Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE AFRICAN TRANSCONTINENTAL TELEGRAPH. 195 CREW OF AFRICAN TELEGRAPH COMPANY’S STEAMER “ ADVENTURE,” USED FOR CARRYING TELEGRAPH MATERIALS. £ place while those responsible for the construc- tion of the line decided what was the best thing to do under the circumstances. Mr. Rhodes went over much of the route in person. As a result of what he saw—and the engineers of the line were in complete agreement with him—he was convinced that a mistake had been made in choosing that particular route, and it was decided to start all over again and to write off as a bad debt the work that had been done. Tliis time the growing town of Umtali, some 170 miles south-east of Salisbury, was selected as the starting-point, and it was decided to carry the wire direct from here to Tete, on the banks of the Lower Zambesi, in Portuguese East Africa. Following this route, the wire passed over the high and healthy plateau of North-east Mashonaland, where the climate was much more genial and the country was not nearly so difficult to traverse. Work was now pushed on energetically, with the result that, after many set-backs and dis- appointments, telegraphic communication was at last established between Work Tete and the south in April resumed. T 1898. In the meantime, the line had been carried to Tete from Zomba, and thence forward to Abercorn, a small but growing settlement standing some ten miles from the southern shore of Lake Tanganyika, and close to the frontier that divides North- eastern Rhodesia from German East Africa. Another settlement on the lake itself, Kituta, was reached about a year later, after further delays, due mostly to the breakdown of the transport. A halt was then called in order that the next section of the line might be surveyed. The east shore of Lake Tanganyika, it should be explained, is in German East Africa, though the west is in Negotiations the Congo Free State. It was with decided, after full considera- tion, that the German shore afforded the best route, so Mr. Rhodes came to Europe and went to Berlin to see the German Em- peror in person. It was his idea at that time to obtain from his Majesty the cession of a narrow strip of territory wide enough for the telegraph wire and the railway to pass through for the whole length of German East Africa, so that the “ all reel ” nature of these schemes might be preserved. The Emperor, however, resolutely refused to consent to this, though, as Mr. Rhodes pointed out to him, the country was quite uncivilized, and would probably never be of the slightest value to Germany. In the end, however, Mr. Rhodes had to admit defeat and assent to the suggestion which was laid before him that and the German Government should work together in push- ing this line through German East Africa ; and. an agree- ment to this effect was shortly afterwards entered into by the perial Government and the African Trans- continental Telegraph Company. The German officials on the spot thereupon received in- structions to render all possible assistance— instructions that have since been observed with the utmost loyalty. Labour troubles, however, quickly com- menced to affect the progress of the line when work recommenced. The labourers for this part of the route were recruited from the native tribes of German East Africa, and were supplied by the German officials, but the demand was always very much in excess his company Conditions imposed by Germany. German Im-