om England a letter
should be sent to the agents, stating the date of arrival and what
porters, etc., will be required. The sportsman will then find
everything ready for him, so that an immediate start may be made.

Unless money is no object, I should not advise anyone to engage porters
at Mombasa, as equally good men can be obtained at Nairobi, thus saving
20 rupees per head in return railway fares. It must be remembered that
for transport work men are infinitely preferable to donkeys, as the
latter are exasperatingly slow and troublesome, especially on rough
ground or on crossing streams, where every load has to be unpacked,
carried over, and then reloaded on the animal's back. The caravan for
one sportsman--if he intends going far from the railway--is usually
made up as follows, though the exact numbers depend upon many
considerations:

1 Headman ................ 50 rupees[1] per month.
1 Cook ................... 35 " "
1 Gun-bearer ............. 20 " "
1 "Boy" (personal servant) 20 " "
2 Askaris (armed porters). 12 " " each.
30 Porters ................ 10 " " each.

[1] The rupee in British East Africa is on the basis of 15 to the pound
sterling.

The porters are all registered, the Government taking a small fee for
the registration; and according to custom half the wages due for the
whole trip are advanced to the men before a start is made. The
sportsman is obliged to provide each porter with a jersey, blanket and
water-bottle, while the gun-bearer and "boy" get a pair of boots in
addition. A cotton shelter-tent and a cooking pot must also be
furnished for every five men.

The food for the caravan is mostly rice, of which the Headman gets two
kibabas (a kibaba is about 1-1/2 lb.) per day; the cook, gun-bearer,
"boy" and askaris one and a half kibabas, and the ordinary porters, one
kibaba, each per day.

It is the duty of the Headman to keep discipline on the safari (caravan
journey), both in camp and on the march, and to see to the distribution
and safety of the loads, the pitching and striking of camp, the issue
of posho (food) to the porters, etc. He always brings up the rear of
the caravan, and on him depends greatly the general comfort of the
sportsman. For our trip at the beginning of 1906, we managed to secure
a splendid neapara, and never had the least trouble with the porters
all the time. His only drawback was that he