BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 
i 33 
it had been cut down and sloped into those beautiful hills and dales 
which now so much pleased the eye; for there were none of those 
quartz dikes I had seen protruding through the same kind of aqueous 
formations in Usui and Karagwe, nor were there any other sorts of 
volcanic disturbance to distort the calm, quiet aspect of the scene/’ 
After a journey through the country, where they found every¬ 
where similar evidences of civilized conditions, on the 18th of Feb¬ 
ruary, 1862, they came within view of the king’s court. 
“It was a magnificent sight. A whole hill was covered with 
gigantic huts, such as I had never seen in Africa before. I wished 
to go up to the palace at once, but the officers said 'No, that would be 
considered indecent in Uganda; you must draw up your men and 
fire your guns off, to let the king know you are here; we will then 
show you your residence, and to-morrow you will doubtless be sent 
for, as the king could not now hold a levee while it is raining.’ 
“On the 19th the king sent his pages to announce his intention 
of holding a levee in my honor. I prepared for my first presentation 
at court, attired in my best, though in it I cut a poor figure in com¬ 
parison with the display of the dressy Waganda. They wore neat 
bark cloaks resembling the best yellow corduroy cloth, crimp and well 
set, as if stiffened with starch, and over that, as upper cloaks, a patch- 
work of small antelope skins, which I observed were sewn together 
as well as any English glovers could have pieced them; while their 
head-dresses, generally, were abrus turbans, set off with highly pol¬ 
ished boar-tusks, stick-charms, seeds, beads, or shells, and on their 
necks, arms and ankles they wore other charms of wood, or small horns 
stuffed with magic powder, and fastened on by strings generally cov¬ 
ered with snake-skin. 
“The palace, or entrance, quite surprised me by its extraordinary 
dimensions, and the neatness with which it was kept. The whole 
brow and sides of the hill on which we stood were covered with gigan¬ 
tic grass huts, thatched as neatly as so many heads dressed by a Lon¬ 
don barber, and fenced all round with the tall yellow reeds of the 
common Uganda tiger-grass; while within the enclosure the lines of 
huts were joined together, or partitioned off into courts, with walls 
of the same grass. It is here most of Mtesa’s three or four hundred 
