272 



EAST AFRICA. 



served in the Egyptian Equatorial Province, and 

 after being abandoned by Stanley's Emin Pasha 

 relief expedition had settled at Kavalli on the 

 west side of Lake Albert Edward, were brought 

 down with their fa'milies and slaves, numbering 

 altogether 4,500 individuals, and were settled in 

 the newly acquired territory, where they could 

 defend the line of forts built in southern Un- 

 yoro against an incursion of Kaba Rega or could 

 be enlisted in the company's service if the gar- 

 rison in Kampala needed strengthening. He 

 had left Uganda with only a small guard under 

 Capt. W. H. Williams, in his eagerness to fore- 

 stall and frustrate the German expedition to the 

 lakes, and when he returned he found the factions 

 on the point of breaking out into open hostili- 

 ties, and the King and the Catholic party ready 

 to defy his power. A Protestant chief, Mulon- 

 do, precipitated matters by suddenly leaving the 

 capital with his retainers, on the plea that the 

 Catholics intended to burn his shamba, or plan- 

 tation. The King sent out a large force to cap- 

 ture or kill him, but recalled it at the solicitation 

 of the English. The war spirit could not be 

 quelled, however, though drums were beaten and 

 armed men gathered repeatedly without actually 

 coming to blows. At last a man was shot in a 

 quarrel about the ownership of a gun. Jan. 20, 

 1892. The King tried the case and discharged 

 the homicide. Capt. Lugard then demanded 

 through a native messenger that the murderer 

 should be punished and other grievances of the 

 Protestants redressed ; otherwise there would be 

 war. The King said calmly that he would 

 abide by his decision, and the Catholics stand- 

 ing by retorted that the English "might fight if 

 they would, but if they did they would be 

 killed and their property confiscated." The 

 King wrote on the following day a letter in which 

 he enumerated a list of Catholic grievances and 

 demanded their rectification in uncompromising 

 terms. The Catholic bishop, when appealed to 

 by Capt. Lugard to avert war, replied that his 

 flock had suffered so severely through the par- 

 tiality of the British officers that they would 

 rather die with guns in their hands than submit 

 to constant injustice. Lugard thereupon dis- 

 tributed arms among the Protestant natives, 450 

 altogether, while he remained with his troops in 

 the fort. A battle took place in the town, Jan. 

 24, 1892, and the Catholics were fired on from 

 the fort with the Maxim guns. The Catho- 

 lic mission and church were burned, and the 

 King and his party were put to rout, taking 

 refuge on an island. The English then attacked 

 them with their Maxim guns on the island, and 

 when they attempted to escape in canoes sank 

 the boats, drowning the natives in immense 

 numbers. The King and the remnant of his 

 party escaped to the large island of Sese, and 

 when he was dislodged from this by Capt. Wil- 

 liams, went over to the district of Budu with the 

 Catholic bishop and missionaries. A treaty was 

 then imposed upon the Catholic party which as- 

 signed to them the Budu province, 'which for- 

 merly was Protestant, and prohibited them from 

 extending their possessions or propagating their 

 religion outside of its limits or from leaving it 

 with arms in their hands, and which stipulated 

 that the British flag should be hoisted in Budu, 

 and the company's officers have supervision over 



it and be allowed to establish stations there. 

 Some of the best provinces in the neighborhood 

 of the capital had been destined for the Catho- 

 lics, but Capt. Lugard suddenly changed his 

 mind and assigned these to the Mohammedans 

 after he got the King into his power. The Brit- 

 ish officers used every inducement to get the 

 King to return to Mengo, and promised the Cath- 

 olics an equal distribution of lands if they would 

 send him back. The Catholic missionaries, rely- 

 ing on this promise, persuaded Mwanga to re- 

 turn, and he then identified himself with the 

 British or Protestant party, who henceforth held 

 all the offices as well as three fourths of the 

 lands. The Catholics, overcrowded in the nar- 

 row province to which they were exiled, forming 

 only one seventh of the area of the country, died 

 from starvation and pestilence, and becoming 

 more and more desperate and discontented at 

 the failure of Capt. Lugard to fulfill his prom- 

 ises, sold their property in order to procure arms 

 and ammunition, imported through German East 

 Africa, for the purpose of avenging their wrongs. 

 Capt. Williams and Capt. Macdonald used their 

 influence in vain with the King and his Protes- 

 tant counselors to induce them to grant the 

 Catholics lands enough to support them and some 

 share of the court offices, and thus avert a new 

 war and the establishment by the Catholics of 

 an independent kingdom with one of the princes, 

 sons of Karema, whom 'they refused to deliver 

 up to Mwanga, as their King. The Mohamme- 

 dan population also, less numerous than the 

 Protestants or the Catholics, were dissatisfied at 

 the conditions resulting from the ascendancy of 

 the Protestants brought about by the British 

 protectorate, which was confirmed in perpetuity 

 by a new treaty signed by Mwanga on April 5, 

 1892. The Mohammedans were also banished 

 to a province selected for them, while the Prot- 

 estants had appropriated for their own use 

 the choicest lands in the country four times 

 more than they needed for their support. The 

 former Mohammedan King, Mbogo, and his 

 principal followers were kept as prisoners in 

 quarters close to the fort of Kampala. This was 

 the situation still when Sir Gerald Portal, who 

 had filled the post of British consul-general at 

 Zanzibar for three years, arrived at Kavirondo 

 on March 3, 1893, with 230 Zanzibar! soldiers 

 to take over provisionally the authority of .the 

 British East Africa Company in Uganda. The 

 company, having failed to obtain an imperial 

 subsidy, and being unwilling to continue the oc- 

 cupation at its own cost,.was authorized to evacu- 

 ate the country on March 1, 1893. Capt. Lugard 

 had returned to England some months before, 

 leaving Capt. Williams in command at Kam- 

 pala. Capt. Macdonald departed before him, 

 but returned on receiving instructions from the 

 Government of Lord Salisbury to make a report 

 on affairs in Uganda. The first directions sent 

 to Captain Williams were to evacuate Uganda 

 and its dependencies on Dec. 31, 1892, but a 

 subsequent order postponed the operation for 

 three months. The King and his officers had 

 no more influence or power in the country, hav- 

 ing been reduced to the position of mere puppets 

 of the company. The Protestants, more igno- 

 rant and unruly than the Mohammedans or the 

 Catholics, committed robberies and depredations 



