2 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



a pigtail wig and armed with a long-bladed spear. Now, three 

 Government stations at Lake Naivasha, Eldoma Ravine, and 

 Nandi respectively, complete the chain of forts. Where Bishop 

 Hannington failed to pass and lost his life, mission ladies 

 now travel safely and comfortably. At Kikuyu, where we were 

 warned not to venture out of sight of the fort, and never to 

 go about unarmed or without an armed escort, three families of 

 English settlers have built themselves homes, and three chubby 

 infants, the first Europeans born in this distant region of Africa, 

 have made their appearance. 



Zanzibar too has felt the effect of these changes. It used 

 to be the great emporium, Mombasa being merely a geogra- 

 phical name as regards importance ; now, with the railway an 

 accomplished undertaking for the first 200 miles, Mombasa as 

 its coast-terminus is every day increasing in importance, and 

 Zanzibar is gradually but steadily sinking into the shade. 



The old caravan route presented to the traveller interest- 

 ing variations in scenery and surroundings : — Mombasa, with 

 its cocoa-nut palms and mango-trees ; the waterless Taru 

 desert, with its clumps of thorn-bush and euphorbia ; the 

 Maungu, Ndara, and Ndi hills, with giraffes and elands in 

 the adjoining plains ; Kibwezi, with its huge baobab trees ; 

 the Makindo and Kiboko river-camps, with rhinos and zebras, 

 gazelles and antelopes in their neighbourhood ; the shallow 

 Kilungu river winding through fertile and populated regions ; 

 the Athi plains, the most magnificent game country in the 

 whole world, with its lions and ostriches, hartebeests and 

 wildebeests ; Kikuyu forest, with its glades and clearings ; the 

 extinct volcano Longonot, with the huge crater on its summit ; 

 Lake Naivasha, with its myriads of waterfowl of every de- 

 scription ; Lake Nakuru, with its thousands of flamingoes ; the 

 virgin forest-belt of Subugo, with its noble timber ; the cold 

 Mau escarpment, nearly 9000 feet above the sea-level, with 

 scattered patches of waving bamboos ; the treeless regions of 

 Kavirondo ; the garden of Usoga, with its grey parrots and vast 

 banana plantations ; the Nile, where it forms the exit of that 

 mighty lake the Victoria Nyanza ; finally, Uganda, with its hills 

 and valleys, its wild date-palms and twenty-feet high elephant- 

 grass. 



It fell to my lot to accomplish this journey six times, be- 

 sides spending nearly a year in the more remote parts known 



