with the natives, and in' the management of several
plantations.
Gustave Denhardt, in company with his brother and
the late Dr. Fischer, had. been the first to ascend the
Tana River. A t this time he had been a resident of
that portion of the country about twelve years; during
which period he had endeared himself to the natives,
and had acquired a considerable influence over them.
Both Messrs. Denhardt and Teide proved of the greatest
assistance to our expedition, and we are much
indebted to them for their kind offices.
Having decided to make use of the Tana River as a
means of transporting a portion of our goods a distance
of 200 miles into the interior, it became necessary for
me to engage canoes and boatmen for the purpose.
Shortly after my arrival at Mkonumbi, Mr. Denhardt
and I set out for Kau, on the banks of the Tana River,
to arrange our little river column. We engaged eight
large dug-outs; and, through Mr. Denhardt’s relations
with the natives inhabiting this portion of the banks
of the Tana, I was enabled to engage twenty boatmen.
These people are called Pokomo. They are here
small cultivators, and derive most of the means for
their subsistence from their canoes, which are much in
demand to convey the produce (such as rice, corn, etc.)
grown near the banks of the Tana at inland points to
the coast, whence it is shipped to Lamoo. Living, as
they do, in small, ill-protected villages, they are an
easy mark for the raiders from Pumwani and Jongeni;
who, when the crops are ripe, swarm down upon the
Pokomo, and force them to cut their crops and carry
them away to these two towns. In physique, as a
result of their canoe labour, these people are wonderfully
developed.
I placed in charge of the Pokomo, as captain of the
fleet a native of Kau, Zanzibari in race, named Sadi.
He was a suave, good-mannered, and at the same time
trustworthy negro, who had accompanied Messrs. Denhardt
and Fischer upon their first trip up the Tana,
and had since then been engaged in many trading
expeditions. He spoke the language of the Pokomo,
and was loved and respected by them. He was particularly
proud of his birth, and with great satisfaction
did he mention the fact that his sister had at one time
been a concubine of the former Sultan of Zanzibar.
Having arranged for the presence of the canoes and
their crews at Kau upon a date in the near future, we
returned to Mkonumbi.
Surrounding Mkonumbi is an undulating plain,
covered, for the most part,.with high grass, the continuity
of which is at a few points broken by small
groups of dhum palms. Here and there, bordering
upon swamps and small streams, were found forests
composed of tall sycamores and other trees, whose
branches, burdened with trailing vines and creepers,
were filled with hordes of small monkeys and birds of
gayly coloured plumage. The appearance of the country
as a whole would not be called tropical, at least at the
time of the year when I visited i t ; namely, the middle
of the dry season.
Owing to the raids of the Pumwani and Jongeni
people, cultivation of the soil was carried on but in a
meagre manner. In former days, when the Sultan of
Witu held sway, the whole country was covered with