312 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST A EPIC A 
CHAP. 
liked. He gave me small offerings of food, and a day or two 
after brought a large, but not very fat, “ billy-goat.” I was 
pleased with this attention (notwithstanding that the animal 
did not promise to make good meat), as showing a good feeling 
towards me. I therefore accepted with thanks, and made him 
another present (which seemed to catch on) in return, giving 
also soft words. 
The market question proved a troublesome one, and it was 
two or three days before any understanding was arrived at. 
This did not surprise me, as I had often been had that way 
before ; and I congratulated myself on our having twelve full 
loads still in hand of the food we had brought so far with us, 
to live on while the dead-lock in the food trade continued. 
It was a serious question to us, and called for much tact and 
patience as well as all my arts of diplomacy ; for we needed 
large supplies, and it was most important to obtain them at 
reasonable rates, lest our stock of beads, etc. (the currency of 
the country) should run short before our return to the coast. 
Swahili traders are singularly improvident in this respect, and 
often get into dire straits in consequence. “ Exploring ” 
caravans, too, are generally a source of inconvenience to the 
humble traveller coming across their track who needs to 
economise his goods and get his supplies of food cheaply. As 
a rule, money is no object to the leaders of such expeditions, 
whose headmen are allowed, unchecked, to lavish goods from 
their abundant stores with reckless profusion and disastrous 
results to prices (which, once raised in Africa, can never be 
lowered again) and to the sorrow of those who may follow. I 
am bound to give Mr. Astor Chanler, at whose boma I was 
camped for some time near Laiju in the Kenia region, credit 
for being an exception to this rule. He not only did not spoil 
the market there, but put it into good order, though the 
Swahilis have since made it worse than ever. Thus it was 
some time before I could come to any terms with these people, 
and then food was dear and came in only in driblets. They 
