“Woe betide the native aggressor we may meet, however powerful he may be; with such a spirit the men will fling themselves like wolves on sheep. Numbers will not be considered. It had been the eternal forests that had made the abject, slavish creatures, so brutally plundered by Arab slaves at Kilonga-Longa’s.
“On the 9th we came to the country of the powerful chief Mozamboni. The villages were scattered over a great extent of country so thickly that there was no other road except through their villages or fields. From a long distance the natives had sighted us and were prepared. We seized a hill as soon as we arrived in the centre of a mass of villages about 4 P. M. on the 9th of December and occupied it, building a zariba as fast as bill-hooks could cut brushwood. The war cries were terrible from hill to hill; they were sent pealing across the intervening valleys; the people gathered by hundreds from every point; war-horns and drums announced that a struggle was about to take place. Such natives as were too bold we checked with but little effort, and a slight skirmish ended in us capturing a cow, the first beef tasted since we left the ocean. The night passed peacefully, both sides preparing for the morrow. On the morning of the 10th we attempted to open negotiations. The natives were anxious to know who we were, and we were anxious to glean news of the land that threatened to ruin the expedition. Hours were passed talking, both parties keeping a respectable distance apart. The natives said they were subject to Uganda; but that Kabba-Rega was their real King, Mozamboni holding the country for Kabba-Rega. They finally accepted cloth and brass rods to show their King Mozamboni, and his answer was to be given next day. In the meantime all hostilities were to be suspended.
“The morning of the 11th dawned, and at 8 A. M. we were startled at hearing a man proclaiming that it was Mozamboni’s wish that we should be driven back from the land. The proclamation was received by the valley around our neighborhood with deafening cries. Their word ‘kanwana’ signifies to make peace, ‘kurwana’ signifies war. We were therefore in doubt, or rather we hoped we had heard wrongly. We sent an interpreter a little nearer to ask if it was kanwana or kurwana. Kurwana, they responded, and to emphasize the term two arrows were shot at him, which dissipated all doubt. Our hill stood between a lofty range of hills and a lower range. On one side of us was a narrow valley two hundred and fifty yards wide; on the other side the valley was three miles wide. East and west of us the valley broadened into an extensive plain. The higher range of hills was lined with hundreds preparing to descend; the broader valley was already mustering its hundreds. There was no time to lose. A body of forty men were sent, under Lieutenant Stairs, to attack the broader valley. Mr. Jephson was sent with thirty men east; a choice body of sharpshooters was sent to test the courage of those descending the slope of the highest range. Stairs pressed on, crossed a deep and narrow river in the face of hundreds of natives, and assaulted the first village and took it. The sharpshooters did their work effectively, and drove the descending natives rapidly up the slope until it became a general flight. Meantime, Mr. Jephson was not idle. He marched straight up the valley east, driving the people back, and taking their villages as he went. By 3 P. M. there was not a native visible anywhere, except on one small hill about a mile and a half west of us.
“On the morning of the 12th we continued our march. During the day we had four little fights. On the 13th marched straight east; attacked by new forces every hour until noon, when we halted for refreshments. These we successfully overcame.
“At 1 P. M. we resumed our march. Fifteen minutes later I cried out, ‘Prepare yourself for a sight of the Nyanza.’ The men murmured and doubted, and said, ‘Why does the master continually talk to us in this way? Nyanza, indeed! Is not this a plain, and can we not see mountains at least four days’ march ahead of us?’ At 1.30 P. M. the Albert Nyanza was below them. Now it was my turn to jeer and scoff at the doubters; but as I was about to ask them what they saw, so many came to kiss my hands and beg my pardon, that I could not say a word. This was my reward. The mountains, they said, were the mountains of Unyoro, or rather its lofty plateau wall. Kavali, the objective point of the expedition, was six miles from us as the crow flies.
“We were at an altitude of five thousand two hundred feet above the sea. The Albert Nyanza was over two thousand nine hundred below us. We stood in 1° 20´ N. latitude; the south end of the Nyanza lay largely mapped about six miles south of this position. Right across to the eastern shore every dent in its low, flat shore was visible; and traced like a silver snake on a dark ground was the tributary Laniliki, flowing into the Albert from the southwest.
“After a short halt to enjoy the prospect, we commenced the rugged and stony descent. Before the rearguard had descended one hundred feet, the natives of the plateau we had just left poured after them. Had they shown as much courage and perseverance on the plain as they now exhibited, we might have been seriously delayed. The rearguard was kept very busy until within a few hundred feet of the Nyanza plain. We camped at the foot of the plateau wall, the aneroids reading two thousand five hundred feet above sea-level. A night attack was made on us, but our sentries sufficed to drive these natives away.
“At 9 A. M. of the 14th we approached the village of Kakongo, situate at the southwest corner of the Albert Lake. Three hours were spent by us attempting to make friends. We signally failed. They would not allow us to go to the lake, because we might frighten their cattle. They would not exchange blood-brotherhood with us, because they never heard of any good people coming from the west side of the lake. They would not accept any present from us, because they did not know who we were. They would give us water to drink, and they would show us our road up to Nyamsassie. But from these singular people we learned that they had heard there was a white man at Unyoro, but they had never heard of any white men being on the west side, nor had they seen any steamers on the lake. There were no canoes to be had, except such as would hold the men, etc.
WILD GAME ON THE ARUWIMI.