198 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



problem of which class to travel. The first class 

 carriages are very nice, clean, and empty. For the 

 most part they are long and spacious with seats 

 lengthways, sideways to the engine, and eminently 

 suitable for slumber. But, alas ! the price of the 

 ticket is most exorbitant. The second class is an 

 almost precisely similar compartment of a more 

 advanced age, and into it one would at once spring 

 were it not that the next similar compartment is 

 crowded with about six Indians of the usual or baser 

 sort, and that an inspection reveals to our olfactory 

 senses that our compartment has recently had 

 occupants of the same kind. I would like to urge 

 on the management that certain compartments, first 

 and second class, be reserved for Indians only. It 

 is, I believe, recognised that the effluvia of hot 

 Europeans is most offensive to the Asiatic, and in 

 his interest I urge that it is most unfair that he should 

 be subjected to them ! 



The difficulty of selection solved either by damning 

 the expense or by squaring the guard (a more difficult 

 matter, alas ! than at home and only to be attained 

 by an appeal to his patriotism or better feelings), 

 we instruct our boys to arrange rugs and pillows 

 to our liking and settle down. The train starts slap 

 up to time at about 1 1 a.m. and in a few minutes 

 we are at the sea-port of Kilindini, where rows of 

 trucks loaded with produce going out, or of machinery 

 and implements coming in, testify to the agricultural 

 activity of the Colony. Leaving Kilindini, we cross 

 over a fine long bridge separating the island of 

 Mombasa from the mainland. The first twenty miles 

 or so lie through tropical country with plantations 

 of rubber trees and cocoa-nuts on either side. At 



