factions, who had taken refuge in Ankole, could not agree even
in their common exile, and nearly came to blows, but on the
spur of threatened famine they agreed to combine and to take
back Mwanga as their king and strike a blow for supremacy
in Buganda. In May 1889 Mwanga, aided by the trader Charles
Stokes, approached Buganda by water, and after several bloody
battles captured the capital, but shortly afterwards was again
defeated, and Kalema and the Ba-Islamu reoccupied Mengo
(the native capital). Appeals for help were sent to Frederick
John Jackson (subsequently lieutenant-governor of British East
Africa), who had arrived on the east of the lake with a caravan
of some 500 rides, sent by the newly-formed East African
Chartered Company. He replied saying he would come
if all the expenses were guaranteed and the British flag
accepted. Pere Lourdel, who was Mwanga's chief adviser at
this time, counselled acceptance of these terms, but Jackson
at first marched in a different direction northwards. Returning
three months later, he found that Dr Karl Peters, a
German in command of an “Emin Pasha Relief” expedition,
had passed through his camp, read his letters, and, acting on
the information thus obtained, had marched to Buganda,
arriving in February 1890, where with the aid of Lourdel he
concluded a treaty which was kept secret from
French and British Factions.the British party, who repudiated it. The Baganda
Christians, before the arrival of Peters, had again
engaged the Mahommedans and driven them to the frontier
of Unyoro, where King Kabarega gave them an asylum and
aid. Kalema died later in the same year—1890—and was
succeeded by Mbogo, a half brother of King Mutesa. The
posts of honour had been divided between the rival factions.
Peters's treaty had given fresh offence and added to the disputes
arising in the division of the offices of state, and the factions
were on the point of fighting. Jackson arrived in April with
180 gun-men (a portion of his caravan having mutinied), and
presented a new treaty, which was refused by the French.
Feeling ran high, and Jackson withdrew his treaty, and, taking
a. couple of envoys who should bring back word whether
Uganda was to be French or British, he left the country, Mr
Ernest Gedge remaining in charge of his expedition.
While these events were happening in Uganda the Anglo-German treaty of July 1890 had assigned Uganda to Great Britain, and in October 1890 Captain F. D. Lugard, then at Kikuyu, halfway between the coast and the lake, received instructions to go to Uganda. He had with him Messrs De Winton and W. Grant, some 50 Sudanese Lugard’s Arrival, 1890. soldiers, and about 250 porters, armed with Snider carbines. Marching with unprecedented rapidity, he entered Mengo on the 18th of December. Lugard, by introducing the names “Protestant” and “Catholic”—till then unknown—and by insisting that all religion was free, endeavoured to dissociate it from politics, and urged that as Uganda was now under Great Britain there could be no hostile “French” faction. This attitude was welcome to neither faction, and for some days the position of the new arrivals on the little knoll of Kampala was very precarious. Lugard's first object was to obtain a treaty which would give him a right to intervene in the internal affairs of the country. The hostile French faction was much the stronger, since at this time the king (whom the whole of the pagan party followed) was of that faction; but after some critical episodes the treaty was signed on the 26th of December. Lugard then endeavoured to settle some of the burning disputes relative to the division of lands and chief ships, &c., and to gain the confidence of both parties. In this he was to some extent successful, and his position was strengthened by the arrival in January 1891 of Captain (subsequently Colonel) W. H. Williams, R.A., with a small force of Sudanese and a maxim. In April Lugard, hoping to achieve better results away from the capital, led the combined factions against the Mahommedans, then raiding the frontier, whom he defeated. Seeing that the situation in Buganda was impossible unless they had a strong central force, which the company could not provide, Lugard and Williams had formed the idea of enlisting the Sudanese who had been left by Emin and Stanley at the south end of the Albert Lake. Taking with him Kasagama, the rightful king of Toro, he traversed the north of Ankole, with which country he made a treaty, and passing thence through Unyoro, along the northern slopes of Ruwenzori, reached Kavali at the south end of Lake Albert, defeating the armies of Unyoro who opposed his progress. He brought away with him 8000 Sudanese men, women, children and slaves, under Selim Bey (an Egyptian officer). Some of these he left at the posts he established along southern Unyoro. After an absence of six months from Buganda, Lugard reached the capital at the end of the year (1891) with 200 or 300 Sudanese soldiers and two or three times that number of followers. Lugard little thought that in bringing these Sudanese, already (some of them) infected with the sleeping-sickness of the Congo forests, he was to introduce a disease which would kill off some 250,000 natives of Uganda in eight years. Meanwhile Williams, amid endless difficulties, with a mere handful of men, had managed to keep the two factions from civil war, though righting had actually occurred in Buddu and in the Sese Islands.
After Lugard's return a lull occurred till the coast caravan left, when lawlessness again broke out and several murders were committed. On the 22nd of January the killing of a Protestant at the capital (Mengo) produced a crisis. Lugard appealed to the king to do justice, but he himself was treated with scant courtesy, and his Civil War, 1891. envoy was told that the French party would sack Kampala if Lugard interfered on behalf of the murdered man. In spite of strenuous efforts on the part of the British administrator to avert war the French party determined to fight, and finally attacked the British, who had assembled round Kampala. The king and French party were defeated and fled to the Sese Islands. The king and chiefs (except two ringleaders) were offered reinstatement, and they appeared anxious to accept these terms, but the French bishop joined them in the islands, and from that day all hopes of peace vanished. Fighting was recommenced by a “French” attack on “British” canoes, and Williams thereupon attacked the island and routed the hostile faction. After this the “French” slowly concentrated in Buddu in the south, the Protestants migrating thence. Williams then led a successful expedition against the Sese islanders and went on to the south of the lake to obtain one of the young princes—heirs to the throne—who were at the French mission there. But the Fathers were hostile, and though Mwanga was eager to accept Lugard's offers of reinstatement, he was a prisoner in the hands of his party. He succeeded eventually in escaping, and arrived in Mengo on the 30th of March (1892). A new treaty was made, and the British flag flew over the capital, while the French party were given a proportion of chief ships and assigned the province of Buddu. These conditions they themselves said were liberal, nor could they have ventured to assume their old positions throughout Uganda.
The Mahommedans had all this time refrained from attacking the capital as had been expected. They now clamoured for recognition, and Lugard went to meet them, and after a somewhat precarious and very difficult interview he succeeded in bringing back their king Mbogo to Kampala, and in assigning them three minor provinces in Uganda.[1]
Lugard on his return to Uganda at the end of 1891 had received
orders to evacuate the country with his whole force, as the
company could no longer maintain their position.
A reprieve till the end of 1892 followed, funds having
been raised through the efforts of Bishop Tucker
the Church Missionary Society and friends.
The
Question of Evacuation, 1892.
The lives of many Europeans were at stake, for anarchy
must follow the withdrawal, and it seemed impossible to
repudiate the pledges to Toro, or to abandon the Baganda
who had fought for the British. In June 1892, therefore,
Lugard determined to leave for England to appeal against
the decision for abandonment. Williams remained in Uganda,
where the outlook was now fairly promising, and every effort
- ↑ Since reduced to one.
