Even as late as 1890 the construction of railways in Equatorial Africa had not been begun, though years of zealous efforts had been made by myself and others to induce capitalists to undertake them, knowing as we did that they were the best instruments that civilisation could employ for the moral, material, and social elevation of the dark peoples. But just as it took years upon years of publications and speeches to dissipate the unreasoning terror of Africa in the European mind, it required years of preaching and encouraging to induce railway constructors to try Africa as the theatre of their operations. Soon after the conclusion of the Emin Expedition the Congo Railway was commenced, and to-day it is fully employed in traffic, and the 500-franc shares are worth 1700 francs per share, which may be taken as a proof that the shareholders’ faith has been munificently rewarded. By the latest news from East Africa we learn that two hundred and forty miles of the Mombasa and Nyanza Railway have been laid, and it is predicted that by May next the locomotive will reach the half-way point to Lake Victoria. In German East Africa thirty miles of railway have been in operation for some time, but there are serious railway projects under consideration, and, it may be, an attempt will shortly be made at construction on an important scale. Meantime, however, the coloured troops are being employed in making a road suitable for wheeled traffic between the port of Dar-es-Salaam and Ujiji, _viâ_ Kilossa and Tabora, and thus far mules have been used with great success. But though there are not yet five hundred miles of railway open for traffic in Equatorial Africa, considerable extensions are under construction, or being meditated. The British East Africa Railway will, of course, be continued as far as Lake Victoria, as Parliament has provided the necessary money. The Congo State having successfully completed the railway connecting the lower with the upper river, is carrying out surveys for other railways on the Upper Congo. The Zambezi will also in a short time be connected by rail with Lake Nyassa, and we learn that the Bulawayo Railway is to be extended to the Tanganika Lake. My predictions in regard to Africa have so singularly approached realisation thus far that I am tempted on a safer prophecy, which is, that by 1918, there will be five thousand miles of iron roads where there are now not five hundred.