1888.] ilfr. J. Thomson on the Exploration of Masai-Land. 199 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, January 27, 1888. 



Edward Woods, Esq. M. Inst. C.E. Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Joseph Thomson, Esq. F.E.G.S. 



GOLD MEDALLIST OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 



The Exploration of Masai-Land. 



The speaker, in a few introductory remarks, explained that he only 

 proposed to try and conjure up a reflection of a few characteristic 

 features of African scenery and to give his hearers some flavour of 

 travel in savage lands. For this purpose he would draw upon his 

 experiences in Masai-Land while in command of the Royal Geographical 

 Society's expedition to Victoria Nyanza in 1883-4.* 



He commenced his sketches by a description of his first momentous 

 experience — the start from the coast, when, standing on the heights 

 of Rabai, he took his last look around before setting forth inland 

 towards the unknown. Between the coast and the borderland of the 

 Masai lay 200 dreary, uninhabited miles. To embody the experiences 

 of the expedition over this zone and give his audience some idea of 

 the nature of the country, Mr. Thomson sketched in some detail the 

 routine of a typical day in their progress through this wilderness — 

 the scene in the camp at daybreak, the order of march, the nature of 

 the sterile waste through which they passed ; the effects of the broiling 

 sun, the burning sands, and the absence of water on the fatigued 

 porters, resulting in the transformation of their leaders from eager, 

 enthusiastic explorers into harassed and disgusted slave-drivers — all 

 these aspects of the march were sketched, as well as the travellers' 

 delight and relief when, with the declining sun, they arrived at a 

 horrid, liquid mud hole. 



At length the neighbourhood of Kilima Njaro was reached, when, 

 with marvellous abruptness, they exchanged glaring sands and desolate 

 wastes for cool shades and leafy labyrinths. The effect upon the 

 travellers was as if they had passed from a purgatory to a paradise. 



Through the little African Arcadia of Taveta the speaker now 

 personally conducted his hearers, pointing out the characteristic 

 aspects of its luxuriant vegetation, leading them by shady pathways 

 to bosky glades, or calling here and there at the cosily ensconced 

 beehived-shaped hut of a native. He drew a tempting picture of 

 Taveta at night, when millions of cicadte piped forth their melodious 

 notes, and myriad fireflies flashed meteor-like athwart the gloom, and 



* Mr. Thomson's work, entitled 'Through Masai-Land,' was pubHshed*in 1885. 



