5o MRULI TO THE CAPITAL OF UNYORO. 



4. Diary of a Journey from Mruli to the Capital of 

 Uny6ro, and Eemarks concerning Uny6ro and its 

 People. 



CAUSE OF THE JOURNEY— HOW THE WANYdRO MARCH — THEIR COLOUR — 

 LUXURIANT VEGETATION — HUTS — TRAVELLING IN THE RAINY SEASON 

 — ARRIVAL AT KABREGA's — AUDIENCE WITH THE KING — HIS CHARAC- 

 TER — FAT WOMEN — A TRIP TOWARDS THE SOUTH — CHARACTER OF THE 

 VEGETATION OF NORTHERN UNY6RO — TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION — 

 A WAGANDA CARAVAN — RETURN. 



It was in May of the year 1877 that His Excellency Gordon 

 Pasha, prompted by the wish to be on good terms with the 

 Negro princes in the south, entrusted me with the honourable 

 commission to visit, if possible, the king of Unyoro, Kabrega, 

 who, since Baker's retreat from Masindi, had always been our 

 enemy, and to try and bring about a peaceable solution of 

 existing difficulties. Favoured by fortune, I succeeded in my 

 mission, and the following pages are the result of my stay with 

 Kabrega. Few travellers have as yet seen Unyoro, which 

 circumstance may lend to these notes a special value. It also 

 struck me, while perusing Baker's books, that they contained 

 very little information with regard to land and people, habits 

 and customs. I therefore set myself the task of collecting 

 all that I could learn upon these subjects, in which endeavour 

 my knowledge of the language was an essential help. 



We left Mruli on December 13, 1877. The road, as far 

 as Kisuga, was already well known to us, and led through a 

 slightly hilly country, gently sloping away from the river 

 towards Khor Kafu, into which it drains, and abounding in the 

 thorny Acacia fistula. The ascent towards the west is very 

 gradual indeed, and it is only made apparent by the denuda- 

 tion of all the higher parts, which has laid bare the red clayey 

 subsoil, whilst the hollows are filled up with the grey fine- 

 grained loamy detritus which is so characteristic of this coun- 

 try. Aloes abound. A circular basin, cut, as it were, in the 

 red ground and filled with clear water, provided a welcome 

 resting-place for my porters, who, after a short repose, con- 

 tinued the journey, and, two hours later, stopped for their 



