I proclaimed Rionga as the vakeel of
the government, who would rule Unyoro in the place of Kabba Rega,
deposed. Rionga was accepted by acclamation; and if the young traitor,
Kabba Rega, could have witnessed this little projet de traite, he would
have shivered in his shoes.
Rionga was a general favourite, and the natives were sincerely glad to
see him at length supported by the government. Throughout his life he
had striven bravely against every species of treachery and persecution;
the day of his revenge had arrived.
I did not wish to overrun Unyoro until the grass should be fit to burn;
this would not be until the end of November.
I therefore arranged that I would leave Abd-el-Kader with sixty-five men
in a powerful stockade that I had constructed on the edge of the river
in this spot, N. lat. 2 degrees 6' 17", to support Rionga, and to
organize the native forces, while I would take forty men (sniders) and
march to Fatiko, to inquire into all that had happened during my
absence. It would be necessary to form a corps of irregulars under the
command of Wat-el-Mek, which I should immediately send to occupy Unyoro.
Rionga told me that he should attack M'rooli in company with the Langgos
and Umiros, who would quickly overrun the country now that Kabba Rega
was unsupported by the slave-hunters.
