v.] ELEPHANT -HUNTER FROM MOMBASA. 69 



cording to their account — which I believe was greatly exagger- June, 

 ated — they had lost fifty or sixty loads, and eight or ten men. ^^'''^• 



Another was a party of about twenty, belonging to a black- 

 smith who indulged in the hope of making a fortune at Unyan- 

 yembe by repairing muskets during the war with Mirambo. 



The last and largest was a heterogeneous assemblage, joined 

 together for mutual protection. It consisted of small parties 

 under the charge of Arabs' slaves, and poor freemen who could 

 only muster two or three loads, and slaves to carry them ; but, 

 full of hope, were bound for lands of fabulous riches, where 

 ivory was reported to be used for fencing pig-sties and making 

 door-posts. 



When we marched on the lltli of June, we were altogether 

 over five hundred strong. 



The track was rough and broken ; and in some places over- 

 hanging the river there were holes so nearly hidden by scrub, 

 that very wary walking was recpiisite, a false step being suf- 

 ficient to send one tumbling, through scrub and thorns, into the 

 Mukondokwa. 



Fording this stream again, and then following up its valley, 

 we crossed it for the third and last time, close to a small village 

 called Madete, where we camped. 



Here w^e met an elephant-hunter from Mombasa awaiting the 

 return of men he had dispatched to the coast with ivory. He 

 was armed with bow and arrows, the latter so strongly poisoned 

 that one deep or two slight wounds proved sufficient to kill an 

 elephant. The arrow-heads were neatly covered with banana- 

 leaves to prevent accidents, and a stock of the poison was car- 

 ried in a gourd. 



A short distance below the place where we last crossed the 

 Mukondokwa, the Ugombo joins it ; and, following the valley 

 of that river, on both sides of which the mountains are very 

 bold and precipitous — some peaks, aj)parently formed of solid 

 masses of syenite, being excellent landmarks — we arrived the 

 next day at Lake Ugombo. 



This sheet of water varies from three miles long by one 

 wide, to one mile long by half a mile wide, according to the 

 season, being mainly dependent on the rains for its supply. 



It affords a home for a number of hippopotami, and its sur- 



