FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 



breeze, a loin-cloth hoisted between two upright wattles serving 

 for sail. The island too was then unspoilt. Such toy tram- 

 ways as had been laid down were for the most part overgrown 

 with grass and tropical vegetation ; overturned dolls' trucks, 

 rotting in the jungle, but emphasised the supremacy of nature. 

 Now, alas ! the place is all railways, iron roofs, and regulations, 

 a change decidedly not for the better from my point of view. 

 Let those who like them describe such " improvements." 



I make these preliminary observations mainly with a view 

 to showing that I had had considerable African experience, 

 all of which was directly or indirectly of the greatest use to 

 me, before embarking on the expeditions I am about to 

 describe. I had shot much big game in South-Eastern Africa ; 

 had travelled many thousand miles, albeit with different means 

 of transport ; and had acquired such bush and veldt knowledge 

 as only a long apprenticeship can give — knowledge of the 

 greatest value not only to help one over difficulties but to 

 enable one to understand the varying conditions with which 

 one may be surrounded. 



So that I was no novice when, in the end of November 

 1893, I landed once more in Mombasa, this time prepared 

 to at last carry out my long-cherished scheme for making an 

 independent expedition with my own caravan into the interior, 

 the main object of which should be elephant-hunting. I 

 hoped by this means to recoup myself through the ivory for 

 the outlay incurred in following my bent of wandering in 

 the most remote wilds I could reach. My weapons were a 

 double .577 (which I had already once had the opportunity of 

 testing on elephants, with good results), a single .450 — both 

 these by Gibbs, — a .250 rook rifle, and a shot-gun. This last 

 I afterwards discarded as unnecessary, while its cartridges 

 were an encumbrance. To these I added a common Martini- 

 Henry. 



I know by experience that the routine of organising and 

 fitting out an expedition, starting it from the coast, and even the 



