REACHING OUR RENDEZVOUS 



Nairobi station. The distance from Mombasa is 327 

 miles, and the journey takes just twenty-four hours, 

 including waits at stations, such as Voi, for meals. 

 Nairobi is 5450 feet above sea-level. At the time of my 

 visit (1910) the town was still in the tin shanty stage. 

 The post-office, treasury, Norfolk and Stanley Hotels, 

 stood out as the leading buildings of the town. There 

 is a good racecourse, golf links, club, and town hall. 



At Dar-es-Salaam and Tanga, in German East Africa, 

 I was particularly struck with the solidity of the buildings, 

 municipal and otherwise, for this is not often met with in 

 British East Africa. Good stone buildings with red-tiled 

 roofs have the effect of making a country look prosperous. 

 The}* speak of a people that have come to stay, while the 

 corrugated iron or " tin shanty " settlement lacks sadly 

 the air of soundness in the country ; everything seems 

 to be temporary, as though our motto were " Make as 

 much as you can in as short a time as possible, then 

 clear." There has always been that feeling in South 

 Africa. Prominent men there have said from time to 

 time that people come there with the sole idea of making 

 their money in the country and then leaving to spend 

 it elsewhere. This is undoubtedly the case with the 

 large majority ; there are very few towns in South Africa 

 that have any outward signs of homeliness about them, 

 everywhere there is the same monotonous stretch of 

 corrugated iron and wire, everything has the " here to-day, 

 gone to-morrow," appearance. 



I stayed at Nairobi for a short time, meeting several 

 old friends and making new ones, and arranging the trip 

 which I am about to describe. I was disgusted to find 

 so many little " cliques " in Nairobi. I have been in 

 dozens of places in the Colonies, and it is noticeable in 

 every case that certain people from home cannot or will 

 not adapt themselves to their new surroundings. For 

 instance, the married couple who arrive and grudgingly 



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