On my first arrival at Masindi I had begged Kabba Rega to instruct his people to clear away about fifty acres of grass around our station, and to break up the ground for cultivation, as I wished my troops to sow and reap their own corn, instead of living at the expense of the natives.
The system, both in Uganda and Unyoro, is bad and unjust.
Should visitors arrive, they are not allowed to purchase food from the people, but they must be fed by the king's order at the cost of the inhabitants. This generally results in their not being fed at all, as the natives quit the neighbourhood.
I had suffered much from hunger in Unyoro, during my former visit, in the reign of Kamrasi; therefore I wished to protect myself against famine by a timely cultivation of the surrounding fertile land, which was now covered with rank grass about nine feet high.
In a military point of view it was impolitic to sit down within a station incircled by a dense grass covert, and although I had not the most remote suspicion of hostility in this country, I preferred a situation whence we could enjoy an extensive landscape.
The Albert N'yanza lay distant about twenty miles on the west, in the deep basin which characterizes this extraordinary sheet of water. Immense volumes of cloud rose in the early morning from the valley which marked the course of the lake, as the evaporation from the great surface of water condensed into mist, when it rose to the cooler atmosphere of the plateau 1,500 feet above the level.
The proposal of farming did not appear to please Kabba Rega. It was explained that the men were not accustomed to labour in the fields, as agricultural work was performed by the women, all of whom were now absent and engaged in preparing their own land.
Although Masindi was a large town, I was struck by the absence of females. The only women that I saw were two, one of whom was the pretty wife of Umbogo the dragoman. It has already been explained, that the absence of women generally denotes hostility, but as the rainy season necessitated hard work, I accepted the explanation.
The corn for the supply of Masindi was brought from a distance of two days' journey, and numbers of people were daily employed in going to and fro for the general provisions of the station.
The slave-hunters belonging to Suleiman, who were now prisoners under a guard, numbered twenty-five men: I employed these people daily to clear away the high grass, which was piled and burnt, the ashes were then spread, and the ground was hoed up and thoroughly prepared by the troops.