men to follow me into the mists and hailstorms, and could not unaided carry tent, instruments, and food, I had reluctantly to resign my long-meditated feat, and leave the actual summit of Kilima-njaro still virgin.

Moreover, my time for collecting at these high levels was coming to an end. Although I had soon got inured to the climate myself, and felt invigorated by the frosty nights, my poor followers, accustomed to the greenhouse-atmosphere of Zanzibar, were suffering cruelly from the cold. To clothe forty men in warm blankets was beyond my resources, and to induce them to live for a long period lightly clad in garments of cotton, in a temperature which was often below the freezing-point, required, to say the least, considerable persuasion; but my chief anxiety arose, not so much from their unwillingness to remain a few weeks longer at an altitude of 10,000 feet, as from their unfitness to do so. Several of the men were suffering severely from bronchial affections; one or two had had touches of pleurisy; of chilblains and rheumatism all complained; so that I began to fear that, unless I moved to lower levels, I should have no men left to carry my loads. Therefore, after deliberating with the headmen of the caravan, I prepared to evacuate my highest station on Kilima-njaro at the end of October, and following a new route through unexplored country, return to my settlement at Taveita.

CHAPTER XIV.

THROUGH THE FORESTS OF KIMAWENZI AND THE COUNTRY OF ROMBO.

To have retraced my steps to Marañu, now that my residence near the snow was at an end, would have been simply madness. I had made use of the Sultan as far as he could aid my mission, and now to re-enter his dominions and place myself voluntarily in his power would be nothing less than walking into a trap from which an exit could only be obtained by an enormous ransom. According to Čaga fashion I should simply be kept as a hostage till I had made good my promises and induced Sir John Kirk to satisfy the utmost demand of my greedy captor. Consequently I cared little for the unknown risks of a new road, provided I fell not again into the cul-de-sac from which I had issued safely to ascend the mountain. Moreover, I wished to see something of the eastern flank of Kilima-njaro; so after much consultation of my map and discussion with my head-men I fixed on a track running round the base of Kimawenzi and descending to the plain through Rombo, past the crater-lake, Čala, and along the banks of the Lumi river, which flows through Taveita.

During the whole time of our stay on the upper slopes of Kilima-njaro our native guides from Marañu

had remained with us, of course receiving pay for their employment. They always believed that we should return with them to their grasping Sultan, and I kept them in ignorance of my real plans, intending quietly to part company with them where our two roads diverged, and not forewarn them of my determination to avail myself of another route back to Taveita. Together we started, therefore, when all had been made ready; and leaving our alpine settlement with its grassy slopes and forests of arboreal heaths, we took the path running eastwards round the upper slopes of the mountain. Descending a few hundred feet we found ourselves in comparatively dense and luxuriant forest, with a rich undergrowth, contrasting strongly with the bleak, grassy steppes only a trifle higher in altitude. Further on we arrived at the old camping-place of our former upward journey, at a height of 9000 feet. Here we remained to rest and eat our midday meal, gathering up our energies for the rather critical task that lay before us; for, having resolved on no account to return to Marañu, we must now part company with the men who had hitherto led us, and, relying in future on our own powers of pathfinding, strike out an independent route to the desired goal. As my head-men were somewhat diffi dent of their own qualities in "fore-louping" (as the Boers call it in the south), I undertook to lead the caravan back to Taveita by compass and map. Accordingly, little heeding the cries and mocking laughter of our guides, we started confidently along a faintlymarked path running eastward. At first all went well, but soon the path died away, and not daring to stop or hesitate, I plunged boldly into the trackless bush. The men followed meekly, but the absence of

any road rendered their progress very trying. After about an hour of struggling through the rank forest undergrowth, during which I keenly felt my responsibility, we emerged on a little open grassy patch. Here all, uninvited, put down their loads, and very free criticism on our mode of travel was uttered. To add to our disagreeables, incessant rain had been falling since two o'clock. Whilst stopping here to rest and hold a consultation, like a despotic monarch who feels his power threatened and seeks to appease his subjects by granting them a constitution, I invited all the men to take part in our deliberations, and suggest the best course to be followed. At this juncture the native guides arrived, having followed in our footsteps, anxious to see the result of our self-guidance. Wishing to transfer my responsibility to other shoulders, I offered them a present of cloth if they would lead us through the trackless forest to the precincts of Rombo whence I knew we could find our way unaided to Taveita. They consented, and once more we entered the dusky woods, following a zigzag course by means of the rough paths which elephants had just made. Often the long-stemmed flowers, and crushed, stained grass would be slowly rising up again erect from the prostrate position into which they had been trampled by the feet of the cumbrous proboscidians, and their smoking dung would bestrew the track, showing how recently these lords of the forest had preceded us. Indeed, from time to time they would make their presence known by sonorous trumpeting, but as they were quite aware of our proximity they took good care to conceal their huge bodies. The undergrowth was so dense that you might have touched an elephant your gropings before you saw him; but above this

in

dense tangle of six or seven feet in height rose the straight smooth trunks of superb trees; indeed, the timber I saw here was exceptionally fine.

The gloom of the forest was intensified by the enormous masses of orchilla-weed which grew thickly on the upper branches of the trees, in such a manner as to suggest a grey-green cloth being thrown over the foliage. The density of the woodland growth was almost appalling; we felt like insects creeping and twining through the interstices of the mighty trunks. As we preferred to go whither the elephants had forced a way, our course was naturally an erratic one, and several times the men lay down in despair to pant and rest, declaring that night would still find us groping in the forest maze-nay, that should the guides maliciously desert us, we might wander for ever in this leafy labyrinth till we either perished at the hands of skulking robbers or fell an easy prey to angry elephants or hungry leopards. In vain I pointed to my compass and said that should the guides fail us, that was an unerring pathfinder; the men shook their heads despondently and said it might be in "Ulaya"my country-but in the land of the savages-"Ušenzi" -it availed nothing. I must confess the dull green gloom of the forest was very oppressive. The mists of the mountain permeated the foliage and a continual moisture dripped down on us. We were all wetted through every covering. Our clothes were ponderous with absorbed water-it was fatiguing to stagger under their weight. Disagreeable noises-all very easy to account for, but full of vague terror to my superstitious following-broke the stillness of the rank depths of vegetation wherein we stumbled and crept along. The hyraxes uttered their thrilling, half-human, wailing