I determine to extend my operations into more remote districts of the
Kikuyu country—New friends—Native taste for tea—Plague of ants—Curious
superstition with regard to milking cows—The Kalyera reject my friendly
overtures—Trouble at headquarters—Tragic interview with a recalcitrant
chief—Gain further prestige thereby—Further plans—Take my Kikuyu
followers down to Mombasa—Their impressions in contact with civilization
On returning to my home among the Kikuyu I found that the country was
fairly quiet, so I thought I would take the opportunity to explore a
little farther into the interior, and, if possible, make friends among
some of the other chiefs, thus enlarging the area from which I could
draw supplies of food. My idea was to build trading stations at various
points in the country, and, leaving a few men in charge at headquarters,
to organize a fairly large expedition to explore other parts of the
country and induce the natives to make friends and trade with me.
The first people I wished to come to terms with were the Kalyera, who
had given me so much trouble on the road to Naivasha. I wished to
prevent my people being killed when taking the food down, and as these
murders had been on the increase, I was afraid that they would
eventually block the road. I determined to keep the route open at all
costs, it being the only way into Naivasha. As I have already said, the
Kikuyu country is very hilly and difficult for travelling, and to reach
Kalyera we should have to cross several mountains and rivers.
Having prepared my expedition, we set off. All the country through which
we passed was under cultivation, by which I mean that wherever a
clearing had been made in the forest the land was either growing food or
had been abandoned in fallow after being under cultivation for some
time; the custom of the Kikuyu being to cultivate the land until it
showed signs of becoming exhausted and then make a fresh clearing and
repeat the process.
The first day passed without any trouble at all from the natives, who
were all more or less friendly towards me in this part, and our first
camp was pitched in the territory of a typical native chief, a rather
stout and quite jolly sort of fellow, who owned a large number of
cattle, sheep, and goats, and who seemed a good deal more like a Masai
than a Kikuyu. I had not seen him before, but he had sent some of his
people to help me against the hostile tribes who had come down to attack
us. He wanted me to stay there altogether, but I told him that my
headquarters were at Karuri’s, and then delighted his heart with a
present of a blanket and fez, which pleased him immensely. His people
called me Karanjai, meaning literally “Who eats beans,” because I
preferred that vegetable to their sweet potatoes. In connection with
this nickname of Karanjai several amusing incidents occurred before I
found out what was actually meant by it. Names of this sort, which the
natives are very clever in bestowing, once given, rapidly become known
throughout the country, so that it was nothing unusual for me to be
greeted as Karanjai on my first visit to some village in a part of the
country quite new to me, and it was, therefore, not unnatural that I
should think it was some form of greeting, and for a long time, when any
native addressed me as Karanjai, I replied by repeating the word,
thinking that I was thus complying with native etiquette. It was the
more difficult for me to get at the real meaning as my own people would
give me no satisfactory explanation, fearing that I should be annoyed if
I found that they had given me a nickname. When I did finally discover
what it meant, it was impossible to be annoyed, as there was nothing
objectionable in the name itself, and I could not help admitting that it
was peculiarly appropriate.
As time went on, and my power and influence in the country extended, it
was quite usual, when I visited a village, for several proud fathers to
bring small sons to be introduced to me, explaining that they also had
been named Karanjai in my honour.
They had never seen a white man before, and likened me to their god
Ngai, as I was a great medicine man, and they believed that I could make
rain. They also thought that I was unkillable, but, knowing their
treacherous nature, I never allowed myself to be caught off my guard.
The Kikuyu will come up to you smiling and kill you the next moment if
he gets the chance. This happened in the case of a man who went out to
buy food only about twenty miles from Fort Smith. The chief came up to
him smiling, and while he shook hands with one hand drew his sword with
the other, and the man barely escaped with his life, while all the men
with him were killed. As before stated, they wear their swords on the
right side, as the action of drawing the sword is less noticeable from
that side, and their opponent has less warning of their intention.
This chief, Wunjaggi, had been notified of my coming by a messenger sent
on ahead of the party, and sent out some of his warriors to welcome me,
who plucked handfuls of grass and waved them as a sign of peace. The
chief met me with a huge spear in his hand, which, as soon as he saw me,
he stuck in the ground, and we then shook hands in the native fashion,
first spitting in our palms. I had discouraged this practice of
hand-shaking among my own people, and taught them to make a military
salute instead, as a precaution against treachery. He seemed very
pleased to see me, and told me that he had heard a lot about the white
man. As we entered the village his people began singing, and my
followers joined in, and there was general jubilation.
The chief gave me a present of sheep for myself and my men, and when we
had selected a site and pitched our tent some njohi[10] was sent in,
which I gave orders to be taken to my own tent and gave out to the men
myself, as I knew that when they got too much they were not responsible
for their actions, and would be sure to cause trouble. During the day
quite a lot of people came to see me, as they had never seen a white man
before, so I had a strong guard posted round the camp, only allowing a
few natives to come in at a time, and all had to disarm before entering
the camp. Of course, everything I had of European make was quite new to
them, even to the tent; but they seemed most particularly interested in
the knives and forks, while the enamelled cups and saucers and plates
also excited their curiosity. Everything I did seemed to them making
magic. If I happened to be reading a paper, they thought I was doing so
for some occult purpose, and when I smiled at a funny paragraph they
watched me curiously, and all began to laugh too, although they had not
the faintest idea what I was amused at.
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Footnote 10:
A native drink.
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I invited the chief to drink tea with me, out of a cup and saucer, and
at first he took a lot of persuading, but after tasting the tea he liked
it so much that I had reason to regret having introduced the practice,
as both he and the various other chiefs I met got so fond of it that
they would demand it whenever they saw me. They were also very fond of
salt, which they would eat by the handful. This fondness for salt may
seem to those who are accustomed to use it without stint, and even waste
large quantities carelessly, rather peculiar; but it must be borne in
mind that in many parts of the world besides the Kikuyu country salt is
a very rare article and a heavily-taxed luxury, every grain of which
must be carefully economised. The Kikuyu obtained the requisite salt for
their animals from certain salt-pans, or, as they are called in some
parts of the world, salt-licks, which were places where the earth was
sufficiently mixed with saline particles to give it a fairly strong,
brackish taste. This earth is dug up by the natives and mixed with water
till it is of the consistency of liquid mud; it is then placed in the
cattle-troughs, and it is a strange sight to see the animals devouring
this muddy mess with every appearance of enjoyment. For their own use
they used to burn large quantities of green papyrus reed, mixing the
ashes with their food instead of salt. This plant, although it grows in
the fresh-water lakes and streams, contains a fair proportion of saline
matter, so that the ashes form a substitute—though, to my taste, a very
inefficient one—for salt.
As the country here was about seven thousand feet above sea-level it
became very cold at night, and I had always a big fire lighted at
sundown, and before turning in saw that a good guard was set.
During our first night among my new friends we had a most unpleasant
experience, in the shape of a visitation from an army of brown ants,
which came right through the camp. These brutes—they are about half an
inch long, and so may be rightly called brutes—have very powerful jaws,
like the claws of a lobster, and bite most fearfully. They covered
everything in their path, and, getting into the blankets, drove me out
of my tent, and caused every one to dance about in the most comical
fashion in their efforts to get rid of the pests. So tenacious were they
that one could hardly pull them off, and the whole camp was in an uproar
during the hours that the army took to pass, and there was little more
sleep that night for any one. I do not know to what particular variety
of the ant tribe these brutes belonged, but I should think that they
must bear a strong resemblance to the kind known as “the bull-dog ant,”
which is, among certain African tribes, looked upon as a valuable
assistant to the native surgeon, who uses it instead of the silk thread
and surgical needle of civilization for sewing up wounds. The manner in
which they are used for this purpose is as follows: The edges of the
wound are drawn together, and held in that position with the fingers of
the left hand, while with the right a bull-dog ant is picked up and held
so that the jaws grip one on each side of the wound; the body of the ant
is then twisted off, while the head still remains, tenaciously holding
on to the flesh. From this habit of holding on they have acquired the
name of bull-dog. The Kikuyu did not make any such use of these ants,
though their method of sewing up wounds was scarcely less primitive. In
their case the edges of the wound were drawn together and a long thorn
run through both. A fine thread, made of fibre from the bark of certain
trees, is then wound over both ends of the thorn, in the same way that
sailors wind the spare ends of ropes round the cleats. The thorn is left
in place till the wound heals, and then drawn out in the same way that a
surgeon removes the stitches after more civilized operations.
Next morning we struck camp and resumed our journey, the chief
accompanying me to the boundary of his territory. On the way he told me
that he had had a lot of trouble with the neighbouring tribes,
particularly the people I was going to visit, the Kalyera, with whom he
was in a state of continual warfare. He parted from me with a serious
warning to be very careful, as the people I should next meet were very
treacherous.
We had started about 6 p.m., and about five hours’ march brought us to
the village of the next chief, named Caranja, whose looks I did not like
from the first, as he had a most truculent and treacherous appearance,
so that, although he shook hands with me readily when we met, I did not
trust him, and ordered my men to keep a particularly strict guard, and
forbade them to go into any of the villages. We camped outside, and
nothing of note happened, except that the chief was most interested in
my gun, and asked me to fire a few shots at a tree to show him how it
worked—a request with which I complied.
Starting at daybreak the next morning, the chief himself accompanied me
as guide for some distance, and when beyond his jurisdiction I was
surprised to find that the people had all deserted the villages along
our road. I imagine that what had happened was that the chief had sent
messengers on ahead to say that I was coming to fight them and raid
their country; or, possibly, the reason was that I had now got to the
edge of the Kalyera country, and they thought that I had come to inquire
into their behaviour in killing my people and to demand compensation.
Although we shouted to them as we went along that we had not come to
fight them and waved bundles of grass to show that our intentions were
peaceful, none of them would come near us, and we did not interfere with
them.
All the country round was thickly populated and under cultivation, like
the districts we had already passed through. The chief who had been
guiding us had returned to his own village, and we were making very slow
progress through an unknown country when two natives came in sight, whom
we found had been sent by another chief to guide us to his place. They
said it was not very far away, but the native has very little idea of
distance, and I thought we were never going to arrive at his village. I
knew from experience that a native will lead you on for two or three
days with the assurance that you are close to your destination. Our
guides kept telling us that it was just over the next hill, and when we
had got over that it was always just over the next. I was beginning to
get tired, and thought about camping for the night, when the guides
pointed out a village in the distance, which I could just make out with
my glasses, so we continued our journey, and arrived close to the
village about dusk. There was a lot of shouting and hallooing, but we
did not go in and camped close together outside. Practically every man
was on guard that night, as we knew nothing about the people, and could
not be sure that they would be friendly, but though we heard a lot of
shouting during the night nothing happened, and in the morning the chief
came to see me. As soon as I saw him I liked the look of him. He seemed
a young man, though it is very difficult to tell the age of natives—they
never know it themselves—but I took him to be about thirty. He seemed to
be quite different from any Kikuyu I had ever seen, his features being
more of a European type, and he had not the thick lips of the ordinary
native, whilst his skin was more of a copper colour than black. He also
seemed a good deal more intelligent than the others I had met, and his
people were not in the least afraid, as most of the others had been.
The chief’s name was Jugana-wa-Makura, and he had with him a friend, a
neighbouring chief, named Bartier, and we were soon very friendly
together. Makura brought his old mother to see me—a Masai woman, who
wore a dress of skins, plentifully hung with iron-wire ornaments. The
old lady was very friendly, shaking hands with me, and telling me that
she had heard a lot about the white man, and that it had been her
greatest wish to see one before she died. They gave me a lot of presents
of sheep, and also food for my men, and though I did not allow myself to
be taken off my guard by these professions, I found that they were
absolutely genuine.
Both of these loyal chiefs, unfortunately, paid for their friendship to
the white man with their lives. Some two years after this I came into
the country with an expedition sent by the Government to punish the
Kalyera for some outrages, and called on Jugana-wa-Makura and Bartier
for the assistance of some of their warriors, which was readily given.
After our expedition left the country the Kalyera ambushed both these
chiefs and murdered them for having assisted the Government expedition.
As is usually the custom in such cases, the criminals escaped scot-free,
no steps ever being taken by the Government to find out and punish the
murderers.
I had had great difficulty in obtaining milk from the previous Kikuyu we
had met, as, being very superstitious, they thought that if I drank the
milk the cow from which it came would die. I found that this
superstitious objection to giving away the milk of their cows prevailed
throughout the Kikuyu country. The people themselves use very little, if
any, milk for food purposes, preferring to allow the calves to have it,
and seldom or never milking the cows themselves, so that butter was
unknown in my time among them, though they may now have been taught to
go in for dairy-farming to some extent. They were at that time, however,
perfectly convinced that to allow a stranger to drink any of their milk
was a sure way of bringing disaster on the cow.
Owing to milking not being a general practice, the cows would never give
their milk unless the calf was near by, so that if the calf died it was
their practice to stuff the skin and place it by the cow when they went
to get any milk.
This chief, however, brought me plenty of milk, and was altogether most
friendly disposed, so we camped there for several days, the natives
coming in every day to see me, and organizing a big dance for my special
benefit. They had heard of my people being killed while going into
Naivasha, and told me that the Kalyera were a bad lot and not long
before had murdered some Government soldiers who had been sent out to
buy food for the people constructing the Uganda Railway.
Being now close to the Kalyera country, I tried to get into touch with
some of the chiefs, but they would not come to see me, only sending a
lot of insulting messages in reply to my requests for interviews, and
saying that if they saw any of my people straying about they would kill
them. They did not attack me, however, but I had to abandon my mission
to them for the present.
The two friendly chiefs brought me in a lot of food, for which I traded
with them, and also several tusks of ivory, which I also acquired.
Unfortunately, my own people could not carry all that I had bought down
to headquarters, and the chief’s people refused to go down with me,
saying that they would be killed on the way back, the other tribes being
hostile to them; so that the food had to be stored until such time as I
could arrange to have it transferred to Karuri’s.
My followers having made friends with the people with whom we had been
staying, we were all very sorry to leave; but it was imperative that we
should return at once, as a rumour had reached me that my people at
headquarters were in trouble, and they had sent a message for me to come
back as quickly as possible. We had hardly got started on the return
journey when it was rumoured among the natives that I had gone on this
expedition especially to see the Kalyera people, and that I was
returning because I was afraid to meet them. Emboldened by this, the
tribe living to the north had attacked my headquarters, killed a lot of
the people, and raided the country, burning the villages, and carrying
off a lot of cattle, sheep, and goats, as well as some of the women. On
hearing this news I hurried back as fast as possible, as I thought it
quite likely that they would burn my place. I got back in time to
prevent any further fighting, and set myself to calm the fears of my
people, who were lamenting the loss of their cattle, and praying me to
get back their women. I found that the whole country was up in arms, and
set to work to find out what was the cause of all the trouble.
It seemed that my own people had been partly the aggressors, and the old
quarrelling had been started again; so I sent out messengers to ask the
other chiefs in the neighbourhood to come in to see me. It is the custom
always to send two messengers together, as no native will travel alone,
and I waited some time, but as neither of the men returned, I supposed
that they had both been murdered. So I moved out and pitched my camp at
one of my trading stations on the boundary of the country, where I had
built a house, which I found had not been interfered with. I hoped, by
staying there a few days, to get into communication with the natives,
with the object of getting the old men of the district to come in for a
shauri. In this I was successful, and we talked over the whole matter of
the raid. They said that they had no wish to fight, but the young
warriors had got out of hand, carrying things their own way. The result
of the palaver was that the women and all the stolen cattle were
returned, with the exception of a few sheep and oxen that had been
eaten, and knowing that my own people had been the aggressors in the
first instance, I did not see that I could take any stronger action in
the matter.
However, this peaceful settlement did not please them, and, coupled with
my failure with the Kalyera, caused a change of feeling towards me; the
people became insolent, and I had to be more than ever on my guard.
Things were getting pretty bad, and it so happened that, just at this
time, I had to call in a rather powerful headman, who had been causing a
good deal of disturbance in the country, to see me; so I sent a
messenger to his village to summon him to my camp. He refused to come,
and sent back an insolent message, which was heard by all the people
round about, and caused a jeering laugh at my expense. This headman was
known as a great warrior, who was said to have slept out in the bush at
night to kill lions with a spear, and was supposed to have killed
several in that way.
I sent further messages to him, but he absolutely refused to come, and
began to send threatening replies. He had a following of about one
hundred fighting men, and it became a standing joke in the country that
he had defied the white man, so that I felt that unless I did something
I should lose my influence in the country; I was also getting ashamed to
face my own people, who were continually asking if I was not going to
bring him in by force. A few days later the matter was brought to a head
by a body of about five hundred fighting men turning up at my camp to
ask me what I proposed to do in the matter. Seeing that they were
thoroughly roused, I said that I would go and bring him in myself. They
all wanted to go with me, but I said that I would go alone, and to show
that I was not afraid of him, I would not even take a gun, but only a
stick or knobkerrie: I took the precaution, however, to have my revolver
in my belt out of sight.
I started off with only about ten men, and when we got within a few
hundred yards of the mutineer’s village, I told the men to stay behind,
while I went on to talk to the headman. They had evidently got news of
my coming, and were waiting for me, as I could see about fifty men, all
fully armed, with the chief in front, drawn up to receive me, and I had
no doubt that others were in ambush near by. The man was a fine big
fellow, every inch a chief, and I knew that I could only hope to succeed
by showing a bold front, bravery being about the only virtue a savage
recognizes. As I advanced alone they appeared to be impressed, and a
grunt of approbation passed round. The crisis had arrived, and I knew
that only sheer bluff could carry me through; so, before the chief could
guess my intention, I sprang on him like a flash, and dealt him a blow
with the knobkerrie which laid him senseless on the ground, at the same
time shouting to his followers to throw down their weapons, as my men
had them covered with their guns, and they would all be shot if they
attempted to resist. Standing over the chief, with my hand on my
revolver, I was ready to face the crowd, but, to my great surprise, they
all threw down their weapons. It must be remembered that I was believed
to possess mysterious powers, which probably accounts in some measure
for their ready submission.
Having made the warriors put all their weapons in a heap, I ordered them
to bring in some sheep and goats which they had stolen, and had the
chief carried to my camp, while the sheep and goats were driven into my
village, the whole of the warriors marching ahead of me till I reached
my own people. After giving them a good feed, I gave them a good talking
to, and dressed the wound on the chief’s head, binding it up with some
sticking-plaster; while, to show that there was no ill-feeling, I
invited his followers to spend the night in my camp, and return to their
own village in the morning.
During the night I heard an awful row, and, rushing out to see what had
happened, I found that the two parties of natives had been sitting round
the fire, drinking njoi, and having imbibed too freely, had started
their quarrels all over again. The old men of the village were fighting
with the chief I had brought in, who was defending himself with the flat
of his sword. My appearance speedily put an end to the disturbance, and,
taking the chief into my own quarters, I ordered my men not to allow any
one to go near him. No further trouble occurred during the night, and
the following morning the chief returned with his own people to their
village. We parted the best of friends, and for the remainder of my stay
in the country he was one of my best men.
Having re-established my influence, I was able to continue my trading,
and collected large quantities of food, which I took down from time to
time to Naivasha. The possession of cloth and other trade goods seemed
gradually to have a civilizing effect on the natives, and they would
listen attentively while I told them of our Queen and Government, the
big cities of the white people, and the ships which crossed the seas.
They were more ready to trade than formerly, and I found no difficulty
in obtaining food, which they were only too ready to bring in, in order
to procure the cloth and other trade goods with which I purchased it
from them.
My chief enemies were the rain-makers and witch doctors, who were
jealous of my power, and disliked me because I did not show them proper
respect. For anything that went wrong they blamed the white man. When
the natives wanted rain, and grumbled because it did not come, these
witch doctors said that I was the cause of the drought, and I found that
they were gradually stirring up trouble all round me, and trying by
every means in their power to get me killed. They knew that they were
losing their influence and were not looked up to as they used to be
owing to my presence, and they would have done anything to get me out of
the country. Of course, they lived by trading on the superstitions of
the natives. One of them in particular was believed to have great
supernatural powers, and had a reputation for being able to disappear at
night, when he was supposed to go to see their god, Ngai. Some support
was given to this belief by an incident which was said to have happened
one night. A number of the old men were drinking njoi in a hut, when a
terrible storm came on. The witch doctor was one of the party. They were
all sitting in a circle round the fire, when suddenly there was a
tremendous flash of lightning, and the witch doctor, who was supposed to
be still sitting among them, dropped through the roof into the middle of
the circle. The cunning rascal had evidently crept out of the hut
unnoticed by the others, and choosing the moment of the lightning flash,
had dropped through into the midst of them; while they, not having seen
him leave the circle, were, of course, amazed to see him appear in this
fashion through the roof, and quite believed his explanation that he had
just come down from their god on the streak of lightning! In spite of
the witch doctors, however, the natives were, on the whole, very
friendly to me, wishing me to stay in the country.
Things being once more in a fairly settled state, I thought I should
like to make a trip north, towards Mount Kenia, to try to make friends
with some of the chiefs living in those parts. Wagombi, the powerful
chief who lived at the foot of Mount Kenia, had a most murderous
reputation, and was reported to be very treacherous. Several Arab and
Swahili expeditions were reported to have been completely wiped out by
him, while the King of Tato, another neighbouring chieftain, a man named
Karkerrie, had rendered his name redoubtable by similar murders. I
gathered, however, that there was a lot of ivory in that part of the
country, and being also anxious to open more food stations, I was not to
be scared by the ugly rumours I had heard. Another reason why I wished
to make this journey was that I was anxious to see the place where
Gibbons’s safari had been cut up. So I gathered all the information I
could about the district, and talked the matter over with Karuri and his
people. They were, without exception, altogether opposed to the
undertaking, even the old men seeming to be afraid, and saying that we
were bound to be all killed, whilst one of the witch doctors prophesied
that I should be killed and never return, and even went through an
elaborate ceremony to prove that it would happen. At his request I went
into the bush and got three sticks, which I gave to him. Having first
waved them round his head, chanting “Lu-lu-lu” all the time, he threw
them on the ground, and then, picking up each stick separately, he shook
it, first taking hold of one end then of the other. When he had finished
this performance he said he could tell me what was going to happen,
which, according to him, was that I should have a lot of trouble with
the people of the district to which I was going, and therefore had
better not go. If I did he assured me that I should certainly be killed
and never return.
Of course my people heard what the witch doctor had to say, and in the
face of his predictions did not want to go with me. I pointed out that
so far nothing had happened to me during the time I had been in the
country, nor had any harm befallen any of my personal servants; but my
arguments were of no use, they declined to be persuaded, and begged me
to give up the idea, saying that they would bring me all the food I
could want and that I need not search anywhere else for it. I told them
that I wanted ivory, and they hunted up a few tusks which I did not know
they had, and these I bought; but I was still resolved to go, so after
much persuasion they said that they would go if I would get more rifles,
as the people living round Mount Kenia were supposed to have a lot of
rifles. They also told me that the trade goods I had were not suitable
for that part, where they would prefer brass and iron wire to cloth and
beads. I thought, therefore, that my best plan would be to take down my
ivory and the food I had collected, and when I had disposed of them, to
make a trip down to the coast myself for more trade goods. I also wished
to ask the Government authorities to let me have some rifles, so I went
down to Naivasha and delivered the food and ivory; then, finding that
the railway was approaching nearly as far up-country as Nairobi, which
would enable me to take my men down to the coast without much trouble,
after transacting my business I entrained with my savage followers for
Mombasa. They were much impressed with the evidences of civilization,
particularly with the railway engine, which they thought was alive,
remarking that it seemed in a fever and wanted a drink. Arriving at
Mombasa, they were equally astonished at the sea and the ships, never
having seen either before.
I was able to buy all the trade goods I required, and having finished
that part of my business, I paid a visit to the Sub-Commissioner to ask
him to allow me to have some rifles for self-protection. He absolutely
refused, repeating what he had said when I first came to East Africa,
that white men were not wanted in the country. I pointed out to him that
the Arab and Swahili traders possessed rifles, to which he replied that
they had not obtained them with official sanction! Such was the class of
administrator approved by Downing Street for the opening up of a new
country!
Before leaving Mombasa, where I stayed only a short time, I took the
Kikuyu on board a ship, which was a remarkable experience for these
people, who had spent all their lives in the mountains and had never
even seen the sea, let alone a ship, before. If there was one thing that
puzzled my Kikuyu followers more than another in Mombasa, it was,
perhaps, the fact that everything had to be paid for. In their own
country, when any Swahili traders came to a village they were accustomed
to give them a sheep for food, and never thought of asking payment, but
here, among the Swahili themselves, they found that they could get
nothing unless they were prepared to pay for it; above all, they were
astonished that any one should have to pay for lodgings, as it was the
invariable custom among them to set apart, or more often build, a hut
for the use of any stranger whom they welcomed to their villages. They
were very soon tired of Mombasa, appearing to be homesick, so we
returned to Nairobi, where we camped for a few days, and during my stay
bought some cattle, which my people told me would be useful for trading
with the natives near Mount Kenia.