212 
MARCHING THROUGH BOGS. 
as the Waganda at this trade, their guns making them 
daring; but it never came to my knowledge till it 
was too late. For instance, seeing one of Mariboo's 
boys lead two timid villagers to the grass hut occupied 
by my Seedees, I watched the result. A conversation 
ensued, the men afterwards passed me with two naked 
little girls with strings and tassels to their waists, 
looking dreadfully frightened. They had been stolen 
by my men, were the daughters of one of the two 
villagers, and had no doubt been recovered by paying 
bribes to Mariboo, his boy, and their captors. 
The streams and bogs crossed may be alluded to. 
All those going towards the Lake Victoria Nyanza 
were fordable, of white muddy water, rarely brown or 
mossy, having their bottoms and edges of black mud, 
the accumulations of decayed vegetable matter. Those 
which ran north and away from the lake, within two 
marches of the Uganda capital, had a hard firm footing 
of sand, with dry edges, and little or no mud. The 
difference was very marked, and pleasant to observe. 
The passage of these Uganda bogs is most trying. 
Imagine a flat valley, a mile across, looking like an 
osier-bed, but covered with the gigantic papyrus and 
reeds, &c. ; cut a narrow winding passage through it, 
leaving the roots in the water, and walk through this 
barefooted. The tears almost came into my eyes, the 
suffering from the sharp roots was so severe. Being 
carried was almost impossible, for even the natives, 
with the soles of their feet hard as leather, bearing 
their loads, dogs, spears, and shields on their heads, 
had enough to do to keep their footing. In my lame 
state, my feet, after having been covered with mud, 
came out of these bogs red and inflamed, too large to 
