ABSTRACT
M R R H O D E S having proceeded to the Cape, I ascertained that no final amalgamation of the South African and African Lakes Companies was likely to be effected till the spring of the following year (1890), and that meantime Mr Johnston had gone to Karonga's to effect a settlement. My undertaking with Mr Rhodes, therefore, remained in abeyance, and, as the wound in my left arm began to break out with the cold of the coming winter, I gladly accepted a kind offer from Sir W. Mackinnon of a passage to Mombasa and back for my health in one of his ships. I was still at liberty, for, though the War Office had cancelled the year's leave granted to me, I was unattached for duty, awaiting the return of my regiment from India in the early spring. I purposed, therefore, only a few weeks' stay in Mom-
basa. I was anxious in some way to acknowledge my free passage, and therefore gladly undertook to make any suggestions regarding the operations of the Imperial British East Africa Company which some experience of campaigning and of work similar to this might prompt.
