46 EASTERN ETHIOPIA iv 



Uganda fleet was hopelessly beaten by the Wavuma, 

 and Mutesa's warriors had no opportunity of landing 

 on the island. 



For nearly twenty years after this great fight the 

 Wavuma not only raided the adjacent coast of Usoga 

 and carried off the Baganda women into captivity, but 

 they carried on an intermittent slave trade with the 

 Arabs in German territory, and blocked the short lake 

 route between Kavirondo and Uganda. This brought 

 them into conflict with the agents of the Imperial 

 British East Africa Company. 



Captain Williams, the company's agent in Uganda, 

 tried by peaceful negotiations to open the lake route, 

 but without success. This led to the expedition of 

 1893. Assisted by Majors Macdonald and Smith, 

 Williams raised a force consisting of 100 Soudanese, 

 2,000 Baganda guns, and 3,000 spearmen, supported 

 by two Maxims for the purpose of capturing Buvuma. 

 The fighting men were conveyed in two boats and 

 250 boats. The paddlers increased his number by 

 5,000 men and brought the total under his command 

 to 10,000 men. 



The Baganda fleet set out from Murchison Bay, 

 effected a landing and encamped on the island of Busiri, 

 and a few days later it practically annihilated the fleet of 

 the Wavuma. The great island of Buvuma was occcupied 

 after a stubborn resistance on the part of the people. 



Some miles south of Buvuma is the island of Bugaya : 

 its inhabitants were regarded as the bravest and most 

 fearless of the Wavuma : after the conquest of Buvuma 

 the Bagaya surrendered. 



It has been mentioned already that the Wavuma 

 refused to accept Christianity or to have it thrust upon 

 them, but preferred their old fetish (or Lubare) worship, 

 which consisted in attempts to appease imaginary 

 evil spirits by offerings of food and drink placed in 

 little grass huts built outside the village or in the 

 depths of the forest. 



