It Took Me Two Hours, With My Clothes Tucked Up Under My Arms, To
Get Through Them All; And Many Of Them Were So Matted With Weeds,
That My Feet Sank Down As Though I Trod In A Bog.
The Waganda all said that at certain times in the year no one
could ford these drains, as they all flooded; but, strangely
enough, they were always lowest when most rain fell in Uganda.
No one, however, could account for this singular fact. No one
knew of a lake to supply the waters, nor where they came from.
That they flowed into the lake there was no doubt - as I could see
by the trickling waters in some few places - and they lay exactly
on the equator. Rising out of the valley, I found all the
country just as hilly as before, but many of the rush-drains
going to northward; and in the dells were such magnificent trees,
they quite took me by surprise. Clean-trunked, they towered up
just as so many great pillars, and then spread out their high
branches like a canopy over us. I thought of the blue gums of
Australia, and believed these would beat them. At the village of
Mbule we were gracefully received by the local officer, who
brought a small present, and assured me that the king was in a
nervous state of excitement, always asking after me. Whilst
speaking he trembled, and he was so restless he could never sit
still.
Up and down we went on again through this wonderful country,
surprisingly rich in grass, cultivation, and trees. Watercourses
were as frequent as ever, though not quite so troublesome to the
traveller, as they were more frequently bridged with poles or
palm-tree trunks.
This, the next place we arrived at, was N'yamgundu's own
residence, where I stopped a day to try and shoot buffaloes.
Maula here had the coolness to tell me he must inspect all the
things I had brought for presentation to the king, as he said it
was the custom; after which he would hurry on and inform his
majesty. Of course I refused, saying it was uncourteous to both
the king and myself. Still he persisted, until, finding it
hopeless, he spitefully told N'yamgundu to keep me here at least
two days. N'yamgundu, however, very prudently told him he should
obey his orders, which were to take me on as fast as he could. I
then gave N'yamgundu wires and beads for himself and all his
family round, which made Maula slink further away from me than
ever.
The buffaloes were very numerous in the tall grasses that lined
the sides and bottoms of the hills; but although I saw some, I
could not get a shot, for the grasses being double the height of
myself, afforded them means of dashing out of view as soon as
seen, and the rustling noise made whilst I followed them kept
them on the alert. At night a hyena came into my hut, and carried
off one of my goats that was tied to a log between two of my
sleeping men.
During the next march, after passing some of the most
beautifully- wooded dells, in which lay small rush-lakes on the
right of the road, draining, as I fancied, into the Victoria
Lake, I met with a party of the king's gamekeepers, staking their
nets all along the side of a hill, hoping to catch antelopes by
driving the covers with dogs and men. Farther on, also, I came
on a party driving one hundred cows, as a present from Mtesa to
Rumanika, which the officers in charge said was their king's
return for the favour Rumanika had done him in sending me on to
him. It was in this way that great kings sent "letters" to one
another.
Next day, after going a short distance, we came on the Mwarango
river, a broad rush-drain of three hundred yards' span, two-
thirds of which was bridged over. Until now I did not feel sure
where the various rush-drains I had been crossing since leaving
the Katonga valley all went to, but here my mind was made up, for
I found a large volume of water going to the northwards. I took
off my clothes at the end of the bridge and jumped into the
stream, which I found was twelve yards or so broad, and deeper
than my height. I was delighted beyond measure at this very
surprising fact, that I was indeed on the northern slopes of the
continent, and had, to all appearance, found one of the branches
of the Nile's exit from the N'yanza. I drew Bombay's attention
to the current; and, collecting all the men of the country,
inquired of them where the river sprang from. Some of them said,
in the hills to the southward; but most of them said, from the
lake. I argued the point with them; for I felt quite sure so
large a body of flowing water could not be collected together in
any place but the lake. They then all agreed to this view, and
further assured me it went to Kamrasi's palace in Unyoro, where
it joined the N'yanza, meaning the Nile.
Pushing on again we arrived at N'yama Goma, where I found Irungu-
- the great ambassador I had first met in Usui, with all his
"children" - my enemy Makinga, and Suwarora's deputation with
wire, - altogether, a collection of one hundred souls. They had
been here a month waiting for leave to approach the king's
palace. Not a villager was to be seen for miles round; not a
plantain remained on the trees, nor was there even a sweet potato
to be found in the ground. The whole of the provisions of this
beautiful place had been devoured by the king's guests, simply
because he had been too proud to see them in a hurry. This was
alarming, for I feared I should be served the same trick,
especially as all the people said this kind of treatment was a
mere matter of custom which those great kings demanded as a
respect due to their dignity; and Bombay added, with laughter,
they make all manner of fuss to entice one to come when in the
distance, but when they have got you in their power they become
haughty about it, and think only of how they can best impose on
your mind the great consequence which they affect before their
own people.
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