The objective point for the British East African Company, for the people and government of Great Britain, is the Victoria Nyanza, with 1400 miles of coast-line. So far as the British as a slavery-hating nation are concerned, their duties are simply shifted from the ocean coast to the Nyanza coast, 500 miles inland. The slave-trader has disappeared from the east coast almost entirely, and is to be found now on the lake coasts of the Victoria, or within British territory. The ocean cruiser can follow him no farther; but the lake cruiser must not only debar the guilty slave-dhow from the privilege of floating on the principal fountain of the Nile, but she must assist to restrict the importation of fire-arms from German territory, from the byways of Arab traffic, from the unguarded west; she must prevent the flight of fugitives and rebels and offenders from British territory; she must protect the missionaries and British subjects in their peaceful passage to and fro across the lake; she must teach the millions on the lake shores that the white ensign waving from her masthead is a guarantee of freedom, life, and peace. To make these great benefits possible, the Victorian lake must be connected with the Indian Ocean by a railway. That narrow iron track will command effectively 150,000 square miles of British territory. It is the one remedy for the present disgraceful condition of British East Africa. It will enable the company to devote the thousands now spent wastefully upon porterage to stimulating legitimate traffic, and to employ its immense caravans in more remunerative work than starving and perishing on British soil; to grace the surroundings of its many stations with cornfields and gardens; to promote life, interest, and intellect, instead of being stupefied by increasing loss of brave men and honest money. It will create trade in the natural productions of the land, instead of letting Arabs traffic in the producers. Clarkson long ago said that legitimate trade would kill the slave traffic; Buxton repeated it. Wherever honest trade has been instituted and fairly tried, as in the southern part of the United States, in Jamaica and Brazil, as in Sierra Leone and Lagos, in Old Calabar, in Egypt and the lower Congo, always and everywhere it has been proved that lawful commerce is a great blessing to a land by the peace it brings, by its power of creating scores of little channels for thrifty industry, by the force of attraction it possesses to draw the marketable products into the general mart. And this is what will surely happen upon the completion of the Victoria Nyanza Railway, for the slave trade and slavery will then be rendered impossible in British African territory. THE END Transcriber’s Notes Page 37: “peformed this feat of strength” changed to “performed this feat of strength” Page 38: “undertaken to peform” changed to “undertaken to perform” Page 76: “over and above the expediture” changed to “over and above the expenditure”