THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 261 



angled turn; and here, owing to a misplaced buoy, we 

 nearly hung up. This passage and one other are the 

 only entrances to the Kavirondo Gulf. The latter is 

 some sixty miles long, by ten or fifteen wide, and is 

 practically a lake by itself. The mountains on both 

 sides are very lofty, but set rather back, so there is a 

 littoral. At the end there is a vast stretch of flat 

 country — a continuation of the old lake bed — but at 

 last the mountains close even this in. 



Our intention was to land at Kisumu* and to look for 

 Uganda cob at Kibigori, a place about twenty-five miles 

 inland on this flat. We docked at Kisumu about sun- 

 down, with a good deal of flurry ; and I easily saw why the 

 captains of these lake steamers crack up. The climate 

 and the nervous work are a combination to knock up 

 anybody. At this point we got two pieces of bad news: 

 The first was that Vandenveyer 's donkeys are all dead. 

 The other hit poor Memba Sasa. He got word that his 

 father and his wife were both dead of plague ; and that 

 the Masai had seized the opportunity to steal sixty of 

 his goats — a very severe financial loss for a man in his 

 position. We decided to send him up by train to- 

 morrow to see what he could do. I am extremely 

 sorry, for I am fond of him. Slept (?) on board, as we 

 had nowhere to go in the dark. 



October 14. — Sent off Memba Sasa by early train. 

 He wept at parting, and I felt like doing so. I shall 



* Kisumu is the lake terminal of the Uganda Railroad. 



