Active preparations were now made for the departure of the travellers, but unhappily Captain Grant was suffering from so severe a complaint in one of his legs, that he was compelled to remain behind, under the protection of the hospitable sovereign, while Speke set off for Uganda. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. SPEKE AND GRANT'S TRAVELS CONTINUED. AN ESCORT FROM MTESA, KING OF UGANDA, ARRIVES--THE KITANGULE RIVER--THE PHEPO--SLAUGHTER OF THE NATIVES--UGANDA DESCRIBED--SPEKE'S RECEPTION-- MTESA'S CRUELTY--ARREST OF THE QUEEN--A REVIEW OF TROOPS--GRANT ARRIVES--ARRANGEMENTS FOR PROCEEDING TO UNYORO--THE WATER-SPIRIT'S HIGH PRIEST. On the 10th of January a large escort of smartly-dressed men, women, and boys, leading their dogs and playing their reeds, under the command of Maula, arrived from Mtesa, King of Uganda, to conduct the travellers to his capital. Maula informed them that the king had ordered his officers to supply them with everything they wanted while passing through his country, and that there would be nothing to pay. Speke set forth, in the hopes that before long he should settle the great Nile problem for ever. It was, however, not believed that he would be able to proceed north from Uganda, Rumanika especially declaring that he would be compelled to return to the southward. Passing through a remarkably rich country, famous for its ivory and coffee productions, they descended from the Mountains of the Moon to an alluvial plain, where Rumanika keeps thousands of cows. Once elephants abounded here, but, since the increase of the ivory trade, these animals had been driven off to the distant hills. On the 16th they reached the Kitangule River, which falls into the Victoria Nyanza. It was about eighty yards broad and so deep that it could not be poled by the canoe-men, while it runs at a velocity of from three to four knots an hour. It is fed from the high-seated springs in the Mountains of the Moon. Speke believed that the Mountains of the Moon give birth to the Congo as well as the Nile, and also the Shire branch of the Zambesi. The country through which they passed was a perfect garden of plantations, surprisingly rich, while along the banks of the river numberless harte-beestes and antelopes were seen. At a village, where they were compelled to stop two days, drumming, singing, screaming, yelling, and dancing went on the whole time, during the night as well as day, to drive the _phepo_, or devil, away. In front of a hut sat an old man and woman, smeared with white mud, and holding pots of _pomba_ in their laps, while people came, bringing baskets full of plantain squash and more pots of _pomba_. Hundreds of them were collected in the court-yard, all perfectly drunk, making the most terrific uproar.