28 WITH THE ADVANCE GUARD TO THE TANA part i 



we arrived there, so it was hopeless to try and find Harris's 

 party that day ; but we had reached the trysting- place in 

 time. 



The ground was so swampy that we could not light a 

 fire or cook any food. As the expedition only provided three 

 tents for eight Europeans, I had had to start without one. It 

 poured with rain all night, so we all, men, camels, and donkeys, 

 huddled together as closely as we could. I fixed my ground 

 sheet like an umbrella on a pole above me, to keep off the 

 rain, but it was not much of a success. Even the camels 

 seemed to despise it, for they twice deliberately kicked it 

 over. 



Thus supperless and sleepless we spent Christmas Eve. 

 The rain stopped for a while towards morning, but a dense 

 mist hung over the country and buried everything in its cold 

 malarial pall. At ten o'clock the mist lifted sufficiently to show 

 us the opposite bank of the river, where we descried two natives 

 hiding in the reeds. We shouted " Yambo " to them, and told 

 them that a friend of Bwana Kilemba {i.e. Bird Thompson) 

 wanted to see their chief. 



They went away with the message, and returning some 

 hours later took me across the river in a dug-out canoe, to have 

 a conference with a large party of Wa-pokomo on the opposite 

 bank. They were very much afraid of the Somali, so I went 

 alone. We could not talk, but I smiled and nodded, and this 

 seemed to allay their suspicions. They allowed me then to 

 send back for an interpreter, and when he came I asked where 

 were the two white men and their large party of Zanzibari ? 

 The chief told me that they had not come anywhere near this 

 district ; so he gave me a couple of guides to accompany a 

 Somali whom I sent off at once with a letter to Harris and 

 Mackinnon, in the hope that he would meet them on the road. 

 The Wa-pokomo again landed me on the other side, and after 

 giving me some unripe bananas, went away. It soon began to 

 rain again, but we had got some dry wood from the natives and 

 were able to light a fire. I had my Christmas dinner of Indian 

 corn, tinned beef, and baked bananas. The rain increased in 

 strength until it put out our fire, and this night was even less 

 pleasant than the last, for anxiety about the non-arrival of 

 Harris's force was added to the discomfort of the wet and cold. 



