170 Wanderings in Eastern Africa, 
was wrecked on Leopard reef; our help was re- 
quired ; and this, together with other circumstances, 
detained us where we were till the end of the year. 
This long delay at Malinde was often a source of 
great vexation to us, but, as we afterwards found, it 
was most fortunate that we were so detained. The 
Masai had invaded the Galla country while we had 
been engaged with the wreck, so that had we left 
Malinde according to our first arrangement we should 
probably have fallen in with these savages, and must 
have been ignominiously driven back, if nothing worse 
had happened. 
On the morning of December 3 ist we made our final 
preparations, and set out for Mambrui at three p.m. 
of that day. We enjoyed the walk along the beach 
round the beautiful bay to the mouth of the Sabaki, 
and there halted till our party should come up. 
While waiting here we were amused by watching the 
movements of the crocodiles upon the opposite bank 
and in the water. Cold-looking, and slimy, there 
they lay, by the dozen, like immense logs of wood, 
their scaly forms shining in the light of the now fast- 
setting sun. Every now and then their long jaws 
slowly opened, looking like a large trap set with 
monstrous spikes, a terror to look upon. A deep 
inspiration taken the two parts came together with 
a snap, inclosing doubtless a swarm of hapless insects 
that had been drawn within their horrid precincts. 
Next, see the brute rises lazily upon its short paddles, 
and slowly glides, without the least splash, into the 
water and disappears. Presently you see a nose just 
above the water in mid-stream, either floating down 
or with the gentlest imaginable ripple coming against 
