96 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERIT 



market was generally held, and it became to ns what the 

 spreading chestnut-tree was to the Village Blacksmith. 



Our men, who were almost out of their minds with delight, 

 now became nearly unmanageable, as they rushed about sur- 

 rounded by countless natives. The firing and shouting never 

 ceased, and it was no easy matter to keep order, so we handed 

 the control of the caravan over to Qualla for the day, and went 

 ourselves to visit Messrs. Harvey, Willoughby and Hunter, the 

 English hunters already mentioned in our first chapter, who 

 were camped but a few minutes' walk from us by the side 

 of the Lumi. We were most heartily welcomed by these 

 gentlemen, whose acquaintance we had already made in 

 Zanzibar, and soon after we had exchanged the latest news 

 with them we sat down to a sumptuous repast, including fish 

 from the Lumi, buffaloes' tongues, antelope steaks, and a 

 guinea-fowl ragout, actually succeeded by a regular English 

 plum-pudding. The best part of the meal, however, was, 

 without doubt, the lively talk we all kept up, our hosts enter- 

 taining us with anecdotes of their hunting adventures with the 

 terrible big game of Africa, which seemed the more thrilling 

 when listened to with an accompaniment of the clinking of 

 champagne- glasses. We did not retire to our own camp to 

 rest till long past midnight. 



As we intended to stop for a long time in Taveta, our first 

 care was to get our camp into order, and the next day our 

 clearing was as busy as any European building-yard. Some 

 of the men were cutting away the weeds overgrowing the 

 ground, others were dragging along the tree-trunks and palm- 

 leaf ribs with which the huts were to be built ; whilst our 

 architects, Manwa Sera and Maktubu, with an air of great 

 importance, marked out the sites of the huts. The work went 

 on, with a short break at mid-day, from early morning to 

 sunset, and with but little effort on our part we were in a very 



