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IN UNTRODDEN PATHS 



IT is my intention in this chapter to set forth 

 a few experiences in the untrodden wilds of 

 Eastern Equatorial Africa, which may be 

 aptly called the " Sportsman's Paradise." 

 Mombasa not so long ago was one of the big 

 centres of the slave trade, and one can well 

 imagine how suitable its innumerable creeks and 

 rivers, running inland in all directions, were to 

 the lawless operations of the raiders who navi- 

 gated the swift-sailing dhows which carried the 

 hapless slaves. 



Mombasa also forms one terminus of the 

 Uganda Railway, which stretches six hundred 

 miles inland to Lake Victoria Nyanza, the greatest 

 of the African lakes. What used in former days to 

 be a dead-and-alive town is now transformed into 

 a busy hive of industry, with the daily arrival and 

 departure of trains instead of the very occasional 

 return of a caravan of porters from the interior. 

 The platform is thronged with savages — all 

 clothed, however, as enforced by law — and as 

 much in their right minds as an African savage 



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