^o ON THE UGANDA ROAD part ii 



ought not to have been attempted. The result was that some 

 of the men did not get into camp till after nine o'clock, and 

 they were all thoroughly tired out. It would not have done, 

 however, to have confessed the mistake to the porters ; so 

 when some of the sulky ones came up to me to say that they 

 were going back to Mombasa if they were to be marched like 

 that, I merely remarked that they knew what they might expect 

 when they arrived there. I advised them to go if they were 

 very anxious to qualify for two years' hard labour in the chain- 

 gang on the Uganda road. It was obvious, however, that some 

 of the weaker men were too exhausted to proceed next day, and 

 I decided to give the caravan a day's rest. This I did with the 

 less reluctance, as I was very anxious to ascend the peak of 

 Ndi, the highest mountain of this group, in order to compare 

 the flora of its higher slopes with that of its base and of the 

 adjacent plains. 



At daybreak next morning I started from camp with a 

 couple of the Askari ; we followed the course of a small stream, 

 which came plunging down the mountain side in a series of 

 picturesque cascades. To force a way straight up the slope was 

 impossible, owing to the denseness of the vegetation. We tried 

 to do so, but were soon glad to take advantage of a path which 

 wound up the face of the mountain to some Taita villages on 

 the upper slopes. The path was well planned for security ; it 

 was arranged to lead occasionally across the face of an almost 

 vertical cliff, where the foothold was reduced to a few knobs, or 

 to a narrow ledge of rock. Many of the tracks in the Alps 

 which are dignified with the name of " mauvais pas " are safe 

 in comparison with these. That the natives can pass along 

 them with heavy loads of food on their heads is a great testi- 

 mony to their sureness of foot and steadiness of nerve. At 

 first I thought that these rock-traverses were only short cuts, 

 and that the main path ran elsewhere. But it was not so ; the 

 arrangement has been planned to enable the natives to keep 

 their mountain fastnesses safe from the marauding Masai, who 

 could not force them if defended from above by the natives with 

 boulders, and with bows and poisoned arrows. 



After a gentle ramble for two hours up the hillside, stop- 

 ping here and there on the way to collect, we reached the 

 meadows and valleys, in which are situated the villages and 



