RESTORATION OF THE LIBERATED SLAVES.
The work had now fairly commenced, and Kabba Rega and his chiefs were
assured of a grand reform. Already the slave-hunters had been punished:
the vakeel, Suleiman, was secured in the stocks, and the slaves that had
been kidnapped had been restored to their homes in Unyoro. I now
determined to insist upon the restoration of all the Unyoro slaves that
had been carried away from this country, and were captives in the
zareebas of Fatiko, Fabbo, Faloro, and Farragenia. From the descriptions
of Kabba Rega and his chiefs, I considered that these prisoners amounted
to about a thousand persons - women and children.
Umbogo, the interpreter, declared that Abou Saood's companies would
attack the government troops, should I insist upon the liberation of the
slaves. He had lived with these slave-hunters, and he had frequently
heard them declare, that, "should the Pacha ever arrive in this country,
and insist upon the suppression of slavery, they would shoot him rather
than lose their slaves." I treated this idea as an absurdity.
At the same time that Kabba Rega and his people were eager for the
restoration of the numerous women and children that had been stolen from
Unyoro, they were themselves great slave-dealers.
M'tese, the powerful King of Uganda, on the southern frontier of Unyoro,
was in the habit of purchasing ivory in that country for the merchants
of Zanzibar.
