go ACROSS LANDS OF KIKUYU AND MASAI part ii 



saw some lions just sneaking away from camp, and some 

 others that they had seen some Masai. So I knew camp was 

 safe for the rest of that night, and leaving the porters to 

 hold an indignation meeting and abuse the culprit, I turned in 

 and slept soundly until daybreak. 



I had hoped to get some antelope shooting in this district, 

 for it is one of the richest game fields in Africa ; but the 

 Athi river was in flood, and it was obvious at once that all 

 my energies must be devoted to getting the caravan across it. 

 Mr. Ainsworth had warned me that we should probably be 

 delayed here, as a small caravan that had just gone on to 

 Fort Smith had been obliged to stop beside the river for a 

 week. The ordinary ford was quite impassable. Omari and I 

 managed all but the last channel, which was only fifteen yards 

 wide ; but through this the stream was rushing with such 

 force that we were obliged to give it up. Omari went off in 

 one direction, and I in the other, to try to find a practicable 

 ford. My search was unsuccessful, but Omari found a place 

 a couple of miles down stream, where the river widened out 

 into a shallow. Here we crossed next day. The passage, 

 however, was troublesome, especially over the flooded land on 

 either bank ; for amid the sharp angular rocks were shrubs, 

 whose still sharper thorns broke off in our bare feet. 



Later on the same day we had to cross the second branch 

 of the Athi, which was not so broad as the first, but deeper and 

 swifter. The men said we could not possibly cross, as this 

 branch of the river was always worse than the other. When I 

 joined them on the bank, after an ineffectual attempt to stalk 

 some giraffe, the porters seemed determined not to try the 

 ford that day. Omari, however, said it must be possible to 

 cross, so we plunged in and raced to the other side. The 

 current was more powerful than it looked, and twice knocked me 

 off my feet. Omari went back for the rope while I sat on a 

 rock and exhorted the porters. Fundi Mabruk and the Askari, 

 Ramathan Jumma, next tried the passage, but as the latter was 

 carried off his feet and dragged ashore half choked with water, 

 the others preferred to wait till a rope could be fitted up across 

 the river. A length (80 ft.) of Buckingham's Alpine rope went 

 about half-way across ; we fastened other ropes to this and tied 

 them round trees on the banks. Ramathan Jumma and I then 



