56 AT MOMBASA— A SECOND START part ii 



entertaining and hospitable, and soon made me forget that 

 the only clothes I had fit for Mombasa were, or rather were 

 supposed to be, coming on a dhow. 



I went into Mombasa on the day after my arrival to 

 discuss my plans with the different members of the European 

 colony. The result was not encouraging. I was too limited 

 both in time and money. I had only six months' leave of 

 absence from England still left, so I must be back at the coast 

 in time to catch the mail at the end of August ; and I felt that 

 I could not afford the expense of a caravan of more than thirty 

 men. My friends in Mombasa declared that both the time 

 and force were insufficient for an expedition to Baringo and 

 across the plateau of Laikipia to Kenya. The two most 

 experienced men then in Mombasa were James Martin and C. 

 W. Hobley. The former had accompanied Joseph Thomson 

 in his expedition to the Masai country in 1883, and had been 

 employed in caravan work in East Africa ever since that date. 

 He had managed Sir John Willoughby's shooting party to 

 Kilima Njaro and Sir Robert Hunter's up the Tana, and had 

 been to Uganda seven times. His experience of the country 

 is therefore unrivalled, and I was naturally much depressed 

 when he told me that he thought seventy men the minimum 

 with which I ought to try to reach Baringo, and that even that 

 number would be insufficient on Laikipia. Both Martin and 

 Hobley told me a good deal about the trade goods required on 

 the journey, and I returned to Kilindini feeling more grateful 

 for their information than for their advice. 



Harris arrived next day, and Benett - Stanford the day 

 after that. The former had marched overland from Melindi, 

 and the latter had come down by dhow from Kipini, at the 

 mouth of the Ozi. They left immediately for Zanzibar to take 

 the Somali back to Aden. They both very kindly warned me 

 not to forget my recent illness before deciding to go inland 

 again. When I told them I had quite made up my mind to 

 do so, unless recalled by the mail due in a few days' time, they 

 most generously invited me to take whatever I wanted out 

 of the stores of the expedition. I parted with Harris and 

 Benett-Stanford with deep regret. The three months we had 

 spent together had been a time of worry and disappointment 

 and bitter vexation of spirit, but I had never had a single 



