42 COLLAPSE AND RETURN part i 



how to " mau," and together we had some delightful canoeing 

 trips on the river, punting up stream in the morning by a 

 pole against the bank, and paddling down again in the 

 evening. 



About this time our strength was further diminished, as Sir 

 Henry Tichborne was recalled to England to fulfil his functions 

 as High Sheriff of Hampshire. Benett-Stanford accompanied 

 him to Mkonumbi, and returned with the news that 600 

 men from the island of Siyu had joined the rebels of Jongeni, 

 and that the allies were marching to attack us. We strengthened 

 our outposts, and prepared camp for defence. For some time 

 after this we lived in a succession of alarms. The outposts 

 would fire at one another, or mistake a herd of antelope for the 

 enemy and give the signal. The Somali on these occasions 

 would rush about the camp in a wild fury of excitement. I 

 always felt very glad that my duty then was with the Zanzibari, 

 who used to take up their stations in a very quiet business-like 

 way. The promised attack never came off, though the natives 

 were watching us closely, and several times guns were fired at 

 night some distance from our camp, and certainly not by any 

 of our own men. 



After Stanford's return future plans were discussed. The 

 remnant of the Abyssinian contingent was in a state of utter 

 collapse ; many of the men could not even carry their own food 

 for a week, and some of them would not have lived through a 

 hard day's march. It was decided, therefore, to send them back, 

 to reduce our kit and repack it in suitable form, and then go 

 up the Tana and possibly strike north for Basso Narok. As 

 soon, however, as we began work on this plan, the hopeless 

 nature of the task became apparent. There were tons of stuff 

 that was absolutely useless, and indispensable articles were 

 wanting. Our geographical equipment, in particular, was 

 hopelessly inadequate. I had been told in London that no 

 African expedition ever started with such a perfect scientific 

 outfit, but it had neither barometer, thermometer, nor theodolite. 

 It was also stated that a good library had been provided, but 

 the only books we had on the district were the few scientific 

 memoirs that I had taken with me and a copy of Hohnel's map. 

 We were preparing to further explore the regions visited by 

 Peters, Thomson, Piggott, Dundas, James, Fischer, and others, 



