XVIII 
EL BOGOI TO MOMBASA 
429 
them. Sometimes they would stampede after game we passed 
near on the march, causing long delay and hard work before 
they could be turned and brought back. 
Mnyamiri, who had preceded us, had, I afterwards learned, 
lost several of his altogether, which had followed a rhino that 
crossed their path. He was so unfortunate, too, as to get all 
but one of the remainder drowned in the Tana, when attempting 
to follow my plan of pulling them through the rapids with a 
rope. We lost none, but ours gave us little rest when 
bivouacking in the open, where there was no water and where 
we could build no boma. They were constantly stampeding 
through the camp in the night, through taking false alarm. 
Then they would come and smell out my little store of precious 
water, and upset it, and even eat my allowance of coarse cake 
for my morning meal if left on the table. But, thanks to our 
knowledge of the country, we never suffered, to speak of, even 
this exceptionally dry season, for lack of water. Our march 
was uneventful and free from any misfortunes, or even in¬ 
conveniences except of a trivial character. 
One afternoon, when passing round the end of the Jambeni 
range, and within a few hours of the first stream on the Tana 
side, I was reluctantly compelled to shoot two rhinos within 
half an hour, for which we had no use. It caused me real 
pangs of sympathy to take their lives thus ; but each was so 
close to our path that there was great risk of their causing a 
stampede of my skittish donkeys, as well as among the porters, 
though little actual danger to ourselves. For the wind was 
from them to us, and, unless warned by scent, these blind 
creatures are too stupid to get out of the way until the caravan 
is right upon them, when they are likely to cause a scare. 
Abdulla had experienced such a one on his journey with the 
first batch of ivory from El Bogoi, with the result that many 
tusks were thrown down on the stones and several more or less 
damaged ; Mnyamiri, too, had lost some of his donkeys from 
the same cause. The .303 bullet was as deadly in the case of 
