1907.] on Across Widest Africa, 781 



than thirty pack animals and never more than some forty men. I 

 had hardly gone one-third of the way when I found myself abandoned 

 by everybody, and, in the most difficult part of the journey, in the 

 heart of Africa, everybody had disappeared except one faithful Somali. 

 The Somali and I managed to take the entire caravan across the 

 forest 'during the season of the heavy rains, a labour requiring some 

 patience. 



(Joing from lake Tchad across the country of the warlike Tuareg, 

 a new caravan I had formed was reduced to about half-a-dozen camels 

 and three men. Two out of these three men became insane. As you 

 know, in tropical climates a continuous march of ten miles a day is 

 considered fair marching. On this particular journey an average of 

 twenty-three miles were daily covered. With a great many changes 

 of animals the caravan was constantly kept moving. The longest 

 halts between Adis-Ababa and Cape Yerde, were twelve days on the 

 Nile and ten days in Timbuctu. 



AVe were the greater part of the time in unhealthy regions, 

 where malarial fever is rampant. In the Senegal, yellow fever was 

 bad at the time of my visit. On nearing the coast, having taken 

 advantage of the short but most excellent line of railway in the 

 French Possession, I was delayed by being placed in quarantine, a 

 French officer having been attacked by yellow fever in my own 

 carriage. No medicines to speak of were carried on the journey, no 

 filters for the water. We did not worry about mosquito bites, nor did 

 we adopt any of the precautions suggested by the medical profession. 

 The result was that I returned to Europe in excellent health. 

 No sun-helmet, no patent clothes for explorers, no patented boots 

 were worn, but just the ordinary attire of London was used, the head- 

 gear being a mere straw hat. During the entire journey I earned no 

 fire-arms upon me, nor weapons of any kind, not even a pen-knife. 

 My men, of course, were armed with small calibre repeating rifles, but 

 I seldom gave them any cartridges. There were, of course, no other 

 white men with me, and I bore the entire cost of the expedition. 



Now that you have roughly seen where I went, we will begin 

 again from the beginning, as I will endeavour to point out to you 

 one or two out of the myriads of things which seemed interesting 

 to me. 



The journey across Abyssinia presented no difficulty, barring the 

 likelihood of accident on the shaky little railway from Djibuti to 

 Dire Dawa, a distance of about one-hundred and ninety miles. The 

 actual marching began from Dire Dawa, but I first made an excursion 

 to the city of Harrar, where I had the pleasure of a long audience 

 with Ras-Makonnen, one of the finest men Abyssinia then possessed. 

 On my return to Dire Dawa I made up a fresh caravan, and started 

 almost immediately for the Abyssinian capital by the semi-desert 

 route of Assabot. 



Several tribes of Danakils were visited on this journey. The 



