He Told Me How, Shortly After The Late King Of Uganda, Sunna,
Died, And Before Mtesa Had Been Selected By
The officers of the
country to be their king, an Arab caravan came across the Masai
as far as Usoga,
And begged for permission to enter Uganda; but
as the country was disturbed by the elections, the officers of
the state advised the Arabs to wait, or come again when the king
was elected. I told him I had heard of this before, but also
heard that those Arabs had met with great disasters, owing to the
turbulence of the Masai. To which he replied: "That is true;
there were great difficulties in those times, but now the Masai
country was in better order; and as Mtesa was most anxious to
open that line, he would give me as many men as I liked if I
wished to go home that way."
This was pleasant information, but not quite new, for the Arabs
had told me Mtesa was so anxious to open that route, he had
frequently offered to aid them in it himself. Still it was most
gratifying to myself as I had written to the Geographical
Society, on leaving Bogue, that if I found Petherick in Uganda,
or on the northern end of the N'yanza, so that the Nile question
was settled, I would endeavour to reach Zanzibar via the Masai
country. In former days, I knew, the kings of Uganda were in the
habit of sending men to Karague when they heard that Arabs wished
to visit them - even as many as two hundred at a time - to carry
their kit; so I now begged Irungu to tell Mtesa that I should
want at least sixty men; and then, on his promising that he would
be my commissioner, I gave him the beads he had begged for
himself.
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