L CHAPTER XXII The East African Railroad ANDING at Mombasa the Roosevelt party boarded a train on the Uganda Railway to begin the long trip of more than five hundred miles from the east coast of Africa to the great Lake of Victoria Nyanza. This long journey may be divided into three principal stages: The Jungles, the Plains and the Mountains. The first quarter of an hour is spent in traversing the island on which the city of Mombasa is built, and the train reaches the mainland by a long iron bridge which spans the separating channel. Westward the train runs, winding around among the uneven spots of the country on a fairly steep up grade, the landscape luxuriantly covered with vegetation thickly peopled with birds and butterflies of brilliant and beautiful colors. Palms and creepercovered trees rise out of the glades on either hand, making a panorama of tropical vegetation calculated to prepare the traveler's eye for the wonderful luxuriance of Central Africa. For it must be remembered that this railroad has been built only a few years, and principally as a means of transporting men and goods between Mombasa, the seaport on the eastern coast, and the rich Protectorate of Uganda, which lies on the north and northeastern shores of the enormous Lake Victoria Nyanza. Mombasa is a town of more than 20,000 population, and was acquired by the British East African Company in 1890 from Zanzibar. It was occupied by the Portuguese in 1505, and towards the end of the sixteenth century a fort was built there. These possessors, however, were driven out in 1698, and in 1834 the city passed into the control of Zanzibar. It is a naval coaling station, and as the terminus of the Uganda Railway an important commercial port for the traffic into the interior of Africa. The Uganda Railway, although built primarily as a political neces Copyright by Harris & Ewing Copyright, 1907, by Underwood & Underwood Admiral Evans, commander of the fleet, with President Roosevelt. President Roosevelt leading army officers on a strenuous walk. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY AND THE NAVY |