I 
FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 
5 
breeze, a loin-cloth hoisted between two upright wattles serving 
for sail. The island too was then unspoilt. Such toy tram¬ 
ways as had been laid down were for the most part overgrown 
with grass and tropical vegetation ; overturned dolls’ trucks, 
rotting in the jungle, but emphasised the supremacy of nature. 
Now, alas ! the place is all railways, iron roofs, and regulations, 
a change decidedly not for the better from my point of view. 
Let those who like them describe such “ improvements.” 
I make these preliminary observations mainly with a view 
to showing that I had had considerable African experience, 
all of which was directly or indirectly of the greatest use to 
me, before embarking on the expeditions I am about to 
describe. I had shot much big game in South-Eastern Africa ; 
had travelled many thousand miles, albeit with different means 
of transport; and had acquired such bush and veldt knowledge 
as only a long apprenticeship can give—knowledge of the 
greatest value not only to help one over difficulties but to 
enable one to understand the varying conditions with which 
one may be surrounded. 
So that I was no novice when, in the end of November 
1893, I landed once more in Mombasa, this time prepared 
to at last carry out my long-cherished scheme for making an 
independent expedition with my own caravan into the interior, 
the main object of which should be elephant-hunting. I 
hoped by this means to recoup myself through the ivory for 
the outlay incurred in following my bent of wandering in 
the most remote wilds I could reach. My weapons were a 
double .577 (which I had already once had the opportunity of 
testing on elephants, with good results), a single .450—both 
these by Gibbs,—a .250 rook rifle, and a shot-gun. This last 
I afterwards discarded as unnecessary, while its cartridges 
were an encumbrance. To these I added a common Martini- 
Henry. 
I know by experience that the routine of organising and 
fitting out an expedition, starting it from the coast, and even the 
