XVIII 
EL BOGOI TO MOMBASA 
427 
have to say that any idea of attaching a spiritual signification 
to his words was at once dispelled by Lesiat’s avowal that he 
spoke solely of his carnal heart. He simply meant to say that 
he wished to be brought to life again if he should die. He 
said, too, that their sons were too useful in searching for wild 
honey, to be spared. 
Notwithstanding the upsetting of the theory that this pretty 
little speech was a romantic appeal for religious instruction, 
Lesiat declared, in reply to my queries, that they would welcome 
a European to live among them, and that the women and 
children would come to be taught. There certainly seems an 
opening for useful work among such raw material. If only 
they could be induced to cultivate the rich soil at the foot of 
their mountains, where rain is frequent, the Ndorobos of Lorogi 
might always have abundance. But I fear me, when taught 
settled ways of living, they would lose their picturesqueness, 
and miss the romantic wild life as the forest Indians of Brazil 
and their little peccaries—reclaimed by the old Jesuit father— 
missed the shade of the primeval woods. 
I am not one to give an optimistic picture of this or any 
other district in Equatorial Africa. There are suitable spots 
here and there at the foot of the Lorogis for stations, where 
brooks issue from the mountain—soon to sink into the earth, 
like all streams in this country, but sufficient to irrigate a little 
of the adjacent rich soil,—and the climate is not a bad one. 
At the western foot the country is more attractive, though the 
soil is less fertile ; and water is there more abundant, while the 
mountain forest (not like an African forest at all) is at hand 
with useful timber. But all such favoured spots are exceptional 
in Equatorial Africa—as I know it,—like islands in the desert; 
there is no extent of useful country. The streams will not 
flow any distance; their waters evaporate or become absorbed 
by the soil. From the Jambeni range and Kenia northward, 
as far as Bassu and beyond, none of the drainage water ever 
reaches the ocean—at all events, above ground,—and such 
