Mangrove thicket to the edge of the slimy ooze; trees behind—­that was all we could see.  We gave our attention to the business of getting our men, our effects, and ourselves ashore.  The ooze proved to be just above knee deep.  The porters had a fearful and floundering time, and received much obvious comment from us perched in the bow of the launch.  Finally everything was debarked.  F. and I took off our boots; but our gunbearers expressed such horror at the mere thought of our plunging into the mud, that we dutifully climbed them pick-a-back and were carried.  The hard shell beach was a hundred feet away, occupying a little recess where the persistent tough mangroves drew back.  From it led a narrow path through the thicket.  We waved and shouted a farewell to the crews of the launch and the dhow.

The path for a hundred feet was walled in by the mangroves through which scuttled and rattled the big land crabs.  Then suddenly we found ourselves in a story-book tropical paradise.  The tall coco palms rose tufted above everything; the fans of the younger palms waved below; bananas thrust the banners of their broad leaves wherever they could find space; creepers and vines flung the lush luxuriance of their greenery over all the earth and into the depths of all the half-guessed shadows.  In no direction could one see unobstructed farther than twenty feet, except straight up; and there one could see just as far as the tops of the palms.  It was like being in a room—­a green, hot, steamy, lovely room.  Very bright-coloured birds that ought really to have been at home in their cages fluttered about.

We had much vigorous clearing to do to make room for our tents.  By the time the job was finished we were all pretty hot.  Several of the boys made vain attempts to climb for nuts, but without success.  We had brought them with us from the interior, where cocoanuts do not grow; and they did not understand the method.  They could swarm up the tall slim stems all right, but could not manage to get through the downward-pointing spikes of the dead leaves.  F. tried and failed, to the great amusement of the men, but to the greater amusement of myself.  I was a wise person, and lay on my back on a canvas cot, so it was not much bother to look up and enjoy life.  Not to earn absolutely the stigma of laziness, I tried to shoot some nuts down.  This did not work either, for the soft, spongy stems closed around the bullet holes.  Then a little wizened monkey of a Swahili porter, having watched our futile performances with interest, nonchalantly swarmed up; in some mysterious manner he wriggled through the defences, and perched in the top, whence he dropped to us a dozen big green nuts.  Our men may not have been much of a success at climbing for nuts; but they were passed masters at the art of opening them.  Three or four clips from their awkward swordlike pangas, and we were each presented with a clean, beautiful, natural goblet brimming full of a refreshing drink.