or “ Mabungu.” ' It becomes 'yellow when ripe, and is said
to be very sweet, and is eaten by the Wasania; monkeys
are also very fond of it.
Although there were daily, as a rule, sharp showers of rain,
the heat was very great; one day the temperature at noon
in my tent was 98°.
I had great trouble to prevent my porters from talking
and laughing loudly, regardless of the fact that they were
frightening the game. The mosquitoes still contributed to
the comforts of the night, but the lions; seemed to have
withdrawn, and the nights were, quite silent except for the
occasional bellowing of the hippo in the Kilifi river.
A t last I had every preparation completed— a total of
nine huts built, with water supply, etc., and the Liwali of
Mombrui was to send up milk, vegetables, and fruit-—so I
went down to Marereni to await Sir Gerald Portal’s arrival.
The following day, however, I received news from Mombasa
which made.a. complete change in the proposed arrangement.
Sir Gerald Portal and Mr. Berkeley had received instructions
to proceed; at once on the now well-known Mission to
Uganda, after th e . successful accomplishment of which the
country had to mourn the untimely loss of one o f its most
able and. successful diplomatists; Sir Gerald Portal dying of
typhoid fever shortly after his return to England.
However, as the Consul-Gfeneral could not come, he had
asked General Hatch, commanding the Sultan’s troops I in
Zanzibar, and the officers of H.M.S. Philomel, commanded
by Capt. Campbell, to avail themselves of the arrangement
I had made, and very soon the vessel’s lights were reported,
and she anchored off Ras N’Gomani on the evening I of
December 6.
We had a very good time for the few days they were up,
having amongst other things some exciting hippo-shooting,
killing seven and wounding several others. Some Wasania
came down attracted by the firing, but we could not get
them to swim across the river after the dead hippo. They
said it was an ill-omened river, and that a short time before
a party of ten Swahilis had attempted to cross it and not
one had succeeded, all having been pulled down by crocodiles.
An amusing incident of the expedition was that which
befell a small party from the ship, who had gone inland after
game. On their return they reported having seen, first one
lion, then fifteen, and finally an uncountable number of these
terrible animals. They turned out to have been baboons !
I spent the following Christmas at Mombasa, having- gone
down there comfortably in an Arab dhow, and had the pleasure
of being in time to bid good-bye, with wishes for a successful
journey to Uganda, to Mr. Berkeley, who also received-
ARAB DHOWS— MOMBASA HARBOUR.
a farewell address and a piece of plate from the. European
officers of the Company.
; I returned from Mombasa on January 1, 1893, accompanied
rby Dr. Edwards, of the C. M. S., who was going up to Jelori,
and I think it was about the most wretched New Year’s Day
that I ever spent. We sailed in a small dhow for Melindi,
starting early in the morning; a heavy swell was rolling into
the harbour, and we were both soon very miserable— in fact
we both collapsed with sea-sickness on getting out into the
open. There were frequent squalls of rain, and as we lay
prostrate on the deck we were soon wet through, utterly
miserable from the smells, motion, and heavy pitching caused
jc