ON LA Af U IS LA ND 1 5 



repack the loads. In the intervals we made excursions through 

 the plantations inland, or across the harbour to the island of 

 Maiida, During the heat of the day we rambled about the 

 cool, narrow, tortuous streets and tunnel-like passages of the 

 historic old town of Lamu. 



The island consists of a scries of sandhills overlying raised 

 coral reefs. The dunes are covered with groves of cocoa-nut 

 palms, with here and there a date-palm. In the hollows be- 

 tween the hills are massive, shady mango-trees and orchards of 

 cashew-nut, surrounded by hedges of prickly Euphorbias, full of 

 acrid juice. Beside the backwaters from the harbour stand 

 clumps of screw-pine (^Pandanus), and on the headlands wave 

 the graceful feathery she- oaks {Casuarina), while the muddy 

 shores are lined with dense thickets of mangrove. Whatever 

 time I could spare from camp work was devoted to excursions 

 in the woods and plantations, chasing shore crabs on the beach, 

 dragging for algae in the estuary, and revelling in the delight 

 of a first experience of Nature in the tropics. In addition to 

 the other charms of the place, the climate seemed salubrious : 

 the air was dry, and a cool bracing breeze blew daily from the 

 sea. A week thus passed very pleasantly. Then our chief 

 suddenly decided that some of us had better move to the main- 

 land, so on 30th November Benett-Stanford and Tichborne, 

 with most of the men, started in dhows to form a camp at the 

 head of the creek of Mkonumbi. The chief and I remained a 

 few days later to ship the rest of the stores and men. This 

 was accomplished by the aid of the " chain gang," a very useful 

 local institution, the services of which were lent to us by our 

 kind friend Mr. Rogers. The sturdy Suahili easily carried off 

 heavy boxes of ammunition which several of the Somali could 

 barely lift. When the last of the loads and men were on the 

 dhows, we returned to Lamu. We said good-bye to Mr. Rogers, 

 to whose hospitality and help we were so much indebted, and 

 then followed the others in the Company's launch to Mkonumbi. 

 Wc found a comfortable camp had been pitched around some 

 mango-trees, surrounded by a strong thorn zeriba or " boma." 

 Here the organisation of the caravan and preparations for the 

 march inland were busily pushed forward. 



It may be advisable here to state the composition and objects 

 of the expedition. It had been organised in order to explore 



