FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 



Arrived here the first thing to be done was to estabhsh 

 friendly relations with the natives of the district, and open up 

 a food trade. This was not difficult, since Chanler had been 

 on good terms with them, and had been careful to keep market 

 prices for produce within reasonable bounds, for which I felt 



THOMSON'S Gazelle 9 {Gasella thomsoni). 



grateful to my predecessor. So the preliminary negotiations 

 only lasted a couple of days, and on the third Baikenda, one 

 of the leading men of the immediate neighbourhood— a weird- 

 looking, wizened old savage, suffering from rheumatism — came 

 with his retinue, bringing the sacrificial sheep, and we went 

 through the ceremony of " eating blood " most solemnly and 



