shouts and screams from my men in the hut. My
first thought was to look whether a fire had broken
out; and finding this was not the case, I inquired
whether Wanyoro had attacked us. The bleating of a
goat disclosed the fact that a hyena had carried away
the fattest of our flock. Torches were lit and search
made, hut nothing was recovered till morning, when
the paunch and one kidney of the poor animal were
the only traces found. He must have been a hold
hyena to have broken through so strong a fence close
to where we all slept, and in size he must have been
a monster, for his spoor was as large as my hand.
The Seedees complain that all the plantain and sweet
potato about the place have been eaten up—“ they are
starving; ” although every third day a cow is killed
for them!
Not far from this hut there are three caverns dug,
looking like the hold of a ship, in which the natives
secrete their grain, &c., from their plundering neighbours,
the Waganda, but at present they are empty.
The Unyoro M’koongoo sends a message, bidding us
not to be impatient for the king’s reply, as it will
certainly arrive to-day or to-morrow; but. I am more
anxious about Speke, who should have joined us by
this time, and nothing has been heard of him.
A storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, blew in
gusts from the south, then veered round to N.W.,
dashing like waterspouts upon the ground. I t began
at 4, with an interval at sunset, and lasted till 8 p .m.
About two inches of rain fell.
lsi August.—Halt. A bait of a cow’s head was
placed last night for the hyena that had stolen the
goat, but no shot was obtained, as it rained. In the
morning, however, it appeared, from the tracks of the
animal, that he must have been dancing about it on
his hind legs like a bear. Our cattle, though in a
perfectly open fold, the hyena never attacks, as the
cows would kick bim out of the place.
My men, without permission, went to Budja, requesting
him to get vegetables in exchange for the
beef of a blind, lame old cow, that was killed to-day.
He sent some of his boy-pages with them to the villagers,
with an order that two loads of potatoes for
each mess should be made over to them without payment.
This was done.
I sketched the two Wahuma girls belonging to my
camp. The prettiest, “ Sikujua,” is young but very
black, and her history is curious. When at Uganda,
Speke’s men had to forage, seizing what food they
could lay hands on. One man got his head broken,
but he succeeded in making a prisoner of this little girl,
and took her home with him as his mode of redress.
No one ever came to claim her, and she remained1 his
property. She had the pretty oval face and large
ears of the Wahuma; and no doubt, as those with a
dark skin thrive best at Zanzibar, she is considered
there a great beauty. The other sketch was of a
younger girl given to Speke by the queen of Uganda,
and now the property of Bombay. She had a yellow
skin, fine eyes, and a rather droll face and figure.
2d and 3d.—Halt. A man who had gone from
Unyoro to Kawalogeh for salt, brings intelligence that
Speke had gone far up the river. This afterwards
proved to be quite true. No tidings from him or the
king of Unyoro. Slight shower about noon. Leg
stiff again. One of Budja’s men, who had been to sell