434 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



for I had felt that the least I could do in gratitude for their 

 good behaviour and kindness during my illness was to give 

 them such cloth as they required without — as is customary — 

 entering it against them. Any extra presents, too, were much 

 better appreciated in that form, given up country where little 

 additions to their fare could be obtained by these means ; and 

 though in particular cases one felt it a duty to add something 

 to the amount actually due, as an acknowledgment of special 

 services, the conviction that such liberality is thrown away 

 destroys the pleasure of bestowing rewards of the kind, and I 

 think to do so is really a mistake, and, so far from being 

 valued, tends to lower one in the opinion of the average 

 Swahili. 



The time to give is when they have nothing : then they are 

 capable of gratitude ; but ten, twenty, or fifty rupees more or 

 less when their hands are already full of more than they can 

 eat in the next week, they are incapable of feeling any concern 

 about. Probably in a month the money will all be gone — a 

 month of luxury and licence, as they know it : then one 

 rupee will be thankfully received. By that time or a little 

 later most of them will be ready to " write on " again for 

 another expedition. One gets fond of one's men, and proud 

 of them when they are good ones, as mine were ; and I was 

 sorry not to be able to engage them again before they had 

 drifted into other service. 



I fear the fact that my journey was attended with so few 

 serious difficulties or privations detracts from its interest to 

 others ; but it is a source of considerable satisfaction to me 

 to think that my men never suffered from either hunger, thirst, 

 or disease ; that they got their regular ration daily, without 

 our having ever raided or taken anything from the natives by 

 force ; that they carried their loads willingly, cheerfully, and 

 without suffering ; and that, with the exception of the two 

 whose tragic loss I had to mourn, I brought them all back, 

 safe, sound, and happy, to Mombasa. They on their part had 



