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THE EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE

By SIR CHARLES ELIOT, K.C.M.G.


The eastern side of Africa is so little known that it may not be amiss to remind the reader of the various political spheres now recognised there, chiefly in consequence of arrangements made towards the end of the last century. The mainland is divided between Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Portugal, the share of France being represented by the large island of Madagascar. The extreme south, of course, is British, and inland our territory runs northward uninterruptedly to Lakes Nyassa and Tangan3dka; but on the coast Portuguese territory begins at Delagoa Bay and occupies about fifteen degrees of latitude. North of it comes German East Africa, which stops about five degrees south of the line, where begin our own equatorial possessions. The remainder of the east coast, from the equator up to and round Cape Guardafui, constitutes the Italian sphere. Our inland territories near Tanganyika and Nyassa, which are conterminous with Rhodesia, but separated from the sea by the Portuguese possessions, are known by the name of British Central Africa—a somewhat misleading designation, since they are not really central, but southern, and have no connection with our two equatorial Protectorates of Uganda and East Africa, which form the subject of the present article and are, to a certain extent, central. But even these territories are very distinctly eastern, and do not extend into the heart of

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