Fairly good maps of the country may be obtained
at Stanford's, Long Acre, W.C., while the Game Laws
and Regulations can be procured from the Colonial
Office in Downing Street.
Passenger trains leave Mombasa at 11 a.m. on Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and are timed to
arrive at Nairobi at 11:15 next morning and at Kisumu
(the railway terminus on Lake Victoria Nyanza) at 9
o'clock on the morning following. The First-Class Return
fares from Mombasa to Nairobi, Kisumu, and Entebbe are
5 pounds 17s. 9d., 10 pounds 10s. 3d., and 13 pounds 13s. 3d. respectively.
It is unnecessary to specify district by district when
particular species of game are to be found, for the
sportsman can easily learn this for himself and get the
latest news of game movements on his arrival at
Mombasa. As a matter of fact, the whole country
abounds in game, and there cannot be lack of sport
and trophies for the keen shikari. The heads and skins
should be very carefully sun-dried and packed in tin-lined
cases with plenty of moth-killer for shipment
home. For mounting his trophies the sportsman cannot
do better, I think, than go to Rowland Ward of
Piccadilly. I have had mine set up by this firm for
years past, and have always found their work excellent.
I consider that 400 pounds should cover the entire cost of
a three months' shooting trip to East Africa, including
passage both ways. The frugal sportsman will
doubtless do it on less, while the extravagant man will
probably spend very much more.
Should time be available, a trip to the Victoria Nyanza
should certainly be made. The voyage round the Lake
in one of the comfortable railway steamers takes about
eight days, but the crossing to Entebbe, the official
capital of Uganda, can be done in seventeen hours,
though it usually takes twenty-seven, as at night the
boats anchor for shelter under the lee of an island.
The steamer remains long enough in Entebbe harbour
to enable the energetic traveller to pay a flying visit in
a rickshaw to Kampala, the native capital, some twenty-one
miles off. I spent a most interesting day last year
in this way, and had a chat with the boy King of
Uganda, Daudi Chwa, at Mengo. He was then about
nine years old, and very bright and intelligent. He
made no objection to my taking his photograph, but it
unfortunately turned out a failure.
It is curious to find the Baganda (i.e., people of
Uganda) highly civilised - the majority are Christians
- surrounded as they are on all sides by nations of
practically naked savages; and it is a very interesting,
sight to watch them in the "bazaar" at Kampala, clad
in long flowing cotton garments, and busily engaged in
bartering the products of the country under the shade
of tattered umbrellas. Unfortunately the great scourge
of the district round the shores of the Lake is the
sleeping sickness, which in the past few years has
carried off thousands of the natives, and has quite
depopulated the islands, which were once densely
inhabited. The disease is communicated by the bite of
an infected fly, but happily this pest is only found in
certain well-defined regions, so that if the traveller
avoids these he is quite as safe, as regards sleeping
sickness, as if he had remained in England.
On the return journey from Entebbe, Jinja, a port on
the north side of the Victoria Nyanza, is usually called
at. This place is of great interest, as it is here that the
Lake narrows into a breadth of only a few hundred
yards, and, rushing over the Ripon Falls, forms the
long-sought-for source of the Nile. The magnificent
view of the mighty river stretching away to the north
amid enchanting scenery is most inspiring and one can
well imagine how elated Speke must have felt when
after enduring countless hardships, he at last looked
upon it and thus solved one of the great problems
the ancients.
II.
The following, is a literal translation of the
Hindustani poem referred to on p. 104: -
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MERCIFUL, THE
COMPASSIONATE:
First must I speak to the praise and glory of God,
who is infinite and incomprehensible,
Who is without fault or error, who is the Life, though
without body or breath.
He has no relatives, nor father nor son, being himself
incomparable and passionless.
His is the knowledge of the known and of the
unknown, and although without a tongue, yet does
he speak in mighty tones.
I, Roshan, came to this country of Africa, and did
find it indeed a strange land;
Many rocks, mountains, and dense forests abounding
in lions and leopards;
Also buffaloes, wolves, deer, rhinoceroses, elephants,
camels, and all enemies of man;
Gorillas, ferocious monkeys that attack men, black
baboons of giant size, spirits, and thousands of varieties
of birds;
Wild horses, wild dogs, black snakes, and all animals
that a hunter or sportsman could desire.
The forests are so dark and dreadful that even
the boldest warriors shrink from their awful depths.
Now from the town of Mombasa, a railway line
extends unto Uganda;
In the forests bordering on this line, there are
found those lions called "man-eaters," and moreover
these forests are full of thorns and prickly shrubs.
Portions of this railway from Mombasa to Uganda
are still being made, and here these lions fell on the
workmen and destroyed them.
Such was their habit, day and night, and hundreds
of men fell victims to these savage creatures, whose very
jaws were steeped in blood.
