124 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



insufficient number of men that remained with him. I accord- 

 ingly sent to invite him to join me here, which he was glad to 

 do, after having crossed the river, swollen by the rains, in a 

 canoe he had most cleverly constructed by covering a frame- 

 work of wattles with the canvas " fly " of his tent. 



He had, he told me, been a member of the abortive Freeland 

 Expedition ; and on the collapse of that chimerical scheme had 

 determined to see something of the country for himself As I 

 intended making another excursion to the foot of Kenia, which 

 he was anxious to see, and could be of some assistance to him 

 through my knowledge of the country and natives, while it 

 would not be safe for him to go on alone with so few men, and 

 those imperfectly armed (all mine had Snider carbines), it was 

 arranged that he should accompany me. I, on the other hand, 

 should be glad of his companionship ; and, having explained 

 to him that the wanton murder of four of my men by the 

 natives of Embe imposed on me the duty of teaching that 

 tribe a lesson, he volunteered to help me, and his assistance in 

 that rather ticklish business was of the greatest value to me, 

 a white man being, under such circumstances, a host in himself 

 in Central Africa. 



Owing to continued wet it was three weeks from the time 

 of my return before we got off once more. I occupied myself 

 pleasantly during the fine portions of these days of detention 

 in butterfly-hunting, for which Laiju is a good locality. And 

 altogether I think we both rather enjoyed the delay. 



Just above the " boma " was one of the small crater koppies 

 already spoken of as occurring on both sides of the range. I 

 had several times seen two or three " roi rheboks " on this hill 

 — a buck with which I had been familiar in South Africa, 

 particularly in the Lobombo district of Zululand, where it is 

 plentiful — but foolishly had not attempted to obtain a specimen, 

 supposing it to be identical with the southern species, though 

 I had never noticed any before in Central Africa. But one 

 day, while we were there together, one showed itself on the 



