Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-09
BECOMING A WELL ORGANIZED STATE

complete, the same exaggerated display oil
Difference and courtesy to the native poten-
tates who are being rapidly pushed into the
bac kground by the advancing Englishman.
just as Give and his contemporaries seemed
to delight in nominally abasing themselves
before the nabobs they superseded, so the
British East Africa Company assumes al
ways an attitude of extreme humility. The
directors, when giving an account to their
| shareholders of the amicable arrangement
| come to between them and Italy, gravely
describe themselves as acting with the
knowledge and consent of His Highness the
Sultan OF Zanzibar"
This invocation of O sovereign, helpless
and surrounded by foreigners in his little
island thousands of miles away from the
| subiect-matter of the negotiations, offers q
curious parallel to the use often made in
Bengal of the name and authority of the
Great Mogul, who all the while was mis-
erably playing at Emperor under a tattered
canopy in his palace at Delhi, utterly at the
mercy of the marauder who might think it
worth while to rob him. Absurd as it
sounds, we do not doubt. however, that this
instructive desire on the part of English
founders of empire to wear mask OF hu-
mility is grounded in reason. It has GER
Laluly duSWereu DelteT budu Tue pldu VI
| applying pure reason to colonial extension
usually adopted by the French.
EXTRAORDINARY PROGRESS.
The system of sharing a portion Of the
revenues with native overlord adopted by
the East India Company, has also been fol-
lowed by the British East Africa Company.
| At present, says a writer in the London
| Spectator, the company pay the Sultan Of
iho~o
| plus 30 per cent of any net surplus revenue
deriv ed from the customs after payment of
all administrative and other charges. This
| Is always the first stage in the evolution of
an Eastern State pensioner. How many
years, we wonder, will pass before the Sui
tan of Zanzibar finds himself in the position
of mediatized Indian Rajah?
The progress already achieved by the COM
pany has been extraordinarily rapid; but
now that they have really succeededin put
ting their house IN order, we may look for
an even quicker advance. How firmly they
have now established themselves in their
territory, is clearly brought out in the re-
port. In the first place, they have got their
boundaries distinctly marked out, and
really know what does and what does not
= .-.--s --------.-, ..i----s--.---sorIo wTvr snv
Germans, with Italy, and with various
native chiefs, make their territorial limits
miles, extending from Wanga at the mouth
of the Umbs river on the south, the place
where the German territory begins, to the
Juba river on the north, whence stretch the
recent Italian nannexations-the little isolated
German settlement of With being absorbed.
Upland, Germany marches with the COM
pany on the south up to the Congo State,
which forms their western limit; while to
the northward, the course of the Juba and
= %l,o, r
sinia, form well-defned landmarks to the
company's possessions. In a word, their
territory is now definitely marked of, ex-
cept as regards the region which may
roughly be described as lying between the
most northern corner of the Congo State and
the most southern point of Abyssinia-the
region in which Emin Pasha's province was
situated. This gap looks down the Nile
Valley, and, if the Soudan actually as we'll
as nominally belonged to Egypt, would
make the company's borderers Germany, the
Congo State, Egypt, Abyssinis and Italy.
EIGHT TIMES GREAT BRITAIN's AREA.
Speaking approximately, the company's
possessions have an area of $50, 600 square
miles, or over eight timessthat OF Great Brit
ain. Access is given 10 the interior by nu-
merous rivers, one of which, the Juba, is
navigable for 300 miles This territory in.
Lake Victoria; contains the whole of Lake
Rudolf, magnificent sheet of water: COM
prises Mt. Kenia, known to be over 1900
feet high and may, when the boundaries of ]
the Congo State are more accurately map
ped. be found to take in the actual Mount |
aims of the Moon.
The company, having found exactly how |
far their sphere of operations extends. are |
hard at work organizing. Already they |
have an army consisting of 200 Soudanese |
soldiers and 200 Indian military police.
Moreover, they have established strongly
fortified post 260 miles inland from their
capital, Mombassa, and about half way be.
tween that place and Lake Victoria; while
at distances of 80 miles between
this central depot and the sea
they have founded smaller stations, with a
road practicable for baggage animals con-
Meeting them. Mombassa, which stands on
an island, has grown like a town 'out
West since the advent OF the company, the
population being now no less than 80 600.
We read. too, of the island being covered
with tramways, and oil substantial houses
being built A good harbor and well-laid
piers are in course of construction, and al
ready the Admiral of the African SQUADRON
is considering whether he should nnt make
the roadstead his headquarters. Telerraphjc
communication between the company's
ports and inland posts is being already de-
veloped. Mombassa and Zanzibar are al.
ready joined by cable, and lines are being
laid along the coast and to the great central
station OF Machakos, on the road to the |
Victoria Nyanza. All these Improvement
however, will sink into insignifcance when
the railway which is to connect the great
inland sea with the coast has been con-
structed.
LIGHT IN THE DARK CONTINENT.
The material for 80 miles has already been
landed at Mombassa, and directly the
IS over, the actual work will be |
begun. No doubt these 30 miles will prove
useful in themselves, but It is as the first
installment OF a railway into EQUATORIAL
Africa that they are important. When
once it is possible to travel the distance be-
tween Mombassa and the Victoria Nyanza
in 80 or 40 hours, the Dark Continent will
be dark no more. And the iron road will
do more than merely transport traders and
their merchandise; it will be useabls for con-
veying the material for steamers which.
when put together and launched on the
lake, Will make trip to Uganda as easy as
was u voyage to Dongola before the iusur-
rectlon OF the Mabdi. Though II sounds
like dreaming, nothing is more certain than
that some day line up the valley OF the
Nile will connect the railway system of the
Delta with that OF the British East Africa
Company. Thirty years ago the idea Of
through railway communication between
Quebec and the Pacific seemed utterly pre- !
posterous. Who knows but that another
uuarter of century may see only two or |
three short gaps lett in the metal track be.
tween Cairo and the Cape?
Before we leave the subject OF the COM