CH A PTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



M 



Y first journey, March 

 1894, to Uganda was 

 made in the days prior 

 to the proclamation of 

 a British Protectorate over these 

 regions. Caravans then had to be 

 fitted out at Zanzibar, though Mom- 

 basa, on the mainland, was the 

 actual starting-point. The trans- 

 port, whatever the nature of the 

 goods, depended on the efficiency 

 of natives drawn from the mixed 

 coast-races known collectively as 

 Swahilies. 

 yi_^^i^i_ The caravan route from Mom- 



basa to Port Alice, a distance of 

 800 miles, was practically a mere footpath. Not a few hardships 

 and dauLjers had then to be faced, where the journey now 

 has become comparatively a pleasure-trip. Barely three years 

 ago two caravan parties were massacred by hostile natives ; 

 now, a gentleman boasted in my hearing that he could 

 travel the whole distance of 800 miles in absolute safety armed 

 with nothing but his walking-stick. Then, it took eighty-three 

 days from Mombasa to Kampala ; now, barely half that time. 

 Formerly, the traveller spent eighteen days to cross the Taru 

 desert and the fever-belt beyond it ; now, he enters the train at 

 Mombasa one day, and finds himself next day safe beyond this 

 trying region. From Kikuyu to Kabras then, meant twenty- 

 one days' journey without the caravan meeting another human 

 being, except perchance some wandering Masai warrior wearing 



