2 24 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
then that the whole of Eastern Africa should be 
swept to supply the necessities of such a larder. 
But to proceed. The two men went on to Muando 
Mpia and found it utterly forsaken. There was not 
a single soul in the place. An attempt had been 
made to burn it down, and that end of the village 
where we had taken up our quarters was reduced to 
ashes the very house in which we had slept being 
burned to the ground. 
The men went on to Mambrui and found that place 
also almost deserted. Of many hundreds there were 
not a score left. All would have gone, but Hemmet 
bin Sayid gave orders to the man at the ferry not to 
take any more across the riven It was reported at 
Mambrui that we were killed. The donkeys had been 
seen in the hands of the Masai. Wuledi assured the 
people that we were alive when he left us, but they 
laughed him to scorn. They told him he had made 
his escape, and for some reason or other wished to hide 
the truth. All he could say would not convince them. 
It was the same at Malinde, everybody believed that 
the two Wazungu and their party were dead. There 
was not a doubt about it. Look at it ! The Wazungu 
leave Muando Mpia on the second of the month ; on 
the third the Masai come from the direction in which 
the former had gone, with the white men's donkeys 
in their possession ; and on the fourth one of the 
Wazungu's party returns. True, the man declared we 
were alive, but this was to cover his own cowardly 
retreat, and other rascality. Could anything have 
looked more natural, more convincing } To me it is 
wonderful how we missed them. A lucky chance say 
some, to which I reply, *'No, an astonishing providence. 
