THE SOUDANESE 



i6i 



men and had killed three more in the subsequent sanguinary 

 tights. That the Soudanese in Unyoro were in heart with the 

 mutineers, we had many instances to convince us of — the disloyal 

 meeting at Fovira, discussing murdering one of us and imprison- 

 ing the other ; the difficulty that the commanding officer had 

 experienced in getting a Fajao contingent to bring one of their 

 guns into the fort at Masindi ; the flat refusal of the Soudanese 

 officer in command at Hoima to obey the order of the com- 

 manding officer to guard the western crossing of the Kafu river 

 against the approach of the mutineers ; the complaint of Waganda 

 friendlies that one of the Soudanese officers at Mruli had taunted 

 them, and had told them that the Waganda were a bad lot for 

 helping the white man against the Soudanese, and that they 

 ought to let the white man and the mutineers fight it out by 

 themselves. 



The feeling of insecurity and impending disaster seemed 

 present with every one ; for my four servants, who sleep in 

 huts outside 

 the fort at 

 Masindi, came 

 to me in a 

 body and asked 

 permission to 

 sleep this night 

 inside the fort 

 and near me. 1 

 gave, of course, 

 a ready assent. 

 Darkness had 

 set in, and I 

 was in my hut 

 — the medical 

 officer's resi- 

 dence — in the 

 fort at Masindi, 



entering in a diary by candlelight, the events of the day. This hut 

 consists of mud-walls, a grass-thatched roof, a mud-fioor, two 

 apertures serving as wmdows and closed by wooden shutters, and 

 a wooden door. It was overrun by white-ants, spiders, and rats. 

 It leaked so badly, that whenever a good heavy rain came down, 

 1 had to place a pail on each side of my camp-bed to catch the 



L 



THE MEDICAL OFFICER'S RESIDENCE AT MASINDI. 



