226 HISTORY OF THE PROTECTORATE TERRITORIES 



this information, gathered up and intelligently commented on by the 

 geoo-rapher, Vj. G. Kavenstein, brought about the despatch of the Eoyal 

 Geographical Society's celebrated expedition under Joseph Thomson, to 

 which I shall allude later on. 



Meantime, tliis steady increase of .Muhammadanism had brouglit to 

 M\vanga\s court an ally to Christian influence. In the presence, not only 

 of mere heathenrv, but of a soul-and-body-destroying debauchery which 

 was rapidly spreading under Mwanga's influence, the "Peoples of the 

 liook " or '-of the Keligiou (Din)" (as they styled themselves) — namely, 

 the adherents of the Christian missions and the Muhammadan pro])agandists 

 (who had this common ground of belief, in tliat thin^ derived their faith from 

 two different versions of the Hebrew Scriptures) — united their protests 

 against ]\Jwanga's senseless cruelties and filthy practices. .Alwanga thought 

 to abolisli the ])rinci])al of his critics, lioth Christian and .Muhammadan, 

 bv inviting those chiefs and ittHcials who had darted to reason witli him to 

 ])roceed on a warlike expedition against the Pavuma. His idea was to 

 land them on an inaccessible island, take away all tlu^ canoes, and leave 

 them to starve to death thei-e. Seeiiting his plot, the leaders of the religious 

 party resolved to strike for life and freedom, and })Ossibly depose the king. 

 The cowardlv Mwanga became ]»anic-stricken and escaped, every facility 

 being given him to get away. He fled in canoes to tlu^ south end of the 

 lake, where eventually he took refuge at a mission station of the White 

 Fathers. He shortly afterwards declared himself a Koman Catholic. 



After this bloodless revolution, however, the temporary alliance between 

 the Christians and Muhammadans was dissolved, and tlu^ JMuhammadans 

 got the u})[)er hand. The Christians and the Muhammadans had managed 

 before Mwanga fled to secure the person of the eldest amongst his 

 brothers, Kiwewa, a man much older than ]Mwanga, who had been deliarred 

 from succeeding to the throne on IMutesa's death by the Uganda super- 

 stition that a dead king should be succeeded ]\v one of his younger, not 

 one of his elder sons. After the revolution the Muhammadans attempted 

 to force on Kiwewa the rite of circuincision. Kiwewa, however, steadily 

 refused, and when it was attempted to impose this rite on liim against his 

 will he turned on the high functionaries of his kingdom who were IMuham- 

 madans and had come to his enclosure for this pur[)0se, and killed several 

 of them. His palace was then attacked by the JNIuhammadans, and Kiwewa 

 fled. His younger bi'other. Kalema, was circumcised by the ^Muhammadans 

 and placed on the throne as an avowedly Muhammadan king. Kiwewa 

 was eventually captured and put to death. Many princes and princesses 

 of royal blood were burnt. The Christian missionaries were expelled from 

 the country, and large numbers of their converts left in dismay for Ankole 

 and the south end of the Victoria Nvanza. 



