2 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



that only a few weeks before we had been sitting in an 

 English garden discussing whether or not the journey 

 should be undertaken. When one wants anything 

 enough one usually gets it, and so it was with me : it 

 was settled that we were to go. 



My companions were experienced travellers, and as 

 they knew exactly what to get, and where, the pre- 

 parations were soon made, and in a fortnight's time 

 we embarked from Liverpool on s.s. Dakar, with no 

 graver misfortune than the loss of a few dresses and 

 some boots. It is true that I had foolishly packed 

 my films in a hold box, and, as I longed to practise 

 photography, which was to me a new art, I bought 

 some more in Liverpool. While so doing the last re- 

 quired touch of sentiment was given, without which 

 no such expedition is complete : the shopman begged 

 me to turn back, even at this eleventh hour, from the 

 dangers of West Africa, where, he assured me, I should 

 almost certainly lose my life. 



Once on board, I settled down, with unrewarded op- 

 timism, to the study of a Hausa grammar. Mrs Talbot 

 was too wise to spend her time in a like occupation, 

 but her husband, who knew the language, helped me 

 in my task. 



Mr P. A. Talbot is a District Commissioner in 

 Southern Nigeria, but before joining the service he had 

 already experienced the fascination of Africa. In 1902 

 he served on the Liberian Boundary Commission ; and 

 in 1904 joined the Alexander-Gosling Expedition for a 

 year, when, together with Lieut. Boyd Alexander, he 

 was the first Englishman to navigate Lake Chad. Mrs 

 Talbot, after living the first few years of her married 

 life in England, accompanied her husband to his 



