FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 



any other way led me to take service under the East Africa 

 Company for a time, that I might learn something of the 

 country and gain a knowledge of the management of a 

 caravan and a smattering of the Swahili language. Of a 

 little more than a year which I spent thus — first cutting a 

 bush road up the Sabaki River and afterwards joining in an 

 expedition to the interior — it is not my intention to write 



Entrance to Mombasa Harbour. 



(From a Photograph by Major Eric Smith.) 



now, though there may be something worth telling about the 

 latter some day. I had also the opportunity of finding out 

 during that trip that elephants were not more difficult to kill 

 than other game, and resolved to devote myself to their pur- 

 suit. Then the offer of an appointment in Zululand took 

 me south again, but only to find after a year that the 

 monotony of the life was unsuited to me. So I reverted to 

 my original plan. 



