The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-01 00:00:00

UGANDA DESCRIBED.

In London, on Monday evening, at a meeting of the
Royal Geographical Society, held in the theatre of the
University of Loidon, Burlington-gardens, a paper
on "Uganda and its People "was read by the Rev.
C. T. Wilson, of the Church Missionary Society, who,
with Mr. Felkin has lately returned to this country
from Central Africa. The chair was taken by the
Earl of Northbrook, president of the society. There
was a numerous attendance, which, besides many
ladies, included Lord Cottesloe, Sir H. Rawlinson,
Sir R. Temple, Sir T. Powell Buxton, Sir H. Barkly,
Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, Sir H. Thuillier, Sir
W. Merewether, Sir H. Verney, Sir Rawson
Rawson, Colonel Grant, Mr. Clements Markham,
secretary of the society, and Mr. Hutchison, secre-
tary of the Church Missionary Society. The meeting
was rendered more than usually interesting by the pre-
sence of three .Waganda chiefs, who accompanied Mr.
Wilson and Mr. Felkin on their journey home, and are
the bearers of letters from their King Mtesa to Her
Majesty the Queen. Our new visitors are of very
dark complexion, tall and thin, with intelligent fea-
tures of the negau type. They wore a long, light-
coloured robe over dark under garments, and their
demeanour was quiet and self-possessed. Lord North-
brook, in introducing them, said that they belonged
to the highest class but one of the nobility of their
own•kingdom, and that they had been sent to Eng-
land by their King for the purpose of obtaining a
knowledge of the country and at the same time of
bearing letters to the-Queen. He bespoke for them a
cordial weicome. _ _

Mr. Wilson said that their names were Earl Nam-
kaddi, Earl Kataruba, and Earl Sawaddu. He then
proceeded to read his paper, from which the following
is an extract :

"The country of Uganda is a comparatively
narrow strip of land lying on the north and north-
west shores of the Nyanza or Victoria Lake, its
southern boundary being the Kagera or Kitangule
river, and its eastern one the Nile; its north and west
boundaries are not very clearly defined, but it may
be roughly said to be the first parallel I\,. lat. on the
north and the 31st parallel E. long, on the west. The
country may be roughly divided into the coast portion
and the interior, the aspect of these two portions being
very different. Along the coast and for some distance
in/and the country is mountainous, especially at the
extreme north-west corner of the lake, with ranges of
flat-topped. hills, having swampy valleys between,
down which sluggish streams make their way to the
Nyanza, their banks being covered with magnificent
forest trees, with a dense undergrowth of ferns, in
which this region is peculiarly rich, I myself having
collected upwards of 50 species; and there are probably
many more to be yet discovered. As ive get further
into the interior the country becomes less hilly,
the valleys wider, the forests give place to groves of
wild date palms, and the ferns are supplanted by
gigantic grasses, till near the northern frontier the
country is flat, intersected at intervals by morasses,
and covered with scanty jungle, in which the elephant,
buffalo, zebra, rhinoceros, wild boar, eland, and other
antelopes find a home. •The coast region is the most
fertile and best watered district which I have ever visited
in Central Africa, and would be capable of growing al-
most any European plants and fruits; the few seeds
which we succeeded in taking in good condition to
Uganda grew very well, and when I left Uganda we had
acood crop of peas, cabbages, beans, radishes, onions,
&c., in the mission gardens. Wheat and rice, both of good
quality, are grown by the settlers from Zanzibar, while
the papal, pomegranate and guava have been intro-
duced by the Arabs, and bear abundantly. The only na-
tive plants or trees at present known to be of any com-
mercial value are a species of nutmeg, which grows abun-
dantly near the lake, coffee, several species of euphor-
bia, and one or two other trees, which produce ca.out-
chouc of good quality, and the mpafu, a large tree
which produces a sweet-scented gum resin much
valued by the natives. But there are probably many
other vegetable products of commercial value yet to
be discovered, and it is extremely likely that the
chinchona plant would flourish on the hill sides of
Uganda. The extreme fertility of Uganda is owing
to the mild climate which it enjoys, and to the con-
stant showers of rain which fall more or less during
every month of the year. There are no scorching
days or dry, burning winds to wither up the vegeta-
tion, nor any keen, frosty nights to blight the tender
shoots The government of the country is
an absolute monarchy, the King, however, being
more or less controlled by the chiefs, who meet
him frequently in council. The country is divided
among a few great hereditary chiefs called
Bakung-u, who are in constant attendance at Court,
and who rarely leave the King. Under these
chiefs are others called Batongoli, who preside over
smaller districts, and who in time of war are obliged
to furnish so many fighting men to their superior, all
the land being held upon a kind of feudal tenure.
Most of these chiefs are expected to reside at Court
for three months in the year, the other nine months
being spent in their respective districts. These
Bakunguos are not hereditary, and only hold their
position for life, or during the King's pleasure. The
three leading Bakungu, in the event of the King's
death, choose his successor, and it is the custom to
choose one of the youngest of the late King's sons, his
mother and these three chiefs ruling the kingdom until
the young sovereign attains his majority. In the case
of the three chiefs not agreeirjg in the choice of a suc-
cessor they nominate their respective candidates, and
then fight till one is victorious, when he places his
nominee on the throne. If such a civil war should
take place, all the foreigners in the country are taken
to one place and put under the care of a guard, and
are not allowed to go out or take part in any way in
the contest. The present condition of the people
is rather more advanced than it was at the time of
the visit of Captains Speke and Grant. Cloth
is allowed to be worn by the people generally, and
Arab costume has become the court dress. Mtesa
himself has quite abandoned the native mbugu, and
generally appears at Court in a gorgeous embroidered
chogs, with fez and red slippers, and frequently wears
a sword. He has, too, a body guard armed with guns
of various kinds, from old flintlocks to breechloading
rifles, and dressed in a red and white uniform.
These men have been taught something of drill by
deserters from the Egyptian troops at Menli and else-
where. Guns are gradually accumulating in the
country, and, from tolerably reliable information I
estimate the number at present a little over 2,000.
Other articles of European manufacture, as plates,
cups, mirrors, knives, &c., have been brought by the
Arabs, and Mtesa himself possesses two or three good
musical boxes. Several of the chiefs can read and
write Arabic, while some of those who have been under
instruction at the mission learnt to read Kisuahili in
the Roman character in a surprisingly short time. . . .
The religious ideas of the Waganda are not of a very high
order, though superior to many of those of negroes. They
have one god, Kabonda, literally, 'the Creator, of
whom they know but little beyond the fact that he
made the world and mankind. They have other gods,
however, to whom they pray and make offerings
Mukasa, Nenda and Chiwka, the thunder and the
smallpox. They seem to have no idea of a soul or of
a future existence. . . . The Nyanza, then, or Victoria
Lake, is the greatest central point on which the future
commerce and civilization of that part of Africa turns.
With its 2,000 miles of coasts, it offers a fine field to the
trader, the missionary, andithe naturalist. It was first
crossed by the late Lieutenant Shergold Smith and
myself on the 25th and 26th of June, 1877, and since
then I have crossed it from west to south three times,
and coasted along its north-west, west, and south-
west shores, from Murchinson Bay on the north to
Kagu in Usukuma on the south. The mirth-west
corner is filled with an immense group of islands, said
by the natives to be 400 in number, and which are
included in the general term Sesse, though nearly all
these islands - have separate names. The scenery
among these islands is exquisitely beautiful, as they
are generally clothed with magnificent trees to the
water's edge, and the shore lined with a fringe of
papyrus. I hope that this great society, which has
done so much for the discovery of this great inland
sea and which has ever been foremost in aiding plans
for the opening up of Central Africa, will not rest till
the Victoria Lake and the countries round it have been
thoroughly explored and opened up to the merchAtt,
the settler, and the missionary."
At the request of Lord Northbrook, Mr. Wilson
gave some account of the habits and customs of the
people of Uganda. He said that their houses were
like beehives, and were without chimney or window.
The people had no beds but lay on the ground. They
used no knives or fork, but they were a clean people
the
ed
latterha d
wn aapa k ian sand
misnomer,
p o c k
as e t - ht anhe dy k
he racdh i
ne fos ,
ptolic okue gt
sh.
Coffee was eaten by them and not drunk, and of
course they had no tea. Guns were in use. but the
Wa,ganda never took aim. They fired from the hip,
and if they hit anything they were more surprised than
otherwise. That morning he heard the three
chiefs expressing an opinion of what they had seen
in England, and one thing they were agreed on was
that our women were handsomer than the women of
their own country. The King was very anxious he
should bring him back a white wife; but he told
Mtesa that the lady would have to be asked. In
Uganda marriage was a matter of money. If a man
had money he could buy a wife, if not be must go
without. The woman was never consulted on the
matter.
Colonel Grant, the fellow-traveller of the late Cap-
tain Speke bore testimony to the humane and kindly
charactsr Of King Mtesa, whose ambassadors in this
zutiitoz he hoped would meet with a hospitable re-
cordial vote of thanks • was passed to Messrs.
Wilson and Felkin, and the proceedings terminated.