296 CONDITIONS IN EAST AFEICA 



I may say at once that I am tirmly of the opinion that, in 

 East Africa, the existence of the Tsetse-fly was never in any M^ay 

 comiected with the jDresence of the Buffalo more than any other 

 species of game. 



I first met with the true Tsetse in very great numbers, and 

 consequently suffered much from their needle-like bite, in German 

 East Africa, about 80 miles inland from Saadani in Feb. 1886. 

 At that time impala, hartebeest, zebras, and wart-hogs were 

 found in large numbers, also a few sable antelopes, but there 

 were no Buffaloes anywhere in the vicinity of my shooting 

 grounds. In 1887 I again found this fly in gi-eat numbers in a 

 small patch of thick bush, about a mile and a half long and 

 three-quarters of a mile wide, some ten miles west of Taveita. 

 In this bush, which projected from the forest, I certainly found 

 Buffaloes occasionally, but as a rule they preferred to lie up for 

 the day in the thick and cooler forest, in which there were no 

 Tsetse. The bush in question was a favourite resort of impala 

 and a small dik-dik (Madoqua) — the latter in great numbers — 

 and also a few bush-buck and water-buck. At that time (1887) 

 Buffaloes may be said to have swarmed in the vicinity of Taveita, 

 but I never saw a Tsetse-fly except iia this one particular patch 

 of bush. 



Later on, in 1889 and 1890, the fly was met with, also in 

 great numbers, along the old caravan road from about two miles 

 south of the Tsavo River as far as Eabwezi. Between these two 

 points there were practically no Buffalo, but a great number of 

 dik-dik and a few impala. The fly and the small game are still 

 there, but there are certainly no Buffaloes. 



In 1891-92, after rinderpest had carried off nearly all of the 

 Buffaloes (at least 90 per cent.) throughout East Africa, 

 Mr. Rogers, the present Sub-Commissioner of the Tanaland 

 Province, and myself found the Tsetse-fly existing in considerable 

 numbers in a narrow belt of forest not more than a mile wide, 

 between Mkonumbi and Witu, and we were told by the natives 

 that the Gallas, when driving cattle to Lamu for sale, always 

 drove them through the forest by night, and that the herdsmen 

 carried smoking firebrands to keep the flies off. With the 

 exception of a few bush-buck and duyker there was no game in 

 the vicinity of this belt of forest. 



These four places are the only areas, the first and third ones 

 alone being of any considerable extent, in which I have myself 

 met with the true Tsetse-fly, and yet, until they were decimated 

 by rinderpest, Buffaloes were more or less common throughout 

 East Africa ; and perhaps in no part of the Continent were 

 they ever more plentiful than in the Masai Country between 

 Kilima Njaro and Lake Baringo, Mau Plateau and Turkwell. 

 Throughout the whole of this vast area the Tsetse was, and is, 

 non-existent. 



