WHITE SETTLERS 



a height of 1 7,040 feet. The shortest route to Nyeri 

 and Nairobi lies along the eastern slopes, but the 

 country is so undulating, and scarred by such deep 

 and precipitous ravines, that, personally, I much 

 prefer to cross the western spur of Kenya, and 

 thence south-west to Nyeri, a distance of eighty- 

 seven miles from Meru and perhaps seventeen miles 

 longer than the eastern route. 



The country on either side is too well known to 

 need description, and it would be tedious to follow in 

 detail the incidents of the journey. Suffice it to say 

 that on the seventh morning after my departure from 

 Meru my men reached Nairobi, having averaged just 

 over twenty-five miles a day through a hilly country, 

 a fact which speaks well for the raw Meru porters. 

 At Nyeri the Kikuyu were making great preparations 

 for the coming circumcision ceremony, which was to 

 take place in a month's time, and I saw several boys 

 in the extraordinary costume that tradition has 

 ordained for such occasions. I was amazed at the 

 greatly increased European and white population, 

 and at the amount of land that has been taken up 

 by settlers since I had last visited the country in 

 1909. It is not for me to criticise the resources of 

 East Africa, or to speak of its commercial prosperity ; 

 I leave that to those far better fitted than myself. 

 But at the same time I confess that I have been 

 much amused by the glowing and often exaggerated 

 accounts of the Pretectorate that I have read in 

 books and magazines, and have often wondered at 

 the perverted ingenuity with which those, who had an 

 axe to grind, enlarged upon its manifold advantages, 

 and orlossed over its somewhat obvious drawbacks. 



With my arrival at Nairobi, my journey ended. 



28-, 



