VI 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



205 



conditions they picked up wonderfully, and a few days 

 after our arrival it was difficult to distinguish between 

 the men who had remained at Hameye and those 

 who had undergone the hardships of the up-country 

 trip. 



Our feelings of disappointment at not having found 

 the Rendile or a lake were not mitigated by the fact 

 that ten valuable lives had been sacrificed in this 

 effort at discovery. All but one of the men who had 

 died or disappeared had been porters, and this meant 

 a reduction in our facilities for transport, already much 

 lessened by the death of the animals. 



Upon reaching Hameye I was at once prostrated 

 by sickness. I suffered continually from fever caused 

 by congestion of the liver, and for two weeks was 

 confined to my bed. Having discovered that between 

 the Jombeni range and Hameye there was no food, I 

 sent George and sixty men shortly after my arrival 

 to make a food station six days' march along the 

 road. After ten days he returned, and reported ten 

 desertions. We hunted high and low for the desert- 

 ers, and eventually succeeded in capturing six. When 

 we questioned them as to the cause of their desertion, 

 they replied that they had heard the country in front 

 was bad and full of dangers, and they wished to return 

 to the coast. 



Of course the men who had been with us on the 

 trip, in order to increase their prowess in the eyes of 

 their brethren, had unstintingly exaggerated the trials 

 and difficulties through which they had passed. This, 

 after the life of ease to which the men who had re- 

 mained behind at Hameye had grown accustomed, did 



