318 



RETURN FROM LAKE BARINGO TO THE COAST 



On October 13 we left Taveta. Of the rest of our return 

 journey to the coast there is Httle to relate, for it was by well- 

 known paths, past Teita and Kadiaro, to Eabai near Mombasa, 

 the oldest mission station in East Africa, which we reached on 

 the morning of October 24, 1888. 



It was with almost painful emotion that we once more saw 

 the blue surface of the ocean stretching away before us, for it 

 meant separation from the wilderness which all who really know 

 it love so well. A circle of friends, General Matthews, Mr. 

 George Mackenzie, and Mr. Buchanan, whom we unexpectedly 

 met in Mombasa, helped us over the parting moment, and forty- 



HARAR. 



eight hours later the whole caravan was taken across to Zanzibar 

 on one of the steamships of the British India Steam Navigation 

 Company. 



We spent two months in the island free from all the arduous 

 effort of travelling life, and enjoying all the comforts of civilisa- 

 tion. This was, in fact, the most dangerous time of our whole 

 enterprise, for we were soon overtaken by fever, that plague 

 which we had so far escaped so well, and which now consumed 

 the very marrow of our bones, paled our bronzed and healthy 

 complexions, and reduced us in a marvellously short time to 

 mere skeletons. 



