212 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



Motio told us that there was a river two days' march 

 distant, called Ura, which flowed from Daitcho on the 

 Jombeni range. We started for this river, which is 

 nearly as large as the Mackenzie. On the road we 

 killed two more hippopotamuses. 



We also heard from Motio that the regular caravan 

 route from Mombasa to Daitcho crosses the Tana 

 River at a point two days' march beyond the junction 

 of the Ura with that stream. We feared to follow the 

 Tana to this place, as our men, in all probability, would 

 take advantage of it as a means of reaching the coast. 

 It appeared, some one had told our porters that the 

 object of our journey was to visit the Somali. This, 

 then, was undoubtedly one of the reasons for desertion ; 

 for if there is a people which the Zanzibari dread more 

 than any other, it is the Somali. Their brethren, who 

 inhabit the coast in the neighbourhood of Lamoo, are 

 harassed continually by these people from Kismayu, 

 and are forced to become their slaves. To be the 

 slave of a Somali little resembles the same servi- 

 tude under an Arab. The Somali treat their slaves 

 worse than animals; the Arab, on the contrary, per- 

 mits them to live in almost the same comfort as 

 himself. 



We made slow progress along the banks of the 

 Ura, owing to the thick bush ; moreover, rain fell 

 daily, making the soil muddy and difficult to march 

 over. One day while upon the march I saw through 

 an opening in the bush, at a distance of 150 yards, a 

 young lion, trotting slowly along in a direction at right 

 angles to that which I was following. I took a snap- 

 shot at him, and must have struck him, for he leaped 



