With Flashlight and Rifle * 



when towards evening a deputation of old men, led by 

 the then chief (?) at Moshi (a negro named Schundi) 

 came into camp and begged for an interview. 



This " schauri " was of course; granted them, and in 

 picturesque groups the people; squatted down in Kaiser's 

 tent, he conducting the conversation in Arabic (for we 

 were not then masters of the: Swahili language) through 

 an interpreter. Kaiser and I remember every little 

 incident of that evening. 



When the; natives proposed to send into our camp 

 a great number of their young " spear-warriors," so as 

 to defend this, in conjunction with our own armed men, 

 against an eventual attack of the Loita-Masai, we most 

 decisively refused to consider the idea at all. The real 

 intention, that it was these Masai themselves who pro- 

 posed to attack us, seemed to us toe) transparent. \Ve 

 both saw in it a ruse of the chief, who for some 

 time had not been very friendly to us, and of whose 

 double-dealing that night we, later on, had lull proof, 



Kaiser was strengthened in his instant decision by his 

 varied knowledge and experience of native races ; and 

 for my part, my suspicions were immediately awakened by 

 a number of little things I had noticed. 



The night went by uneventfully, no dembt principally 

 because Kaiser and 1 hael orele-reel the- sentries to lire 

 instantly at any native they saw, and because, on their 

 departure, we had taken care; to inform the- old me;n ot 

 this command. Many months later, it was evident 

 to us both that our lives hael hung by a thread that 

 night. 



680 



