CHAP. IX ''COME YE IN PEACE HERE?'' 157 



Next day we entered the Kikuyu forests, which were traversed 

 in every direction by elephant paths. In one or two places 

 we saw elephant tracks that could only have been made that 

 morning ; but I had no time for hunting, even if a donkey had 

 been good enough as a mount. We crossed the Guaso Nairobi 

 (" Cold River "), and shortly afterwards emerged from the 

 forests and had an extensive view to the south, across a great 

 tract of undulating country, from which rose numerous clouds 

 of smoke. These signs of habitation and cultivation cheered 

 us, though we remembered the treacherous reputation of the 

 people, and prepared for a possible struggle. We crossed three 

 deep river gorges separated by lava plateaux, and approached 

 the plantations and villages. We saw that some natives had 

 seen us, so we selected a good site for camp, and fired a couple 

 of shots to announce our arrival. 



No answer came, so I sent the best Kikuyu interpreter and 

 half a dozen porters to try to find some natives. They returned 

 an hour later with a promise that food should be brought to 

 us. No one came, however, except one or two men who crept 

 through the grass to watch us. During the afternoon, Omari, 

 with characteristic pluck, went off alone to the village and 

 scolded the elders for not having sent us food. I did not 

 know he had gone until shortly before sunset, when the men, 

 who had become seriously alarmed for his safety, reported his 

 absence. We all feared that he had been taken prisoner. I 

 served out 100 rounds of ammunition to each of five reliable 

 men, and started off with them to demand his surrender. To 

 our intense relief, however, we met him a few hundred yards 

 from camp. His report as to the attitude of the natives was 

 not reassuring, so we strengthened our defences, and made half 

 the men go to sleep, while the rest of us kept guard. 



Just after ten o'clock we heard the dull thud of footsteps in 

 a gully that ran from the plateau to the river, and saw a party 

 of natives approaching us. They stopped in the mouth of the 

 gully, and two of them came toward us waving torches. Our 

 interpreter met them, and after a few minutes' conversation 

 returned to say that the Kikuyu wanted to know who we were, 

 whence we had come, whither we were going, and how we had 

 dared to enter their country without permission ! They were 

 willing to have a shauri, provided that the white man did not 



