176 TAVETA AND COUNTS K I LI M AN J ABO AND MERU 



many a breathless chase after giraffes on this march, bat I got 

 not a single shot. A dwarf antelope no bigger than a hare 

 was all I brought down that day.' 



Oii June 1 Count Teleki, and also the men under the charge 

 of Tom Charles, got back to Taveta. Tom had brought his 

 mission to a successful termination. He had rather fallen out 

 of favour with us, but we had been mistaken in our judgment. 

 He was not very big, but as strong as a Hercules, and his face 

 was marked with many a scar which he had won in drunken 

 brawls. We had ordered him to inflict a flogging on some 

 offender, and he had refused to do so, as he could not bring 

 himself to hit a fellow-man. His behaviour seemed absurd, 

 but the discipline of the caravan was not then such as to 

 warrant the personal chastisement of a guide, and the matter 

 was passed over. From many a subsequent experience we 

 found that Tom Charles really was a most tender-hearted 

 fellow. 



A second series of astronomical observations was now neces- 

 sary, to determine the condition and rate of our chronometer, 

 after which we set to work in earnest at our preparations for 

 ascending Kilimanjaro. We decided to send Juma Mussa and 

 another man on two days in advance to tell Miriali of our 

 approach. They started early in the morning, but to our 

 surprise came back to camp in a few hours, and Mussa told us 

 in excited Tanga-Swahili that they had with great difficulty 

 escaped from a band of some thirty or forty Masai warriors. 

 We believed this story, as there were often numbers of Masai 

 prowling about in the neighbourhood of Taveta ; but an hour 

 later two men and a woman from Mwika came into camp, and we 

 naturally asked them if they too had seen these warriors. They 

 said, 6 No ; no Masai moran ; but we did see two Wangwana, 

 who stopped when they saw us a hundred yards off, and then 

 turned tail and ran away as fast as their legs would carry them.' 



