\Yith Flashlight and Rifle * 



place very suddenly and at night, just at the moment 

 when the caravan is least expecting anything of the sort. 

 At one time it was not easy for a private traveller 

 to procure, in Kast Africa, the grant of a sufficient 

 number of armed followers. It was maintained that one 

 could travel safelv through Kast Africa with a walking- 



^ O O 



stick for weapon. To a gentleman who expressed him- 

 self to me in that fashion, I answered that though 1 was 

 firmly convinced that my death would be avenged, I 

 should prefer to keep alive if I could. The latest 

 incidents in SouthAYest Africa make one feel still more 

 strongly on this point. 



The Government must of course have the right to 

 refuse access to the interior to armed forces of dubious 

 character, or at any rate to deprive them of their arms ; 

 it should even be empowered to turn them out of the 

 country. But tor experienced travellers, who are able 

 to give personal guarantees, to be refused the proper 

 armed escort, I considered, and consider still, to be a 

 most grave error of judgment. 



K vents in South-West Africa have shown how 

 cunningly the natives contrive to hide their plans from 

 the officials, and I found it just the same, in the year 

 1896, in Kast Africa. My thoughts often go back to the 

 warlike events in which I participated there. 



In the summer of that year the natives near Kili- 

 manjaro seemed quiet and peaceable ; the idea of a 

 sudden revolt or an attack on the station at Moshi was 

 scouted by the Europeans. In September the large and 

 well-armed expedition which I had been able to join 



678 



