CHAPTER V.

UNYORO.

START ON THE NORTHWARD JOURNEY-GRANT AND SPEKE DIVIDE, SPEKE MAKING FOR THE EXIT OF THE NILE AND GRANT FOR 66

KAMRASI'S-SPEKE AT THE NILE—THE 'STONES," OR RIPON FALLS

-SPEKE TRIES TO GET DOWN THE NILE-THE BRITISH FLAG SURPRISED INTO PIRACY-SECOND BATTLE OF THE NILE-SPEKE RETURNS AND LOOKS FOR GRANT-GRANT MEETS HIM, HAVING BEEN DRIVEN BACK-THEY MARCH TOGETHER AGAIN FORWARD-SPORT WITH ELEPHANTS-KAMRASI'S PALACE-DESCRIPTION OF KAMRASI "KING OF THE BEGGARS"-SUPER

-LONG DETENTION WITH THE

STITIONS, ETC., OF UNYORO.

SPEKE had two motives for diverging from the direct route from Karagué to Unyoro into Uganda, where he had now been, partly by compulsion, domiciled for the first six months of the year 1862. The first was that he was convinced that the Victoria Nyanza was the chief source of the Nile, and he believed that he should find its main outlet in Uganda; the second was that he was anxious to ascertain the truth of the wonderful stories he had heard about that country. This object he had completely attained by having been an eyewitness of scenes which abundantly illustrated the trite proposition, that truth is often stranger than fiction; and now a hope presented itself of realising the other by the favour of the king of Uganda. With his permission to depart, the last obstacle was cleared out of his way to his solving, as he thought, the great problem of African geography.

264

START FOR THE NORTHWARD.

With Budja as general director, they started at 1 P.M. on the 7th of July on the northward journey. Though the Wanguana were still mutinous, a judicious threat of corporal punishment brought them to reason, and they marched in five successive days to a place afterwards called Kari, from the tragedy that took place therethirty miles from the capital-through a fine hilly country, jungle alternating with rich cultivation. The second march, after crossing the Katawana river, with its branches flowing east into the huge rush-drain of Luajerri, carried them beyond the influence of the higher hill-system, and away from the monster grasses which characterise the border of the lake. Those villages were assigned as their night quarters, the heads of which had been seized by the king, rather than those belonging to the queendowager, the villagers forsaking their homes, and the escort looting wherever they went. Over each doorway of the huts Grant remarked a diamond-shaped charm of rush, hung horizontally, and generally stuck with feathers. The docile and handsome cattle in the lowlands were almost "prize" animals. They had been made hornless when young by searing with a hot iron. The general colour was grey, with black face. They had little or no hump, and were larger than the Ayrshire breed. Lanky Wahuma might be seen tending hundreds at a time. These people, unlike the Waganda, were never afraid of the caravan, which may be accounted for by their never being enslaved, although their handsome women are much sought for as wives. Mtésa had ordered sixty cattle and ten loads of butter to be sent to the expedition; but some of the first instalment of beasts, those assigned to the escort, were stolen the first night, because the precaution of tying them up had been neglected, The tracks of elephants and buffaloes were often seen on this route;

ESCAPE FROM A LION-TRAP.

265

and lions were heard at night making a noise like that produced by blowing through a cow's horn, and never approaching a respectable roar. Two zebras were shot by Speke and eaten by the escort, their skins being sent as royal property to the palace. Pallah, hartebeest, and other antelopes were seen or shot, and a species new to them appeared here, the "njezza," whose horns curved over the brow. As it was a great grazing country, the natives set traps for the lion, which consisted of a number of logs raised high on end. When a goat, placed as a them, the logs, guided by

bait, had attracted him under piles on either side, would fall in a mass and crush him, somewhat in the same way as the triangles of sticks and stones used to kill wild beasts in the Himalaya. Grant had a narrow escape from one of these contrivances himself, the Seedis having just called to him in time, and it actually fell on three of the cows and killed one, not very much to the regret of the beef-eaters of the escort. The Seedis being Moslems dared not touch the meat, as it had not been killed in the orthodox manner.

The natives were eager sportsmen, and snared antelopes with nets made of soft and strong fibre, generally from the aloe. They had a very simple and ingenious foot-trap for buffaloes. It was usually laid at salt-licks, and consisted of two small circles of wood placed one over the other, between which a quantity of stout acacia thorns pointed to a common centre; all the parts were lashed strongly together, and the completed trap was several inches larger than the buffalo's foot. This was fitted over a hole made in the ground, and a noose, attached to a block, laid over it and concealed with earth. When the buffalo puts his foot in it the trap fastens, and the more he struggles the tighter the noose grips him. The former king of Uganda was said to have possessed

266

FAUNA OF THE DISTRICT.

a large menagerie caught in this way. Birds were not numerous, the cannibal vulture of Uganda preferring, for substantial reasons, the neighbourhood of the capital. The only game-birds that could be found in the high grass were guinea-fowl and florikan. An owl of very handsome plumage was shot, weighing six pounds. A new goatsucker skimmed among the plantains at night with a very graceful flight. The seventh pen-feathers were double the length of the ordinary ones, the eighth double the seventh, and the ninth 20 inches long. The long feathers might have the function of intercepting flies as the birds swept along. Bombay said it was also found in Uhiyow. It has since been named by Dr Sclater "Cosmetornis Spekii." Fish were not to be had, though

fishing-baskets made of flags or papyrus, like an Egyptian water-jar, were constantly found in the dwellings. They

HOSTILITY OF THE NATIVES.

267

were used in the communications made between two parallel ditches cut in a swamp.

While they were waiting for cows, the consequence of living at free quarters was illustrated by a sad occurrence. Kari, one of Speke's men, who had distinguished himself in tailoring for the king of Uganda, had been induced to go marauding with some Waganda boys to a certain village of potters, as Budja required pots for wine. When they drew near the place, the women were the only people visible, but instead of running away, they began to bawl, and brought out their husbands. The foraging party at once fled, and Kari would have escaped too, but he was slow, and his musket empty. The potters overtook him, and when he pointed his gun, which they took for a magic horn, speared him to death, and then fled. Another morning when the men went to some springs for water, some Waganda threw spears at them from an ambuscade, but this time. the guns were loaded, and two of the assailants received shot-wounds. Again, the night before leaving, two huts occupied by Seedis were set on fire by bunches of burning straw set in the doorway. The inmates had to cut their way out through the sides of the huts, losing their bayonets and bark-cloths. In revenge for this the Waganda escort burnt down all the houses they had occupied. Kari's companions were sent to the palace under a charge of having led him into trouble, and a complaint was laid against the villagers, which led to the confiscation of their effects. These events were the more to be deplored, as several instances occurred in which the peasants honestly restored lost property, besides showing a disposition to hospitality. Whenever the people came on a friendly errand, they sounded a "tambisa," or stringed wanga, by way of a flag of truce.