bear testimony of these Christian exertions to improve
the condition of these heathens. "Want of employment, I
heard, was the chief operative cause in billing the poor
missionaries ; for, with no other resource left them to kill
time, they spent their days eating, drinking, smoking, and
sleeping, till they broke down their constitutions by living
too fast.
Mr Moorlan became very friendly, and said he was
sorry he could not do more for us. His headquarters
were at Kich, some way down the river, where, as we
passed, he hoped at least he might be able to show us
as much attention and hospitality as lay in his power.
Mosquitoes were said to be extremely troublesome on the
river, and my men begged for some clothes, as Petherick,
they said, had a store for me under the charge of his
Vakil. The storekeeper was then called, and confirming
the story of my men, I begged him to give me what was
my own. It then turned out that it was all Petherick’s,
but he had orders to give me on account anything that
I wanted. This being settled, I took ninety-five yards of
the commonest stuff as a makeshift for mosquito-curtains
• for my men, besides four sailor’s shirts for my head men.
On the 18th, Kürshid Agha was summoned by the
constant fire of musketry, a mile or two down the river,
and went off in his vessels to the relief. A party of his
had comé across from the N’yambara country with ivory,
and on the banks of the Nile, a few miles north of this,
were engaged fighting with the natives. He arrived just
in time to settle the difficulty, and next day came back
again, having shot some of the enemy and captured their
cows. Petherick, we heard, was in a difficulty of the same
kind, upon which I proposed to go down with Baker and
Grant to succour him ; but he arrived in time, in company
with his wife and Dr James Murie, to save us the trouble,
and told me he had brought a number of men with him,
.carrying ivory, for the purpose now of looking after me
on the east bank of the Nile, by following its course up to
the south, though he had given up all hope of seeing me,
as a report had reached him of the desertion of my porters
at Ugogo. He then offered me his dyabir, as well as anything
else that I wanted that lay within his power to give.
Suffice it to say, I had, through Baker’s generosity, at that
very moment enough and to spare; but at his urgent request
I took a few more yards of cloth for my men, and
some cooking fa t; and, though I offered to pay for it, he
declined to accept any return at my hands.
Though I naturally felt much annoyed at Petherick—
for I had hurried away from Uganda, and separated from
Grant at Kari, solely to keep faith with him—I did not
wish to break friendship, but dined and conversed with
him, when it transpired that his Vakil, or agent, who
went south from the N’yambara station, came amongst
the N’yam N’yam, and heard from them that a large
river, four days’ journey more to the southward, was flowing
from east to west, beyond which lived a tribe of
“women,” who, when they wanted to marry, mingled
with them in the stream and returned; and then, again,
beyond this tribe of women there lived another tribe of
women and dogs. Now, this may all seem a very strange
story to those who do not know the negro’s and Arab’s
modes of expression; but to me it at once came very natural,
and, according to my view, could be interpreted
thus:—The river, running from east to west, according
to the native mode of expressing direction, could be nothing
but the Little Luta Nzige running the opposite
way, according to fact and our mode of expression. The
first tribe of women were doubtless the Wanyoro—called
women by the naked tribes on this side because they
wear bark coverings— an effeminate appendage, in the
naked man’s estimation; and the second tribe must have
been in allusion to the dog-keeping Waganda, who also
would be considered women, as they wear bark clothes.