14 
IN AFRICA 
There were also a number of women on board 
and some children. I don’t know how many children 
there were, but in the early morning there seemed to 
be a great number. 
These Indian Ocean steamers are usually filled 
with an interesting lot of passengers. At first you 
may only speculate as to who and what they are 
and whither they are bound, but as the days go by 
you get acquainted with many of them and find out 
who nearly everybody is and all about him. On this 
steamer there were several interesting people. First 
in station and importance was Sir Percy Girouard, 
the newly appointed governor of British East 
Africa, who was going out to Nairobi to take his 
position. Sir Percy is a splendid type of man, only 
about forty-two years old, but with a career that has 
been filled with brilliant achievements. He was 
born in Canada and was knighted in 1900. He 
looks as Colonel Roosevelt looked ten years ago, 
and, in spite of a firm, definite personality of great 
strength, is also courteous and kindly. He has re¬ 
cently been the governor of northern Nigeria, and 
before that time served in South Africa and the 
Soudan. It was of him that Lord Kitchener said 
“the Soudan Railway would never have been built 
without his services.” 
The new governor was accompanied by two staff 
officers, one a Scotchman and the other an Irish¬ 
man, and both of them with the clean, healthy look 
of the young British army officer. There would be 
a big reception at Mombasa, no doubt, w T ith bands 
