CHAPTER I 
FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 
Preliminary observations—First acquaintance with Mombasa—Enter service of 
I.B.E. A. Company—Description of Mombasa—My hunting weapons—Organise 
elephant-hunting expedition—My Swahili name—Our start—Desertions—Over¬ 
land route adopted—Last outpost of civilisation-^My terrier companion “Frolic ” 
—Reach Laiju—A fertile district—Build a stockade—“ Papa,” an old Ndorobo 
—Hunting trip across Mackenzie River—The Ndorobo’s idea of happiness— 
Expedition unsuccessful—Shoot zebra and oryx on return—Side-shot at rhino¬ 
ceros—The rhino’s death-waltz—My second rhinoceros—His death-charge— 
First sight of Waller’s Gazelle—A rhino’s close inspection—Shoot a giraffe— 
His peculiar fall—Stalking herd of oryx—Device for scaring vultures—The 
Ndorobo’s one occupation-—Ideal game country—Varieties of game—Return 
to camp—Disheartening news—Loss of pack-animals —Experimental visit to 
Embe district. 
AFRICA is a big country. Few people who have no personal 
acquaintance with more than one portion of the continent 
realise how big. Thus in South Africa anything outside of 
the various colonies and states that make up what is commonly 
included under that designation used to be “ somewhere up 
about the Zambesi,” though it might be a thousand or more miles 
beyond. Just so now the average idea of Central Africa held 
in this country is expressed in the query “ anywhere near 
Buluwayo ? ” I would therefore ask you to kindly glance at 
a map of Africa and notice what a long way Mombasa is 
from Cape Town, and how far the equator is north of even the 
Zambesi. 
Though Durban is now the handsomest and most up-to- 
