WESTWARD AGAIN 6i 



where I had first collected specimens of them. But thouo"hts 

 of the past soon gave way to the needs of the present — one of 

 which was rest. 



At daybreak next morning Omari served out nine days' 

 rations of food and ten rounds of cartridges to each man. We 

 read over the roll-call once again and I counted the men. Happily 

 of the forty-one there was no absentee. There was the head- 

 man, four Askaris, two of whom had previously been headmen 

 and had had considerable experience, thirty-three porters, a 

 cook, and a tent-boy. These were the forty, and to them I 

 added myself. I had endeavoured to get a European to 

 accompany me. Especially I wanted to find a sailor from a 

 man-of-war, who could shoot game, skin animals, mend the 

 guns, drill the men, take his turn as sentry on the sentries 

 every other night. But no European could be obtained of any 

 kind or on any terms, so I had to start alone. 



The caravan was certainly small for the work before it ; but 

 it looked as if it meant business. For its size it was very 

 complete. We had interpreters for the languages spoken in 

 the Taita Mountains, in Ukamba, on Kamasia and at Njemps, 

 and several for the languages of the Masai and the Kikuyu. 

 We had men who had served in most of the caravans whose 

 routes I wanted to connect with mine ; we had one of the two 

 men who had been with Count Teleki to his highest point on 

 Kenya, and one who had been with the British East Africa 

 Company's expedition as far as it went on the same mountain. 

 Some of the men were almost new to caravan life, and two or 

 three I would not have taken could I have made up the list 

 without them. But most of the men were reliable, and we had 

 a good proportion of veterans, including several of Stanley's Emin 

 Pasha Relief Expedition. 



Allowing myself but one last look back over the island of 

 Mombasa, I followed the men out of camp on to the path, and 

 commenced for the second time, but now with feelings of 

 greater confidence, the march toward that remarkable feature 

 of East African geography — the Rift Valley. 



" Whither, with what haste 

 The weight we must convey with us will permit." 



Attt. and CI. iii. i. 



