not address the king, it being contrary to etiquette. Conversation was
therefore impossible, and he was very glad, therefore, when at length
his Majesty got up and retired, with a gait which was intended to be
very majestic. It was to represent the step of a lion, but the outward
sweep of the legs looked only like a ludicrous waddle. The king had in
reality gone to eat his breakfast, as he had not broken his fast since
hearing of the traveller's arrival. He quickly returned, and Speke was
again invited in, with his men. He found the king standing on a red
blanket, talking and laughing to a hundred or more of his admiring
wives, who were all squatting on the ground outside, forming two groups.
His men dared not advance upright, but, stooping, with lowered head and
averted eyes, came cringing after him, it being a high crime to look
upon the ladies of the court. It was difficult, however, to carry on
conversation with him, as every answer had to be passed through the
interpreter, and then delivered to the king's chief officer, and
frequently another question was asked before the first was answered.
The most important questions had reference to opening up a passage
across the country. Before Speke could explain his views, the king put
another question.
Mtesa was a perfect despot and tyrant, the lives of all his subjects,
from the highest to the lowest, being in his power. When the whim
seized him, he did not hesitate to kill as many as he chose.
The king's subjects approach in the most cringing attitudes, and, on
receiving any favour, throw themselves on the ground, floundering about,
shrieking out: "_Nynzig! nynzig_!" He is attended by a number of young
pages, with rope turbans on their heads, who are seen rushing about in
every direction to obey his behests, and directly a wife or courtier
offends the despot, rush upon the unhappy individuals and drag them off
to immediate execution.
Speke, however, won his favour by blistering and doctoring him. He
managed to keep up his own dignity by refusing to submit when improperly
treated. He also gained great credit with the monarch by exhibiting his
skill as a sportsman; and Mtesa was delighted to find that after a
little practice he himself could kill birds and animals. He did not,
however, confine himself to shooting at the brute creation, but
occasionally killed a man or woman who might have been found guilty of
some crime.
After a considerable lapse of time Speke obtained a residence at what
was looked upon as the "west end" of the city. It was in a garden, in
view of the palace, so that he could hear the constant music and see the
throngs of people going to and fro. Having selected the best hut for
himself, and giving the other to his three officers, he ordered his men
to build barracks for themselves in the form of a street from his hut to
the main road. He could now visit the palace with more ease, and
obtained better opportunities of seeing the king and endeavouring to
gain the important ends he had in view.
The sights he witnessed were very often painful. Scarcely a day passed
that he did not see one, and sometimes more, of the unhappy female
inmates of the palace dragged off to execution by one of the body-guard,
the poor creature shrieking out, as she went to premature death: "Oh, my
lord, my king, my mother!" and yet no one dared to lift a hand to
preserve her.
He made several sporting excursions with the king, who was always
delighted when he shot a bird or an animal, jumping and leaping, and
shouting: "_Woh! woh! woh_!" to express his delight. One of these was
to the Lake Nyanza, after Speke had somewhat ingratiated himself with
the sovereign. It was somewhat of a picnic party, and the king was
accompanied as usual by a choice selection of his wives. Having crossed
over to a woody island some distance from the shore, the party sat down
to a repast, when large bowls of _pomba_ were served out. They then
took a walk among the trees, the ladies apparently enjoying themselves
and picking fruit, till, unhappily, one of the most attractive of them
plucked a fruit and offered it to the king, thinking, probably, to
please him. He took it, however, as a dire offence, and, declaring that
it was the first time a woman had had the audacity to offer him food,
ordered the pages to lead her off to execution. No sooner had the words
been uttered than the abominable little black imps rushed at her like a
pack of beagles, slipping off their cord turbans and throwing the ropes
round her limbs. She, indignant at being touched, remonstrated and
attempted to beat them off, but was soon overcome and dragged away,
crying out the names of "_Kamraviona! Mzungu_!" the title applied to
Speke, for help and protection, while the other women clasped the king
round the legs, imploring him to pardon their unhappy sister. His only
reply was to belabour the miserable victim with a thick stick. Speke
had carefully abstained heretofore from interfering with any of the
king's acts of arbitrary cruelty. On hearing, however, his own name
imploringly pronounced, his English blood was up, and, rushing at the
tyrant, he stayed his uplifted arm, and demanded the poor creature's
life. He, of course, ran a great risk of losing his own; but the
novelty of the event seemed to tickle the capricious chief, and he at
once ordered the woman to be released.
This was, however, one of the only occasions on which he was successful.
Day after day both men and women were led off to execution. On one
occasion a poor girl had run away from the ill-treatment of her master,
and had taken refuge in the house of a decrepit old man. The two were
brought up for judgment, when the king sentenced them to death, and
decreed that their lives should not be taken at once, but that they
should be fed and dismembered, bit by bit, as rations for his vultures
every day until life was extinct. The dismayed criminals, Speke says,
struggling to be heard, were dragged away to the drowning music of horns
and drums.
After he had been some time in the palace, he was introduced to the
queen dowager. Her majesty was fat, fair, and forty-five. He found her
seated in the front part of her hut, on a carpet, her elbow resting on a
pillow. An iron rod, like a spit, with a cup on the top, charged with
magic powder, and other magic wands were placed before the entrance, and
within the room four Mabandwa sorceresses, or devil-drivers,
fantastically dressed, with a mass of other women, formed the company.
They being dismissed, a band of musicians came in, when _pomba_ was
drunk by the queen, and handed to her visitor and high officers and
attendants. She smoked her pipe, and bid Speke to smoke his. She
required doctoring, and Speke had many opportunities of seeing her, so
completely winning her regard that she insisted on presenting him with
various presents, among others a couple of wives, greatly to his
annoyance. She appeared to be a jovial and intelligent personage. On
another occasion Speke, when introduced, found her surrounded by her
ministers, when a large wooden trough was brought in and filled with
_pomba_. The queen put her head in and drank like a pig from it, her
ministers following her example. If any was spilled by her, they
dabbled their noses in the ground, or grabbed it up with their hands,
that not a particle might be lost, as everything that comes from royalty
must be adored. Musicians and dancers were then introduced, exhibiting
their long, shaggy, goat-skin jackets, sometimes dancing upright, at
others bending or striking the ground with their heels like hornpipe
dancers.
The plaguy little imps of pages were constantly playing tricks, and
seemed to delight in mischief.
One of the great officers of the court having offended the king, they
came with a message to Speke's attendants while he himself was away,
ordering them all to attend the king with their arms. Instead of being
led to the palace, they were guided to the house of the refractory
officer, when they were ordered to rush in and spare nothing, men,
women, children, _mbugus_, or cowries, all alike. Speke's men, firing
their guns, did as they were ordered. One of the inmates was speared,
but the rest were taken, and brought in triumph to his camp. He, of
course, ordered all the seizures to be at once given up to the king's
chief officer, and shut himself up in his house, declaring that he was
ashamed to show his face. In vain the king sent to him to come and
shoot. The reply was: "Bana" (the name by which the king called Speke)
"is praying to-day that Mtesa may be forgiven the injury he has
committed by sending his soldiers on such a duty; he is very angry about
it, and wishes to know if it was done by the kings orders." The boys
replied that nothing could be done without the king's orders. Speke
also insisted on sending the red cloth cloaks worn by his men, because
they had defiled their uniform when plundering women and children. He
took this opportunity of teaching the barbarian a lesson.
On his next visit the king told him that he had wished to see him on the
previous day, and begged that whenever he came he would fire a gun at
the waiting hut, that he might hear of his arrival. The king was much
pleased with a portrait Speke made of him, as also with his coloured
sketches of several birds he had killed, but was still more delighted
with some European clothes, with which he was presented. When Speke
went to visit him, he found his Majesty dressed in his new garments.
The legs of the trousers, as well as the sleeves of the waistcoat, were
much too short, so that his black feet and hands stuck out at the
extremities as an organ-player's monkey's do, while the cockscomb on his
head prevented a fez cap, which he wore, from sitting properly. On this
visit twenty new wives, daughters of chiefs, all smeared and shining
with grease, were presented, marching in a line before the king, utterly
destitute of clothes, whilst the happy fathers floundered, _nynzigging_,
on the ground, delighted to find their darling daughters appreciated by
the monarch. Speke burst into a fit of laughter, which was imitated not
only by the king but by the pages, his own men chuckling in sudden
gusto, though afraid of looking up.
The king at last returned Speke's visit. Having taken off his turban,
as Speke was accustomed to take off his hat, he seated himself on his
stool. Everything that struck his eye was admired and begged for,
though nothing seemed to please him so much as the traveller's
wide-awake and mosquito curtains. The women, who were allowed to peep
into Sana's den, received a couple of sacks of beads, to commemorate the
visit.
A few days afterwards he was accompanying the king when an adjutant-bird
was seen in a tree. The king had a gun Speke had given him, but he had
little more than one charge of powder remaining. Speke had left his gun
at home. The king at the second shot killed the bird, greatly to his
delight, shouting his usual "_Woh! woh_!" He was so delighted that he
insisted upon carrying the bird to show to his mother.
Before entering the palace, however, he changed his European clothes for
a white goat-skin wrapper. Directly afterwards a battalion of his army
arrived before the palace, under the command of his chief officer, whom
Speke called Colonel Congou. The king came out with spear and shield in
hand, preceded by the bird, and took post in front of the enclosure.
His troops were divided into three companies, each containing about two
hundred men. After passing in single file, they went through various
evolutions. Nothing, Speke says, could be more wild or fantastic than
the sight which ensued. The men, nearly naked, with goat or cat-skins
depending from their girdles, and smeared with war-colours according to
the taste of each individual, one half of the body red or black, the
other blue, in irregular order; as, for instance, one leg would be red,
the other black, whilst the upper part would be the opposite colours,
and so with the chest and arms. Each man carried two spears and one
shield, held as if approaching an enemy. They thus moved in three lines
of single rank and file at fifteen or twenty paces asunder, with the
same high action and elongated step, the ground leg only being bent to
give their strides the greater force. The captains of each company
followed, even more fantastically dressed. The great Colonel Congou,
with his long, whitehaired goat-skins, a fiddle-shaped leather shield,
tufted with white hair at all six extremities, bands of long hair tied
below the knees, and the helmet covered with rich beads of several
colours, surmounted with a plume of crimson feathers, from the centre of
which rose a stem, tufted with goat-hair. Finally the senior officers
came charging at their king, making violent protestations of faith and
honesty, for which they were applauded.
Speke was now, towards the end of May, looking forward to the arrival of
Grant.
To propitiate the despot he sent a compass, greatly to the delight of
Mtesa, who no sooner saw it than he jumped and "_wohed_" with intense
excitement, and said it was the greatest present Bana had ever given
him, for it was the thing by which he found out all the roads and
countries.
It had been arranged that Grant should come by water; but the natives,
fearing to trust themselves on the lake, brought him all the distance on
a litter.
At length, on the 27th, the sound of guns announced the arrival of
Grant, and Speke hurried off to meet his friend, who was now able to
limp about a little, and to laugh over the accounts he gave of his
travels.
The travellers forthwith began to make arrangements for proceeding on to
Unyoro, governed by a chief named Kamrasi, of despicable character and
considered merciless and cruel, even among African potentates,
scattering death and torture around at the mere whim of the moment;
while he was inhospitable, covetous, and grasping, yet too cowardly to
declare war against the King of the Waganda, who had deprived him of
portions of his dominions. The Waganda people were, therefore, very
unwilling to escort the travellers into his territory; and Colonel
Congou declared that if compelled to go, he was a dead man, as he had
once led an army into Unyoro.
The travellers' great object was to reach the spot where the Nile was
supposed to flow out of the Victoria Nyanza, and proceed down the stream
in boats.
Speke had written to Petherick, and on the 28th of June news arrived
that white men were at Gani enquiring for the travellers. Speke
consequently informed the king that all he required was a large escort
to accompany them through Usoga and Kidi to Gani, as further delay in
communicating with Petherick might frustrate the chance of opening the
Nile trade with Uganda. The king replied that he would assemble his
officers, and consult them on the subject. He exhibited his folly,
however, by allowing his people to make an inroad into Unyoro and carry
off eighty cows belonging to Kamrasi. To their horror, Kyengo, the
chief magician, informed them that the king, being anxious to pry into
the future, had resolved to adopt a strong measure with that end in
view. This was the sacrifice of a child. The ceremony, which it fell
to the lot of Kyengo to perform, is almost too cruel to describe. The
magician, having placed a large earthen pot full of water on the fire,
arranges a platform on the top, and on this he binds a young child and a
fowl, covering them with another pot, which he inverts over them. After
the fire has burned for a given time the upper pot is removed. If both
victims are dead, it is considered that war must be deferred for the
present; but, if either should be alive, it may be commenced
immediately. When the army is about to proceed to war, the magician
flays the young child, and lays the bleeding body in the path, that the
warriors may step over it, thereby believing that they will gain
immunity for themselves in the approaching combat.
During the expedition, which Speke made with the king to the Nyanza,
they landed on an island inhabited by a magician and his wife, who were
supposed to be priests of of the water-spirit of the lake. His head was
decorated with numerous mystic symbols, among them a paddle, the badge
of his high office. He was dressed in a little, white, goat-skin apron,
adorned by various charms, and, instead of a walking-stick to support
his steps, he used a paddle. Though not an old man, he pretended to be
so, walking slowly and deliberately, coughing and mumbling like one.
Seating himself, he continued coughing for half an hour, when his wife
came in, much in the some manner, without saying a word, and assuming
the same affected style.
The king, who was seated near the door, with his wives behind him, asked
Speke what he thought of it. No voice was heard but that of the old
wife, who croaked like a frog for some water, and when some was brought,
croaked again because it was not the purest of the lake's produce, and
had the first cup changed, wetted her lips with the second, and hobbled
away in the same manner as she had come.
The water-spirit's chief priest now summoned several of the king's
officers to draw round him, and then, in a low voice, gave them all the
orders of the deep, and walked away. His revelations appeared to have
been unpropitious, for the party immediately repaired to their boats and
returned to their quarters.
During this excursion, the king went off on the lake, leaving Speke by
himself on shore. He took the opportunity of visiting an hospitable old
lady, who treated him and his attendants to the last drop of _pomba_ in
her house, smoking her pipe with him, and did not hesitate to speak of
the horrors of the Uganda punishments. When his servant told her that
he had saved the life of one of the women, she seemed astonished at the
daring of the stranger and at the leniency of the monarch. The king's
servants had robbed her of nearly everything in her house.
The most barbarous orders of the despot are obeyed with the utmost
alacrity by his officers, who would to a certainty, if they hesitated,
be themselves put to death. His horrible little pages are his chief
emissaries. At his command a dozen start off together, each striving to
outrun the others, their dresses, streaming in the wind, giving them the
resemblance at a distance of a flight of birds. On one occasion, Speke
having given Mtesa a rifle, the king, after examining the weapon, loaded
it and told a page to go out and shoot some one, to ascertain if it
would kill well. In a moment a report was heard, and the urchin came
back grinning with delight at his achievement, just like a schoolboy who
has shot his first sparrow. Nothing was heard about the unfortunate
wretch who had served as a target, the murder of a man being by far too
common an incident to attract notice.
Many of the people expressed the greatest horror of the king's cruelty;
but all his subjects were abject slaves, and no union existed among them
which would have afforded them any hope in rebellion or in bringing
about a better state of things.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
SPEKE AND GRANT'S TRAVELS CONCLUDED.
SET OUT FOR KAMRASI--ATTACKED BY THE WAGANDA--REACH THE NILE--THE ISAMBA
RAPIDS--THE RIPPON FALLS--THE SOURCE OF THE NILE--RETURNS TO
URONDOGANI--THREATENED DESTRUCTION--MARCH FOR UNYORO--KAMRASI'S
RECEPTION--THE MAGICIAN AT WORK--KAMRASI RECEIVES A BIBLE--LEAVE
KAMRASI, AND PROCEED DOWN THE KUFFO TO THE FALLS OF KARUMA--THE GANI
PEOPLE--THE MADI--ARRIVE AT PETHERICK'S OUTPOSTS--SPEKE AGAIN SETS OUT--
THE BARI COUNTRY--GONDOKORO AND NILE BOATS SEEN--SIR SAMUEL BAKER--
VOYAGE DOWN THE NILE TO KHARTOUM--A BANQUET--BERBER--ARRIVE AT LENGTH IN
ENGLAND.
By the 7th of July the arrangements for their journey were made. The
king presented them with a herd of cows for their provisions, as well as
some robes of honour and spears, and he himself came out with his wives
to see them off. Speke ordered his men to turn out under arms and
_nynzig_ for the favours received. Mtesa complimented them on their
goodly appearance and exhorted them to follow their leader through fire
and water, saying that, with such a force, they would have no difficulty
in reaching Gani.
It was arranged that Grant should go on to Kamrasi direct, with the
property, cattle, etcetera, while Speke should go by the river to
examine its exit from the lake, and come down again, navigating as far
as practicable.
They now commenced their march down the northern slopes of Africa,
escorted by a band of Waganda troops, under the command of Kasora, a
young chief. They had proceeded onwards some days, when Kari, one of
Speke's men, had been induced to accompany some of the Waganda escort to
a certain village of potters, to obtain pots for making plantain wine.
On nearing the place, the inhabitants rushed out. The Waganda men
escaped, but Kari, whose gun was unloaded, stood still, pointing his
weapon, when the people, believing it to be a magic horn, speared him to
death, and then fled.
On the 21st, after passing through a country covered with jungle, Speke
reached the banks of the Nile. The shores on either side had the
appearance of a highly-kept park. Before him was a magnificent stream,
six or seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks--the
former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by sterns and
crocodiles, basking in the sun--flowing between fine, high, grassy
banks, covered with trees and plantations. In the background herds of
_nsunnu_ and harte-beestes could be seen grazing, while the hippopotami
were snorting in the water, Florican and Guinea fowl rising at their
feet. Here Speke had some fine sport, killing _nsunnu_ and other deer.
The chief of the district received them courteously, and accompanied
Speke to the Isamba Rapids.
"The water ran deep between its banks, which were covered with fine
grass, soft cloudy acacias, and festoons of lilac convolvuli; while here
and there, where the land had slipped above the rapids, bare places of
red earth could be seen like that of Devonshire. There, too, the
waters, impeded by a natural dam, looked like a huge mill-pond, sullen
and dark, in which two crocodiles, floating about, were looking out for
prey." From the high banks Speke looked down upon a line of sloping
wooded islets lying across the stream, which, by dividing its waters,
became at once both dam and rapids. "The whole scene was fairy-like,
wild, and romantic in the extreme," says Captain Speke.
Proceeding southward they reached the Rippon Falls on the 28th, by far
the most interesting sight he had seen in Africa.
"Though beautiful, the scene was not exactly what I expected, for the
broad surface of the lake was shut out from view by a spur of hill, and
the falls, about twelve feet deep and four to five hundred feet broad,
were broken by rocks; still it was a sight that attracted one to it for
hours. The roar of the waters, the thousands of passenger fish leaping
at the falls with all their might, the fishermen coming out in boats,
and taking post on all the rocks with rod and hook, hippopotami and
crocodiles lying sleepily on the water, the ferry at work above the
falls, and cattle driven down to drink at the margin of the lake, made
in all, with the pretty nature of the country--small grassy-topped
hills, with trees in the intervening valleys and on the lower slopes--as
interesting a picture as one could wish to see."
Here, then, he had arrived at what he considered the source of the
Nile--that is, the point from where it makes its exit from the Victoria
Nyanza; and he calculated that the whole length of the river is, thus
measuring from the south end of the lake, two thousand three hundred
miles.
He and his party now returned northward, and reached Urondogani again on
the 5th of August. The difficulty was next to obtain boats. The
fishermen, finding that the strangers were to be supplied with fish by
the king's order, ran away, though the cows they had brought furnished
the travellers with food. At length five boats, composed of five planks
lashed together and caulked with rags, were forthcoming. Speke, with
his attendants, Kasora, and his followers embarked, carrying goats,
dogs, and kit, besides grain and dried meat. No one, however, knew how
many days it would take to perform the voyage.
Tall rushes grew on either side of the broad river, which had in places
a lake-like appearance. The idle crew paddled slowly, amusing
themselves by sometimes dashing forward, and then resting, while Kasora
had the folly to attack the boats of Wanyoro he met coming up the river.