216 HISTORY OP THE PROTECTORATE TERRITORIES 



vears of the nineteenth century Zanzibar Arabs advanced little by little 

 towards the interior Ijehind the Zanzibar coast. They discovered Lake 

 Nvasa, and they heard rumours of the Victoria Nyanza and of Tanganyika. 

 During the 'forties of the last century they became firmly established 

 as traders in Uuyamwezi, and having hitherto treated the natives well 

 (except that they purchased slaves from chiefs ready to sell — a transaction 

 which made no bad impression at all on the negroes), they met with 

 few or no obstacles in penetrating farther still into the interior in search 

 of trade. Eeaching the shores of the Victoria Nyanza, they heard rumours 

 of ])owerful kingdoms to the north and west of that lake. 



On the other hand, the alert Hima aristocracy in Karagwe and Uganda 

 was beginning to hear of these men with beards and light complexions 

 wiu) w'ere coming to trade with the south end of the great lake. Arab 

 traders were invited to the court of Suwarora, the Hima king of Karagwe 

 (soutii-west coast of Victoria Xyanza), and especially to that of his 

 gentle-natured successor, Kumanika. The first non-Negro from the outer 

 world to ])en«'trate into Uganda was a Baluch soldier from Zanzibar, 

 named Isa or Isau bin Hussein, who Hed from his creditors, first to 

 tlie Arali trading settlements in Unyamwezi, then to Karagwe, and finally 

 to tlie court of Suna, king of Uganda, where he must have arrived 

 about 1849-18.50. His handsome face and abundant hair and beard won 

 him royal favour. Known as " ^Nluzagaya " (" The Hairy One "), he became 

 a power in Uganda until Suna's death in 1857, and possessed a liarim 

 of 'M)0 women. Through Isa tlie Baluch, the king of Uganda and his 

 nobles and people first heard of a world of Arabs and white men beyond 

 Masailand, Unyoro, and Tanganyika. Suna sent word to the Arab traders 

 in Karagwe inviting them to his court. Sheikh Snay bin Amir al Harisi 

 was the first to accept. In 1852 this Arab trader stood in the presence 

 of the most jiowerful king of the best organised African state then existing, 

 untouched by Arab or European influence. Snay bin Amir remained 

 some time with Suna, gave him much information about the world outside 

 the Victoria Nyanza, and even beyond tlie coast of Africa. From him 

 Suna and the Baganda had confirmation of the stories of Isa. They 

 learnt that there really were white n^en. 



The Bahima who had formed the aristocracies and dynasties of these 

 regions remembered in their traditions a time when they were of much 

 lighter comjilexion and of longer hair than they had become since their 

 secular mingling with the negresses of the subject races. They were much 

 struck by these stories of white men existing somewhere beyond the Nile, 

 and regarded them as the stock from which they themselves had sprung. 

 They therefore manifested a certain fear lest the white men from the 

 lands of their forefathers might be coming to conquer these fertile 



