grown here, if it liked moisture and a temperate heat. It was a perfect paradise for negroes: as fast as they sowed, they were sure of a crop without much trouble; though, I must say, they kept their huts and their gardens in excellent order. Halt, 17th. As Maula would stop here, I had to halt also. The whole country along the banks of the river, and near some impenetrable forests, was alive with antelopes, principally hartebeests, but I would not fire at them until it was time to return, as the villagers led me to expect buffaloes. The conse quence was, as no buffaloes were to be found, I got no sport, though I wounded a hartebeest, and followed him almost into camp, when I gave up the chase to some negroes, and amused myself by writing to Rumanika, to say if Grant did not reach me by a certain date, I would try to navigate the N'yanza, and return to him in boats up the Kitangulé River. To Ngambézi, 18th. We crossed over a low spur of hill extending from the mountainous kingdom of Nkolé, on our left, toward the N'yanza. Here I was shown by Nasib a village called Ngandu, which was the farthest trading dépôt of the Zanzibar ivory-merchants. It was established by Musa Mzuri, by the permission of Rumanika; for, as I shall have presently to mention, Sunna, after annexing this part of Uddŭ to Uganda, gave Rumanika certain bands of territory in it as a means of security against the possibility of its being wrested out of his hands again by the future kings of Unyoro. Following on Musa's wake, many Arabs also came here to trade; but they were so oppressive to the Waganda that they were recalled by Rumanika, and obliged to locate themselves at Kufro. To the right, at the end of the spur, stretching as far as the eye could reach toward the N'yanza, was a rich, well-wooded, swampy plain, containing large open patches of water, which not many years since, I was assured, were navigable for miles, but now, like the Urigi Lake, were gradually drying up. Indeed, it appeared to me as if the N'yanza must have once washed the foot of these hills, but had since shrunk away from its original margin. On arrival at Ngambézi, I was immensely struck with the neatness and good arrangement of the place, as well as its excessive beauty and richness. No part of Bengal or Zanzibar could excel it in either respect; and my men, with one voice, exclaimed, "Ah! what people these Waganda are!" and passed other remarks, which may be abridged as follows: "They build their huts and keep their gardens just as well as we do at Unguja, with screens and inclosures for privacy, a clearance in front of their establishments, and a baraza or reception-hut facing the buildings. Then, too, what a beautiful prospect it has! rich marshy plains studded with mounds, on each of which grow the umbrella cactus, or some other evergreen tree; and beyond, again, another hill-spur such as the one we have crossed over." One of King Mtésa's uncles, who had not been burnt to death by the order of the late king Sunna on his ascension to the throne, was the proprietor of this place, but unfortunately he was from home. However, his substitute gave me his baraza to live in, and brought many presents of goats, fowls, sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, sugar-cane, and Indian corn, and apologized in the end for deficiency in hospitality. I, of course, gave him beads in return. 19th. Continuing over the same kind of ground in the next succeedTo Semizabi, ing spurs of the streaky red-clay sandstone hills, we put up at the residence of Isamgévi, a mkungă or district officer of Rumanika's. His residence was as well kept as Mtésa's uncle's; but, instead of a baraza fronting his house, he had a small inclosure, with three small huts in it, kept apart for devotional purposes, or to propitiate the evil spirits—in short, according to the notions of the place, a church. This officer gave me a cow and some plantains, and I, in return, gave him a wire and some beads. Many mendicant women, called by some wichwézi, by others mabandwa, all wearing the most fantastic dresses of mbugu, covered with beads, shells, and sticks, danced before us, singing a comic song, the chorus of which was a long, shrill, rolling Coo-roo-coo-roo, coo-roo-coo-roo, delivered as they came to a standstill. Their true functions were just as obscure as the religion of the negroes generally; some called them devil-drivers, others evil-eye averters; but, whatever it was for, they imposed a tax on the people, whose minds being governed by a necessity. for making some self-sacrifice to propitiate something, they could not tell what, for their welfare in the world, they always gave them a trifle in the same way as the East Indians do their fakirs. After crossing another low swampy flat, we reached a much To Kisǎéré, larger group, or rather ramification, of hill-spurs pointing to the N'yanza, called Kisŭéré, and commanded by M'yombo, Rumanika's frontier officer. Immediately behind this, to the northward, commenced the kingdom of Unyoro; and here it was, they said, Baraka would branch off my 20th. line on his way to Kamrasi. Maula's home was one march distant from this, so the scoundrel now left me to enjoy himself there, giving as his pretext for doing so that Mtésa required him, as soon as I arrived here, to send on a messenger that order might be taken for my proper protection on the line of march; for the Waganda were a turbulent set of people, who could only be kept in order by the executioner; and doubtless many, as was customary on such occasions, would be beheaded, as soon as Mtésa heard. of my coming, to put the rest in a fright. I knew this was all humbug, of course, and I told him so; but it was of no use, and I was compelled to halt. Halt, 20th to 24th. On the 23d another officer, named Maribu, came to me and said, Mtésa, having heard that Grant was left sick behind at Karagué, had given him orders to go there and fetch him, whether sick or well, for Mtésa was most anxious to see white men. Hearing this, I at once wrote to Grant, begging him to come on if he could do so, and to bring with him all the best of my property, or as much as he could of it, as I now saw there was more cunning humbug than honesty in what Rumanika * had told me about the impossibility of our going north from Uganda, as well as in his saying sick men could not go into Uganda, and donkeys without trowsers would not be admitted there, because they were considered indecent. If he was not well enough to move, I advised him to wait there until I reached Mtésa's, when I would either go up the lake and Kitangŭlé to fetch him away, or would make the king send boats for him, which I more expressly wished, as it would tend to give us a much better knowledge of the lake. To N'yagussa, 24th. Maula now came again, after receiving repeated and angry messages, and I forced him to make a move. He led me straight up to his home, a very nice place, in which he gave me a very large, clean, and comfortable hut-had no end of plantains brought for me and my men-and said, "Now you have really entered the kingdom of Uganda, for the future you must buy no more food. At every place that you stop for the day, the officer in charge will bring you plantains, otherwise your men can help themselves in the gardens, for such are the laws of the land when a king's guest travels in it. Any one found selling any thing to either yourself or your men would be punished." Accordingly, I stopped the daily issue of beads; but no sooner had I done so than all my men declared they could not |