LETTER FROM SIR R. G. HARVEY. 
279 
having at last reached us, we left on the 30th, and marched up 
opposite to Big Mallalulu, or at least the place where Mallalulu 
had been,as of inhabitants there were none. The path led through 
evergreen bush and trees to the edge of a swamp about 150 
yards across, which had to be crossed before reaching the bank 
of the river. Hunter, Greenfield, and Martin waded through it; 
but as the water was up to their chests, I selected two strong 
men to carry me over, which they did, I sitting with one leg 
on the shoulder of each, in which precarious position I at last 
reached tcrra-Jirma, although we several times stuck in the 
mud. We then, after a wait of an hour for the boats, crossed 
in them to the deserted village. The inhabitants had all 
disappeared some weeks before in consequence of a report 
that Somalis were raiding on the river, and had, we heard, 
built another stockade in a stronger position lower down. The 
old chief turned up during the afternoon in my tent and began 
turning over everything on the table and asking what the 
different articles were. On asking what the pepper-pot con¬ 
tained I said snuff, on which he helped himself and went off. 
He, however, soon after returned looking very annoyed, and 
said, “ Your snuff is rnbovu (rotten) ; I do not like it at all! ” 
The next day I tramped over a lot of country, but only saw 
some giraffe and Walleri. Greenfield returned with a Hunteri 
and with the news of a puddle of water inland, which was very 
welcome, as all the game seemed to live far away from the 
river, and we were particularly anxious to find some water 
inland to encamp at. Hunter, who stopped out all day explor¬ 
ing for water, brought home an oryx and a Walleri. 
On the following morning we marched for the puddle, and 
found any number of tracks near it. We had now reached the 
best shooting-ground that we came across up the Tana, and in 
the three next days bagged seven Hunteri, two eland, three 
Walleri, one lesser kudu, one oryx, and some Kirkii, and saw 
a few rhinoceros and buffalo. 
We saw a great many tracks of elephants, some of them 
quite fresh, but for several days we could not manage to come 
