XVI 

 RECRUITING 



TO THE traveller Nairobi is most interesting as 

 the point from which expeditions start and to 

 which they return. Doubtless an extended stay in 

 the country would show him that problems of ad- 

 ministration and possibilities of development could 

 be even more absorbing; but such things are very 

 sketchy to him at first. 



As a usual thing, when he wants porters he picks 

 them out from the throng hanging around the big 

 outfitters' establishments. Each man is then given 

 a blanket — cotton, but of a most satisfying red — 

 a tin water bottle, a short stout cord, and a navy 

 blue jersey. After that ceremony he is yours. 



But on the occasion of one three months' journey 

 into comparatively unknown country we ran up 

 against difficulties. Some two weeks before our 

 contemplated start two or three cases of bubonic 

 plague had been discovered in the bazaar, and as a 

 consequence Nairobi was quarantined. This meant 

 that a rope had been stretched around the infected 



134 



