6 ENGLAND TO EAST AFRICA 



building overlooking the harbour, but there is little 

 else to see. The modern town, where are the new 

 Government buildings, the cathedral, and the houses 

 of the officials, lies on low ground on the seaward 

 side of the old town. Some of the buildings are 

 quite imposing, and the houses of the Europeans, 

 most of them surrounded by large gardens, are 

 comfortable dwellings with wide verandahs, well 

 suited to the climate. There is a system of narrow- 

 gauge tram-lines running along the main roads, 

 with branches running off to every house. Each 

 official keeps his private trolley, in which he is 

 pushed by coolies to and from his daily work. No 

 Englishman in Mombasa walks if he can possibly 

 avoid doing so ; indeed, if it be not impertinent 

 for an outsider to sit in judgment on them, one 

 would suggest that they do not take sufficient 

 exercise. 



There are two very indifferent hotels and an ex- 

 cellent club, where the members are as hospitable 

 as Englishmen always are in tropical places. 

 Outside the town are gardens of manioc and sweet- 

 potatoes, and large plantations of coco-nut palms, 

 with patches here and there of uncut forest. 

 Hideous baobabs, with their stunted branches bare 

 of leaves, and magnificent mango-trees laden with 

 ripening fruit, were the most noticeable trees early 

 in December ; but, its sweltering climate notwith- 

 standing, Mombasa has not the appearance of rich 

 tropical luxuriance that is so characteristic of 



