On the way he had succeeded in getting a few more details from the Baganda, by the interpreting aid of Coja. It appeared that two wasungu had been making a sporting expedition from northern Uganda by way of Lake Rudolf to the Kenya district. The elder msungu had been seized with swamp fever in the neighbourhood of the lake, but had pushed on southward instead of resting, with the result that he became worse and worse and at last died near Mount Sil, eighty miles north of Mount Kenya. The safari had already found the tribes through which it had passed somewhat troublesome, and as after the bwana’s death it travelled southward, it came into a region where the people were openly hostile, and hung on its skirts, watching for any opportunity of taking it at a disadvantage. The party had, however, got safely to the Waso Nyiro river, which they had crossed a week ago; but then they had been attacked one night by a tribe of Embe, one of the fiercest and most quarrelsome of East African peoples. Some of the porters were killed, others deserted, and the young msungu himself was wounded. The attack had been beaten off, and the boma round the camp had been strengthened, and when the messenger left they were holding out against a much larger body of natives and in dire straits because their food was running short. The safari consisted of forty men, with only ten rifles among them. John tried to ascertain how many the assailants numbered, but the Baganda could only speak vaguely of a very great host. Moving forward cautiously so as not to be seen by the enemy, John soon perceived a second camp on the further side of the boma: it was plain that the savages were subjecting the camp to a strict investment, knowing that, even if they could not break in, want of food would soon compel the beleaguered to surrender. But while it was clearly impossible for the white man’s party to make any movement as a body without discovery, it did not appear to John that the blockade was so close as to prevent individuals from entering or leaving the camp under cover of night; indeed, the Baganda had slipped out in the darkness and escaped detection. John therefore asked him whether he was willing to make an attempt to get in during the coming night, and tell his master that help was coming. The man said that he thought he could pass the enemy safely, but he would certainly be shot at from the msungu’s camp if his approach was heard, and that was a risk he did not care to run. With some persuasion and the promise of a handsome present John induced the messenger to try his luck, instructing him to make a big fire if he got in safely, or if that was impossible through lack of fuel, to ask his master to fire two shots in rapid succession. John would then endeavour to enter the camp. He did not suppose, of course, that a reinforcement of two would enable the besieged party to turn the tables on the besiegers, but he hoped that his presence would be taken as an earnest