LETTER FROM SIR R. G. HARVEY. 
265 
natives were most excited, under the impression that it was a 
German man-of-war which had come to annex that part of the 
coast. Here Greenfield and Hunter, hearing that a dhow was 
going to start for Malindi, agreed to go in her in order to avoid 
the stifling heat of the coast. The heat was bad enough, 
but from former experience, I thought the dhow would be 
worse, and so remained with the caravan. On the 16th, after 
three very hot marches, sometimes through plantations and 
sometimes through bush in which I saw a few old elephant 
tracks, we arrived at Malindi, and found my friends installed 
in a house belonging to the Lewali of Mombasa. His nephew 
acted as our host and did his best to please us. He was a fine- 
looking man, well dressed, good-mannered, and as fair as any 
European. 
Here we had considerable difficulty in getting guides to 
accompany us, and as they did not, or said they did not, know 
the direct route to Golbanti, we had to make for the mouth of 
the Tana, and then trust to following it up. 
Our first march from Malindi only took us to Membrui, as 
we only had one small dug-out canoe to cross the Sabaki river, 
which was a slow business for nearly two hundred men and 
a large quantity of baggage. 
After Membrui we marched through a sandy flat country 
that reminded me much of Aldershot, being covered with dark 
plants and trees which much resembled fir-trees and heaths 
at a distance. This country is intersected with salt-pans, which 
are formed by the highest tides depositing water in the hollows ; 
this in a short time dries up from the heat of the tropical 
sun and leaves a thin layer of salt. Wild animals are very 
fond of this salt, and we here saw the first animal we had met 
with since Mombasa. We reached Merereni in the evening, 
and found ourselves on the shore among a lot of dilapidated 
huts. These huts are used by pickers of mercri (orchilla weed), 
which grows in considerable quantities in the neighbourhood, 
and is used as a dye. 
As my friends did not like the heat, which certainly was 
