26 NAIVASHA AND VICTORIA NYANZA 



ready to forgive them for their disregard of the 

 ordinary proprieties. 



The approach by railway to the Victoria Nyanza 

 is, it must be confessed, most disappointing. Instead 

 of suddenly seeing, as you had rather hoped to do, 

 a wide view of the greatest lake in Africa, stretch- 

 ing far into a boundless horizon, you become aware, 

 without any emotion at all, of a narrow arm of 

 dirty brown water, bounded by rough grass and 

 papyrus. This was the beginning of the Kavirondo 

 Gulf, a huge north-eastern arm of the Nyanza, and 

 in a few minutes the first stage of the journey came 

 to an end, when the train ran on to the pier at 

 Kisumu or Port Florence, and a dusky official cried 

 out — rather unnecessarily, seeing that I was the 

 only passenger — ' All changes !' 



Africa is a land of surprises at every turn, so one 

 is not in the least astonished to find lying alongside 

 of the quay a perfect little ocean steamship. The 

 white paint and the glistening brass-work, the 

 electric light, and the Indian cook, made me think 

 that this was a P. and O. liner eastward bound, 

 rather than a little steamer on a remote lake, which 

 fifty years ago no white man had ever seen. After 

 the grime of the Deutsch Ost Afrika and the discom- 

 fort of the Uganda Railway, this was luxury indeed. 

 While the steamer was being crammed full of cargo, 

 I strolled along the shore and watched a party of 

 Kavirondo fishermen at work. They use a long 

 seine-net made of grass and papyrus stalks, which 



