60 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

hearing what the Sultan had done, told him our story was all a lie, and that the letter was " medicine" to kill him ; which so frightened the Sultan that he refused to keep it.

The first two marches in Ugogo were through open level country with huge masses of igneous rock scattered about, and many adansonias (baobabs) growing among the corn, with here and there a little scanty thorny jungle. The land was furrowed by watercourses, which, though now dry, showed that an immense volume of water must find its way from here to the Indian Ocean during the rainy season.

At Matamburu, the second place where we had to pay hongo, we experienced our first thunderstorm, the forerunner of the Masika or rainy season. From here to Bihawana, a march of twelve miles, the country was covered with forest. At some distance from our camp at the latter place was a fine baobab, the trunk of which was eighty feet in circumference about two feet from the ground. The chief of this district, which consisted of but three villages, was a very old man, rejoicing in the euphonious name of Minyitangaru. I went to see him at his particular request, and he professed himself so much pleased with me that he wished us to become brothers for ever after, and as a pledge of this relationship we were to exchange names, he henceforth passing by the name of Wilson, and I by that of Minyitangaru. Our next march was a short one to a wretched little