6 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



hundreds of elephant and buffalo; and these four animals 



are the most dangerous of the world's big game, when 

 hunted as they are hunted in Africa. To hear him tell of 

 what he has seen and done is no less interesting to a nat- 

 uralist than to a hunter. There were on the ship many 

 men who loved wild nature, and who were keen hunters of 

 big game; and almost every day, as we steamed over the 

 hot, smooth waters of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, 

 we would gather on deck around Selous to listen to tales of 

 those strange adventures that only come to the man who 

 has lived long the lonely life of the wilderness. 



On April 21 we steamed into the beautiful and pictur- 

 esque harbor of Mombasa. Many centuries before the 

 Christian era, dhows from Arabia, carrying seafarers of 

 Semitic races whose very names have perished, rounded the 

 Lion's Head at Guardafui and crept slowly southward 

 along the barren African coast. Such dhows exist to-day 

 almost unchanged, and bold indeed were the men who first 

 steered them across the unknown oceans. They were men 

 of iron heart and supple conscience, who fronted inconceiv- 

 able danger and hardship; they established trading stations 

 for gold and ivory and slaves; they turned these trading 

 stations into little cities and sultanates, half Arab, half negro. 

 Mombasa was among them. In her time of brief splendor 



" ' IMNM * IIIHIBB BMMH* IM **MBMBMlitrr'- 



Portugal seized the city; the Arabs won it back; and now 

 England holds it. It lies just south of the equator, and 

 when we saw it the brilliant green of the tropic foliage 

 showed the town at its best. 



We were welcomed to Government House in most cordial 

 fashion by the acting Governor, Lieutenant-Governor Jack- 

 son, who is not only a trained public official of long experience 



