ch. xviii MINERALS 175 



discoveries, or rather lack of discoveries, of prospectors 

 and farmers, there are unlikely to be any of the more 

 common minerals in payable condition and quantity. 

 There are many who will be inclined to agree that 

 this is very far from being a misfortune. Most mines, 

 and more especially gold and diamond mines, though 

 adding revenue, bring a class of immigrants who are 

 not likely to add to the peace and happiness of an 

 agricultural country. There is, moreover, every 

 probability that the Protectorate will show once again 

 that agriculture, under the best conditions, will prove 

 the surest and most satisfactory source of wealth and 

 prosperity that exists. 



As in most parts of Africa, there are many traces of 

 gold in the Protectorate and the presence of these and 

 also of diamonds, very small and very scarce, have 

 raised the hopes of many a settler. Well do I recollect 

 seeing a well-known professional hunter of elephants 

 and other big game spurring a dripping horse up to 

 our farm. Pouring with sweat and inarticulate with 

 excitement, he assured us that he had found gold. It 

 appeared that while hunting in a range of hills some 

 twelve miles off he had been overcome with thirst 

 and vainly sought water for some hours. At last, to 

 his joy, he found a little pool and put his head down 

 to drink ; no sooner had his lips touched the water 

 than, in his own words, " I saw that the pool was 

 paved with gold, all gold ! it was like drinking gold ! '' 

 In the usual generous fashion of his type, he promised 

 us all a share of his colossal fortune, and, hardly 

 waiting for a drink, was off at a gallop to register his 

 claim in Nairobi, some forty miles off. Alas! our old 

 friend once again : Iron pyrites. Such is an instance 

 of one of the many disappointments that have befallen 



