MY FIRST SETTLEMENT ON KILIMANJARO . 123 
tlie interest, then, of a possible futurity, I will com¬ 
plete the history of my settlement in Mosi, the native 
name of which was cc Kitimbiriu.” On the summit of 
this elongated hill —colline, or a little neck,” is a 
French name which describes it well—was a nearly 
level and broad plateau, three sides of which descended 
almost precipitously into the valleys below. With a 
very little work it might have been made unapproach¬ 
able save from the north, where it joined on to higher 
ground. Along one side and then across and down 
the other side flowed a tiny artificial canal of clear 
water brought from a tumbling stream higher up the 
mountain, and carried along this hill from above in a 
very gently descending channel. Thus we had water 
at our very door, and needed not to seek it in the ravine 
a thousand feet below. It seemed so strange and 
quaint to find a placid brooklet flowing along high 
ground up in the clouds and at the edge of a precipice. 
All this was due to the patient industry of the Wa-caga 
of Kilima-njaro, who prefer to live on the tops of hills 
for safety, and therefore carry their water in artificial 
channels from the heights above, and make it flow the 
whole length of these inhabited spurs, while the parent 
streams go dashing down the valleys, descending in 
cascades of 70 and 100 feet, till they flow far, far below 
the placid canals which water the hill-crests stretching 
out into the plains. 
In the centre of my settlement a large and spreading 
tree gave a pleasant shade in the warm noonday, and 
further sheltered my habitations from the occasional 
high winds ; and lastly—and this, I suppose, no after¬ 
work of man can alter—the view to be obtained 
V 
from this site was almost unequalled in Caga. “ All 
the world,” said Mandara once, S£ can be seen from 
