Uganda by Pen and Camera/Chapter 6

by Charles W. Hattersley

Chapter VI

Travelling in Uganda

Whilst it is not possible to describe in detail the work throughout the country, I can at least give an outline of the daily work of missionaries.

The country could not be called tropical as a whole, but scenery in most of the valleys is certainly so, as there is a plentiful supply of moisture and constant heat. Aerial locomotion would be a great boon to Uganda, for roads are a difficulty. To main centres there are, indeed, roads, the bridges of which are usually kept in repair; but most of our missionaries must travel a great deal to get to country churches in villages, which often lie considerably off the beaten track.

Although it is probably a fact that the country of Uganda is almost on a dead level, it is, nevertheless, very hilly, a good proportion of its surface being covered with short lumpy hills, and the valleys between these are almost invariably swamps or rivers. The rivers usually become swamps because the incline of the land is so gradual that the water cannot flow away quickly enough, and often spreads over a large area.

It is an easy matter to bridge over these shallow rivers, excepting in the stronger part of the stream. The usual plan in making a bridge is to beat down the grass and reeds, or the papyrus stems, and to throw on a lot of loose earth, which is kept in position by a double reed wall, very fragile indeed, and easily washed away by one severe storm. The stronger part of the stream, usually not more than a few feet in width, is bridged over with the stems of palms, but when the river rises, after a heavy fall of rain, these palm poles are often washed away, and it becomes a somewhat difficult matter to cross. The larger rivers present a greater difficulty, as the natives have, so far, learnt nothing of permanent bridging. Their usual plan is to beat down the stem of the papyrus, which floats on the top of the water, the roots growing together as if locked, and over these to throw a few sticks or twigs, making a floating bridge, not too safe, but affording a means of crossing. The animals, birds, insects, and reptiles to be found in the streams and forests supply any amount of material for any number of entomologists, zoologists, ornithologists, and bacteriologists. There are snakes of every description; many of them non-poisonous, and all anxious to get out of the way of human beings. But the snakes make their way into houses, generally in search of rats and lizards, upon which they feed, and one does not feel too comfortcomfortable, when, as in the case of a missionary, a snake lives in a hole under his writing-table. He knew it must be there, though never saw it. The only proof was, that annually the snake slipped out of its skin and left the discarded skin in the room, and this happened year after year.The python is known in Uganda, so, too, is a snake in the north, of which the natives tell us, but which appears, so far, to be unknown to zoologists. The native story is, that it does not crawl along the ground; that it is much longer than a python, and rears itself up when walking to a height of eight or ten feet; that it makes a great noise as it pushes its way through the grass; that it does not consume its victims as the python, but chews the flesh, as a dog does. We have only native evidence for this.Mice and small rats are innumerable; as are lizards. They infest houses of natives and Europeans alike. The presence of so many rats, which can only be kept down by a cat or by having snakes on the premises—the latter not a pleasant precaution—is sometimes a source of amusement as well as annoyance. On one occasion a missionary, travelling in a recently opened-up district and sleeping in a temporary house, built of grass and reeds, according to custom put his false teeth on a box at the side of his bed. When he awoke in the morning he looked for his teeth, but they were not to be found. After hunting all over the premises for nearly an hour, he at last discovered them at the top of a rat-hole, down which they would undoubtedly have been dragged, but that the hole was too small to admit the palate. The rats evidently thought that they had found a new kind of food. The number of jumping creatures it is impossible to count. They vary in size from the jigger, smaller than a flea, up to a locust. It is quite impossible to attempt to keep the house free from them, and one hears a constant flip, flip, as they jump about in the room. There are numbers of spiders, some of which appear to have no body at all, and others with big bodies and big eyes, quite different from anything one has ever seen in England. There are beetles of every size imaginable, from the smallest ladybird to beetles as large as ones fist.

The larger animals dangerous to life, lions and leopards, are very plentiful in most parts, but are not often found near to the main centres. Down in the south, in the country of Ankole, lions abound. The people have great herds of cattle, and the lions come round almost every night and try to steal them. The natives are not at all afraid of these beasts, and rarely attempt to spear them or to fire a gun. If they did, and they wounded the lion, they would probably get the worst of the fight. They have found by experience that the simpler plan is to hit the lion a blow with a stick, of which the king of beasts is just as much afraid as is a terrier dog, and he runs away immediately with his tail between his legs. The lion is by no means the brave animal he is usually supposed to be, though dangerous enough when cornered or wounded and righting for his life.

It may be generally stated as a fact that one never need be afraid of animals in the ordinary way of travel. If you will let them alone, they are only too glad to let you alone, and to rush out of your way as fast as possible. It is extremely difficult to catch sight of animals at all, except at a distance. Elephants, though not by any means scarce, can rarely be seen, though you can follow their path, which is very evident when newly made, as they trample down a wide space through the long grass. Natives have to be extremely careful in walking where elephants have been, for their spoor is full of thorns, owing to the nature of the food they eat, they being specially fond of mimosa and thorn trees, and the natives constantly get these thorns in their feet. It is rarely necessary for missionaries to carry a gun, unless they wish to shoot birds for food; for protection, it is not necessary in most parts of Uganda, though some people think it is probably an advantage in many of the outlying districts.

The timber in many of the forests is varied, and often of very good and useful quality. Some trees attain an enormous size, and produce fine planks. The difficulty has been always, that there were no means of hauling logs any distance from the forests. Planks had to be hewn from the tree in the forest, and then conveyed by porters to their destination; but saw-mills are now being taken up. Trees will be cut down in the vicinity of the lake, and floated on the lake to the saw-mill, so that we may hope before very long to have a plentiful supply of wood. It is an interesting fact that the railway to Uganda has been unable to use wooden sleepers, because of the voracity of the white ants. Iron sleepers from England are at present in use. The timber most commonly employed resembles box, beech, and similar hard woods. No doubt there are many soft woods, such as pine, but we have not seen these much in use. The white ants have a great fancy for all sorts of non-resinous timber.

Travelling is usually accomplished on foot, though cycles are a help when the country is anything like level. Horses, mules, and donkeys do not appear to be able to live very long. In most parts of Uganda cattle do not thrive, though they do fairly well; but draught animals appear to suffer from want of good fodder, and in many cases have died from what the natives say is snake-bite. One thing is certain—that they mostly die within a very few years of their arrival in the country, and the cause has not yet been discovered.

Cycling has many difficulties, not only the hills, but the narrow paths with grass from one foot to ten or twelve feet high, the higher grass or reeds at times almost shutting out the sunlight, and, in the narrow paths, holes and roots prove a source of great annoyance and danger. It is not comfortable when the brake gives way, or when one loses control of the pedals, in descending one of the numerous hills; for, as already described, each valley is a swamp or a river, and, the bridge being exceedingly narrow and very difficult to cross, riding becomes a real source of danger. It is a common experience to find the path over the bridge much of the same formation as the back of a cow. When the path is at all damp, it is very easy to skid on the sloping sides and be precipitated with the bicycle, if not into the river, into the reeds and rushes and mud, the depth of which is very uncertain.

When making up a bridge the natives usually take out the earth from the bank close to the side of the road, and these pits cannot be seen when the grass begins to grow again. One traveller, losing control of his machine descending the hill, thought the best plan to save his neck was to turn aside into the long grass; but, to his dismay, he rode into one of these pits. It was deep, but narrow. The front wheel of his bicycle struck the far side, and the rear wheel remained on the near side, the weight of the rider breaking the frame of the bicycle clean in two, and the rider falling between the two wheels into the bottom of the hole. A severe shaking was the only result to him, but not to his bicycle.

It is a common thing for a bridge to be washed away in the course of one storm; and one rider coming in to Mengo in the afternoon and returning next morning to his station, quite forgot that there had been a severe storm during the night. Crossing a bridge which was perfect the previous day, he suddenly found himself floundering in six feet of water, having ridden straight into the place where the bridge should have been. The difficulty is increased when there is neither bridge nor ferry across the swamps, as is often the case in outlying districts. Then one has recourse to human porterage.

It is not a costly luxury to be carried on a man’s shoulders; for the man only charges about eighteen pence a week to accompany you and carry you over swamps, and out of the eighteen pence he finds his own food. Such porterage is a matter of necessity. Nothing is more dangerous than to plunge into a swamp or a river when wet with perspiration after a long walk or ride, and then to remain, as must be the case, for a considerable time in damp clothes. It will probably mean a severe attack of fever, if not loss of life. It is a good thing to be small in Africa, a small person having much less difficulty in getting carried; but even small ones do not experience comfortable feelings when the water reaches up to the waist or armpits of the carrier, and one knows that one false step would pitch you into the evil-smelling, black, muddy waters. It is much more difficult for a heavy person, and the simpler plan for such is to get three men to carry him across, the leader taking charge of the feet on his shoulders, and the two rear porters supporting the weight of the body, an arm being placed round each of their necks. Where the water is deep the extremities remain dry, but not always the middle garments, as it is very difficult to keep the body rigid during a lengthy passage.

Porters can rarely do more than fifteen miles a day, unless the journey be only for a day or two. Arrived in camp, they have to fetch water, collect firewood, and often go as much as two or three miles to buy their own food. It is very inadvisable to have to do these things after dark—and darkness always comes on at 6.30, after half an hour’s twilight. These men carry 65 lb. quite easily, and many of them are so strong that they can go ten or fifteen miles without a rest. There are numbers of men in the country who can carry 100 to 120 lb. on their heads for miles; but the Government fixed limit is 65 lb.

Young travellers should never leave the making up of their provision boxes to a native boy without supervision. It is very inconvenient to find at the first camp that matches or soap or tea or salt have been forgotten. One does not realise what a necessity such small articles are until it is impossible to get them. I have known at least one man who had to go supperless to bed, and a whole camp had to be pitched in the dark, because he did not know in which box his matches were, and could not find them in the dark. The nearest dwelling was more than two miles away, and it was raining very heavily. These are not hardships of travelling in Africa; they are the fruits of carelessness.

1. The reading room of a village church.
2. A country church, Nakanyunyi.