After leaving the country of the Moon and accomplishing a few stages
through the neighbouring districts, the caravan of MM. Desrioux and
de Pommerelle reached the valley of Uzinza, surrounded by mountains
covered by a luxuriant vegetation, scaled the N'yamwara, some 5,000
feet above the level of the sea, and arrived at Karagué, formerly the
residence of King Rumanika, so frequently mentioned in the travels of
Speke and Grant.
The Europeans for six weeks followed the shore of Lake Victoria and
in due course reached, at the northern end of the lake, the Uganda
country, where, according to the latest accounts given by Stanley,
the famous M'tésa still reigns.
This royal personage has produced such an impression upon more than
one traveller that we cannot resist the temptation of quoting Captain
Speke on the subject.
"No one," says this authority, "dare stand before the King whilst he
is either standing still or sitting, but must approach him with
downcast eyes and bended knees, and kneel or sit when arrived. To
touch the King's throne or clothes, even by accident, or to look upon
his women, is certain death. When sitting in court holding a levée,
the King invariably has in attendance women, Wabandwa, evil-eye
averters or sorcerers. They talk in feigned voices raised to a
shrillness almost amounting to a scream. They wear dried lizards on
their heads, small goat-skin aprons trimmed with little bells,
diminutive shields and spears set off with cock-hackles, their
functions in attendance being to administer cups of marwa
(plantain-wine).
"When the company has squatted before him the court is converted into
one of assize. The officers bring forward the prisoners and give
their evidence. At once the sentence is given, perhaps awarding the
most tortuous, lingering death—probably without trial or
investigation, and, for all the King knows, at the instigation of
some one influenced by wicked spite. If the accused endeavours to
plead his defence, his voice is at once drowned, and the miserable
victim dragged off in the roughest manner possible by those officers
who love their King, and delight in carrying out his orders.
"This expeditious justice despatched, M'tésa condescends to receive
the presents of his subjects. Young virgins, the daughters of
Wakungu, stark naked, and smeared with grease, but holding, for
decency's sake, a small square of mbugu at the upper corners in both
hands before them, are presented by their fathers in propitiation for
some offence, and to fill the harem. After having formed part of the
harem they are distributed amongst the most trusted officers as
rewards for distinguished services.
"I have now been some time within the court precincts, and have
consequently had an opportunity of witnessing court customs. Amongst
these, nearly every day since I have changed my residence, incredible
as it may appear to be, I have seen one, two, or three of the
wretched palace women led away to execution, tied by the hand, and
dragged along by one of the body-guard, crying out, as she went to
premature death, '_Hai Minangé_' (O my lord!), '_Kbakha_' (my king!),
'_Hai N'yawo_' (my mother!) at the top of her voice, in the utmost
despair and lamentation; and yet there was not a soul who dared lift
hand to save any of them, though many might be heard privately
commenting on their beauty.
"On the first appearance of the new moon every month, the King shuts
himself up, contemplating and arranging his magic horns—the horns of
wild animals stuffed with charm-powder—for two or three days. These
may be counted his Sundays or church festivals, which he dedicates to
devotion. On other days he takes his women, some hundreds, to bathe
or sport in ponds; or, when tired of that, takes long walks, his
women running after him, when all the musicians fall in, take
precedence of the party, followed by the Wakungu and pages, with the
King in the centre of the procession, separating the male company
from the fair sex. On these occasions no common man dare look upon
the royal procession. Should anybody by chance happen to be seen, he
is at once hunted down by the pages, robbed of everything he
possesses, and may count himself very lucky if nothing worse happens.
Pilgrimages are not uncommon, and sometimes the King spends a
fortnight yachting on Lake Victoria; but whatever he does, or
wherever he goes, the same ceremonies prevail—his musicians, Wakungu,
pages, and the wives take a part in all."
A young Frenchman, M. Linant de Bellefonds, who was assassinated in
these parts in 1875, was permitted by the King to accompany him in
some of his numerously-attended promenades. To his account and that
of Speke we may add the report of Chaillé-Long, who witnessed the
execution of thirty persons by order of M'tésa, and these details are
completed by the narration of Stanley, who affirms that the King is
gradually becoming civilized, thanks to the frequent visits of
Europeans. He is being transformed, says Stanley, from a heathen to a
Mahommedan, and has even some idea of Christianity. The American
traveller is unwearying in his praises of his host, whose
prepossessing countenance betokens intellect and amiability. He
describes him as a coloured man, well brought up, who might have
frequented the European courts, and there have acquired a certain
elegance and ease of manner, combined with great knowledge of the
world.
MM. de Pommerelle and Desrioux, like Stanley, appear to have nothing
but praise to bestow upon M'tésa. In the month of September they
quitted, without any obstacle being thrown in their way, the capital
of Uganda, leaving to the eastward the celebrated Ripon Falls, which
Speke affirms to be the real outset of the Nile. They then crossed an
important river, the Kafoor, and proceeded in a direct line towards
the north-west, reaching, in the month of October, M'Rooli, formerly
the capital of King Kamrasi, who, for so long a time, detained Speke,
Baker, and Lady Baker in his kingdom.
A fortnight after its departure from M'Rooli the caravan at length
reached Lake Albert, or M'Wootan. From this point, thanks to notes,
jotted down from time to time in a memorandum book, we are enabled to
follow the two travellers by the light of their own observations.
"There is nothing," exclaims M. de Pommerelle, "in the whole of this
country so superb as the appearance of Lake Albert. At my feet lies a
long, verdant line of reeds bathing in the blue, transparent water,
and waving under the influence of a fitful breeze. In the horizon, a
grand wall of mountains, half hidden by shifting vapour, and standing
out azure blue in the sunlight and the distance. Rounded, wooded,
green hillocks repose on the sides of this granite mass, a tropical
vegetation descending its slopes and disappearing on the margin of
the lake."
MM. de Pommerelle and Desrioux were not mistaken in supposing that
the mountains before them were the Blue Mountains, closing the north-west
route which they had, up to this time, followed so strictly, in
accordance with the hints contained in the letter from M. Périères.
If their friends had not strayed from their intended track they were
bound to meet them on the other side of those mountains. But how were
they to scale them, or cross the intervening lake?
For some time they made their way along the shore, and reached
Magungo, in lat. 2° N., recognizing this harbour by the description
given by Baker of it, and its adjoining falls, a thousand feet high.
These falls, situated about twenty-five miles from Magungo, were
afterwards christened by Baker the Murchison Falls, and this name has
been preserved by both Chaillé-Long and the Italian Gessi in the
latest maps published by them, in 1875 and 1876 respectively.
And now we have come to a point where we must recall to our readers
the conversation which took place between MM. de Morin and Périères
and the interpreter Ali, after the latter had contrived to
communicate with M. de Guéran. "The residence of Queen Walinda," said
the Arab interpreter, "is situated at the foot of a lofty and
insurmountable mountain. Behind that mountain (which M. Périères
supposed was Mount Maccorly or M'Caroli) are other mountains still
more lofty, so high that they are lost in the clouds. Their tops, so
much of them as can be seen, are quite blue, and at night from within
them is heard a loud noise similar to that which would be produced by
many torrents falling together from a great height." Those, M. de
Morin remarked at the time, are the falls discovered at the northern
end of Lake Albert, at the same elevation as Magungo, and known as
the Murchison Falls.
Some time afterwards, at the end of November, 1873, the expedition of
Madame de Guéran came in contact with the Walindis, and, on the 11th
of December, gave battle to their army.
MM. de Pommerelle and Desrioux, on their side, reached Magungo, on
the eastern shore of Lake Albert, in November, and were then only
separated from their friends by that lake and the mountains on its
western shore.