388 



OUE STAY AT NDOKO 



way to us with provisions were attacked by a party of Masai, 

 who had killed fifteen of them, including several women. 

 Yesterday another party of moran had come down upon them, 

 but this time they had been prepared, and the aggressors had 

 been sent back with bloody heads. Our visitors went on to 

 say that although we were to blame for all this, for we had set 

 the Masai on their track, they would yet keep faith with us 

 by supplying us with food, only we must fetch it ourselves ; 

 they could not trust even our men, as some of their women had 

 been ill-treated by our messengers. Finally they inquired 

 whether we had stopped the rain because they had not brought 

 us food. 



We thanked them, explained that we had to leave the next 

 morning, and dismissed them with presents. We then sum- 

 moned the unchivalrous culprits, the ten men I had sent to 

 the Kikuyu frontier with Ali ben Omari, and chastised them 

 well in the presence of their comrades. 



We wished to reach the Count's camp in one day's march, 

 so we started before daybreak on November 4, leaving behind 

 us the palisade within which we had lived for a whole month, 

 and with which I had very pleasant associations, as I had there 

 recovered my health. 



We pressed rapidly forward in the cool early morning, 

 crossed a brook flowing from Kenia, which delayed us a little, 

 and then marched over the grass-clad steppe towards the base 

 of the Aberdare range, passing numerous Masai kraals, now 

 deserted by their owners, but from which we could form a very 

 good idea of the appearance Ndoro would present a fortnight 

 hence, when the lords of the land were back and their herds of 

 cattle were roaming about in the open. As we approached 

 the highlands in the west the scenery gradually became less 

 charming, there were fewer flowers, the grass was sparser, and 

 bare volcanic rocks rose up here and there. The path led 



