Stimulated by the magnetic influence of Owen, Mr.
Decle soon enrolled himself as a volunteer in the service
of the British, and thus the man who was said by the
Germans to be going to Uganda to make the English
“ sit up ” is actually found to be working a Maxim against
the enemies of the English. It is not the first time by
many that Mr. Decle, who was expected to denounce
the British, turns round to bless them. His services
against Unyoro were heartily acknowledged by Col. Sir
Henry Colvile. The expedition against Kabbarega was,
as we know, a complete success, though the Germans
anticipated it would be “ chewed up, as the English had
no discipline.” Whether there is discipline or not, there
must be something equally good to enable young British
officers to succeed so well as they do, even when tremendous
odds, as on this occasion, are arrayed against
them.
When he finally determined upon returning to the coast,
Mr. Decle’s good luck, which had often saved him from a
desperate position, aids him once again. Col. Colvile
wants his dispatches to reach Mombasa, and thereupon
lends him an armed escort and fifty Snider carbines. Mr.
Scott Elliot, who has just arrived in Uganda, is dissatisfied
with forty of his men and wishes to discharge them, upon
which Mr. Decle gladly enlists them, and these with his
own thirty followers make up a sufficient force to venture
through Masai land. On the 6th February, 1894, he turns
his face towards home. At the crossing of the Nile he has
considerable difficulties with native ferrymen and chiefs,
and the conduct of two missionaries angers him. Reaching
Lubwa’s—the scene of Bishop Hannington’s murder—he
obtains the assistance of the officer commanding, by which
he passes through Usoga without trouble. Early in March
he finds himself in Kavirondo, the villages of which are
remarkable for their high earth ramparts and deep fosses.
The people go about stark naked, and strange to say the
men take kindly to field work.
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A few days later he met the Masai, who were obviously
bent on plundering; but the long mileage which he has
covered since leaving Cape Town has taught him much,
and timely precautions save his camp. He then enters a
country where herds of antelope, zebra, hartebeest, wildebeest
abound, and, of course, our traveller must try his
hand at game-killing—in which he is fairly successful.
With hunting incidents, visits from lions, and predatory
Masai, he varies this stage of his journey most entertainingly,
and at the end of March arrives at Kikuyu.
Formerly the aborigines of this region had an evil reputation,
but the civilized administration is gradually weaning
them from their bad habits, and, being devoted to agriculture,
they will no doubt in time become valuable subjects.
After a needful rest for himself and carriers he set off in
early April for Machakos, another of the British stations.
The natives are intelligent and industrious, and form a
kind of patriarchal republic. Mr. Decle furnishes many
interesting particulars concerning their political organization,
laws, and curious manners, but their personal
appearance does no justice to- their many excellent
qualities. The vicinity of the station is notable for its
great crops of bananas and masses of flowers. It is
situated at an altitude of 5400 feet above sea level, surrounded
by hills with cultivated slopes, and so temperate is
the climate that European fruit and cereals would probably
do well.
The country between Machakos and the coast is crossed
over hurriedly by master and men, as all are anxious to
reach civilization as soon as possible. Of Ukambani and
its uninhabited plains, of Teita with its grassy plains, and
the waterless deserts Nyika, we therefore hear little. Just
as the third year of his travels is completed, Mr. Decle has
the pleasure of finding himself on board a steamer bound
to Zanzibar, with the comfortable reflection that he has
been the first to unite the four zones of African exploration
in one long continuous journey of 7000 miles.
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