CHAPTER I 



FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 



Preliminary observations — First acquaintance with Mombasa — Enter service of 

 LB. E. A. Company — Description of Mombasa — My hunting weapons — Organise 

 elephant-hunting expedition — ^My Swahili name — Our start — Desertions — Over- 

 land route adopted — Last outpost of civilisation — My terrier companion " Frolic " 

 — Reach Laiju — A fertile district — ^Build a stockade — " Papa," an old Ndorobo 

 — Hunting trip across Mackenzie River — The Ndorobo's idea of happiness — 

 Expedition unsuccessful — Shoot zebra and oryx on return — Side-shot at rhino- 

 ceros — The rhino's death-waltz — My second rhinoceros — His death-charge — 

 First sight of Waller's Gazelle — A rhino's close inspection — Shoot a giraffe— 

 His peculiar fall — Stalking herd of oryx — Device for scaring vultures — The 

 Ndorobo's one occupation — Ideal game country — Varieties of game — Return 

 to camp — Disheartening news — Loss of pack-animals —Experimental visit to 

 Embe district. 



Africa is a big country. Few people who have no personal 

 acquaintance with more than one portion of the continent 

 realise how big. Thus in South Africa anything outside of 

 the various colonies and states that make up what is commonly 

 included under that designation used to be " somewhere up 

 about the Zambesi," though it might be a thousand or more miles 

 beyond. Just so now the average idea of Central Africa held 

 in this country is expressed in the query " anywhere near 

 Buluwayo ? " I would therefore ask you to kindly glance at 

 a map of Africa and notice what a long way Mombasa is 

 from Cape Town, and how far the equator is north of even the 

 Zambesi. 



Though Durban is now the handsomest and most up-to- 



B 



