I 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



17 



result of their canoe labour, these people are wonder- 

 fully developed. 



I placed in charge of the Pokomo, as captain of the 

 fleet, a native of Kau, Zanzibari in race, named Sadi. 

 He was a suave, good-mannered, and at the same time 

 trustworthy negro, who had accompanied Messrs. Den- 

 hardt and Fischer upon their first trip up the Tana, 

 and had since then been engaged in many trading 

 expeditions. He spoke the language of the Pokomo, 

 and was loved and respected by them. He was par- 

 ticularly proud of his birth, and with great satisfaction 

 did he mention the fact that his sister had at one time 

 been a concubine of the former Sultan of Zanzibar. 

 Having arranged for the presence of the canoes and 

 their crews at Kau upon a date in the near future, we 

 returned to Mkonumbi. 



Surrounding Mkonumbi is an undulating plain, 

 covered, for the most part, with high grass, the conti- 

 nuity of which is at a few points broken by small 

 groups of dhum palms. Here and there, bordering 

 upon swamps and small streams, were found forests 

 composed of tall sycamores and other trees, whose 

 branches, burdened with trailing vines and creepers, 

 were filled with hordes of small monkeys and birds of 

 gayly coloured plumage. The appearance of the country 

 as a whole would not be called tropical, at least at the 

 time of the year when I visited it; namely, the middle 

 of the dry 'season. 



Owing to the raids of the Pumwani and Jongeni 

 people, cultivation of the soil was carried on but in a 

 meagre manner. In former days, when the Sultan of 

 Witu held sway, the whole country was covered with 

 c 



