He starts off, and by inquiry of other natives and by relying on a natural instinct that is little short of marvelous he ultimately finds the object of his search and delivers his message.
If you look at a map of British East Africa you will be amazed at the number of names that are marked upon it.

You would quite naturally think that the country was rather thickly settled, whereas in fact there are very few places of settlement away from the single line of railroad that runs from Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza.

The protectorate is divided into subdistricts, each one of which has a capital, or _boma_, as it is called.

This _boma_ usually consists of a white man's residence, a little post-office, one or two Indian stores where all the necessities of a simple life may be procured, and a number of native grass huts.
There is usually a small detachment of askaris, or native soldiers, who are necessary to enforce the law, repress any native uprising, and collect the hut tax of one dollar a year that is imposed upon each household in the district.
Other names on the map may look important, but will prove to be only streams, or hills, or some landmarks that have been used by the surveyors to signify certain places.

In our five weeks' trip through Trans-Tanaland we found only two _bomas_, Fort Hall and Embo, and three or four ranches where one or more white men lived.