232 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

group, and a long list of the names of the islands belonging to Sesse was given me by one of the natives.

These delays, though very vexatious, gave me many opportunities of observing the inhabitants of the country under very favourable circumstances.

During the whole time I stayed in their villages I was able to mix freely with them, being unfettered by the restrictions which are in force at the capital, and, as it was my practice to take long walks in search of game and botanical specimens, I obtained a much more accurate estimate of the population of the country, and gained a far better acquaintance with the manners and customs of the people, in these few weeks, than could have been possible in years spent exclusively at the capital. The people also, being at a distance from the dread army of executioners who hover around the court, were not afraid to visit me, and, when sitting under the shade of a tree, reading or writing, I generally had a crowd of women and children watching all my actions. The village chiefs, moreover, used frequently to beg me to protect them from the depredations of the Waganda who, by Mtesa's orders, accompanied me, and who, according to their custom on arriving at a village, began to plunder the huts. On one occasion a chief came to me, complaining that my rascally escort had seized one of the villagers, had bound him, and then imprisoned him in a hut,