TO THE UASIN GlSHU 405 



than one chamber. Many of them, at least, are not cattle 

 kraals, being too small, and built round hollows; the walls 

 are so low that by themselves they could not serve for shel- 

 ter or defence, and must probably have been used as sup- 

 ports for roofs of timber or skins. They were certainly built 

 by people who were in some respects more advanced than 

 the savage tribes who now dwell in the land; but the grass 

 grows thick on the earth mounds into which the ancient 

 stone walls are slowly crumbling, and not a trace of the 

 builders remains. Barbarians they doubtless were; but they 

 have been engulfed in the black oblivion of a lower barbar- 

 ism, and not the smallest tradition lingers to tell of their 

 craft or their cruelty, their industry or prowess, or to give 

 us the least hint as to the race from which they sprang. 



We had with us an ox wagon, with the regulation span 

 of sixteen oxen, the driver being a young colonial English- 

 man from South Africa for the Dutch and English Afri- 

 canders are the best ox-wagon drivers in the world. On 

 the way back to Sergoi he lost his oxen, which were proba- 

 bly run off by some savages from the mountains; so at 

 Sergoi we had to hire another ox wagon, the South African 

 who drove it being a Dutchman named Botha. Sergoi 

 was as yet the limit of settlement; but it was evident that 

 the whole Uasin Gishu country would soon be occupied. 

 Already many Boers from South Africa, and a number of 

 English Africanders, had come in; and no better pioneers 

 exist to-day than these South Africans, both Dutch and 

 English. Both are so good that I earnestly hope they 

 will become indissolubly welded into one people; and the 

 Dutch Boer has the supreme merit of preferring the country 

 to the town and of bringing his wife and children plenty 

 of children with him to settle on the land. The home- 

 maker is the only type of settler of permanent value; and 

 the cool, healthy, fertile Uasin Gishu region is an ideal 

 land for the right kind of pioneer home-maker, whether he 

 hopes to make his living by raising stock or by growing 

 crops. 



