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AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST ASCENT OF KILIMANJARO. Dr. HANS MEYER. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BT E. H. S. CALDER. Mitb fovt^ illustrations anb Zbvcc /iDaps. THE FRONTISPIECE AND EIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS PRINTED IN GERMANY. LONDON: GEORGE PHILIP & SON, 32 FLEET STREET: LIVERPOOL: 45 to 51 SOUTH CASTLE STREET. 1891. PEEFACE. IN the matter of geographical exploration, which may be said to constitute the groundwork of the successful de- velopment of all countries, German East Africa has not hitherto shared the advantages enjoyed by our colonies on the western side of the continent. There, and more espe- cially in our Protectorate of the Cameroon s, the work of geographical research has been systematically carried out under Government supervision and at Government expense, whereas the exploration and exploitation of East Africa have been left entirely to the more limited resources of commercial companies. In all the expeditions which have penetrated the region since the first delimitation of the various spheres of interest, the interests of Geography and of Science in general have been of secondary importance to the making of treaties and the^ establishment of stations. It seemed to me, therefore, that, since Government showed no signs of moving in the matter, the work of geographical research in East Africa must be taken up by private individuals, I resolved to devote myself and my means to it forthwith ; and in the course of three expeditions I have done my best to make known the districts geographically the most interesting and colonially the most valuable. First in importance in both these respects is Kilimanjaro, a mighty mountain mass, which attains an alti- tude of nearly 20,000 feet, and upon which every imaginable vi PREFACE. shade "of climate is represented. After it comes the mountain ranges of Usambara, Pare, and Ugweno, wliich run inland from the coast to Kilimanjaro, rising like island oases from the surrounding barrenness of the steppes. Kilimanjaro was discovered by a German — the missionary, Eebmann ; it was first explored by a German — Baron von der Decken ; and it seemed to me to be almost a national duty that a German should be the first to tread the summit of this mountain, probably the loftiest in Africa, and certainly the highest in the German Empire. Notwithstanding the efforts of the numerous travellers who had visited the region, many problems still lay awaiting solution. The geological struc- ture of the mountain, the causes of the prevailing climatic conditions, the nature of the snow and ice in equatorial Africa, were all matters of universal interest which yet remained to be determined. Tempted by these many attractions, I quitted Europe for Africa in the autumn of 1886, proceeding first to South Africa with a view to obtaining some experience of African life and methods of working. Although this was my first visit to the Dark Continent, I was already a past master in the art of travel. I had climbed the Alps and the Himalayas, and in Ceylon and Southern India had become familiar with all the details of tropical agriculture ; I had gazed into the craters of the volcanoes of Java, and penetrated the recesses of the forests of the Philippines ; I had sailed up the rivers of China and Japan, and had traversed Mexico and California in all directions, and thus little by little I had become accustomed to travel in all climates and under all conditions. In South Africa I passed through Cape Colony, and spent some time at the diamond fields of Kimberley and the goldfields of the Transvaal, afterwards making a sojourn in the Drakenberg mountains, whence I gradually made my way northwards PREFACE. vil along the coast, and reached the ishmd of Zanzibar in April 1887. From Zanzibar I set out on my first East African expedi- tion. It was the rainy season — the most unfavourable time of year for an expedition of the kind — and the extraordinary scarcity of porters, due to the great demand recently occa- sioned by the setting out of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedi- tion and Count Teleki's expedition to Lake of Samburu, increased in no small degree the difficulty I had in raising a caravan. I was next confined to bed for some weeks with a bad attack of malaria, but by the month of June I was so far recovered as to be able to start, and set out from Mombaza accompanied by a caravan of a hundred men, and by Baron A. von Eberstein, who, in his official capacity as a represen- tative of the German East Africa Company, was about to visit Jagga with a view to selecting a site suitable for a sta- tion. A fourteen days' march across the arid steppes brought us, after the usual hardships, to the forest fastness of Taveta at the foot of Kilimanjaro. Here we met Count Teleki and his companion. Lieutenant von Höhnel. They were now on their return journey, and, as the result of their experiences, were able to give us much profitable advice. A few days later we reached Marangu, one of the small states forming part of the district of Jagga, the cultivated zone which runs round the southern half of the mountain at an altitude of between 4000 and 6000 feet. Here I left the main body of my caravan under the care of the chief, Mareale, and accompanied only by Herr von Eberstein and a small picked body of men, pro- ceeded to ascend the mountain. Five days were spent in crossing the belt of primeval forest and the wide stretch of pasture land above. The latter terminates at the small barren plateau at the saddle (14,400 feet) between the two peaks of Kilimanjaro — Kibo and Mawenzi. viii PREFACE. Here Herr von Eberstein and I took up our quarters alone. After a day's rest we set out to attempt the ascent of Kibo, the western and higher of the two peaks, which towered up- wards above our camp for another 5000 feet. Soon we had reached the first patches of snow, across Avhich we continued to make tolerably rapid progress, until at length, at an altitude of 16,400 feet, it began to snow, and shortly afterwards my companion sank down exhausted. For some time I pressed forward alone, but at last found myself confronted with a solid Avail of ice, 150 feet high, which effectually barred the Avay. It was the lower edge of the ice-cap that rests on the rim of the Kibo crater, and I saw that without the aid of the usual alpine climbing-tackle it would be impossible to scale it. The snow beginning to fall more heavily, I hastened to rejoin Von Eberstein, and together we made our Avay back to camp with all possible speed. The rest of the day was spent in taking observations and photographs, and in making various measurements in the neighbourhood of the base of the cone. Next morning we set out to return to Marangu. Although, on this journey, we did not succeed in reaching the summit of the mountain, I thus got as far as the ice-cap (18,000 feet), and found that it was composed of a compact mass of ice. We also explored the saddle-plateau and the series of hills which rise from it ; and besides taking the photographs and measurements above - mentioned, made large collections — geological, botanical, and zoological — ^in the upper zones as well as in the lower. The results of the expedition are briefly sketched in the Avork entitled Zum Schneedom des Kilimand- scharo, Leipzig, 1888, Avhich I published shortly after my return to Europe. Taking leave of Von Eberstein, who had the more immediate object of his mission to attend to, I proceeded from Taveta through the district of Kahe and Arusha to the south of Kili- PREFACE. ix manjaro, following the course of the Rufu all the way to the coast. In the course of the journey I visited the German stations of Mafi and Korogwe, which seemed to be in any- thing but a flourishing condition. I was struck with the same impression at the stations of Dunda, Madimola, and Usungula, which I visited later on in the course of a run from Bagamoyo through Usaramo. These unproductive, poorly peopled districts in the midst of the steppes are alike unsuit- able for trade and agriculture ; the colonial future of East Africa lies in the coast and mountainous regions, a remark, the truth of which is illustrated by the fact that the above- named stations have all recently been abandoned. I had not long returned to Europe when I resolved to organise a second expedition, with a view to exploring the German sphere of interest throughout its entire breadth. My plan was to proceed from the coast to Kilimanjaro by way of Usambara, Pare, and Ugweno, and, provided with more suitable equipments, once more to attempt the ascent of the mountain. From Kilimanjaro it was my intention to penetrate westward to the south end of the Victoria Nyanza, and thence to the Albert Edward Nyanza and the neighbouring mountain regions lately explored by Stanley. The journey, I calculated, would extend over two years. My companion on this occasion was the Austrian geo- grapher. Dr. Oscar Baumann, who had a large experience of travel in West Africa. After spending several months in making our preparations, we landed at Zanzibar in July 1888, and immediately set about raising a caravan of 230 men. A hundred loads of all sorts of articles of barter were sent on to the south end of the Victoria Nyanza in advance, under the charge of the well-known agent and carrier, Mr. Stokes. Erom these I expected to be able to replenish my stores when I should have got so far on my way. X PREP A CE. Before we left Pangani for the interior in the end of Ausfiist, there had been considerable friction between the Europeans and the Arabs all along the coast, but as yet no one dreamed of anything like an open insurrection. The caravan being too cumbrous to accompany us on our projected mountain tour, at Lewa Dr. Baumann and I separated from the main body, which was sent on by the usual caravan route along the Pangani, with instructions to await us at Gonja, among the mountains of Pare. Accompanied by sixty men, Dr. Baumann and I then set out from the mission station of Magila, and made our way into Usambara, which in the course of the next three weeks we traversed from north to south, profiting by the trip to make all manner of obseiTations and collections. We were the first Europeans who had thoroughly explored the district, which is, I should say, eminently suited for cultivation. It is only a day's march inland from the coast, and is easily accessible in all parts along the broad valleys by which it is intersected. The average elevation is about 4250 feet, the countiy is well wooded, the climate temperate, and the inhabitants industrious and peaceful. Our little excursion over, we hastened on to Gonja, where we were to overtake the rest of our caravan. When we arrived at the appointed meeting-place, no caravan was to be seen, and we were told that it had been detained in Masinde by the chief Semboja. Here it had been broken up, and the porters one and all had returned to the coast, leaving their loads behind them. Without delay I set out for Masinde, but on the way my porters deserted in a body, and I arrived at my destination accompanied only by Dr. Baumann, two Somal, and one or two Asikari. At Semboja's I learned that the caravan had ostensibly acted upon orders received from the Sultan of Zanzibar, by whom the men were said to have been recalled on account of the rebellion which had just broken out PREFACE. xi at the coast. Leaving the loads to the care of Semboja, I and my faithful few started off in pursuit. For eight days we hastened on without meeting with any adventure worth men- tioning. At the end of that time, however, we were joined by a gradually increasing rabble of armed natives, who did not keep us long in doubt as to their intentions. A day's march from the coast we were overwhelmed and made prisoners, loaded with chains, and thrown into a dark hut, where we Avere left to lie for some days, ignorant of what fate might be in store for us. At the end of that time the Arab Sheik Bushiri, the leader of the insurrection, made his appearance, and it was agreed that we should be allowed to go free on payment of a heavy ransom. The stipulated sum having been paid through the medium of an Indian, Bushiri himself conducted us to Pangani, and after several hairbreadth escapes we reached Zanzibar, and finally Europe, thankful to have got off with bare life. The expedition was totally ruined, and all our European equip- ments, with the goods intended to last a caravan of 230 men for two years, were lost. A graphic account of our journey through Usambara, and of the other adventures of the expedition, has been given by my companion. Dr. O. Baumann, in his charming book, In Deutsch- Osta/rika während des Aufstandes : Vienna, 1889. As for myself, undaunted by the mischances which had already befallen me, I at once set about preparing for a third expedition, which, however, I resolved should be con- fined to the Kilimanjaro region. As I was bent not only on making a thorough geographical survey of the mountain, but on ascending to its highest peak, I considered myself happy in securing as a companion Herr Ludwig Purtscheller, a name well known in European alpine circles. Events proved that my expectations were amply justified. As is shown in the following pages, we were successful almost beyond what I xii PREFACE. had dared to hope, all that had been left unfinished on my first and second expeditions being fully completed on the third. Kilimanjaro is now an open secret ; the great crater of Kibo has been discovered, the summit of the mountain has been attained, and the scientific material collected is such as to afford a tolerably complete picture of the most interesting region of equatorial East Africa. In sitting down to recount my experiences, with the con- quest of the " Ethiopian Mount Olympus " still fresh in my memory, I feel how inadequate are my powers of description to do justice to the grand and imposing aspects of Nature with which I shall have to deal. It is easier to make a journey than to tell the story of it, and it seems to me that all I can do is to transport myself in thought to Africa once more, and retrace my wanderings step by step and day by day, narrating events as they occurred and as they impressed me at the moment. In this way and by the help of the illustrations it is hoped that the reader will gain a full and vivid idea of the characteristics of the region. The plates have been executed by the master-hand of Mr. E. T. Compton, and have been selected from a series of 240 photographs taken by my- self. They reproduce not only the main features of the mountain scenery with remarkable fidelity, but are equally true to the " local colour " of East Africa in general. In recalling here and there my experiences on my two former journeys, I have to express my thanks to my com- panions, Herr von Eberstein and Dr. Oscar Baumann, to whose kindly and sympathetic assistance the satisfactory results achieved were largely due. I am equally indebted to Herr Ludwig Purtscheller, who accompanied me on my third journey, and stood by me on every occasion with the greatest discretion and the most indomitable zeal. I have no hesitation in saying, that the success of the expedition is PREFACE. xiü largely to be attributed to his untiring efforts, as may be seen from almost eveiy chapter of this book. It also affords me much pleasure to have this opportunity of acknowledging my indebtedness to the German and English Governments, and to the British East Africa Company, whom I have to thank for allowing my expedition to pass through their territory while the war was still going on. To my other friends, Adolph Bastian, Herr von Danckel- mann, Paul Güssfeldt, Bruno Hassenstein, Wilhelm Junker, Pechuel-Loesche, Friedrich Eatzel, E. G. Ravenstein, Ger- hard Rohlfs, Colonel Euan-Smith, Erich Steifensand, Justus Strandes, and Major von AVissmann — to all of whom I am indebted for much friendly advice and assistance both at home and abroad — I tender my most hearty thanks. To Messrs. Hassenstein and Ravenstein I am especially grateful ; to the former for the arduous labour he has had in constructing the maps, and for his assistance in compiling the bibliography ; to the latter for the valuable information he afforded me on the subject of the Mountains of the Moon, on which my remarks in the introductory chapter are based. Last, but not least, I have to thank all those who have so kindly co-operated in classifying my collections and working out my astronomical and meteorological data within such an exceedingly short space of time. The conclusions at which they have arrived are briefly stated in the Appendices, and will be published more fully elsewhere. If from the latter, as well as from the text, the reader gathers that we have done some- thing more than merely " travel," I shall feel amply rewarded for the time, the toil, and the means I have spent in the exploration of German East Africa. HANS MEYER. Leipzig, Autumn 1890. CONTENTS. PAUK Preface ............ v INTRODUCTORY. Kilimanjaro in the Past ........ i The Mountains of the Moon— First Eeference to Kilimanjaro— Journeys of Krapf and Kebmann — of Von der Decken and Thornton— of New and Bushell— of Mr. H. H. Johnston— Establishment of First Mission Station —Station of German East Africa Company— The Ehlers Controversy. CHAPTER I. To THE Swahili Coast 21 An Explorer's Outfit— Scientific Instruments— A Travelling Companion- Voyage to Aden — The Passengers — Zanzibar — Changes at Zanzibar — An old Friend — French Missionaries — Preparations for the Start — The "Bouquet D'Afrique." CHAPTER II. MoMBAZA TO Taveta 44 How to Maintain Discipline— Members of the Caravan— On the March— A Midday Halt— A Traveller's Bill of Fare— The East African Wilderness — The East African Flora— Caught in the Act— Deserters— The Ngurun- gas— Between Taro and Maungu— The Wilderness of Thorn Scrub— View from Maungu— A Hospitable Missionary— The Mountains of Ndara— Open Eebellion— The Tree-steppes— Big Game— Kilimanjaro— Arrival iu Taveta. CHAPTER III. At Mandara's and Mareale's 84 Taveta — Life in Taveta— Taveta to Moji— Camp at the Himo— Arrival in Moji — A Visit to Mandara — A Message through the Telephone — Sunset on Kilimanjaro — A Word of Criticism— Irrigation Channels— Moji to xvi CONTENTS. PAGE Marangu — Arrival in Marangu — Jack of all Trades — Wa-Jagga Warriors — Internecine Feuds — Mareale's Career — Jagga Currency — Life in Jlarangru — Excelsior ! CHAPTER IV. To THE Summit of Kibo Mountaineering Outfit — The Start— The Forest Zone — Forest Flora and Fauna — Above the Forest — The Half- Way Camp — Senecio Johnstoni — Tortoiseshell Rocks — Camp at the Foot of Kibo — The First Ascent — Nearing the Ice— Our First East African Glacier — The Crater Rim — Return to Camp — A Second Ascent — The Summit Reached— The Kibo Crater— In Camp once more— A False Alarm — " Per Aspera ad Astra ! " CHAPTER V. Ten Days above Fifteen Thousand Feet . . . . .162 Fire ! — Camp at Mawenzi— First Ascent of Mawenzi — Checkmated — A Find — Second Ascent of Mawenzi — View to the North of Mawenzi — Last Ascent of Kibo — More East African Glaciers — "Fossil Remains" — The Kibo Crater from the East^FareweU to Kibo — Our Days of Rest— Flora and Fauna of the Upper Regions — Troublesome Neighbours — Preparations for a Trip to Ugweno. CHAPTER VI. Through the Ugweno Country . . . . . . -195 Native Guides and Footpaths — Abundance of Game — A Thunderstorm — Ugweno from the Plains— Iron Ore — First Camp in Ugweno — Arrival at Maf urra's — View from Gamualla — A Tempting Offer — Making Brothers — The Junguli Valley — Iron Ore — Manners and Customs of the Wa- gweno — Population of Ugweno — Native Method of Smelting Iron — An African Symphony — A Jagga Wedding. CHAPTER VII. Westward Ho! . . . . . . . . . -231 A Mountain Thunderstorm — Above Kiboso — Above Uru — A Herd of Elephants — The State of Uru — An Inhospitable Chief — On the qui vive — The State of Majamd — A New Way of "Making Brothers" — I Make Myself Agree- able — Kibo from the West — Articles of Virtu — Home Comforts — Smith- Work in Jagga — Native Dances. CONTENTS. xvii CHAPTER VIII. PAGE Homeward Bouxd 263 Good-bye to Jagga — A Slave Caravan— Giraffes — Driver-Ants — A Swahili Caravan — A Plague of Locusts — The Steppes in the Kainy Season — A Thunderstorm on the Steppes — Adelheid : " Requiescat in Pace " — Near- ing the Coast — Rabai once more— An Arab Dhow— Emin Pasha and Stanley — Departure for Europe. CHAPTER IX. Geography and Commercial Prospects of the Kilimanjaro Region 295 Kilimanjaro : Meaning of the Name — Geological Structure of the Mountain — The Northern Face of the Mountain — The Kibo Crater — Physical History of the Mountain — Rainfall and Prevailing Winds — Rainfall on North and South Sides of the Mountain — Distribution of Ice and Snow — Irre- gularity of the Decline — The Glaciers — The Ice within the Crater — Rivers of the Kilimanjai'o Region — Zones of Vegetation — The Vegetation and the Temperature — East African Soil and Climate— Effect of Local Rains — East Africa as a Residence — East Africa in its Colonial Aspects — Con- ditions of Trade — English East Africa — The Kilimanjaro Railway — The Gospel of "Work for the Negro. APPENDICES. NO. I. Copy op the Agreement between the Indian Merchant Siwa Haji and Dr. Hans Meyer anent the Engage- ment OF A Caravan ........ 345 II. Note on the Geology of the Kilimanjaro Region . . 346 III. On a Collection of Lichens formed by Dr. Hans Meyer DURING Three Expeditions to East Africa (18S7-89) . 351 IV, The Mosses of the Kilimanjaro Region . . . . 361 V. The Liverworts (Hepaticae) of the Kilimanjaro Region . 366 VI. Siphonogamous Plants collected by Dr. Meyer in the course of his Expeditions to Kilimanjaro in 1887 and 1889 368 VII. The Butterflies of the Kilimanjaro Region . . .371 h* xviü CONTENTS. PAQK VIII. The Beetles of the Kilimanjaro Region . . . -373 IX. Dr. Hans Meyer's Observations for the Determination of Heights 375 X. Cartography 379 XL Bibliography 384 INDEX 399 ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. General View of Kilimanjaro from the South East 2. Zaxzibar ........ 3. Members of the Caravan ..... 4. Ax East African Steppe ..... 5. Rock Reservoirs {N'gurungas) at Taro 6. Cajmp at Taveta — A Market Scene . 7. Moji, Station of the German East Africa Com PANY ........ 8. Mareale, Chief of Marangu .... 9. Marangu, Native Homestead .... 10. Upper Limit of the Primeval Forest (9500 feet) with Specimens of Senecio Johnstoni ... 11. KiBO from the South-East. View from Camp on the Saddle Plateau (14,200 feet) 12. The Kibo Crater ...... 13. Mawenzi from the South-West. View from Camp on the Saddle Plateau (14,200 feet) 14. Mawenzi from the North- West. View from the Saddle Plateau (14,400 feet) .... 15. Kibo from the East. View from the Mawenzi Camp (14,300 feet) ....... 16. Lake Jipe and the Mountains of Ugwexo 17. The Papyrus Swamp of the Rufu 18. Majame — Banana Plantation .... 19. Kilimanjaro from the South -We.st. View from Majame (4630 feet) ..... 20. Wilderness op Taita — Tree Euphorbias . 21. Camp near Mom baza ...... Frontispiece facing page 33 45 55 62 87 94 108 114 141 155 165 175 183 218 226 248 253 271 288 ILLUSTRATIONS. I, 2. 3 4- 5- 6. 7- 8. 9- lO. 1 1. 12. 13- 3 4. 15- 1 6. 17- 1 8. 19. ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. Galleox of the Middle Ages . Kaiser Wilhelm's Peak . BoRASsus Palm ..... Street Scene at Mombaza Swahili Porters .... Camp-Scene — -Wa-taita Selling Food Jagga Warriors .... Jagga Sheep and Goats Climbing Tackle .... The Lower End of the Ratzel Glacier Typical Plants from the Upper PiEgions of Kilimanjaro Camp at the Foot of Mawenzi Baboons among the Branches of a DCm Palm Bridge Across the PtivER Dehu Jneophron Vultures . A Herd of Elephants Lion and Kudu Antelope Leaving Mombaza — An Arab Dhow Surveyor's Instruments PAGE I 20 21 43 44 83 84 121 122 161 162 194 195 230 231 262 263 294 295 MAPS. I. General Map of Dr. Hans Meyer's Journeys to Kilimanjaro, 1887, 1888, and 1889 . . . facinrj page i II. A Map of Kilimanjaro and the Surrounding Country ........ at end III. An Enlarged Map of the Upper Regions of Kili- manjaro ........ facing page 122 ,\Jk 1 / /" -'^■-«».m KILIMAWJAÄO <-*' 'AT ^^ H. Mpvcrs ILdu. L- Rruifi-s of other Bxplo: L GENERAL MAP 1)^ BANS MEYEH.S JOURNEYS TQ THE KILIMANJARO, 1887, 1888 & 1883. Scale 1: 1500 000. G-. Philip &/ Son, London. ACEOSS EAST AFRICAN GLACIERS. INTRODUCTORY. KILIMANJARO IN THE PAST. In the whole history of African travel and dis- covery there is no more interesting chapter than that which deals with the exploration of Mount Kilimanjaro, the story of which we have briefly endeavoured to sketch in the following pages. At a very early date we find the classical geo- graphers intent on pene- trating the mystery which enshrouded the equatorial regions of inner Africa and the undiscovered sources of the Nile ; and by the time of Ptolemy they had got the length of placing the fountains of the great river some distance south of the equator, among the streams and lakes of the mysterious snow-clad Mountains of the Moon. GALLEON OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 2 INTRODUCTORY. And here arises the interesting problem, AYhat are the modern representatives of those lakes and mountains of the ancient cartographers, with Ptolemy at their head ? If we follow the more generally accepted opinion, we must either, with Dr. Beke, look upon the snow-clad moun- tain masses of Kenia and Kilimanjaro as the true representa- tives of Ptolemy's Lunar Mountains, or we must seek them farther in the interior, identifying the Victoria, Albert, and Albert Edward Nyanzas with the lakes of the ancients and of their successors the Arabs, and accept Stanley's Ruwenzori as the mountain whose snows feed the Upper Nile. On the other hand, if we adopt the view entertained by other geographers, and notably by Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, we arrive at another and much more probable result. Up to the time of Ptolemy, as is shown by the map of Eratosthenes, it was believed that the Nile had its origin in a number of lakes in the vicinity of the Indian Ocean, if not indeed in the Indian Ocean itself. The latter absurdity was strongly condemned by Ptolemy, in whose map, as we have already said, the Nile is shown to rise among the so-called INIountains of the Moon, its head-waters combining to form two lakes. It would be interesting to learn in what way Ptolemy came by his information at this early date. His knowledge was certainly not derived from the north, for it is highly improbable that either conqueror or explorer ever advanced from that direction into the distant regions lying beyond the equator. No record of such an achievement has ever reached us, and Ptolemy, who gives such an unsatisfactory delinea- tion of the "island of Meroe," which was easily within reach, cannot be presumed to have possessed a more accurate know- ledge of the Nile far, far to the south of it. Such informa- tion as he had must have reached him from the east coast, THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON. 3 with which commercial relations were maintained from the most ancient times. We cannot, however, assume that this information was based on the reports of persons who had actually visited the interior, for in that case Ptolemy, accord- ing to his wont, would have laid down their itineraries on his map, or described it in one of his introductory books. On the contrary, we may very safely conclude that he had merely the hearsay evidence of coast-traders to go upon. On Ptolemy's map the Nile in Meroe is formed by the junction of three rivers, namely, an unnamed river which flows past Axum ; the Astapus, which rises in Lake Coloe ; and the Nile proper, which is fed by the lakes lying to the south of the equator. Ptolemy knew nothing of the Hawash river, or of the lakes nearer the coast, already referred to by Strabo ; and thus, considering how little the former knew of a region comparatively accessible even in his time, are we justified in assuming that his knowledge of the distant sources of the Nile was more precise ? As resrards Ptolemv's delineation of the course of the Nile, we learn from the anonymous Periplus of the Erythrean Sea that Coloe was an ivory mart only three days distant from the coast-town of Adulis ; that thence to Axum was a five days' journey; that the "Nile" (that is, Ptolemy's Astapus) was crossed beyond ; and that on the farther side of this river were situated the passes [pylce) in modern Samen. Coloe, consequently, instead of lying five hundred miles in the interior, must be sought for close to the coast, and may safely be identified with the Kole of the Abyssinian chroni- clers and the Halai (Kalai) of modern maps. Ptolemy further places the " Catadupi " on that branch of the Nile which flows directly from the south ; but as the Cataracts really occur on what is now known as the Blue Nile, the river which Ptolemy represents as flowing out of 4 INTRODUCTORY. the equatorial lakes must be the Blue, and not the White Nile. We are thus enabled to identify the river which passes Axum with the modern Mareb, whilst the Astapus, rising in Lake Coloe, is the Takaze, and the " Nilus," rising in the traditional distant lakes, is the Blue Nile. Ptolemy's Lake Coloe can be no other than Lake Tana, and was sup- posed by him to give rise to the Takaze (Atbara), just as was believed to be the case by the early Portuguese explorers of Abyssinia. But if it be granted that the Nile of Ptolemy is the Blue Nile, it follows that the Mountains of the Moon are not Ruwenzori, but the mountains of Abyssinia, among whose snows the most easterly branch of the great river has its origin. It has likewise been attempted to connect the " Mountains of the Moon" with Unyamwezi, supposed to mean "Land of the Moon." There is, however, no justification for this, as *' Unyamwezi " has probably no connection whatever with the word "mzresi" (moon), but, through its first root-syl- lable nyani, is rather related to such terms as Unyamyemhe, Unyamhiingu, Unyariibetva, U^iyamivenda, &c. According to the rules of the Bantu languages, the " Land of the Moon " would be U-mwezi. The Arab geographers faithfully repeated the errors of their great predecessor, Ptolemy. Like him, they placed the lakes of the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon in the heart of Africa, but they added a third lake (Kura or Kawar), close upon the equator, from which flowed not only the Nile proper, but also the "Nile" of Makadosho (Webbi Shabecla) and the "Nile" of Ghana (Niger). That their knowledge even of the regions nearer the coast was of the vaguest is abundantly proved by such statements as that the " Mountains of the Moon " (Jebel el Kuamar) are oppo- site the coast of Serendib (Ceylon) ; and that " the sources FIRST REFERENCE TO KILIMANJARO. 5 of the Sindh (Indus) and of the Nile are in one place." If they ever succeeded in reaching the interior from the east coast — their caravans undoubtedly penetrated from the north to the Niger and Lake Tsad — there is no trace of any such enterprise in their writings. We leave it to the reader to judge, therefore, whether their Lake Kura or Kawar is to be identified with Tana, the Ptolemaic Coloe, or with Lake Tsad. It was not until early in the present century that their caravans first penetrated far into East Central Africa, and returned with trustworthy information regarding the snow-mountains and lakes of the interior. In short, it is not too much to say, judging from the nomenclature of most of the geographers from Ptolemy downwards through the Middle Ages, that the lakes and mountains they described as occupying Equatorial Africa were in reality those of Abyssinia. Of one thing we may oe almost certain, namely, that the ancient "Mountains of the Moon" are not to be identified with any equatorial snow-mountain, whether it be Ruwenzori or Kilimanjaro. The first undoubted reference to the latter occurs in the works of one Fernandez de Encisco, a Spanish writer of the sixteenth century. This traveller had made a voyage to Mombaza, which had been occupied by the Por- tuguese since 1507, and from native caravans he obtained some information regarding the topography of the interior. In his Suma de Geograpkia, published in 15 19, he says that " west of this port (Mombaza) stands the Ethiopian Mount Olympus, which is exceeding high, and beyond it are the Mountains of the Moon, in which are the sources of the Nile " — the latter names plainly a reminiscence of Ptolemy. But Encisco's bald assertion was supported by no confirmation, and in succeeding maps the " Ethiopian Mount Olympus " appears and disappears according to the fancy of the carto- 6 INTRODUCTORY. grapher. It Avas not until the year 1848 that its existence and position were finally established. It was reserved for a German missionary, by name Johann Rebmann, first to set eyes on one of the most wonderful of the many wonders of Africa — the mountain w^hose snows defy the fierceness of the equatorial sun. In the year 1846, along with his colleague, Dr. Krapf, Rebmann landed on the east coast and founded the mission station of Rabai-mpia (New Rabai) on behalf of the Church Missionary Society. The house they erected is still occupied by their successors in the mission-field. Bent on carrying the Gospel inland to the distant region of Jagga, in April 1848 Rebmann started on the first of his memorable series of trips to the interior. On the nth of M'a,y, when still a day's journey from Taveta, he makes the following simple entry in his diary : — " This morning, at ten o'clock, we obtained a clearer view of the mountains of Jagga, the summit of one of which was covered by what looked like a beautiful white cloud. When I inquired as to the dazzling whiteness, the guide merely called it * cold,' and at once I knew it could be neither more nor less than snow. . . . Immediately I understood how to interpret the marvellous tales Dr. Krapf and I had heard at the coast, of a vast mountain of gold and silver in the far interior, the approach to which was guarded by evil spirits." Continuing his way towards the Jagga state, Kilema, Rebmann, every time he raised his eyes, saw " the eternal ice and snow of Kilimanjaro, apparently but a few miles distant, but in reality separated from him by about a couple of days' journey." Content for the time being with this discovery, Reb- mann returned to Rabai in June, but in November of the same year set out again for Jagga. Proceeding through JOURNEYS OF KRAPF AND REBMANN. 7 Kilema to Majame, he "came so close to Kilimanjaro" that at night the grand old head of the snow-capped moun- tain " could be seen gleaming like silver in the bright moonlight," and he thought that the foot of Kibo was " distant only some three or four miles. . . . There are two main peaks," the diaiy goes on to say, " which arise from a common base measuring some twenty-five miles long by as many broad. They are separated by a saddle-shaped depression, running east and west for a distance of about eight or ten miles. The eastern peak is the lower of the two, and is conical in shape. The western and higher presents the appearance of a magnificent dome, and is covered with snow throughout the year, unlike its eastern neighbour, which loses its snowy mantle during the hot season. ... By the Swahili at the coast, the mountain is known as Kilimanjai'o (Mountain of Greatness), but the War. Jagga call it Kibo, from the snow with which it is perpe- tually capped." All Rebmann's observations are correct, with the exception of his estimate of the extent of the mountain, and his interpretation of its name as " Mountain of Great- ness." These errors we shall rectify later on. Returning to Rabai in February 1849, the indefatigable missionary immediately set about preparations for a third and yet more extended journey " into the heart of Africa." Despite the approach of the rainy season, April saw him once more on the road to Jagga, " armed only with an umbrella," and accompanied by a caravan of thirty porters. Following his old route through Kilema and Uru to Majam^, he reached a point, in his opinion, " so close to the snow- line that, supposing no impassable abyss to intervene, I could have reached it in three or four hours." Unfor- tunately, illness and privation compelled him to turn back, but the unfinished work of exploration was taken up by 8 INTRODUCTORY. his colleague, Dr. Krapf, and in some measure successfully accomplished. In November 1849, Krapf organised an expedition to Ukamba, a district lying to the north-east of Kilimanjaro, and on the loth of the month obtained from the mountains of Maungu " a magnificent view of the snow-mountain Kilima- njaro in Jagga, which loomed up from behind the ranges of Ndara and Bura. . . . Even at this distance I could make out that the white substance crowning the summit was cer- tainly snow." On three other occasions, in the course of this journey, Krapf had an opportunity of assuring himself of the reality of the snow-cap, his testimony thus placing the accuracy of Rebmann's reports beyond a doubt. The altitude was estimated at 12,500 feet. This confirmatory evidence notwithstanding, the late Mr. W. Desborough Cooley, a critical geographer of great merit, persistently cast doubts upon the assertions of the two mis- sionaries, and even made unwarrantably fierce attacks upon the worthy men themselves. These attacks, combined with a subsequent passage at arms which he had with Von der Decken, won for this otherwise estimable savant a certain degree of unenviable notoriety. The controversy is here noted because it arose out of the interesting question as to whether snow-clad mountains did or did not exist in Equatorial Africa. According to Cooley, Rebmann's dis- covery was only " a most delightful mental recognition, not supported by the evidence of the senses," while Krapf was characterised as a man of vaulting ambition, whose taste for dealing with mighty problems was not accompanied by that mental acumen without which intellectual activity becomes to its possessor a highly dangerous endowment. Having thus more than hinted that the discoveries of the two simple missionary explorers were of a purely visionary OF VON DER DECKEN AND THORNTON. 9 nature, Cooley and his partisans deemed they had disposed for ever of the snow-mountains of Equatorial Africa. In the course of a few years, however, events were to prove the contrary. In 1 86 1, Baron Von der Decken, who a year earlier had made an unsuccessful attempt to reach Lake Nyassa, travelled as far as Jagga, accompanied by the English geologist Thornton, the former associate of Livingstone. In the month of August, they attempted the ascent of the mountain, but, after three days spent in penetrating the forest zone, they were compelled by stress of weather to turn back at a height of only 8200 feet. Von der Decken, like Rebmann before him, then proceeded to the western side of the mountain, and was favoured with an un- obstructed view of Kibo. " Bathed in a flood of rosy light, the cap that crowns the mountain's noble brow gleamed in the dazzling glory of the setting sun. . . . Beyond appeared the jagged outlines of the eastern peak, which rises abruptly from a gently inclined plain, forming, as it were, a rough, almost horizontal platform. Three thousand feet lower, like the trough between two mighty waves, is the saddle which separates the sister peaks one from the other." On his return to Europe, Von der Decken added his testimony to that of Rebmann, describing Kibo as a "mighty dome, rising to a height of about 20,000 feet, of which the last three thousand are covered with snow." But Von der Decken was not content to rest here. In the following year, along with Dr. Otto Kersten, he paid a second visit to ICilimanjaro, and starting from Moji in the month of December, succeeded in reaching an altitude of 14,000 feet. "During the night it snowed heavily," he says in his account of the expedition, " and next morning the lo INTRODUCTORY. ground lay white all arouud us. Surely the obstinate Cooley will be satisfied now." As the result of observations made on this journey, the height of Kibo, the western peak, was estimated at 18,680 feet, that of Mawenzi at 16,250 feet. On Kibo, the snow- line was stated to be 16,400 feet; water w^as said to cease at 9000 feet; and all vegetation at 12,000 feet. Eemarking on the appearance presented by this peak, Thornton adds that " on the north-east side the rim of the old crater can still be distinguished, but on the south-west, w^hich is considerably lower, it seems to have been destroyed." As regards the geo- logical structure of the mountain, the whole mass was found to consist of lava which had consolidated in the open air. But the "obstinate Cooley" was not yet convinced, and hotly took up the glove thrown down to him. " So the Baron says it snowed during the night," he exclaims. " In December, with the sun standing vertically overhead ! The Baron is to be congratulated on the opportuneness of the storm. But it is easier to believe in the misrepresentations of man than in such an unheard-of eccentricity on the part of Nature. This description of a snowstorm at the equator during the hottest season of the year, and at an elevation of only 13,000 feet, is too obviously a ' traveller's tale,' invented to support Krapf's marvellous story of a mountain 12,500 feet high covered with perpetual snow." This fierce onslaught did harm to no one but Cooley himself, and it hardly required Barth' s warm defence to secure to Yon der Decken and his companion the recogni- tion they so richly deserved at the hands of geographical students. As a mark of its appreciation of his valuable ser- vices, the Eoyal Geographical Society of London presented the enterprising explorer with its much-coveted gold medal. To the results of Von der Decken s explorations, as OF NE W A ND B U SHELL . 1 1 recorded by Dr. Kersten, no material addition was made by later travellers till the Kilimanjaro region was visited by Mr. Joseph Thomson in 1883. Even Von der Decken's map remained practically unaltered until my own recent journey to the same district enabled me to supply a number of details. A period of nine years elapsed before the work of explora- tion was resumed in the region. Then, in 1871, the mission- .a ries Charles New and R. Bushell penetr ated as far~as Moji, the former also attempting the ascent ol the summit: — ¥he season was unfavourable, and he was compelled to turn back, but a second attempt in August of the same year proved more successful. Making for the south-east of Kibo, where the ice-cap stretches down almost to the base of the cone. New crossed the snow-line, and so won for himself the dis- tinction of being the first European to reach the equatorial snows. So far as can be made out from his somewhat vague description, the height he attained was a little over 13,000 feet. Perhaps the most interesting , result of the expedition was the discovery that between the base of the mountain and the snow-line the vegetation is naturally divided into six distinct zones. On his return journey, New discovered the beautiful little crater lake of Jala, lying at the foot of Kilimanjaro, on its south-eastern side. Carried away with the enthusiasm born of these successes, and charmed with the wonderful beauty of Jagga, he returned two years later to the scene of his former labours, but was stripped of all he possessed by Mandara, the rapacious chief of Moji, from whom he was glad to escape with his life. Utterly broken down in health and spirits, he liastened to quit Jagga, but died on his road to the coast. This tragic termination to New's promising career seems for a time to have frightened Europeans from the region, and another ten years elapsed before Dr. G. A. Fischer, in 12 INTRODUCTORY. the course of his expedition to Lake Naivasha in 1883, passed to the south of the mountain and visited its giant neighbour Mount Meru, and the adjacent range of Arusha. In the same year Kihmanjaro itself was visited by the young Scottish geologist, Mr. Joseph Thomson, who was then on his way to the Masai country, having already won his spurs among the knight-errantry of Africa, first as companion and afterwards as successor to Keith Johnston in the expedition to Lake Nyassa in 1878. Starting from Moji, the kingdom of "the notorious thief" Mandara, Thomson was unable to do more than penetrate the forest region to a height of about 9000 feet ; but in an excursion to the district of Shira, and subsequently, while pursuing his route towards Masai Land, he covered much new ground, and gathered the materials for a clear and comprehensive account of the probable origin and main geo- logical and geographical features of the mighty volcanic mass. Thomson was the first to give us any information regarding the northern aspect of the mountain, which he describes as " a solitude, owing to its extremely precipitous nature," with "no projecting platforms and no streams;" and his sketch of its physical histoiy — of Mawenzi as the original seat of eruption, the subsequent upheaval of Kibo during a later phase of volcanic activity, and the formation of the nume- rous parasitic cones and of the terrace of Jagga as the final manifestation of a gradually decaying volcanic energy — was a yet more important contribution to scientific knowledge. As much can scarcely be said of Thomson's successor in the field, INJr. H. TL Johnston. Sent out by the British Association and the Koyal Geographical Society for the im- mediate purpose of making a more exhaustive survey than had yet been possible of the flora and fauna of the region, Johnston, who had already distinguished himself on the OF MR. H. H. JOHNSTON. 13 Congo, made a stay of some sixmontljs in Jagga and the neighbourhood ; and though the extent and varrety-of-his collections did_ not g uite correspond to the length of time he spent in making them,- Jii s visit -furnishe d him w ith the Q materials for a very charming book^f travels, full ofclever sketches and equally delightful word -pictures of man and Nature. Unfortunately these are in many instances over- drawn. In describing the difficulties and dangers he en- countered, the fights among the natives, and many other details, Mr. Johnston's facile pen has been completely at the mercy of his ardent imagination. His_account of the com- mercial prospects of this region is full of exaggeration ; whilst his map scarcely presents a single novel feature. During the month of October, Johnston on two occasions attempted the ascent of the summit. On the first, starting from Moji, he penetrated the forest region to a height of 8600 feet. Here, in the beginning of the hot season, he tells us that in the evening " a white rime settled on the grass." The approach of a body of hostile natives prevented him from going farther. On the second occasion he started from the Jagga state of Marangu, respecting the harmless chief of which, Mareale, and his yet more harmless mother, he treats us to a variety of startling legends. His route was the same as that which I myself followed several times later on, and reaching the upper limit of the forest zone, he formed a camp, at an alti- tude of nearly 10,000 feet, from which to pursue his explora- tions. From this point he made an excursion to the base of Mawenzi, covering the distance in a single day — a feat I cannot but consider herculean, seeing it took us double the time to traverse the same ground. Dismissing Mawenzi with the remark that he doubts "if it be possible for any one to reach the summit, owing 14 INTRODUCTORY. to the want of foothold," Johnston next turned his attention to Kibo. Starting from his camp, as before, after an " easy climb " of four hours and a half, he and his three attendants reached an elevation of 14,117 feet, and stopped to lunch at a spot a few hundred feet below the base of the small peak which rises midway from the edge of the plateau above. Climb- ing upwards by himself for about a thousand feet more, he reached the peak itself, and was now " on the central connect- ing ridge of Kilimanjaro, and could see a little on both sides." I must confess I do not understand this description. In ascending from Johnston's camping-ground the view is entirely blocked by the southern edge of the plateau between Kibo and Mawenzi, and no outlook is possible over the country behind. Its comparatively even line is broken only by the tiny peak referred to above, which we, as well as Johnston, found such a useful landmark. But this peak does not lie " at an elevation of 15,150 on the central connecting ridge ; " it occurs at an altitude of only 13,780 feet, and the ground gradually rises from its base to the highest point of the saddle, which lies a considerable distance behind. Any view of the surrounding country " on both sides" is thus impossible. From this point, however, which is described as "nearly as high as the summit of Mont Blanc," Johnston made his way along a naiTow ridge, till by degrees he was completely over- come by the feeling of " overwhelming isolation," and was obliged to have recourse to " some brandy and water from his flask " in order to restore his sinking courage. By this time it was four o'clock in the afternoon, and having ascer- tained that, according to his calculation, the altitude was 16,315 feet, he made his way back again as fast as he could to the peak on the edge of the saddle, which he ultimately reached " in the waning daylight." Again I fail to apprehend the drift of Mr. Johnston's ESTABLISHMENT OF FIRST MISSION STATION. 15 narrative. If he only stopped for half an hour to lunch at the peak in question, it must have been two o'clock when he started off to continue the climb by himself; and from the distance he had to traverse, it would be utterly impossible for him to get beyond the base of Kibo by four. For the first time, however, we begin to understand his remark that Kilimanjaro is "a mountain that can be climbed without even the aid of a walking-stick." He never reached a point at which a w^alking-stick would be necessary, let alone an altitude of 16,315 feet, and his mountaineering feats did not exceed those of the missionary New. Towards the end of 1884 Johnston returned to England. Carried away by his glowing descriptions, the Church Mission- ary Society immediately resolved to found a mission station in Moji, and for this purpose sent out Bishop Hannington to visit the Jagga district. March of 1885 saw Hannington in the^new field of missionary enterprise, where, in addition to his other work, he found time to make a most interesting botanical collection, which included several species of moss and lichen not observed by former travellers, and of great importance in relation to the geographical distribution of Alpine plants. (See Appendix.) Hannington was followed by a number of brother missionaries, whose efforts on behalf of the temporal interests of Britain, while nominally looking after the spiritual affairs of their flock, were rudely interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Jühlke and Lieutenant Weiss. These emissaries of the German East African Company concluded a treaty with Mandara, whereby he agreed to recognise the suzerainty of the Company^,,iil4hou§lv-sliürtly befoi'^, he had concluded a slmiTärTi^eat}' with General Matthews,* acting on behalf of the Sultan of Zanzibar. The final outcome of this agreement has been to hand over Kilimanjaro to Germany. * An English officer, commander-in-cliief of the Sultan's army. — Tr. i6 INTRODUCTORY. To the Avritings of Thomson and Johnstoiiwe_may_jil_so trace the sudden irruption of English and American sport- ing caravans which has recently taken place in the district. On the whole, these pleasure parties have not come and gone without adding their quota to the scientific knowledge of the region ; notably the expedition under Willoughby and Harvey, who during the years 1886-87 made many excur- sions to different parts of the mountain, ascended as far as the saddle plateau, and returned with a valuable collec- tion of zoological specimens. Their wholesale slaughter of the game, however, in the endeavour to swell the record of "big bags," cannot be too severely criticised. Other sports- men have striven to emulate their achievements in this respect ; and if things are to continue as they have begun, it needs no seer to prophesy the ultimate result. The rich preserves of East Africa will share the fate of the vast hunting- grounds of South Africa and North America, and in the not far distant future will utterly cease to exist. For the most important contribution to our knowledge of Kilimanjaro since the time of Von der Decken, we have to thank the Hungarian expedition under Count Teleki and Lieutenant Höhnel. Having broken much new ground towards the plains of Kahe and the neighbourhood surround- ing Mount Meru, Teleki followed Johnston's route to the saddle plateau, and was the first seriously to attempt the ascent of Kibo, which he climbed to a height of 15,800 feet. His companion at the same time took a series of valuable observations for bearings and altitudes, and drew up a map which includes the northern side of the mountain — a district visited by the expedition at a later date. In August 1887, when on my way to Kilimanjaro for the first time, I met Teleki and Höhnel at Taveta. They were then on the way to Masai Land, and, following their advice, along with my com- STATION OF GERMAN EAST AFRICAN COMPANY. 17 panion, Herr von Eberstein, I made for the saddle plateau by way of Marangu, whence I succeeded in ascending Kibo to a height of about 18,000 feet. Here further progress was checked by the precipitous face of the ice-cap, and we were compelled to turn back. For farther particulars of this attempt I refer my readers to the preface. On our return to Taveta, we met the expedition of the German East African Company, which afterwards founded a station in Moji and another in Lower Arusha, besides doing some good work in exploring the southern plains. The district was next visited by a number of Englishmen, in the wake of whom came the American naturalist Dr. Abbott. During a stay of a year and a half, Dr. Abbott thoroughly explored the whole of Jagga, and the flanks of the mountain as far as the saddle plateau, making most valu- able additions to our knowledge of its flora and fauna. In the autumn of 1888, while I was travelling with Dr. Baumann in Usambara, Abbott resolved to attempt the ascent of Kibo in company with Herr Otto Ehlers, the representative of the German East African Company in Moji. Ehlers' narrative of the expedition is worth repeating. Pitching their camp at an altitude of 9800 feet, Ehlers set off by himself for Mawenzi, and, according to his own account, reached a height of 16,400 feet, doing the distance there and back in a single forenoon ! The camp was then shifted farther west to a spot nearer the foot of Kibo, at a height of 14,450 feet. Early next morning Abbott and Ehlers started together to ascend the peak on its northern side, and by seven o'clock had reached an altitude of 17,000 feet, when Abbott was suddenly seized with illness and could go no farther. Ehlers kept on by himself, and, to quote his article in Petermann's Mitteilungen, had "to make his way partly over sheets of sand and ashes, partly over beds 1 8 INTRODUCTORY. of volcanic debris, the difficulty of climbing being greatly enhanced by the newly-fallen snow, among which he fre- quently slid backwards several feet at a time." At a height of 18,000 feet he let his alpenstock fall into a chasm, and lost half an hour " sliding and crawling after it on all fours to a depth of 200 feet." Nevertheless, " after frequent pauses," he reached " the wall of ice which encircles the entire summit" shortly before ten o'clock. Here he spent some time in a vain search for a possible way of access to the highest point, but was eventually forced to retrace his steps and seek an opening farther to the west. At last, *' after a painful climb," he " succeeded in reaching the north-western side of the ' summit ' (sic), and gained a tolerably extensive view of the surroundings. There was no trace of a crater, and the ice formed a series of gentle undula- tions covered with a layer of newly-fallen snow." The altitude attained " could not have been less than 19,680 feet." Ehlers' preposterous narrative was severely criticised by Dr. Baumann in the Mitteilungen of the German and Aus- trian Alpine Club. The paper called forth a reply from Ehlers, in the course of which he expressed himself more clearly, to the effect that, when he used the words " there was no trace of a crater," he ought to have said " of an open crater," believing, as he did, that the mouth of the crater was concealed and closed by the superimposed masses of ice and snow. Ehlers then went on to explain that on the southern rim, at a distance of about a mile and a half, he observed a point which he took to be about 200 feet higher than that at which he stood, but was prevented from trying to reach it by the approach of clouds. But the controversy was not permitted to end here. In the following year, fresh from a series of observations on the THE EHLERS CONTROVERSY. 19 northern flank of Kibo, Herr Ludwig Purtscheller, afterwards my companion in 1889, felt constrained to add his protest to that of Baumann. " According to Dr. Abbott's account," says Purtscheller, "he and Ehlers left their camp on the plateau shortly before seven o'clock. By this hour, according to Ehlers, they had already reached an altitude of 1 7,000 feet. How these statements are to be reconciled with the fact that the camp lay at an altitude of only 14,430 feet, is a problem impossible to solve. Towards eight o'clock Dr. Abbott was compelled to give in on account of illness, and Ehlers went on alone, but, strange to say, both travellers were back in camp by two in the afternoon. Now, the height of Kibo on the north and north-west side is about 19,350 feet ; and even had there been no newly-fallen snow to make the ascent more laborious, it would be impossible for Ehlers or any one else to reach the summit in seven hours. On the other hand, if Ehlers mistook the eastern for the northern aspect of the peak, in view of the difficulties presented by the rents and cracks in the ice-sheet at this point, the climb must have occupied him at least twelve hours. . . . Bearing these facts in mind, we can very well believe that Herr Ehlers saw no trace of a crater." But before this article came under Ehlers' notice, he had written from East Africa to the Kölnische Zeittmg, admitting that his first report had been misleading, and that in fact he had been mistaken in supposing he had reached the summit. Ehlers has done next to nothing to augment our scien- tific knowledge of the Kilimanjaro region, but his humorous sketches of Jagga life and manners are very readable, and he has helped to foster the colonial spirit by bringing home with him several natives of Jagga for exhibition in Germany. Since Ehlers returned the Kilimanjaro states have been visited by a number of missionaries and sportsmen, of whom perhaps 20 INTRODUCTORY. the most noteworthy is the young American, Mr, Chanler, who, proceeding to the region merely for the purpose of sport, has, nevertheless, distinguished himself by a thorough exploration of the lower slopes of the mountain. During the last decade Kilimanjaro has been visited for various objects by no fewer than forty-nine Europeans. My own expedition of 1889 is the most recent, and what was accomplished in the course of it may be gathered from the following pages. '«•=?^: CHAPTER I. TO THE SWAHILI COAST. The art of travel, like eveiy other art, ■// C^^:^: is only to be acquired by practice. In the choice of equipments especially — on the suitability of which so much depends — experience is the best, if not the only teacher. Nowadays, when all the world is on the move, and all sorts of travel- ling requisites are at the traveller's command, the difficulty is not so much to know what to take as what to omit, and beginners are far more likely to err in taking too much than in taking too little. For my own part, after three different trips to the interior of Africa, I should lay it down as a general rule that the various patent gravelling effects so temptingly dis- played and be-praised in our European warehouses, are one and all to be avoided. The collapsible tent furni- ture, lamps, and lanterns, the india-rubber air-beds and pillows of the advertisements, however convenient and useful in A B0RASSU3 PALM. 22 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. countries where they can easily be repaired when necessary, are worse than useless in regions remote from civilisation. The simplest mechanism, the most careful workmanship, the best materials, — these are the great considerations in the selection of an explorer's outfit, and accordingly, in most cases, the dearest proves the cheapest in the end. Unfortunately, if we keep these three considerations always in view, it is not possible to "furnish throughout" in Ger- many. In certain articles — scientific instruments and arms, for instance — the preference is to be given to those of Ger- man make ; but in others the foreigner excels us, and more especially the English, whose large colonial experience, and intimate acquaintance with everything that may be included under the term " sport," best enable them to meet the tra- veller's peculiar wants. It may not be amiss if I here devote one or two pages to a few hints on the above subject. And first, as regards clothing. It is a vexed question, which it seems to me every one must decide for himself, whether woollen, silk, or cotton underclothing is the best for warm climates. For my own part, after trying all, I declare in favour of cotton, and particularly of knitted cotton, which has these advan- tages over the others : — it does not shrink in consequence either of perspiration or frequent washing ; it absorbs the moisture from the skin and allows it to evaporate with equal ease ; it may be thoroughly cleansed either wath cold or warm water ; and it is of all the most durable. For the march, I should recommend, in addition, an ordinary pair of trousers, such as are made in Zanzibar at a very moderate figure, of a strong tan-coloured cotton material. A jacket of the same is useful for wearing in camp or in cool weather. Thick w^oollen socks are the most comfortable for walk- AN EXPLORER'S OUTFIT. 23 ing, and strong hob-nailed lacing boots, that come up well over the ankle. A pair of strong leather slippers, cut not too low in front, is indispensable for camp wear, or in case of accident to the foot. The best head-gear for all weathers is an English sun- helmet, such as are supplied by Messrs. Silver & Co., London ; while a soft fez or smoking-cap should be kept for wearing in the shade — one with flaps for drawing down over the ears on a cold night to be preferred. The tent and camp bedstead come next. These are to be had of such excellent quality from Mr. Benjamin Edgington, London, that nothing better can be desired. Edgiugton's double-roof ridge tent of specially prepared green rot-proof canvas, with ash poles and an outer fly, and Edgiugton's portable camp bedstead with ash supports and a thin cork mattress, have been used by Stanley, Wiss- mann, Francois, Kund, Johnston, and others with as much satisfaction as by myself. With a horsehair pillow, a Como rug for warm nights, and thick camel's-hair blankets for cold ones, the bedstead is complete. Excellent folding tables and chairs, of simple construc- tion, are furnished by Messrs. Silver & Co. Strong tin boxes, of a size and shape suitable for transport by porters, can best be obtained from F. A. Schulze, Fehrbelliner Strasse, Berlin, who has recently produced a most satisfac- tory article from my own design. At the same place may be had strong square lamps for tent use, and galvanised iron oil-cans and water-buckets. The bucket should be large enough to contain all the table and cooking utensils — which, of course, are best made of enamelled iron — the whole being enclosed by a strong lid. It is important that the canteen should be thus capable of being packed in the water-bucket, otherwise, in the hurry of striking camp in the early morn- 24 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. ing, things have a mysterious way of getting '* lost," through the carelessness of the cook or the wilful oversight of the lazy porter. The most satisfactory medicine-chest is that supplied at the Berlin Simons- Apotheke, prepared according to Dr. Falken- stein's directions for travellers in the tropics. The best plan is to have the medicines put up in doses in the form of lozenges, and the whole enclosed in a strong tin box, as a protection against breakage and damp. Arms for the soldiers, and indeed for Europeans in general, have repeatedly been supplied by Immanuel Messert of Suhl. In this department the traveller may be left pretty much to indulge his own fancy ; it is much more important that he should be a good shot, and that his rifle should be good of its kind, than that he should confine himself to a weapon of a particular calibre. There are, however, certain limitations imposed by the conditions of African sport, the size and shyness of the game, the distance at which one is some- times compelled to take aim, and so forth. In common with other travellers, I have arrived at the conclusion that two guns only are necessary to meet every emergency — a .450 or .500 Express (a double-barrelled Lancaster or single- barrelled Mauser*), which may be used for all game, from a rhinoceros to an antelope; and a double-barrelled 12-bore fowling-piece, which with small shot. No. 5 (swan-shot), will bring down wild-fowl ; with buckshot, gazelles and leopards. In case of attack by natives, large shot is always the best ; and it is also advisable to carry a revolver to use at close quarters. Any one intending to visit the remote districts in which elephants are still to be met with, may take in addition a short double-barrelled 8-bore ; but this heavy weapon is not necessary, as the .500 Express serves the * The Austrian regulation weapon, so-called from its inventor. — Tr. SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. 25 purpose almost equally well. For my own part, I never found it necessary to use my elephant- gun. For ornithological collectors a small fowling-piece is indis- pensable. Contrary to my custom on former expeditions, instead of taking empty cartridges, I this time carried a large quantity ready filled. The objection urged against carrying loaded cartridges is that they are apt to explode in transit. This danger, however, is entirely obviated by the present method of packing. On the other hand, the labour of filling the cartridges is so irksome to the sportsman, that a very little of it almost suffices to give him a distaste to sport altogether, not to speak of the risk he constantly runs of being taken completely at a disadvantage. I therefore strongly recom- mend that loaded cartridges only should be taken, those with brass cases being most suitable, as the paper ones are liable to be spoiled by damp and constant handling. When the expedition has been organised with a view to scientific purposes, the following instruments may be taken in addition to the articles already named — For determining latitudes, the small compendious, portable theodolite of Hildebrand & Schramm of Freiburg, in Saxony, is quite sufficient. Its vertical circle is graduated for direct readings of thirty seconds, and for calculated readings of fifteen seconds, and the instrument is perfectly adapted to the high meridian altitude of a tropical sun. The pocket chrono- meters of Lange & Sons of Glashütte, near Dresden, are sufficient for making fairly approximate determinations of longitudes, while one of Reis's collapsible measuring rods affords perhaps the most reliable means for the measurement of a base, and the determination of relative heights and distances. Heights may be absolutely determined by means of the 26 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. barometer ; but, as no convenient portable form of the mer- curial barometer has yet been invented, the traveller is forced to fall back on the aneroid, controlled by the boiling-point thermometer. On my expedition to the mountains of Usam- bara in 1888, I managed to carry a mercurial barometer with me all the Avay, but it was more a source of worry than anything else, and in the end it got hopelessly out of order. Instruments that require delicate manipulation are quite unsuitable for roughing it in the wilds of Africa, and the aneroid and boiling - point thermometer answer very well for all practical purposes. My aneroid I got from Bohne of Berlin, and my thermometer from Fuess in the same city. Fuess also supplied me with the indispensable sling thermometer, my Psychrometer, and my self-registering ther- mometer. From Messrs. Cassella of London I obtained my large compasses, which fitted into the top of a pole that served as a stand ; and E. Schneider of Vienna furnished me with smaller compasses, attached to square metal plates. These latter I used on the march. From Stegemann of Berlin I obtained a capital photographic apparatus, which did me good service. It was fitted with all the appliances for photographing groups and scenery, and with Monkhoven's dry plates, which are the best for tropical climates. My scientific equipments w-ere completed by the special appliances necessary for making zoological, botanical, and geological collections, with the needful maps and books. In addition, there were all the requirements for our pro- spective sojourn among the equatorial snows — thick warm clothing, Alpine boots, knapsacks, glacier ropes, ice-axes, snow-spectacles, &c., all of which were obtained in Munich, except a small tent from Edgington's, and two sheepskin sleeping- sacks from Leipzig. Our preparations, which of course included a thousand A TRAVELLING COMPANION. 27 details it is impossible to enumerate here, occupied tliree months. Meanwhile, armed with letters of introduction from the Foreign Office, I put myself in communication with the British East African Company with a view to obtaining their permission to use the shortest road to Kilimanjaro, namely, that from Mombaza through the British sphere of interest. In London I was most kindly received. On being assured that the objects of the expedition were scientific, not political, and that I would do nothing prejudicial to British interests within the British sphere of influence, the Imperial British East African Company furnished me wdth letters of introduction to their agents, instructing them to further my interests by eveiy means in their power. One point, and that perhaps the most important, still remained to be settled — the choice of a travelling companion. From former experience I had learned that it was useless to dream of the ascent of Kilimanjaro, and a prolonged stay above the snow-line, without the aid of a companion familiar with mountaineering. Volunteers in abundance had come forward to offer their services, but none so far had seemed to meet all the requirements of the case. The choice of a travelling companion for the interior of Africa is a weighty matter at any time. The relationship is so intimate and so constant, there is such close community of interests and experiences, that either there must be the most perfect agree- ment in tastes and habits of mind between the two comrades, or the one must be in complete subordination to the other. In the present instance, the difficulty was enhanced by the fact that a thorough knowledge of Alpine climbing was an indis- pensable requisite. I had communicated with several Tyrolese and Swiss guides, but without being able to come to a decision, and was just on the point of making inquiries in other direc- tions, when I unexpectedly received a letter which at once 28 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. settled the question. Herr Ludwig Purtscheller of Salzburg, a teacher of gymnastics, and the associate during many expeditions of the two Zigmondys, wrote saying that there was nothing he would like better than to be permitted to join me in my enterprise. He was the very man I wanted, and I agreed to his proposal with an alacrity I never had cause to regret. Meanwhile my goods had been packed and shipped at Bremen for Zanzibar, and the end of June saw Herr Purt- scheller and myself in the train for Genoa via the St. Gothard. In Genoa, for the fifth time, I took up my quarters in that most charming of hotels, the Plotel du Pare, pending the departure of our steamer. But we were not permitted to quit the peaceful soil of Europe without an unpleasant reminder of the war then raging in our promised land. The East African blockade still continued, and the importation of arms and ammunition was strictly forbidden. I received a telegram from Bremen saying that the Lloyd had been obliged to leave my boxes of am- munition behind, as they could not take through packages for Zanzibar. I at once gave orders that the boxes should be sent on to Aden by the next steamer, which left a fort- night later, though I was much concerned to think I should not be able personally to see them stowed on board some French or English vessel, my engagements making it im- possible for me to delay at Aden so long. An easy way out of the difficulty would have been to get the Govern- ment to take my arms on board a man-of-war; but such an exceptional favour seemed too great for a simple traveller to expect, who was not going out in any official capacity, but merely to explore the German Protectorate on his own account and at his own expense. But our spirits were not to be damped by the thought of VOYAGE TO ADEN. 29 difRculties, and our surroundings on board the North German Lloyd Company's steamer Preussen were too pleasant to allow us to dwell very long on the darker side of things. I had already made the voyage from Genoa to Aden on board the Preussen in the spring of 18S8, and the year that had since elapsed had certainly not in any way detracted from the beauty and comfort of her arrangements. Some little inconvenience was caused by the presence on board of a large body of sailors and marines going out to relieve our troops on the German corvette Carola. But a set of better-behaved young fellows could not have been met with anywhere, and I experienced quite a thrill of patriotic pride when I saw how, in the Red Sea, with the thermometer at 94° F. in the shade, drill was gone through every day as usual, as if they were still in the cool climate of Kiel or Wilhelmshaven. In the second-class and steerage was a strange mixture of odd characters, including a number of young men going out to try their luck in East Africa from mere love of adventure, and with the most incredibly absurd notions of the country and its inhabitants. For the most part, they were not long in finding their way home again. In the hold were thousands of rounds of shell and shrapnel, but alas ! not my ammunition. We reached the barren, rocky coast of Aden within the specified time — five days. Three days later we were to catch the steamer of the Messageries Maritimes, which would convey us direct to Zanzibar. I always dislike Aden, that broiling, waterless eyrie among the rocks, with its atmosphere of coal-dust and English ennui; and this time nothing occurred to give me a better impression of it. Quite the contrary. The Preussen had just steamed off in the direction of Colombo, when Lloyd's agent came to inform me that a quantity of Zanzibar cargo had by accident been left in the 30 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. hold, and among the rest our tents and bedsteads — in fact, nearly all onr furniture. I telegraphed for them to be sent back ; but five weeks was the shortest period in which they could reach Zanzibar. No arms and no tents ! It was a bad beginning ; but I knew that in case of necessity I should be able to replace a good many things in Zanzibar, and I therefore set about the main business of my stay in Aden, the procuring of eight Somal soldiers to accompany me. In this I met with better success. On my way to Europe in the winter of 1888, I had commissioned my two faithful Somal, Ali and Ahmed, to hold themselves in readiness with six trustworthy comrades, for a new expedition in the following summer. I had no sooner begun to make inquiries than I found Ahmed with half a dozen of his fellow-countrymen all ready to start. Ali meanwhile, grown weary of waiting for me, had joined another party only a week or two before. It is advisable to have a number of Somal in every caravan, a judicious admixture of the foreign element being necessary to maintain discipline. The Somdl, in their iso- lated position as foreigners, do not as a rule make common cause with the main body of the Swahili porters, but, recog- nising that their welfare depends on that of their leader, they make his interests their own. In other respects also they best fulfil the requirements of the situation, for they are distinguished by high courage, and their long and continued intercourse with the English has given them a certain familiarity with European ways, not to be found among other East African races. In spite of many predictions to the contrary, I have found the Somal the best personal ser- vants, the best soldiers, and the best headmen of any. They must, of course, be treated with due consideration ; allow- ance must be made for their peculiarities of race, custom, THE PASSENGERS. 31 and education ; and this is an art of which every one has not the knack. In one respect, the Bantu negroes have the advantage of the Somdl : they stand the tropical climate better ; but what the latter lack in physique they make up for a hundred times by their superior characteristics in other respects. The agreement with my men having been signed at the German Consulate, we rowed out to the French steamer, and were soon tossing on the Indian Ocean before the July monsoon. The aspect of things on board the Mendoza was highly remarkable. The prevailing German colonial char- acter of the company was even more marked than on board the Preussen. Among the passengers Germans were largely in the majority. There were young clerks and merchants returning from sick-leave in Europe ; officers of the native regiments, some going out for the first time, others returning from furlough ; officials of the East African and other Com- panies ; red-cross volunteers for the troops, conspicuous every- where with their badges on their arms ; a small number of mechanics anxious to try their fortune in Zanzibar ; and last, but not least, two Sisters of Mercy for the Zanzibar hospital. What interchanges of good feeling and good-fellowship there were ! What endless fine sentiments and fine speeches ; and — what boundless ignorance of all things African ! The wrong which has been committed in the best inte- rests of the colony by our early East African colonising agents is no small one. Partly carried away by their tendency to idealise, partly for the deliberate purpose of gaining a fol- lowing and raising funds for colonial enterprise, many of them have published the grossest misrepresentations of the new colony ; and it will take much earnest work and cost many bitter experiences before men can be brought to their senses again, not only in East Africa, but in Europe. W^e 32 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. have yet to learn the golden mean between extreme optimism on the one hand and extreme pessimism on the other. We must teach ourselves to view our new possessions without the aid of coloured spectacles, to see the country as it really is, to distinguish between what is good and Avhat is bad, and, putting the imaginary and the impossible on one side, set ourselves steadily to utilise and turn to good account what there is of real, sterling value. After a six days' run we found ourselves off the palm- fringed coast of the island of Pemba. Early next morning we came in sight of what looked like a gigantic dash followed by a point of exclamation — the island of Zanzibar with its lighthouse at the north-west point. In a few seconds the mail-flag fluttered gaily at the masthead, the signal, as we could see through our glasses, being passed on from the lighthouse to the still unseen town, where the hoisting of a flag on the Sultan's tower intimates to the inhabitants the approach of the eagerly expected European mail. For three hours we steam along the low-lying coast, only a few hundred yards from the dark palm-groves, among which nestle count- less native huts and villages, with here and there the more imposing front of a square Arab house. The cuiTent in the Straits is against us, but the sea is smooth as glass. During the last few days, as we have gi'adually approached the equator, the mighty monsoon waves of the Indian Ocean have sunk and dwindled, and the fresh, free sea-breeze has fallen away. Yesterday it scarcely crisped the surface of the water, and to-day all is smooth and flat and grey, sea and sky alike, in the hot sweltering stillness of the atmosphere of the tropics. Far to the east, faintly shimmer- ing through the haze, may be descried the dim outline of a lofty range of mountains — Africa, the mountains of Usam- bara, scene of my last year's explorations and misfortunes ! I > 1 • ZANZIBAR. ZANZIBAR. 33 On board the steamer all has been bustle and confusion since daybreak. The steam-crane rattles unceasingly as boxes and bales emerge from the hold. The ropes are loosened and the boats cleared ; and, arrayed in the snowy whiteness of full tropical garb, the passengers take up their position on deck, scanning the horizon with their glasses, noting what is familiar with satisfaction, what is new with interest. By and by the masts and hulls of a variety of craft, large and small, begin to dot the surface of the water, and at last, to the left of these, appear points and streaks of dazzling whiteness : it is the town of Zanzibar. High above the surrounding houses rises the quaint tower of the Sultan's palace, while beneath, the roads are crowded with shipping — merchant-vessels and the Sultan's fleet, German, English, Italian, and Portuguese men-of-war, the ungainly telegraph- ship, and a host of smaller craft, conspicuous among which are the curiously-rigged Arab dhows. Everj'thing seems to indicate that we are approaching the most important town in equatorial East Africa. Slowly we make our way towards a large red buoy, to which we are soon made fast by ropes. Immediately we are surrounded by a swarm of small boats, containing an odd medley of nationalities, negro, Indian, and European, the last representing a number of commercial firms and the various consuls. A constant interchange of friendly greetings is kept up, and the ladder has no sooner been let down with a rattle than there is an impatient scramble up the ship's side, and then ensue a hand-shaking and confusion of tongues which beggar all description. My good friend Steifensand, the German Yice-Consul, is one of the first on board, and I am only too glad to accept his invitation to stay with him at the Consulate, 34 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. Avhither he has removed, and is conducting business in the absence of the Consul-General. Half an hour later I am exchanging news with my host in a cool airy room in the commodious Arab building which is his home for the time being. In the evening a pleasant surprise awaited us. AVhile we sat talking, two blacks came to offer their services in my new undertaking. These proved to be the Somiil, Ali, and the Pangani, Mwini Amani, both of whom had been members of my former caravan, and had remained faithful through all the mischances of the disastrous expedition of the year before. I shall have much to say of them here- after. Nine months had elapsed since my last visit to Zanzibar. As a rule, that is an interval scarcely long enough to produce a marked change in the aspect of any town, and more espe- cially of an Oriental town. But within the last few months Zanzibar had experiencd no ordinary vicissitudes. The square whitewashed houses, with their smooth walls, flat roofs, and unglazed windows, were still the same. So, too, were the narrow, shady lanes, full of villainous sights and smells, the piles of ruins, the gigantic rubbish-heaps, and the confusion of mud-built huts constituting the dwellings of the Indian and negro portion of the community. The life in the streets had likewise much the same aspect as of old. The Arab still stalked along with the pride and dignity of one who considers himself the undoubted lord of Africa ; East Indians, their garb proclaiming their several religious persuasions, Mohammedan, Buddhist, or Brahmin, still formed the great proportion of the population after the negroes ; and no change marked the bearing of the portly Parsi, the long-haired Baluchi, or the pale Goanese, with his downcast shifty eyes. CHANGES AT ZANZIBAR. 35 It was among the great mass of the people, among the SwahiU themselves — the men in their long white garments, and the women with their flaunting attire and pert, forward manners — that, within this brief period of less than a year, a change, amounting almost to a revolution, had taken place. In the streets they seemed intentionally bent on making as much noise as possible. They no longer thought of making way for the passing European, or of saluting him with a respectful " Yambo ; " or, if they did, it was in a jeering tone, and, in the case of a German, with some insult- ing remark superadded. "Bagamoyo boom, boom," was a cry in great vogue, the accent with which the imitative phrase was pronounced containing a whole volume of native criticism on the bombardment of Bagamoyo. The old negro air of humility and respect was gone, and had given place to impudence and swagger. The cause of all this was not far to seek. At the begin- ning of the war Zanzibar was overrun with all sorts of bad characters from Europe and elsewhere, whose presence gave rise to continual disturbances, and even fighting. Drunken sailors from the war-ships of the different nations lying off the coast, a host of adventurers desirous of joining the troops under Wissmann, all the rag-tag and bobtail to be found wherever chance seems to promise a short cut to fortune, constantly made night hideous with their shouts of revelry and thoughtless firing of guns. All these had now disappeared, but the effects of their evil example were not so easily effaced, and they were cleverly made capital of by the anti-German faction, to foster among the populace the spirit of ill-will to our countrymen. Serious disturbances were of daily occurrence in one part or other of the town, and every night we expected an organised outbreak under the then Prince and present Sultan, Seyyid Ali, against us and our 36 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. supposed ally, the late Sultan, Seyyid Khalifa. It Avas an anxious time. In pleasing contrast to all this riot and disorder were the evidences of German military discipline and the results of the more kindly hand of charity. The crowd of officials had disappeared, leaving only three or four representatives of the East African Company for the collection of the customs. In the same street as the German Consulate two large houses were occupied by the Government officials and by the officers commanding our native troops, while a third was set apart as a military hospital under the management of the Sisters of Mercy. The old hospital had been considerably enlarged and improved, and was reserved for our sailors and the members of the German colony. In both institutions courage, patience, and good-will were the order of the day — virtues which, it is devoutly to be wished, will one day be extended more widely through the town and neighbourhood. We had arrived in Zanzibar without arms and without tents. Accordingly my first care was to set about trying to supply our wants ; and as, under the conditions of the blockade, all traffic in firearms was strictly prohibited, I was obliged to make application to the commander of the com- bined squadron, Rear-Admiral Fremantle. And here again my letters of introduction from the British Government stood me in good stead. The Admiral, who had thrown consider- able difficulties in the way of Dr. Peters, because of the suspected political nature of his expedition, not only autho- rised me to buy what arms and ammunition I required, and granted me permission to take my caravan through the British Protectorate, but also offered the use of the British gunboat Somali for the conveyance of my men and goods to Mombaza. I went to work with a will, and speedily purchased fifty AN OLD FRIEND. 37 muzzle-loaders for my men, eight light breechloaders for the Somäl, and a couple of double-barrelled rifles for ourselves, along with the necessary ammunition. To my great delight and astonishment, I managed to recover a repeating rifle which I had carried with me to Kilimanjaro in 1887, and again into the interior in 1888. There it was stolen from me when I was made prisoner by Bushiri. Throughout the insurrection, Bushiri, according to trustworthy accounts, continued to use it himself ; but when the Germans stormed his camp at Bagamoyo, the rifle again fell into their hands, and being recognised as mine, was restored to me on my arrival in Zanzibar. I took it with me on this my third expedition, and again it rendered me excellent service. Having ordered a number of tents from a Goanese sail-maker, and concluded an agreement with my old caravan contractor, the well-known Indian, Siwa Haji, for sixty Swahili porters, headmen, &c., I crossed over to Bagamoyo in the small steamer Harmonie, to consult the German Imperial Commissioner on certain important points. On board were a hundred Sudanese troops who had fought for us at Tanga, and were now on their way back to their quarters in Bagamoyo. They belonged to the regiments which had been first levied, and were so badly provided in the matter of uniforms, that, now they had seen some service, they looked decidedly ragged. Their female belongings — short of stature and with faces like the Eskimo — accom- panied them, carrying the camp utensils and their share of the plunder tied up in large bundles. All were remarkably quiet and orderly. A- four hours' passage beneath the blazing sun brought us to the flat sandy shore of Bagamoyo, where I was 38 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. received by my friends Herr von Wissmann and Herr von Zelewski, and later on, in the fort, had the pleasure of shaking hands with Herr von Gravenreuth and Herr Bohn- dorff, the whilom companion of Dr. Junker. Most of the others were strangers to me, but all looked in remarkably good health. When I visited Bagamoyo two years before, it was the most important and populous town on the whole Swahili coast. The roads were crowded with shipping, and the streets thronged with busy wayfarers. Now, a solitary dhow lay at anchor off the shore, and on taking a walk through the town, I saw nothing but the ruins of houses recently shelled, and a few Indians plying their trades in tumbledown booths. The native population had disappeared, their place being taken by a few Wanyamwezi, who, at the beginning of the war, had come to Bagamoyo from the interior with ivoiy. They thereupon placed them- selves under the protection of our troops, and by and by became such warm admirers of military discipline, that whenever they met a European they drew themselves up and saluted. In many places Arab and Wazeguha prisoners worked together in irons. The town had been fortified with trenches and a strong fence of barbed wire, the four open- ings in which were guarded by the so-called " Zulus." The Zulus are Watuta from the regions to the west of Quilimane and Inhambane ; they constitute by far the best portion of our native regiments. On every occasion they have conducted themselves in the field with great braver}'' ; and though the condition in which they keep their uniform leaves much to be desired, that of their weapons is absolutely faultless. They are paid at the rate of twenty rupees per head per month. FRENCH MISSIONARIES. 39 A further detachment of Watuta were stationed as a guard on the road leading to the Kingani ferry, their quarters con- sisting of a hastily constructed shed of corrugated iron, of somewhat novel design. By means of walls and ramparts the old palaver house had been transformed into a fort, in which the Imperial Commissioner and his officers had taken up their abode, along with a large contingent of Sudanese with their women and children. The Watuta do not, like the Sudanese, consider it necessary to take their women and children with them in their undertakings — a circumstance which, from a military standpoint, establishes a decided pre- ference in their favour. The position of the fort had been further strengthened by cutting down all the coco-palms in the vicinity to a distance of three or four hundred yards, while four bastions defended with field-artillery commanded the surrounding country in all directions. The French mission station, on the north side of the town, showed no signs of having been fortified. Here I had the pleasure of once more meeting my old friends Father Etienne and Brother Oscar. Throughout the war these missionaries had remained at their post unmolested, and they now pointed with pride to the remains of huts and the fragments of dis- carded household goods which lay scattered all around, as evidences that over six thousand people had received shelter and succour at their hands. It is greatly to Bushiri's credit that, while he treated as enemies the missionary representa- tives of the two European powers concerned in the blockade, he exempted the neutral French missionaries from all attack or annoyance. The Imperial Commissioner having kindly supplied me with a spare military tent and a quantity of camp utensils, I continued my way to Dar-es-Salaam. Here the streets 40 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. were laid in ruins, and only a scanty sprinkling of Indians and Greeks were to be seen in the vicinity of the strongly fortified citadel. Having visited the German mission station, which I found completely riddled with shot, I laid a few twigs of laurel at the foot of the tall mango trees which mark the graves of our brave naval officers, Wolf and Land- fermann. The next day I returned to Zanzibar. Of Bushiri I could learn nothing, except that after the defeat at Mpwapwa he had withdrawn towards the north, presumably with the intention of uniting with the Usam- bara chief, Simboja, in Mazindi. I could not help think- ing he had designs on me a second time, for Mazindi lies directly on the Pangani route to Kilimanjaro. My ransom of the year 1888 must have been of considerable service to him. Meanwhile I did not allow the thought of possibilities of evil to disturb me. All the preliminary difficulties which had threatened to swamp the expedition at the very outset had now been successfully overcome, and I proceeded to lay in a supply of the necessary articles of barter. In this respect every district in East Africa has its own particular " currency." Thus, to pay one's w^ay to Kilimanjaro, the chief requisite is a good supply of fairly strong cotton cloth, white, crimson, and dark blue in colour, with beads for small change. Of the latter, different kinds are required for dif- ferent places. Thus, in Taita and Taveta, they must be of medium size, and either crimson, or dark blue, or white ; in Jagga, they must be extremely small, and pink or light blue ; while in Ugweno, Kahe, and the Masai country, all beads must be dark blue and in strings. Iron and brass wire, of the thickness of telegraph wire, is also in demand, but it is not absolutely necessary, and all other articles of merchandise are almost worthless. You might just as well PREPARATIONS FOR THE START. 41 try to palm off Portuguese money on a German shopkeeper as hope to effect a purchase in Taveta with yellow beads or green woollen cloth. The coinage current at the coast — dollars, rupees, and copper small coins — ceases to be of use three days inland from Mombaza, though on the Pangani caravan route it is valid as far as Mazindi. It goes without saying that in addition to the currency above described all sorts of showy and useful articles are eagerly accepted as presents, though their exchange value is nil. I therefore took with me a miscellaneous collection of watches, musical -boxes, small telephones, model steam- engines, many-bladed knives, masks, uniforms, and so forth. These I distributed among the various chiefs and headmen along my route, and seldom found them fail to have the desired effect. It was not long before I had the satisfaction of seeing all my goods made up into the customary loads — each sixty pounds weight — and packed in matting or tin cases. Our stores included a dozen loads of rice for the men, for, as hardly any crops can be raised throughout the whole region between the coast and Taita, sufficient food is not to be obtained on the road. Siwa Haji being likewise ready with the stipulated number of porters, the contract, with the names of all the members of the expedition appended, was registered at the Sultan's — a precaution demanded by law, to ensure that no slave had enrolled himself without the consent of his master. Two days later the expedition went on board H.B.M.'s gunboat Somali, the use of which, as already stated, had been kindly promised to me by Admiral Fre- mantle, and in the afternoon of September 3rd we set sail from Zanzibar amid a chorus of friendly farewells and cheers. Early next morning we delivered a bag of letters to a 42 TO THE SWAHILI COAST. British man-of-war lying off the coast of Pemha on the look- out for Arab slave-dhows, and at sunset of the same day we ran into the creek, the steep palm-clad shores of which surround the island and town of Mombaza. The same evening I received a visit from Mr. Buchanan, the repre- sentative of the British East African Company, who had been made aware beforehand of my coming. He kindly came to inform me that a sufficient number of boats Avould be ready at sunrise to convey my whole caravan without loss of time up the creek to Bandarini, the landing-place for our mission station of Babai. He was as good as his word, and under the convoy of the Somali I saw my men pull off in four large boats. I myself followed them some hours later, after having breakfasted with Mr. Buch- anan, in conversation with whom I became very strongly impressed with the idea that in the exploiting of British East Africa there would be no lack of intelligence, energy, or — capital. In the afternoon we reached the lonely landing-place of Bandarin, now, as two years ago, our first camping-ground on African soil. The tents having been pitched, the men broke up into small " messes " of five or six, and disposed them- selves around the fires to await the cooking of the evening meal. The aristocrats of the caravan, the Somal, gathered into a little knot by themselves beside the piled up baggage, and busied themselves with the burnishing of their weapons. It was Africa once more — the red arid soil, the dry thorny bush, the parched grey-green grass, the pure dry air, the cooing doves and chirping cycadae of our promised land of travel and adventure. Once more I was in the midst of the familiar hum and bustle of the free caravan life ; once more I breathed the old " bouquet cVAfrique" compounded of heaven knows what subtle odours gleaned from earth and air and THE "BOUQUET D'AFRIQUE." 43 flower, from the curling smoke of the wood-fire, from the very people even — and never to be forgotten by one who has once lived in it, laboured in it, and so at last grown to love it. Success to the new venture ! STREET SCENE AT MOMBAZA. CHAPTER IT. MOMBAZA TO TAVETA. The first few days of a journey into the interior of East Africa are as a rule the most trying period of the whole expedi- tion. The traveller's natural delight in the new and grander aspects of Nature, in the free unconventional life, and the deeply interesting scientific facts that meet his eye on all sides, is spoilt at every turn, and his impressions weakened and be-littled, by the constant worry arising from the want of discipline among the as yet un- ruly porters, and by their un- ceasing attempts to desert. Their superfluous energy finds vent in wild shoutings and dancings, which they keep up as long as lungs and limbs hold out. . By degrees, the continuous marching, frequently accompanied as it is by want of water, begins to tell, and their exuberant spirits tone down of themselves ; but at first, while the traveller is still ignorant of the characters with which he has to deal, he neither knows which is the best way 44 SWAHILI PORTERS. 5- ^ HOW TO MAINTAIN DISCIPLINE. 45 to quell the unruly or how to foster the influence of the better disposed. To begin by drawing the rein tightly engenders forebodings for the future, which find a present and practical outcome in incessant attempts at desertion so long as there is time and opportunity ; and in this instance, owing to the war, circumstances were only too favourable to misdemeanours of this kind. On the other hand, too great a display of leniency is sure to result in eventual loss of authority, and the porters are apt to take French leave soon after they have received the usual advance-money. The preservation of the golden mean is accordingly very diflicult, if not indeed impossible, and many a time I have been compelled at first to let things pass which later on would have met with summary punishment, consoling myself meanwhile with the thought of a future day of reckoning. This policy early gained for me among the men the reputa- tion of being mema sana (very nice), a flattering estimate of my character which gradually changed, as I tightened my hand, to the opinion that I was very mkali (strict). I may, however, congratulate myself on having been fairly successful, for while deserters were leaving other caravans in dozens, I arrived at Taveta having lost only three, and these doubtful characters, of whose evil propensities I had already been warned at Mombaza. Before we were half- way to Kilimanjaro, the discipline of the caravan was as perfect as could be desired, the soldiers and porters obedient, the marching order exemplary, and the success of the expedi- tion in this respect assured. As the caravan leaves camp, let us hold a review and march-past of its various members, on whose qualities and capabilities so much depends. After us Europeans, the two Swahili headmen and the Somdl bodyguard rank first ; the latter claiming our foremost 46 MOMBAZA TO TA VET A. consideration on account of their superior characteristics. Their leader is the before-mentioned Ali, aged twenty-six, one of the members of my Mombaza expedition in iS88. In the affair at Pangani he was stripped of everything by Bushiri's slaves and turned adrift to find his way to the coast as best he might. He has great influence with his comrades, is in- telligent and energetic in no common degree, and on various occasions has shown himself so trustworthy that I have appointed him to the general superintendence of the treasury and commissariat, subject, of course, to my own control. Of frank, prepossessing countenance and genial tempera- ment, he is perhaps a little too much addicted to gossip ; but he is staunch as a bulldog to his master's interests, and is respected accordingly by the rest of the caravan, to whom he is known as Bwana Ali. He has a remarkable talent for languages, speaking English, Arabic, Hindustani, and Ki- Swahili in addition to his native tongue. xlfter A\\ comes Ahmed, the brave. He, too, is between twenty and thirty, was with me at the Pangani affair, and is my special favourite on account of his many exceptional qualities. The very embodiment of obligingness and readi- ness, whatever Ahmed does he does well, and — a remarkable thing for a negro — whenever he sees anything that ought to be done, he does it conscientiously without requiring to be told. He was the only man in the whole caravan with whom I never once had to find fault. Ahmed was my right hand in every- thing (and I had need of an extra one), and as, unfortunately for himself, he knew a little of both English and Ki-Swahili, he was constantly in demand. "Ahmed, where is this?" "Ahmed, what did you do with that?" was the cry from morning till night. On the march he was my aide-de-camp and gun-bearer, and walked immediately behind me ; in camp he was my chamberlain, my valet, my butler, and general MEMBERS OF THE CARAVAN. 47 factotum. The men praised Ali "with the lips, Ahmed with the heart. He was heloved by all. Third on the list comes Mohammed Ali, better known as Arali, an insignificant-looking little fellow of thirty or there- abouts, shy and retiring as a rule, but brave and pertinacious enough on occasion. He had been Count Teleki's "boy" for two years on the Samburu expedition, and had a wide experience of the natives. To him therefore is intrusted the arduous task of doling out to the porters their weekly supply of goods for the purchase of provisions, as well as of catering for the Europeans and Somal. He did his duty admirably. Of the remaining Somal, Mohammed, the lean and active, is the best ; Bulhan, the slow and taciturn, the worst. Jama Seif, the cook, has seen service with the redcoats at Aden, and is a great worthy, though not exactly a Soy er in the exercise of his calling. Close in the wake of the Somal, with whom he claims equality of birth, comes Mwini Amani, aged twenty-eight, a native of Pangani. He, too, shared the joys and sorrows of my former expedition, of which he was a most useful member, and along with Dr. Fischer and in various Arab caravans has traversed the whole of East Africa as far as Uganda, familiarising himself with the dialects and making friends everywhere. He acts as our guide, and always marches at the head of the caravan carrying the flag. Thanks to his iron constitution and great powers of endurance, he alone of all his companions w^as able to bear the hardships of our three weeks' sojourn on Kilimanjaro, at a height of over 13,000 feet. But perhaps his best quality is the im- perturbable good-humour with which he accepts everything as it comes and makes the best of it. The one point on which he is touchy is the subject of his birth, a somewhat 48 MOMBAZA TO TAVETA. unusual weakness for a Swahili. He is inordinately proud of being a freeman like the Somal — a " black gentleman," he calls himself — and always insists on being treated as such by his comrades. Far above him in rank, but a long way behind him in worth, is the Swahili leader or headman, xlbedi, a native of Zanzibar. As a slave of the influential Wadi Nasibu, himself a slave of the Sultan, he has great influence with the Zanzibar men, but is otherwise unpopular. Ugly, lazy, insolent, cowardly, weak, dishonest, untruthful, he is a typical Zanzibar!. Never- theless I tolerate him, for he is personally responsible to Siwa Haji for the behaviour of the rest of the caravan. Better, but not much better, is the second headman, Hailallah, an Arab slave, also from Zanzibar, and the greatest tattler, mischief-maker, toad-eater, and toper going. Both he and Abedi owe their position solely to the fact that from among their large circle of acquaintances in their native town they could easily and quickly get together a sufficient number of porters for the undertaking. On the journey they generally sided with the men against me, and had it not been for my faithful Somal, I should sometimes have been hard put to it. Of the rank and file of the caravan, the Askari and Wapagazi, or soldiers and porters, it remains only to mention Ben Juma, our untiring choir-leader ; Mbassa, the wit of the party ; and the easy-going, contented Wanyamwezi. As for the rest, they were a very indifi"erent lot, constantly in need of the whip to bring them to their senses. Their physical perform- ances were something wonderful, however, and would do credit to any respectable beast of burden, to which indeed, in many respects, they bear a striking resemblance. " Pagazi like donkey ; much food, much go," says Ahmed in his pigeon English, and it is true ; for if your porter can but once a day ON THE MARCH. 49 have his fill of rice, beans, or millet, he is fully equal to a tramp of five or six hours in the blazing sun, carrying, in addition to his load of sixty or sixty-five pounds, his gun and ammunition, a cooking-pot, a sleeping-mat, a water-calabash, and a number of other " unconsidered trifles." In order to get along with him it is above all things necessary to be able to talk to him in Ki-Swahili, and the language, fortunately, is so simple, that with a little trouble one may pick up in a couple of months quite as much as is required for the ordinary and somewhat limited topics of caravan life. After the trying experiences incident to my first journey, I thank the Lord that I was now no more exposed to the mis- understandings and misrepresentations of an interpreter. On the march the same routine is gone through day after day and week after week. At the first streak of dawn I awake and call Ali, the captain of my Somal. Immediately the camp begins to show signs of animation. " OndoTca,funga mkeka" (Get up, fold up your mats !) cry the headmen. Yawning, and still half asleep, the men bestir themselves, crawl out of their cosy rugs, in which they have passed the night on the ground, gird up their loin-cloths, and begin to drag their loads from the stack in which they have been piled over- night. The Somal and Askari set to work to strike the tents and pack the beds and other furniture, keeping time to a rhythmic chant the while. Meantime our cook brings us a cup of steaming cocoa, which we drink standing, and snatch a morsel of cold meat. " Tayari ? " (ready ?) I inquire of the headman. " Tayari " (ready) is the reply. Having noted the time and the readings of my thermometer and barometer, I give the word to start, " Hay a ! " and the caravan falls into marching order. At the head marches Mwini Amani, carrying the German flag, and with him the native leader of the caravan, if such 50 M 0MB AZA TO TA VET A. there be. With the very first step begins the troublesome task of plotting the route. At every slight change of direc- tion I consult my watch and my compass, and carefully make a note of the readings. At every perceptible change of level I do the same by the aneroid. If any considerable hill or mountain comes in sight I take its bearings by the prismatic compass, and the result is likewise recorded in my field-book. Thus ever}^ two or three minutes some observation has to be made, not to speak of the bearings that are taken without making a halt. I never have my instruments out of my hand until we are in camp again. Immediately behind me marches Ahmed, canying my rifle, for the van of the procession is the best place for a stray shot at guinea-fowl or antelopes, and fresh meat is always a welcome addition to our bill of fare. Hunting, in the proper sense of the term, is of course out of the question while we are on the march. Behind Ahmed, and headed by the circumspect Wanyam- wezi, come the main body of the porters, as close as may be on each other's heels. The Somal follow, and after them their headmen, Herr Purtscheller bringing up the rear. All march in single file, for the so-called great caravan route is only a narrow pathway after all, in which two cannot walk abreast. On my former expeditions I took with me one or two Muscat donkeys in case of serious illness ; but I never myself made any use of them, and this time I dis- pensed with them altogether. I ascribe the almost perfect health I have always enjoyed in Africa to the fact that I have made every step of my journeys on foot, the constant exercise keeping my bodily organs in good order. For two hours we hold steadily on amid a running fire of laughter, jokes, and shouts. Then the gradual lengthen- ing of the file shows it is time to call a halt. I pause A MIDDAY HALT. 51 under the shade of a tree, and while the stragglers close up, and loads are shifted and fastenings seen to, I take the bearings of conspicuous points in the neighbourhood, and if the occasion be opportune, perhaps one or two photographs. In twenty minutes or half-an-hour we are once more on the march, the stillness now unbroken save for an occasional shout— " Shimo ! " " Mawe ! " " Miti ! " " Mwiba ! " "Nyoka!" " Siafu ! " whereby the unwary porter is warned that a hole, a stone, a stump, a thorn, a snake, or a colony of ants threatens his shoeless feet. In an hour and a half we stop to rest a second time, after which, as the porters gradually get more and more exhausted, it becomes necessary to halt at least once ever}^ hour. As a rule, we reach camp before midday, availing our- selves of one of the spots habitually frequented by the caravans which have trodden this route from time imme- morial, and w^iich have invariably been selected on account of their proximity to one of the rock-reservoirs peculiar to the region. Tents are pitched, and the Somal proceed to stack the baggage, keeping it off the ground by means of a layer of branches or stones, and covering it with a tarpaulin. The men gather grass and branches to make sleeping-sheds, while I, in the sweltering heat, set about taking the midday observation with my theodolite, Herr Purtscheller assisting by reading off the time. Before I have finished, the cook has made ready a light luncheon, which we partake of with due relish, in the consciousness of " something accom- plished, something done." My inner man thus fortified, I light my pipe and proceed to make a rough map of the road we have traversed, while Herr Purtscheller scours the neighbourhood in search of botanical and geological specimens. The men prepare their food, mend their torn clothing, eat, laugh, and sleep. A few, and notably a squint- 52 M 0MB AZA TO TA VET A. eyed individual, by name Ilassani, make a parade of their piety, and hasten to repeat their prayers in the eyes of all men, in season and out of season. My map finished, I set out, accompanied by a Somali carrying my camera, in search of prey or pictures, whichever may come handiest. I am not at all afraid of losing myself, or of being carried away by the excitement of the chase ; for, to my shame as a Nimrod be it said, I have no enthusiasm for sport for its own sake, but only as a means towards gaining a more intimate knowledge of nature and nature's ways. I take no pleasure in the mere stalking or hunting of any creature, with the hope of getting a shot at it in the end ; and were it not for the necessity of supplying the pot, I should at all times be willing to lay aside my rifle and give myself up to the observation of the animal's habits as it disports itself in its native haunts. On my return to camp it behoves me to mount the judge's chair, and to mete out condign punishment to evil- doers at the hands of the Somal, ten to twenty lashes being the quantum for ordinary offences. Herr Purtscheller per- forms the duties of doctor, and dispenses to his numerous patients suitable medicaments for the blisters, ulcers, thorn- pricks, and abrasions to which the flesh of the Swahili porter is heir. Meantime the sun approaches the western horizon, and Ahmed and Mohammed have brought out the dinner-table and covered it with a snowy white cloth. Our indiarubber bath stands ready inside the tent, and after a refreshing plunge we sit down to dinner, prepared to do justice to the meal with the true explorer's appetite. In conversing with friends in Europe, I usually find that they have the most absurd ideas on the subject of a travel- ler's ordinary fare, the tendency, as a rule, being to make A TRAVELLER'S BILL OF FARE. 53 it as scanty and unpalatable as possible. It does sometimes happen, in exceptional circumstances, that one is obliged to substitute for supper a tightening of the belt, but on the whole the traveller is himself to blame if his supplies run low and he is reduced to starvation. The native foods do not offer much variety, though they differ widely in different districts ; but if the traveller is not too dainty and is pre- pared to make the best of what is to be had, it is wonderful what can be done. A great deal depends on how far he is willing and able to give directions to the cook for preparing native products in European ways — if he can occasionally lend a helping hand, so much the better. I made a point of taking with me from Europe or Zanzibar, in large quantities, only cocoa, tea, salt, and rice, with a small supply of acetic acid, pepper, and saccharine, which last I used instead of sugar. I had no tinned meats of any kind, with the exception of three cases of corned beef, to be reserved for an emergency. Our wine-cellar consisted of two bottles of claret, two of brandy, and two of port. The claret we disposed of at an early date, the brandy among the snows of Kilimanjaro. One of the bottles of port, to the intense astonishment of our friends, we brought back with us to Zanzibar. Our daily drink was water, with a few drops of citric or acetic acid, and on the march very weak cold tea. That our bill of fare did not lack variety, let the following examples bear witness. Game-soup and guinea-fowl with rice, or rice-soup and antelope steak with wild spinage, or wild tomato-soup and roast zebra — all these, washed down with the unfailing cup of tea, were among the items included in the ordinary cai'te in uninhabited regions. In populous districts we had a yet more tempting selec- tion. Broth and ox-tongue, roast beef with fresh vegetables, banana fritters and honey ; or milk-soup, mutton cutlets and tomatoes, rice, bananas, and roast millet ; or egg-soup, stewed 54 M 0MB AZA TO TA VET A. fowl and sweet potatoes, with melons and other fruit by way of dessert — all these from time to time rejoiced the palate and made glad the heart at the close of a hard day's work. After dinner the pipe is produced again, and we sit down to write up our diaries by the light of the lamp. Then we relax, and for an hour or so give ourselves up to idleness and the enjoyment of one another's society. By eight o'clock the camp is still and silent, and, cosily wrapped in our woollen blankets, we too stretch ourselves on our cork mattresses, to sleep soundly through the cool hours of the night. Borne from the distant plains, the deep roar of the lion, the hoarse bark of the leopard, and the eerie laugh of the hyena, is our weird but unheeded lullaby, until once more we are awakened at the first streak of dawn by the twittering of early song-birds, and rise refreshed and ready for whatever the day may have in store for us. We left the coast on the morning of September 6th. Each man having been furnished with a gun, the long column began to wind over the undulating ground, which, gradually rising, culminates at last in the plateau on whose edge stands the Rabai Mission. Here the vegetation still feels the influence of the moist sea-breeze, and ridges and hol- lows alike are covered wdth verdant forest. A little way below Eabai we pass a plantation of coco-palms ; beside it is a small station of the Imperial British East Africa Company, the first of the long line planned to extend to the Victoria Nyanza, by way of Taita, Ukamba, Lake Baringo, and Kavirondo. At Rabai we were most kindly received by Mr. and Mrs. Burness, of the Church Missionary Society, and with them we spent a very pleasant hour. Having secured the services of a couple of mission boys and ten porters to cany rice, ^-■■■* AN EAST AFRICAN STEPPE. THE EAST AFRICAN WILDERNESS. 55 we here bade farewell to things European and civilised, and commenced our journey towards the tree-studded plateau inland. The heavy showers of the past few days, which pro- claimed the approach of the rainy season, had been general all over the region, and had already filled the rock-reservoirs on which we had to depend for our supply of water. Under their fostering influence the vegetation had begun to awake from its long sleep, and already showed signs of returning life and vigour. The whole of the plateau country has the appearance of an arid, wooded wilderness, in which evergreens mingle with deciduous forms. The stiff clay soil is overgrown with coarse grasses, or with low perennial herbs. Towards the coast the trees grow tolerably close together, though they do not attain any considerable height, as they do among the mountains or along the banks of rivers. The trunks are short, the bark cracked, the branches gnarled, and in many instances withered. Impenetrable thickets of succulent shrubs form islands and belts everywhere in the open woods. As the coast zone is left behind and the inland regions approached, the vegetation assumes more and more such forms as, by their scanty array of leaves, present the smallest surface for the evaporation of moisture. In the vicinity of Taro, only three days' march from the sea, the evergreen forms begin to disappear, and thorny species become the most prominent. Towards the Maungu Mountains the open woods give place to a dense " hawthorn scrub," and on the farther side of the range the traveller suddenly enters the steppe-land. At first the unifor- mity is varied by occasional patches of thorn and bush ; but beyond the mountains of Taita the boundless wilderness stretches away in dreary monotony. The tract of country here briefly described is botanically divided into four regions corresponding to the climatic and 56 MOMBAZA TO TA VET A. geological conditions, and to the prevailing abundance or scarcity of water. As far as Taro, water is to be found in pools and in the natural rock-reservoirs even in the dry season ; between Taro and Maungu, Maungu and Ndara, and again between Taita and Taveta, there is absolutely none ; while on the heights of Maungu and on the western slopes of Ndara rain-water again occurs in natural reservoirs, and in Taita itself there are two running streams. In the rainy season water is also to be had in small pools close to Maungu and between Taita and Taveta. In countries like east Central Africa, where the plains stretch for miles and miles unbroken by hills or ridges, the physiognomy of the landscape is determined almost entirely by the character of the vegetation. But the character of the vegetation itself depends less on the forms assumed by the organs of reproduction — the flowers and fruit — than on the appearance and arrangement of the organs of nutrition — the branches and leaves. This fact was strikingly illustrated in the present instance, when the period of growth and blossom had just begun. It mattered little whether the flowers were large or small, white or coloured, glowing in tropical abund- ance or altogether absent — the character of the landscape was but little affected. Leafless trees and bushes prevailed everywhere, their generally forbidding aspect plainly telling of a fierce struggle for existence under the greatest extremes of climate, and giving the impression that only a few species are represented as in the oak and beech forests of more temperate regions. But the stem and branches are the mere vegetable skeleton, the leaves are the body. And here, in this desert region, either the leaves are all bipinnate, so as to present the smallest possible surface for evaporation, or they develop a tough, glossy cuticle, to prevent injury through excessive THE EAST AFRICAN FLORA. 57 transpiration. The Avoods are composed chiefly of tall ever- greens — mimosse, tamarinds, and olives — and of deciduous trees, such as banyans, sycamores, and willows. Dwarf palms and low oshur and sodada shrubs, epiphytic orchids, cane and prairie grasses, with numerous tuberous and bulbous species, find their place nearer the ground. Where there are no trees these lower members of the vegetable kingdom mingle inextricably with euphorbias, cucurbitacete, bulbous- stemmed testudinarise and aloes, and form impenetrable thickets. Protection against evaporation has been Nature's primary consideration in the organisation of each and all of these plants, for the drought to which they are subjected lasts for months at a time. In the attainment of this object she displays a wonderful fertility of resource. Certain species, like the mimosse, the banyans, and the sycamores, she has, as already said, provided with pinnate or thick glossy leaves, which at the commencement of the dry season drop away, having duly fulfilled their nutritive function ; in others the leaves are evergreen, but abnormally tough ; and most are covered with an armour of thorns over stem and branch and twig alike. In some cases the thorns take the place of leaves altogether. The succulent plants are clothed as it were in mail, which prevents the evaporation of the sap, and in plants of the grass and onion tribe a store of moisture is laid up in the underground tubers and bulbs. When I passed through this region two years ago in the month of July — that is to say, in the height of the dry season — the landscape was painted in a dull grey monotone. On the present journey the colouring was not much more lively, for the young leaves had a grey or bluish sheen, and dead grasses, branches, and tree-trunks were visible everywhere, except in places where they had been destroyed by fire or 58 MOMBAZA TO TA VET A. consumed by white ants. Nevertheless the breath of spring had passed over the land. Many of the plants were pushing out their young leaves, while others, and those the majority, like our own alders, hazels, willows, and fruit-trees, were crowned with a wealth of blossom while as yet their leaves were still in bud. This phenomenon is not so much to be wondered at among the trees of temperate climates, where the rays of the spring sun affect the more delicate outer envelopes of the flowers more quickly than those of the leaves ; but it is difficult to account for in equatorial climes, where the stimulus derived from light and heat remains tolerably equal throughout the year. The explanation seems to be in some way connected with the necessity which exists that fertilisation should have taken place before the pollen is spoiled by the heavy rains. The various lilies and orchids follow the example of the plants we have just been describing; but the grasses first produce leaves, and the succulent species new shoots. In these last, the tubers have supplied a continuous store of moisture throughout the whole of the dry season, and thus, the plants are in a position to utilise at once, for the purposes of growth, the surplus nourishment supplied by the rains. On the edge of the coast terrace the lofty borassus palm is still to be met with, the last representative of a richer and more prodigal flora. After that the palm disappears altogether, and does not occur again until it is represented among the mountains of Taita and on Kilimanjaro, by new species. Our first day's march was brought to a close at midday by the side of the Moaje stream, at a spot where, two years before, I had pitched my first camp when travelling CAUGHT IN THE ACT. 59 with Herr von Eberstein. The little stream had dwindled to a few puddles, but our tents were beautifully shaded by two large leafy mango-trees, in all probability sprung from chance kernels thrown away by some passing coast porter, which had found a congenial habitat close to the Avater's edge. As a matter of course I had to listen to a good deal of grumbling on the part of the men ; the first day usually ends in numerous little alterations and redistributions of loads. I soon put a stop to all rebellious tendencies, however, by taking posses- sion of the guns — a precaution nearly always necessary to prevent desertion — and for the most part the men spent the evening dancing and singing in the moonlight as if possessed. On stepping out of my tent in the early dewy morning, the first thing I saw was two of the Eabai Mission boys stealing quietly out of camp. Although the rice they had carried had already been used up, as a matter of principle I just as quietly sent three Somal after them and had them brought back. As a punishment they were condemned to carry the w^ater for the whole caravan in the old petroleum- tins I had bought for that purpose in Mombaza. The guinea-fowd in the bushes on the margin of the stream were clucking lustily as we prepared to strike camp, and soon Ali appeared carrying two plump specimens for the pot. Once more we plunged into the dull grey-green wilder- ness of bush and trees which hemmed us in on both sides, making any view of the surrounding country wholly impossible. Except the path, and an occasional scrap of cloth fluttering from the prickles of a wait-a-bit thorn, nothing remained to tell of travellers who had preceded us. Small game, such as we usually come across in our own forests, there is here apparently none, and the larger kinds shun the thickets, where uuknoAvn dangers await them, and seek the more open 6o MOM BAZA TO T A VET A. steppe-land. The birds, too, are inaudible and invisible, for it is only in pairing-time, which occurs during the rainy season, that they are to be heard calling to their mates. Then, also, the insects awake to life, but at present they are represented solely by huge millepeds. As yet we have only reached the period of the preliminaiy or early rains. These are very irregular. Yesterday there was a heavy fall at four in the morning, and to-day there was a succession of sharp showers between eleven and twelve. Drenched to the skin, we reached the Magunga rivulet, and camped beneath a sycamore-tree. Like the Moaje, this stream consisted of a series of pools, and the water had a strong taste of alum. The spot was made memorable to me by the fact that here two years ago five porters managed to make good their escape with a quantity of our most valuable effects — maps, field-glasses, woollen clothing, and the like. This time too it looked as if things were coming to a crisis, and when I again took possession of the guns I was greeted with very black looks from certain members of the caravan, who, I could see, had evidently been meditating flight. A deputation waited on me to request that I would restore the arms and ammunition forthwith, and not expose my men to personal risk in "this hostile neighbourhood." In a well- directed speech I turned their pretended fears to ridicule, and succeeded in getting the laughter on my side. All night I made the Somal keep a sharp look-out, however, and several times before morning I took a turn round the camp myself. With every step of our march inland the landscape grows more and more dreary. The early rains have as yet failed to make any impression on the district we have now reached, and the frequent patches of burned-up grass add to the general air of desolation. Here and there an ant-hill reveals the true red or yellowish-brown colour of the porous laterite. DESERTERS. 6i Elsewhere the soil consists of a jellowisli sand, overlying breccia-like reddish-grey sandstones, which show that we have left behind us the clay slate formations, and entered upon the narrow belt of carboniferous sandstones. The day was terribly hot, and the men groaned audibly, but took heart again and went on right gallantly as they joined in the succession of spirited songs kept up by the AVanyamwezi in the van. At Gore the water-holes proved to be dried up, but in Samburu the reservoirs contained an abundant supply of what by courtesy was termed water, though in reality it was not much better than liquid mud. On our getting into camp some Wa-Duruma — as the natives from the villages hidden away in the surrounding jungle are called — came to offer goats and cattle for sale. I was only too de- lighted to seize the opportunity, and by way of magnet to draw my men onward purchased a fine ox to take with us to our next halting-place. Although, that night, we Europeans shared the watch with the Somal, three porters managed to desert, but without goods or arms. They were the three of whom I had all along been suspicious, and I did not trouble myself much about them, feeling now secure of all the others. Moreover, we had reached the last inhabited spot before entering on the Taita wilderness, and those who had not hitherto attempted to escape might well be looked upon as willing followers. Then, too, had they not the immediate prospect of a plentiful banquet of ox- flesh ? Meanwhile, to drive the obstinate brute along the narrow path, scarcely wide enough for a loaded porter, was no easy matter. It was taken in hand by Mwini Amani and Arali, but the two fell out over something, and ended by coming to blows. An hoiu''s march brought us to the last of the Samburu 62 M 0MB AZA TO TA VET A. villages, around which the natives were busy clearing the ground, preparatory to sowing the grain in the coming rainy season. Rain-water was abundant in the numerous rock- reservoirs, here called tigurungas. The surface at this point begins to rise considerably, and culminates at last in the rounded hill of Taro, the last watering-place on the route until we reach Mauugu. Here we camped at midday, and I was able to determine our position astronomically. In the afternoon I left the porters to quarrel over the division of the ox, and set off to prospect the neighbourhood and have a closer look at the numerous ngiirungas. These natural reservoirs, on which throughout the whole of east Central Africa man and beast alike mainly depend for the supply of water, are accounted for by other travellers on the theory that they have been gradually formed by the hand of man scooping out the water and mud contained in what were at first slight natural depressions in the rock. My investigations at Taro have led me to quite another con- clusion. The sandstone here lies exposed in rounded blocks and ridges, which split superficially into foliated layers. In these, in the course of weathering, numerous round holes are worn, both in the upper surface and in the sides, so that the rock looks as if it were pock-pitted. Holes, of all sizes occur together in the same block, but small holes predomi- nate. The fact that the holes are to be found in the face of the blocks — that is to say, in a horizontal direction — suffi- ciently controverts the idea of the artificial origin of the ngurungaSy for in these latter no water could collect to attract the attention of passing travellers. With the vertical holes it is different. If you put your finger into one of the smaller of these, you will find that it expands below like an inverted funnel, and contains a quantity of water. From this I am led to believe that the hole having originally arisen from the lami- c 2