Majesty to understand that I desired to take his photograph.
He professed to be quite willing, but refused to
budge from his throne to come to the door of the
audience chamber, on the pretext that the sun was too
strong- for him. As a matter of fact there was no sun
at a ll: his real reason was that he did not wish to be
photographed with all the British officers and soldiers
about his palace.
Major Owen had a good deal of business to clear up
at Kampala, so that we could not leave for Ntebe, whence
our expedition was to start, until nearly four in the afternoon.
The distance is rather over 20 miles. Before long
it began to grow dark, and we could only go slowly.
About nine o’clock we imagined we must be near our
destination, but about a quarter of an hour later we had
not the least idea where we were. Owen went on a little
to reconnoitre, and presently called to me; we were
utterly lost. At last we found a hut, and with great
difficulty woke up its occupants; but neither of us could
make them understand what we wanted. At last one of
the natives grasped the fact that he was to accompany us
to Ntebe, whereon he immediately took to his heels.
Owen pursued and caught him. He howled vigorously,
and the women came out of the hut and added their yells
to the alarm. In a few moments Owen returned with his
captive, and we made him walk in front of us. He put us
on the road, and then ran away for dear life; two hours
passed and still the fort had not appeared in sight.
Meanwhile Owen’s pony was done up, and we took turns
with mine. Soon after eleven o’clock we entered a forest,
where it was too dark to see your hand. We felt convinced
that we were on the wrong road, but at last
at midnight we saw the hill of Ntebe before us. Now
there was a fresh difficulty. Owen’s pony had the
greatest difficulty in getting up the hill. Half-way up
he absolutely declined to go any further, and I went
on ahead to fetch an askari (native soldier). Reaching the
4 1 8
The Katikiro. Mwanga.
MWANGA, K IN G OF UGANDA,
AND TH E K A T IK IRO , HIS PRIME MINISTER.