CHAPTER XXI.
RETURNS TO UGANDA.
Leaves Kagehyi with Half his Expedition -- Arrival at Refuge Island -- Brings up the Rest -- Encamped on Refuge Island -- Interviewed by Iroba Canoes -- Stanley’s Friendship Scorned -- The King of Bumbireh a Hostage -- The Massacre of the Kytawa Chief and his Crew -- The Punishment of the Murderers -- Its Salutary Effect upon their Neighbors -- Arrival in Uganda -- Life and Manners in Uganda -- The Emperor -- The Land -- _En-route_ for Muta Nzigé -- The White People of Gambaragara -- Lake Windermere -- Rumanika, the King of Karagwé -- His Country -- The Ingezi -- The Hot Springs of Mtagata -- Ubagwé -- Msené -- Across the Malagarazi to Ujiji -- Sad Reflections.
On the 20th of June, Stanley again sailed from Kagehyi with his expedition, having procured the loan of fifty canoes from Lukongeh, the amiable King of Ukerewe, and arrived safely at Refuge Island, half way to Uganda and two days’ sail from Bumbireh. This latter place was where the savages had made the treacherous attack upon his expedition, so graphically described in the previous chapter.
After a few days’ rest on Refuge Island they proceeded on their voyage, and remembering the bitter injuries he had received from the natives of Bumbireh, and the death by violence and starvation he and his party had so narrowly escaped, Stanley resolved that, unless they should make amends for their cruelty and treachery, he would attack them and administer such punishment as would prove a salutary lesson, and teach them the duty of hospitality to travellers in the future.
Stanley first sent a message to the natives of Bumbireh to the effect that if they would deliver their King and the two principal chiefs under him into his hands, he would make peace with them. This ultimatum was received with contempt; but by a stratagem Stanley succeeded in getting the King of Bumbireh brought to him, who was at once heavily chained. Being in want of supplies for his party, Stanley sent to Bumbireh to procure food; but the natives, instead of giving any, attacked his men, wounding eight and killing a friendly chief, which was another reason why Bumbireh should be punished.
Accordingly Stanley started off, on the following morning, with a force of two hundred and eighty men--fifty muskets, two hundred and thirty spearsmen--in eighteen canoes, and reached the island of Bumbireh about two in the afternoon. The natives had evidently been anticipating some trouble, for as they approached messengers were observed running fast to a plantain grove that stood on a low hill commanding a clear open view of a little port at the southern end of the island, from which they concluded that the main force of the savages was hidden behind the grove.
Perceiving that they were too strong to attack them in the plantain grove, Stanley steered for the opposite shore, intending to disembark his force there; but as soon as the natives saw this, they rose from their coverts, and ran along the hill slopes to meet Stanley, which was precisely what he wished they would do, and accordingly he ordered his force to paddle slowly, so as to give them time. In half an hour the savages were all assembled on the slope of a hill in knots and groups, and after approaching within one hundred yards of the shore Stanley formed his line of battle, the American and English flags waving as their ensigns. Having anchored each canoe so as to turn its broadside to the shore, he ordered a volley to be fired at one group which numbered about fifty, and the result was ten killed and thirty wounded. The savages, perceiving the danger of standing in groups, separated themselves along the lake shore, and advanced to the water’s edge, slinging stones and shooting arrows. Stanley then ordered the canoes to advance within fifty yards of the shore, and to fire as if they were shooting birds. After an hour the savages saw that they could not defend themselves at the water’s edge, and retreated up the hill slope, where they continued still exposed to the fire from the boats.
Another hour was spent in this manner, after which Stanley caused the canoes to come together, and told them to advance in a body to the shore as if they were about to disembark. This caused the enemy to make an effort to repulse their landing, and, accordingly, hundreds came down with their spears ready on the launch. When they were close to the water’s edge the bugle sounded a halt, and another volley was fired into the dense crowd, which had such a disastrous effect on them that they retired far up the hill, and the work of punishment had been consummated.
The loss of the savages was very great, as might naturally be expected, considering they were so exposed on a shore covered only with short grass. Forty-two were counted lying dead on the field, and over one hundred were seen to retire wounded. Stanley’s spearsmen were very anxious that he should allow them to land and utterly destroy the Bumbirehs; but this he refused, saying that he had not come to destroy the island, but to punish them for their treachery and attempted murder of himself and party when they had put faith in their professed friendship.
After leaving Bumbireh, Stanley next landed and camped at Dumo Uganda, which is a two days’ march north of the Kagera River and two days south of the Katonga River. This camp he selected for his expedition because it was intermediate, whence he could start on a northwest, west, or southwest course for the Albert Nyanza, after ascertaining from Mtesa which was best: for between the Victoria Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza are very powerful tribes, the Wasagara, Wa Ruanda, and Wasangora especially, who were continually at war with Mtesa.
Here Stanley remained several days, until he could procure force sufficient from Mtesa to pierce the hostile country through which alone he could penetrate to the Albert Nyanza, the aim of his present expedition. He himself was of opinion that unless the Emperor gave him a force of fifty thousand men, it would be almost hopeless to expect that they could hold their ground long enough to enable him to set out on a two-months’ voyage of exploration and find on his return the expedition still intact and safe. On presenting these views to the Emperor, he and his chiefs assured Stanley that two thousand men were amply sufficient, as Kabba Rega would not dare to lift a spear against the Waganda, because it was he (Mtesa) who had seated Kabba Rega on the throne of Kamrasi. Though not quite convinced with the assurances Mtesa gave him that there would be no trouble, Stanley entreated him no further, but accepted thankfully General Samboozi and two thousand men as escort.
The march across Uganda, west and northwest, was uninterrupted by any event to mar the secret joy Stanley felt in being once more on the move to new fields of exploration. The party made a bold show of spears and guns while marching across the easy swells of pastoral western Uganda.
Arriving at the frontier of Unyoro, they made all warlike preparations, and on January 5th entered Kabba Rega’s territory. The people fled before them, leaving their provisions behind them, of which free use was made. On the 9th they camped at the base of Mt. Kabuga, at an altitude off 5500 feet above the sea. East of the low ridge on which they camped the Katonga River was rounding from the north to the east on its course toward Lake Victoria, and west of camp the Rusango River boomed hoarse thunder from its many cataracts and falls as it rushed westward to Lake Albert. From one of the many spurs of Kabuga they obtained a passing glimpse of the king of mountains, Gambaragari, which attains an altitude of between 13,000 and 15,000 feet above the ocean.
On the summit of this high mountain Stanley came across a strange, pale-faced tribe of natives, complexion almost European--a handsome race, some of the women being singularly beautiful. Their hair is kinky, but inclined to brown in color. Their features are regular and lips thin; but their noses, though well-shaped, are somewhat thick at the point. Several of their descendants are scattered throughout Unyoro, Ankori, and Ruanda, and the royal family of the latter powerful country are distinguished by their pale complexions. The Queen of Sasua Islands, in the Victoria Nyanza, is a descendant of this tribe.
Whence this singular people came Stanley was unable to determine, further than to surmise from a clew which he mentions, viz.: that the first King of Kishakka, a country to the southwest, was an Arab, whose cimeter is still preserved with much reverence by the present reigning family of Kishakka.
This mountain is an extinct volcano, and on the summit is a crystal clear lake about five hundred yards in length, from the centre of which rises a column-like rock to a great height. A rim of firm rock, like a wall, surrounds the summit, within which are several villages, where the chief of this singular tribe and his people reside.
The first King of Unyoro gave them the land around the base of the Gambaragari mountain, wherein through many vicissitudes they have continued to reside for centuries. On the approach of an invading army they retreat to the summit of the mountain, the intense cold of which defies the most determined of their enemies. Several years ago Emperor Mtesa despatched his Prime Minister with about one hundred thousand men to Gambaragari and Usongora; but though the great General of Uganda occupied the slopes and ascended to a great height in pursuit, he was compelled by the inclement climate to descend without having captured more than a few black slaves, the pale-faced tribe having retreated to their impregnable fortress at the summit.
About four years previous to this, when exploring the Tanganyika with Livingstone, they heard that there existed a race of white men north of the Uzigo. At that time Livingstone and Stanley smiled at the absurdity of a white people living in the heart of Africa; but here Stanley actually sees them, and discovers the truth of the report.
After leaving the Gambaragari mountain and its pace-faced inhabitants, Stanley penetrated through the Unyoro country to the borders of the Lake Albert; but finding it utterly impossible, through the determined opposition of the natives, to procure any canoes, he was forced to return to Uganda, to discover other routes and countries more amenable to reason and open to friendly gifts than hostile Unyoro or incorrigible Ankori.
The geographical knowledge acquired by their forcible push to the Albert Nyanza was of the highest importance, and well repaid Stanley, even though in the end he was forced to return. The lay of the plateau separating the great reservoirs of the Nile, the Victoria and Albert Nyanzas, the structure of the mountains and ridges, and the course of the water-sheds, and the course of the rivers Katonga and Rusango have been revealed. The great mountain Gambaragari and its singular people have been discovered, besides a portion of a gulf of the Albert, which Stanley called, in honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, Beatrice Gulf.
This gulf, almost a lake itself, is formed by the promontory of Usongora, which runs southwest some thirty miles from a point ten geographical miles north of Unyampaka. The eastern coast of the gulf is formed by the countries of Irangara, Unyampaka, Buhuju and Mpororo, which coast-line runs a nearly south southwest course. Between Mpororo and Usongora extend the islands of the maritime state of Utumbi. West of Unsongora is Ukonju, on the western coast of Lake Albert, reputed to be peopled by cannibals. North of Ukonju is the great country of Ulegga.
Coming to the eastern coast of Lake Albert we have Ruanda running from Mpororo on the east to Ukonju on the west, occupying the whole of the south and southeast coast of Lake Albert. North of Unyampaka, on the east side, is Irangara, and north of Irangara the district of Toro. Unyoro occupies the whole of the east side from the Murchison Falls of the Victoria Nile to Mpororo; for Unyampaka, Toro, Buhuju and Irangara are merely districts of Unyoro. The great promontory of Usongora, which half shuts in Beatrice Gulf, is tributary to Kabba Rega, though governed by Nyika, King of Gambaragara.
Usongora is the great salt field whence all the surrounding countries obtain their salt. It is, from all accounts, a very land of wonders; but the traveller desirous of exploring it should have a thousand Sniders to protect him--for the natives, like those of Ankori, care for nothing but milk and goatskins. Among the wonders credited to it are a mountain emitting “fire and stones,” a salt lake of considerable extent, several hills of rock salt, a large plain encrusted thickly with salt and alkali, a breed of very large dogs of extraordinary ferocity, and a race of such long-legged natives that ordinary mortals regard them with surprise and awe. The Waganda, who have invaded their country for the sake of booty, ascribe a cool courage to them, against which all their numbers and well-known expertness with shield and spear were of little avail. They are, besides, extremely clannish, and allow none of their tribe to intermarry with strangers, and their diet consists solely of milk. Their sole occupation consists in watching their cows, of which they have an immense number; and it was to capture some of these herds that the Emperor of Uganda sent one hundred thousand men, under his Prime Minister, to Usongora. The expedition was successful, for by all accounts the Waganda returned to their country with about twenty thousand; but so dearly were they paid for with the loss of human life, that it is doubtful whether such a raid will again be attempted to Usongora.
Upon arriving at Karagwe, Stanley was enabled through the kindness of the King, Rumanika, to explore the frontier of Karagwe as far north as Mpororo, and south as Ugufu. The yacht _Lady Alice_ was conveyed to Speke’s Lake Windermere, and the sections screwed together, and after circumnavigating the lake, they entered the Kagera River, when it almost immediately flashed across Stanley’s mind that he had made another grand discovery--that he had discovered, in fact, the true parent of the Victoria Nile.
A glance at Speke’s map will show the reader that he calls the river the Kitangule River, and that he has two tributaries running to it, called respectively the Luchuro and the Ingezi. Speke, so wonderfully correct, with a mind which grasped geographical knowledge with great acuteness, and arranged the details with clever precision and accuracy, Stanley thinks is seriously in error in calling this noble river Kitangule. Neither Waganda nor Wanyamba know it by that name; but they all know the Kagera River, which flows near Kitangule. From its mouth to Wrundi it is known by the natives on both banks as the Kagera River. The Luchuro, or rather Lukaro, means “higher up,” but is no name of any river.
While exploring the Victoria Lake, Stanley had ascended a few miles up the Kagera, and was even then struck with its great volume and depth, so much so as to rank it as the principal affluent of the Victoria Lake. On this occasion he discovered, on sounding, that it was fifty-two feet deep and fifty yards wide. Proceeding on his voyage up the river for three days, he came to another lake about nine miles in length and a mile in width, situate on the right hand of the stream. At the southern end of this lake they came to the island of Unyamubi, a mile and a half in length. Ascending the highest point on the island, the secret of the Kagera or Ingezi was revealed.
Standing in the middle of the island, he perceived it was about three miles from the coast of Karagwe and three miles from the coast of Kishakka west, so that the width of the Ingezi at this point was about six miles, and north it stretched away broader, and beyond the horizon green papyri mixed with broad gray gleams of water. He also discovered, after further exploration, that the expanses of papyri floated over a depth of from nine to fourteen feet of water; that the papyri, in fact, covered a large portion of a long, shallow lake; that the river, though apparently a mere swift flowing body of water, confined apparently within proper banks by dense tall fields of papyri, was a mere current, and that underneath the papyri it supplied a lake varying from five to fourteen miles in width and about eighty geographical miles in length.
On exploring the Kagera throughout its entire length (eighty miles) Stanley found that it maintains almost the same volume and almost the same width, discharging its surplus waters to the right and to the left, as it flows on, feeding, by means of the underground channels what might be called by an observer on land, seventeen separate lakes, but which are in reality one lake, connected together underneath the fields of papyri, and by lagoon-like channels meandering tortuously enough between detached fields of the most prolific reed. The open expanses of water are called by the natives so many “rwerus” or lakes; the lagoons connecting them and the reed-covered water are known by the name of “ingezi.” Lake Windermere is one of these rwerus, and is nine miles in extreme length and from one to three miles in width. By boiling point Stanley ascertained it to be at an altitude of 3760 feet above the ocean, and about 320 feet above Lake Victoria.
On returning from his voyage of exploration, he resolved on an overland journey to the hot springs of Mtagata, which have obtained considerable renown throughout all the neighboring countries for their healing properties. Two days’ severe marching towards the north brought them to a deep, wooded gorge wherein the hot springs are situated. Here they discovered a most astonishing variety of plants, herbs, trees and bushes; for here Nature was in her most astonishing mood. She shot forth her products with such vigor that each plant seemed to strangle the other for lack of room. They so clambered over one another that small hills of brush were formed, the lowest in the heap stifled by the uppermost, and through the heaps thus formed tall invules shot forth an arrow’s flight into the upper air, with globes of radiant, green foliage upon their stem-like crowns.
These springs issued in streams from the base of a rocky hill, and when Fahrenheit’s thermometer was placed in the water, the mercury rose to 129 degrees. Four springs bubbled upward from the ground through a depth of dark, muddy sediment, and had a temperature of 110 degrees. These were the most favored by the natives, and the curative reputation of the springs was based on the properties of the water.
Stanley says that he camped there for three days, and made free use of a reserved spring; but excepting unusual cleanliness, he could not conscientiously say that he enjoyed any benefit from the water.
Having thoroughly explored the valley of the Kagera, noting and locating the minor lakes, mineral springs, and other features of the topography of this hitherto unknown region, and after completing a map of the Victoria Nyanza, which will prove one of the most important contributions ever made to geographical science, solving as it does one of its greatest problems, Stanley commenced his southward march to Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, the place where he was so fortunate as to discover the long-lost Livingstone.
He left the capital of Karagwe with brave intentions and high aspirations. He had discovered that the Kagera River formed a great lake about eighty miles in length and from five to fourteen miles in breadth, and that at Kishakka the Kagera was still a powerful, deep-flowing river; and curious reports from natives and Arabs had created curious ideas within his mind as to the source of this noble river. Imbued with the thought that by journeying a sufficient distance along its right bank he might discover this source, he made ample preparations for the crossing of a wide wilderness, packed ten days’ provisions of grain on the shoulders of each man of the expedition, and on the 27th of March, 1876, set out for the uninhabited land.
After travelling for six days he reached Ubimba, the frontier of Karagwe, where, behind a ridge which extends between Ubimba and the lake, he saw the extreme south end of the lake he had so long followed, and noticed a decided change in the formation of the broad valley of the Kagera. The mountainous ridges bounding the western shore of the Kagera, which, extending from Mpororo south, continue on a south by west course, became broken and confused in southern Kishakka, and were penetrated from the northwest by a wide valley, through which issued into the Kagera a lake-like river called Akanyaru. Southwest was seen the course of the Kagera, which, above the confluence of the Akanyaru with it, was only a swift-flowing river of no very great depth or breadth. Such a river might well be created by the drainage of eastern Urundi and western Ubba. His attention was drawn from the Kagera to the lake-like stream of Akanyaru, and several natives stated to him while looking toward it that it was an effluent of the Kagera, and that it emptied into the Albert Nyanza. Such an extraordinary statement as this could not be received and transmitted as a fact without being able to corroborate it on his own authority, and exploration of the north of the Akanyaru proved that the Akanyaru is not an effluent but an affluent of the Kagera.
Beyond the mouth of the Akanyuru, Stanley found it was impossible for him to go, owing to the determined hostility and opposition of the natives on the right and left banks of the river. Forced to abandon the exploration of Lake Albert from this side of the Tanganyika, he marched in the direction of Ubagwe, in western Unyamwezi, about fifteen days’ journey from Ujiji. He then proposed to proceed quickly to Ujiji, explore the Tanganyika in his boat, and from Uzigo strike north to the Albert; and if that road should not be open, to cross the Tanganyika and travel north by a circuitous course to effect his purpose--the exploration of Lake Albert.
The account of his arrival at Ujiji, the scene of his first great success--the finding of Livingstone--is certainly characteristic, if not truly pathetic. “At noon of the 27th of May, the bright waters of the Tanganyika broke upon the view, and compelled me,” says Stanley, “to linger admiringly for a while, as I did on the day I first beheld them. By 3 P. M. we were in Ujiji. Muini, Mohammed bin Gharib, Sultan bin Kassim, and Khamis the Baluch, greeted me kindly. Mohammed bin Sali was dead. Nothing was changed much, except the ever-changing mud tembés of the Arabs. The square or plaza where I met David Livingstone in November, 1871, is now occupied by large tembés. The house where he and I lived has long ago been burnt down, and in its place there remain only a few embers and a hideous void. The lake expands with the same grand beauty before the eyes as we stand in the market place. The opposite mountains of Goma have the same blue-black color, for they are everlasting, and the Liuché River continues its course as brown as ever just east and south of Ujiji. The surf is still as restless, and the sun as bright; the sky retains its glorious azure, and the palms all their beauty; but the grand old hero, whose presence once filled Ujiji with such absorbing interest for me was gone!”