CH. i] PREPARATIONS 19 



a place for the white man, and lie must care for himself 

 as he would scorn to do in the lands of pine and birch 

 and frosty weather. Camping in the Rockies or the 

 North AVoods can with advantage be combined with 

 " roughing it "; and the early pioneers of the West, the 

 explorers, prospectors, and hunters, who always roughed 

 it, were as hardy as bears, and lived to a hale old age, if 

 Indians and accidents permitted. But in tropical Africa 

 a lamentable proportion of the early explorers paid in 

 health or life for the hardships they endured ; and 

 throughout most of the country no man can long rough 

 it, in the Western and Northern sense, with impunity. 



At Kapiti Plains our tents, our accommodation 

 generally, seemed almost too comfortable for men who 

 knew camp life only on the Great Plains, in the 

 Rockies, and in the North Woods. My tent had a fly, 

 which was to protect it from the great heat ; there was 

 a little rear extension in which I bathed — a hot bath, 

 never a cold batli, is almost a tropic necessity ; there 

 was a groimd canvas, of vital moment in a land of ticks, 

 jiggers, and scorpions ; and a cot to sleep on, so as to 

 be raised from the ground. Quite a contrast to life on 

 the round-up ! Then, I had two tent-boys to see after 

 my belongings, and to wait at table as well as in the 

 tent. Ali, a Mohammedan mulatto (Arab and negro), 

 was the chief of the two, and spoke some English, while 

 under him was " Bill," a speechless black boy, Ali 

 being particularly faithful and efficient. Two other 

 Mohammedan negroes, clad like the askaris, reported to 

 me as my gun-bearers, Muhammed and Bakiri ; seemingly 

 excellent men, loyal and enduring, no trackers, but with 

 keen eyes for game, and the former speaking a little 

 English. My two horse-boys, or saises, were both 

 pagans. One, Hamisi, must liave had in his veins Galla 



