of the result intended, drawing the colonies into closer union with Great Britain. This aggressive policy was soon displayed. In 1812, when we were engaged in our life and death struggle with Napoleon, Great Britain's assumption of the right of search of neutral vessels, and other measures which interfered with America's trade, but were deemed necessary in our self-defence at that critical period, afforded the Republic a pretext for declaring war, and she attempted by force of arms to possess herself of British North America. The Americans poured wave after wave of invasion and destruction across the frontier, and encountered to their surprise a united Canada. United Empire Loyalists, French Canadians, new emigrants from the United Kingdom, Iroquois and other Indian tribes, whom by a just treatment we had made our friends, and British troops, fought side by side and drove the superior forces of the enemy out of the country. The desperate fight on MODERN HISTORY 201 Queenstown Heights, the victory at Chateauguay, where 350 French Canadian Militia overwhelmingly defeated 3500 United States troops, and the heroic fight near Lundy's Farm, hard by Niagara, are notable incidents of that hard-fought war, which, in the words of Sir John Bourinot, " did much to solidify the various racial elements of British North America during its formative stage. . . . The character of the people, especially in Upper Canada, was strengthened from a national point of view by the severe strain to which it was subjected. Men and women alike were elevated above the conditions of a mere colonial life, and the struggle for purely material necessities, and became animated by that spirit ^ of self-sacrifice and patriotic endeavour, which tends to make a people truly great." On other occasions also, Canada's militia force has been called upon to defend the country. It assisted in suppressing the rebellion of 1837, when a disaffected section of the community was helped with men, arms, and pro¬ visions by the Americans over the border ; in repelling the invasions of Fenians from the United States in 1866 and 1870; and in putting down the half-breed risings under Riel in 1870 and 1885. The splendid service of the Canadian contingents in the last Boer war is a matter of recent history. But Canada, during the years of peace that followed the war with the United States, had her own internal troubles to settle—the conflicting interests of the various colonies, racial and religious differences, the readjustment of the forms of government. The British of Upper Canada had their grievance against the French of Lower Canada, who holding the mouth of the St Lawrence and the seaports, controlled the exports and imports of the whole country, and secured an undue share of the custom duties. In both colonies there grew up a profound dissatisfaction with the methods of rule adopted by the Imperial Government; for the executive councils, which were composed wholly of nominees of the Crown, often exerted their authority in a harsh and arbitrary fashion, and opposed what the colonists considered to be the true interests of the country. The 202 CANADA discontent was most bitter in Lower Canada, where the elected legislative assembly with its large majority of French members was ever in conflict with the executive body of British officials. There were frequent deadlocks, when the popular body would refuse supplies for expendi¬ ture, or the governor would summarily dissolve the legisla¬ ture. There was a section of the population which clamoured for the severance of the Imperial connection, and the creation of a French Canadian Republic. Matters were brought to a crisis in 1837 by the breaking out of revolt in both Lower and Upper Canada, under the leader¬ ship of Papineau and Mackenzie. These risings were quickly suppressed, for the bulk of the Canadians were loyal, and had no sympathy for the movement; but the Imperial Government, feeling that the time had come to intervene in Canadian affairs, suspended the Constitution of Lower Canada, and in 1838 sent out Lord Durham with special powers as Governor-General of Canada, to introduce into the methods of colonial government such reforms as might be found advisable. Some of his actions being censured in England, Lord Durham soon resigned his post; but he issued a report which displayed a clear under¬ standing of Canada's needs, and was largely instrumental in bringing about a momentous change in Great Britain's system of Colonial Government. The following measures were recommended in the report:—the reunion of Upper and Lower Canada, so that the British population of the former province might share with the French of Lower Canada the control of the river St Lawrence; the federa¬ tion of all the British North American colonies; and the introduction of a form of government similar to that of the United Kingdom, under which the colonies should not only make their own laws, but also control the administration and expenditure of the public revenue—in short, the estab¬ lishment of what is known as responsible government, with an executive body approved by and responsible to the colonial legislature. The result of the Durham Report was that Upper and Lower Canada were reunited by the Union Act of 1840; and responsible government was MODERN HISTORY 203 granted by degrees to Canada, Nova Scotia, New Bruns¬ wick, and Prince Edward Island. In course of time a readjustment of this arrangement was found necessary. There was a large emigration from Great Britain to Upper Canada, and the British population came to outnumber largely the French of Lower Canada. The British demanded a representation in the Canadian Parliament proportionate to their numbers; but this was obstinately opposed by the French; a bitter racial feeling was aroused, and the government of the country was often brought to a deadlock. Colonial statesmen realised that the problem could be solved, and justice be done to all, by redividing Upper and Lower Canada, and effecting a federation of the British colonies in North America. Consequently, by the "British North America Act" of 1867, the Imperial Government sanctioned the union of the North American possessions, under the title of the Dominion of Canada; of which the four original provinces were Quebec (formerly Lower Canada), Ontario (formerly Upper Canada), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Of the other two old North American colonies. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, the former joined the confedera¬ tion some years later, while the latter still remains outside, preferring to be an independent colony. The Dominion is thus a confederation of self-governing colonies, each having its own local government, but all being united under the central Dominion Government. The constitution of the Dominion is similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom. The Dominion Parliament consists of a Senate of life-members, and an elective House of Commons. The chief executive government and authority is vested in the Sovereign, who is represented by the Governor-General aided by a Privy Council. Ottawa is the capital and seat of government of the Dominion of Canada. While Canada was satisfactorily solving her domestic problems, her population was multiplying and ever spread¬ ing westwards; and, beside her, too, the westward expan¬ sion of the United States was rapidly advancing. This 204 CANADA necessitated the delimitation of frontiers between the two countries, a question that aroused an abundance of ill- feeling, and, at least on one occasion, brought the two nations to the brink of war. It is unnecessary to discuss these boundary disputes here; for they have at last all been definitely settled, in most cases to the advantage of the United States. First, in 1818, the old southern frontier of Canada was extended westwards from the Lake of the Woods along latitude 49° N. to the Rocky Mountains. In 1846, the line was by treaty still further extended westwards along 49° N. to the Pacific, and the boundary was so drawn through the Strait of Juan de Fuca as to include the island of Vancouver within British territory. In 1867 the United States purchased from Russia her Alaskan posses¬ sions ; that is, all North America west of the meridian of longitude 141° W., and the coast strip and adjacent islands extending as far south as 54° 40' N. latitude, so cutting off the greater portion of western Canada from access to the sea. Before the Dominion Government could admit into the confederation as provinces the organised communities that were growing up in the west, it had to enter into an arrangement with the Hudson's Bay Company. This association, to which Charles II. had granted a charter in 1670, was founded by Prince Rupert for the purpose of bartering for furs with the Indians of the north. It enjoyed the monopoly of trade, jurisdiction, and territorial rights over an immense area, which had been defined as being all lands that were watered by the rivers flowing into Hudson's Bay and had not been previously occupied by the subjects of any Christian State. At last the Company's forts were scattered all over the wild regions of the north to the shores of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans. But gradually the Company was bereft of its huge monopolies, and in 1869 it sold its territorial rights to the British Government; and these regions, under the title of the North-West Territories, were added to the Dominion of Canada. The Company, though having no PHYSICAL FEATURES 205 monopoly, is still the great fur-trading Company of North America, and owns extensive lands, being entitled under its deed of surrender to one-twentieth of the land within the " Fertile Belt." The Dominion Parliament, on taking over the North- West Territories in 1870, gave that portion known as the Red River district responsible government, and admitted it as a separate province, under the name of Manitoba, into the confederation. In 1871, British Columbia was also granted responsible government and joined the Con¬ federation. Out of the immense region comprising the North-West Territories—divided into Provisional Districts that have partial self-rule, and Unorganised Districts which are under the direct control of the Dominion Parliament— new provinces are created and added to the confederation so soon as population and other conditions warrant this. Thus in 1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan were erected into self-ruling Provinces of the Dominion. In 1880 an Imperial Order in Council transferred to Canada all British possessions in North America (except Newfound¬ land) ; and also the Arctic Archipelago. Extent and Physical Features.—Canada com¬ prises all the North American Continent to the north of the United States border, with the exception of Alaska, and the coast strip of Labrador, which belongs to New¬ foundland. It extends from the Arctic Ocean to latitude 42° N.—the latitude of Rome—and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with an extreme breadth of over 3000 miles. It has an estimated area of 3,745,000 square miles, and is therefore nearly as large as Europe, and larger than the United States. Along the Pacific coast of North America extends the broad belt of high mountains, now generally called the Cordillera System. The Rocky Mountains—the backbone of the continent — form the eastermost ranges of this system, bordering the plains. In Canada, the Cordillera system is composed of a confused mass of high ranges and uplands of over 400 miles in breadth. Along the 206 CANADA east side of North America extends the Appalachian mountain system (of which the Alleghanies form a part), parallel to the coast, and separated from it by the relatively narrow Atlantic plain. The Appalachians pass through New Brunswick to the mouth of the St Law¬ rence, and reappear to the north of that river in the peninsula of Labrador. Between the Cordilleras and the Appalachians lies the great central plain, which extends through the heart of the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. In Canada, plains and plateaus of no great height fill all the space between the two mountain systems—a vast region abundantly watered by mighty lakes and rivers, the forests and prairies and rich country of whose southern parts gradually merge, northwards, as the climate becomes more rigorous, into the dreary Barren Lands that border the still more desolate ever-frozen Arctic regions. The east coast of Canada is marked by deep indenta¬ tions—the Gulf of St Lawrence, thrice the size of the English Channel; and the great intrusion of the ocean, Hudson's Bay (whose area is 300,000 square miles, nearly two and a half times that of the Baltic), penetrating deeply into the heart of the country. The watershed between the streams that flow southwards into the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and those that flow northwards into the Arctic Ocean and Hudson's Bay, runs close to the United States frontier, being now on one side and now on the other of the conventional line, latitude 49°, that divides the two countries. It is an undefined watershed of but slight elevation above the surrounding country; and the same can be said of the south-western portion of the watershed of the St Lawrence basin. There are what may be called neutral grounds, where rivers flowing in different directions rise in close proximity : short portages —separate streams that flow into the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of St Lawrence, Hudson's Bay, and the Arctic Ocean —so that one can practically travel by water, in any direction, from one side of the continent to the other. As reference to a map will show, the hydrography of CLIMATE 207 the region lying to the west of the Hudson's Bay lowland plains is exceedingly intricate. Here, on what is geologi¬ cally the oldest part of the continent, the Laurentian Plateau ^—a vast region where the lowest and most ancient of the world's known strata is at the surface—is a land of such immense antiquity that all its former mountain ranges have been worn away, and there remains an area of irregular watersheds and drainage, where the rivers wind in all directions, often running into each other, and connect a multitude of lakes, of which some have more than one outlet, and pour their sluggish waters into both the Arctic Ocean and Hudson's Bay. Climate.—Canada, stretching as it does from north of the Arctic Circle to the latitude of Rome, has a variety of climates. As Canada is bordered on the north by a great Arctic ice-bound archipelago, and has to the north¬ east of it the frozen land-mass of Greenland, one would expect to find here, at any rate in the eastern regions, a more rigorous climate than that of countries between corresponding latitudes in ocean-surrounded Western Europe. This is indeed the case; Labrador, on the latitude of the British Isles, has for the most part an Arctic climate, and Lake Erie, on the latitude of Rome, is closed to navigation by ice for several months each year. But other powerful influences affect the climate of Canada. Its coasts lie far to the north of the easterly trade winds, and are within the zone of the variable winds which, for the greater part of the year, blow from the south-west, and coming from across broad seas bring to the land an equable oceanic temperature and an abundance of moisture. But these genial winds, on reaching the west coast of Canada, are intercepted by the lofty ranges of the Cordillera mountain system, and deposit upon them the greater portion of their moisture. Consequently, on the ^ The Laurentian Plateau extends from Labrador, round the south side of Hudson's Bay, and thence in a north-west direction to the Arctic Ocean. Hudson's Bay is a depression of this ancient land into which the sea has penetrated. 208 CANADA Pacific coast, on the windward side of the great mountains, the climate is mild and oceanic, with a small range of temperature and much rain and humidity; whereas, on the eastern side of mountains, in the great plains of the interior, the climate is continental, with an excessive range of temperature—hot summers and extremely cold winters —and a small rainfall. But still further east, the land comes under the influence of the Atlantic, and to a large extent of the great lakes, tending to make the climate equable, and here, therefore, is found a range of temper¬ ature that is considerable, but not so great as that of the central zone, and a rainfall which, though not so abundant as that on the west coast, is ample. The climate of Canada is further modified by the ocean currents that wash its coasts. A warm current, a branch of the Japan stream, flows along the west coast; while down the east coast runs a cold Arctic current that issues from Davis Straits, and passing inside of the Gulf Stream deprives Canada of the influence of that warm current to which the British Isles are so largely indebted for the mild climate they enjoy. It results from the above-mentioned conditions, that as one crosses North America from the east coast to the Cordillera the climate becomes warmer. The isotherms of mean annual, and also those of mean summer tempera¬ ture, traverse Canada obliquely in a north-westerly direction. Thus, for example, the northern limit of trees in Canada is represented by a line drawn from about latitude 56° N. on the east coast to considerably north of the Arctic Circle in the west. Trees cannot grow where the mean temperature for the warmest month of the year is less than 50° R; so the Canadian tree-limit roughly coin¬ cides with the July isotherm 50° R, a line which also divides the temperate from the Arctic climate zone. Throughout Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains, the winters are severe, the frost intense, the snow deep; but the atmosphere is exceedingly dry, the air pure and bracing, and the sky generally clear; so the winter season, which is of four to five months' duration in the more VEGETATION 209 favoured parts of the country, is found enjoyable and healthy, and it is then that the people indulge mostly in various forms of out-of-door sport. The snowfall, as well as the rainfall, diminishes as one progresses westwards from the east coast to the dry central plains. Vegetation.—Canada is richly wooded up to the northern limit of tree growth, save in its central plains, where the woodland is replaced by grassy prairies. We thus get three vegetation belts, ist. The Western Forest Belt, to the west of the Rocky Mountains, which has a breadth of about 500 miles along the Canada-United States frontier. It consists mainly of conifers, cedar, and fir. The warmth, the rich soil, and the great humidity of some parts of the British Columbia coast favour the growth of giant trees of immense girth, attaining a height of 300 feet, while the undergrowth is often as luxuriant and impenetrable as that of the forests of tropical America. This western forest extends northwards till it merges, on about latitude 58°, into the Great Sub¬ arctic Forest of poplars, larch, and. black and white spruce. 2nd. The Prairie Region, the belt of open grassy plains, with occasional woodland, that extends from the Rocky Mountains to the eastward of Winnipeg. This is the driest of the three belts, the annual rainfall being from 10 to 20 inches only, which is insufficient for the growth of large forest trees. The breadth of this belt is about 800 miles along the frontier. The plain slopes gradually from the base of the Rocky Mountains, where it is from 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea-level, to its eastern limits, where its elevation above the sea is only 700 feet. The high western prairie is a great stock-raising region, while the lower alluvial plains further east contain Canada's great wheat-producing area. "^rd. The Eastern Woodland Region, which, from about longitude 95° E. stretches across half the continent east¬ wards to the Atlantic. This forest contains not only conifers, but a very great variety of deciduous trees; oak, beech, and maple of many species predominating. The rich foliage, o 210 CANADA when it assumes its gorgeous autumnal tints in the " Indian Summer," has an extraordinary beauty. This woodland covers the surface of the old provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario—save where large tracts have been cleared for cultivation—and extends northwards to the Great Subarctic Forest, which forms a belt, in places 500 miles in breadth, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And lastly, to the north, beyond the limit of forest and the struggling growth of dwarfed birch and willow, extends across the continent the irredeemable wilder¬ ness of the Barren Grounds, where the mean annual temperature is far below freezing-point, and there is little plant life save the lichens and mosses on the un¬ fertile stony soil. Mountains. — The Cordillera Belt. The highest summits of the Rocky Mountains are within the Canadian border—the loftiest being Mount Hooker, 16,760 feet. Mount Brown, 16,000 feet, and Mount Murchison, 15,700 feet. Parallel to the Rocky Mountains are the Cascade Mountains and the other coast ranges of the Cordillera system. Mount Logan, 19,500 feet, the highest peak in North America, is in the northern coast range on the Alaska border. The coast ranges are broken by deep valleys, through which the Fraser and other rivers that rise in the middle ranges or on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains find their way to the ocean. Along the whole length of the west coast magnificent fiords pierce deeply into the coast ranges, and the outer¬ most summits of the great mountain system appear in the form of rugged islands which line the coast, and afford sheltered channels for navigation between them and the mainland. Between the Rocky Mountains and the coast chains is an intricate mass of short and broken ranges, the Selkirk, Carribboo, Gold, and other mountains, whose summits often exceed 10,000 feet. Between the enclosing MOUNTAINS 211 ranges are also open tablelands and broad valleys afford¬ ing rich pasture and good arable soil. There are many depressions in the Rocky Mountains which afford easy passes of no great elevation. The Yellow Head Pass, between the head-valleys of the Fraser and Athabasca rivers, is 37cx) feet above the sea. The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the watershed at a point 5296 feet above the sea. The Cordilleran Belt, with its snowy peaks, glaciers, canons, cascades, lakes, rushing torrents, and magnificent forests, presents some of the finest mountain scenery in the world, and the richness of the colouring, especially in autumn, enhances its wonderful beauty. The Appalachian Highlands. Of the Appalachian system, the small northern section only is within Canadian territory. The Acadian Highlands, between the St Lawrence River and the sea, spread over New Brunswick and that portion of the province of Quebec which lies on the south side of the St Lawrence. Of these ranges, the Shickshock, or Notre Dame Mountains, which border the right bank of the river at its mouth, contain the loftiest peaks. These attain a height of about 4000 feet above the sea, and are therefore somewhat lower than Great Britain's highest mountain, Ben Nevis. The Laurentine Highlands and The' Height of Land. These form the watershed between the basin of the St Lawrence and Hudson's Bay, and extend in a crescent from Labrador to the north of Lake Superior. This watershed varies in elevation from 900 to 2000 feet above the sea. Rivers and Lakes.—Of all regions in the world, Canada is far the best watered. It contains a multitude of fine rivers, whose head-waters, as has been shown, are often in close proximity to each other, and thousands of lakes, including the largest sheet of fresh water in the world. The perennial snows and glaciers of the mountains amid which many of these rivers rise, the deep snows that cover the plains in winter, and the vast lake reservoirs 212 CANADA that save the waters, ensure a bountiful supply. It has been estimated that the river St Lawrence, and the five great lakes whose overflow it receives, contain more than 12,000 cubic miles of water—that is, more than half the fresh water in the world. There is much to show that these great expanses of water were once far larger, during the melting of the ice sheets that had spread over these regions in the glacial period. The shrinking waters left behind them the deep silt that makes of a "great part of Canada so fertile a land. The rich alluvial black mould of the prairies shows where were once the floors of inland seas. The St Lawrence System. This is in many respects the most magnificent river system in the world, and opening out as it does the heart of Canada to navigation, is of the highest commercial importance to the country. The five great lakes, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, pour their united waters into the St Lawrence at the lower end of Lake Ontario, whence the river flows north¬ east for 728 miles to its debouchment into the Gulf of St Lawrence at Cape Gaspd The name St Lawrence is confined to this last section of the great waterway, and the channels that link together the lakes are respectively called :—the Sault St Marie, between Lakes Superior and Huron; the St Clair River, between Lake Huron and the small St Clair Lake; the Detroit, between Lakes St Clair and Erie; and the Niagara River, between Lakes Erie and Ontario. The little St Louis River, because it flows into the westward extremity of Lake Superior, is regarded as the head - water of the St Lawrence system; but the Nipigon, which, after receiving the waters of Lake Nipigon and draining a considerable area, flows into the north of Lake Superior, is a much more important stream. The length of the St Lawrence system from the source of the St Louis to Cape Gasp6 is 2500 miles. The St Lawrence basin covers nearly half a million square miles, more than twice the area of the German Empire. Of the group of five great lakes, Michigan is entirely within the RIVERS AND LAKES 213 United States boundary. It has been explained that the international frontier has been drawn down the centres of the other four lakes. Lake Superior, the " little Brother of the Sea " of the Indians, is the largest fresh-water lake in the world. Its length is over 300 miles; it has a maximum breadth of about 140 miles; and, having an area of nearly 32,000 square miles, is as large as Ireland. About two hundred rivers flow into it. The deep cold waters of Lake Superior are very pure, and their crystalline transparency enables the navigator to distinguish the rocks lying hundreds of feet below the surface. The areas of the other lakes are roughly:—Huron and Michigan, 22,000 square miles each; Erie, 10,000 square miles; and Ontario, 7000 square miles. The five lakes together occupy an area larger than that of Great Britain. Numerous islands stud the lakes, and the so-called Lake of the Thousand Islands, at the outlet of Lake Ontario into the St Lawrence, contains nearly two thousand islets. When these lakes are lashed by storms, they become as rough as the open ocean, and the steep short seas, especially on shallow Lake Erie, imperil the navigation for all but stout craft. On these inland waters, in the very heart of the continent, are great fleets of steamships and sailing vessels of as heavy tonnage as those that navigate the oceans. The scenery of the Great Lakes is varied and beautiful, and often grand. The shores are sometimes wild and rugged, with far-projecting rocky capes and deep-penetrating fiords. The solemn forests slope to the waters along hundreds of miles of coast. On these shores, too, are the extensive cleared spaces where He the settlements, the pleasant pastoral and arable tracts, and here and there the busy cities. The St Lawrence system occupies an extensive depression, which is narrow at the mouth of the river, but broadens out westwards in the region of the great lakes. The valley of the St Lawrence River, and Lake Ontario, are on a much lower level than the upper part of this depression, which forms a higher terrace. The 214 CANADA surface of Lake Ontario is only 240 feet above the ^ea; whereas, Lake Erie, separated from it by only 20 miles, is 570 feet above the sea. There is no great difference between the elevation of Lake Erie and that of the other lakes on the higher terrace. Lake Superior the westernmost and highest of all being 600 feet above the sea. It is the sudden drop of the waters of the upper lakes through the the short and confined channel between Lakes Erie and Ontario that forms that wonder of the world, the Falls of Niagara. Niagara, "the thunder of waters," is a cataract only surpassed in magnitude by the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi. At this point, the broad, lake-like expanse of the Niagara River suddenly contracts to a breadth of under 5000 feet, and the huge volume of water drops from a height of 160 feet into the spray-veiled abyss beneath. The line of the Falls is broken by Goat Island, an islet at the edge of the cataract. The American Fall, on the United States side of Goat Island, is a few feet higher than the Horse-shoe Fall on the Canadian side, but has only about one-third of its breadth. The river, as it rushes through the narrow gorges below the Falls, forms furious rapids and whirlpools. Lake Superior is the deepest, as well as the largest, of the Great Lakes, the bottom of this lake, as well as that of Lakes Huron and Michigan, being considerably below the level of the sea. When one takes into consideration the magnitude of the St Lawrence system of lakes and rivers, the drainage area seems comparatively small; for the watershed closely hems in the lake region, and fringes the outer shores of these great sheets of water, so that no large affluents flow into them, and indeed the water collected by this catch¬ ment-basin is largely made up of the rain that falls upon the surface of the lakes themselves. But the St Lawrence River itself, draining the area between the Laurentine Highlands and the Northern Appalachians, receives important tributaries, of which the largest is the Ottawa, over 750 miles in length; while the Saguenay, the St RIVERS AND LAKES 215 Maurice, the Richelieu, and other rivers with their tribu¬ taries drain large areas, and receive the overflow of many lakes. The St Lawrence, with its lakes and tributaries, pro¬ vides the most magnificent system of inland navigation in the world. Sea-going steamers of moderate tonnage can enter the St Lawrence mouth, and proceed by river and lake for a distance of over 2300 miles to the head of Lake Superior. The St Lawrence system contains in all about 4000 miles of connected navigable waters, a result which has been brought about by the construction of a splendid system of canals to avoid the various rapids of the rivers. The ocean tide flows past Quebe® to within 100 miles of Montreal. Just below Quebec, the St Lawrence is a noble stream 4 miles in breadth. It broadens to 16 miles at its junction with the Saguenay, and is 60 miles wide at its mouth at Cape Gasp6. The largest ocean-going ships can reach Quebec; but shoals closed the higher naviga¬ tion to all but vessels of moderate tonnage, until a sub¬ merged canal, which has been gradually deepened during the last fifty years, was carried up the river from Quebec to Montreal, thus making Montreal—550 miles from the river mouth—a great seaport. Vessels of 7000 tons burden can now enter this port. The canals, which complete the water communication between Montreal and Lake Ontario, provide for a minimum depth of 14 feet throughout. The Lachine and other rapids between Montreal and Lake Ontario have been overcome by the construction of 55 miles of canal. The Falls of Niagara are avoided by the Welland Canal, connecting Lakes Ontario and Erie. Running parallel to the rapids which impede the passage from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, is the Sault St Marie Canal, whose locks are worked by electric power. The enormous labour and cost involved in the construction of these great canals, has been fully warranted by the extent of the commerce which they serve. The total tonnage that passes through the Sault St Marie Canal annually. 216 CANADA exceeds by far that which traverses that great highway of the world, the Suez Canal. The Richelieu and Champlain canal systems provide direct communication by water between Montreal and New York by way of the Richelieu River, Lake Champ- lain, and the Hudson River. The Rideau Canal connects Ottawa with the foot of Lake Ontario. The Ottawa River has been canalised, so that vessels of considerable size can ascend it for hundreds of miles. Several other tributaries of the St Lawrence are navigable, and the largest vessels can sail up the Saguenay for go miles. This wonderful system of waterways thus provides easy and cheap transport to the sea for the grain, lumber, and other produce of Upper and Lower Canada. The Great Lakes do not freeze over in the winter, but all the rivers do so, and the lake harbours are closed by ice; consequently navigation is interrupted for from four to four and a half months each year. The rapids of the St Lawrence and its tributaries are utilised for the genera¬ tion of electricity, supplying to the cities light, traction, and power for the factories. The Great Lakes swarm with a variety of fish—great-lake trout, sturgeon, and others. The fishing industry is an important one, supporting a considerable section of the population. The Mackenzie is the greatest river in British North America. It has a length of about 2500 miles ; and, with its numerous large tributaries, of which the Atha¬ basca and the Peace rivers are the most important, drains a region nearly three times as large as France. It connects a number of lakes, of which the two most exten¬ sive are the Great Bear Lake and the Great Slave Lake, each of which is about twice the size of Yorkshire. The commercial importance of this mighty river system is small when compared with its extent. For the Mackenzie, whose main tributaries have their rise in the Rocky Mountains, flows northward into the desolate Arctic Ocean; and for the greater portion of its course it tra¬ verses regions which, though rich in forest, fur-bearing animals, fish, and yet unworked minerals, are as yet little RIVERS AND LAKES 217 used save by the trapper and the hunter. The upper parts of the Athabasca and Peace rivers, however, are within the wheat-producing belt. It has been estimated that the Mackenzie and its branches are navigable for 4CK30 miles, a few portages only interrupting the continuity of the water communication. The Saskatchewan has a length of about 1600 miles, and a basin as big as that of the St Lawrence. It rises in the glaciers of the Rocky Mountains under Mount Hooker, flows eastward to Lake Winnipeg, and, issuing from the lake under the name of the River Nelson, flows into Hudson's Bay at Fort York—the Hudson Bay Company's seaport, to which the furs are brought from the interior by canoes in summer and dog-sleds in winter. The Saskatchewan, therefore, with its rivers and lakes—of which last. Lake Winnipeg, with an area equal to that of Lake Erie, is the largest—traverses the rich wheat lands and prairies of the North-West throughout their whole length, aflbrding easy transport for the produce of these regions. This important river system is navigable for 1200 miles by steamers. Of the other rivers flowing into Hudson's Bay, the Churchill, with a length of 1000 miles, is the longest. Some of the lakes and rivers west of Hudson's Bay have no defined watershed, and have outlets both into the Churchill River and the branches of the Mackenzie River, thus con¬ necting the two rivers. Of the rivers that rise on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains and flow into the Pacific, the Eraser, famous for its salmon, has a length of about 700 milek The great Yukon River rises in British Columbia, but for the greater part of its course it flows through the United States territory of Alaska. Light-draft steamers can navigate the Yukon and its tributaries for 2600 miles. The recent discoveries of gold have brought considerable population to a region in which sealing, fishing, and the fur trade were formerly the only industries, so that the water¬ ways of the Yukon are now being largely used. 218 CANADA Zoology.—The larger wild beasts of Canada have much diminished in number. The bisons, which in the early seventies could be seen in thousands close to the settlers' cabins are now practically extinct; what are probably the only survivors of their race are preserved in the National Park near Banff. The elk, the big horn or Rocky Mountain sheep, the antelope, and several species of deer are becoming scarce. Among other creatures that still abound in the wilds are the grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains, black bear, the white polar bear, the musk ox, and the caribboo, or reindeer of the Barren Lands. The Canada lynx is now rare, but panthers and wolves are numerous. Among the creatures that bear the valuable furs which are the object of the Hudson's Bay Company's trade are beaver, silver fox, skunk, wolverine, bear, sable, marten, otter, and seal. Of birds, Canada has an immense variety. Geese of various kinds, ducks, swans, and waterfowl of many species breed in the far north, and swarm over southern Canada in autumn. Teal, snipe, plover, woodcock, grouse, and other game birds abound. The multitude of salmon, trout, sturgeon, and other fish in the lakes and rivers, and the teeming fish life on the coasts, make Canada the best fishing country in the world. Population.—Native Peoples.—Throughout America the native peoples, though speaking a multitude of languages, and differing considerably in physical appear¬ ance, possess certain characteristics in common :—straight black hair, scant beards, high cheek bones, and the brownish or coppery colour that led the English colonists to give them the name of" Red Indians." The Americans are apparently of Mongol stock, and are supposed to have come from Asia by way of Behring's Straits in a succession of migrations. The natives of Canada may be divided into three groups : \st^ the Al^onquins, including the Crees, the Black- foot, the Odjibwys, and other tribes—who occupy all the southern portion of the country from the Atlantic to the POPULATION 219 Pacific. These are the great fur-hunters of the forests, and are skilled in the construction and use of the canoes with which they navigate the lakes and rivers. They were also fine warriors, and the eastern Algonquins were the allies of the French during their wars with the English. 2ndy the Tm7iehs^ whose various tribes inhabit the more desolate regions—including the bulk of the Barren Lands—to the north of the Algonquins. They are mainly hunters of deer. 3r^, the dwarfish Eskimos who resemble the Laps of Europe. They inhabit the shores of the Arctic Ocean, live by fishing—the flesh of whales and seals being their principal food—and display great skill and courage while hunting the larger sea creatures in their frail kayaks or skin-covered canoes. There are over 108,000 Indians in Canada, and their numbers have been slowly increasing for some years. They still support themselves largely by fishing and hunting, but many have adopted a settled life and have become prosperous farmers, especially in Ontario. About three-quarters of the Indians occupy the reserves assigned to them by the Government. The Government is the trustee for these people, invests for them the sums that are paid to them in exchange for their lands, sub¬ sidises, feeds, and clothes them, and provides schools for them. The White Population of Canada numbered roughly 5,700,000 in 1906. It has thus doubled itself in the last fifty years, and is fourteen times larger than it was in 1800. The average population of the Dominion is one and a half European to the square mile, varying from 47.30 per square mile in Prince Edward Island to o.ii in the North- West Territories. In Canada, Great Britain has as large a population of European blood as in all her other posses¬ sions put together. One quarter of the people speak French, and are descended from the old French colonists. Of the remaining three quarters, all but a relatively small percentage are English-speaking and of British stock. The opening out of the rich territories in the North-West, wherein free grants of land are given under certain con- 220 CANADA ditions, attracts to Canada a great tide of immigration. In the year 1905, the immigrants arriving numbered over 145,000, of whom Great Britain contributed 64,860, the United States 44,400, and the countries of the continent of Europe—chiefly Gallicia, Scandinavia, and Russia— the remainder. The bulk of the people of Canada are upon the land, and there is not in this colony the concentration of an undue proportion of the population in a few big coast cities, as is the case in Australia. According to the census of 1891, over 44 per cent, of those who declared their occupations were directly engaged in agriculture; the fishing, mining, and lumbering industries occupied nearly 4 per cent.; manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, 19 per cent; trade and transportation, 12 per cent; domestic and personal service, 15 per cent. Immense tracts of rich soil yet remain unused, and there is ample room in Canada for all the emigrants that the British Isles can send her for many years to come. Of the population, the French section, which mainly occupies the province of Quebec, is rapidly increasing in numbers. The French Canadians are for the most part of sturdy prolific Norman stock; and some of the best blood of France before the Revolution is represented in many Canadian families. The French Canadians, the earliest settlers in the land, aflbrd a sufficient proof that European races, far from degenerating, may even improve under the Canadian climate. Of the British section of the population, a considerable proportion are descended from the United Empire Loyal¬ ists who remained faithful to England during the War of Independence. Colonies of Scotsmen form an important element of the population in Nova Scotia and in other parts of the Dominion. In Canada excellent provision has been made for the education of the people. Exceptionally large sums, con¬ tributed by government grants, local taxation, and private endowments, are devoted to this purpose. The education in the schools is generally free. There are seventeen PRODUCTIONS AND INDUSTRIES 221 universities in the Dominion, including the important M'Gill and Toronto Universities, and the ancient Roman Catholic Laval University in Quebec. Productions and Industries.—Canada is exceed¬ ingly favoured among colonies. She possesses a practically inexhaustible supply of fertile soil; an immense wealth of minerals, the most valuable forests in the world ; the most prolific fishing grounds; and, having unlimited water power and coal deposits, can manufacture under the most advantageous conditions. When considering the statistics of Canada's products, one must bear in mind that these show ^he conditions of the moment only; for the productiveness of Canada advances by leaps and bounds as immigration pours in and new rich regions are developed. For example, the produce of the mines more than trebled, and agricultural produce more than doubled in the decade 1888-1898. Agriculture,—From the Atlantic to the Pacific coast a great portion of the soil of Canada is very fertile. Wheat, oats, barley, and other cereals are grown in all the organised provinces of the Dominion, but it is on the plains of Manitoba and of the provinces bordering it on the west, where the rich alluvial mould is especially adapted for the production of wheat, that the great wheat crops are raised. In 1905, in Manitoba alone, 2,644,000 acres were under wheat and produced nearly 60,000,000 bushels. Immense areas of this same rich soil still remain unculti¬ vated. This region has been called the "Granary of Britain." The available land could be made to produce all the wheat needed for the consumption of the British Isles. In 1903, of the wheat and flour that was imported into the United Kingdom, about 12 J per cent, came from Canada. The hardier cereals can be grown far to the north of the wheat belt, for there, though the summers are shorter, the long summer days of the high latitudes rapidly mature the crops on the fertile soil. The isothermal line, representing a mean temperature 222 CANADA of 60° F. for the hottest month of the year, forms practi¬ cally the northern limit of agriculture—that is, of the profitable cultivation of barley, oats, hemp, and other hardy crops. Now in Canada this line passing through the island of Anticosti, is carried through the south-west corner of Ungava, by the north of York Factory on Hudson's Bay, to the north of the Reindeer Lake, and thence in a north-westerly direction to the south shore of the Great Bear Lake, from which point it runs in a westerly direction to the Alaska frontier. It will thus be seen that the old eastern provinces which now contain more than four-fifths of the population of the entire Dominion, possess roughly but one quarter of the territory in which climatic conditions render agriculture possible. There is room in the North-West for millions of emigrants, and there can be little doubt that the west and not the east will in time possess the bulk of the population of the Dominion. All the fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone thrive in Canada. Grapes are cultivated, and wine is made in the old provinces.* Crops of tobacco are raised. The orchards produce immense quantities of excellent peaches, plums, apples, and other fruits, and of these (especially of apples) there is a large export, of the value of over 1,000,000 yearly. Beet is cultivated for the manufacture of sugar, which is also produced from the juice of the native maple tree. Cattle, sheep, poultry are extensively raised throughout Canada; cattle-ranching teing carried on on the largest scale on the western prairies. The dairy business is one of the main industries of the country. The cheese factories and creameries produce enormous and ever- increasing quantities of cheese and butter for export. Cheeses to the value of nearly ;£"5,000,000 yearly are exported. Butter, eggs, fruit, and other perishable articles of food are despatched to Europe in cold storage. Timber.—The forests of Canada—excluding the Sub¬ arctic Forest that fringes the Barren Lands—cover an PRODUCTIONS AND INDUSTRIES 223 area six times larger than that of France, and contain what should be an inexhaustible supply of timber of high value if due precautions be taken. In these forests grow over 120 species of trees, including various kinds of pine, spruce, oak, elm, beech, maple, and walnut; a profusion of timber serving all purposes, providing fine cabinet woods, masts for the largest sailing vessels, the mightiest baulks, deal planking, etc., and even paper, which is now largely made from the pulp of the spruce and poplar. Timber was the staple article of Canada's export trade, until the development of the country brought agriculture to the forefront, when the lumbering industry became second in importance. The great logs of pine are floated down the rivers in their tens of millions yearly to the ports, whence they are shipped across the ocean, in these days largely in the form of planks, or otherwise partly manufactured. In all parts of the country one finds the saw-mills and the wood-pulp mills. Canada's yearly output of timber is of the value of over ;6"7,ooo,ooo, while wood-pulp to the value of nearly 1,000,000 is manufactured. Of Canada's sur¬ plus of both timber and pulp, she exports the greater part to Great Britain and the United States; for the forests in the north-east of the latter country are now almost depleted. Fisheries,—Canada's fisheries are the largest in the world. They afford employment to 80,000 of the inhabi¬ tants ; and the total annual catch of fish (taking the home consumption into account) is of the value of about ;£"6,000,000, On the Atlantic coast, cod, lobster, mackerel, herring, haddock, and halibut are the principal fish caught. The lakes of the interior supply lake-trout, sturgeon, pike, white-fish, etc. The most important salmon fisheries are in British Columbia. The fish are exported either fresh, frozen, canned, pickled, smoked, or salted. The canning of salmon and lobster is a most important industry. The Canadian sealing fleets hunt for seals on the coast of British Columbia and in Behring Sea. Minerals.—Canada possesses immense mineral wealth, which as yet has been but partially developed. Gold is 224 CANADA found in most of the provinces; but British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and the recently discovered Yukon gold- fields are the chief producers of this metal. British Columbia is rich in copper, Ontario in nickel. Coal is widely distributed, the principal coal-fields being in Nova Scotia, the North-West Territories, and British Columbia. It may be observed that in those portions of Manitoba and the North-West where timber is scarce, coal is abundant. Small coal-mines are there worked for the benefit of the settlers, who buy their coal fuel at the pit's mouth, at from two to six shillings a ton. In Nova Scotia the iron deposits are in close proximity to the coal-fields; so here important iron and steel works have arisen. Lead, silver, cobalt, zinc, platinum, petroleum, natural gas, asbestos, gypsum, are among the other mineral products. The total mineral output of Canada in 1905 was of about the value of 14,000,000. Manufactures.—In addition to the manufactures con¬ nected with agriculture, the lumber industry, and the fisheries—such as the manufacture of cheese, planking, and canned fish—Canada, since her introduction of a protective policy into her customs tariff, has successfully engaged in the manufacture of various articles which she previously imported from Europe, such as cotton and woollen goods, boots, locomotives, edge tools, and agri¬ cultural implements. Trade.—In 1906, the value of Canada's exports was ;£"51,000,000, and that of her imports ;£"5 8,000,000. Of the exports, £26^)00,000 were taken by Great Britain, and 5,000,000 by Canada's next best customer for her produce, the United States. On the other hand, Canada imported from Great-Britain 14,000,000, but more than double that amount from the United States. Canada's exports to Great Britain consist mainly of food stuffs, wood, wood-pulp, leather, skins, and furs. Canada's imports from Great Britain are woollen goods, cotton, and other textiles; iron, steel, and other manu¬ factures. Canada has lately accorded—without reciprocity —preferential treatment to Great Britain and some of her RAILWAYS 225 colonies; the goods imported from these coming into Canada on payment of custom dues one-third less than those levied on goods coming from foreign countries. Railways.—Canada possesses over 20,000 miles of railways, and her railway mileage will soon exceed that of France. The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the continent from ocean to ocean. Starting from the Atlantic seaport of St John, New Brunswick, it proceeds to Quebec, and thence traverses the rich St Lawrence valley, the great woodlands, the wheat-growing belt, the prairie uplands, the Rocky Mountains, and 600 miles of difficult mountain country beyond, to Vancouver on the Pacific, a distance of 3078 miles from Quebec. In connection with this railway, the Canadian Pacific Company's steamers sail from Vancouver to China and Japan, making this the quickest and shortest route between Europe and the Far East, and one of the world's most important highways. The Canadian Pacific, affording a transcontinental line of communication, which, unlike the Suez Canal, lies wholly within British territory, is, from the strategical point of view, the most valuable railway in the Empire. The old provinces of Canada, where the population is much denser and industry is more advanced than in the newly opened regions to the west of them, are traversed by a network of railways—the Grand Trunk, with its 5000 miles of line, and the Intercolonial Railway, linking Quebec with the maritime provinces. All these lines communicate with the United States railways. The rapid development of Canada is necessitating the construction of other transcontinental lines. The Grand Trunk Pacific, in course of construction, starting from Moncton on the Gulf of St Lawrence, will traverse Northern Ontario to Winnipeg, pass through Edmonton, cross the Rocky Mountains by the Yellow Head Pass, and have its Pacific terminus at Prince Rupert, a harbour 500 miles to the north of Vancouver. This line, running parallel to the Canadian Pacific Railway, but far to the north of it and so not competing with it, will tap rich agricultural and p 226 CANADA pastoral regions in Saskatchewan and Alberta, thus bring¬ ing access to markets, and opening vast new fields to immigration. Still further to the north, the Canadian Northern Railway Company is opening out fertile regions, and will ultimately have a terminus on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, supplying a third transcontinental route. A fourth line, still further to the north, is projected, which will connect Quebec with Port Simpson—the northern¬ most harbour of British Columbia. Hudson's Bay, which is free from ice for four months of the year, and whose ports are much nearer to the agricultural regions of the west than are the Atlantic ports, is to be brought into communication with the main lines by branches of the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern, whose termini will be at Fort Churchill. Defence.—Canada maintains a permanent force of under 5000 men and an Active Militia. According to the new organisation of the militia, there will be peace training establishments of 46,000 men, including nearly 5000 officers, which, when expanded to war strength, will • form the first line of defence, and will also supply the officers and non-commissioned officers who will form the training nucleus of a second line of defence. The new establishments will enable Canada to place a large force in the field. There are in Canada several schools of artillery, cavalry, mounted rifles, and infantry. There is a Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, to a certain number of whose candidates commissions are given in the British army. The Dominion Government despatched four contingents of its troops to take part in the Boer war of 1899-1902, and Lord Strathcona (the High Commissioner for the Dominion of Canada) equipped a special corps for the same purpose, which included many men of that fine force, the North-West Mounted Police. Great Britain has two strongly fortified naval coaling stations and dockyards in Canada—Halifax, on the east QUEBEC 227 coast, which for a hundred and fifty years has been the headquarters of Great Britain's naval and military forces in North America, and Esquimalt on the Pacific coast. In 1906 the British garrisons were withdrawn from both these stations, and the maintenance and defence of them has been entrusted to the Canadian Government. Political Divisions.—The Dominion of Canada contains the nine provinces of Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia; and the North-West Territories, which include the districts of Yukon, Mackenzie, Keewatin, Ungava, and Franklin. QUEBEC The boundaries of the old province of Quebec were extended to the shores of Hudson's Bay in 1896, and Quebec now has an area of about 350,000 square miles, being, therefore, nearly thrice the size of the United Kingdom. It has a length of about 1000 miles from east to west, and a breadth of nearly 500 miles at its widest part. The St Lawrence, in whose valley the bulk of the population of the province is contained, traverses its southern portion, and all the tidal part of the river, that is from Three Rivers to the ocean, is within the Quebec boundaries. Quebec is bounded by the Atlantic and Labrador on the east, by Ungava on the north, by Ontario on the south and south-west, and by New Brunswick and the United States on the south. Anticosti Island and the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence are also comprised in this province. The white population of the province of Quebec numbers about 1,700,000 (five to the square mile), of whom 80 per cent, are of French blood, the descendants of the early settlers. While the purest French is spoken by the educated classes, the language of the bulk of the people is the French of Normandy, as it was spoken two hundred years ago. The French Canadian is a prolific 228 CANADA stock, early marriages are the rule, families are large, and the custom of subdividing the land among the children has so reduced the size of the farms, that the people are generally poorer than the British settlers in the neighbour¬ ing provinces. But the French Canadians are contented, industrious, and thrifty. They are very conservative, and are devout Catholics. The habitants prefer to live in their ancient settlements round the churches of their fore¬ fathers, cultivating their barley, potatoes, and buckwheat on what is often comparatively poor soil, than to emigrate to the rich wheat-lands of the west, as do so many of the enterprising descendants of the United Empire Loyalists of the province of Ontario. But the French Canadians, though attached to their hereditary lands, have a wandering spirit, and have ever loved the free life in the forests. In the old days when the fur trade attracted the adventurous, the most skilful and bold of the hunters and trappers were the French coureurs de hois. They penetrated the backwoods and the prairies as far as the Rocky Mountains, and it was the Metis^ their half-breed descendants in the west, who rebelled under the leadership of Riel, when the wave of immigration reached their settlements amid the rich plains of Manitoba. The forests still exert their fascination over the French Canadian people. One of the most picturesque features of Canadian life is the rafting down of the logs from the great forests of the interior by the cheery red-shirted voyageurSy whose skilful watermanship amid the dangerous rapids is proverbial. Quebec is a most picturesque land of green hills and forests, rivers, lakes, and cascades. A considerable portion of the province has been cleared of timber, but the forest lands still cover 100,000,000 acres, where a great variety of deciduous trees and conifers provide an almost inexhaustible source of wealth. The broad flats of the St Lawrence valley, where the soil is a rich loam, are largely cultivated. The picturesque little villages of the French Canadians with their old-fashioned churches and home¬ steads, the fields of various crops divided by hedges, the QUEBEC 229 luxuriant orchards, the rich pastures where the sleek kine graze—all strongly remind the traveller of the beautiful Norman countryside. Products and Industries.—By far the most im¬ portant industry of this province is the lumber trade, while the making of wood-pulp is the most valuable of the manufactures. Barley, oats, and other cereals are largely cultivated in Quebec, but the production of wheat is limited to a comparatively small area by climatic and other conditions. Good tobacco is grown, and the orchards of the St Lawrence valley produce excellent pears, apples, plums, and other fruits. Here, as in the other eastern provinces, dairy farming and the making of cheese for export are profitable industries. The pastures are rich, and there is a large export of hay to the United States. Gold, iron, copper, and other minerals are found in Quebec, and the mining industry is an ever-increasing one. The fisheries, though not so valuable as those of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, produce nearly half a million sterling yearly. Towns.—Quebec, founded by Champlain in 1608, the ancient capital of New France, is the capital of the Quebec province and the seat of government. It has a population of 70,000. It is most picturesquely situated on a pre¬ cipitous bluff projecting into the St Lawrence, a little above the large and beautiful island of Orleans, where the river begins to broaden out into the estuary. The ancient citadel, which is on the highest part of the ridge, over 330 feet above the sea, portions of the old fortifications, and some of the massive gates, still remain. The upper town and the lower town by the riverside quays are connected by winding, steep streets and flights of steps. Among the fine old stone buildings which are still standing are the Convent of the Ursulines and the Hotel Dieu, founded in 1639. Quebec is the stateliest of sea cities, and its appearance is quite in keeping with the historic and romantic associations of this ancient stronghold. The 230 CANADA quaint deep-eaved old French houses climbing the steep slopes; the churches and convents with their graceful spires cutting the blue sky; and, crowning all, the huge mediaeval-looking citadel, form a noble picture. Here one can well imagine oneself to be in some historic city of old Normandy; one hears French spoken by people of every degree—the police, whose uniform is that of our London police, do not understand one unless they are addressed in French, and the words of command are given in the same language to the men of the militia regiments, whose uniform is that of the British Infantry. Quebec is a seaport of great importance. There is a spacious harbour with docks and tidal basins. Here the ships are loaded with the timber that has been floated down from the forests of the interior. For the export timber trade is the chief industry of the capital, as is made apparent to the visitor by the great rafts of logs that lie moored within the coves, the great stacks of planking, and the saw-mills that line the opposite shore. Montreal, having a population of 300,000—rather over that of Bradford in England—is far the largest city of the Dominion of Canada, and its principal commercial centre. The population is partly of French and partly of British blood. Montreal was founded in 1642, under the name of Ville Marie, by religious enthusiasts from France. It was a centre of Catholic missionary enterprise among the Indians, and is now a great mart, but the religious and learned character given to the town by its pious founders still clings to it; for it is full of noble churches, convents, hospitals, charitable institutions, universities, and colleges, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. This city of stately architecture is beautifully situated on an island at the con¬ fluence of the St Lawrence and its great tributary, the Ottawa; the terraces of grey houses and the many spires having for their background the green slopes of Mount Royal, the hill which has given the town its modern name. Montreal is at the head of the ocean navigation, and massively constructed wharves and basins extend far along the river side. This is the centre of Canada's ever- ONTARIO 231 growing grain export trade, and the huge grain elevators are conspicuous objects on the quays. Montreal is the most important manufacturing town in the Dominion, with distilleries and flour-mills; brass and iron foundries; and manufactures of steam-engines, printing-presses, paper, etc. Montreal and Quebec are the only considerable cities in the province of Quebec. Of the other towns, Hull, Sherbrooke, St Hyacinthe, and Three Rivers are the most important; but the population of none of these much exceeds io,cxx). ONTARIO The province of Ontario extends for a thousand miles from east to west between the provinces of Quebec and Manitoba. The greater part of its southern border is formed by the river St Lawrence, and by Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior. To the north, it stretches beyond the Height of Land to the Albany River and the southernmost shore of Hudson's Bay. It has an area of 222,000 square miles, and is therefore considerably larger than Germany. Ontario is studded with innumerable lakes, and watered by a multitude of rivers that wind among the low, generally well-woodejd hills. The huge bodies of water that border Ontario on the south temper the climate, so that over the greater part of the province neither winter cold or summer heat is so great as in Quebec. The richness of the soil, the more equable climate, the valuable forests, the rich mineral deposits, the facilities of water communication, have combined to make this the wealthiest and most pros¬ perous of Canada's provinces. In 1901, it contained within its boundaries about 2,168,000 white inhabitants—that is, four-tenths of the total white population of the Dominion. Of the population of Ontario about 95 per cent, are of British blood, and of these a considerable proportion are the descendants of the United Empire Loyalists, who having fought on the side of the mother country in the War of Independence, were afterwards persecuted by the 232 CANADA Americans, and therefore crossed the frontier into British territory. They settled in what ultimately proved to be the richest part of the country—the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie on the Ontario Peninsula. After enduring many sufferings and privations, they made a garden of what they had found a wilderness. Scattered over the southern portion of the province are the battlefields on which they fought so well against the American invaders, who devastated their country in the war of 1812-1815. .In Ontario, men are proud to trace their descent from those who sacrificed all to loyalty more than a century and a quarter ago. Thus was founded Upper Canada, now the province of Ontario, still a land of fervent loyalty, than which no part of the Empire is more British in sentiment and appearance. On the Ontario Peninsula everything reminds the Englishman of the home he has left—the sturdy farmers, the fair countryside, the villages. All old-country methods are preserved, even to the details of police and other official uniform. Thus at a review of the Ontario Militia—whose men have fought repeatedly for the Empire from the days of the War of Independence down to the last Boer war— one will see the troops wearing the familiar uniforms of the British army, the scarlet tunics of the infantry of the line, the uniforms of our Highland, Grenadier, Artillery, Hussar, and Dragoon regiments. The British of Ontario are more enterprising than the French Canadians—not only do they populate the more fertile parts of their own province, but they emigrate in considerable numbers to the west, there to found new settlements in the rich wheat- growing country. Products and Industries.—Ontario is pre-eminently an agricultural country. Large tracts in the St Law¬ rence valley and on the Ontario Peninsula have long since been cleared, and here the bulk of the population of the province is settled. The Ontario Peninsula, washed by the waters of Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron, is the most fertile, highly cultivated, and populous region in Old Canada. This part of the country, where not under crops. ONTARIO 233 is an undulating hocage watered by many streams and studded with beautiful lakes, the woodlands being wonder¬ ful to look upon when the foliage glows with the tints of the Indian summer. In this, the " Garden of Canada," the traveller sees, between the belts of woodland, richly cultivated expanses recalling bits of Devon or Kent. Here are great fields of wheat, maize, and other cereals, and the various root crops of Europe; and thousands of large orchards of apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, chest¬ nuts, walnuts, and other fruits; while extensive vineyards cover the gentle slopes. In this favoured climate the tulip tree blossoms, and the wild vines grow luxuriantly in the woods. It is from this region that Great Britain obtains much of its best Canadian fruit, and fruit-canning is an important industry. Tobacco is extensively grown. The pastures are rich, and stock-raising is largely carried on. The cheese factories and creameries produce butter and cheese to the value of several millions of pounds yearly. To the north of the Great Lakes, where the climate is too rigorous for the successful cultivation of wheat, immense crops of oats, barley, and other hardy cereals are pro¬ duced. In Ontario, the lumber industry comes next in import¬ ance to agriculture. The forests still cover a great area. Here are found the valuable cabinet woods ; but the pines are the principal source of wealth, while the spruce forests of the northern part of the province provide an inexhaust¬ ible supply of wood for the pulp-mills. About four million great logs are annually floated down the Ottawa River alone. The great mineral resources of Ontario have so far been but slightly developed. The nickel deposits near Sudbury are the richest in the world, with the possible exception of those in New Caledonia. Iron, copper, gold, and other minerals are also abundant. Of the lake and river fisheries mention has already been made. The various manufacturing industries which have been introduced into Canada are largely carried on in Ontario, 234 CANADA but of these far the most valuable are the saw-mills and the flour and grist-mills. Towns. — Toronto, the second largest city of the Dominion, the capital of Ontario, and the seat of the Provincial Government, has a population of about 210,000. Fort Rouill6 stood here when France owned Canada. In I793> under the name of York, it became the capital of Upper Canada, and in 1834 it was given its present name. Toronto is situated on a sheltered bay on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. It is the centre of a railway system that gives it easy communication with all parts of Canada and the United States; while its commodious and deep harbour is largely used by the steamers that trade on the St Lawrence and the Great Lakes. It is the centre of a rich agricultural district, and is the chief commercial city of the province. Ship-building, iron foundries, dis¬ tilleries, agricultural implement manufactories, are among its principal industries. Toronto is the heart of English- speaking Canada, and is as British and Protestant as Quebec is French and Catholic. It was twice sacked by the Americans in the war of 1812-1815, and the old fort, which was so well defended by the Canadians under General Pike in 1813, is still standing. It is a city of fine broad streets with a majestic Civic Hall and other stately public buildings. The noble and extensive University Buildings are of Norman architecture, and are set in the midst of groves and spacious lawns and gardens. Here an Englishman could well imagine himself to be in one of our ancient University towns. Ottawa.—When the Rideau Canal was constructed for strategical purposes in 1827, the little town of Bytown sprang up at the point where the canal enters the Ottawa River. When Upper and Lower Canada were united under one government, there was a rivalry between the various large cities as to which should be made the capital of the new Dominion. The matter was referred to Queen Victoria, who in 1858 selected this insignificant little place. The site was a beautiful one, and Bytown not only had the ONTARIO 235 advantage of a central position, but was sufficiently far removed from the United States border. Bytown, under its new name of Ottawa, has since become the capital of the great federation of Provinces stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific — that is, practically half of the entire British Colonial Empire—and is the seat of the Dominion Government and the residence of the Governor- General. Ottawa is still relatively a small town, having a population of only 60,000; but few capitals have a more stately appearance. The city, which stands on high ground, extends along the right bank of the majestic Ottawa River at about 90 miles above its junction with the St Lawrence. It is a city of cascades, and here the sound of falling water is nearly always in one's ears. For at the lower end of the town the Rideau River falls into the Ottawa in a curtain-like cascade, while opposite the upper end of the town, the Ottawa itself, at this point contracted in breadth, falls from a height of 50 feet over the Chaudiere Falls. Unlike old Quebec and Montreal, Ottawa has sprung up within the last half century; but its aspect con¬ veys no impression of mushroom growth to one who wanders through its fine streets and gazes on its splendid public buildings. The traveller in Canada is struck by the chaste beauty and dignity of form, well adapted to the climate and natural features of the country, displayed by much of the civic architecture. There is nothing in all America to approach in stately beauty the Dominion Parliament and Government Buildings at Ottawa. They crown a bluff 160 feet in height that overlooks the broad and rushing Ottawa. This grand pile, as seen from the river, presents a most imposing appearance, with its graceful Gothic turrets and buttresses towering above the masses of dark green foliage. The sandstone of which it is built has already been toned by climate to the pleasing mellow tints of age. Ottawa's principal industry is the lumber trade, and here everything around one speaks of the mighty forests of the Ottawa valley. Above the Chaudiere Falls, the great log rafts that have come down the river are broken up, and 236 CANADA the lumber is shot down the side of the rapids through the artificial timber slides or water-leads; the cribs, or log rafts, being just broad enough to pass through the slides. On the river one sees immense numbers of logs collected within the moored booms. On the shore itself are mountains of piled planking. The Chaudiere Falls supply inexhaustible water-power to the innumerable saw-mills and to various factories. The Province of Ontario contains among other im¬ portant centres:—Hamilton, on Lake Ontario, the " Birmingham of Canada," with a population of 53,0(X). The neighbouring De Cew Falls are utilised for the generation of electricity, which supplies power to the steel and other factories. London, population 38,000, the centre of one of the richest agricultural districts of the Ontario Peninsula. London is on a river Thames and in a county of Middlesex; walking through it one finds all the streets, bridges, and public institutions named after those of the English London: thus, there are Oxford Street, Piccadilly, Cheapside, Blackfriars Bridge, and a Covent Garden Market, in which one realises how varied is the produce of the "Garden of Canada." Kingston, popula¬ tion 18,000, a thriving port and trading centre, most picturesquely situated on the shore of the St Lawrence at the point where that river issues from Lake Ontario, with ancient fortifications facing the opposite American shore. Commanding the Rideau Canal, it is a place of considerable strategical importance. On the site of Kingston stood the old French Fort Frontenac, which was destroyed by the English in 1758. The United Empire Loyalists founded Kingston in 1783. The Royal Military College of the Dominion has been fittingly established in this centre of ancient loyalty, which for nearly two centuries and a half has figured prominently in the romantic history of Canada. NOVA SCOTIA The province of Nova Scotia is composed of a large peninsula on the south side of the Gulf of St Lawrence; NOVA SCOTIA 237 together with Cape Breton Island. The peninsula forms a triangle whose longest side faces the Atlantic, the apex being the narrow isthmus—about 14 miles in breadth— which connects Nova Scotia with New Brunswick. Cape Breton Island is separated from the peninsula by the Gut of Canso, a strait i mile in breadth. The province, having an area of about 21,000 square miles, is rather more than two-thirds the size of Ireland. Nova Scotia, favoured by its oceanic climate, and possessing a fertile soil, fine forests, valuable fishing grounds, and splendid harbours, was an attractive land to the early European adventurers; and, as has already been explained, English and French settlers contested its posses¬ sion during the greater part of the century and a half pre¬ ceding its ultimate abandonment by France in 1763- Both English and French monarchs, after the fashion of those days, wholly ignoring each other's claims, assigned this territory to their favourites. Thus, in 1604, De Monts and his fellow-adventurers, to whom the French king had granted a monopoly, founded the first settlement in Acadia—an Indian name signifying "a place of abund¬ ance," and were shortly afterwards driven out by the English settlers in Virginia. Then, in 1621, Sir William Alexander, having obtained a grant of the same territory by charter from James I., changed its name from Acadia to Nova Scotia, and attempted to people it with Scots, but was thwarted by the attacks of the French. And so Acadia, or Nova Scotia, was ever being conquered and reconquered, ceded and receded by treaty; the British and French settlers in turn occupying it, and in turn being expelled from it. The name Acadia had no exact definition, and was at last made to include not only Nova Scotia but New Brunswick, and a considerable portion of Maine. In 1901, the population of Nova Scotia numbered 460,000, that is, nearly 22 to the square mile; it being the most densely populated province of the Dominion, with the exception of Prince Edward Island. Here, as in Ontario, a considerable section of the inhabitants are descended from the United Empire Loyalists. The Scotch, 238 CANADA who predominate in Cape Breton Island, compose a third of the population of the province. The English slightly outnumber them. About one-tenth of the inhabitants are of French origin. The greater part of this province is undulating and well wooded, and contains some exceedingly fertile uplands, plains, and valleys. Ranges, which are gener¬ ally parallel to the coast, and seldom attain a height of over looo feet, traverse Nova Scotia; the highest summit, 1500 feet, being in the north of Cape Breton Island. The entire province is studded with beautiful lakes teeming with fish, and of the numerous rivers most are navigable for several miles. The coasts are indented with a multi¬ tude of inlets, several of them forming excellent harbours which can accommodate the largest vessels. The extensive Basin of Minas, an arm of the great Bay of Fundy, penetrates the heart of the peninsula, while the spacious arm of the sea called the Bras D'Or occupies the centre of Cape Breton Island. The tides at the head of the Bay of Fundy are among the highest in the world, and the rushing flood forms bores in the river months. Surrounded by water, and being within the influence of the warm winds from the Gulf Stream, Nova Scotia enjoys a more temperate climate than that of the greater part of Canada, and has a much higher mean winter temperature than any province of the Dominion with the exception of British Columbia. Dense fogs, caused by the cold current from the north which flows inside the Gulf Stream, occa¬ sionally cover the Atlantic coast of the province. I Products and Industries. — Though the damp¬ ness of the Nova Scotia climate is unfavourable for the cultivation of wheat, other crops thrive on the rich soil, and the pastures are excellent. The principal crops are hay, oats, potatoes, and barley. The climate and soil favour the production of fruits, including peaches, plums, pears, strawberries, and gooseberries. The Nova Scotia apples, of which many hundreds of thousands of barrels are exported annually to the United Kingdom, cannot be NOVA SCOTIA 239 surpassed. Cheese and butter making for export are important industries. On the sheltered shores of the Bay of Fundy and the Basin of Minas, are found the richest agricultural districts of the province. Here the soil is very fertile, and the climate is made genial by the prevailing south winds that blow up the funnel of the Gulf of Fundy. The Annapolis valley is the garden of ancient Acadia, a lovely land of great orchards, corn-fields, vines, and lush flowery pastures. Here the French first settled, and the quiet little township of Annapolis now stands where was Port Royal, the fortress and capital of the French. On the shore of the Gulf of Minas, the red sandstone soil has been made extraordinarily fertile by the encroaching sea. It is this rich and beautiful region that the poet Longfellow describes in Evangeline. At the time of its discovery. Nova Scotia was densely covered with magnificent timber — pines, oaks, maples, hemlocks, and other North American trees. Fine forests still cover a considerable portion of the country, and there is a large lumber industry, and an export of timber and wood-pulp. The fisheries of Nova Scotia, mainly on the east coast, are far more valuable than those of any other province of the Dominion, the yearly yield being worth over a million and a half sterling. A large fleet of fishing vessels is maintained. Cod, halibut, haddock, salmon, lobsters, herring, and a great variety of other fish swarm off this coast. Lobsters are canned for exportation to every part of the world. The great mineral wealth of Nova Scotia is being more fully exploited than that of any other province of the Dominion—with the possible exception of British Columbia. Over 42 per cent, of the miners of the Dominion find employment in this province. Some of the greatest coal¬ fields in the world are in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, and these are often in close proximity to extensive iron deposits, making possible the establishment of profitable smelting and steel works. Since the discovery of the Nova 240 CANADA Scotia gold belt in 1862, there has been a steady output of this metal, amounting in some years to over one and a quarter million pounds sterling. Towns.—Of the ancient French centres in Acadia, Port Royal, as we have seen, has disappeared, and Louis- burg, the important stronghold of the French on Cape Breton, was razed to the ground by the English in 1763, a few grass-grown mounds by the sea alone remaining to show where were its former fortifications. Under the British rule new towns have grown up. Halifax (popula¬ tion 41,000) is the capital and port of entry. It was founded and strongly fortified by the British in 1749, to defend the north-easterly frontier of our colonies against the French, who at that time held Cape Breton. It was the British base during the war with the revolting Americans, and since then its fortifications, crowned by the massive citadel, have been gradually reconstructed and added to, until it has become one of the strongest of the world's fortresses. It has already been explained that Halifax is the naval and military headquarters of Great Britain in North America, containing a Navy Yard of the first class. Great Britain maintained a garrison here until 1905, but the fortress is now garrisoned by Canadian troops. Halifax was rightly selected as the centre of British power on the Atlantic coast. Situated as it is on the east side of the peninsula, it is much the nearest to England of all important American ports, and the proximity of the Gulf Stream keeps the harbour open throughout the winter when the St Lawrence is closed by ice. The spacious harbour is formed by a deep inlet of the sea, and is defended by several forts and batteries. The town is on the west side of the inlet, on the slopes of the hill which the citadel crowns. The houses in many of the streets are con¬ structed of wood, and the place has a picturesque old- world look, reminding one of some of the ancient seaports in England. The other towns of Nova Scotia are small, but Sydney, the chief town and harbour of Cape Breton Island, is NEW BRUNSWICK 241 becoming an important place in consequence of the establishment here of large iron and steel works. NEW BRUNSWICK New Brunswick, having an area of over 28,000 square miles, is almost as large as Ireland. It is connected with Nova Scotia by the Isthmus of Chignecto, and has an extensive coast-line, deeply indented, and providing numerous good harbours, both on the Atlantic and the Bay of Fundy. On the north it is bounded by Quebec, on the west by the state of Maine. The ancient Acadia of the French was composed of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and a large portion of what is now Maine. This latter portion has been lost to Canada, for it was given to the United States by the Ashburton Treaty of 1842, and now Maine projects like a wedge northwards into Canada, almost cutting off New Brunswick from the rest of the Dominion. New Brunswick has a population of about 331,000, a large proportion of the inhabitants being descendants of the Scotch who settled here after England's conquest of the country, and of the United Empire Loyalists, to whom lands were granted in this province after the American War of Independence. About one-fifth of the inhabitants are the French-speaking descendants of the Acadian farmers. The ocean winds give New Brunswick a climate similar to that of Nova Scotia, but the winters are colder. Like Nova Scotia, this is a beautiful country of hills, forests, fertile valleys, lakes, and rivers. Branches of the Appal- lachian range, with summits between 2000 and ^000 feet in height, traverse the province. The principal river is the St John, 450 miles in length, which passes through beautiful scenery. It is connected with numerous lakes, and for a great portion of its course has a breadth of several miles. The St John, the Restigouche, and several other rivers are navigable for many miles even to large vessels, and serve to float down the lumber from the forests. Q 242 CANADA Products and Industries.—In this province the forests and the ocean are the chief sources of wealth, the lumber trade and the fisheries being very extensive. The agricultural products are the same as those of Nova Scotia ; and here, too, the great orchards produce magnificent fruit Various minerals are found, but the mining industry is not a considerable one. Among the principal manufactur¬ ing industries are cotton-mills and pulp-mills, vast spruce forests supplying the wood for the latter. Towns.—The capital of New Brunswick is the little town of Predericton (population 8000), situated on the St John River, 85 miles from its mouth. It is the centre of the lumber industry and a considerable port, the river being navigable up to this point for ocean-going steamers; while vessels of light draught can ascend the St John, 65 miles further, to Woodstock. St John, at the mouth of the St John River—population 41,000—is the largest city of the province, the commercial centre, and the chief winter port of the Dominion, securing the bulk of the ocean trade when the St Lawrence ports are closed by ice. St John is one of the most picturesque towns in Canada. Its streets of red brick houses climb the slopes of a high peninsula, which curves round the spacious harbour. French, and, after Great Britain's conquest of the country, Scottish emigrants were settled on the shores of this bay, and in 1783 the United Empire Loyalists founded the present city, giving it the name of Parr Town. The construction of great wharves and other harbour works has provided accommodation for the ever-increasing ocean trade. St John is the centre of the manufacturing and fishing industries of the province. The broad St John River, as it enters the harbour, is contracted within a narrow gorge, and here the great tide of the Bay of Fundy produces the curious effect which has been called the " reversible cascade." While the tide is ebbing, the river pours out of the gorge into the bay in a steep cascade, but this is reversed when the tide is flowing, for then the water piled up by the sudden narrowing of the channel forms a PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 243 bore, and tumbles in a cascade up the river instead of down it. The result is, that vessels can only pass through the gorge during the short interval at each tide when the waters are level. Moncton (population 9000) is a manufacturing town, and the centre of the Intercolonial Railway system. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND Prince Edward Island is an island in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and is separated from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia by Northumberland Strait. It is 130 miles in length, and narrow. It has an area of 2200 square miles, and is, therefore, rather larger than the English county of Yorkshire. The French, who named the island St Jean, claimed the ownership of it from the time of Champlain; but it was not settled until after 1713, when Acadian farmers, abandoning Nova Scotia, which had been ceded to England by the Treaty of Utrecht, crossed in large numbers to the neighbouring island. Captured by England, restored to France, then captured again during the Seven Years' War, it was ceded to Great Britain, with the other French possessions in America, by the Treaty of Peace of 1763. Many United Empire Loyalists settled here. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Earl of Selkirk colonised the island with Scottish families from his own and neighbouring estates. It first formed a part of Nova Scotia, was made a separate province in 1769, and did not join the Dominion until 1873. The population of Prince Edward Island was over 103,000 in 1901. It is the most densely populated province of the Dominion, having nearly 48 inhabitants to the square mile. Westmoreland, the most thinly inhabited by far of the English counties, has a popula¬ tion of over 81 to the square mile. Prince Edward Island has a deeply indented coast, and the two extensive inlets, named Richmond Bay and Hillsborough Bay, almost cut the island into three 244 CANADA portions. It is an undulating, well-wooded country, and is watered by a number of rivers, the scenery being very pleasing. The island was once covered with forest; but more than half the land has now been cleared. The climate is similar to that of New Brunswick. Products and Industries. — The red loam soil of Prince Edward Island is exceedingly fertile, so that agriculture is far the most important industry, affording occupation to the large majority of the inhabitants, the products being the same as those in the other maritime provinces. The pastures are rich, and large numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep are reared for exportation to various parts of North America. Creameries and cheese factories are worked by the farmers on a co-operative system. The sea fishery is a considerable one, but is not nearly so valuable as that of the neighbouring provinces. Towns.—Charlotte Town (population 12,000), on the shores of Hillsborough Bay, is the capital of the province. The harbour is a good one. The town contains ship¬ building yards and numerous factories. MANITOBA From the woodland region which contains the older colonies, the great prairies extend westward to the foot¬ hills of the Rocky Mountains. Large cities had grown up in the east before there was the smallest European settle¬ ment on these plains. For the powerful Hudson's Bay Company owned this territory, and kept it as a great fur preserve, naturally holding out no encouragement to colonisation. Charles 11, had given Prince Rupert and the other founders of the Company trading and territorial rights over all the region that drains into Hudson's Bay. Later on, the Company's trading posts were to be found far beyond these limits, in fact over the whole of what is now the Dominion of Canada, outside the old provinces. The Company held a complete monopoly of the fur trade, and MANITOBA 245 though its rule checked the settlement of Europeans, it was to the advantage of the aboriginal people. The hunting grounds were left to the Indians and to the wild beasts. The Indians knew nothing of British or Canadian Government; to them this paternal Company that gave them guns, ammunition, and all manner of excellent goods, in exchange for the furs which they brought to the Company's stations, represented the greatest power on earth. When France in 1763 ceded her North American possessions to England, the Hudson's Bay Company had no longer to fear the raids of the French Canadians, who, whenever France was at war with England, had formed expeditions to destroy the Company's posts. But now the formation of a new company of fur traders, called the North-West Company, brought strife and bloodshed to the "Great Lone Land." The agents of this Company trespassed beyond the limits of Canada into the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company. The employes of the Hudson's Bay Company were mostly Scotsmen, those of the new Company were French Canadians; so religious and racial enmity embittered the rivalry, and soon the two companies, with the assistance of the Indians and half- breeds, were engaged in an irregular' war, and burnt down each other's establishments. Moreover, as the result of this fierce rivalry between the fur traders, the Indian fur hunters were being destroyed by the spirits with which the agents now commenced to tempt them, and the wild animals were being exterminated by the reckless slaughter of them at the breeding season. Happily the Hudson's Bay Company absorbed its rival in 1821, and the proper control of the trade was reintroduced. In the meanwhile, the first step had been taken to colonise the prairie region. The Earl of Selkirk, in 1812, having obtained a grant of land from the Hudson's Bay Company, formed a settlement of Scottish Highlanders on the banks of the Red River. The destruction of his fort by the half-breed agents of the North-West Company was one of the events which forced on the absorption of that 246 CANADA Company by the older association. In 1835, the Earl of Selkirk's Red River Concession was resold to the Hudson's Bay Company, which then established its headquarters at Fort Garry, on ground where now stands the city of Winnipeg. The Company gave a measure of self-govern¬ ment to the Red River Settlement, where there was a mixed population of Scottish Highlanders, French Canadians, and half-breeds. Of the half-breeds, the MHis or Bois BruUs^ the descendants of the old French coureurs de bois by their Indian wives, were the most numerous. The M^tis were engaged in fur hunting, and cultivated their land but little; whereas the Scots were good farmers, and laid the foundations of the great agricultural prosperity of Manitoba. In 1859, the Hudson's Bay Company's license expired and was not renewed. The Company thus lost the monopoly of the fur trade, but it possessed its vast territories, its splendid organisation, its prestige among the Indians who supplied it with furs; and it is still the great fur-trading Company of the north. It came to be realised that the ancient preserves of the fur traders held great agricultural possibilities, that the tides of immigration and civilisation could not long be stemmed, that fields of wheat were to extend over the wastes where the Indian had hunted the countless buffalo. The Hudson's Bay Company recognised the inevitable, and having obtained good terms, surrendered its territorial rights in 1869. This vast region, under the title of the North-West Territories, became a portion of the Dominion of Canada, the Company reserving the ownership of one- twentieth of the land. The inhabitants of the Red River Settlement, both British and French, having hitherto had the control of their own affairs, considered that their views should have been consulted, and resented the hasty taking over of their country by the Dominion Government. In 1870, the ignorant M^tis, thinking that their lands would be seized by the Government, rose under the leadership of the half-breed Riel and occupied Fort Garry, but dis¬ persed on the arrival of the military expedition under MANITOBA 247 Lord Wolseley. The Dominion Government then created a new province out of the Red River Settlement, and named it Manitoba. It was given responsible government and representation in the Dominion parliament. The M6tis, being mainly fur hunters, found the conditions of life difficult amid a growing civilisation in a land where wild animals were becoming scarce. So, being restless and dissatisfied, they rose again [under Riel in 1885, and were joined by the Cree Indians. There was some severe fighting; but the insurrection was soon put down by the Canadian troops, who displayed excellent qualities in this campaign. The province of Manitoba is almost in the centre of the North American Continent. Its boundaries are con¬ ventional ; latitude 49° N.—the United States frontier— and latitude 53° N. form its southern and northern borders, while meridians of longitude divide it from the provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan. It has an area of 73,000 square miles, and is, therefore, about eight-tenths the size of the island of Great Britain. About a seventh part of the country is covered by lakes, of which the three largest are Lake Winnipeg, whose surface considerably exceeds that of Wales, and Lakes Winnipegosis and Manitoba. The whole province drains into Lake Winni¬ peg, whose waters are discharged into Hudson's Bay through the Nelson and Churchill rivers. The chief rivers of the province are the Red River, the Assiniboine, and the Winnipeg, all flowing into Lake Winnipeg, and each being navigable for several hundred miles. Manitoba is a land of prairies, in some parts undulating, in others quite level, with occasional forest belts. Its lowest plains are about 700 feet above the sea. The soil is a black loam, a deep vegetable mould that was deposited by the receding waters of the inland sea that once covered this region. The soil is extremely fertile, more especially on the lake shores, where the wild grass grows to a great height. The lakes are still subsiding, and are said to have shrunk considerably within the memory of man. The climate, which is healthy and bracing, is a continental 248 CANADA one, with a great range of temperature, hot summers, and cold winters, and a small rainfall. The lakes and rivers facilitate communication, and the country is traversed by the main line of the Canadian Pacific and by other rail¬ ways. To this rich region, tempted by the liberal grants of land that are made to settlers, a large immigration is flow¬ ing in. By the census of 1901, the population numbered over 255,000, having nearly doubled in a decade, and being more than twenty times larger than it was in 1870, when Manitoba became a province of the Dominion; by 1906 it had increased to 360,000. Seventy per cent, of the inhabitants are Canadians, while the immigrants who were born in the British Isles about equal in number those who came from the United States, Austria, Scandi¬ navia, and other foreign countries. Products and Industries.—Manitoba has been called the " Granary of the Empire." On this rich soil wheat of the finest quality is produced in abundance, and no manure is needed. Not long since all this region was true prairie, deep in grass and flowers, the hunting grounds of the Indians, where big game roamed in plenty. But now the traveller on the Canadian Pacific Railway or Canadian Northern Railway gazes over leagues of wheat, and on a countryside dotted with comfortable homesteads and bright-looking little towns with their flour-mills and tall grain-elevators. All speaks of a rich land and a prosperous people. If it be harvest time, the traveller will see in the fields the huge thrashing-machines, burning wheat straw for fuel, which rapidly thrash, winnow, and clean the wheat, throwing the chaff and straw far from them in great fountains, and dropping the golden grain ready for market into the sacks beneath. For about ten weeks each year hundreds of great trucks loaded with wheat daily travel down the Canadian Pacific Railway to the coast. The production of wheat in Manitoba became ever larger as more land was brought under cultivation, the MANITOBA 249 crop increasing from six millions of bushels in 1886 to fifty-six millions in 1905. It is estimated that in Manitoba and the two new provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta there are 200,000,000 acres of land fit for cultivation, of which only 6,000,000 acres were in use in 1905. There is room in the North-West for millions of immigrants. Wheat is but one of the important crops in Manitoba. In amount it is almost equalled by the oat crop, while great quantities of barley, flax, rye, pease, and potatoes are produced. The occupied land, where not cultivated, is devoted to cattle breeding and the supply of dairy products; for the luxuriantly growing prairie grasses provide the richest of pastures, and excellent hay is made. There are no coal measures between New Brunswick and Manitoba, but they are found in this province and in all the provinces to the west of it. Towns.—No new country has sprung up with a more astonishing rapidity than Manitoba. On what was the lonely prairie so short a time ago, now stand towns of handsome stone buildings with tramways, electric lighting, mills, and factories. Winnipeg, the capital of the province, is situated at the " Forks " of the Red River and Assini- boine, where these two rivers meet, to flow in a joint stream to Lake Winnipeg. Thus three fine waterways navigable for steamers lead from the city to the north, south, and west. At this point, in 1735, the adventurous Frenchman, La Verendrye, built Fort Rouge. Later, the agents of the North-West Company established a trading fort here. This fort in its turn disappeared, and the Earl of Selkirk's Fort Douglas took its place. Then rose the Fort Garry of the Hudson's Bay Company. And finally, in 1870, the town of Winnipeg began to spread over "the Forks," and was made the capital of the newly created province. The prairie city has grown up in the most rapid fashion, and its population, 100,000 in 1906, is increasing by leaps and bounds. It is on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and a number of branch lines radiate from it. It is an important centre, too, of steam naviga- 250 CANADA tion. It has broad streets and handsome public buildings. It is still the chief post of the Hudson's Bay Company. Numerous, now small, but growing towns have sprung up in the province, of which Portage La Prairie and Brandon, market-towns and centres of the grain industry, are the most important. SASKATCHEWAN In 1905, the Dominion Government organised a portion of the North-West Territories into the two new provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. They comprise the former districts of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Athabasca, and x^lberta. Saskatchewan and Alberta, therefore, now fill up the gap between Manitoba and British Columbia, and a connected line of self-ruling provinces extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These two provinces and British Columbia have the parallels of latitude 49° N. and 60° N. as their southern and northern boundaries. Saskatchewan and Alberta are of about the same size, and together they have an area of roughly 500,000 square miles—over four times that of the British Isles. A great portion of Saskatchewan is prairie land with deep, fertile, alluvial soil, admirably suited to agriculture. In the south are rolling plains, often treeless, and in the north the great Subarctic Forest traverses this and the sister province. Saskatchewan is studded with lakes, and is traversed by many great streams—the two branches of the Saskatchewan River, which are navigable for steamers for 1200 miles; the Churchill River; the Stone River; the Qu'appelle ; and others, all navigable for long distances. It has been explained that the central plain slopes gradually upward from the Lake Winnipeg basin to the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains. The elevation of Saskatchewan, therefore, while greater than that of Manitoba, is less than that of Alberta. The rich plains round Regina are 1800 feet above the sea. The great resources of Saskatchewan, like those of Alberta, have yet to be developed. The mineral wealth ALBERTA 251 is unexploited, and though magnificent wheat and other crops are raised, and quantities of cattle are bred, it is but a small fraction of this rich land that is yet used. But farmers are pouring in from Canada, the United States, and Europe to take up the land. A few years ago the population of Saskatchewan and Alberta numbered but a few hundreds, but by 1901 it had increased to 150,000, and by 1906 to nearly 500,000. The two provinces are now rapidly advancing to a great prosperity, and their development will be much facilitated by the ample means of communication by land and water. The main line of the Canadian Pacific traverses both provinces, and its branches bring the rich agricultural districts within reach of markets for their produce. The Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern Railway will also greatly help to open up the country. The capital of Saskatchewan is Regina, an insignificant-looking prairie township, which had a population of under 3000 in 1901. It is also the capital of the North-West provinces, and the headquarters of the North-West Mounted Police, a fine corps of 600 men, who protect a territory as large as all Europe outside Russia, and maintain order among the heterogeneous gold- seekers, half-breed trappers, and wild Indian tribes, from the mining camps of Yukon to the shores of Hudson's Bay. ALBERTA Alberta, like Saskatchewan, is watered by some of the finest rivers of North America, which, with their tributaries, are navigated by steamers for many hundreds of miles. The Athabasca and Peace rivers, the two principal tribu¬ taries of the mighty Mackenzie, traverse the northern part of the province on their way to the Arctic Ocean; while the Saskatchewan with its many tributaries flows through the southern part. From the east of the province the land slopes gradually upwards to the foot-hills of the Rockies, where the great cattle-ranching plains have an elevation of from 3000 to 252 CANADA 4000 feet above the sea. The prairies from which the vast herds of buffalo have disappeared—leaving behind them their scattered bones, the scars of their trails, and the pits made by their "wallows," which are still to be seen all over their ancient domain—are now beginning to wave with corn, and afford grazing to some of the largest herds and flocks in the world. Magnificent crops are raised on the deep fertile loam of Alberta. Wheat thrives up to the northernmost part of the province, and the best wheat-growing district is on the Peace River, on the latitude of the north of Scotland. Fine forests cover much of the province, and lumber in large quantities is floated down the rivers. It has been explained that the coldest winters are found in the central part of Canada. In the North-West Territories, the winter temperature becomes higher as one approaches the Rocky Mountains, and the influence of the mild Pacific winds makes itself felt. The climate of Alberta is, therefore, a relatively mild one, and whereas the mean winter temperature is 0.8 F. at Winnipeg, it is as high as 14.4 at Calgary, which is practically on the same latitude. The southern portion of Alberta, as well as the south-west corner of Saskatchewan, are also under the influence of the hot southerly winds which, coming from the. Gulf of Mexico, have lost their nioisture while crossing the great American desert. Here, therefore, the climate is a dry one and vegetation is scanty. The soil of this arid region, however, is very fertile, and produces excellent crops under the irrigation which is now being extensively introduced. The wild grasses do not grow so luxuriantly on the open prairies of the south as they do two or three degrees to the north of the United States frontier, where the dry south winds have spent themselves and the wooded country begins. Favoured by mild winters, rich alluvial soil, and luxuriant pastures, a large portion of Alberta has become one of the greatest ranching grounds in the world, where blizzards are unknown, and the stock can be safely left in the open throughout the winter. Among the foot-hills of BRITISH COLUIVIBIA 253 the Rockies, the traveller will now come across immense herds of horses grazing in the valleys, and cattle and sheep in their tens of thousands on the green terraces through which the rivers wind. t Gold and other minerals are found in Alberta, and the slopes of the Rockies contain much undeveloped wealth. There are widely spread and practically inexhaustible deposits of coal, and anthracite of the highest grade is found in abundance. There are great collieries at Can- more, Anthracite, and other places, while numerous small mines scattered over the country supply coal fuel to the settlers. The coal in this, as in the neighbouring pro¬ vinces, is sometimes found in close proximity to rich iron deposits; so important manufacturing centres are likely to spring up in time on what are now but very thinly popu¬ lated wilds. The capital of the province is Edmonton, a little town on the Saskatchewan, an old trading fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, which is growing in importance as an agricultural centre. The largest and most important place in the province is Calgary, which has a population of only 6000. It is finely situated on a grassy plateau, surrounded by low hills, with the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies in sight. The Bow River winds by it, and floats down much lumber from the forests higher up. Calgary is on the Canadian Pacific line, and from it branch-lines run north¬ wards to Edmonton, and southwards to Macleod, opening rich regions to settlers. Calgary is the centre of a great ranching country, and supplies the mining districts in the Rockies to the west of it. It is an important post of the Hudson's Bay Company. BRITISH COLUMBIA The province of British Columbia comprises a large territory on the Pacific coast, together with Vancouver Island, the Charlotte Islands, and numerous smaller islands. The province is almost as large as France and Spain together, having a total area of over 383,000 square 254 CANADA miles. Vancouver Island is nearly half the size of Ireland. The 6oth and 49th parallels of north latitude form the northern and southern limits of the mainland portion of the province. The Rocky Mountains and the 120th meridian of west longitude form its eastern boundaries; the Pacific Ocean and the Alaska coast-strip, its western. The Spanish navigator, Juan da Fuca, discovered Vancouver Island in 1592. Cook explored the coast in 1778, and some years later Vancouver surveyed it for the British Government. In the meanwhile daring fur- traders, having traversed the continent, were exploring the Far West. Among these was the adventurous Fraser, who followed the river that now bears his name to the Pacific coast. The settlement of Vancouver commenced in 1843, when the Hudson's Bay Company established a post there. In 1849 the island was proclaimed a colony. In 1846, after a good deal of haggling that nearly led to war between the two countries, it was settled that the parallel of latitude 49° N. should be the dividing line between British and United States territory on the western as well as on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. About ten years later rich deposits of gold were found on the British side of the border in the territory then known as New Caledonia. There was a rush of miners of all nationalities to the country; and Great Britain in 1858 introduced law and order to this heterogeneous community, and proclaimed the territory a Crown Colony under the name of British Columbia. In 1866 this colony was united with Vancouver Island, and in 1871 it was incorporated into the Dominion as a province. Save in its north-east corner, where it stretches to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia is a crumpled mass of mountains, being covered with the numerous ranges of the Cordillera system, the main features of which have already been described. It is a land of high summits capped with eternal snows. BRITISH COLUMBIA 255 magnificent canons cleaving the ranges as with a giant knife, glaciers as large as those of Switzerland, broad and beautiful valleys, and a mountainous coast deeply cloven by grand fiords and bordered by islands. Of the forests, with their gigantic pines and cedars, mention has been made. No region in the world presents more splendid scenery of mountain, forest, and coast. Mild ocean breezes sweep over the land, the warm Japan current flows along the coast, and British Columbia enjoys a more equable climate than any other province of the Dominion. The climate of Vancouver resembles that of the south of England; but the summers are hotter and less humid; the average mean temperature for January is 40° R, the same as that in the Isle of Wight. In so large a territory there are of course considerable differences of climate. To the northward the mean temperature decreases and the rainfall increases. As one proceeds eastward, the oceanic climate of the coast gradually merges into a continental one, the winters becoming colder, the summers hotter, the rainfall less. In the Eraser valley the annual rainfall diminishes from 67 inches on the coast to less than 12 inches at a point 200 miles inland. The greater part of the province is densely covered with forest, but it is only on the humid coast-belt that are found the forests of giant trees, some of which have a height of 300 feet and a girth of 60 feet. Vegetation of all description is marvellously luxuriant on the Pacific shore. On the eastern slopes of the inland ranges the forests are thinner, and extensive grassy plateaus are met with amid the mountains. Whereas on some parts of the north coast it rains so much (the annual rainfall amounting to 100 inches) that cereals will not ripen and agriculture is impossible, there are tracts in the interior where crops can only be raised by employ¬ ing irrigation. In the south interior the annual rainfall is but a little over 6 inches. The excessive rainfall on some parts of the coast is due to the high mountains which intercept the moisture-laden ocean winds, and, by 256 CANADA forcing them upwards into colder strata, cause their con¬ densation into rain. British Columbia is but thinly populated. According to the last census (1901), there were under 134,000 Europeans in this vast territory. There are several thousands of Chinese and Japanese in the province, and the Indians, of whom there are over 25,000, are more numerous than in any other province of the Dominion. Products and Industries.—Mining is the most important industry in this province, which owes its origin to the rush of diggers to the auriferous bed of the Eraser River. Here, as on other gold-fields of the world, the surface digging and washing by private individuals was gradually replaced by the more systematic mining carried on by joint-stock companies. The Chinese alone by their untiring industry still earn a livelihood by washing gold after the old primitive system on the Eraser River; but the Europeans extract the gold from the river bed with hydraulic monitors and dredgers, and deep shafts have been sunk in the alluvial deposits. Of far more import¬ ance, however, than this "placer" mining is the "lode" mining on the gold-bearing quartz reefs in various mountain districts, from which the bulk of the output of gold is derived. Silver, iron, and copper are also found in abundance. There are large and productive coal-fields on the mainland, and in Vancouver there are immense deposits of the best bituminous coal. Coal¬ mining is extensively carried on, and the output is ever increasing. The ocean fisheries of British Columbia, including the fur-seal fishery, engage large numbers of boats and men, and are exceedingly profitable ; but of far greater import¬ ance are the river fisheries of the province. The rivers of British Columbia, often rushing down stupendous, canons, are too rapid to be of much service as waterways, but they are in other respects great sources of wealth. We have seen that the largest river of the province, the Eraser, is rich in gold. It is also richer than any river in the world BRITISH COLUMBIA 257 in salmon of great size, which enter the river in extra¬ ordinary numbers in the summer. Quite 2000 boats are then engaged in netting them at the mouth of the river. This important industry is not confined to the Fraser, for on other streams also the salmon swarm. A large number of canneries prepare the tins of salmon, which are exported from here in their tens of millions to every part of the world. The forests of stately Douglas spruce, giant cedars, various species of pine and other trees, that extend to the edge of the sea and still closely hem in many of the towns, supply the material for a valuable lumber industry, and there is a large export of timber. Farming and ranching are pursued principally in the broader valleys. On the coast, peaches, plums, apples, cherries, and other fruits are cultivated. Towns.—^Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is at the south-east corner of the island of Vancouver, over¬ looking the Strait of Juan da Fuca and the Gulf of Georgia, which separate it from the mainland. The situa¬ tion is a magnificent one. The city, its suburbs and its parks, are all contained on a many-inleted promontory, from which one looks out upon a wonderful landscape, embracing broad waters, sinuous straits, timbered islands and capes, and, behind all, the mighty ranges of the Cordillera with their summits of eternal snow, conspicuous among them being the great white dome of Mount Baker. It is at this spot that the Hudson's Bay Company erected its little wooden trading post in 1843. Victoria is now a handsome city of 25,000 inhabitants, with broad streets and fine public buildings. It is an important seaport and trade emporium. It is the centre of the island lumbering industry, for here the giant timber is shipped for exportation; the headquarters of the Canadian fur-seal fishing fleet; the outfitting place of the adventur¬ ous gold-seekers of the Klondike, and of the little explored wilds of the mainland coast; and the centre of a consider¬ able salmon fishing and canning industry. r 258 CANADA Victoria not only has the climate of the south of England, but it is, in many of its characteristics, the most English city in Canada. A large proportion of the inhabi¬ tants were born in the British Isles. Many retired British naval and military officers have settled in the beautiful environs of the city, and it is a favourite place of residence for well-to-do Canadians — retired professional men, merchants, and others. Their picturesque and comfortable wooden country-houses are scattered over the undulating promontory, which is a beautiful wilderness covered with a most luxuriant vegetation—pine and fir woods, and a wild jungle of arbutus, roses, golden gorse, many-flowering shrubs, ferns, and a glory of wild flowers. Here one realises that the vegetation of the north under a mild oceanic climate can be as prodigal as that of the tropics; and looking at the gardens which surround the houses, one is astonished by their profusion of bright flowers. Here one sees the geraniums, the sunflowers, the old-fashioned columbines, sweet-williams, and other flowers familiar to Englishmen, but far more luxuriant and fuller of blossom than they are in England. Two miles from Victoria is Esquimalt harbour, a British Naval Station, the headquarters of the Pacific Squadron, with barracks, arsenal, and dockyard. It is strongly fortified. The British garrison has recently been withdrawn, and the defence is left to the Canadian Military Authorities. Vancouver, the largest city of the province and the principal seaport, has a splendid situation on a wooded peninsula set amid winding waters and forest-clad capes. The origin of the city is due to the selection of this spot in 1885 as the Pacific terminus of the Canadian Pacific Rail¬ way. In the following year the little town that had sprung up was completely destroyed by a fire which had spread from the surrounding forest. The traveller who visits this city of 45,000 inhabitants with its broad electric- lit streets, its handsome stone buildings, and its electric tramways running to the pretty suburbs, finds it difficult to realise that all this was dense primeval forest but twenty THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES 259 years ago. It is from this port that the great liners sail for Japan, China, and Australia, and that the lumber, the fish and minerals of the province are shipped to all parts of the world. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway has made this westerly route the shortest and quickest means of communication between the British Isles and the Far East, so that Vancouver cannot but increase in importance as a port. Among other towns in the province are, Westminster, on the Eraser River, the headquarters of the salmon in¬ dustry ; Rossland and Nelson, in the mining districts ; Port Simpson, on the north coast, and Prince Rupert, which will assume importance when it becomes the western terminus of the new transcontinental railway. THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES To the north of the nine self-ruling provinces of the Dominion extend the very thinly inhabited North-West Territories. They cover an area of over ten times the size of France, and are divided into five districts:—Yukon, Mackenzie, Keewatin, Ungava, and Franklin. With the exception of Yukon and Keewatin, the districts are administered by the Government of the North-West Territories, of which Regina is the seat. The northern portion of these territories is an irredeemable wilderness; but various crops can be successfully grown in the southern portion, while the great Subarctic Forest, stretching right across the continent, forms an immense reserve of spruce, poplar, and other trees. The bordering seas, the lakes and rivers, teem with fish, and rich mineral deposits are known to exist in many parts; but, outside Yukon, the commercial development of these territories has been practically confined to the fur trade. The valuable fur-bearing creatures are found throughout the forests and the Barren Grounds; and over the greater part of these solitary wilds, the scattered fur-trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company are the only settlements of white men. 260 CANADA Yukon.—The district of Yukon occupies the north¬ west corner of British North America; it extends from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to within 50 miles of the Pacific, from which it is cut off by the United States coast- strip. This territory, which is nearly as large as France, is watered by the mighty Yukon River and its many tributaries. The dreary Barren Grounds of the north, where vegetable growth is only represented by moss and lichen, and here and there belts of dwarfed bushes, cover the greater part of this inhospitable region, which was visited by few but fur-hunters and fur-traders until 1895, when the discovery of rich deposits of gold on the banks of the Klondike River attracted a great rush of miners from all parts of the world. Adventurous gold-seekers in their thousands landed on the Pacific coast, and toiled across the Chilcot and the White Passes to the valley of the Klondike. They endured great hardships at first, for the climate is a rigorous one; provisions became scarce, and only he who was well provided with money could purchase a sufficiency of them at the extravagant prices which were then demanded. But gradually the means of transport were improved, and the city of Dawson rose out of the wilderness as the business centre of the gold- fields ; by 1901 it had a population of over 9000. In view of the increasing population, the Dominion Government separated Yukon from the North-West Territories in 1898 and made it a separate district. It has a local government, consisting of a Commissioner and an Execu¬ tive Council, half of whose members are elected by the inhabitants. On the Klondike no auriferous quartz reefs are being worked; all the gold is produced from " placers." Gold- mining within so short a distance of the Arctic Circle is conducted with some difficulty. The gold deposits are for the most part found under layers of gravelly soil, which is frozen hard up to a few inches of the surface even in the summer. The miners, therefore, have to thaw the soil with fires before they can reach the gold. The Klondike is no exception to the general rule that "placers" are THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES 261 soon exhausted; the output of gold from this district is yearly diminishing. Communication is now made easy by a railway, which, starting from the United States port of Skagway, at the head of the deep inlet called the Lynn Canal, crosses the mountain passes to the navigable part of the Yukon River. In 1900, out of the twenty-eight million dollars worth of gold produced in Canada, over twenty-two millions came from Yukon. In 1901 the population of the Yukon district was about 27,000. Keewatin.—The districts of Keewatin, Ungava, Mackenzie, and Franklin, each of which is considerably more than double the size of France, do not contain among them a white population so large as that of England's smallest county, Rutland. The larger portion of this population is in the southern parts of the districts, and the Arctic district of Franklin has no inhabitants. Keewatin is that desolate portion of the Laurentian Plateau which encloses Hudson's Bay on the west and south-west. It is a rocky land studded with numerous lakes. There are good agricultural districts and fine forests in its southern half, but the Barren Grounds spread over its northern half. On the shores of Hudson's Bay are the Hudson's Bay Company's principal ports and factories—^York Factory, Port Churchill, and Port Severn, to which the furs are brought down from the interior for shipment. Norway House, on Lake Winni¬ peg, is also an important post of the Company. Kee¬ watin is under the administration of its bordering province, Manitoba. It is proposed to open up rail¬ way communication between Saskatchewan and Port Churchill or some other port on the west shore of Hudson's Bay, and to run a direct line of steamers from it to England. Thus, during a great part of the year, when the Bay is open, immigrants will be landed in the heart of the continent within easy reach of the rich agricultural regions, and avoid the long railway journey from the Atlantic coast, while the cost of transport to 262 CANADA England of the grain and other produce of the West will be greatly reduced. Ungava.—This district occupies the greater part of the Labrador Peninsula. It is a desolate plateau, traversed by bleak mountains and containing many lakes. The great Subarctic Forest passes through its southern portion. The climate is very rigorous, and there is a nine months' winter. Potatoes and other root crops can be raised on the southern shore of Hudson's Bay; but cultivation of any description is apparently impossible throughout the greater part of Ungava, wherein, however, the Hudson's Bay Company have several posts, and carry on a profitable bartering for furs. Mackenzie. — This district stretches from latitude 60° N. to the Arctic Ocean, and lies between Keewatin and Yukon. The great Mackenzie River flows through it, and is navigable for steamers for 1300 miles above its mouth. Among other lakes in this district are those huge expanses of water, the Great Bear Lake and the Great Slave Lake. In the south the hardier cereals have been successfully cultivated ; and the great Subarctic spruce forest extends further north than it does in the other districts, the valley of the Mackenzie being well timbered down to the delta of the river, thrusting a wedge of vegetation into the heart of the Arctic wastes. The Barren Grounds, which are the home of the musk-ox and the reindeer, cover a great portion of Mackenzie. Franklin. — This is the northernmost of all the districts. It includes the desolate peninsulas of Boothia and Melville, together with Bafifinland, Prince Albert Land, and the other numerous islands of the Arctic Archipelago, which was annexed to Canada in 1880. It is a region of perpetual frost and snow, and throughout the greater part of the year the channels between the islands are impassable owing to the masses of ice that fill them. At Melville FRANKLIN 263 Island the mean annual temperature is below zero F., and 90 degrees of frost have been registered in winter. These perilous frost-bound lands and waters, which are frequented by whalers only, have been the scene of some of the most daring work of exploration that the world has known. Even before the death of Columbus, it was realised that the two Americas formed a great continent lying between Europe and the East Indies. Navigators, therefore, began to sail in search of that "North-West Passage" through the Arctic wastes which has cost so many brave lives and ships. Expedition after expedition was sent from Europe to discover an open channel along the north coast of America that would provide a short ocean route to Cathay. It was in search of the North-West Passage that Cartier sailed in 1534, with the result that he discovered Canada for France. Then followed many other bold sailors on the same quest—Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, Baffin, and the rest, who sought in vain the open waterway, but enlarged the knowledge of those desolate regions and charted the bleak capes, bays, and islands that now bear their names. The charting of the northern limits of the continent was also assisted by the adventurous fur-traders who travelled overland from Canada to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Thus Hearne, of the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1771 reached the mouth of the Coppermine Riyer; and Mackenzie, of the rival North-West Fur-Trading Company, in 1793 followed to its mouth the great river that has been named after him. In the nineteenth century. Parry, Ross, Franklin, and several other British explorers made their names famous for their work in these regions. In 1845, Franklin was despatched by the British Admiralty to discover the North-West Passage. He had all but succeeded, when his two ships, being hopelessly beset by ice, had to be abandoned, and he and his men perished when attempting to work their way overland to the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company. 264 CANADA At last, in 1850, the North-West Passage was discovered by M'Clure; but the discovery is a barren one from the commercial point of view, on account of the great dangers of this waterway, which is but rarely open to the navigator. NEWFOUNDLAND The oldest of England's colonies, the first to be acquired of all her dominions beyond the seas, Newfoundland, is also the nearest to the shores of the mother country; for its chief town, St Johns, is only 1640 miles from the west coast of Ireland. This rugged island, stretching across the Gulf of St Lawrence, is, as it were, the northern outpost of British North America guarding the approaches to Canada. To enter the St Lawrence, vessels have either to pass to the south of Newfoundland through the Cabot Strait, 60 miles in breadth, which divides it from Cape Breton, or to the north of the island, through the Strait of Belle Isle, only 10 miles broad in the narrows, which separates it from Labrador. Having an area of 40,000 square miles, Newfoundland is larger by a quarter than Ireland. It is roughly an equilateral triangle in shape. Its rock-bound coasts are deeply indented with magnificent winding fiords, within many of which the green forests slope to the water's edge. The interior of the island is undulating, and the Long Range, which borders the west coast, attains an elevation of 2000 feet. It is a land of lakes and marshes, grassy expanses and forests, barren plateaus and fertile valleys. The rivers, lakes, and ponds are very numerous, and it is estimated that one-third of the surface of the island is covered with water; but the largest river, the Exploits, is only 200 miles in length. The climate is an insular one, the winters not being so severe and the summers not so hot as on the mainland. The thermometer rarely falls below zero or rises above 80° F. The climate is most salubrious, as is shown by the 265 266 NEWFOUNDLAND robustness of the race that has been bred here. The cold Arctic current issuing from Davis Strait flows along the east coast of Newfoundland, making the climate of that part of the island more rigorous than the climate of the west coast, where the vegetation is about a month in advance of that of the east. The fogs that so frequently cover the Newfoundland Banks reach the south-east coast of Newfoundland when the wind is from the north-east. These fogs are caused by the Arctic current, which con¬ denses the warm moist winds which blow from over the Gulf Stream. In 1497, John Cabot, sailing under the patronage of Henry VII. of England in search of the North-West Passage to the Indies, passed through the fogs that haunt the Banks, and rediscovered Newfoundland—the Hellu- land of the Icelandic Vikings. For nearly a century no attempt at settlement was made; but within a few years of Cabot's discovery, the maritime peoples of Europe began to use the valuable fishing grounds on the Newfoundland coasts. The fishermen of Portugal, of Spain, of France— Normans, Bretons, and Basques—and later those of the west coast of England, sailed yearly to the prolific Banks. They salted and dried the fish upon the Newfoundland shore, and the fishing fleets returned to Europe with their cargoes at the approach of winter. Soon the fishing craft that assembled on the Banks each summer numbered several hundred, and contained a floating population of thousands of men ; and at last, too, a small resident population began to grow up on the island. In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, having received a patent from Queen Elizabeth, formally annexed the island to England, and thus was founded the oldest of British colonies—a struggling one for many years, for the French made unceasing efforts to seize it from us. But it never changed hands; and it is the proud boast of its inhabitants that throughout all Newfoundland's varying fortunes, since the earliest attempt at its colonisation, the British flag has never ceased to fly there, if it were only over some small corner of the island, where the stubborn HISTORY 267 fisher folk were making their stand against the French until assistance should come to them from England. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was lost at sea before he could establish his colony. John Guy in 1610, Lord Baltimore in 1623, and Sir David Kirk in 1638, provided with patents from the sovereign, attempted with little success to plant colonies on Newfoundland; for the French persistently harassed the colonists and destroyed their settlements. The French during the sixty years preceding the Treaty of Utrecht firmly held on to a portion of the south coast of the island, and founded and fortified Placentia as their capital in 1660. The colonisation of Newfoundland by the English was, moreover, impeded by other causes. By the middle of the seventeenth century the English bank fisheries had assumed considerable importance. Two hundred vessels, employing 10,000 men and boys, were despatched annually to the fishing grounds by the " Merchant Adventurers" of the Devon and other west-country ports. These traders, wishing to monopolise the valuable fisheries and the shores on which the fish were dried, were opposed to the settlement of the island, and induced the British Govern¬ ment to pass enactments whereby the building of houses and the enclosing of land without license were penal offences; settlement on the sea-coast was prohibited; and all fishermen were compelled to return to England at the close of each fishing season. The Government view was that such regulations would preserve the Banks as a nursery for the British navy, and secure the services in time of war of the men engaged on the fisheries. The "Fishing Admirals" on the Newfoundland coasts admini¬ stered these oppressive enactments, which remained in force for a century and a half, the last of the restrictions on building having been withdrawn in 1820. The progress of the Colony was also much retarded by the famous " French Shore " question, which not only obstructed the settlement of the best part of the island, but for nearly two centuries was a cause of perpetual dis¬ sension between England and France. The vaguely 268 NEWFOUNDLAND worded terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, established Britain's sovereignty of Newfoundland, but reserved to the French the rights to fish along more than half of the coasts of the island, and to salt and dry fish on the shore itself. The French shore comprised the east coast to the north of Cape St John, and the whole of the west coast, which is the most fertile part of the island, enjoying the best climate. France maintained that the rights secured to her by the treaty were exclusive, while Britain insisted that they were concurrent with her own. Though France had no territorial rights, and her subjects were prohibited from erecting other than temporary structures, such as fish-drying scaffolding, on the shore, the French so con¬ strued their rights as to exclude the Newfoundlanders not only from the coast fisheries, but from all use of the treaty shore. They endeavoured to prevent the islanders from farming, mining, and otherwise exploiting the resources of the richest portion of their country. But in despite of the enactments of the British Govern¬ ment and the pretensions of France, a sturdy population, made up chiefly of people from the west of England and from Ireland, settled on the Newfoundland coast—includ¬ ing the French shore—and steadily increased in numbers. In 1728, though the Merchant Adventurers strongly opposed the measure, the first governor was appointed to Newfoundland. In 1765, the coast of Labrador, of great use to the Newfoundland fishermen, was made a Depend¬ ency of the Colony. Representative government was given to Newfoundland in 1832, and responsible govern¬ ment in 1855. Newfoundland refused to join the federa¬ tion of Britain's other North American colonies, and still remains a separate colony outside the Dominion. The French shore question entered upon a dangerously acute stage in 1886. The growth of the Colony made the French aggressions all the more insupportable. The following were among the chief causes of the mutual irritation: The Colony, whose fishing interests were seriously affected by the system of bounties, and the prohibitory duties which fostered the French fishing POPULATION 269 industry, passed a ."Bait Act," with a view to pre¬ venting the French from obtaining, without license, in Newfoundland waters the bait that was necessary to them for the prosecution of their bank fisheries. The French, on their part, raised a new claim to a monopoly of the lobster fisheries on the French shore, and demanded the destruction of the Newfoundland lobster canning factories which had been established on that coast. The French refused to yield on any point, and the colonists were determined to secure their rights. The British and French Governments arranged an unsatisfactory modus vivendi in order to maintain peaceful relations until a settlement could be arrived at. Happily, at last, by the Anglo- French Convention of 1904, France abandoned her fishing and shore rights under the Treaty of Utrecht, but retained the right to catch fish, including bait, in the territorial waters that wash the former French shore. This ancient quarrel has therefore now been settled, and there remains nothing to stand in the way of the growing prosperity of the Colony and the development of its resources. Population.—At the census of 1901, the island of Newfoundland had a population of over 217,000 ; while its dependency, the Labrador coast strip, had about 4000 inhabitants. The interior of the island—for the most part still a primeval wilderness—is but thinly inhabited; the bulk of the people being settled on the coasts and earning their livelihood by fishing. These settlers of English west-country and Irish descent, the ancestors of many of whom emigrated here in Queen Elizabeth's reign, are a robust, hardy, industrious race. The men are among the most skilled and courageous of seamen. The Newfoundland sailor settler can turn his hand to many things. In many cases, the little craft with which he braves these dangerous seas has been from truck to keel the work of his own hands. He has cut the trees in the forest behind his homestead, shaped the timbers, built the hull, made the spars and sails, and possibly rigged his craft with ropes of his own making. He was invaluable 270 NEWFOUNDLAND in a man-of-war in the old days of sail and wooden ships; and he who visits Newfoundland can well understand why the British Government, when we were engaged in our life-and-death struggle with France, attempted to secure the services of the Newfoundlander by passing the fishery enactments above described. Recently a branch of the Royal Naval Reserve has been established in Newfoundland. The aboriginal inhabitants have altogether disappeared from Newfoundland. The Boethiks, an Indian people, were once numerous here, and sustained themselves with¬ out difficulty in this land of abundant game and fish. Fauna.—The wild animals which afforded subsistence to the Indians still abound in Newfoundland. The cariboo, or reindeer, finer than those of Norway, traverse the island in vast herds; geese, ducks, ptarmigan, snipe, and other game birds are very plentiful; among other animals are found the Arctic and the North American hare, the beaver, black bear, wolf, and fox. The innumerable lakes and rivers supply trout and salmon. Newfoundland dogs of good breed are becoming rare on the island. Products and Industries. — The fisheries con¬ stitute the staple industry in Newfoundland, and provide occupation to the bulk of the population. The total annual value of the fishery products now amounts to over two millions sterling. Four-fifths of the annual exports from the Colony are derived from the harvests of the sea, including cured fish, fish oils, whale and seal oils, lobsters, and sealskins. The Newfoundland fishermen employ about 1700 sailing vessels and 20,000 boats. Various conditions combine to make the waters that surround Newfoundland the most valuable of the world's fishing grounds. Cod and other sea fish of commercial value thrive only in cold water; the icy Arctic current flows down the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, and across the banks to the edge of the Gulf Stream. These currents bring with them, in extraordinary profusion, what PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 271 is called the "slime food"—forms of marine life, both plant and animal—which supplies nourishment to the minute crustaceans. Upon these crustaceans feed the multitudes of herring, small fish of various sorts, and squid; and these in their turn are devoured by the cod. By far the most important of the Newfoundland fisheries is that of the cod. Dried cod to the value of more than one and a half million sterling are exported annually. The Newfoundland Banks, like the Doggerbank of the North Sea, is an extensive submarine plateau. The Banks lie to the south-east of Newfoundland, and extend for about 600 miles into the Atlantic, their southern portion being crossed by the Gulf Stream. On the Great Bank the average depth of the water is 40 fathoms. The Banks are mainly worked by the fishermen of France and the United States. The French use, as their base, the little islands of St Pierre and Miquelon to the south of New¬ foundland—the only North American possessions left to France—which contain a resident population of about 6cx)0. About 100 Newfoundland vessels only are now engaged in fishing on the Banks, the islanders practically confining themselves to the profitable fisheries of their own territorial waters along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. The cod are caught in the summer season with hook and line and nets of various descriptions. The fish are cured on shore, and are mostly exported to Roman Catholic countries. No portions of the cod are wasted; the liver yields cod-liver oil, glue is made of the skin, the bones are used as fertilisers. Next in importance to the cod fishery is the seal fishery, an industry that has grown up within the last one hundred years. The steamers and schooners engaged in it sail among the floes of the Arctic current in the early spring, the men killing the young seals upon the ice. The herring, lobster, and salmon fisheries also employ a considerable number of the inhabitants, while the canning of the lobster and salmon is carried on in numerous factories. 272 NEWFOUNDLAND Barren lands and marshes cover a great portion of Newfoundland; but there are broad belts of excellent pasture, and fertile valleys where fine crops can be raised. Agriculture has hitherto been neglected, and cultivation is still practically confined to the neighbourhood of the coast. The agricultural, lumbering, mining, and other resources of the interior have yet to be developed. The railway, over 500 miles in length, which connects St Johns with Port-aux-Basques at the south-west corner of the island, was completed in 1898, and, traversing as it does the interior of the island, is opening up what has up till now been a roadless and unpopulated wilderness. The agricultural industries are being rapidly developed on the more fertile west coast, relieved at last of the "French rights." The mineral resources of the island have been but partially developed. There are extensive and valuable deposits of copper, iron, and coal. Copper and iron pyrites are exported in large quantities. Asbestos, gold, silver, lead, and petroleum are found in various parts of the island. The principal manufacturing industries of Newfound¬ land are connected with the fisheries and the lumbering— canning factories, oil-extracting factories, saw-mills, and wood-pulp factories. Towns.—St Johns. The earliest settlements of the English in Newfoundland were established on the peninsula of Avalon, at the south-east corner of the island. Avalon, which has a length of over icq miles, and is about the size of Corsica, is connected with the rest of the island by an isthmus only three miles in breadth. It is still ^the most densely populated portion of the island. On the east coast of this peninsula, a few miles to the north of Cape Spear, which is the easternmost point of North America and the nearest to Europe, the English fishermen, as far back as 1580, had a little settlement of fisher huts, St Johns, which gradually became a place of importance, and is now the capital of Newfoundland. St Johns is. TOWNS 273 therefore, the oldest of British settlements beyond the seas. It was also on Avalon that the French founded and fortified Placentia as their capital. The French twice destroyed St Johns, and the old wooden town was also frequently devastated by great conflagrations. In 1816, it was practically destroyed three times by fire. The last great fire, which swept away more than half of the city, occurred in 1892. No sea city is more picturesquely situated than St Johns. The grand iron-bound coast is here cleft by a narrow, precipice-bordered opening, only 6op feet in breadth. Within this opening the inlet spreads itself into a spacious harbour a mile in length and half a mile in breadth in its narrowest part, surrounded by bold, rugged hills. In its colouring and general aspect the scenery is that of our Cornish coast. The town is on the northern side of this sheltered harbour. The chief commercial street. Water Street, which borders the harbour, has been rebuilt of brick since the great fire of 1892 ; behind it the streets of wooden houses climb the steep hill in successive terraces, producing a very pleasing effect, painted as the houses are in warm and tender tints, with the massive grey Catholic Cathedral crowning all. St Johns was the headquarters of the British fleet during the old wars, and the dismantled fortifications still line the heights. The population is 30,000. St Johns is the chief seaport and centre of trade. Its dry dock accommodates the largest steamers. Iron foundries, seal and cod-oil factories, rope and fishing-net factories, and other manufactories, give occupation to a large proportion of the inhabitants. The other towns are but small places, and are all upon the coast. Among the most important are Harbour Grace, Carbonear, and Placentia, all on the Avalon Peninsula. Port-aux-Basques is the western terminus of the railway, from which steamers sail to Sydney in Cape Breton, about 90 miles distant, the terminus of the continental railway system. S 274 NEWFOUNDLAND LABRADOR The eastern shore of Labrador, between the Straits of Belle Isle and the entrance of Hudson's Straits—a strip of coast iioo miles in length, the boundary between which and Canada has not been defined—is a dependency of Newfoundland. This wild rocky coast is icebound in winter and swept by icebergs in summer. The scenery is grand; the great cliffs are penetrated by deep fiords, at the head of some of which timber grows and cultivation is possible. The climate is rigorous; the thermometer descends to 30° below zero in winter. There is a scattered white population connected with the fishery industries. The Hudson's Bay Company have posts upon the coast, and the Moravian missionaries who labour among the Esquimaux have settlements here. One quarter of the fish exported from Newfoundland are caught off Labrador, and in the summer there is a floating population of 20,000 fishermen on the coast. 160 050 140 130 120 HO lOO 80 80 70 60 SO 40 200 400 ^ 600 800 1000 1200 JPrmcipcihJBieiihvciyB aperv Scahvays unJber can^tructujrv arprcrposejBi' 20,464- Bjdghts xrvSkct 120 90 80 60 GwrgeTmbp LcEn.djdrL. JolmMurragr# -AJbemarle Street. TheXortdan, fjeogr'aplciccXXLStitute. I^'orthwestf! .4 University Library THE BERMUDAS The Bermudas, or Somers Islands, are a group of small islands in latitude 32° N., about 600 miles distant from the North American coast. The nucleus of these islands—a limestone range whose highest summit is 260 feet above the sea—has been proved by soundings to be the top of an isolated submarine mountain of about the height of Mount Blanc, rising from an ocean floor 2600 fathoms below the surface. These little islets would have remained of unimportance to man had not the reef-building of the coral insect created here a commodious and secure harbour. The northernmost of all coral reefs has been formed at the Bermudas; for the surrounding ocean is exceptionally warm for the latitude, its temperature in the winter not sinking below 68° F., a condition necessary to coral life. There has consequently grown up in the comparatively shallow waters in the immediate vicinity of the islands an oval-shaped coral reef about 25 miles in length, enclosing a large lagoon. The islands themselves fringe the south¬ eastern side of the reef. This coral reef, unlike the typical atolls of the Pacific, is for the most part submerged, and the sea generally breaks heavily upon its outer edge. The lagoon is protected by this surrounding barrier of reefs and islands against the fury of the Atlantic storms, and contains some spacious and well-sheltered anchorages; but a great portion of it is studded with rocks and shoals. The reef is impenetrable to vessels, save by a few narrow intricate channels known to the local pilots. The islets are long and narrow, forming a string 15 276 THE BERMUDAS miles in length. By far the largest is Great Bermuda, which has a length of 12 miles. Bridges and causeways now connect it with the islands to the east and west of it. The group also contains hundreds of tiny islets of coral formation. The total area of the islands is only 20 square miles. About fifteen of the islands are inhabited. The climate is oceanic, equable, and genial; the temperature does not fall below 50° F. in winter, while the summer heat is not oppressive. The soil is fertile, and the junipers and oleanders are conspicuous amid a rich wild vegetation. The Bermudas are liable to hurricanes and furious local squalls. This is a meeting-place of various winds and currents; and to the old navigators Bermuda was a name for storm and peril. Indeed the Bermudas were discovered through a shipwreck on their coasts, while their first colonisation was brought about by a similar disaster. The discoverer of the islets, the Spaniard Bermudez, who gave his name to them, was wrecked here in 1522. In 1609, Sir George Somers, from whom the islands take their alternative name, was also cast ashore here during a tempest. Later, he established the first British settlement on the islands. It is supposed that Shakespeare, who wrote The Tempest in 1611, had the scene for his play suggested to him by the published description of Sir George Somers' disaster, in which it was said that:—" The Bermudas, otherwise called the Isles of Divels . . . were never inhabited by any Christian or heathen people, but ever esteemed a most prodigious and enchanted place, affording nothing but gusts, storms, and foul weather." In 1612, a branch of the Virginia Company held the islands under a Royal Charter, and engaged in the cultiva¬ tion of tobacco, an industry long since abandoned. In 1684, the Crown took the colony over. Remote as these islands were, the constant wars and the piratical raids that harassed the West Indies and the mainland affected them little, and their history was comparatively uneventful. Many refugees took shelter here during the civil wars, and later on an extensive convict settlement was established. THE BERMUDAS 277 The Bermudas for the last one hundred years have been an important and strongly fortified naval station, and here the ships of the British Navy can be coaled, refitted, and revictualled. Hamilton, on Great Bermuda, is the seat of government. The royal dockyard and naval establishment are on Ireland Island, facing a sheltered anchorage in the lagoon. St George, on the islet of the same name, is the military station. The Bermudas are a Crown Colony, but there is a Representative House of Assembly. The civil population of the islands number 18,000, of whom over 6000 are white, the rest blacks and coloured. The Bermudians are excellent sailors. The islands export fruit, vegetables, and flowers to the New York market, the principal exports being onions, potatoes, and lily bulbs. THE BRITISH WEST INDIES INTRODUCTORY Physical Features.—The beautiful West Indian Archi¬ pelago stretches in a gently curving line of islands from Florida to the Gulf of Paria, a distance of 1600 miles. Comparatively narrow sea-channels separate the islands, and generally from each island the one next to it is visible; so this archipelago, formed as it is of the summits of a continuous submarine plateau, has been compared to a causeway connecting the two Americas. The West Indies shut out from the Atlantic the great basins of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, making them almost tideless, like the Mediterranean. The name West Indies is also now generally extended to the islands which fringe what was formerly called the Spanish Main—the South American coast between the Gulf of Paria and the Gulf of Venezuela. The islands lie between the loth and 27th parallels of north latitude, all of them, with the exception of the northern Bahamas, being within the tropics. The climate is tropical, but oceanic and equable, the north-east trade winds, that blow freshly upon the islands from over the Atlantic, tempering the heat. On the other hand, the West Indies are surrounded by warm seas; the South Equatorial current which flows along the equatorial coasts of South America into the Caribbean Sea, the North Equatorial current that strikes the windward shores of the Islands, the Gulf Stream passing through the Florida 278 PHYSICAL FEATURES 279 Channel, have all been heated by the fierce tropical suns, and the average temperature of the West Indian surface waters is 80° F. The mean annual temperature of the West Indies varies from 75° F. in the northern islands to 82° F. in the southern. The mean annual rainfall is over 60 inches, but local conditions cause great differences; thus while the mean annual rainfall is under 40 inches on some islands in certain districts, on others it attains the excessive amount of 200 inches. The rainy season during which the heavy tropical rains fall lasts from May to November. Throughout the rest of the year there is little rain. The dreaded West India hurricanes occur in the autumn months. These cyclones are gigantic whirlwinds, often several hundreds of miles in diameter, in which the air currents rotate with intense velocity round a vortex of rarefied air. When such a hurricane crosses an island, the wind blows with fury from all points of the compass in succession, uprooting forests and plantations, overthrowing massive stone buildings, sweeping entire towns away, and sometimes even carrying heavy cannon from their plat¬ forms, while at sea the waves rise to a prodigious height, and cause great destruction to shipping and to the exposed island shores. The mountainous character of the West Indian Islands, and the prevalence of fresh Atlantic breezes, render the climate healthy and agreeable save in the lowlands, where malaria prevails and epidemics of yellow fever occur. In no part of the world can lovelier scenery be found than in the West Indian Archipelago. The islands, gener¬ ally mountainous and richly wooded, rise in picturesque shapes out of the bluest and most pellucid of seas, whose shallower parts are floored with the garden-like tangles of delicately tinted coral, clearly visible from the ship that sails above them. Here is found all the splendour of the tropics. The hills and valleys are clothed with a luxuriant vegetation; that noblest of palms, the oreodoxa^ towering above all the lesser growth. From the ship at sea one often looks upon sloping forests, the rich dark green of 280 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES whose foliage is relieved by the scarlet blossoms of the bougainvillcea and other flowering trees, while cocoa-nut palms fringe the sandy beaches below. These forests contain gigantic cotton trees, ebony, mahogany, satin- wood, lignum vitae, campeachy, and other trees of the torrid zone, while their branches are linked together with convolvuli and various lianes, and hung with beautiful orchids. Here and there, too, will be found jungles of graceful tree-ferns, and open spaces covered with the most velvety of grass. In the lowlands thrive nearly all the fruits and other food plants of the tropical and sub-tropical regions:— pineapples, mangoes, alligator-pears, bananas, guava, vanilla, oranges, limes, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, sweet potatoes, yams, breadfruit, arrowroot; and the climate and soil are admirably adapted for the cultivation of sugar, coffee, cotton, cocoa, and tobacco. As one ascends the mountains, the vegetation, while remaining luxuriant, gradually changes to that of more northern latitudes ; and here the fruits and cereals of the temperate zone flourish. Frost is experienced in the winter on the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and on the other highlands in the north of the Archipelago. At a remote geological period the West Indian Islands formed part of the mainland. Consequently their fauna as well as flora are of the same type as those of tropical America, though they now differ in species. The larger beasts of prey of the mainland, the jaguars, pumas, foxes, and others are not found on the islands, and monkeys exist only on Trinidad, an island which, divided as it is from the mainland by a narrow channel of shallow water, has not been so completely isolated as the rest of the archipelago. The largest native mammal found on the other islands is the agouti, a rodent of about the size of a rabbit, which plays havoc with the sugar plantations. Among the West Indian birds are parrots and trogons of gorgeous plumage, humming-birds and mocking-birds. The reptiles are numerous, including snakes of various species—among them the deadly fer-de-lance—scorpions, HISTORY 281 centipedes, and tarantulas. Alligators are found in some of the rivers. The seas abound with fish and turtle. The West Indies are divided into the following groups : —I. The Bahamas, which compose the northernmost group. 2. The Greater Antilles, which include Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico. 3. The Lesser Antilles, which comprise all the islands between Porto Rico and Trinidad, and also those which fringe the Venezuelan coast from Trinidad to the Gulf of Venezuela. The Lesser Antilles are subdivided into the Windward and Leeward Islands; the Windward Islands, which extend from Martinique to Tobago being to the windward of the others when the prevailing north-east trades are blowing. History.—A brief summary only of the history of the West Indies can be given here. Wonderful indeed is the story of the seizure of the islands and the Spanish Main by the adventurers of Europe—the doings of the con- quistadores and the daring sea-rovers, of the gallant knights, too, who lost their lives in the quest of the fabled El Dorado. It is a tale of much illustrious heroism and chivalry, but also of much iniquity; of three centuries of bloodshed and rapine and the horrors of the slave-trade. And throughout it all—despite the frequent wars, the raids of buccaneers, pirates, cannibal Caribs, and ferocious maroons; in the face, too, of the appalling and destructive forces of nature in these regions, the hurricanes, earth¬ quakes, and volcanic eruptions that overwhelmed fleets and settlements, the pernicious tropical fevers that deci¬ mated the Europeans—the plucky colonists, when they were not fighting, planted their lands and struggled on to a great prosperity. When Columbus discovered the Bahamas in 1492, he was welcomed by the natives, whom he described as being the most gentle, kindly, and pleasing people in the world ; and so lovely were their island homes that he thought he had come to the site of the Garden of Eden. Within a few years of his landing, his followers had made a pande¬ monium of this paradise of the West, and all the gentle 282 THE BRITISH AVEST INDIES inhabitants had disappeared. The Spanish adventurers established themselves in the Greater Antilles, principally in the large island of Hispaniola (now called Hayti) where they found alluvial gold. The natives of the Greater Antilles were mostly Arawaks, a gentle agricultural people, who, unlike the ferocious cannibal Caribs of the Lesser Antilles or Caribbee Islands, were easily subdued. The Spaniard3 enslaved the Arawaks of Hispaniola, compelling them to wash gold and cultivate the land for them, and also transporting them to work on the mines of the main¬ land. Driven by cruel treatment into hopeless resistance, these unfortunate people fought and were massacred, while thousands of them committed suicide in their despair. When the people of Hispaniola were exterminated, the Spaniards carried off all the inhabitants of the Bahamas, depopulating those islands. About twenty years after the first landing of Columbus, the Arawaks having been exterminated, the Portuguese ships began to engage in that profitable traffic, the importation ot African slaves into the West Indies. The Pope by his famous Bull had assigned the Ameri¬ cas to Spain, and the Spaniards claimed the right to treat as pirates any foreign ships that sought to trade in the West, although it were on such islands or mainland coasts as had not been occupied or even discovered by Spain. These pretensions were disputed from the first, and the reports that reached Europe of the marvellous wealth of the New World and of the Spanish treasure- ships that sailed yearly from Darien to Cadiz, brought all the adventurous sea-rovers of Europe—notably those of England and France—to the Caribbean Sea, ready to seize their share of the rich spoil by force of arms. When Spain formally protested to the European monarchs, these, as a rule, disclaimed responsibility for the actions of their subjects beyond the seas. As early as 1530, the English sea-rovers had com¬ menced their struggle for their right of trade in the West. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the English gentle¬ men-adventurers under Drake, Sir John Hawkins, and HISTORY 283 other gallant leaders were " singeing the king of Spaniards' beard" throughout the West Indies, sacking Spain's fortified places, capturing her gold trains as they crossed Darien, and seizing her treasure-ships. Sir John Hawkins, moreover, was the first Englishman to engage in the slave- trade; for in 1563, in defiance of the Papal Bull that had given to Portugal exclusive rights throughout Africa, he seized slaves on the African coasts and bartered them in the West Indies. When harassed Spain declared war at last, and the Spanish Armada sailed to the invasion of England, the rovers fought stoutly for their country under the queen's license, and made the new maritime power of England respected among the nations. The Elizabethan sailors fought for the right of trade, and made no attempt to colonise West Indian Islands. On the mainland, however. Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1595, having obtained letters patent from the queen, explored Guiana, in which region he thought to find the El Dorado and the golden city of Manoa. He made friends with the natives—who, like the Maroons^ the refugee slaves from the Spanish possessions, always welcomed and helped the English as the enemies of their oppressors—and laid the foundations of a colony that might have proved successful in time, had it not been for the timid subserviency of James I. to Spain. The Lesser Antilles to the north of Trinidad were unoccupied by the Spanish, and were inhabited only by the savage Caribs. It was here, therefore, that the English, French, and Dutch began to seize and colonise islands. The first English settlements were established in 1624, in St Kitts and Barbados, which islands had been discovered by English navigators. After the death of James I., England, adopting a bolder policy, gave formal sanction to the annexations made by her adventurers. Thus in 1627, Charles I., ignor¬ ing the claims of other nations, granted all the Caribbees to the Earl of Carlisle, while under another royal charter possession was taken of the depopulated Bahamas in 1630. The partition of the unoccupied Antilles had begun in 284 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES earnest, and for the sake of these islands, England, France, Holland, and Spain did much hard fighting; for by this time it had been discovered that the wealth of the islands did not consist in gold, but that the cultivation of the sugar cane (which had been introduced into the \^^est Indies by Columbus), tobacco, and cotton could be made to bring great profit to the planters. The plantations rapidly extended, and with them, too, increased the African slave-trade that supplied the necessary labour. The gallant sea-rovers of the Elizabethan period were succeeded as harassers of Spain by the famous buccaneers, who began to make themselves formidable in about 1630. Unlike their predecessors, they did not sail from Europe to make their depredations, but remained permanently in West Indian waters, refitting and revictualling their vessels at stations which they had established on the coast. The buccaneers were for the most part French and English who, though they generally kept apart and fought each other on occasion, had a common bond of sympathy in their hatred for Spain, to attack whose possessions they sometimes combined their respective fleets and forces. For example, Panama was sacked and burnt by force of buccaneers of various nationalities, under the leadership of the famous Morgan, who after this feat became respect¬ able, was made Governor of Jamaica, and was knighted by Charles II. Whenever war broke out in Europe, the buccaneers received letters of marque and fought gallantly for their respective countries, to which they were un¬ doubtedly of great service in the struggle for colonial supremacy. With all their brutality the buccaneers dis¬ played patriotism and often a strict code of honour; they were certainly extremely hardy and recklessly brave; they were wonderful seamen; for awhile they were supreme in the Caribbean, and extended their depreda¬ tions along all the Pacific coasts of Spanish America. The Spaniards had made an uninhabited wilderness of a great portion of Hispaniola, but the cattle and hogs which they had introduced into the island, becoming wild, had multiplied exceedingly. Here, therefore, the bucca- HISTORY 285 neers found an excellent provisioning base for their ships. They hunted the cattle and preserved the meat after the Indian fashion, drying and smoking it over wood fires. This process was called boucanning^ and from it the adventurers derive their name. The buccaneers formed wild but organised com¬ munities ; but though they were in turn smugglers, hunters, settlers, and even planters, the raiding of Spanish settle¬ ments and the capture of Spanish ships was their main object. Their wealth was quickly got, and as quickly wasted. In those pandemoniums, the buccaneer centres— such as Jamaica was for a while—the reckless rovers found awaiting them every form of dissipation, and Jew traders ready to purchase their loot. Towards the end of the seventeenth century buccaneering, no longer tolerated by the nations of Europe, disappeared, or rather degenerated into piracy, a form of freebooting which respected no flag, and against which the hands of all men were raised. Piracy lingered in the Caribbean Sea until the early years of the nineteenth century. Up to the middle of the seventeenth century the English had contented themselves with the seizure of such West Indian Islands as had not been occupied by Spain; but now England, having in her wars with Holland, proved herself a sea power, felt strong enough to commence her career of conquest. Cromwell, in order to protect the rights of English traders and colonists in the West, declared war on Spain, and in 1655 despatched a fleet to the West Indies, which captured the island of Jamaica, the first territory conquered from Spain by England. And now that struggle for the command of the sea which had been so valiantly fought in home waters between England and Holland by Blake and Monk, De Ruyter and Tromp, was continued in the Caribbean Sea. First we fought the allied French and Dutch, then with France as our ally we fought Holland and Spain, the English buccaneers the while, under letters of marque, harassing in turn the settlements and shipping of Holland, France, and Spain. With the English Revolution and the accession to the 286 THE BRITISH ^VEST INDIES throne of William III. in 1689, it became recognised that the mighty ambitions of Louis XIV. constituted the great danger to the rising empire of Great Britain; so English policy lost its vacillating character, and the struggle for the lordship of the sea with Holland was changed for the far more desperate struggle with France, which was carried on for a century and a quarter, in war after war fought out in every quarter of the world, and nowhere more fiercely than in the West Indies—those valuable prizes coveted by every maritime nation of Europe. Sometimes Britain had one ally, sometimes another; and at one time, when single-handed she was opposed to France, Spain, Holland and our revolted North American colonies, the British fleets under Rodney and Hood still successfully held their own in the Caribbean Sea. To the West Indian colonists warfare had become a normal state of existence ; the islands were captured and recaptured as the fortune of war varied, and changed hands with each treaty of peace. But Great Britain at last won the undisputed sovereignty of the seas, and when with the final destruction of Napoleon's power in 1815 peace came to the long-troubled islands of the Caribbean, here as in other parts of the world victory had extended the possessions of Great Britain at the expense of France, Spain, and Holland; and the bulk of the West Indian Islands were placed under the British flag. Of the three nations with which Great Britain fought for the dominion of the seas, Spain now owns no territory in the West Indies, while the French possessions have one- eleventh and the Dutch one-twenty-seventh the area of those of Great Britain. Spain lost her last West Indian Islands during her war with the United States in 1898, when Cuba, the "Pearl of the Antilles," became a republic, and Porto Rico was taken by the victor. Spain's mother colony in these seas, beautiful Hispaniola, has had the darkest history of all the islands. In 1795 it was ceded to France. The freed slaves, after a period of anarchy and bloodshed, acquired their complete independence, and now the island, divided into the two negro and mulatto republics of Hayti and DECAY OF THE BRITISH WEST INDIES 287 San Domingo, has sunk into utter barbarism, the degraded people having reverted to fetishism, with its accompanying rites of human sacrifice and cannibalism. In addition to the Powers mentioned, Denmark also owns a few small islands in the West Indies. Decay of the British West Indies after the Great Wars.—Sugar has for nearly three centuries been the staple product of the West Indies. The cultivation of the sugar cane on the plantations in the English islands proved extremely profitable, despite the frequent wars, sometimes indeed because of them, as our victories for awhile secured to us the monopoly of supplying sugar to all Europe, the merchant commerce of other nations having been driven off the seas. Great fortunes were made by those engaged in this industry, and much of the vast accumulated capital of Great Britain, which now serves to develop home and colonial enterprise, was acquired in the West Indies. In the early days the labour question was a difficult one with the English planters, our enemies having the control of the African slave-trade; so felons, sturdy vagrants, political prisoners, rebels such as those who followed the Duke of Monmouth and were not executed by Judge Jeffries, were transported from the British Isles to the colonies as bond-servants for a term of years; while numbers of people were kidnapped by ruffians, after the manner told in Stevenson's novel, and carried off forcibly to toil in the Caribbees. This system was opposed to the public conscience, and the supply of white bond-servants was quite in¬ adequate. However, as Portugal was too weak to enforce the rights which she claimed under the Papal Bull, Englishmen engaged in the African slave-trade; and at last the bulk of this profitable traffic was in their hands. By the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, the Asiento —the treaty which conferred the monopoly of supplying African slaves to Spanish America—was transferred by Spain from France to England, and was leased by the Government first to the famous South Sea ("Bubble") 288 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES Company, and afterwards to the Royal Africa Company. There was no lack of black slave labour on our West Indian and North American plantations in the eighteenth century, during which it is estimated that 2,000,000 slaves were carried to the English colonies. At the close of the great wars the British West Indies, which had attained the height of their great prosperity, were suddenly brought to the verge of ruin. Slavery had become repugnant to the more humane sentiment that had grown up in Europe. Denmark abandoned the slave-trade in 1802. In 1807, the British Parliament passed an Act prohibiting the further importation of slaves into our possessions. The immediate result was that slaves became dearer, and were smuggled from Africa under conditions that intensified the horrors of the " middle passage." A prolonged agitation through¬ out the country resulted in the passing of an Act of Parliament in 1833 which abolished slavery in the Empire, gave an inadequate compensation to the slave¬ owners, and made the slaves the apprentices of their masters for six years, so as gradually to prepare them for the uses of complete liberty. The negroes, whether as apprentices or free men, now refused to work on the plantations unless driven by necessity to do so. Liberty to them meant idleness. In the more crowded islands they had to perform some work in order to live, but exacted a maximum of wage for it. In the larger islands where there is much virgin wilderness, they squatted on unoccupied lands, and by dint of a few days work a year got all they needed out of the prolific soil. Despite the scarcity and costliness of labour the planters struggled on manfully; but within a few years of the emancipation of the slaves another severe blow was struck at the sugar industry by the British Parlia¬ ment. In accordance with our old colonial system, England had accorded preferential treatment to the produce of her West India colonies; but the principle of free trade was uncompromisingly accepted in England in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the protective DECAY OF THE BRITISH WEST INDIES 289 duties on sugar were withdrawn in 1846. This enabled the people of the British Isles to procure cheap slave- grown sugar from Cuba and Brazil, in which countries slavery was legally carried on until 1886 and 1888. We had abolished slavery in our own colonies, destroying their prosperity, but practically favoured the institution when it was under a foreign flag. In the West Indies hundreds of plantations were abandoned, and carefully cleared lands reverted to forest and jungle. Great numbers of colonists were ruined, as were many firms and families in England whose business or whose incomes depended on the sugar plantations. But the planters still struggled on in the hope that con¬ ditions would improve. As the negro would not work for reasonable wages, labour was sought elsewhere. Coolies from the East Indies were introduced into Demerara, and into Trinidad, Jamaica, and some other West Indian Islands, due precautions being taken by the Government to ensure their proper treatment—with results that were on the whole very satisfactory. The institution of slavery was doomed, and at last disappeared from all civilised countries, including Cuba and Brazil. Our West Indian Islands might have recovered their former prosperity were it not that another almost fatal blow was struck at their sugar industry. Sugar can be manufactured from beet, which can be grown over the greater part of Europe. For about thirty years the continental governments have encouraged the extensive cultivation of beet by various protective measures, including the payment of bounties to the growers of beet and the manufacturers of beet sugar. These bounties (which were greatly increased in 1896) enabled the manufacturers to supply beet sugar to the United Kingdom at much below cost price. Our West Indian planters could not compete with this unfair system ; the output of cane sugar diminished by four-fifths, and great distress prevailed in some of the islands. The time had been when we took all our sugar from the West Indies; but by 1901 the United Kingdom was importing nine tons T 290 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES of beet sugar to every ton of cane sugar. As the payment of the bounties were defrayed by heavy excise duties on sugar in the countries that adopted this system, sugar became very dear on the Continent, and there was a consequent diminution of the consumption of this neces¬ sary of life among the people. On the other hand, in the British Isles sugar was very cheap, but at the cost of the ruin of an important part of our Colonial Empire. The object of the bounties on beet was the destruc¬ tion of the competing sugar-cane industry. It was obvious that so soon as that object was attained the bounties would cease, and the British consumer would have to pay the full price for his sugar. It was recognised by Mr Chamberlain and other statesmen that the advantage of cheap sugar for a limited period might be purchased at too high a price. An industry destroyed cannot easily be revived. In the tropics an abandoned plantation quickly becomes dense jungle and forest; the cost of clearing far exceeds the value of the land, and represents the bulk of the initial capital outlay of the planter. Negotiations at last resulted in the Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902, whereby Great Britain and all the interested European Powers, with the exception of Russia, undertook to suppress sugar bounties, and to impose countervailing duties on bounty-fed sugar imported from countries outside the Con¬ vention. The Convention came into force on ist September 1903, and will terminate in 1908. Our West Indian Islands have already benefited from this arrangement; but the uncertainty as to whether the Convention will be renewed on its expiration—the free traders in the United Kingdom being opposed to it—leaves the planters in a somewhat insecure position, and does not encourage them to extend the area of cane-sugar cultivation. Products. — Though the annual cane crop is very small when compared with what it used to be, cane sugar is still the staple product of the British West Indies. But other agricultural industries have assumed importance; cocoa, coffee, cotton, arrowroot, and tobacco are largely PRODUCTS 291 cultivated, while the export of bananas and oranges to Europe and the United States constitutes a large and ever-increasing trade. Of the total value of the exports from the British West Indies to the United Kingdom in 1904, sugar and rum represented one-third, cocoa a little less than a third, while bananas and spices came next in importance. Among other articles of commerce which are produced in our West Indian Islands are wool, gutta¬ percha, nutmegs, pimento, ginger, pineapples, guava, cocoa- nuts, castor oil, aloes, and other medicinal plants, mahogany and other cabinet woods. The principal market for the products of the British West Indies is the United States, and not the home country. Area and Population.—The total area of the West Indies is about 95,000 square miles, the large islands of Cuba and Hayti between them occupying over 70,000 square miles. The British West Indies have an area of about 14,000 square miles, and contain a population of roughly one and a half million. The negroes are in a large majority, the proportion between black and white in Jamaica, for example, being about forty to one. Next in number to the negroes are the "coloured" people, of mixed European and African blood. The introduction of coolies has added to the population a large element of East Indians, and in some of the islands of Chinese. The aboriginal inhabitants have practically disappeared, being now only represented by an inconsiderable number of people of mixed Carib and Indian blood in some of the larger islands. In the islands that were captured by Great Britain from France or Spain, many of the inhabitants are the descendants . of the early colonists of those nationalities. In St Lucia the negroes speak a French patois. The negroes in the West Indies, though too indolent to make the most of their small holdings, cultivate sugar and fruit for exportation. Political Divisions.—The British West Indies are so grouped as to form six separate colonies;—i. The 292 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES Bahamas. 2. Jamaica, with the Turks and Caicos Islands; and the Caymans. 3. The Leeward Islands, which comprise the five presidencies of Antigua, with Barbuda and Redonda; St Kitts, with Nevis and Anguilla Montserrat; Dominica; and the Virgin Islands. 4. The Windward Islands, which consist of Grenada, the Grena¬ dines, St Vincent, and St Lucia. 5. Barbados. 6. Trinidad, with Tobago. Colonies in which the black population vastly out¬ numbers the white cannot be entrusted with responsible government. The Crown Colony system of government, therefore, prevails in our West Indian Islands. Some of these colonies, for example Trinidad and the Windward Islands, are under the complete control of the Colonial Office—while the Bermudas, Barbados, and Jamaica enjoy a measure of self-rule. A federation of the British West India Islands, which would place them under a central local government, has been advocated. These colonies, then made stronger by unity, would be enabled to present their case with more authority to the Imperial Govern¬ ment. They are now divided into a number of small governments, independent of each other—an extravagant system of administration for colonies so impoverished. The annual cost of governors and commissioners is greater in the West Indies than in the vast and rich Dominion of Canada. The wealth of the West Indies built the fortunes of many a noble family and business house in England. It has been said with truth by Mahan, that during the Napoleonic wars "they were the chief support of our commercial strength and credit, which carried us to the triumphant end." The ruin of the West Indies, for the possession of which so much blood and treasure was spent, would prove a great calamity to the Empire. This is the critical period in the history of these colonies. They sorely need fair and sympathetic treatment. But year by year they seem to be getting more isolated from the mother country. Recently, Great Britain abandoned her West Indian Mail Contract and withdrew her garrisons THE BAHAMAS 293 from the islands, though the local defence is at present inadequate, and a small white population dwells in the midst of teeming negroes who have proved themselves to be dangerous on many occasions. The islands cannot lose their great natural resources, and must in time recover their prosperity. They should benefit greatly by the construction of the Panama Canal; for they will be the strategical points of the most important waterway in the world. It is claimed that Jamaica will be the "key of the Panama Canal," for of the West Indian Islands it is the nearest to the mouth of the canal, and it lies on the direct ocean tract to Europe through the Windward Passage. THE BAHAMAS The Bahamas, all of which belong to Great Britain, form an archipelago 600 miles in length, extending from the coast of Florida to that of Hayti. The islands are of coral formation, and, unlike most West Indian Islands, are for the most part low and flat, the highest hills rising a few hundred feet only above the sea- level. The soil is very fertile, and all the fruits and spices and other tropical products indigenous to the West Indies thrive in these islands, even in the northern ones which are outside the torrid zone. The Bahamas contain about twenty inhabited islands and a vast number of little islets (cays), rocks, and reefs. The total area of the group is roughly 55^0 square miles. Great Abaco—which has a length of 80 miles—Great Bahama, and Andres are the largest islands of the group ; but the most important is the little island of New Providence, which is of about the size of the Isle of Wight. This is the only island of the Archipelago which contains a safe and commodious harbour for large vessels; so the capital of the Colony, Nassau, has been established here. Watling Island, in the Bahamas, was the first portion of the New World discovered by Columbus, and was named by him San Salvador. The population of the Bahamas in 1905 294 THE BRITISH \VEST INDIES numbered 58,000, more than two-thirds of the inhabitants being black or coloured. The Bahamas, like other West Indian Islands, have had a stormy history. The Spaniards carried off all the aboriginal inhabitants to perish as slaves in Hispaniola. In 1629 the English began to settle in the depopulated islands. The colonists were ever harassed by the Spaniards, who, on two occasions, drove them out of the principal settlement. New Providence. In 1703, during the war of the Spanish Succession, the French and Spaniards completely destroyed the English settlements and carried off the settlers. The deserted islands then became a great headquarters of pirates. In 1718, England despatched a force to drive out these rufhans, and appointed a governor to the Bahamas. Immigrants now flocked into the islands to cultivate tobacco and cotton. During the American War of Independence we again lost the islands for awhile to Spain, but they were ceded to Great Britain by that Power by the Treaty of Versailles, 1783. The people of the Bahamas were now able to cultivate their lands in peace; but for many years the islanders were notorious wreckers; and during the American Civil War, Nassau became the headquarters of the blockade-runners; money was quickly made and as quickly spent by those engaged in this exciting trade, and for a few years Nassau was not unlike one of the reckless buccaneer centres of the old times. As sugar was not a staple product of the Bahamas, they did not suffer so much as the other West Indian Islands from the ruin of the cane-sugar industry. Among the more important industries of the Bahamas are sponge- gathering, turtle-fishing, and the cultivation of the sisal aloe, from which a hemp fibre is produced. Fruit culture is extensively carried on. There is a large export of pineapples, and to a lesser extent of bananas, oranges, and cocoa-nuts. The Bahamas, with their genial climate, have become a favourite winter resort for Americans. JAMAICA 295 JAMAICA Jamaica (Jamaica is an Indian word meaning the Isle of Springs) is one of the Greater Antilles, and is the largest of the British West Indian Islands. It is twice the size of Norfolk, having an area of 4200 square miles. The small islands called the Caymans, the Turks, and the Caicos are under its government. Along parts of the coast are broad alluvial plains; but the interior of the island is all mountainous. The highest peak of the Blue Mountains—the central range—is 7360 feet above the sea. The ranges are cloven by a fgreat number of ravines and valleys down which pour rapid rivers, of which one only, the Black River, is navigable for small craft. Jamaica is a lovely land of forests and meadov/s, green hills and vales, and running water. The luxuriant vegeta¬ tion of the tropical West Indies is nowhere more glorious than on this island; and as one ascends the mountains into a cooler climate, the forests of satin wood, ebony, and other tropical growth are replaced by the trees of the temperate zone, and the wildernesses of beautiful ferns that clothe the chill and misty summits of the Blue Mountains. The soil is very fertile, and all the products of the West Indies thrive here. In 1891, the island con¬ tained a population of about 640,000, of whom the whites numbered under 15,000. After the capture of Jamaica from Spain in 1655 by the expedition sent by Cromwell, the island was rapidly colonised by people from the British Isles. Jamaica never again changed hands, though several attempts were made to retake it; notably in 1782, when the invasion of the island by the combined fleets of France and Spain was frustrated by Rodney's victory; and in 1806, when the invading French squadron was defeated by Duckworth. But the settlers had to contend with many troubles in addition to war. The Maroons, the black slaves who had escaped from the Spaniards, and had their strongholds in the mountains, harried the settlements for one hundred 296 THE BRITISH AVEST INDIES years. Their descendants, now a peaceable folk, still dwell in the hills of Jamaica. Hurricanes and earthquakes fre¬ quently destroyed the settlements and plantations. But, despite all, the colony flourished exceedingly; the cultiva¬ tion of sugar cane was widely extended, and hundreds of thousands of African slaves were imported. Jamaica was the headquarters of the English buc¬ caneers until 1670, when they were expelled from the island on our making peace with Spain. The emancipa¬ tion of the slaves and the fiscal changes that followed this measure were disastrous to Jamaica as to the other islands. In 1865, a formidable insurrection of the negroes was promptly put down by Governor Eyre, who—as occasion¬ ally happens to our high officials in Greater Britain when they have served their country well—was persecuted and ruined by well-meaning but ill-advised philanthropists at home. Jamaica, which had enjoyed representative government for two centuries, was deprived of its consti¬ tution after the suppression of the insurrection, and was placed wholly under the control of the Home Government as a Crown Colony. But in 1884 a measure of self-rule was given to the colony, and the elected members now compose nearly one-half of the legislative council. Large numbers of East Indian coolies and Chinese have been imported to work on the plantations in Jamaica. The depression of the sugar trade has led to the introduc¬ tion of various new agricultural industries, among others the cultivation of tobacco and cinchona, the latter of which, however, has not proved successful. The area of land under sugar cane has been greatly reduced. Ex¬ cellent coffee and various other staple products of the tropics are raised, and cattle breeding on a considerable scale is made possible by the excellence of the pastures. But by far the most important industry of the island is the cultivation of fruit, principally of bananas, and to a smaller extent of oranges, pineapples, etc., for export. Of the total value of Jamaica's exports, fruit now represents as much as 60 per cent, sugar 8 per cent, rum 7 per cent, coffee 6 per cent Next in importance as articles of export THE LEEAVARD ISLANDS 297 are dye-woods, and that special product of Jamaica, pimento. Kingston (47,000 inhabitants) is the official and com¬ mercial capital of the colony. It stands on the sloping shores of an extensive bay, which forms the finest harbour in the West Indies. Port Royal, the wicked old buccaneer centre, and now an important and strongly fortified British naval base and coaling station, is at the end of a long sandy spit, commanding the entrance to Kingston harbour. Old Port Royal was practically swallowed up by a great earthquake in 1692; and in January 1907 Kingston was partly destroyed by an earthquake, which caused great loss of life. Among other towns of some importance are Spanish Town, the former capital, and the ports of Montego Bay and Port Antonio. THE LEEWARD ISLANDS The Leeward Islands, according to their geographical definition, include the large French island of Guadaloupe, and some small islands belonging to France, Denmark, and Holland. The remainder of the group constitute the British Colony of the Leeward Islands, which is divided, as has been already stated, into five presidencies. Each of these has its separate administration, while Antigua is the seat of the Federal Government. The Leeward Islands are Crown Colonies, there being no representation of the inhabitants in the legislature. The largest of the islands, Dominica, is twice the size of the Isle of Wight, but no other island of the group approaches it in size, and the total area of the colony is only 675 square miles. In 1901, the population amounted to about 128,000, mostly black and coloured. A large proportion of these descendants of the African slaves have become peasant proprietors, and find a market for their sugar-cane crops in the central sugar factories which have been established in some of the islands. The Leeward Islands, with the exception of Antigua, are mountainous, well wooded, and of volcanic origin. Dominica was won by conquest, but the other 298 THE BRITISH AVEST INDIES islands were acquired by occupation, and were inhabited by Caribs only, when the early English settlers came to them. They have preserved a distinctly British character, though they changed hands frequently during the old wars. Antigua Antigua has not the mountainous character of the other islands, and is largely of coral formation. Its area is about two-thirds that of the Isle of Wight. It is the seat of the government of a presidency as well as of the Federal Government. St Johns is the capital. English adventurers settled here in 1632 ; thirty years later Charles II. granted the island to Lord Willoughby; in 1666 the French captured it, but it was restored to England by the Treaty of Breda in the following year. Sugar is still the staple product of the island, and cotton is now extensively cultivated. St Christopher or St Kitts St Kitts is the seat of government of the second presi¬ dency. The centre of this beautiful little island is occupied by a volcanic mountain mass culminating in the peak of Mount Misery, which is nearly as high as Ben Nevis. There is but little uncultivated land on the island, the cane plantations spreading over the fertile coast plains and high up the slopes of Mount Misery. Basseterre is the capital. Though St Kitts has an area of only 68 square miles, room was found for its colonisation by two nationalities at the same time. A party of Englishmen settled in the island in 1624, and it is thus the oldest of our West Indian possessions. In the following year the settlers fraternised with a body of French buccaneers, and the island was divided between them. The result was trouble in St Kitts whenever France and England were at war. On several occasions the English were driven out of the island and their settlements were destroyed. The island was taken and retaken. The last occasion on which St Kitts—together with the bulk of our West Indian Islands THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 299 —fell into the hands of France, was in 1781. But soon Rodney's great victory over De Grasse's fleet off Dominica checked France's course of conquest, and saved for Great Britain her West Indian possessions. Dominica Dominica, which constitutes the third presidency, is not only by far the largest island of the colony (its area is 291 square miles), but also contains the highest moun¬ tains, its bold volcanic peaks rising to a height of consider¬ ably over 5000 feet. In beauty of scenery and luxuriance of vegetation it rivals Jamaica. The boiling springs and the sulphurous vapours that are emitted from the ground show that the volcanic agencies are here still active. The soil is very fertile. Sugar is no longer the most important product of Dominica ; cocoa, limes, coffee, and fruit having superseded it. Roseau is the capital. Dominica was first settled by the French in 1625, but both English and Spanish adventurers also established themselves there. The British captured it from the French during the Seven Years' War, and it was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris, 1763. During the subsequent wars France retook and lost it twice. The long French occupation has left its traces on the island, for the negro peasants speak a French patois and are mostly Roman Catholics. Montserrat The fourth of the presidencies of the Leeward Islands is a little larger than the island of Guernsey. Volcanic, mountainous, and most picturesque in shape, it rises steeply from the blue sea, and contains beautiful scenery within the folds of its hills. It is one of the healthiest islands in the West Indies. Active souffrihes and boiling springs proclaim the volcanic energies beneath. Mont¬ serrat was settled by the English in 1632, and, like most of these islands, was captured and lost in turns by English and French until 1783, when its possession was confirmed to Great Britain by the Peace of Versailles. Plymouth is the chief town. The cultivation of limes—from which is 300 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES manufactured the lime juice for which Montserrat is famous—is the principal industry; the cultivation of cotton comes next in importance; and sugar planting, once the principal industry, has been relegated to the third place. In 1899, nearly all the lime trees on the island were destroyed by one of those violent hurricanes to which the West Indies are subject. The Virgin Islands This group of about one hundred small islands stretches across the passage between the Greater and Lesser Antilles. St Thomas and St John belong to Denmark; the remainder of the islands, of which Tortola, Anegada, and Virgin Gorda are the principal, make up the fifth presidency of the Leeward Islands. The Dutch buccaneers had their head¬ quarters in the Virgin group. In 1666, the English drove the buccaneers out of Tortola, and formed settlements in the islands. Roadtown, in Tortola, is the capital. There is a limited production of sugar, cotton, and other West Indian products in these islands; cattle are raised, and a considerable portion of the population is engaged in sea fishing. THE WINDWARD ISLANDS All the Windward Islands, with the exception of the French island of Martinique, belong to Great Britain. The British Windward Islands comprise the three colonies of Grenada, St Vincent, and St Lucia, which are all under one governor, the seat of the government being in Grenada. There is no Federal Legislative Council as in the Leeward Islands. Each of the three colonies has its own administration, and is governed as a Crown Colony, there being no representative element in the legislature. Their total area is 508 square miles, and their population amounts to about 168,000, mostly negro and coloured. The Windward Islands are wonderfully beautiful, and are very fertile. They are of volcanic formation. The last volcanic eruptions occurred in 1902, when, in the THE WINDWARD ISLANDS 301 islands of Martinique and St Vincent, enormous destruc¬ tion was wrought, and thousands of people perished. The Windward Islands were colonised later than the others in the West Indies, for here the warlike Caribs held their own for a long time against the Europeans. In 1627 King Charles II. assigned these islands with the Caribbees to the Earl of Carlisle, and at about the same time the French king granted them to a com¬ pany of French adventurers. So English and French disputed the possession of the islands for a century and a half, and were generally fighting each other when they were not defending their coast settlements against the Caribs. On most of the Windward Islands the French became predominant; but all the islands, with the excep¬ tion of Martinique, after changing hands several times, were secured to Great Britain by the successful wars which she waged in the eighteenth century. Grenada Grenada, the southernmost of the Antilles, is some¬ what smaller than the Isle of Wight. Between it and St Vincent extends a chain of small islands called the Grenadines, of which a portion, including the largest island of the group, Cariacou, are under the government of Grenada, and the remainder under that of St Vincent. Grenada is an isle of mountains and beautiful and fertile valleys. The climate is healthy. St George, the capital, is most picturesquely situated on a land-locked bay surrounded by wooded hills, that makes an excellent and spacious harbour. The French established themselves in Grenada in the middle of the seventeenth century, and exterminated the Caribs. Grenada was ceded to Great Britain by the Peace of 1763, all the French West Indies having been captured by Rodney in the previous year. France recovered it and other islands during the War of American Independence; but Rodney once more saved the West Indies for his country by his crowning victory off Dominica, and Grenada was returned to Great Britain by the Peace of Versailles, 1783. About one-third of the 302 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES island is under cultivation, good crops of cocoa and other West Indian products being raised on the fertile soil. Valuable cabinet woods are plentiful in the forests. St Vincent This is a beautiful island of about the same size as Grenada, traversed by high; volcanic ranges covered with a luxuriant vegetation. The Souffriere, a volcanic peak 3000 feet in height, broke into violent eruption in 1718, 1812, and 1902. The Caribs, who intermingled with fugitive negro slaves, proved more formidable in St Vincent than in any other island. English and French, though they successively wrested St Vincent from each other, had but a nominal possession of it. It was not until the island was definitely ceded by France to England by the Peace of 1783, that emigration and cultivation really commenced; and the Caribs still harassed the colony so persistently that, in 1797, the bulk of them were deported to British Honduras. The Caribs still remaining on the island have a separate settlement assigned to them. There are few signs of the French occupation in this island, and the white population is of British descent. Kingstown is the capital and chief port. St Vincent has suffered from a succession of disasters within the last few years. In 1898 a terrific hurricane destroyed the planta¬ tions. The eruption of the Souffriere volcano in 1902 ruined one-third of the island with lava streams and falling ashes. The staple products of the West Indies, including arrowroot of an exceptional quality, are cultivated in the island. St Lucia St Lucia, with an area of 233 square miles, is the largest of the Windward Islands, but is more thinly populated than the others, being mostly covered with tropical forest. This island cannot be surpassed in beauty; the picturesque ranges that traverse it culminate in the lofty peaks of extinct volcanoes ; the most luxuriant vegetation clothes it from the highest summits down to THE WINDWARD ISLANDS 303 the seashore, even the almost perpendicular sides of the famous Pitons—two majestic obelisks of rock nearly 3000 feet in height which border the Bay of Souffriere—are nearly covered with this dense tropical growth of trees and bush. Volcanic forces are active throughout the island, notably in the weird Souffriere valley, which is a typical West Indian solfatara. This is a barren hollow—a great scar amid the surrounding rich vegetation—where the thin crust of dried Sulphurous mud that covers the tumultuous cauldrons below trembles under one's feet. The valley is full of streams of boiling water and pools of boiling mud. Enormous jets of sulphurous steam rush with great force and noise from cavities in the volcanic rocks; and the whole valley is stained a ghastly yellow with the flowers of sulphur deposited by the Condensation of the fumes. St Lucia has had a stirring history, and no West Indian island has seen more fighting. Both English and French settled on it; and it wasTaken and retaken in the wars between the two countries from the time of its first occupation in 1637 to the downfall of Napoleon L, its possession being finally secured to England by the Peace of 1814. It was regarded by both England and France as a most valuable colony, well worth the fighting for; so much so, that when France regained it by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, it almost compensated her, in the opinion of many, for the loss of Canada. In St Lucia the French occupation lasted longer, and was more effective than our own; consequently a large portion of the population is of French descent, old French laws are still in force, and the black peasantry mostly speak a French patois and are Roman Catholics. Castries, the capital of the colony, is at the head of a spacious land-locked bay which is one of the best harbours of our West Indian possessions. Rodney, realising the great advantages of this harbour—the base from which he sailed to win his great victory—recom¬ mended the Government, when arranging the treaty of peace, to retain St Lucia and make Castries a permanent 304 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES naval station. His advice was disregarded, and it was not until 1885 that the works were commenced which have made Castries a fortified naval base and coaling station. The biggest steamers can lie alongside the wharves to coal, and Castries has become an important commercial as well as naval port. The principal products of the island are sugar and cocoa. BARBADOS Geographically, Barbados is one of the Windward Islands, and it is indeed to windward of them all, being the easternmost of the West India Isles, and 80 miles distant from its nearest neighbour. But politically it is a separate colony; it has from the first enjoyed a large measure of self-rule, and now has a House of Assembly elected by the inhabitants. Barbados is one of our oldest colonies, and unlike most of the Antilles, was acquired not by conquest but by settlement. The then uninhabited island was annexed in the name of James I. in 1605. Its settlement commenced in 1625, since which it has ever remained in the possession of the English, never having changed hands during the wars. But the settlers in Barbados had their full share of fighting in those stormy times. Ever fervently loyal to the Crown, they espoused the royal cause during the civil wars, and on hearing of the execution of Charles I., proclaimed his son king. Cromwell had to despatch a strong expedition to reduce them to submission. Five years later, in 1650, the Barbadians sent a considerable force of volunteers to assist in the conquest of Jamaica. In 1665 they repelled a Dutch invading force, commanded by the great De Ruyter himself. With men and money they lent assistance to Rodney when he was winning the West Indies for his country; and, in short, played a gallant part in every war that was fought by England in the Caribbean Sea down to the fall of Napoleon. Barbados still remains the most British in character of all our West Indian Islands. BARBADOS 305 Barbados, having an area of i66 square miles, is rather larger than the Isle of Wight. It is encircled by coral reefs and is mostly of coral formation. It is undulating, and its highest summits are under 1200 feet above the sea. It is far the most densely populated island in the West Indies, containing within its narrow bounds 200,000 inhabitants, of whom about one-tenth are white. It was the first of our West Indian colonies to cultivate the sugar cane. In the early days white bondsmen, mainly political prisoners such as those who joined Monmouth's rebellion, worked on the plantations. The supply of these failing, great numbers of African slaves were imported. All the forest and bush was cleared, and practically the entire island was brought under cultivation. The absence of wild land wherein to squat and live at ease has com¬ pelled the Barbadian negro to work in order to support himself, and consequently the emancipation of slavery was not so disastrous to Barbados as to our other West Indian colonies. Sugar is still the staple product, and the sugar-cane plantations cover most of the island from the hill-tops to the shore. Unlike the other islands, Barbados has the appearance of an old settled country. Here one sees no trackless jungles; good roads of dazzling whiteness—for they are metalled with snowy coral—form a close network throughout the carefully cultivated country; scattered over the hills and valleys are the pleasant habitations of the planters, each sur¬ rounded by its plantations, boiling-houses, and wind¬ mills—the latter a prominent feature of the Barbadian landscape, for the trades blow strongly here for the greater part of the year, and wind power is more largely used than steam. The strong trade winds and the absence of swamps render the climate of Barbados remarbably healthy for the tropics, and malaria is unknown. The island is occasionally visited by destructive hurricanes. There is no sheltered harbour in Barbados, the safest port being Carlisle Bay, an open roadstead, on whose shore stands the capital of the colony, Bridgetown. U 306 THE BRITISH WEST INDIES TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Trinidad This is the southernmost of the West India Islands, and, after Jamaica, the largest one in the possession of Great Britain. It has an area of about 1800 square miles, and therefore approaches the county of Norfolk in size. It lies close to the South American mainland, of which it once formed part. From its north-western and south¬ western extremities two promontories project towards the Venezuelan coast, thus enclosing the Gulf of Paria. This shallow, land-locked gulf, turbid with the mud that is poured into it through the mangrove-fringed mouths of the Orinoco, makes a safe roadstead of the whole western shore of Trinidad. The island is traversed by ranges which attain the height of our Cumberland mountains; it contains extensive alluvial, very fertile plains, and in places the coast, like that of the opposite mainland, is swampy and unhealthy. Trinidad remained in the possession of Spain for three centuries. In 1797 a British expedition under Abercromby captured the island, and it was ceded to Great Britain in 1802 by the Peace of Amiens. It is a Crown Colony, the members of both the executive and legislative councils being appointed by the Crown. Trinidad contains a population of about 310,000, of whom the vast majority are black and coloured, and over a quarter are natives of the East Indies. Among the white inhabitants, the descendants of the Spanish and French settlers are numerous. After the emancipa¬ tion of the slaves, large numbers of coolies were imported from the East Indies, many of whom have settled per¬ manently on the islands, and cultivate cocoa and fruit on their holdings. Sugar and cocoa are the principal products of the island, and the forests supply valuable cabinet and dye woods. The asphalt procured from the famous pitch lake near La Brea is a valuable article of export. This vast asphalt deposit covers an area of 7.S • » ) V C.Bornaxio' THE WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA Scale ; 1:20,000.000 f.nfiU.'ih Miles aydin.1. ifangu '£yjis dt. '^rovidenda. Cold Pri vidence-1 ^SAndrewI. } SJuancLd ilatinaB. c„BUT^"qi' I ^ Punta^ ,wnuirui> T^jjoyonavi^a GtSTQiphOip kSon Z^, ^ , -r-i-.«- »-.i -ic. TkelonJav GeogrofUaZ rnstUuU- L.oiid.011. JolmMuxTay, AlbeiruLrle Street. ester, r -t r vr TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 307 lOO acres. Over the greater portion of the lake the asphalt is hard enough to walk upon; but in places it issues from crater-like openings in the form of a semi¬ fluid tar. Through the water pools that are scattered over the lake inflammable and noxious gases are ever bubbling. The great holes that are made by the work¬ men while extracting this product soon fill up again with the viscous pitch, which wells up from below in a seemingly inexhaustible supply. Valuable deposits of petroleum have recently been discovered on the island. Port of Spain, the capital and principal port of the colony, has a population of over 56,000. It is one of the finest towns in the West Indies; but the towns of the British West India Islands are, with few exceptions, but poor places. Tobago Tobago, which formerly formed part of the colony of the Windward Isles, is now a ward of Trinidad and is under the government of that island. It is one- third smaller than the Isle of Wight, and is 18 miles to the north-east of Trinidad. It has a population of about 20,000. Scarborough is the chief town. British, French, and Dutch fought for its possession, and held and colonised it in turn. Captured from the French in 1793, it was finally ceded to Great Britain by the Peace of 1814. Sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, are among the principal products. BRITISH CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA INTRODUCTORY Whereas North America was mainly colonised by the English and French; the Spanish and Portuguese divided Southern America between them, a comparatively small portion of this huge territory falling into the hands of the English, French, and Dutch. The English made many attacks upon the Spanish and Portuguese settlements, but attempted to establish colonies on those portions of the coast only which Spain had neglected to occupy. The early attempts at colonisation in Guiana, Darien, and elsewhere met with little success; and the English failed, too, in their endeavours to acquire territory in this portion of the world by conquest from Spain. During the Napoleonic wars a formidable British force invaded Buenos Ayres, fell into an ambush, and had to capitulate. Had it not been for the incompetence of the general responsible for this disaster. Great Britain might have possessed a flourishing colony in the rich land of Argentina with its temperate climate and prolific soil. At the time of the American War of Independence, Great Britain did not own a foot of land in Central or South America. Her present possessions, all of comparatively recent acquisition, include British Guiana and British Honduras on the mainland, both by geographical position and political history closely connected with the West Indies, and the remote Falkland Islands near the southern extremity of the continent. 808 BRITISH GUIANA 309 BRITISH GUIANA Guiana in its widest sense embraces a large extent of territory lying between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and so comprises portions of Brazil and Venezuela as well as . the colonies of British, French, and Dutch Guiana. Lying within the torrid zone, the Equator traversing its southern part, Guiana is a region where tropical heat, great humidity, and a most fertile alluvial soil favour the growth of a luxuriant vegetation. Here the climatic conditions are the reverse of those which regulate the rainfall in British North America. In the latter region, the prevailing winds are the westerly, which, having crossed the Pacific, deposit the bulk of their moisture on the Cordillera, so that to the eastward of the mountains, the rainfall is small and the vegetation comparatively scanty. On the other hand, in tropical South America the pre¬ vailing winds are the hot and moist easterly trade winds that cross the Atlantic; they drop heavy tropical rains over the continental plains, and yielding their remaining moisture when they are intercepted by the lofty Andes, feed the sources of the Amazon and Orinoco, whose innumerable branches flow back to the Atlantic, draining a vast forest land of prodigious vegetation and teeming insect life. After Columbus's discovery of Guiana, the Spaniards made no effectual occupation of this coast; and from an early date the Dutch attempted to establish settlements upon it. Sir Walter Raleigh, the father of British colonisation in the New World, first drew the attention of his countrymen to this region. In 1595 he explored the Orinoco in search of the El Dorado; twenty years later he renewed his vain quest, got into conflict with the Spaniards, and was executed, because James I., subservient to Philip III., discountenanced that informal "singeing of the King of Spain's beard " which had been tolerated in Queen Elizabeth's time. In 1604 the English founded a settlement on the Gyapok, the river that now forms the 310 BRITISH CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA boundary between French Guiana and Brazil, but abandoned it after a few years. On the Surinam, also, the English and French planted small colonies and cultivated tobacco. But the Dutch were the most successful settlers ; they introduced African slaves, extended their colonies eastwards from the Essequibo, and conquered from Portugal portions of Brazil. By the Treaty of Breda, 1667, Holland practically acquired the whole of Guiana. During the wars of the eighteenth century the Guiana colonies, like the West Indian Islands, changed hands according to the fortunes of war; most of them were captured by Great Britain in 1803 ; and, finally, by the general peace of 1814 the partition of Guiana was arranged as it stands now. Holland retained her possessions, with the exception of Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo, which were ceded to Great Britain, while France recovered her colony in eastern Guiana. British Guiana, comprising the three counties of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice, which take their names from the three principal rivers of the colony, lies between Venezuela and Dutch Guiana; it has 300 miles of coast-line, and its extreme length from north to south is 550 miles, its southern extremity being about 80 miles from the Equator. It is bordered on the south by Brazil, being divided from it by the Acarai Mountains, the range < which forms the watershed between the Essequibo and Amazon. The long disputed boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela was settled by arbitration in 1899, and that between it and Brazil in 1904. The area of the colony is not accurately known, but is approxi¬ mately 100,OCX) square miles, thus considerably exceeding the area of the island of Great Britain. The whole of Guiana from the Amazon to the Orinoco presents similar physical features. It is naturally divided into three parallel belts: i. The low-lying coast plains; 2. the undulating savannahs; 3. the mountainous interior. The coast plain is formed by the silt which is ever being brought down in immense quantities by the Amazon, Essequibo, Orinoco, and other rivers. In British Guiana BRITISH GUIANA 311 this plain has an average breadth of 50 miles. In many parts it is impossible to distinguish where the plain ends and the sea begins; for so gradual is the slope of this alluvial deposit that a ship grounds on the soft mud when out of sight of land; along the shore the mangroves and trees grow out of the shallow sea, and leagues of slime form a neutral zone between land and water. But if one sails up the river estuaries that pierce these wastes of mud, one reaches a country as fair and rich as any in the tropics. The coast plain of British Guiana is a tropical Holland. Here our predecessors the Dutch cleared the swampy jungles and dense forests, and constructed great dykes which keep out the sea at high tide, while at low tide the dyke gates are opened to allow exit to the ocean of the waters that drain off the plantations through networks of canals and ditches. This reclaimed soil is of inexhaustible fertility, and yields magnificent crops of all sorts of tropical produce. Within the coast plain extends the broad belt of the savannahs, which attains a height of 1500 feet. The savannahs are undulating, sandy in places, and covered with long grass, with occasional bush and forest, more especially by the river banks. The savannahs gradually merge into the forest-clad mountainous region of the interior. The highest known summit of these little explored ranges is Roraima, 8600 feet, the point where British Guiana, Brazil, and Venezuela meet. This is an extraordinary flat-topped mass of pink sandstone with precipitous inaccessible sides —"like a huge fortification surrounded by a gigantic glacis." The plateau at its summit extends over many leagues; several streams have their sources upon it, and fall in magnificent cascades over the sheer precipices, to feed the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the Essequibo. This beautiful mountain region is for the most part clothed with the gigantic and often impenetrable growth of the primeval tropical forest. Here the trees, which are often covered with gorgeous blossoms, attain a monstrous size; their branches, hung with orchids, are intricately linked together 312 BRITISH CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA with masses of twisted creepers. In some places the tangled vegetation is so dense that, choking, it struggles upwards for light and air, the trees and the parasitic growth of creepers bearing no leaves or blossoms or fruit, until where the tree-tops feel the wind and sunshine; and here the whole forest becomes covered as with a thick blanket of rank foliage, so effectually veiling the light that on the ground far beneath there is the complete darkness and the dankness of a cavern. In these forests valuable cabinet woods abound. Throughout all Guiana, plant growth is amazingly luxuriant, not the least so being the aquatic vegetation of the rivers and swamps. The glorious Victoria Regia^ the largest of all water-lilies, was first dis¬ covered in Guiana. British Guiana is a very well-watered country. The largest of its rivers is the Essequibo, with a course of 600 miles; it traverses the entire length of the colony, and has the Cuyuni, Mazaruni, and other fine rivers as its tributaries. The Essequibo is navigable for small vessels for 150 miles. The Corentyn, Berbice, and Demerara rivers are also navigable for considerable distances. The upper and middle stretches of the rivers, though the navigation is interrupted by frequent rapids and cascades, afford com¬ munication with the interior by means of canoes. The Kaieteur Falls of the Potaro, a tributary of the Essequibo, are 822 feet in height and 370 in width, forming one of the finest of the world's cataracts. In this hot moist land of luxuriant vegetation there is naturally a rich and teeming animal life. Jaguars, tapirs, manatee, bears, monkeys of various species, and the other wild creatures of tropical South America are found here. Alligators and fish swarm in the rivers; there is a most prolific insect life, and a great variety of parrots, toucans, and other birds of gorgeous plumage. The climate is hot, but, save on certain parts of the coast lowlands, not unhealthy for a country so near to the Equator. The thermometer ranges from 75° to 95° F., the mean annual temperature at Georgetown being 81° F. There are two rainy seasons, one from the beginning of BRITISH GUIANA 313 December to the middle of February, the other from the beginning of May to the middle of August. Tlie annual rainfall ranges from 75 to 130 inches. Only the outer fringe of this rich land has been occupied ^ by Europeans. The great bulk of British Guiana is the undisputed domain of savage Indians and wild beasts. Colonisation has been wholly confined to the seaboard and to the river banks for a few miles inland. The total area of the land under cultivation amounts to only one-eightieth of the surface of the colony. The population of British Guiana is a very mixed one, in which races of Europe, Africa, America, and Asia are represented. Of the 300,000 inhabitants, the negroes are in the majority, numbering about 120,000; these include the Maroons, the descendants of runaway slaves, who now form practically independent communities in the interior. The East Indians (mainly coolies) number 108,000, and there are also some thousands of Chinese coolies. It is estimated that there are 10,000 aboriginal Indians in the colony— Caribs, Arawaks, and others—who are mainly engaged in fishing and hunting, but also cultivate the cassava they need. Of the 18,000 Europeans, over three-quarters are Portuguese, who emigrated to Guiana from Madeira after the failure of the vines in that island, and are now the small traders of the colony. Sugar is still the staple product of British Guiana, and seven-eighths of the cultivated land is under sugar cane. This region, wherein Raleigh sought the El Dorado, has now become a gold-producing country. Gold is found in various parts of the forest region, and it was the discovery of valuable gold deposits on the western border that led Venezuela to lay claim to territories which a court of arbitration has recently awarded to Great Britain. There is a growing export of diamonds, which are found chiefly in the bed of the Mazaruni River. Georgetown, population 60,000, the capital of the colony, at the mouth of the Demerara River, is a well laid out, bright-looking town, whose great charm it is that the glorious vegetation of the country has been left to U 2 314 BRITISH CENTRAL AND SOUTH AJVIERICA grow in luxuriance between the houses. It presents the appearance not of a city, but of a beautiful grove of tall palms and flower-covered trees and bushes, with habitations scattered through it Here avenues of noble trees border sluggish canals entirely covered with magnifi¬ cent Victoria Regia lilies. The Government of British Guiana is composed of an Executive Council, in which the governor is assisted by members who are officials or nominated by the Crown; a partly elective Court of Policy, whose functions are those of a Legislative Council; and a partly elective Combined Court, whose functions are financial, including the con¬ sideration of expenditure and the levying of taxes. The Dutch Roman Civil Law is still in force in the colony. BRITISH HONDURAS British Honduras, a territory rather larger than Wales, is in Central America, on the shore of the Caribbean Sea. It is wedged in between the republics of Mexico and Guatemala. We owe the possession of this colony to the English buccaneers. These adventurers had several rendezvous on this coast, access to which is rendered difficult by the coral reefs that fringe it Though the land belonged to Spain, the buccaneers established stations upon it, and when not harassing the Spaniards, cut timber in the forests and opened a profitable trade in logwood as far back as 1640. The Spaniards in vain attempted to expel them. The right of the log-cutters to settle in Honduras was recognised by Spain by the Treaty of Paris, 1763; and by the Treaty of Versailles, 1783, Spain, while reserving her sovereignty over the territory, granted to the English the right to cut timber over a certain area. In 1786 the Sibun and Hondo rivers, the present boundaries of the colony, were defined as the limits of this concession. The defeat of a Spanish force which invaded the settlement in 1798, is held to have made it British by right of conquest. British Honduras was not formally declared a colony until 1862, and remained under BRITISH HONDURAS 315 the government of Jamaica until 1884. It is now a separate Crown Colony, the inhabitants having no repre¬ sentation. The climate, vegetation, and animal life of this tropical colony differ little from those of British Guiana. Within the mangrove swamps of the shore lies a belt of rich alluvial soil whereon all the products of tropical America can be grown. The greater part of the interior is covered with primeval forest, but there are also open grassy savannahs and sandy downs, with occasional pine woods. The population, 40,000, contains aboriginal Indians, negroes, Spaniards, descendants of English buccaneers, and many people of mixed blood. Timber- cutting in the forests is still the chief industry of the colony, mahogany and logwood being the staple products. Sugar, cocoa, and tropical fruits are cultivated for export. Belize, the capital, at the mouth of the river of the same name, has an indifferent harbour. THE FALKLAND ISLANDS In the Atlantic, facing the mouth of the Straits of Magellan, and about 250 miles from the nearest land, Tierra del Fuego, lie the bleak and wind-swept Falkland Islands, the most southern of Great Britain's colonies. Great Britain claimed these islands by right of their discovery by Davis in 1592, but as she did not occupy them, French and Spaniards from Buenos Ayres in turn established settlements upon them, and it was not until 1833 that they became a British Crown Colony. The Archipelago contains two large islands. East Falkland and West Falkland, both deeply indented with natural harbours, and a multitude of rocky islets, the total area being about that of Yorkshire. Treeless, grassy downs and peaty bogs cover the surface of the two main islands, and the tussack grass, whose clumps attain a height of 10 feet, is the most conspicuous form of vegetable life. These islands, lying between 51° and 53° south latitude, have an equable but somewhat rigorous climate. 316 BRITISH CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA Neither summer heat nor winter cold is severe, nor is the annual rainfall heavy; but here it is almost always windy, chilly, and wet In all seasons, gale after gale sweeps across the islands, and a drizzling rain falls on most days of the year. The insufficiency of sunshine prevents the successful cultivation of cereals; but the climate and the sweet pastures favour the raising of stock, and sheep farming is the principal industry. The exports from the island are wool, sheep-skins, and tallow. The population, numbering about 2000, is mainly British, but includes some Argentine Guachos. The capital. Port Stanley, is an excellent harbour of refuge, and is useful as a pro¬ visioning and repairing place for whalers and for vessels sailing round Cape Horn. South Georgia, 1200 miles to the eastward of Cape Horn, and other uninhabited islands in the Southern Ocean, which have been annexed to Great Britain, are under the government of the Falkland Islands. INDEX Abaco, Great, 293 Abeokuta, 139 Abyssinia, 37,41 Acadia (Nova Scotia), 189, 237 Acadian Highlands, 211 Accra, 128 Aden, 18 Africa— British Central, Protectorate, 108 British East, Protectorate, 149 British Eastern, 142 British Southern, 42 seqq. British West, 111 Continent, Exploration and Settlement, 33 Partition of, 37 African Islands, 174 Africanders, 58 Akassa, 141 Alaska, 204 Alberta, 205, 251 Alexandria, 165 Algonquins, 218 Aliwal North, 70 Alleghany Mountains, 193, 206 Amatongaland, 72 Amazon River, 183 America, British, History of, 183 British Central and Southern, 308 British North 198 Amirantes, i8g Andes Mountains, 183 Andros, 293 Anegada, 300 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 172 Anglo-French Agreement (Africa), 120, 172 Convention (Newfoundland), 269 Anglo-German Agreement (Africa), 147 Angola, 55 Angra Pequena, 62 Ankole, 153 Anticosti, 222 Antigua, 297, 298 Antilles, 281 817 Appalachian Mountains, 206, 211, 241 Arctic current, 266, 270 Ascension, 18, 174 Ashantis, 125 Asiento, 115, 287 Assiniboine River, 247 Assiut Dam, 168 Assouan, 163 Atbara River, 162 Athabasca River, 211, 216, 251 Avalon, 272 Baffinland, 262 Baganda, 155 Bahamas, 185, 281, 293 Bait Act (Newfoundland), 269 Baker, Mount, 257 Baker, Sir S., 36 Bamangwato, 95 Bangweolo, Lake, 107 "Banket," 93, 113, 128 Bantus, 48, 59, no, 151 Barbados, 283, 304 Barberton, 90 Barotseland, 99, 106 Barren Grounds (Canada), 207, 259, 261 Basseterre, 298 Bastaards, 62 Basutoland, 43, 61, 76 Basutos, 49, 79 Bathurst, 121 Bear Lake, Great, 216, 222, 262 Bechuanaland, 51, 97 Protectorate, 94 Bechuanas, 49, 95 Beira, 55, loi Belgian Colonies, 38 seqq.^ 170 Belize, 315 Benguela, 56, loi Benin, 130, 138, 141 Benue, 132, 133 Berber, 173 Berbera, 158, 159 Berbice, 310, 312 318 INDEX Berea, the, 76 Bermudas, 7, 198, 275 Biafra, 130 Biarne, 184 Bida, 139 Black River, 295 Blantyre, 108, no Bloemfontein, 55, 82 Blue Mountains (Jamaica), 295 Blue Nile, 161 Boethiks, 270 Boksburg, 89 Bombay, 18 Bonny, 135, 141 Boothia, 262 Bornu, 139 Bow River, 253 Brandon, 250 Bras D'Or, 238 Brass River, 132, 141 Bridgetown, 305 Broken Hill, 56 Brown, Mount, 210 Buccaneers, 281, 285, 298, 300, 314 Bulawayo, 55, 105 Bulbar, 158 Burton, 36 Bushmen, 49 Bush Veldt, 46 Bytown (Ottawa), 234 Cabots, 6, 17, 187, 266 Caicos Islands, 295 Caledon River, 77, 81 Calgary, 252, 253 Cameron, 36 Cameroons, 39, in, 117, 131 Canada, 8, 19, 21, 189 seqq.^ 199 seqq. Canada, Dominion, 203 Canadian Canal system, 214 Canadian Pacific Railway, 211, 248, 249, 251, 258 Canadian Railways, 225 seqq. Cape Coast Castle, 129 Cape Colony, 58 seqq. Cape of Good Hope, 5, 45, 50, 54 Cape to Cairo Railway, 55 Carbonear, 273 Cariacou, 301 Cartier, Jacques, 188, 263 Cascade Mountains, 210 Castries, 303 Caymans Islands, 295 Central Africa Protectorate, 108 Central America, British, 308 Cetewayo, 72 Ceuta, 35 Chaba River, 137 Chad, Lake, 36, 133, 136, 137 Chagos Archipelago, 179 Chaka, 71 Champlain, Samuel, 189, 191 Charlotte Islands, 253 Charlotte Town, 244 Chartered Companies, 17, 40, 99, 115, 119, 125, 146, 276, 283 Chaudiere Falls, 235 Chignecto Isthmus, 241 Chilcot Pass, 260 Chiromo, no Chobe, 95 Christiansborg, 129 Churchill River, 217, 250 Coaling stations, 18, 175, 179, 180, 277, 304 Coast (Grain, Gold, Ivory, Slave), 112 Colesberg, 66 Colonial Governments, 15 markets, n systems, 9 trade, 12 Colonies, Crown, 16, 30, 109, 120, 122, 126, 134, 149, 179, 180, 296, 297, 315 Columbia, British, 205, 253 Columbus, 5, 185, 281, 309 Comino, 28 Condominion (Egypt), 172 Congo Free State, 50 Congo, French, 117 Congo River, in Cook, Captain, 254 Coppermine River, 263 Cordilleras, 205, 209 Corentyn River, 312 Corsica, 26 Coureurs de bois, 228 Cromer, Lord, 167 Cuba, 185, 286 Cyprus, 29 Dahomey, 117, 129 Damietta, 162 Dar-es-Salaam, 56 Daro, Mount, 122 Davis Strait, 266 Dawson City, 260 De Kaap Valley, 89 INDEX 319 Delagoa Bay, 145 Delta, Nile, 162 Demerara, 310, 312 De Monts, 189 Dependencies, 16 Diamonds, 52, 67, 70, 82, 89 Diaz, 35 Diego Garcia, 179 Dingaan, 71 " Doctor," the, 65 Dominica, 297, 299 Dongola, 171 Dorobo, 152 Drake, 7 Drakensberg, 71, 73 Dundee, 76 Durban, 18, 55,71, 75 Durham, Lord, 302 Dutch Colonies, 6, 50, 82, 94, 115, 116, 124, 177, 189, 285, 304 East Africa, 142 East African Protectorate, 149 East London, 55, 68, 69 Eastern Woodland Region (Canada), 209 Edmonton, 253 Egypt, 25, 160 Elgon, Mount, 154 Elizabeth, Port, 55 Elmina, 129 Emin Pasha, 147 Entebbe, 156 Ericson, Lief, 184 Eritrea, 41 Eshowe, 6 Eskimos, 219 Esquimalt, 19, 227, 258 Essequibo, 310 River, 310, 312 Exploits River, 265 Falkland Islands, 198, 315 Famagusta, 30 Fantis, 127 Fashoda, 171 Fayum, 162 Ficksburg, 82 Firket, 171 Fisheries (Canadian), 223, 244, 256, 266, 270 seqq. Fishing Admirals (Newfoundland), 267 Fish River, Great, 50 Florida, 195 Forcados River, 132, 141 Fort Churchill, 226 Fort Douglas, 249 Fort Garry, 246, 249 Fort James, 119 Fort Jameson, 106 Fort Rouge, 249 Fort Yorl^ 217 France, He de, 177 Franklin, 261, 262 Fraser River, 211, 217 Valley, 255 Fredericton, 242 Freetown, 123, 124 French Colonies, 5, 25, 41, 117, 126, 129, 133, 142, 170, 177, 180, 192 seqq.^ 284 seqq.^ 295, 301, 303, 308, 315 French shore (Newfoundland), 267, 268 Frobisher, 7 Frontenac, 193 Fulahs, 137 Fundy, Bay of, 199, 238, 239, 242 Gaberones, 96 Galekas, 49 Gallas, 151 Gama, Vasco da, 35 Gambia, 117, 119 River, 119 Gando, 132 Georgetown (Ascension), 174 (British Guiana), 313 Georgia, Gulf of, 257 German Colonies, 37, 42, 94, 98, 124, 129, 145 Gibraltar, 18, 26 Gilbert, Sir H., 7, 188, 266 Goat Island, 214 Gold Coast, 112, 117 Gold Coast Colony, 124 Gold-fields, 74, 81, 89, 92, 97, 104, 107, 113, 128, 256, 260, 313 Goldie, Sir G., 131 Gondoroko, 163 Gordon, General, 166 Graaf Reinet, 70 Grahamstown, 69 Grain Coast, 112 Granary of Britain, 221, 248 Grand Trunk Pacific, 225, 251 Grand Trunk Railway, 225 Great Bear Lake, 216, 222 Great Slave Lake, 216 320 INDEX Great Trek, 6i, 79 Greenland, 184, 207 Grenada, 300, 301 Griqualand, 51 West, 61, 67, 79 Griquas, 62 Guiana, British, 198, 309 Guiana, French, 117, 122 Guinea, Gulf of, iii, 112, 113 Gulf Stream, 270, 278 Gunnbiom, 184 Gwelo, 106 HAFIR, 171 Halifax, 19, 226 Hamilton (Bermuda), 277 Hamilton (Ontario), 236 Harbour Grace, 273 " Harmattan," 112 Harrar, 158 Hausas, 137 Hawkins, 7, 115, 202 Hayti, see Hispaniola "Height of Land," 211, 231 Heligoland, 146 Helluland, 184 Hereros, 49 Hillsborough Bay, 243 "Hinterlands," 39, 117, 196 Hispaniola, 185, 282, 284, 286 Holland, see Dutch Colonies Honduras, British, 198, 314 Hong Kong, 18 Hooker, Mount, 209, 217 Hottentots, 49 Hudson's Bay Company, 189, 204, 244 seqq., 254, 259, 261, 262, ' 263, 274 Huguenots, 58, 190 Hull (Canada), 231 IBADAN, 139, 141 110,136 Ilorin, 141 Imperial defence, 18 federation, 20 India, 6, 7 Ionian Isles, 26 Ivory Coast, 112, 117, 124 JAGERSFONTEIN, 82 Jamaica, 285, 295 Jameson, Fort, 106 Jameson Raid, 85 Jamestown, 176 Jesuits in Canada, 190 Johannesburg, 55, 92 Joliba, 135 Jolliet, 192 Juan da Fuca Strait, 257 Juba River, 150 Kaffir corn, 49 Kaffirs, 49, 60 Kaffraria, 61 Kalahari Desert, 42, 49, 96 Kalomo, 106 Kampala, 156 Kano, 139 Karroo, 46, 64, 70 Kassala, 171 Katunga, no Kebrabassa Rapids, 103 Keewatin, 261 Kei River, 60 Keiskamma River, 60 Kenya, Mountain, 37, 142, 150 Khama, 49, 95 Khartum, 161 Kilima-Njaro, 36, 145 Kilindini, 153 Kimberley, 54, 55, 67, 70 Kingston (Jamaica), 297 (Ontario), 236 Kingstown (St Vincent), 302 Kismayu, 153 Kitchener, Lord, 171 Kivu, 107 Klerksdorp, 89, 93 Klondike, 257 River, 260 Knysna, 65, 68 Komati River, 87, 90 Kroonstadt, 81, 82 Kruger, Paul, 85, 98 Krumen, 124, 129 Kuka, 139 Kumassi, 125, 126, 128, 129 Labrador, 187, 205, 207, 268, 274 La Brea, 306 Labuan, 18 Ladybrand, 82 Ladysmith, 76 Lagos, 126, 130, 140 Lake of the Woods, 204 Lakes, the Great African, in the Great American, 199 Lange Bergen, 64 La Plata River, 183 INDEX 321 Larnaka, 30 La Salle, 192 Laurentian Highlands, 211 Plateau, 207, 261 Laval University, 221 La Verendrye, 249 Leeward Islands, 281, 297 Letters of marque, 284 Lewanika, 49 Liberia, 122, 124 Limpopo River, 43, 86, 87, 98, 102 Livingstone, David, 36, 95, 97, 107 (town), 108 Lobengula, 98 London (Ontario), 236 Logan, Mount, 210 Louis, Port, 178 Louisiana, 192 Luapula (Upper Congo), 107 Lugard, Sir F., 140, 147 Lydenburg, 89 Lynn Canal, 261 M'Gill University, 221 Machucha Mountains, 78 Mackenzie, 262 River, 216, 263 Macleod, 253 M'Clure, 264 Mafeking, 5 5, 70 Magaliesberg, 94 Mah6, 180 Mahon, Port, 26 Majuba Hill, 83 Malopo River, 61 Malta, 18, 27 Maluti Mountains, 78 Mandingos, 120, 123 Manitoba, 205, 221, 244, 247 Lake, 247 Maputi River, 87 Marchand, Captain, 171 Markland, 184 Maroons, 283, 295 Mascarenes, 177 Maseru, 78 Mashonaland, 51, 98, loi Matabele, 83, 99 Matabeleland, loi Matope, no Matoppo Hills, 102 Mauritius, 18, 177 Mayjbwer^ The^ 188 Mealies, 49 Mediterranean, 5, 25 Melville, 262 Mende, 123 Mengo, 156 Merchant Adventurers, 267, 268 Metis, 228, 245 Middelburg, 66, 93 "Middle Passage," 116, 288 Minas, 129 Basin of, 238 Miquelon, 195 Mlanje Plateau, 109 Molopo, 95 Mombasa, 56, 143, 147, 149, 152 Moncton, 243 Monsoon (W. African), 112 Montcalm, 194 Montego Bay, 297 Montreal, 188, 215, 230 Montserrat, 299 Montsioa, 95 Morocco, 41 Moselekatze, 99 Moshesh, 77 Mossel Bay, 55, 68 Mount Misery, 298 Mozambique, 144 Murchison Mountains, 210 Rapids, no Muscat, 144 Mweru, Lake, 107 Nairobi, 153 Namaqualand, 67 Great, 40 Nassau, 293 Natal, 50, 71 Navigation Acts, 10, 115, 196 Nelson, Lord, 8 (British Columbia), 259 New Brunswick, 241 Newcastle (Natal), 76 Newfoundland, 7, 187, 195, 198, 265 Banks, 266, 271 New Providence, 293 Ngami, Lake, 43, 96 Niagara, 214 Nieuwveld Bergen, 64 Niger, 36, 135 Niger Company, 130 Nigeria, 117, 129, 134 Nikosia, 30 Nile, 36, in, 160, 161 Northern Railway of Canada, 226 322 INDEX Northern Territories (Africa), 126, 128 Northumberland Strait, 243 North-West Passage, 263, 264, 266 North-West Territories, 246, 252, 259 Notre Dame Mountains, 211 Nova Gallia, 189 Nova Scotia, 236 Nun, 136, 141 Nyanza, Lake Albert, 107, 147, 154 Albert Edward, 107, 154 Victoria, 149, 154 Nyassa, Lake, 107, 108, 109 Nyassaland, 109 Oil Rivers Protectorate, 130, 132, 141 Old Calabar, 141 Olifants River, 87 Omdurman, 171 Ontario, Lake, 199, 234 Ontario, Province, 232 Orange River, 43, 44, 64, 78 Orange River Colony, 78 Orinoco, 186 Ottawa, 203, 234 River, 189, 214 Oyapok River, 309 Paarl, the, 70 Panama, 254 Canal, 293 Isthmus, 186 Park, Mungo, 36, 136 Parr Town, 242 Peace River, 216, 251 Pemba, 145, 157 Pietermaritzburg, 75 Pietersburg, 55, 93 Pilgrim Fathers, 188 "Pioneer Expedition" (Mashona- land), 98 Placentia, 267, 273 Plateau, Great (East Africa), 150, 133 Great Southern, 43, 45, 80, 86, 102, 106 Plymouth (Montserrat), 299 Pondoland, 61 Pontiac, 195 "Pope's Line," 7, 114,186 Port Alfred, 67 Antonio, 297 -aux-Basques, 272, 273 Port Churchill, 261 Elizabeth, 55, 68, 69 Florence, 149 Louis, 178 Natal (Durban), 75 of Spain, 307 Royal (Nova Scotia), 189, 190 (Jamaica), 297 Severn, 261 Shepstone, 73 Simpson, 226, 259 Stanley, 316 Sudan, 56 Portal, Sir G., 148 Portuguese Colonies, 6, 35, 42, 58, 71,114, 115,124, 143, 174, 180, 185, 308 Potchefstroom, 93 Prairie Region (Canada), 209 Pretoria, 55, 92 Prince Albert Land, 262 Prince Edward Island, 243 Prince Rupert, 259 Protectorates, 16, 117, 126, 130, 132, 143, 147, 148, 156, 157 Pygmies, 155 Qu'appelle River, 250 Quathlamba, 73 Quebec, 189, 195, 226, 229 Province, 227 Quorra, 135 Railways, African, 54, 76, 81, 93, loi, 106 Canadian, 225, 261, 272, 273 Raleigh, Sir W., 17, 187, 283, 309 Rand, the, 85, 90 Red Indians, 218 Red River, 245, 247 Red River Concession, 246 Red Sea, 160 Regina, 251 Reindeer Lake, 222 Restigouche, 241 Rdunion, 177 Rhode Island, 184 Rhodes, C. J., 40, 51, 84,197, 108 Rhodesia, 96 Northern, 106 Southern, loi Richelieu River, 215 Richmond Bay, 243 Rideau Canal, 234 Riel's Rebellions, 201, 246, 247 INDEX 323 Rift Valley, East African, 151, 154 Great Central, 107, 109, 154 Rinderpest, 47 Roadtown, 300 Rocky Mountains, 183, 205 Rodriguez Island, 16, 177, 179 Roraima Mountains, 311 Roseau, 299 Rosetta, 162 Rossland, 259 Royal Military College, Kingston (Ontario), 226, 336 Rudolf, Lake, 149, 151 Rustenburg, 94 Ruwenzori, 155 Sabi, 43, 102 Saguenay River, 214 Sahara, 33, 117, 160 St George (Bermuda), 277 (Grenada), 301 St Helena, 18, 175 St Hyacinthe, 231 St John, 242 St John River, 241, 242 St Johns (Antigua), 298 Newfoundland, 265, 272 St Kitts, 283, 298 St Lawrence, Gulf, 243, 265 St Lawrence River, 183 St Lucia, 300, 302 St Lucia Bay, 76 St Mary's Isle, 121 St Maurice River, 215 St Pierre, 195 St Salvador, 185 St Vincent, 300, 302 Saldanha Bay, 68 Salisbury, 98, 105 San Salvador, 293 Sands River Convention, 83 Sapele, 141, 250 Saskatchewan, 205 Sault St Marie Canal, 215 Savannahs, 311 Scarborough (Trinidad), 307 Sebaki River, 150 Sekondi, 128, 129 Sekukuni, 83 Selous, 98 Senegal, 117 Senegambia, 37, 137 Serowe, 96 Seychelles, The, 179 Shari, 137 Shepstone, Port, 73 Sherboro, 122, 123 Shickshock Mountains, 211 Sherbrooke, 231 Shire River, 109 Highlands, 109, no Sierra Leone, 121 Simons Bay, 63 Town, 18, 68 Singapore, 18 Skagway, 261 Slave Coast, 112 Lake, Great, 216, 262 Slavery abolished, 288 Sleeping sickness, 155 Sneeuw Bergen, 64 Sofala, 143 Sokoto, 132, 137, 139 Somaliland Protectorate, 41, 157 Somalis, 151 Somers Islands (Bermudas), 275 South African Constabulary, 36 South America, British, 308 South Sea Company, 287 Georgia, 316 Spanish Colonies, 6, 186, 276, 282 seqq.^ 286, 295, 30^ 308, 315 Town, 297 Spear, Cape, 272 Speke, 36 Stamp Acts, 197 Stanley, 36 Stone River, 250 Suakim, 167 Subarctic Forest (Canada), 209, 250, 259, 262 Sudan, in Anglo-Egyptian, 148 French, 117 Suez Canal, 25, 161, 163 Sugar Loaf, 124 Sugar plantations, 287 Surinam River, 310 Swahili, 152 Swaziland, 84 Swazis, 49 Sydney (Nova Scotia), 240 Table Bay, 58, 68 -cloth, 65 Tana River, 145, 150, 158 Tanganyika, Lake, 50, 107, 154 Tangiers, 26 Tarkwa, 128 324 L\DEX Tel-el-Kebir, 165 Temne, 123 Three Rivers, 231 Thomson, Joseph, 132 Tierra del Fuego, 315 Tinnehs, 219 Tobago, 307 Togoland, 39, 117, 129 Toro, 153 Toronto, 234 University, 221 Tortola, 300 Transkei, 61 Transvaal, 51, 82 Constitution, 94 Travelling Commissioners (Gam¬ bia), 120 Trek, Great, 61, 79 Trincomalee, 18 Trinidad, 18^ 280, 306 Tripoli, 41, 139 Tristan d'Acunha, 176 Tsetse fly, 47, no Tshi negroes, 127 Tugela River, 72, 73 Turks Island, 295 Uganda, 40, 143, i47, i53 Uganda Protectorate, 153 Uitlanders, 85 Umtali, 106 United Empire Loyalists, 220, 231, 236, 237, 241, 242 Umvolosi River, 71 Umzimkulu, 73 Ungava, 222, 262 Unyoro, 153 Utrecht, 72, 86 Vaal River, 64, 87 Valetta, 28 Vancouver, 204, 258 Island, 253 Veldt, 46, 88, 94 Vereeniging, 89 Victoria (British Columbia), 257 (Seychelles), 18, 180 (Southern Rhodesia), 106 Victoria Falls, 55, 103 Vinland, 184 Virginia, 188 Virgin Gorda, 300 Islands, 300 Volta, 127 Vryburg, 56 Vryheid, 72, 86 Wady Halfa, 167 Walfish Bay, 61 Wankie coal-fields, loi Wari, 141 Waterways, Canadian, 216 Watling Island (San Salvador), 293 Welland Canal, 215 Wepener, 82 West Africa, British, in West Indies, British, 198, 278 Western Forest Belt (Canada), 209 Westminster (British Columbia), 259 White Nile, 161 Pass (Klondike), 260 Willoughby, Sir H., 6 Windward Islands, 281, 300 Winnipeg, 209, 217, 246, 249 Lake, 247, 261 River, 247 Winnipegosis, Lake, 247 Witu, 145 Witwatersrand, 85, 86, 90 Wolfe, 195 Worcester, 70 Yakuba, 135 Yellow Head Pass, 211 York Factory, 261 Yorubas, 130, 138, 139 Yukon, 260 River, 217, 261 Zambesi, 36, 43, 102, 107, no Zambesia, 51 Zanzibar, 143, 157 Zanzibar Protectorate, 156 Zeerust, 94 Zeyla, 152 Zifta, 168 Zimbabwe, 97 Zomba, no Zulus, 48, 71 Zungeru, 141 Zwarte Bergen, 64 PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.