The Kilima-Njaro Expedition by Harry Johnston

Faithful to their promise, Mandara's five soldiers, led by Kilaki, arrived in our settlement at sunrise. They brought with them bags of provisions, and three fat sheep, which were to constitute a further supply of food, and one which would obligingly transport itself to the desired goal.

Leaving Faraǰi, the cook, alone in charge of Kitimbiriu, we commenced our ascent by following the upper road skirting the crest of our long hill. We walked first between tall hedges of glossy-leaved dracenas and gorgeous scarlet-flowered aloes, which grew from tall stems in arborescent form. As we passed the wooden doorways of the different congeries of huts which border these Čaga lanes the inhabitants rushed out mirthfully to greet us. "Utoṅga ako, Maṅge Muzungu? " (Where are you going, white chief? ) they cried. "Ngatoṅga Kibô" (I am going to Kibô) I joyfully answered. (Kibô is the giant summit of the mass.) From each little tidy compound of Wa-čaga, from their trim fields and luxuriant plantations, came merry girls, their arms linked together affectionately, and accompanied by their brothers, fathers, and husbands, all in perfect nudity and all in smiling good-humour. They would range themselves along the sides of the narrow lane, backing, with much giggling, into the fern-fronds and brambles as I approached, and saluting my followers with many outspoken remarks as to their personal appearance and the errand on which they were bound. In the rear of the small company came the six soldiers of Mandara, wearing conspicuously the white cloths I had given them, and loaded with their shields, arms, and water-gourds. They urged along the upward path the three docile and unsuspecting sheep, which were to serve as their stock of provisions during our residence above the clouds. At about 5400 feet we quitted the last signs of cultivation, and consequently missed the familiar runnels of water which in the inhabited country intersect the land every few yards. The surrounding scenery was now charmingly soft and pretty, so exactly like Devonshire hills and coombes in general aspect that I need not give it a more detailed description. At 6000 feet we halted for a brief rest. The ascent had been very gradual. Here, where we first rested, there were grassy downs of short springy turf scattered over with magnificent clumps of forest; but higher up the woodland scenery, though very pretty and "English" in look, did not offer remarkably fine timber, the trees being short and twisted with dense undergrowth. The wild flowers were beautiful. Parasitic begonias trailed their lovely pink bells in long festoons; magenta-coloured balsams gleamed from among the fern-fronds, and every now and then we would come across clumps of crimson and salmon-tinted gladioli that provoked expressions of admiration even from my followers, whose eyes were caught with the rich displays of colour. The tree-trunks, even to the minor branches, were densely hung with moss, orchilla-lichen, or delicate epiphytic ferns. Other species of ferns grew luxuriantly at the side of the path, some of them actually British in their extended range. There were polypodies, holly ferns, bracken, maidenhair, identical apparently-I have since found at Kew they were actually the same-with those we know in England. Unfamiliar, though, to our English scenes were the magnificent tree-ferns (of the species _Lonchitis pubescens_), which rose grandly above the dense undergrowth, with fronds of a shiny bluish-green, whenever the pale green light of the forest fell athwart their downy leaflets or silky stems. At a greater altitude than 8000 feet these tree-ferns were rarely met with; indeed, they were mostly confined to a zone round the mountain between 7000 feet and 8000 feet above sea-level.