HISTORY OE THE PHOTECTORATE TERRITORIES 227 



In the worst days of his persecutions of the Christians INIwanga had 

 frequently threatened Catholic and Protestant jnissionaries with murder, 

 though he always denied his threats when faced with them. The truth 

 is that he was suffering from a state of nervous trepidation owing to the 

 belief that some European State would annex his kingdom. As the result of 

 the interesting reports sent home by such missionaries as Mr. ^Yakefield, of 

 Joravu, near Mombasa, the Royal Geographical Society had, as T have 

 already stated, sent out an expedition under Joseph Thomson to discover 

 the shortest and most direct route from the Indian Ocean to the Victoria 

 Nyanza. Dr. Fischer, a well-known German explorer, had already reached 

 the Rift Valley and discovered Lake Naivasha. The great obstacle to the 

 using of this route was the supposed ferocity of the ]Masai. The real 

 explanation of this was (apart from the Masai raids for cattle, which 

 brought them sometimes to the vicinity of JNIombasa) that the Swahili 

 caravans traversing this part of East Africa never hesitated to plunder the 

 natives when they thought themselves strong enough. They had received 

 several well-merited and drastic punishments at the hands of the Masai 

 for these attempts to roll and rape, therefore they had circulated reports 

 about Masai ferocity, which for a long time caused Europeans to regard 

 this lordly tribe with a quite exaggerated dread. 



Joseph Thomson, however, managed to get through the ]Masai country 

 with little difficulty. He was obliged to some extent to follow where led 

 by the Swahili traders, and as the latter had a wholesome fear of the 

 Nandi and Lumbwa tribes which intervened between the Rift Valley and 

 the Victoria Nyanza, he made with them a considerable detour, skirting 

 Nandi, and reaching the Nzoia River on the north-east of the lake. He 

 followed the Nzoia down to the shores of the Nyanza, and was the first 

 explorer to correct the mistake into which Stanley had fallen of making 

 Ugowe Bay a broad, vast gulf to the north-east of the lake, instead of a 

 small indentation of the coast with a long, narrow, tortuous gulf to the 

 south of it (now called Kavirondo Bay). Joseph Thomson sto})ped near 

 the conhnes of Biisoga, having accomplished his main object, and being 

 given to understand that the king of Uganda would deeply resent an 

 explorer entering Uganda through the tributary state of Busoga. 



Thomson returned to the coast after revealing the existence of Mount 

 Elgon,* J^ake Baringo, and the Silk countries, after establishing the truth 

 of Krapfs sup])Osed discovery of a snow-mountain to the north of 

 Kilimanjaro (Kenya), and after giving such hints and suggestions regarding 

 the existence of other lakes still farther to the north as to lead Count Teleki 

 a few years afterwards to discover Lakes Rudolf and Stephanie. The rumour 



* Referred to by 8ir H. >Stanley as " Marsawa " (" Masawa" is the Luganda name), 

 and guessed at 7,000 feet high — in ISTS."] 



