Two days after our arrival at Shooa, the whole of our Obbo porters
absconded: they had heard that we were bound for Kamrasi's country, and
having received exaggerated accounts of his power from the Shooa people,
they had determined upon retreat: thus we were at once unable to
proceed, unless we could procure porters from Shooa. This was
exceedingly difficult, as Kamrasi was well known here, and was not
loved. His country was known as "Quanda," and I at once recognised the
corruption of Speke's "Uganda." The slave woman, "Bacheeta," who had
formerly given me in Obbo so much information concerning Kamrasi's
country, was to be our interpreter; but we also had the luck to discover
a lad who had formerly been employed by Mahommed in Faloro, who also
spoke the language of Quanda, and had learnt a little Arabic. I now
discovered that the slave woman Bacheeta had formerly been in the
service of a chief named Sali, who had been killed by Kamrasi. Sali was
a friend of Rionga (Kamrasi's greatest enemy), and I had been warned by
Speke not to set foot upon Rionga's territory, or all travelling in
Unyoro would be cut off. I plainly saw that Bacheeta was in favour of
Rionga, as a friend of the murdered Sali, by whom she had had two
children, and that she would most likely tamper with the guide, and that
we should be led to Rionga instead of to Kamrasi.
Pages:
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423