MY FIE ST SETTLEMENT ON KILIMANJARO . 117 
I submitted to fate, and after events showed me that 
I had misjudged Mandara. The site he had selected 
for my settlement was not quite equal to the one 
I would have preferred, as regards natural history 
purposes, but it was not far removed in distance, and 
certainly had many peculiar advantages. As to the 
goods placed under Mandara’s care, I can only say 
they were made over to me absolutely intact. 
Nevertheless, not foreknowing the happy termination 
of my troubles, it was with a somewhat anxious heart 
that I accompanied my thirty Zanzibaris, following as 
speedily as possible Mandara’s nimble soldiers. These, 
our guides, sped along in front, skipping uphill like 
goats, and making nothing of the slippery, clayey 
descents, slimy with recent showers, where we had 
carefully to walk sideways to avoid a headlong tumble. 
But these glissades were only accidents along the 
winding track; our general direction was upwards. 
We left the spur on which Mandara’s residences stand, 
wound along a little artificial watercourse which irri¬ 
gated the chief ’ s banana plantations, then attacked a 
very steep hill-side, up which we clambered almost on 
all fours, clutching at grass tufts by the way, stopped 
to breathe under the spreading branches of some mag¬ 
nificent acacia-trees, where the bold, grey monkeys 
peered at us wonderingly with their blue faces, and 
ducked their heads and chattered at our ugliness ; 
again mounted up, up, up, till our knees grew palsied, 
and our chests ached; passed through rich hedges of 
glossy-leaved dracoenas, pink-flowered aloes, spreading 
fern-fronds and fruiting brambles, turned the corner 
sharply, and entered on a less fatiguing portion of our 
route. 
How charming was the journey now before us ! 
