After New’s death, Kilima-njaro remained unvisited until quite recently, when, in 1883, Mr. Joseph Thomson arrived there, on his journey across Masai-land. He also visited Mandara, and was also robbed by that rapacious chieftain. Starting from Moši he ascended to an altitude of nearly 9000 feet, made a small collection of plants, and pursued his journeys, which ultimately led him nearly all round the base of the mountain. Mr. Thomson was the first who saw the northern aspects of Kilima-njaro. I might also mention that Dr. Fischer, a German traveller, passed within some thirty miles of Kilima-njaro a little while before Mr. Thomson. He subsequently penetrated Masai-land as far as Lake Naivaša. All these above-mentioned travellers had paid visits of a more or less fleeting character to Kilima-njaro, and few had studied in any way its natural history, or had attempted to make collections of any importance. Von der Decken brought back some beetles and one or two plants. New gathered and sent home a few specimens of the flora growing on the upper slopes. Dr. Fischer introduced us to a new Touraco[5] dwelling in the vicinity of the mountain, and Thomson in his hurried ascent procured some twenty plants, nearly all of which were new to science. But in the main little of the flora or fauna of Kilima-njaro had been made known, and the object of my mission was to make collections which would materially aid us in settling the relations which this clump of mountains bore to other lofty African ranges in its peculiar forms of life. The Kilima-njaro Committee, taking into consideration the peculiar difficulties of African travel, hesitated to send out on this expedition any one who, though a trained naturalist, should yet have had no previous experience of the climate and mode of life in the dark continent; and although I professed little skill or capacity in natural history collecting (for you may be enthusiastically fond of the study of botany and zoology, and yet be a very poor taxidermist or herbalist), it was thought that my acquaintance with the difficulties of African expedition and the exigencies of travel in a barbarous country would enable me to conduct the expedition to Kilima-njaro with some chance of success. Unfortunately the sum of 1000_l._ placed at my disposal, although sufficient with due economy to meet the ordinary expenses of the expedition, would not permit of European collectors being taken, the cost of the passage-money, salary, and keep of two men amounting to nearly half the sum already mentioned. However, this difficulty did not much concern me at the time, as one or two collectors were promised from the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, whose expenses would have been defrayed by their employers in return for a set of specimens collected. But on arriving at Zanzibar I was disappointed of their aid, for it was found at the last moment impossible to induce any Indian collectors to join an expedition to Central Africa.