him that ail their beads and cloths came from the land of
the Waziingii, or white men.
ls£, 2cl, and 3 d—The new year was ushered in by the
most exciting intelligence, which drove us half wild with
delight, for we fully believed Mr Petherick was indeed on
his road up the Nile, endeavouring to meet us. It was
this i—An officer of Rumanika’s, who had been sent four
years before on a mission to Kamrasi, had just then
returned with a party of Kamrasfs who brought ivory for
sale to the Arabs at Kufro, along with a vaunting commission
to inform Rumanika that Kamrasi had foreign
visitors as well as himself. They had not actually come
mto Unyoro, but were in his dependency, the country of
Gani, coming up the Nile in vessels. They had been
attacked by the Gani people, and driven back with considerable
loss both of men and property, although they
were in sailing vessels, and fired guns which even broke
dov n the trees on the banks. Some of their property
had been brought to him, and he in return had ordered
his subjects not to molest them, but allow them to come
on to him. Rumanika enjoyed this news as much as
myself, especially when I told him of Petherick’s promise
to meet us, just as these men said he was trying to d o ;
and more especially so, when I told him that if he would
assist me in trying to communicate with Petherick, the
latter would either come here himself, or send one of his
men, conveying a suitable present, whilst I was away in
Uganda; and then in the end we would all o-o off to
Kamrasi’s together.
Ath.—Entering warmly into the spirit of this important
intelligence, Rumanika inquired into its tru th ; and,
finding no reason to doubt it, said he would send some
men back with Kamrasi s men, if 1 could have patience
until they were ready to go. There would be no danger,
as Kamrasi was his brother-in-law, and would do all that
he told. him.
I now proposed to send Baraka, who, ashamed to cry
off, said he would go with R&manika’s officers if I allowed
him a companion of his own choosing, who would take
care of him if he got sick 011 the way, otherwise he should
be afraid they would leave him to die, like a dog, in the
jungles. We consoled him by assenting to the companion
he wished, and making Rumanika responsible that no
harm should come to him from any of the risks which his
imagination conjured up. Ritmanika then gave him and
Uledi, his selected companion, some sheets of mbugti, in
order that they might disguise themselves as his officers
whilst crossing the territories of the king of Uganda. On
inquiring as to the reason of this, it transpired that, to
reach Unyoro, the party would have to cross a portion
of UddQ, which the late king Sunna, on annexing that
country to Uganda, had divided, not in halves, but by
alternate bands running transversely from Nkole to the
Victoria N’yanza.
5th and fi/A.-tr'J'o keep Rumanika up to the mark, I
introduced to him Saidi, one of my men, who was formerly
a slave, captured in Walamo, on the borders of
Abyssinia, to show him, by his similarity to the Wahuma,
how it was I had come to the conclusion that he was
of the same race. Saidi told him his tribe kept cattle
with the same stupendous horns as those of the Wahuma;
and also that, in the same manner, they all mixed blood
with milk for their dinners, which, to his mind, confirmed
my statement. At night, as there was a partial eclipse of
the moon, all the Wang&ana marched up and down from
Rumanika s to Nnanaji’s huts, singing and beating our tin
cooking-pots to frighten off the spirit of the sun from consuming
entirely the chief object of reverence, the moon.
7 th. Our spirits were now further raised by the arrival
of a semi-Hindu-Suahili, named Jihna, who had just
returned from a visit to the king of Uganda, bringing
back with him a large, present of ivory and slaves; for he