THE SEFARI 35 
a solid advantage rests with the latter. You can never 
tell where you want to go in East Africa. Plan your trip 
never so carefully, a hundred things may arise which will 
deflect, if they do not alter, your route. You set out for 
a six weeks’ journey. You do not return for four or five 
months. Freedom of movement is an essential in this 
land where the unexpected is forever happening. Now, 
donkeys pin you down in two ways: They cannot make 
more than ten or at most, twelve miles a day, even where 
the trails are good; and when there are none, or when there 
is much swamp, cannot be got along at all. Donkeys 
are excellent to keep your base of supplies full. It is often 
necessary to have a number of them regularly travelling 
with potio, between the railroad and some selected spot 
near the country to be explored or hunted. In this way, 
you can keep the field for as long as you please, for it is 
easy to send ten or twenty porters from your hunting 
camp to this supply base, while, if you had to send the 
men a hundred miles or more for potio, ten or twenty 
could not carry any sufficient quantity, and would consume 
a large part of their loads on the way; and to send more 
than a small number of men is to cripple your travelling 
machine, and to force you to remain camped till they 
return. Never so denude yourself of men that you cannot 
march. ‘This is a rule every sefari leader should remember. 
Let me go back, then, to the phalanx of the safari — 
the porter. He may be a Kikuyu or Wakamba, a Swahili 
or a Kavorondo, a few of these tribes you will probably 
find on your official list, but Wanyamwazi make far and 
away the best. They are particular about their food, and 
demand rice if it can be got for them; but they are willing, 
good tempered, and very strong. They seldom steal, 
seldom fight among themselves, and practically never 
desert. (Kikuyus are always apt to do so, and you can 
seldom find out the reason why.) They carry their loads 
