AT NAIROBI.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10405, 17 March 1910, Page 6

AT NAIROBI.

(By John T. M'Cutchcon.)

Before Colonel Roosevelt drew the

eyes of the world on British East Africa.. Nairobi was practically unheard of. The British Colonial 'Office knew where it was. and a fair number of English sportsmen had visited it in the "ast six or eight years. Perhaps twenty-five or thirty Americans had been in Nairobi oil their way to the rich game fields that lie in all directions from the town, but beyond these few outsiders the place was unknown. Now it is decidedly on the map thanks to c:tir gallant and picturesque Theodore. In has been mentioned in book

and/magazine to a degree that nearly everybody can tell in a general way where and what it is, even if he canpronounce it. Before coming to Nairobi I had read a-lot a,bout it, and yet when I reached the ; place it seemed as though the descriptions had failed to prepare, me for what I saw. 1 We arrived under un-

usual .conditions, having come lip from Mombasa on the,special train that Brought the new Governor, Sir Percy .Ghiouard. Files of native soldiers were lined tip on the platform of the station , and- the ! whole white population of ..the- town, several (hundred in number, were .massed in front of the building/ The roofs and tree's were filled with natives, and the broad open space beyond' the station was fringed pony carts, bullock carts, rick- ' shaft's, cameras, aiid some liffteVb-useS. Several' thousand people, mostly East Indians, and natives, were.among those present.-: "Lord Delamere, who has adopted East Africa as his homo and who owns a million, acres of game preserves, read an address of welcome, and Sir Percy, in. white uniform and helmet, responded with a speech that ;struck a rjopular note. There were, dozens of cameras snapping and the whole .-effect' was distinctly festive in appearance. The town lies on the edge of the Atlii plains, a broad sweep of sunbleached grass veldt many miles in extent. From almost any part of the town one miay look out on plains where great herds of wild game are constantly in sight. In an hour's leisurely walk from the station a man with a gun can get hh.rtebee'st, zebra, Grant's gazelle, Thompson's gazelle, impalla, and probably wildebeest. One cannot possibly count the number of animals that feed contentedly within siglit of the-town of Nairobi, and it is difficult to think that one is not looking, out unon a collection of domesticated game. Sometimes, as happened two nights before we reached Nairobi, a lion' will chase a herd of zebra and the latter in fright will tear through the town, destroying gardens and fences and flowers in a mad stampede. We met one man who goes out ten miles from town every other day and kills a kongoni (hartebeest) as food for his dogs. If one were disposed to do so he could kill dozens every day -with little effort and almost no diminution of the supply. ■ Nairobi is new and unattractive. There is one long main thoroughfare, quite wide and fringed with -trees, along which at wide intervals is the substantial-looking stone building of the Bank of India, the business houses, the hotels, and numbers of cheap corrugated iron one-storey shacks used for Government purposes*. A native barracks with low iron "houses and some more little iron houses used for medi-

cal experiments and still some more for use as a native hospital arc encountered as one" takes the half-mile ride from the station to the hotel. A big •square filled with large trees marks the park; and a number of rather pretentious one-storey buildings display signs that tell you where you may buy almost anything, from a suit of clothes -to a magazine rifle. Goanese, East Indian, and European

shops are scattered at intervals along this one long, wide street. Rickshaws,' pedestrians, bullock carts, horsemen and heavily burdened porters are pass-

■ng constantly back and forth, almost always in the middle of the street. Bicycles, one or two motor cycles, a\id a couple of automobiles are occasionally to be seen. The aspect of the town suggests the' activity of a new frontier place where everybody is busy. At one end the long street loses itself in the broad'Athi plains, at the other it climbs up over some low hills and enters the residence district on higher ground. Here' the hills are generously covered with a straggly growth of tall, ungraceful trees, among which, almost hidden from view, are the widely scattered bungalows of the white population. :

Branching off from the- main street are side streets, some of them .thronged with East Indian bazaars, about which mav be found all the phases of life of an Indian city. Still beyond- and parallel' with the one ' main street are sparsely settled Streets, which look rag. god with their tin shacks and scattered gardens.

Nairobi is not a'beautiful.place, Jrut it is new and busy, and the people who : live there are working wonders in changing a bad location into what some day will be a pretty place. It. is over 5000 feet high, healthy, and cold at night. Away off in tlie hills a mile qt lnore'from town is Government House, • where the Governor lives, and nearby is the club and a new-European hospital, looking out over a sweep of country that on clear days includes Kilma-Njaro, over a • hundred miles to the south-east, and Mount Kenta, a hundred miles north-east. You are still in civilisation in Nairobi. Anything you want you can buy at some of the shops, and. almost anything you may want to eat or drink can easily be gotten. There are "weekly newspapers, churches, : clubs, hotels, and nearly all the by-products of civilisation. One could live in Nairobi, onlj' a few miles from the equator, wear summer clothes at noon and winter clothes at night, keep well, and not miss many of the luxuries of life. The telegraph-puts you in immediate touch with the whole -wide world/- and ion' the 13th of September yoii can read : t;he Chicago Tribune of August 31st. ,; At, present the chief revenue of the ■'G6v6rninent is derived from shooting parties,: and the officials are doing all they- can to encourage the coming of sportsmen. Each man who comes to shoot must pay £SO--for his license, as well as employ at least 30 "natives for his transport. He must buy supplies, pay 10 per cent, import and export tax,' and in many other ways, spend money,; which goes toSvard paying the expenses of government.' The Government also is encouraging various agricultural and stock-raising experiments, but these have not yet passed the experimental stage Almost mything may.be grown in British East 'but before agriculture can be made to pay the vast herds of wild game must either be exterminated or driven away. No fence will keep" out a herd of zebra, and in one rush a field of grain is ruined by these giant herds; Experiments have failed to satisfactorily domesticate the zebra, and so he remains a menace to agriculture and a nuisance in all respects except as adding a picturesque note to the. landscape. Colonel Roosevelt, in a recent speech .in Nairobi, spoke of British East Africa as a land of enormous possibilities and 'promise,' but in talks with many men here I found that little money has been made by those who have gone into agriculture in a large way. Drought and predatory herds of game h aye introduced an element of uncertainty which has made agriculture, as at present developed, unsatisfactory. '-.■'•

Colonel Roosevelt has become a popular idol in East Africa. Everywhere one meets Englishmen who express the groatest admiration for him. He has shrewdly analysed conditions as the.y now exist and has picked out the weak spots in the government. For' many years the country has been administered by weak executives and its progress has been greatly retarded thereby The last Governor was kind,, but inefficient, and some months ago was sent to the West Indies, where he is officially buried. Roosevelt came, sized up the situation, and made a speech at a big banquet in Nairobi. Nearly two hundred white men in evening &iothes .were there. They came Iranian parts of East Africa, and listened witli admiration to the plain truths that Theodore Roosevelt told them in the manner of a Dutch uncle. Since then lie has owned the country and could be elected to any office within the gift of the people. He talked for over an hour, and it must have been a great speech, if one may judge by the enthusiastic comments I have heard I about ■ it. When an Englishman gets enthusiastic about a speech by an Ame- j

rican it must be a pretty good speech. Ncwland and Tarlton is tlic firm that outfits most shooting parties that start out from Nairobi. They do all the preliminary work and relieve you of most of the worry. If you wish them to do so, they will get your complete otitiit, so you need not bring anything with you but a suitcase. They will got your guns, your tents, your food supplies, your mules, your headman, your cook, your gunbearers, your askaris (native soldiers), your interpreter, your ammunition, and your porters. They will have the whole outfit ready for you by the time you arrive in Nairobi. Whenyou arrive in British East Africa asliooting bent you will hear of Newland and Tarlton so often that you will think they own the country. Mr Newland met us in Mombasa, and through his agents sent all of our London equipment of tents and guns and ammunition, and food up to Nairobi. When we arrived in Nairobi he had our porters ready,-.'together with teirt boys,' gunbearers, and all the other members of' our "safari/'" and in three days we were ready to march. The firm has systematised methods so much that it is "simple, for them to do what would be matters of endless worry to the stranger. In course of time you .pay the price, and in our case it seemed reasonable, when one considers the work and worry involved. Most English sportsmen come out in October and November, after which time the shooting is at its height. Two years ago there were sixty "safaris," or shooting .expeditions, sent out from Nairobi. When we left, late in August, there were about thirty.. Perhaps in another month or so there will be thirty more.

Each party must have from thirty to a couple of'hundred camp attendants, depending upon the number of white men in the "party. Each white man requires, roughly, thirty " natives to take care of him. In our party of four white people we have 118. One would presume that the game would speedily be exterminated, yet it is said that the game is constantly increasing. After one -dav's ride on the railway it would be hard to conceive of game being more plentiful than it is .at present. Mr Roosevelt' carries nearly 300 men with him. collects a great quantity of game, and 'necessarily spends a great deal of money. It is said that the expenses of liis expedition approach £2OOO a -■month, with the chance that this figure 'is more than the actual figure. Just at present there is a shortage in: the porter supply, and we were obliged to take out men from a number of different tribes. - Swahil porters are considered the best, but there are inofc enough to go round. So we have Swahilis, Gagandas, Kikuyus, Kavirondas, Lumbwas, Inyamvezis, and a lot more of assorted races. Each porter carries sixty pounds on his head, and when the whole outfit is on the trail ic looks like a procession of much importance. The Norfolk Hotel is the chief rendoHv'cns of Nairobi. In the course of the afternoon nearly all the white men on hunting bent show up at the hotel and patronise the bar. They come in wonderful hunting regalia and in all the wonderful splendor of the Britisher when he is afield. There is nearly always a great coming and going, of men riding up, and of rickshaws arriving and 'departing. Usually several tired sportsmen are stretched out on the verandah of the long one-storied building, reading the ancient London papers that are lying about. Professional guides, arrayed in picturesque Buffalo Bill outfits, "with spurs and hunting knives and slouch hats, are among those present, and amateur sportsmen in crisp khaki and sun helmets and new putties swagger back and forth to the bar. There Is no denying the fact that there is considerable drinking in Nairobi. There was as much before we got there as there was after we got there, however. After the arrival of the European steamer at Mombasa business is brisk for several days as the different parties sally forth for the wilds.

On our ship there were four different parties. A" young . American from Boston, who has been -spending several years doing archaeological work in Crete, accompanied by a young English cavalry officer, was starting out for a : six "weeks' shoot south of, the railway and near Victoria Nyan/.a. Two" professional ivory hunters wore starting for -German East Africa by way of- the lake: Mr Boyco and his African balloonograph party of seven white men were preparing for the photographing expedition in the Sotik, and our party of 'four was making hnal preparations for our march. Consequently there was much hurrying about, and Newland and Tarlton's warehouse was the centre of throngs-of waiting porters and the scene of intense activity as each party sorted and assembled its mountains of supplies. The Boycc party.' with its two balloons and its great number of box kites and its moving picture equipment was slow in starting, but it expected to get away on September 24th, the day after "we left. They planned to fill their'balloon in Nairobi' and tow it at the end of a special train as far as Kipabe, where'they wore \ to strike inland from the : railway. They were encamped on a hill overlooking the city, with their 230 porters ready for the field and their balloon ready to make the first ascension ever attempted in East Africa.

Throngs of natives scpiatted about, watching the -final'procurations, and doubtless wondered what the strange, swaying object was. On the .evening of the 22nd the party gave a' moving picture show at one of the clubs for the benefit of St. Andrew's Church. A great crowd of fashionably dressed people turned out and saw the motion picture records of event's which they had seen in life only a couple of days before: "While in Nairobi we visited the little station where experiments arc being made in the "sleeping sickness." An intelligent young English doctor is conducting the investigations, and great hopes are entertained of much new information about that most mysterious ailment that has swept whole colonies nf hlnivks awa.v in the last few veai'S.