MAJOR MARTYR. 799 Harrison joined Lieutenant Scott's column in Unyoro.

Mwanga had meanwhile got together a new body of Mohammedan rebels, and was trying to workhis way northwards to join the mutineers, of whose fate he was as yet ignorant. At the same time Kabarega had assembled a body of fighting menand some of thefugitive Soudanese ontheVictoriaNile,oppositeFortMruli. Flying columns were despatched to prevent Mwanga reaching Northern Unyoro, and at the end of April, Major Martyr, D.S.O., who had just arrivedfrom theEgyptian Mwanga and Kabarega (the latter severely wounded) were taken prisoners. This decisive blow ended the war.

Major (now Colonel) Macdonald's expedition had, as wehave seen, marched northwards from Lake Victoria Nyanza in May, 1898. He had withhim six British officers, about 600 men, and some Maxim guns. He was to explore the country about Lake Rudolf, establish British influence in that region, and obtain the withdrawalof any Abyssinian force that might have occupiedit. Theexpedition thoroughlyexplored and mapped the country Soudan, took command ofthe troopsinthenorth, crossed the Nile at Mruli, and on April 26th attacked and dispersed Kabarega's levies. Mwanga's force hadinthe meantime been driven across the KafuRivertowardsAlbert Nyanza, and defeated in a series of skirmishes. His followers melted away, and he was a fugitive in the bush with a small escort.

The war hadnow lasted nearlysix months; of the Government troops, regular and irregular, more than 800 had been killed and wounded, including several European officers. But all danger was now over. The enemy'sforces had been broken up, and between the Uganda Protectorateandthe southern borders of Abyssinia; much of it had till then been au unknown land. Colonel Macdonald and his officers reached the coast at Mombasa on March 4th, 1899. They reported that the country they had explored was a high,grassy plateau, with mountains running up to from 7,000 to 10,000feet ; the country wasgenerally healthy, and most of thenatives friendly, but they had had some sharp fighting here and there with hostile tribes, and one British officer, Captain Kirkpatrick, was treacherously murdered with his escort in an ambuscade. In one of IR GERALD PORTAL, K.( {Photo:Heyman,Cairo) detachments of the 14th and 15th Sikhs and the 27th Bombay Infantry had reached the Protectorate. MajorMacdonald therefore handed over the command of the troops in Uganda and Unyoro to Major Martyr and proceeded to reorganise his expedition. Martyr carried on a desultory warfare with the remnants of the rebel bands during the summer, most of the fighting taking place in the neighbourhood of Mruli. Gradually the various bands were broken up. Mwanga had taken refuge with Kabarega, and at last, on April 9th, 1800, the rebel army, commanded by the two kings, was brought to action by a column under Colonel Evatt on the east bank of the Victoria Nile.

The rebels were completely defeated, some 300 of them being killed and wounded. Both the fights the enemy had used poisoned arrows with deadly effect. An Abyssinian army had been in the country, but retired northwards, a the British expedition advanced. One daythere was an alarm that a party of Dervishes were on the war path in the neighbourhood, but they wereafterwards found to be old soldiers of the former Egyptian army, who received the expedition as friends.

Later in the summer of 1898 a second expedition started northwards from Uganda, It was under the command of Major Martyr, and was intended to join hands with the Sirdar's advance up the Nile beyond Khartoum. The expedition was not ordered by the Home Government, but was due to the initiative of Mr. Berkeley, the British Commissioner ill