THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY ii 



an explored country, or in a country^ known to be in- 

 habited, this is a simple matter; one merely purchases 

 from the natives as one goes along. In an unknown or 

 uninhabited region, however, the situation is differ- 

 ent. Each porter must receive, in addition to meat, a 

 pound and a half of grain food a day to keep him strong 

 and in good health. That is forty-five pounds per month 

 per man. One must know where that can be found. 



As a porter can carr>' sixty pounds only, it can readily 

 be seen that supplies must be renewed at least every 

 month. To overcome this difficulty we resolved to 

 use donkeys for the purpose of carrying grain food — 

 or potio — for the men ; and to cut down the numbers of 

 the men to the lowest possible point. We did not feel 

 justified in depending on donkeys for our whole trans- 

 port for the reason that, in this land of strange 

 diseases, we could by no means feel certain of their 

 living; and we could not take a chance of finding our- 

 selves stranded. Each donkey would carry two loads, 

 and would not require feeding. 



For these twenty beasts Cuninghame had built pack- 

 saddles after the American "saw buck" pattern, the 

 first, as far as I am aware, to be so used in Central 

 Africa.* The usual native saddle is a flat pad, across 

 which the bags, fastened loosely together, are laid. 

 On the level this works well enough, but up or down hill 



* One other American hunter had experimented with them near Nairobi, 

 but reported against them. This was, I think, because he did not take the 

 time, trouble, and patience personally to train his men. 



