VI RETURN TO MOMBASA 135 



larger number indispensable, and have heard even two hundred 

 spoken of as insufficient to ensure safety ; but in neither of the 

 instances in which I had come to blows with natives, during the 

 last trip, had I more than about the number above mentioned 

 (between thirty and forty) with me. One can do a good deal 

 with thirty-five good men armed with Sniders in Central Africa. 

 Besides, I preferred the risk of hostilities to that of starvation ; 

 and, as I had determined to reach Rudolph this time and knew 

 the immense stretch of barren, foodless country I should have 

 to pass through, but could not tell how long it might take to 

 traverse, I felt it to be most important to keep the number of 

 mouths to be fed in the wilderness within the narrowest 

 possible limits. 



One of the first steps to be taken was to procure a fresh 

 troop of good donkeys. For this purpose I sent Abdulla to 

 the neighbourhood of Pangani, and he was successful in buying 

 me a very useful lot. Another most important question was 

 that of pack-saddles. On my former journey I had used a kind 

 similar to those in vogue among gold prospectors in South 

 Africa. I had noticed that Swahili donkeys always had sore 

 backs, and blamed the method of packing. I now found that 

 the Arab " sogi," which they use, is much better adapted to the 

 purpose than any hard frame. It is a kind of soft panniers, 

 resting on a large pad. Through the kindness of the officers 

 of a steamer that happened to be undergoing repair in the 

 port, I was able to get some canvas ones made ; and so well 

 sewn and satisfactory were they that they lasted the whole trip, 

 and returned, much patched, through damage caused by thorns 

 and rocks, to the coast. I found that with proper care, and 

 attention to the pads and the packing of the animals, there was 

 no reason why they should get sore backs at all : mine never did. 

 It is only the carelessness and want of feeling of Swahilis that 

 causes these in their animals, through their neglect to take the 

 trouble needed to keep the gear in proper order, added often 

 to cruel overloading. I have witnessed the most revolting 



