ABSTRACT
C A P T A I N W . H. WILLIAMS, R.A., who now joined me, was a typical specimen of the best class of British officer. Though he had come to Uganda as my second" in command, he was, in point of fact, senior to me by two months as a captain, and over a year in the date of his first commission. He had long commanded his battery, and had thrown up an appointment as adjutant of Artillery to accompany Sir F. De Winton. He was a keen soldier, whose interests lay entirely in his profession, and, unlike myself, he came to Africa mainly with a view of gaining experience which would be useful to him as a soldier. He spoke Turkish and French, and had acquired a colloquial knowledge of Arabic. Having enlisted the Sudanese in Egypt for the Imperial British East African Company, he naturally looked on them as his especial charge, and what little drill and
discipline had been instilled into them, was due to his untiring energy in Mombasa, during the one month they were under him, before the company who joined my expedition had left. It was now arranged that, being all reunited, they should be under his command, and he began to drill and discipline them-to adjust their accounts, and supervise their clothing and interior economy ; and in a wonderfully short time the improvement in their smartness and general turn-out was most marked. He began to teach them a rough skirmishing drill,—advancing in loose fighting formation through the long grass and dense banana-plantations, working by bugle-sounds, and attacking an imaginary position.
