CH A P T E R IV.
The Legend of the Blameless Priest— The heroes of Uganda
— Chwa— Kimera, the giant— Nakivingi— Kibaga, the flying
warrior— Ma’anda— Wakinguru, the champion— Kamanya
the conqueror of the Wakedi-Suna, the c ru e l-H is massacre
of the Wasoga— Namujurilwa, the Achilles of Uganda—
Setuba and his lions— Kasindula the hero, peasant, and
premier— Mtesa, the mild-eyed.
(October, 1875.)
Having arrived safely in Uganda, through most
extraordinary and novel scen e s , I may be pen-
mitted to leave the direct narrative o f our
travels and our life in Uganda in order to inform
the reader on certain points o f the history of
Mtesa’s country, beginning with Kintu, Priest,
Patriarch, and first King o f Uganda.
Whatever o f the incredible or marvellous may
be discovered b y the learned critic in this chapter
must not be debited against the author, but against
Sabadu and the elders who are responsible ffor
the tale o f Kintu, the wars o f Kamanya, Suna,
and Mtesa, and the feats o f Namujurilwa, Setuba,
and Kasindula the heroes, while Mtesa himself
furnished me with the names o f the kings his
forefathers, with many other facts contained in
this chapter.
For my part I regret only that want o f space
compels me to compress what I have gathered
of the history o f this interesting country into a
few pages, but brief as it is, I venture to believe
that it will not be without interest to a large
class o f readers.
Uganda, then, was first peopled b y immigrants
from the north, about the thirteenth or fourteenth,
century. But the date at which I thus fix the
arrival o f the patriarch Kintu may be wrong;
he may have arrived at a much earlier period,
and the names o f a large number of his successors
may have sunk into oblivion.
Tradition, as well as it has been able, has
faithfully preserved the memory o f the acts o f
the first o f these immigrants, though it has contemptuously
omitted the acts o f his successors,
and as usual has contrived to endow its favourites,
here as elsewhere, with marvellous power
and extraordinary attributes.
Kintu, the first immigrant and the founder of
Uganda, came from the north, and perhaps
derived his descent from some African Arab or
ancient Ethiopic family. He was a mild, humane,
and blameless man, and from his character was
probably a priest o f some old and long forgotten
order. He b rou gh t with him one wife, one cow,
one goat, one sheep, one banana-root, and a