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.
[Drawing: _At the Norfolk Hotel Bar_] 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, were starting out for a six-weeks' shoot south of the railway and near Victoria Nyanza.
Two professional ivory hunters were starting for German East Africa by way of the lake.

Mr.Boyce 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 final preparations for our march.
Consequently there was much hurrying about, and Newland and Tarlton's warehouse was the center of throngs of waiting porters and the scene of intense activity as each party sorted and assembled its mountains of supplies.
Seager and Wormald got off first, going by train to Kijabe, where they were to begin their ten days' march in the Sotik.

Here they were to try their luck for two or three weeks and then march back, preparatory to starting home.
The professional ivory hunters were slow in starting.