FIRST EXPEDITION TO EAST AFRICA 79 



the Kikuyu porters, had all been engaged by 

 Judd ; and, not unnaturally, looked upon me 

 as an outsider. The Kikuyu also is a poor- 

 spirited creature ; and, as Abdu, the Somali 

 headman who had charge of the porters on my 

 second expedition, contemptuously said, is only 

 fit to cultivate a field. In the vicinity of his 

 home, with people who know and understand 

 him, he is tractable, and he is certainly a very 

 good porter, and takes good care of his load. He 

 has not, however, the pluck and enterprise of 

 the Swahili, the Wakamba, the Kavirondo, or 

 the Baganda, and is not a good man for a long 

 journey, as he soon becomes homesick and wishes 

 to return. I had, therefore, a good deal of trouble 

 with the porters. My ignorance of the language 

 made it difficult for me to control them, and I 

 was not as firm with them as I should have been. 

 I managed, however, to reach the Boma, and 

 did some shooting round the Pezi swamp beyond 

 the Boma; but the porters absolutely refused 

 to go any farther. 



Bird also was anxious to see me before leaving 

 the country, and I accordingly reluctantly retraced 

 my steps and marched to meet him at Nakuro 

 in the Rift valley to the west of Naivasha. I 

 heard a lion one night when I was in camp near 

 the Pezi swamp, but did not see one. 



At the Boma there was a sergeant from a British 

 infantry regiment, who was drilling the Swahili 

 Police. He informed me that not long before 

 he had successfully treated a Masai who had 

 come to the Boma with his arm badly mauled 

 by a lion. The Masai, according to his own 



