I Wanted Very Much To
Spend A Day Or Two In The Old Place, But My
Companions Were Anxious To Push On As Quickly
As Possible To Better Hunting-Grounds.
I took
the trouble, however, to wake them out of their
peaceful slumbers in order to point out to
Them,
by the pale moonlight, the strength and beauty
of the Tsavo bridge; but I fear this delicate little
attention was scarcely appreciated as it deserved.
Naturally I could not expect them, or anyone
else, to view the bridge quite from my point of
view; I looked on it as a child of mine, brought
up through stress and danger and troubles of all
kinds, but the ordinary traveller of course knows
nothing of this and doubtless thinks it only a
very commonplace and insignificant structure
indeed.
We spent a few days at Nairobi, now a
flourishing town of some 6,000 inhabitants,
supplied with every modern comfort and luxury,
including a well laid-out race course; and after
a short trip to Lake Victoria Nyanza and
Uganda, we made our way back to the Eldama
Ravine, which lies some twenty miles north of
Landiani Station in the province of Naivasha.
Here we started in earnest on our big game
expedition, which I am glad to say proved to
be a most delightful and interesting one in every
way. The country was lovely, and the climate
cool and bracing. We all got a fair amount of
sport, our bag including rhino, hippo, waterbuck,
reedbuck, hartebeeste, wildebeeste, ostrich,
impala, oryx, roan antelope, etc.; but for the present
I must confine myself to a short account of how
I was lucky enough to shoot a specimen of an
entirely new race of eland.
Our party of five, including one lady who rode
and shot equally straight, left the Eldama Ravine
on January 22, and trekked off in an easterly
direction across the Laikipia Plateau. As the
trail which we were to take was very little known
and almost impossible to follow without a guide,
Mr. Foaker, the District Officer at the Ravine,
very kindly procured us a reliable man - a young
Uashin Gishu Masai named Uliagurma. But as
he could not speak a word of Swahili, we had
also to engage an interpreter, an excellent, cheery
fellow of the same tribe named Landaalu; and he
in his turn possessed a kinsman who insisted on
coming too, although he was no earthly use to us.
Our route took us through the Solai Swamp, over
the Multilo and Subu Ko Lultian ranges, and
across many unexpected rivers and streamlets.
On our first march I noticed that Uliagurma,
our kirongozi (guide), was suffering extremely,
though uncomplainingly, from earache, so I told
him to come to me when we got to camp and
I would see what I could do for him. Strange
to say, my doctoring proved most successful, and
Uliagurma was so grateful that he spread my
fame as a "medicine-man" far and wide among
the natives wherever we trekked.
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