278 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

Emm Bey. So I despatched all the Waganda with the exception of the envoys, and one or two others whom I kept to send back to Rubaga with letters, as we were expecting a mail from England to arrive shortly. Since I had been last there, Mruli had been much improved and strengthened by a high mound with a deep ditch outside, and was now a really strong place, and if well provisioned could hold its own against a vastly superior force of negros armed only with spears or bows and arrows. The officer in command here was Farag Aga, one of Sir S. Baker's old soldiers, and a very smart officer.

Letters having come from Felkin saying he had gone on to Fatiko, I left Mruli with my party on July 16th, and travelled down the Nile in canoes to Foweira, where I arrived on the 17th, and was most warmly welcomed by my old friend, Mohammed Aga, who had suddenly become a most devout Muslim, and who spent a large part of each day in performing his devotions in the open space in the centre of the station. Two days were spent here waiting for porters, and on the 20th we started for Fatiko. The Waganda with my baggage had been sent across the Nile the previous evening, and after an early breakfast I set off, receiving most affectionate adieux from the officers.

The greater part of the country between Foweira and Fatiko is covered with jungle, and the denseness of the undergrowth made marching very slow,