2 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



I had everything except trade goods packed 

 ready for starting on arrival in London, and reached 

 Zanzibar on the 28th of October, 1893, and Mom- 

 basa on the 1st of November. 



Here I found that Messrs. Smith, Mackenzie 

 and Co., had . engaged seventy-one men for me 

 instead of thirty as I had requested them. 



The manner in which porters were engaged at 

 that time was as follows : — Anybody who felt 

 inclined to carry a load went to one of the British 

 East African Co.'s headmen and gave him a rupee. 

 The headman then took him to the Transport 

 Office and declared that he knew the man to be a 

 good porter, who had often been to Uganda and 

 would never run away. The porter was then 

 enrolled, and received his three months' wages 

 in advance, upon which he became, as a rule, 

 incapably drunk for a fortnight. 



When I saw the band that were to take my 

 things up-country I was filled with despair. Many 

 were boys not fully grown, and every kind of 

 illness was represented amongst them. Certainly 

 20 per cent, would have been rejected on the most 

 casual inspection. I knew nothing of the Suahili 

 at that time, and was rather inclined to trust to 

 the opinion of others, so I contented myself 

 with refusing four of the most obviously unlit, 

 thereby losing, of course, their advance pay and 

 y, posho money. 



1 spent five days in arranging for the start, 



