RETURN TO MOMBASA 125 



slope above, and Dr. Kolb shot it from just outside the " boma." 

 I did not even then notice any difference in it from the " roi 

 rheboks " of the south, but I have since learned that a specimen 

 which Mr. Chanler had taken home has been deemed new, and 

 named after him. But the curious thing about this buck is 

 that I have never seen it anywhere but on that particular 

 isolated crater koppie, and the natives there said there were 

 none elsewhere, as far as they knew. I do not assert that 

 there are none on any of the other hills, but it is a strange 

 thing that I never came across any, and they must, at all events, 

 be very rare. 



Fortunately for us, we had not much more rain after we 

 started, and the moon, being at the full, was favourable to our 

 somewhat hazardous undertaking. It sounds presumptuous 

 to talk of going among a tribe numbering thousands with a 

 handful of men to exact retribution, but it is not to be shirked 

 if the country is to be safe for us, and I always aim at leaving 

 it so for the next traveller. The method we adopted to chastise 

 the inhabitants of the district where my men had been killed 

 was to seize a number of their sheep and goats, and these we 

 slaughtered and left in a heap among their burnt kraals. I 

 suggested this because I did not want them to think that 

 raiding, for the sake of plunder, was any part of our object, 

 though two or three cows and a few donkeys which we captured 

 we thought ourselves justified in keeping. They made no 

 determined attack upon us, thanks, I fancy, mainly to the awe 

 the wonderful powers of our long-range rifles inspired ; for we 

 could easily disperse any threatening body of warriors, collected 

 anywhere within sight, by firing one or two shots. The night 

 was an anxious and sleepless time ; but having taken every 

 possible precaution, it passed without any attempt to rush us. 

 In the morning we descended by a difficult defile, not without 

 dread of ambuscades, but not a native showed himself, and, the 

 day after, we camped at Mthara. 



The result of this action showed I was right. After this, 



