Ismailia

by Sir Samuel White Baker

It was in vain that I urged upon Kabba Rega and his chiefs the necessity of cultivation for the supply of corn requisite for the troops. Every day they promised to clear away the grass, provided the soldiers would then dig and prepare the ground. This I agreed to do, but the natives showed no intention of working.

I began to suspect that Kabba Rega had an objection to a large open clearing. The tactics of all natives are concealment; if a man is frightened, he hides in the grass; in case of hostilities, the high grass is a fortress to the negro. It became evident that we were to remain surrounded by this dense herbage, which not only obstructed the view, but rendered the station damp and dreary.

I explained to the chiefs the folly of Kabba Rega in thus neglecting such magnificent soil, which, with a little labour, would produce all that we could require, and would save both him and his people the trouble of feeding us. At the same time I set all hands of my own people to clear a large space and to make gardens.

Unyoro had always been a country of cowardice and suspicion, and I could plainly see that we were narrowly watched. Kabba Rega usually sat in his public divan from about two p.m. till 4 daily, to transact public business. This large circular building was extremely neat, and the ground was carefully strewed with the long fringes of the papyrus rush, after the fashion of our ancestors in England, who, before the introduction of carpets, strewed the floor with rushes.

The young king informed me that, as he wished to be in constant communication with me personally, he should build a new divan within a few yards of my residence, so that we could converse upon all occasions without being watched by his people.

This was merely an excuse for erecting a building within fifty yards of my house, from which his guards could watch all that happened, and report everything to their master.

The new building was constructed with wonderful quickness, and prettily walled with canes inside to resemble basket-work.

Kabba Rega came to his new divan, attended by a number of his guards, or bonosoora, armed with guns. To give him confidence, I went to see him unattended, except by Lieutenant Baker and my ever-faithful attendant, Monsoor, who did not at all approve of my going unarmed.

The conversation quickly turned upon guns. Kabba Rega was delighted with the mechanism of Monsoor's snider rifle, which he at once understood and explained to his body-guard. He appeared to have quite lost his shyness; and he begged me to consider him simply in the light of my own son, and to give him all the merchandise AT ONCE that I had brought with me to establish a new trade.

I told him that fathers did not give their sons all their property at once; but that if I saw that he performed his duty to the Khedive, he need not fear. I had both the power and the good-will to reward him.