German
merchants remain, and where, under the English flag, they grow
steadily rich. The German Emperor, believing that colonies are a
source of strength to an empire, rather than the weakness that they
are, has raised the German flag in Central East Africa, but the
ships of the German East African Company, subsidized by him, carry
their merchandize to the English ports, and his German subjects
remain where they can make the most money. They do not move to those
ports where the flag of their country would wave over them.
Dar Es Salaam, although it lacks the one thing needful to make it a
model settlement, possesses all the other things which are needful,
and many which are pure luxuries. Its residences, as I have said,
have been built after the most approved scientific principles of
ventilation and sanitation. In no tropical country have I seen
buildings so admirably adapted to the heat and climatic changes and
at the same time more in keeping with the surrounding scenery. They
are handsome, cool-looking, white and clean, with broad verandas,
high walls, and false roofs under which currents of air are lured in
spite of themselves. The residences are set back along the high bank
which faces the bay. In front of them is a public promenade, newly
planted shade-trees arch over it, and royal palms reach up to it
from the very waters of the harbor. At one end of this semicircle
are the barracks of the Soudanese soldiers, and at the other is the
official palace of the governor. Everything in the settlement is
new, and everything is built on the scale of a city, and with the
idea of accommodating a great number of people. Hotels and cafes,
better than any one finds in the older settlements along the coast,
are arranged on the water-front, and there is a church capable of
seating the entire white population at one time. If the place is to
grow, it can do so only through trade, and when trade really comes
all these palaces and cafes and barracks which occupy the entire
water-front will have to be pushed back to make way for warehouses
and custom-house sheds. At present it is populated only by
officials, and, I believe, twelve white women.
[Illustration: The Late Sultan of Zanzibar in His State Carriage.]
You feel that it is an experiment, that it has been sent out like a
box of children's building blocks, and set up carefully on this
beautiful harbor. All that Dar Es Salaam needs now is trade and
emigrants. At present it
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