Evening star., 1924-08-03

bad. but one can never be sure such
things will come to a head. l en-
tirely approve of your plans to rein
force Northcote. but do not send off
your men to him until l receive his
report"
At dawnnext morning was awak-
ened by messenger from the
provincial commissioner. L tore
open the envelope, with a sinking
feeling in, the pit of my stomach.
The letter was brief, but to the point
The commissioner wrote me that a
native, runner had brought word from
Kisii that Northcote had been seri-
ously wounded by a spear thrown
by the Kisii in an attack on his
escort while patrolling the vicinity
of his bona. The whole kisii coun-
try was in open rebellion. and he
feared that policemen on patrol duty
and native traders had been mur-
dered.,
was directed to start imm ediately
to the relief of kisii with all avail
able men of my detachment of police,
taking rations and supplies for a
month. Dr.. Boedeker. the provincial
physician, had been ordered to hasten
to Kisii by way of Karungo. the
Sa fest route, to give medical atten-
ton to Northcote.
ON my arrival at the bona. my in
~ structions read. / was to put IT
in a proper state of defense. but
was advised to act only on the de-
fensive, taking no offensive meas
ures unless so ordered.
A telegram had been sent to the
governor at Nairobi asking that
| troops be sent Immediately to the
scene of the rebellion, but they could
not be expected to reach kisii in less
than seven days.
In two and a half hours after the
| receipt of these orders. despite all
| unavoidable but none the less irri-
| tating delays, | was ready to march
| off to iKsil with so policemen, Max
| i'm machine gun, small army of ma
tive porters. 10000 rounds of ammu-
milton and sufficient food to last for
a month. l had reduced the porters'
| loads to 30 pounds each. so that we
might travel rapidly. l had 81 miles
! to travel, and had made up my mind
| to reach kisii Bona in two days.
All that day we. trailed across the
scorched kavirondo Plains. heading
! toward a ford which would have me
many dreary hours of marching
round a deep bay of the Victoria
Nyanza Here. | had learned, were
a number of native dug-out canoes to
ferry us across the bay. Time was
for
minute gained might mean the saw
ing of life. Night came on. but
still I marched forward at a steady
and uniform rate of speed by the
light of kindly moon. l halted at
last to rest my weary porters on the
banks of a broad river.
could hear distinctly the snortinG
and spla shing of the hippopotami as
fthey emerged from the river to Craze
upon the shore. From the distance
came the monotonous beating and
throbbng of the tom-toms of the
kavirondo people, through whose
country we were now travelling: and,
fntermingling with these noises there
was the angry buZzing of millions of
hungry mosquitoes and the occa-
SIOndl call OF "dteT1O"l disturbed
from its noctural slumber.
At daybreak ! reached the ferry
on the lake shore. Here found some
dozen native dug-out canoes tied to
the bank; and l had soon comman-
deered them and their owners to
ferry us across the bay. To have
marched around the bay would have
taken me "A full day, whereas the
canoes could transport us TO the
other side in about six hours.
These native canoes were con-
structed out of tree trunks or else
the bark of trees sewn together by
sinews from the legs of goats. The
caulking of the seams was most in
effective and primitive, consisting
mainly of plugs of grass or clay.
The canoe in which / travelled was
much overloaded and leaking badly.
Two naked Kavirondos poled us
down narrow and muddy channel