342 APPENDIX I.

ployed in cultivating the ground and collecting articles of trade.

This is somewhat the system adopted by the Arabs ; they form trading centres in the interior, and send out their slaves from there to more distant regions.

So, too, with these proposed depots, as opportunities offered other trading stations might be formed at some distance from the line of railway, communication being t kept up by porters or donkeys, or, in districts free from the tsetse fly, by bullockwaggons ; these stations would gradually be extended, and so larger and larger areas would be opened out to commerce. When at length the Victoria Lake is reached, two or three small steamers placed on that lake would give the trader access with but small cost and labour to a vast area.

But to return to the subject of the construction of a line of railway into the interior.

One question which will very naturally be asked is, " How would you find labour to construct a line ? " My answer is, " Employ Chinese," for I believe that they will be found to be best suited for the work. Negro workmen are, as a rule, very unsatisfactory, and from the account given of the Zanzibar mofundi or artisans, in the first chapter of this book, it will be seen how unreliable they are, and what constant supervision they require. While, on the other hand, the capabilities of the Chinese for work are too well known to need mention here. The question is how far they would stand the climate ; but following the opinions which have been given me by men who have been both in China and on the East Coast of Africa, there is not much to be feared on this score ; added to which, rice can be got cheaply and in large quantities for their food. The expense at first for getting a number of Chinese labourers to the East Coast of Africa might be considerable. I believe, nevertheless, that owing to the much greater expedition with which the work would be accomplished, and its superiority, it will be found cheaper to employ them, at least for any work requiring skilled labour, in preference to negro workmen, especially when the comparatively high rate of pay which obtains at Zanzibar is taken into account.

In the first instance, of course, only a single pair of rails would be laid, of tolerably narrow gauge, with passing places at