Togoland enjoys the distinction of being the smallest and at the same time the most prosperous of the German Colonies. The Colony is 33,700 square miles in extent, with a coastline of only thirty-two miles, reaching from Lome, on the border of the British Colony of the Gold Coast, to Grand Popo on the boundary of French Dahomey. The French Colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger are the northern boundary; while it is bounded on the east by French Dahomey and by the British Gold Coast on the west. The climate is tropical, and like the rest of the Guinea coast the coast-belt is hot, humid and malaria-stricken, such as is generally met with in low-lying forest country or on the coast at sea-level anywhere in the Tropics. Lying behind the coast-belt are stretches of dense forest containing palms, rubber vines, and considerable quantities of timber of good quality. Arising farther inland are high and extensive plateaux, many of the elevated parts being free from malaria and capable of yielding quantities of natural products. The richness of its natural resources indeed made Togoland almost immediately after annexation financially independent. There is a German population in Togoland of 1,537, nearly all of whom are officials and soldiers; and of the 131 so-called settlers, the majority are plantation managers and overseers. The native population amounts to 3,500,000, and they are divided into numerous tribes, embracing many degrees of _kultur_ from raw cannibals to comparatively civilised states. The administration is in the hands of an Imperial Governor, surrounded by a swarm of officials and a local council of unofficial members, who are, as a rule, the representatives of merchant houses. Immediately on acquiring Togoland, the Germans commenced sending trading expeditions into the interior, and extending their "sphere of influence" inland. A central trading station (Bismarcksburg) was established, and a trade centre was created for each tribe. Two hundred and twenty miles of railway have been built in three lines, all starting from Lome--one 80 miles in length to Palime and another 120 miles to Atakpanie. Lack of proper transport facilities has retarded the development of the Colony, as owing to the lack of transport animals nearly the whole of the carrying of produce is done by natives. The prosperity of the Colony is entirely due to the exploitation of the natives; in fact the economic life of the country depends upon the natives' industry. Nearly the whole of the agriculture is in the hands of natives, some of whom have plantations of their own. Only 250,000 acres are in the hands of Europeans, and less than a quarter of these are cultivated. The hardships inflicted on the native, however, are forgotten by the German trader in his excessive eagerness to get as much as he can out of him; and this has resulted in some rubber-collecting districts in depopulation and a consequent falling off in the production.