46 TRAVELLING IN UGANDA 



go far to relieve the monotony of the road, and to 

 make one forget for a while the roasting sun that is 

 blazing fiercely down upon one's head. Sir Harry 

 Johnston describes how he used to find afternoon 

 tea prepared for him at the top of weary hills by 

 thoughtful chiefs ; many a time would I have cheer- 

 fully undertaken the cares of office of Special Com- 

 missioner and Commander-in-Chief for the sake of 

 a cup of tea on those interminable hills. 



Incidents and excitements are few and far between. 

 Sometimes there is a rumour of big game, and 

 sometimes of a leopard or a lion, but as a rule the 

 news is a month old at the least. There are native 

 caravans to be seen on the road almost daily, 

 generally porters laden with hides or bales of cotton 

 on their way to Kampala, and very rarely one 

 meets a European. On my first journey from 

 Entebbe to Toro, a distance of twelve days, 1 met 

 one European, a most genial missionary, who gave 

 me a delicious pineapple and a quantity of useful 

 phrases in the local dialect, of which I was woefully 

 ignorant. I cannot suppose that a clergyman of 

 the Church of England would teach me any ex- 

 pression that was not strictly Parliamentary, but the 

 effect of these when uttered to my porters on the 

 following day was positively magical. Coming back 

 alonof the same road a few months later, we met 

 at different times three Englishmen, two Germans, 

 and one Frenchman ; the road was crowded with 

 Europeans. 



