CHAPTER IV. 
UNIKA. 
Y introduction to the Unika took place on Sep- 
IVi tember ist, 1863. The first part of the journey 
was by boat, up the creek, from Mombasa, to the vil- 
lage of Makerunge. It is all as fresh to my memory 
as if it had happened only yesterday. The boat we 
had hired for the purpose was the ordinary heavy, 
ungainly dau la mbao (planked boat), of native build. 
Descending the cliff, at 11 a.m., we took our seat in 
the craft, and pushed off. We were bound for an 
unknown land ; and to me all was novel and in- 
tensely interesting. Presently we were in the centre 
of the creek, where we got a good view of the town 
of Mombasa and the surroundings. The fort, the 
custom house, our own residence, that of the mis- 
sionaries of the Church Missionary Society, and two 
or three mosques, are the chief buildings ; all else 
that could be seen were makuti- (palm-leaf) thatched 
cottages, with low walls of brown and red clay. 
Palms towered everywhere over all. Beyond the 
fort stretched the boundless sea, but on every other 
side we were surrounded by the wall-lik^ cliff of the 
