I have entered very fully into the matter of soils
and commercial products, hoping this book will prove
of real use for reference to future settlers, whilst still
affording some matter of interest to the general reader.
England owes' a debt of gratitude to the Imperial
British East Africa Company, to whose pioneer work
and efforts we owe the possession not only of this
fertile country, but of Uganda itself, and whose advent
brought “ Light and Liberty” to the native and the
slave.
The portion dealing with Zanzibar and Pemba is
an enlargement of my report ‘ On the Spice and
other Cultivation of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands,’
Foreign Office Miscellaneous Series, No. 266, 1892.
My acknowledgments and thanks are due to H. M.
Under Secretary of State for India, for kind permission
to republish Mr. Robert Cross’s ‘ Reports on the
American Rubber Trees,’ a permission rendered doubly
valuable by the fact that they are now out of print.
T o the Controller of H. M. Stationery Office, and
Mr. Thistleton Dyer, Director, Royal Gardens, Kew,
for allowing' the use of notes and extracts from the
various Kew Bttlleiins, the number dealing with
‘ Bowstring Hemp’ being also out of print. To Sir
Arnold Kemball, K.C.S.I., K.C.B., the Chairman,
and other Directors of the late Imperial British East
Africa Company, for placing at my disposal many
valuable documents and reports.
PREFACE X I
To Mr. P. L. McDermott, late Secretary o f the
same, for his help and assistance.
To Mr. Ernest G. Ravenstein, F.R.M.S., Chairman
of the British Association Committee on the Climatology
of Africa, for the valuable meteorological and
climatological returns courteously placed at my disposal.
To the Rev. W. E. Taylor, C.M.S., Mombasa;
Mr. John Christie, of Messrs. Ide and Christie; the
editor of Fhe Femes, and others, for kind permission
to use extracts.
To Mr. E. Heawood, M.A., of the staff of the
R.G.S., for his kind aid in revising this work for the
press.
My thanks are also due to Mr. E. A. Reeves,
Assistant Map Curator, R.G.S., for his careful and
excellent preparation of the maps from my bearings,
sketches, and notes-.
W . W . A . F it zG erald.
January 1898,
Carrigoran,
Newmarket-on-Fergus,
Co. Clare.