ABSTRACT
T h e east coast of Africa has a notorious reputation for unhealthiness. This it has acquired mainly from the reports of the earlier expeditions into the interior, which entered the country by routes to the south of the British possessions. There, an inland plateau is separated from the sea by a broad belt of marshy and malarious lowland, where fever and dysentery are rife. Explorers, therefore, had to encounter the most unhealthy part of their journey when they were least prepared for it, and at that date the exact nature of the diseases and the most efficacious remedies were unknown. West of Mombasa, however, the hills come so close to the sea that the worst of the fever belt is absent, and the first day’s march ends on the edge of a high plateau. As a matter of fact, the difficulty of the Mombasa road is usually lack of water. In the dry season it is sometimes necessary to make marches of thirty-five, or even fifty-four miles, from one water-hole to the next. This difficulty, encountered at the beginning of the journey, when the loads are at their heaviest, and the men are fresh from the idle life and relaxing climate of the coast, is a severe trial to a caravan.
