228 HISTORY OP THE PROTECTORATE TERRITORIES 



of Thomson's approach had reached the ears of ^lutesa just before his 

 death. It revived the apprehensions of the Baganda, who were supposed 

 to have had a leg endary prophecy floating abon t thpir mpT nories to th e 

 effect t hat when Uganda became s ubjected to a h igh er power^ the invad ers 

 would come bvwav_of_£usoga.* Consequently, when the unfortunate, 

 rash, and ill-advised Eisho]j Ha nnington, the first Anglicanbishop_aj^)pointed 

 for Uganda, attempted to follow in Joseph Thomson's footsteps, aTid_enterpd 

 Busoga in 1886, Mwanga hurriedly sent orders to Luba, one of the 

 principal cliiefs of Busoga, to slay the European, whom he, Mwanga, 

 believed to he a political emissary. Bishop H annington was therefor e 

 killed by Luba's men with spears not far from the site of what is 

 now called Fort Thrustou. a beautiful place on the eastern shores of 

 Napoleon Gulf. 



About this time Dr. Junker (a Eusso-German explorer), wlio had been 

 travelling through the Bahi-al-Gliazal regions of the Egyptian Sudan 

 at the outbreak of the Mahdi's revolt, took refuge with Emin, the Governor 

 of the Equatorial Provinces, who had set up a vestige of settled government 

 on the Upper Nile, with his headquarters at "Wadelai. Junker's only 

 chance of reaching Europe was to travel by way of Uuyoro and Uganda, 

 and by dint of lavish presents to the sulky Mwanga he was allowed to 

 pass on to Unyamwezi and the coast. Dr. Junker and the British 

 missionary, Mackay (who was so prominent and respected a person at tliis 

 stage of Uganda's history, and whose death from blackwater fever occurred 

 just as the prospects of Christianity in Uganda were brightening), had 

 conveyed to Europe an intimation from Emin that he was with difficulty 

 holding his own against the advancing Dervishes of the Mahdi's, or rather 

 the Khalifa's, em.pire. English feeling was much stirred on the subject 

 of Emin, who had been a generous donor to the natural history collections 

 at the British Museum. Moreover, England at this time had become 

 the guardian of Egypt, and it was felt that only England could properly 

 intervene by sending a relief expedition to Equatoria. 



I must retrace my steps in the survey of the history of these regions 

 and point out that Joseph Thomson's expedition, which came to an end 

 in the spring of 1884, drew the attention of Britisli geographers and of 

 the British Government to the future commercial importance of this 

 direct overland route to the Victoria Nvanza. Sir John Kirk, firmly 

 believing in the commercial possibilities of these regions, had induced 

 the Royal Society and British Association to combine in sending a scientific 

 expedition to examine the fauna and flora of Mount Kilimanjaro. He 

 intended that this expedition should be made the means of conveying 



* This prophecy turned out truly, for the caravans of Mr. Jackson and Captain 

 (now General Sir Frederick) Lugard followed this route. 



