116 AFRICA SPEAKS 



dinner by the entire force, and he opened a bottle of 

 champagne to celebrate the occasion. 



Next morning we paid a visit to the duka, where, in 

 addition to a few grocery supphes, we intended to pick 

 up twenty cases of gasohne which had been sent here 

 by lake steamer from Kisumu. We found that the 

 gasohne had duly arrived, but had been returned by the 

 briUiant Indian who operated the duka, his explanation 

 being that as he had ordered no gasohne, he thought 

 someone was trying to fool him. This was a fine sit- 

 uation; we didn't even have enough gasoline to get 

 back to camp. Things looked dark indeed until we 

 discovered from the black boys that the Indian had 

 a large warehouse full of gasoline. Then we surmised 

 what afterwards proved to be correct; that the wily 

 old boy thought by sending back our gasohne he 

 would be in a position to sell his own to us at an 

 exorbitant price. I had with me a letter from the 

 Vacuum Oil Company, which called upon him to supply 

 me with all the gasohne I wanted. As payment was 

 made through my New York office, I'm afraid his hopes 

 of an extra profit were not fulfilled. 



People have asked me what Victoria Nyanza looks 

 hke. Anyone who has seen the ocean can answer the 

 question, for it stretches beyond the horizon. One of 

 my boys who had been in Mombasa, but never before 

 to the lake, thought that by some mysterious route 

 we had arrived at the sea. He was not convinced 

 otherwise, until he had tasted the water and found 

 it to be sweet. 



We did I it envy our pohce friend's job, for although 

 it is a beautiful country around the shores of this 

 wonderful lake and there are many interesting things 



