When my letters, calling attention to the spiritual and material needs of Africa, used to appear in the columns of the _Daily Telegraph_ in 1874-77, there was neither mission, school, church, nor any legitimate trade started in the regions near the African Equator. But since 1877 wonderful changes in this respect have taken place. The statistics we have received from the Uganda Protectorate alone tell a remarkable tale of progress. According to these there have been 372 churches and missions established, at which there are 97,575 Christian converts. About 100 Europeans are living in the Protectorate, and the first official report (for 1897) announced that trade to the value of £30,000 had been begun. It will be remembered, perhaps, that it was for long a debatable question whether we should retain Uganda or abandon it. The country of which the first few chapters of this book treat is now mainly German East Africa. What a change has come over it! No one could have foreseen or dreamed at the time of my march through it that Germany could ever have become the controller of its destiny. I dreamed visions of the future often in the wilds, such as that described in Chapter X., but I saw no Teuton in my dreams. However, it may be all for the best that Germany has annexed it, and England owes too much to Germany for waking her out of her somnolence to begrudge what Bismarck obtained so boldly. The white population of this colony at the end of last year numbered 922, of whom 678 are Germans, and the trade amounted in value to £600,000. It will, no doubt, be a long time before the Arab coast towns undergo any external change, but within their character and scenes are altogether altered. German militarism, which as we know is of the strictest kind, bears no resemblance to Arab supineness and neglect or to Arab customs. The small boys have taken kindly to the dominant spirit, and practise the forms in vogue among the military. There are custom-houses at every port, and permits for travel and sport inland can only be obtained through the goodwill of the Governor. The drastic measures of Von Wissman have long ago suppressed the slave-trade, and the slave-market is now only a memory. The coast towns are connected by telegraph with each other, and there is cable communication, _viâ_ Zanzibar, with Europe. Ujiji, the port on Lake Tanganika where I met Livingstone in 1871, possesses now quite a civilised appearance. Its Government buildings are of stone and two-storied, and a long wide street, shaded by mangoes and other fruit trees, runs through the centre of the town. German capital, to the value of £697,000, has been invested in tobacco, coffee, cocoa, tea, cardamom, and vanilla plantations; and I am glad to learn that the Game Laws are strict and effective.