332 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP. 
are of all breeds and varieties with Arabs predominating. 
Although the price of Arabs has increased considerably 
of late years, yet even now decent untrained ponies 
may be shipped either from Port Sudan or Bombay 
and landed at Nairobi at an inclusive cost of little more 
than forty pounds. These have up to the present 
formed the best sources for obtaining polo ponies, 
though good ponies have also been imported from 
South Africa. In a year or two, if not already, there 
will be no necessity to import, since the produce of the 
Protectorate itself is at least up to Arab form. 
Up to 1909 polo in Nairobi carried on a somewhat 
fitful existence, chiefly under the auspices of the King’s 
African Rifles. In that year, at the instigation of Mr. 
Berkeley Cole, the Club was reformed on a proper 
basis, Mr. Cole being the first Secretary. On Mr. Cole’s 
retirement Captains O’Brien and Murray together 
took on the secretaryship, and to their unremitting 
efforts the present position of the club is almost 
entirely owing. The ground belonging to the club is 
a really first-rate one on the high land overlooking the 
town to the west; there is also a private ground 
belonging to Government House, to which H.E. the 
Governor often kindly invites the club. This latter 
ground is of hard mud and very fast, even faster 
than that belonging to the Club. The only draw¬ 
back attaching to it is the dust, which at certain 
seasons of the year is rather bad, though not worse 
than is the case on many similar grounds in India. 
Polo takes place three times a week and chukkas are 
of very varying quality and quantity. Thus one day 
not only will most of the best local players be in 
Nairobi, but some keen players will be passing through 
on their way to shoot. There will be eight or nine 
