most remarkable phenomenon in connection with this
interesting lake is that, although it is liberally fed by
several fine rushing streams and torrents on the
northern and western sides, the water has no apparent
exit, while the evaporation from its surface, even
under a tropical sun, would not, apparently, be nearly
sufficient to counterbalance the constant supplies of
water thus poured in. An exit of some sort there
must be, either deep down at the very base of the
crater or by some unknown subterranean channel, or
by rapid infiltration through some very porous sub-
stratum at present undiscovered. In this respect

H



98 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

Lake Naivasha resembles, but on a much larger scale,
the Lake of Ashaugi in Abyssinia, which similarly
preserves the sweetness of its water without any
apparent escape for its surplus into the deep sandy
plains lying thousands of feet below it within a few
miles of its eastern shores.

Around Lake Naivasha the prairies were literally
covered with game, especially with thousands of that
beautiful little antelope first discovered by Mr. Joseph
Thomson, and named after him (Gazella Thomsoni).
Zebras, too, were present in fair numbers, though very
wild, and a few hartebeest and Grant's antelope added
to the variety ; while the waters and swampy shores
of the lake itself were alive with duck, teal, wild
geese, and many sorts of water-fowl ; and the hoarse
note of the lordly and beautiful crown crane sounded
towards sunset in every direction. It need hardly
be added that we lost no time in seizing rifles and
setting out in different directions to w r ork for the pot„
with the result that in the evening the whole caravan,,
porters, soldiers, and Europeans, were able to enjoy
hearty meals of venison, zebra, and other game, a
most welcome and indeed valuable addition, for the
hard-worked men, to their daily allowance of only a
pound and a half of black flour.

It was in the neighbourhood of Lake Naivasha
that we first made acquaintance with the most
dreaded, but at the same time the most interesting,
of all races living between the Victoria Nyanza and
the East Coast, the far-famed and much-talked-of
Masai. In the immediate neighbourhood of our camp



MASAI WARRIORS



99



we had observed on arrival several immense herds of
cattle, grazing peacefully, tended by a few stalwart
men with long spears ; but in the afternoon we re-
ceived a visit from a party of some thirty young-
warriors decked in all the bravery of their best war-




MASAI WARRIORS IN THEIR WAR-PAINT. 1

dress. Splendid fellows they were too, not one of
them under six feet in height, with long sinewy limbs,
under whose shining chocolate skin the muscles could
be seen working like bundles of india-rubber and
whipcord. Clothes they had but few ; a couple of
short leather aprons slung over the shoulders, one in

1 The photograph from which this engraving was made was very indistinct,
and the illustration does not give a fair idea of the impressive aspect of the
Masai warriors in their war-paint. The figure reproduced on the cover of this
volume is from another photograph by Colonel Rhodes of a Masai warrior.



THE MISSION TO UGANDA



front and the other down the back, and neither of
them quite reaching the hips, were all that could
really be classified as garments ; the rest was decora-
tion and ornament.

Most of the warriors added to their great height
by wearing some lofty and ferocious head-dress, either
an edifice like a guardsman's bearskin made of hawks'
feathers, or a complete circle of long feathers round
the head made fast under the chin, or in some cases
the horns of antelope, or a contrivance of iron wire
covered with wool in the shape of immense buffalo
horns. The upper parts of their arms were covered
with coils of brightly-polished iron wire, of which
also many of them wore coils round their waists ; to
the left thigh was tightly strapped a circle of small
bells, which jingled loudly in unison as the warlike
party kept step in their march ; round the ankles
were rings of iron wire, and usually also an anklet of
hide with long stiff hair, possibly from the zebra's
mane, standing straight out at right angles to the leg.
In a girdle round the waist every man wore a straight
sword rather less than three feet in length with a
small handle of horn, no guard, and a topheavy
blade of a spatulate shape about two or two and a
half inches wide near the point, and only three-
quarters of an inch at the hilt. On the other side of
the girdle was stuck a heavy knob-kerry, either of
wood or, more frequently, of rhinoceros horn. In
the left hand was carried the splendid shield which is
characteristic of the Masai alone ; oblong, about four
feet in height, slightly convex, and made either of



THE MASAI TRIBE



buffalo or giraffe hide, it affords a perfect protection
from spears or arrows to the warrior crouching behind
it ; but the most striking feature of these shields is
the curious heraldic device and distinctive family
badge with which each of them is painted. The only
colours used are black, white, and red, but the
different patterns are infinite and often very graceful.
In the right hand was grasped the mighty and now
world-famed Masai spear, six feet in length, with a
broad shining blade of at least two and a half feet by
three inches wide, and shod with a square sharp-
pointed piece of iron nearly three feet long ; thus in
most of these spears no more wood is visible than is
sufficient to leave room for the grasp of the hand in
the middle of the haft. The warriors take the
greatest pride in their spears, which, it must be
allowed, are beautifully made and finished, and are
always kept as bright as a Life Guardsman's cuirass
at a birthday parade.

For our edification the Masai warriors, who in the
presence of our large party were both fearless and
friendly, performed a war- dance, accompanying it
with a monotonous chant ending in a savage chorus,
the effect of which was materially assisted by the
clash of their thigh-bells as they stamped in unison.
The dance over, the warriors prowled in an uncon-
cerned manner about the camp, looking like monarchs
of all they surveyed, and it was amusing to watch the
endeavours of a little Zanzibar sentry to prevent a
huge warrior from approaching too near the stores he
was supposed to be protecting. Most of the Zanzibar



THE MISSION TO UGANDA



soldiers average less than 5 feet 5 inches in height,
and the calm contempt with which the naked warrior
gazed down upon the little cloth-clad figure shoulder-
ing his rifle might have been taken as a picture of
the triumph of primitive barbarism over a foreign
semi-civilisation.

Confidence being thoroughly established, a good




MASAI WO.MEN AT LAKE ^'AIVASHA.



many Masai girls, or "dittos" as the unmarried ones
are called, came into camp. In contrast to their
gigantic brothers, these girls were singularly small
and slio-ht, with Graceful figures, and sometimes with
really handsome features of almost a true Asiatic type.
These girls were all sufficiently clothed for purposes
of decency, and many of them wore as ornaments
immense quantities of rings of bright wire, wound



MASAI CUSTOMS 103



tightly — too tightly, it seemed, for comfort — round
their necks, from wrist to elbow, and from ankle to
knee. The weight of metal thus carried by one
extremely prepossessing little iron-clad girl must have
been a really serious burden and impediment to pro-
gress.

Of the habits, manners, customs, morality — or
rather immorality — of the Masai, I can say nothing
which has not already been said with far greater
authority and experience by Mr. Joseph Thomson in
his interesting book, Through Masailcmd ; but for
the comfort of future travellers in these regions, I
may safely assert that the Masai of to-day are no
longer the dreaded, all -conquering, and triumphant
" bogie " of ten years ago. " Ichabod "—the glory is
departed from them, the terrible disease which a
couple of years ago slew every buffalo in their country
did not spare the cattle on which the Masai depend
for their sole means of existence. Their cows and
bulls died by tens of thousands, the whole race was
reduced to the verge of starvation ; women, old men,
and children did indeed die by hundreds from want
of food or from the plague of small-pox which attacked
them at the same time. Even the young men, the
warriors or " El-Moran," deprived of their sole articles
of diet — blood, beef, and milk, seem temporarily to
have lost their spirit; many sold their spears and
shields for food, and in some parts of the country they
so far changed the whole traditions of their race as to
begin to sow grain and to till the ground. They
have now recovered to some extent from their recent



104 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

misery, a persevering system of raiding on their
neighbours has enabled them to collect together a fair
number of cattle, and their young men can once more
enjoy their deep draughts of warm blood. In fact,
although we saw a good many of the older men and
women, and some of the children, looking as if they
had not had a " square meal " for many a long month,
the stalwart young warriors and their female com-
panions the " dittos " presented a remarkably sleek,
shiny, and well-fed appearance.

But another and better reason for the decadence
of the Masai power is the introduction into East
Africa of firearms, and especially of arms of precision.
The Masai will not desert their old traditions and
methods of fighting so far as to exchange their spears
for guns, even if they could obtain them ; but never-
theless they have a thorough dislike to seeing a rifle
pointed at them, more especially if behind those
shining barrels they descry the white face of a
European. They are discovering that to people with
guns, unless taken by surprise and overwhelmed by
great disparity in numbers, the broad-bladed spears,
the painted shields, savage head -gear, and jingling
bells have lost more than half their terrors. The
Masai will still, if they get an opportunity, and if
their great superiority in numbers gives them courage,
attack small parties of Swahilis carrying mails or
messages, or, more rarely, small ill-supplied Swahili
caravans ; but they openly say that they do not wish
for a feud with the white man, that they do not
think it "good enough," and they have completely



MASAI RAIDS 105



ceased either to expect or to demand any tribute
whatever from caravans led by Europeans which may
pass through their country. They are still, however,
a great curse to the whole of British East Africa;
their sanguinary raids, added to the terror of their
name, not only check the development of all neigh-
bouring tribes, but render desolate and absolutely
uninhabited many hundreds and even thousands of
square miles of fertile and healthy territory. Never-
theless, the Masai are of a distinctly higher order of
race, intellect, and physical development than any of
their more purely African -blooded neighbours, and
there is no reason why, with patience, a firm adminis-
tration, and even-handed justice, they should not,
even in a short time, be converted into useful, docile,
and pastoral members of the African community.
Their stature, shape, clearly -chiselled and aquiline
features, show the superiority of their Hamitic origin
over that of the surrounding negro tribes, but, as in
the case of their cousins the Gallas and Somalis, it is
the very consciousness of this superiority which will
probably offer the greatest resistance to the introduc-
tion of civilising reforms. Agriculturists they never
will be ; both the nature of their country and their
racial traditions are adverse to this sort of labour, but
when they have discovered that a better administra-
tion and an increase of self-confidence among sur-
rounding tribes makes cattle -raiding and murder a
losing game, and when they have learnt, as they are
already learning, that they may trust to the word
and honour of Englishmen, there is every ground for



106 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

hoping not only that the once-dreaded Masailand will
be a safe, pleasant, and healthy resort for European
travellers and sportsmen, but that the Masai them-
selves will become valuable and expert breeders of
cattle, donkeys, and horses (if these last are intro-
duced), and that individuals of the tribe may be
utilised as messengers, mail -runners, and even as
disciplined soldiers or police.

Two days after leaving Lake Naivasha we arrived
at the Salt Lake of Elmenteita, a long, comparatively
narrow sheet of water, surrounded by a bleak, bare,
and burnt country, intersected by cliffs of inhospit-
able-looking rock. On the road we had seen game of
every sort and kind in vast numbers, — the bag during
one day's march alone amounted to three zebras,
seventeen Thomsoni antelope, one Grantii, and
three crown cranes, which was sufficient to keep the
whole caravan in meat. Unfortunately, however, at
this time one of the keenest sportsmen among us,
Major Owen, was suffering from such a badly ulcer-
ated leg that he was not only quite unable to join
any shooting party, but, as he became incapacitated
from walking at all, was obliged to travel for the
next 250 miles in a hammock slung on the shoulders
of the most stalwart men that could be found. It
may be mentioned by the way that this hammock,
over which the Major had constructed a sort of shel-
ter with a blanket thrown over the pole to protect
him from the fierce rays of the sun, gave rise to all
sorts of rumours and expectations previous to our
arrival in Uganda. The natives of Kavirondo and



A MASSACRE 107



Usosra who saw the caravan pass with a number
of white men on foot, and a covered litter care-
fully carried, not unnaturally jumped to the con-
clusion that in this closed conveyance must lie a lady.
A rumour to this effect therefore flew ahead of us
into Uganda, receiving additional confirmation and
credence every day, so that on our arrival we not
only found all the Europeans in Uganda making
preparations to greet the wife of the Commis-
sioner, but that King Mwanga himself was on tiptoe
of excitement and expectation, as he had been
told by his courtiers, and fully believed, that the
mysterious lady was an English princess, sent as
a suitable present to him by Her Majesty the
Queen !

Close to Lake Elmenteita we passed the scene of
the massacre of an entire Swahili caravan of some
300 men, which took place about twelve years ago.
Three porters only are said to have made good their
escape, and to have arrived after a marvellous series
of adventures at the coast, where they narrated how
their caravan had been attacked by the branch of the
Masai known as the Wakwavi, and had successfully
held their own for two days and a night, but that on
the second night, all their ammunition being ex-
hausted, in attempting to get away quietly under
cover of the darkness, they had been discovered by
the enemy, and, with the exception of the three
lucky ones, massacred to a man. These Wakwavi,
who used in former times to occupy all the country
lying between this place and Kavirondo, are a some-



108 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

what degenerate branch of the Masai tribe, of whom
they appear to have all the vices and none of the
virtues. After a series of sanguinary battles and
campaigns, the details of which are given by Mr.
Thomson in his book, they were finally defeated by
the true-blooded Masai, and driven to settle in Kavi-
rondo, where they remain to this day, scattered all
over the country in different native villages, stealing
what they can, domineering over and terrorising the
more timid inhabitants, doing little or no agricultural
work, and generally making themselves a curse to an
otherwise friendly and peaceful collection of village
communities.

Thence we passed along an easy road to the salt, or
rather brackish, Lake of Nakuru, a not very impos-
ing piece of water some four miles long by the same
in width. The country was still full of game, the
only change being that the common hartebeest of
the plains (Bubalis Cokei) was replaced by a larger
and longer-horned species known as Jackson's harte-
beest, it having first been shot by Mr. F. Jackson,
recently an officer in the service of the I.B.E.A.
Company. This animal, although more difficult to
stalk successfully than any other game in the dis-
trict, did not appear to be quite so wild as its cousin
of the plains. But to whatever branch of the tribe
they may belong, a herd of hartebeest never settle
themselves to feed without first posting a sentinel on
some spot, usually a tall ant-heap, whence he can
command a good view of the surrounding country.
Thoroughly conscientious, too, and vigilant these



THE HARTEBEEST 109

sentries are. They never attempt to browse or to
" philander " with the ladies of the herd near them,
but, standing erect, motionless, and somewhat un-
gainly, they incessantly sniff the breeze and scan
the plains in search of a possible enemy. The instant
that danger of any sort is suspected, the " look-out
man " warns the rest of the herd by a stamp on the
ground and a loud sneeze. At this signal up go all
the heads, ten or twenty pairs of ears are pricked,
and a similar number of sharp eyes are searching the
grass and bushes on every side, while every nostril is
distended and quivering for the slightest taint in the
forest air. If, after the signal is given, the too eager
sportsman makes the slightest mistake, if the sun
strikes bright rays from his gun -barrel, if he in-
cautiously shows even the crown of his helmet or
treads on a dry stick, then good-bye to his chance of
getting a shot at that herd. In a second the whole
family, awkward and angular when at rest, are
stretching out in a long -striding, graceful gallop,
which would quickly distance any other species of
antelope, or any other wild animal, in East Africa.
When shot the hartebeest, if not too old, makes
moderately good venison, though not particularly
refined, the liver and tongue being perhaps the best
parts of him. His flesh cannot be compared, in point
of culinary excellence, with brisket of zebra, which is
equal to the best veal, while the best of all fourfooted
wild animals in East Africa, without the smallest
doubt, is the beautiful Grantii antelope ; of birds,
the guinea-fowl, the florican, and, above all, the



THE MISSION TO UGANDA



crown crane, are all worthy of a place of honour at
Bignon's, or the Maison Doree.

Ever since leaving the coast we had been gradually
ascending into colder and better air, but two days
after leaving Lake Nakuru, and having without diffi-
culty crossed the Guasso (river) Masai, our ascent of
the Man Mountains began in earnest. On the 18th
of February we camped at a spot fixed by the Bail-
way Survey Expedition as being within a few hun-
dred yards of the Equator, and bitterly cold it was.
It was rather difficult to imagine ourselves almost
exactly on the Equator, as we shivered that night
in bed, covered with all the blankets we could
muster, on the top of which were heaped coats,
flannel shirts, and clothes of any sort which might
help to keep in the heat, while most of us went to
bed wearing two or more suits of night garments
besides.

Unfortunately, the cold of the Equator Camp,
added to the unpardonable stupidity or carelessness of
some of the men, cost us far more than a little tem-
porary inconvenience. In the afternoon when we
made the camp, the donkeys, carrying the spare food
and the sick men, were still a long way behind, and
not expected to arrive for about a couple of hours.
Our camp was surrounded by tall, dry grass, and the
wind was blowing back along the road by which we
had advanced. The men had several times been
seriously warned of the danger of fire in this long
grass, and already, a few days before, we had suffered
some inconvenience, and I myself had been pre-



A PRAIRIE FIRE



vented from entering the camp on my return from
shooting, in consequence of a grass fire kindled by
our men. But on this evening, some of the Zanzibar
soldiers, with the crass stupidity and wooden-headed
carelessness which distinguished them in most of
their proceedings, must needs set fire to the grass to
leeward of the camp. In five minutes there was an
immense wall of fire charging down the path by which
we had come, and along which, as we knew, the
donkeys, cattle, and invalids were painfully advanc-
ing ! Nothing could be done, search parties were
sent to follow in the wake of the fire, but they
returned late and disconsolate without news. All
through that night there were no signs of the missing
party, and our anxiety may be imagined better than
described ; not only were the lives of the men in
charge of the animals, and the invalids at stake, but
they had also all the food on which we could depend
to take the whole caravan either forward or back.
Porters and soldiers alike had left Kikuyu with
twelve days' rations already issued to them ; this
was the twelfth day, a fresh issue was to have been
made that very afternoon ; we were at least 120'
miles from the nearest food - supplying district on
either side, and there was not one clay's rations in
the camp ! When the porters began to realise (with
empty stomachs) the full extent of the possible dis-
aster which might be caused by the soldiers' stupidity,
they were almost ready to tear the latter in pieces.
At last, however, the next morning, one of the search
parties returned with the news that they had found



THE MISSION TO UGANDA



the missing men and animals safe from fire, in a
clamp nook near a stream. Soon afterwards the
donkeys themselves came in sight, but it then ap-
peared that two of the invalids had died during the
night from exposure to the cold, as well as one
donkey and two sheep.

One of these unfortunate invalids did not belong
to our caravan, but was a poor old man whom I had
found wandering alone some days before in a miser-
able state. His story was that he had been a porter
in a caravan led by a Swahili, that he had fallen
ill and had been unable to keep up with the others,
on which the leader had quietly abandoned him to
his fate. The unhappy wretch had been painfully
hobbling along alone for five days when I found
him. He was without food, almost without clothes,
and without any means of making a fire at night.
It appeared to us simply marvellous that he had not
already died from exposure to the cold, or that he
had not been killed by lions or even hyaenas, who
are quite bold enough to destroy a sick and helpless
man by night. That these and similar acts of ghastly
cruelty, amounting almost to cold-blooded murder,
are done day by day, and have been done for the
last fifty years in native caravans, there can be no
doubt whatever ; such caravans, when once they are
fairly up-country, are free from all control ; power,
almost of life and death, over dozens of his fellow-
creatures remains absolutely in the hands of the
leader, who is perhaps a half-caste Arab, or perhaps
a Swahili of a class from which domestic servants or



A NECESSARY REFORM 113

private soldiers are drawn at Zanzibar ; nobody asks
or cares how many men, slaves or free, are taken or
inveigled into coming as porters, and nobody knows
or ascertains how many of these men ever return.
The old man whom I picked up was some miles off
the road, and, had I not happened to bend my steps
that way in search of game, had no more chance of
reaching any place where food could be obtained than
he had of finding a balloon ready to transport him
to his own hut in Mombasa. A thorough system
of registration, inspection, and control of native-led
caravans, both at the coast and at up-country stations,
is one of the very first measures which should be
carefully and thoughtfully devised and then efficiently
carried out, if British authority or the British name
is in any way, directly or indirectly, to be connected
with this part of Africa. 1

During the march on one of these days, our
righteous English indignation was fired by what at
first sight appeared to be a most abominable case of
torture and cruelty in our own caravan. Our atten-
tion being attracted to a small group of men bending
over a prostrate figure, we strolled up to see what
was the matter. On arrival we found a porter, or
soldier — I forget which— stretched face downwards on
the ground, while two powerful men were pulling at
his arms and legs in opposite directions with all their