Introduction
Mary French Sheldon left for East Africa in 1891. Her decision to do so resulted in varied remarks from her friends and peers. From the encouraging to questioning to outright derision. "'Well, you have my prayers for a safe return.' 'If you return alive, what a story you'll have to tell!' 'Do be reasonable, and abandon this mad, useless scheme.'..." (Sheldon, 14). Her husband, Eli, accompanied her to Italy, where they parted ways, and until she got to Mombasa, she was in the presence of other Englishmen, such as the steamer captain and miscellaneous officials at the ports they stopped at. Once she was on the trail, however, she was only in the company of native porters and guides. Mary never addresses exactly why she decided to travel alone and why she chose to travel to East Africa, only writing,
"Having listened willingly to the officious opinions volunteered by all classes of men and women, as to the utter absurdity of my project; denounced universally as a as a fanatic, entertaining a mad scheme, if not mad myself - principally mad because the idea was unique, a thorough innovation; there was no precedent on which to predicate action or draw deductions upon which to formulate a feasible line of procedure; it had never been done, never even been suggested, hence it must be beyond the conventional pale of practicability; and above all, having ever flouted in my face that it was outside the limitation of woman's legitimate province I determined to accomplish the undertaking. Success resulted. "
From An African Expedition, 1894, p.131
When Sheldon first arrived in Mombasa, British authorities from the IBEAC (Imperial British East Africa Company) would not offer any support for her expedition. They said that the jungle was too dangerous. Because of their sentiments, Sheldon was hard pressed to find porters willing to work for her. To get around this, she went to the sultan of Zanzibar to ask for help.
Explaining the difficulties my agent experienced in procuring porters, I urged that he [the sultan] would aid me by having all slaves volunteering speedily sworn in on the following Saturday; and when masters interfered with their slaves, or middlemen objected, to declare himself my friend, and command it otherwise. (Sheldon, 91)
By asking the Sultan, Sheldon had acquired the services of many porters. When she returned to Mombasa, supplies were loaded and the IBEAC withdrew its objections and gave some assistance, seeing that Sheldon would go whether they wanted her to or not.
Over the course of her journey, Sheldon and her caravan visited 35 separate tribes, traveled to Mount Kilimanjaro, and circumnavigated Lake Chala, a lake in the center of a volcano. When at Kilimanjaro, Sheldon visited another sultan, Mireali. Thus giving the name to her book, Sultan to Sultan.
During her traveling, Sheldon was surprised at the state of the natives. It was not what other explorers had made them out to be. This played into her reasoning for going to Africa in the first place. She observed that,
"Then, too, the inadequate accounts of the women and children, the home life, have ever been portrayed from a superficial, biased point of view; for the white man has, by his own confession, been denied a full and complete acquaintance with the more intimate lives of the East African women."
