------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. Photographic illustrations are also moved to fall on paragraph breaks. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. A WHITE KING IN EAST AFRICA [Illustration: JOHN BOYES] A WHITE KING IN EAST AFRICA THE REMARKABLE ADVENTURES OF JOHN BOYES, TRADER AND SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, WHO BECAME KING OF THE SAVAGE WA-KIKUYU WRITTEN BY HIMSELF EDITED BY C. W. L. BULPETT WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP NEW YORK McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 1912 (_All rights reserved._) TO WILLIAM NORTHROP McMILLAN IN MEMORY OF MANY TRAMPS TOGETHER EDITOR’S PREFACE The following pages describe a life of adventure in the more remote parts of Africa—adventures such as the explorer and sportsmen do not generally encounter. The man to whom the episodes narrated in this book refer has been personally known to me for ten years. We have hunted big game and explored together many a time in the African jungle; and as it is principally at my instigation that he has put the following account of his experiences into writing, I think it is due to him and to the public that I should make known my responsibility in the matter. It seemed to me that the adventures John Boyes underwent were something quite out of the common; in these matter-of-fact days they may be said to be almost unique. In the days of exploration and discovery, when Captain Cook and such heroes lived and thrived, they were perhaps common enough; but every year the opportunities of such adventure get more and more remote, and as the uttermost parts of the earth are brought under the influence of civilization will become ever more impossible. For this reason alone a story such as told here seems to be worth recording. There is no attempt at literary style. The man tells his tale in a simple, matter-of-fact way, and, as his Editor, I have thought it better from every point of view to leave his words as he has written them.