Hunting in East Africa 



the beginning of open country. I had hardly 

 made camp before three SwahiH traders came 

 to me, and after the usual greetings began to 

 weep in chorus. Their story was a common one. 

 They had set out from Mombasa with twelve 

 others to trade for slaves and ivory with the 

 natives who inhabit the slopes of Kiliman- 

 jaro. Fortune had favored them, and after 

 four months they were on their way homeward 

 with eighteen slaves and five good sized tusks. 

 The first day's journey was just over when they 

 were attacked by natives, three of their num- 

 ber slain and all their property stolen. In 

 the darkness they could not distinguish what 

 natives attacked them ; but their suspicions 

 rested on the very tribe among whom they had 

 spent the four months, and from whom they 

 had purchased the ivory and slaves. I gave 

 them a little cloth and some food, and a note 

 to my people at Taveta to help them on their 

 way. Of course, they were slave traders, and 

 as such ought possibly to have been beaten 

 from my camp. But it is undoubtedly a fact 

 that Mahomedans look on slave trading as a 

 perfectly legitimate occupation; and if people 

 are not breaking their own laws, I cannot see 

 that a stranger should treat them as brigands 



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