atisfied to retain the practical marks of
authority, it is probable that Gordon would have been well content to
leave him alone, but irritated by the slight placed upon him by Sir
Samuel Baker, he assumed the offensive on every possible occasion. He
attacked Colonel Long, one of Gordon's lieutenants, on his way back
from Mtesa, just as he had Baker; he threatened the Egyptian station
at Foweira; and above all, he welcomed the thwarted slave-dealers, who
were not averse to taking their revenge in any form at Gordon's
expense. In these circumstances an active policy was forced on General
Gordon, who promptly decided that Kaba Rega was "too treacherous" to
be allowed to retain his kingdom, and that measures must be taken to
set up Rionga in his place. It was at this moment, unfortunately, that
General Gordon discovered the worthlessness of his troops, and when,
in 1876, he had organised his new force, and was ready to carry out
the policy he had decided on in 1874, he was thinking mostly of his
departure from the Soudan, and had no time to proceed to extremities
against these southern adversaries, for behind Kaba Rega stood Mtesa.

When Gordon, in January 1876, entered the territory of Unyoro,
belonging to Kaba Rega, he found it desirable to take up the cause of
Anfina, in preference to that of Rionga, as the more influential
chief; but neither proved in popularity or expertness a match for Kaba
Rega. The possession of "the magic stool," the ancestral throne or
copper seat of the family of Unyoro, believed to be identified with
the fortunes of the little kingdom, alone compensated for the few
losses in the open field, as Kaba Rega was always careful to retreat
on the approach of his most dangerous adversary. Neither of his
kinsmen was likely to prove a formidable foe. Rionga passed his hours
in native excesses, in the joy of receiving the titular rank of Vakil
to the Khedive. Anfina alienated Gordon's friendly feeling by
suggesting the wholesale assassination of Kaba Rega's officers and
followers when they came on a mission to his camp. Kaba Rega carried
off the stool to the south, or rather the west, of Victoria Nyanza,
and bided his time, while Mtesa wrote a half-defiant and
half-entreating letter to Gordon, asking him to spare Unyoro. Mtesa
had his own views of gain, and when Gordon proposed to establish a
fortified post with a garrison of 160 men at Urundogani, the Uganda
ruler begged that it might be stationed at his