A DHOW VOYAGE 



45 



marched along the coast to Mambrui, where we were kindly 

 received by the Lewali or Arab Governor. We made a 

 branch excursion to the Magarini Hills, where the British 

 East Africa Company had some extensive plantations. The 

 work was carried on, under the supervision of Mr. Weaver, by 

 freed slaves and some of Emin Pasha's old Soudanese soldiers, 

 who had been brought to the coast by Stanley. 



The next march took us to Melindi, where we had the 

 pleasure of meeting the late Mr. Bell Smith. Harris con- 

 tinued overland to Mombasa with the Zanzibari, but as several 

 of the Somali were too ill to march, and we were anxious that 

 they should get to Mombasa in time for the German steamer, 

 I went south with them on a dhow. 



We ought to have done the passage in a day. But we 

 made a late start, the winds were contrary, and at nightfall 

 we had only reached Takaaungu, about half way. The 

 captain would not sail in the dark, so we ran into the har- 

 bour and anchored. I insisted on being landed and sleeping 

 on shore, for the stench of the dhow, and the quarrels of the 

 Somali with the other passengers and the crew, were not 

 conducive to slumber. We started again at daybreak, and 

 drifted slowly southward. About eleven o'clock the breeze 

 freshened, and we had to take down the awning. After this 

 we had to sit huddled up on the poop in the full glare of the 

 midday sun, which made the deck so hot that it could not be 

 touched without discomfort. 



We arrived off Mombasa late in the afternoon, and stood 

 in at once through the narrow channel that leads to the 

 harbour. To the south rose a dazzlingly white cliff of raised 

 coral rock, worn into hollows and caves by the waves that splashed 

 its face with clouds of spray ; to the north stretched a wide 

 sheet of surf over the Leven Reefs, on which Vasco da Gama 

 tells us that the native pilots tried to wreck his ships. We 

 passed the new hospital and the famous old fort which guards 

 the town, and threaded our way through a crowd of ship- 

 ping, which included a British cruiser, a German merchant 

 vessel, and native craft of all sorts and sizes. There were 

 " batili " from Muscat, vessels with a long projecting prow 

 like the " counter " of a racing yacht, massive " bagalas " from 

 Bombay, with square sterns and high poops, reminding one 



