In the last chapter we read that the Arab merchants crossed the desert
to buy ivory and goat-skins from the people who lived farther south.
In these next two chapters we shall read about these people south of
the desert. Their land lies in the very middle of Africa, and so is
called Central Africa. It is a beautiful country, with many rivers
and great lakes and mountains. Central and West Africa are also the
very hottest part of this continent. Now when plants have a lot of
water and a lot of sun they grow very quickly, and so Central Africa,
with its hot sun and its great rivers and lakes, is a land of great
forests. In these forests there are lions and leopards, elephants,
and deer; and ivory and skins, as well as gold, have for many years
been sold by the Central Africans to the traders from the desert. On
the eastern side of this country there are more mountains, lakes, and
small rivers; on the western side there are great rivers, all of which
join one very large one called the Congo. In this chapter we shall
read about some of the people who live on the eastern side on the
shores of the largest of all the lakes--the one called Victoria
Nyanza. These people are called the Baganda, and their country is
Uganda.