50 MRULI TO THE CAPITAL OF UNYORO.

4. DIARY OF A JOURNEY FROM MRULI TO THE CAPITAL OF Uny6RO, AND REMARKS CONCERNING UNYORO AND ITS PEOPLE.

CAUSE OF THE JOURNEY—HOW THE WANYORO MARCH—THEIR COLOUR— LUXURIANT VEGETATION—HUTS—TRAVELLING IN THE RAINY SEASON —ARRIVAL AT KABREGA’S—AUDIENCE WITH THE KING—HIS CHARAC-TER—FAT WOMEN—A TRIP TOWARDS THE SOUTH—CHARACTER OF THE VEGETATION OF NORTHERN UNYORO—TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION— A WAGANDA CARAVAN—RETURN.

It was in May of the year 1877 that His Excellency Gordon Pasha, prompted by the wish to be on good terms with the Negro princes in the south, entrusted me with the honourable commission to visit, if possible, the king of Unyoéro, Kabréga, who, since Baker’s retreat from Masindi, had always been our enemy, and to try and bring about a peaceable solution of existing difficulties. Favoured by fortune, I succeeded in my mission, and the following pages are the result of my stay with Kabréga. Few travellers have as yet seen Unyoro, which circumstance may lend to these notes a special value. It also struck me, while perusing Baker’s books, that they contained very little information with regard to land and people, habits and customs. I therefore set myself the task of collecting all that I could learn upon these subjects, in which endeavour my knowledge of the language was an essential help.

We left Mruli on December 13, 1877. ‘The road, as far as Kistiga, was already well known to us, and led through a slightly hilly country, gently sloping away from the river towards Khor Kafu, into which it drains, and abounding in the thorny Acacia fistula. The ascent towards the west is very oradual indeed, and it is only made apparent by the denudation of all the higher parts, which has laid bare the red clayey subsoil, whilst the hollows are filled up with the grey finegrained loamy detritus which is so characteristic of this country. Aloes abound. A circular basin, cut, as it were, in the red ground and filled with clear water, provided a welcome resting-place for my porters, who, after a short repose, continued the journey, and, two hours later, stopped for their