312 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



liked. He gave me small offerings of food, and a day or two 

 after brought a large, but not very fat, " billy-goat." I was 

 pleased with this attention (notwithstanding that the animal 

 did not promise to make good meat), as showing a good feeling 

 towards me. I therefore accepted with thanks, and made him 

 another present (which seemed to catch on) in return, giving 

 also soft words. 



The market question proved a troublesome one, and it was 

 two or three days before any understanding was arrived at. 

 This did not surprise me, as I had often been had that way 

 before ; and I congratulated myself on our having twelve full 

 loads still in hand of the food we had brought so far with us, 

 to live on while the dead-lock in the food trade continued. 

 It was a serious question to us, and called for much tact and 

 patience as well as all my arts of diplomacy ; for we needed 

 large supplies, and it was most important to obtain them at 

 reasonable rates, lest our stock of beads, etc. (the currency of 

 the country) should run short before our return to the coast. 

 Swahili traders are singularly improvident in this respect, and 

 often get into dire straits in consequence. " Exploring " 

 caravans, too, are generally a source of inconvenience to the 

 humble traveller coming across their track who needs to 

 economise his goods and get his supplies of food cheaply. As 

 a rule, money is no object to the leaders of such expeditions, 

 whose headmen are allowed, unchecked, to lavish goods from 

 their abundant stores with reckless profusion and disastrous 

 results to prices (which, once raised in Africa, can never be 

 lowered again) and to the sorrow of those who may follow. I 

 am bound to give Mr. Astor Chanler, at whose boma I was 

 camped for some time near Laiju in the Kenia region, credit 

 for being an exception to this rule. He not only did not spoil 

 the market there, but put it into good order, though the 

 Swahilis have since made it worse than ever. Thus it was 

 some time before I could come to any terms with these people, 

 and then food was dear and came in only in driblets. They 



