340 



TO KENIA 



hurried out, and saw hundreds of natives making for the camp, 

 the nearest ah^eady only some fifty paces off, It was lucky 

 neither the Count nor I fired, although we were both convinced 

 that we were about to be attacked, for our first shots would 

 have led to a regular melee, but a warning cry was heard from 

 one of our men, and it turned out after all that the natives 

 were only chasing a little gazelle, which had started up close 

 to our camp, and was in the end caught inside our boma. 



In the course of the afternoon Qualla, who superintended 

 the purchase of the provisions l^rought to the camp, was several 

 times threatened by warriors, and more than once complained 

 about it to Count Teleki, who told our guide to warn his people 

 that we should fire on them if anything of the kind occurred 

 again. But it was no good ; Qualla soon reappeared with the 

 same tale, and was told he might draw upon his nest assailant. 

 I heard this permission given as I lay on my bed, and then I fell 

 into a refreshing sleep, from which I was roused about an hour 

 later by the noise of continuous firing. I jumped up, and, in 

 spite of my weakness, ran out of my tent and fired again and 

 again. Count Teleki was standing near doing the same thing. 

 Presently the natives began to run away, with our men, who 

 were not to be held back, after them. Worn out with the 

 perpetual petty worries of the preceding days, our people were 

 determined to pay their persecutors out now, and soon no one 

 was left behind but the Count, Jumbe Kimemeta, a few invalids, 

 and myself. We heard several shots in the distance, and then 

 all was still. 



About an hour afterwards, smoke rising from the direction 

 of the villages showed that they had been set on fire by the 

 victors, and parties of our men began to return, screaming, 

 singing, and dancing, as they fired off their own weapons and 

 flourished those they had taken from their enemies. Nearly 

 all of them were also driving cattle before them, whilst some 



