196 



UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



NATIVES ON THE MARCH. 



Amara's country, was in excellent condition, and half-a-dozen 

 men could have walked abreast. Caravans, however, always 

 travel in Indian file, one behind the other. With natives on the 

 march, the head of a family usually walks first, armed with 



a spear. The 

 others follow 

 more or less 

 according to the 

 lightness of Their 

 burdens ; the 

 poor drudge of 

 the family has 

 the biggest and 

 heaviest load and 

 comes last. 



On my last 

 visit to Fajoa a 

 Shuli spy was 

 brought to me. 

 The Effendi thought the man was a friend to the English, 

 because he came from time to time pretending to bring news 

 that ex-king Kabarega was about to attack the settlement. Such 

 attack never happened, and the man only came to collect infor- 

 mation for Kabarega. I questioned the man closely, and soon 

 found out what he had really come for. Accordmg to him, the ex- 

 king was about to attack us with an army of which one thousand 

 men were armed with guns. He said the king had heard that we 

 were all terrified by the news, and that the Soudanese captain in 

 command had run awav to IMasindi and the white medicine-man 

 had fled down the Nile. I saw at once what this garbled news 

 evidently referred to, as I had gone one day in a dug-out down- 

 stream to shoot a hippo, and the captain had left Fajao for 

 Masindi on business. I told the spy to let Kabarega know we 

 were ready for him, and that if he did come, in all probability 

 he would never return again. The Shuli then remarked, that 

 Kabarega would probably not come on hearing we were ready 

 for him. In order that the man might not guess what we wished 

 him to tell his master, I now strongly recommended he should 

 not let the ex-king know, that we were hoping he would come 

 and that the white medicine-man was still here. 



After the spy had been allowed to re-cross the river, I con- 



