Kilimanjaro Boma

The boma was a fairly large place, consisting of a Government station in charge of three or four white officials with about a hundred Native soldiers. The principal civilian residents were two Greek traders, who owned some coffee plantations. They had been in the country for many years and in the early days did a good trade in ivory. Before the country was taken over, this part was thickly populated by the Wachagga, a rather fine race of people, who gave the Government a lot of trouble. They were well versed in woodcraft, did beautiful carving in wood, rhino horn and ivory, and they were very clever at copying anything. A Hungarian baron, named Boenemisa, was staying at the boma at the time of our arrival, collecting curios for the Budapest Museum. He was an old traveler and I had many interesting chats with him.