The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-12-07
ENGLISH CONQUEST IN AFRICA.

Means for Accomp fishing IL IL Opea to
Grave Objections.
Africa has been of late the field OF
our annexing operations, not because
territory is valuable there, but because
it is difficult to find territories to annex
elsewhere. Equatorial Africa is unfit
for European residence. 1t consists
mainly Of swamps, junglcs and impen.
etrable forests In these black men
have lived according to their own fash
ion for centuries, and we and other ma
tions have been satisfied with the occu-
patton OF few seaports, where adven-
turous merchants have risked their
health in endeavors to grow rich by
trading with the natives inland. This
was not enough for the new school, and
1t was determined to extend the area of
empire. Therefore spectators were
encouraged to make treaties with the
chiefs of the various African tribes
These treaties recognized our para
mount rule and, as the chiefs did not
understand them, they were ready to
agree to them for bottle or two of
bad spirits. Our next step was to make
over these treaty-acquired territories
to some trading company. Other ma
tions soon followed our example. They,
too, made treaties and these resulted in
plurality OF claims. These claims
were adjusted by portioning out Africa
among the great European powers into
spheres of influence" One power
agreed with another power on the ex-
tent of their respective spheres, and
other powers declined to recognize the
arrangement.
In western Africa we have included
in our sphere all the ''hinterland," a
vague term borrowed from the Ger
man language. Our neighbors are the
French, who have also their sphere
But the frontier between the two
spheres is vague. In eastern Africa
we converted Zanzibar into a British
protectorate. As we had pledged our
selves to France not to do so without
her assent, we obtained it by making
her present of Madagascar, which did
not belong to us. Then we proceeded
to divide the eastern hintcrland be-
tween ourselves and Germany, and,
having done so, we coded our sphere"
to a company. Within our sphere was
Uganda, land separated from the
coast by about fifty miles of desert.
It's inhabitants are mainly slaves, and
it's sole produce is little ivory de-
rived from hunting elephants. The
company sent an envoy with an accom-
paniment of Maxim guns to make
treaty with its king, and the poor
wretch had to acknowledge the COM
pany as his paramount lord. His sub
jects objected, so the company killed
many of them. Finding, however, the
speculation valueless, the company re-
tired. On this we declared Uganda
under British protectorate, paid the
company some two hundred and TWEEN
ty thousand pounds for having left it,
and since then we have been paying
cash at the rate of about sixty thou
sand pounds per annum in salaries to
officials there, and in retaining in
our service a gang of rutfianly
Soudanese to overawe the inhabitants.
We are now about to build n railroad
to connect this wondrous acquisition
with the sea coast, and favora BILE esti-
mates were put forward to show that
If we run one train per week we shall
be able to perform this feat at cost
of not more than fifty thousand pounds
per annum in excess of all returns. 1t
is vaguely urged that the annexation
and the railway will help put an end
to slavery.
But most of the population in the
protectorate are slaves, and it is not
proposed to free them. Moreover, in
the proposed sultanate of Zanzibar
there are about 200, 600 slaves SO hardly
worked that their lives only average
ten years, and yet this slave popula-
ton is on the increase. As for new
markets, it is equally vaguely stated
that the soil of Uganda might produce
crops, and that if produced the crops
might be exchanged for cotton goods.
Commercially, the whole scheme is
about as absurd as it would be for us
to annex the north of Greenland and
to build railroad across that CONT
nent in the hope of establishing a
trade with the Eskimo
London Truth. 20