Some weeks passed without a reply from Shooa to the letter I had
forwarded by my men, neither had any news been received of their
arrival; we had relapsed into the usual monotony of existence. This was
happily broken by a most important event.
On the 6th September, M'Gambi came to my hut in a state of great
excitement, with the intelligence that the M'was, the natives of Uganda,
had invaded Kamrasi's country with a large army; that they had already
crossed the Kafoor river and had captured M'rooli, and that they were
marching through the country direct to Kisoona, with the intention of
killing Kamrasi and of attacking us, and annexing the country of Unyoro
to M'tese's dominions. My force was reduced by four men that I had sent
to Shooa--thus we were a party of twenty guns, including the Turks,
who unfortunately had no ammunition.
There was no doubt about the truth of the intelligence; the natives
seemed in great consternation, as the M'was were far more powerful than
Kamrasi's people, and every invasion from that country had been attended
with the total rout of the Unyoro forces. I told M'Gambi that messengers
must be sent off at once to Shooa with a letter that I would write to
Ibrahim, summoning him immediately to Karuma with a force of 100 men; at
the same time I suggested that we should leave Kisoona and march with
Kamrasi's army direct to Karuma, there to establish a fortified camp to
command the passage of the river, and to secure a number of canoes to
provide a passage for Ibrahim's people whenever they could effect a
junction:--otherwise, the M'was might destroy the boats and cut off
the Turks on their arrival at the ferry.
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