VI 
RETURN TO MOMBASA 
131 
given us timely warning, to summon another “ brother ” who 
lived close by ; he came at once, and shared our watch. There 
was, however, no further disturbance of the peace, and the whole 
alarm may have been caused by nothing more than the playful 
escapade of some young bloods having their little joke. It 
was enough, though, to cause us another of those watchful and 
anxious nights which are so unpleasant, but we did not con¬ 
sider it of sufficient importance to interrupt the friendly rela¬ 
tions existing between us and our neighbours, in spite of the 
affair having indirectly caused the death of one of our porters. 
I found the same difficulty as before in getting at the 
Kenia elephants, and had no success with them ; in fact I only 
once even saw one ; and ivory I had been told of, and which I 
had hoped to buy, turned out a myth ; so we decided to keep 
on towards the Tana instead of returning by the way we had 
come. Passing first through the populous and fertile valley 
already mentioned, we then struck for the river. After getting 
out of the undulating country, where the ground was nearly all 
under cultivation—magnificent crops of millet just then ripen¬ 
ing (the locusts having disappeared)—we descended gradually 
to the level uninhabited tract below. We had now left the paths 
behind us, and our progress became more arduous, particularly 
on the steep sides of the ridges, owing to the long and thick 
grass. While going down the slopes, the doctor came in con¬ 
tact with a hornet’s nest—a paper-like construction attached to 
a spray—and we were both badly stung. Being a hardened 
old stager, the pain soon passed off in my case, as on many 
similar occasions, but my friend’s system, fresh from Europe, 
resented the poison, and he suffered considerably for some time, 
the parts swelling a good deal. 
Getting away from the hills, at the foot of which are some 
beautiful bits of forest, we entered, first, open plains covered 
with rank grass, with here and there patches of wood—a land 
of many streams and dotted with pools and swamps (the 
leakage of the mountain and hills). Game was plentiful here : 
