TRAVELLING UNDER DIFFICULTIES 



Not long afterwards two missionaries, Messrs. Ovis 

 and Seegebrock, came to the Meru mountain to select 

 a place for a settlement. With them were the com- 

 mandant of Fort Moschi and a strong detachment of 

 Askari. They decided on a spot on the bank of a 

 brook Towards evening they were warned by a wom- 

 an to be on their guard against the natives. The 

 Europeans disregarded the advice, but not so the war- 

 like and wary Sudanese Askari, who kept awake with 

 rifles cocked. Towards morning they heard a rustling 

 in the banana groves, and they saw shadowy forms 

 moving from cover to cover. Now they heard the clat- 

 ter of shields and spears. Without delay they fired a 

 few volleys. When the sun rose it shone on the dead 

 bodies of thirty of the g,ssailants. 



The missionaries had remained on the farther bank 

 of the brook. A daring black scout crossed the water 

 and soon brought the report that the missionaries had 

 been killed. A punitive expedition was sent, and the 

 natives were pacified for a time. 



Three years later I was again travelling in the neigh- 

 borhood of the Kilimanjaro and the country seemed 

 quiet and peaceful. The missionaries had not been 

 molested for a long time. How these, by -the -way, 

 expect to be successful, I do not quite understand. 

 The comparatively small inhabitable region of the 

 Kilimanjaro is divided into eight districts, alter- 



389 



