Chapter XIV Katwe to Toro
As we had never heard that the boundary between the Uganda Protectorate and the Congo Free State had been definitely settled, we were surprised to find the Congo flag flying almost within shooting distance of the fort; and on our sending over to buy fish, we found that the natives across the border were not allowed to sell to us. Furthermore, the Soudanese officer in charge told us that the trade in salt had almost died out, as the Congo officials stopped their natives from bringing ivory or food to barter. It is hard to understand why the hard-and-fast line of the thirtieth parallel has been adhered to, when there is the natural boundary of the Semliki. With that boundary there would be no severance of the possessions of a chief, whereas now some of the land of Kaihura is Belgian and some English, and an uneducated native cannot be expected to serve two masters with different laws and widely-separated methods of treating him.
In the fort we were also shown the bullet-marks of the rebel Congo troops, who had attacked the fort because the Effendi refused to give up the fugitive Belgian lieutenant who had taken refuge there. As Colonel Lugard remarks in his Rise of our East African Empire, the fort stands in a very strong position; but there was no Congo fort in his time.
We here enjoyed the shelter of a roof for the first time for many months, despite the uncomfortable accessories of thousands of mosquitoes and armies of rats.
The Effendi kindly revictualled our forces, as we were not allowed to trade on our own account, and we gladly turned our backs on the bare ridges of the fort, and the curiously-coloured salt lake, and started on the eighty-mile march to Fort Gerry.
Elephant were reported as numerous throughout the country, and we looked forward to a little sport as a change, more especially as an Askari had shot a fine bull two days before, when he was out bathing in one of the streams we had to cross. We started on an excellent cleared road, myself in a machila, as the fever had left me too weak to walk, and passing several volcanic lakes and extinct craters, camped close by a large salt lake round the edge of which the spoor of many antelope was visible, and in which a few hippo snorted and splashed.
Hundreds of reedbuck dashed wildly about the plains, and a few kobus and waterbuck were seen in the distance, but, the grass being very short, there was no chance of a stalk.
Every day we crossed one or more beautiful clear streams, running down gullies from Mount Ruwenzori, the principal one being the Wimi; but nowhere did we ever get more than a glimpse of the outlying shoulders of the mountain, the higher peaks being always hidden in mist.
Elephant spoor was plentiful, but grass fires had cleared the whole of the plain and driven all the game to the foot-hills or swamps, and day after day our hopes of elephant were doomed to disappointment.
We met a Congo official—a Belgian—returning from a visit to Fort Gerry to his station, Fort Mbeni on the Semliki, whence there is a rapid and easy route or high-road to the Congo, of which the missionary, Mr. Lloyd, has lately given a startling account in The Graphic.
On July 27th we camped within sight of the hills, where Kasagama reigns by favour of the British Government, happy in the knowledge of the final extinction of his old enemy, Kabbarega; and on the morrow we gathered that we were nearing the end of our journey, by the amount of “Amerikani”10 and the quantity of crucifixes, the hall-marks of the Protestant and Catholic sects. Next we saw a large church in a walled enclosure, and two Pères Blancs came out to welcome us, and insist on our trying their excellent Algerian wine. They were much interested on hearing that we had come up from Tanganyika, and asked many questions about the brethren of their order down south. Hospitably they accompanied us a short way till we reached the boundaries of the Church of England mission, whose territory they would not pass, except on urgent business, to the Government station.
Kasagama’s hill, on the left, is a magnificent situation for a palace (or fort), dominating as it does the missions nestling below it, and the Boma on an adjacent hill. The king received us a day or two later under the escort of the English missionaries.
The high-road led past the English mission, where extensive building operations in brick were going on, down a steep hill and across a primitive and dangerous bridge, built by the 11th Company of Soudanese, under the late Colonel Sitwell, to keep them quiet during the mutiny, and up a steep hill to the fort, where we were most hospitably received by Mr. S. S. Bagge, one of the founders of the Uganda Protectorate, who has spent nearly nine years in the country, having acquired the pioneering mania in that hot-bed of pioneers, the Western States of America. Captain J. A. Meldon was in charge of the troops. English newspapers and books were most welcome, after being separated from them for many months. Our own literature consisted of Whitaker, Shakespeare, and Keats.
Two days after our arrival at Fort Gerry, our boys began to get troublesome, as they had nothing to do, and pombe (native beer) was plentiful; and one evening they raided the milk belonging to the Soudanese officer, and beat his boys, for which the culprits were duly admonished. Next day they all declared a desire to go home again to Ujiji. We were anxious to take them on to Wadelai, there being no hopes of getting local porters to go anywhere except to Kampala; and at length, after much parleying, arranged that thirty of them should go to Wadelai with me, and the rest to Kampala with Sharp, to lay in supplies for the Nile journey, and then the whole lot could return by the Victoria Nyanza to Mwanza in German territory, and thence home in safety, via Tabora.
Meantime stories of enormous tuskers were dinned into our ears, and Captain Meldon having very kindly offered to accompany us, we determined to go and have a fortnight’s elephant-hunting, as a little relaxation after our arduous march. On inquiry as to licences, we were horrified to find a £25 licence necessary, which entitled the payer to kill two elephant only. Permission might be obtained from the Commissioner of a district to kill others at £12 each—truly a preposterous regulation, in view of our subsequent experiences; however, having come so far, more or less with the objective of elephant-shooting, we paid up like men, and started off on the main road to Kampala.
The country, as usual in Toro, consisted of undulating hills intersected by papyrus swamps, with a few banana plantations, very sparsely populated, and showing no signs of game except some old elephant spoor.
The second march brought us to a very likely country, and the natives said there were many elephant in the vicinity. Sharp went out, but did not see any, the grass and thorn-scrub being almost impassable. Thence a four hours’ walk brought us to the top of a small range of hills, from the crest of which I saw an elephant standing in the thick cane-brake on the opposite slope. The main part of the caravan, with Sharp and Meldon, was some distance in front, as the difficulty of carrying my machila through the swamps made my progress slow. Praying that the wind would hold, I was carried as near as the brake would allow, and after a short walk, in the course of which I fell into an elephant-pit, found the unsuspecting old gentleman under a tree, and killed him with a single.303 bullet in the brain. He was a stupendous old bull, 11 ft. 6 in. at the shoulder, with a 64-in. foot (dry), and his teeth, 5 ft. 10 and 6 ft. 2, weighed 86 and 85 lbs. This success filled the others with envy, and a native coming in during lunch with news of a herd of forty, not very far off, Meldon and Sharp rushed off, only to return at sundown hot and tired, having hit and lost a decent bull, while I had gone out to inspect an old gentleman who came and waved his ears at me from a neighbouring hill, but which I spared, not being satisfied with his ivories.
Leaving a few boys to bring the ivory and one foot, we trekked early next day to the ridge overlooking the river, passing fresh spoor and elephant tracks almost every minute, and, while looking for a likely camping-ground, saw a small herd of elephant in the valley. Sharp immediately went in pursuit, and unfortunately for him the Soudanese officer followed, and by cutting the line of elephant, gave the leaders the wind, and thus spoilt an excellent chance. From our camp on the hill we had a splendid view of ten miles or so of the Msisi valley and the hills opposite, and all day long, elephant, singly, in small herds, and, eventually in the afternoon, in large herds of two hundred or more, perambulated up and down, giving us the most magnificent chance of making their acquaintance.
Sharp returned at lunch, hot and miserable, having shot a cow elephant—the grass being so high that it was impossible to judge beforehand what he fired at. The whole of the morning we heard shots from the far side of the river fired by Waganda or Wanyoro hunters, and presently, in a great cloud of dust, a herd of at least a hundred elephant crossed the river and wandered towards our camp. It was a most impressive sight, as they swept the long grass down in front of them as flat as if a steam-roller had passed over it. They stopped for a time about half a mile below us, blowing water and dust over their backs, while we tried to pick out the biggest bull with our glasses. We must have seen a thousand to fifteen hundred elephant that day, and heard thirty or forty shots from native guns across the Msisi.
Next day there wasn’t an elephant in sight, but we could hear the natives banging away up-river, and as the elephant near camp began to smell we trekked up the valley. Here the downtrodden grass showed that the big herd had moved off south.
Having exceeded our time-limit, we decided to return to Fort Gerry and start for the north. Taking all the ivory into Fort Gerry for registration, I left Sharp on the road with a few boys to hunt, intending to make the necessary arrangements at the station, and then to send out the boys to him for the march to Kampala; but the evening of my return was celebrated by a pombe revel amongst my boys, and when I went down to see what the noise was about, I was attacked by twenty or thirty of them with spears, and was obliged to fire my revolver at the ringleader. This scared them, and the whole hundred broke out of camp, scattering the Soudanese guards, who were supposed to keep them in order. Next day all the boys came in a body and demanded to be sent home; so, to avoid trouble, we rounded them by strategy into a cattle-kraal, and put a strong guard over them; and after giving them posho (cloth to buy food), and obtaining a guard from Kasagama to see them out of the country, I packed them off to Katwe. Sharp arrived next day, having done the fifty miles in two marches. Ten of our boys were in chain-gang for behaving badly during our absence, and these and Sharp’s lot I persuaded to go with me to Wadelai, and thence by high-road to Kampala, and by Victoria Nyanza back to Tabora and Ujiji.
Out of our fourteen calves two alone had survived, and we had been obliged to kill two cows, as they could not travel further. Six cows we exchanged with Kasagama for a tusk of 138 lbs., and six others I sold for 180 r., giving the other cow and calf to Mr. Bagge. During our absence elephant-hunting, four of King Kasagama’s cows died, so I rescinded the bargain, and gave two of my tusks and a present of cloth for the big one, and handed the surviving cattle over to Mr. Bagge. Curiously enough, the six I sold to the Soudanese Effendi were still well, while Mr. Bagge’s cow and calf had both died. Too good food and too much time to eat it, after a march of two hundred and fifty miles, had evidently overpowered them.
At this stage of my journey, Mr. Sharp, to my great regret, was forced by the ties of urgent business to return home. The Nile was such an uncertain quantity that he was unable to risk the possibility of being buried in the wilds for another two years. He therefore marched through Toro and Uganda to the Mombasa rail-head, and took passage to England via the Red Sea.
Notes
10 White trade cloth.