THE START 



until the former is ready to take the affairs of the 

 tribe into his own hands. 



Everything was ready for my departure, when I 

 was suddenly taken ill with dysentery. Lately I had 

 been feeling far from well, and now I had to give in 

 altogether, though the delay was terribly exasperat- 

 ing. Six days later I was sufficiently well to get up, 

 and, weak though I was, I decided, perhaps unwisely, 

 to start two days afterwards. My caravan consisted 

 of my headman Dahir Omar, my interpreter Hassan 

 Mohammed, my gun-bearer, skinner, syce, a personal 

 boy whom I had had on a previous expedition, a S wahili 

 cook, seven camel syces, six porters from Mombasa, 

 four Somali police or Askaris, and a Herti guide who 

 was to accompany me as far as the district of Joreh. 

 I had eighteen camels, of which five were used solely 

 for carrying the ten water-tanks so essential to the 

 traveller in Jubaland. The Government's travelling 

 allowance for its officials is twenty-five camels, so 

 it will be seen that I had cut my loads down to a 

 minimum. My own personal equipment, tent, bed- 

 ding, instruments, guns, collecting boxes, and stores 

 for four months, weighed nine hundred pounds, or 

 three camel loads, while the other ten camels carried 

 the men's tents, cooking-pots, rice and trade goods. 

 On the day I started I sent the caravan on ahead 

 with instructions to pitch camp in the plains beyond 

 the sandhills, and I set out myself late in the after- 

 noon of the same day. 



At first the trail led across the hills behind 

 Kismayu, winding in and out among the giant um- 

 brella trees, until the crest was reached. Turning 

 back, I gazed for some time upon the beautiful scene 

 that lay below, at Kismayu and at the ocean beyond, 

 E 65 



