4 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



Mombasa had always a great attraction for me. A sleepy, 

 old-world place, with its narrow streets and listless, picturesque 

 inhabitants, it was suggestive of primitive times. If, one 

 thought, the very port is so remote and untouched by modern 

 progressive influences, what mysteries enticing to the imagina- 

 tion may not the interior contain ? This, surely, was the 

 very country I had yearned for. The island had, moreover, 



Portion of the Old Fort at Mombasa. 



(From a Photograph by Major Eric Smith.) 



beauties of its own, though these it is not my province to 

 describe, such as a picturesque and interesting old fort, a fine 

 harbour, and dreamy shady mango groves run wild producing 

 luscious fruit nearly all the year round. I always enjoyed 

 the time I was detained there. The prospect over the still 

 water in the cool of early twilight or by moonlight was 

 particularly soothing, with the quaint dhows at anchor and 

 fishing canoes paddling in and out or gliding before the soft 



