AFRICA—SOUTH AND EAST 
5 
or beauty, ever penetrated minds debased by decades of 
slaughter. Game was nothing more than a target; 
after that, biltong, reims, and so on. 
In the south no remedy will now avail. Over vast 
areas, formerly abounding in game, it is too late, though 
in the Transvaal a praiseworthy effort is being made by 
the establishment of a “ Game Reserve” in the Lebombo 
bush-veld. 1 
In British East Africa the contrast is striking and 
welcome. The game, though wild and alert as the 
desert-born will ever be, here retains its pristine nobility 
and self-possession; it is not merely the harassed and 
terror-stricken remnant of devastated herds. 
Our own initial experience in East Africa was un¬ 
fortunate ; for within three days of reaching Nairobi the 
author succumbed to malarial fever. With reluctance is 
so purely personal a matter here mentioned, and only 
because it is essential to the narrative—and besides, the 
incident may serve to save others from a like ill, so 
simply contracted, so easily avoided. 
Landing at Mombasa twenty days after leaving 
London, one may reckon on at least a day or twos 
delay at the terminal port while arranging the final 
equipment of the expedition. Now Mombasa, lying 
under the equator, is distinctly hot. There are hotter 
places—Aden, for example; but at both sea-breezes 
temper the sun, or are said to do so. However that 
may be, at any rate when the up-country train finally 
steams out of the station, the very last thing on earth 
one is likely to think of as a necessary —and hundreds 
of articles are necessary for a three-months’ sojourn 
under canvas—at that melting moment, as suggested, 
the very last desiderata one thinks of are warm wraps, 
ulsters and blankets. The mere idea is repugnant. 
1 This is a region expressly adapted by nature for such a pur¬ 
pose, and practically useless for any other. Owing to its low-lying 
situation, reeking with malaria, it is uninhabitable by human kind, 
white or black, except only during the dry winter months—June to 
October. Thirty or forty years ago it abounded with big game of 
every kind, from elephants downwards. 
