225 



very interesting. I spent every spare moment talking to those who 

 were informed and in walking many miles through the streets, 

 noticeably the only European to do so outside the central shopping 

 area. It was a city without lightness or laughter, life was a grim 

 business, you could feel the tension in the air. The windows of 

 my room in the hotel were barred and there was a warning to keep 

 the door closed and locked when inside. I heard many stories, 

 and, after their physical characteristics had been described to me, 

 could easily pick out the Kikuyu from the rest. I reflected some- 

 what grimly that even if this happened in South Africa, we 

 should not be prepared to endure its dragging on like this. It 

 would come to a quick end, one way or the other ; yes, one way or 

 the other. Such things are not new in our country; we know all 

 about it, for what was happening in Kenya was in effect almost 

 the exact modern counterpart of what our forefathers had en- 

 dured in South Africa a century ago, remote control, wild country, 

 disregard for ownership and for human life. In South Africa 

 those hard times had bred tough citizens, both men and women, 

 as the conditions in Kenya are clearly doing now. Everything has 

 its points. 



The bestiality of the Kikuyu in their slashing murders is world 

 news, but I learnt many other things about them. One is typical. 

 At night they will go into a field of mature potatoes, and working 

 through the soil with cunning fingers will remove most of the 

 tubers without killing the plants or leaving any trace. 



The last of that visit to Nairobi, as we drove to the aerodrome 

 through the streets, was a kaleidoscopic compression of uniformed 

 figures, grim faces, armed sentries, barbed-wire fences, and sand- 

 bag defences. 



I do a good deal of flying and like it, but never cHmb into a 

 plane without having a good look round at earth and sky, with the 

 conscious thought that this may be my last view. So many crashes 

 occur within a few moments of taking oflF. As I strapped myself 

 in I realised that my heart was filled with deep content, happiness 

 if you like. It was really quite remarkable, as if I was living in the 

 heart of a *Happy ever after' ending in a novel. After all the un- 

 certainty and agony that had followed the trail of the Coelacanth, 

 it had now all been ironed out. Almost miraculously, everyone was 

 happy. 



