The British East Africa Company has, it is reported, effected
a great extension of its territories—and its responsibilities. Letters have been reviewed in Zanzibar which state that Mr. F. J. Jackson, one of the officers of that Company, has recently reached Uganda, and has concluded treaties with King Mwanga, placing the entire Kingdom " exclusively under the influence of the British Company." That is a delightfully characteristic announcement. Day after day we hear that the Germans are "outwitting" us ; that they are sending expedi- tions to anticipate British claims ; that we are in East Africa a beaten people, and a cheated people, and a humiliated people. The Germans are taunted with their greed of territory and trade, and the British are innocent, plain folk, who are so good that they never get anything. And then comes a statement, sandwiched, as it were, into the moanings, that the British have acquired another African Kingdom—for protectorate means sovereignty in the end—and one which, from its position on the north-west shore, gives us the control of Lake Victoria, and a clear road to the Albert Nyanza and the sources of the White Nile. Yet we do not the less bemoan ourselves ; or rather, think it quite an additional hardship that Germans should receive the news with remarks about English craft and grasping desire for territory. It is the same in Burmah, Fiji, and South Africa. All the rich slices of the unoccupied lands fall to us, and still we are as discontented as children who see their cousins eating sweets while they themselves have only the cakes and oranges.
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