NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA 
106 
The landscape is superb. In beauty, in fertility, in verdure, in the 
coolness of the air, in the abundance of running water, in its rich red 
soil, in the variety of its vegetation, the scenery about Kenya far sur¬ 
passes anything to be seen in India or South Africa, and challenges 
comparison with the fairest countries of Europe. 
It is only a few years since regular control was established beyond 
the Tana, not without some bloodshed, by a small military expedition. 
Yet so peaceful are the tribes—now that their intertribal fighting has 
been stopped-—that white officers ride freely about among their vil¬ 
lages without even carrying a pistol. Though the natives met with 
on the road are armed with sword and spear, they all offer their cus¬ 
tomary salutations, while many come up smiling and holding out their 
hands to shake, till one grows weary of the civility. Indeed, the only 
dangers of the road appear to be from the buffaloes which infest the 
country, and after nightfall place the traveler in real peril. 
As for the lion, unless one encamps in the vicinity of a genuine 
man-eater, there is apparently little to fear. Much as we have been 
accustomed to speak in terms of respect of this “noble” lord of the 
wilds, African hunters frequently describe him in accents of contempt. 
He is never “spoiling for a fight”—at least with man, and unless 
goaded to anger and cut off from retreat, takes care to avoid battle 
with this new and perilous foe. There are those who tell us that if an 
unarmed man comes by chance into close vicinity with a half dozen 
or so of lions, all he need do is to speak to them sternly and they will 
slink away like scolded curs, the more rapidly if he throws a few stones 
at them to hurry up their pace. This course of treatment is highly 
recommended by some Afrikanders under such circumstances, but it 
is doubtful if many of us would care to try the experiment. The 
results of early education cannot but instil in us a certain wholesome 
respect for this powerful and dangerous brute. How Colonel Roose¬ 
velt would have acted if he had met a half dozen of these tawny prowl¬ 
ers when unarmed, we are not prepared to say, as he never met even 
with a single one without his trusty rifle in hand. 
Here let us dispel the view which some seem to entertain that the 
tiger is a native of Africa. Even so prominent a statesman—and 
unprominent a naturalist—as Mr. Bryan is on record as speaking of 
