I 
FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 
n 
Arrived here the first thing to be done was to establish 
friendly relations with the natives of the district, and open up 
a food trade. This was not difficult, since Chanler had been 
on good terms with them, and had been careful to keep market 
prices for produce within reasonable bounds, for which I felt 
THOMSON’S Gazelle ? {Gazella thomsoni). 
grateful to my predecessor. So the preliminary negotiations 
only lasted a couple of days, and on the third Baikenda, one 
of the leading men of the immediate neighbourhood—a weird¬ 
looking, wizened old savage, suffering from rheumatism—came 
with his retinue, bringing the sacrificial sheep, and we went 
through the ceremony of “ eating blood ” most solemnly and 
