From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt. 
in a few minutes the fires were roaring, nor 
were they again suffered to die down. 
Heller’s skinners had grown to work very 
well when under his eye. He had encoun¬ 
tered much difficulty in getting men who 
would do the work, and had tried the repre¬ 
sentatives of various tribes, but without suc¬ 
cess until he struck the Wkamba. These 
were real savages who filed their teeth and 
delighted in raw flesh, and Heller’s explana¬ 
tion of their doing well was that their taste 
for the raw flesh kept them thoroughly in¬ 
terested in their job, so that they learned 
without difficulty. The porters speedily 
christened each of the white men by some 
title of their own, using the ordinary Swa¬ 
hili title of Bwana (master) as a prefix. 
Heller was the Bwana Who Skinned; Lor- 
ing, who collected the small mammals, was 
named merely descriptively the Mouse 
Bwana. 
From Potha the safari went in two days 
to MacMillan’s place, Juja Farm, on the 
•other side of the Athi. I stayed behind 
as I desired to visit the American Mis¬ 
sion Station at Machakos. Accordngly, Sir 
Alfred and I rode thither. Machakos has 
668 
long been a native town, for it was on the 
route formerly taken by the Arab caravans 
that went from the coast to the interior 
after slaves and ivory. Riding toward it we 
passed by herd after herd of cattle, sheep, 
and goats, each guarded by two or three 
savage herdsmen. The little town itself 
was both interesting and attractive. Be¬ 
sides the natives there were a number of Ind¬ 
ian traders and the English Commissioner 
and Assistant Commissioner, with a small 
body of native soldiers. The latter not a 
long time before had been just such savages 
as those round about them, and the change 
for the better wrought in their physique and 
morale by the ordered discipline to which 
they had submitted themselves could hardly 
be exaggerated. When we arrived, the 
Commissioner and his assistant were en¬ 
gaged in cross-examining some neighboring 
chiefs as to the cattle sickness. The Eng¬ 
lish rule in Africa has been of incalculable 
benefit to Africans themselves, and indeed 
this is true of the rule of most European 
nations. Mistakes have been made, of 
course, but they have proceeded at least as 
often from an unwise effort to accomplish 
