My First Desire Had Always Been To See The
King; And If He Went To The N'yanza, I Trusted He Would Allow Me
To Go There Also.
The boys replied, "How can you go with his
women?
No one ever is permitted to see them." "Well," said I,
"if I cannot go to the N'yanza with him" (thinking only of the
great lake, whereas they probably meant a pond in the palace
enclosures, where Mtesa constantly frolics with his women), "I
wish to go to Usoga and Amara, as far as the Masai; for I have no
companions here but crows and vultures." They promised to take
the message, but its delivery was quite another thing; for no one
can speak at this court till he is spoken to, and a word put in
out of season is a life lost.
On Maula's return, I was told the king would not believe so
generous a man as Bana could have sent him so few beads; he
believed most of my store must have been stolen on the road, and
would ask me about that to-morrow. He intimated that for the
future I must fire a gun at the waiting-hut whenever I entered
the palace, so that he might hear of my arrival, for he had been
up that morning, and would have been glad to see me, only the
boys, from fear of entering his cabinet, had forged a lie, and
deprived him of any interview with me, which he had long wished
to get. This ready cordiality was as perplexing as all the rest.
Could it be possible, I thought, I had been fighting with a
phantom all this while, and yet the king had not been able to
perceive it? At all events, now, as the key to his door had been
given, I would make good use of it and watch the result.
Meanwhile Nasib returned from the queen-dowager's palace without
having seen her majesty, though he had waited there patiently the
whole day long, for she was engaged in festivities, incessantly
drumming and playing, in consequence of the birth of twins
(Mabassa), which had just taken place in her palace; but he was
advised to return on the morrow.
8th. - After breakfast I walked to the palace, thinking I had
gained all I wanted; entered, and fired guns, expecting an
instant admittance; but, as usual, I was required to sit and
wait; the king was expected immediately. All the Wagungu talked
in whispers, and nothing was heard but the never-ceasing harps
and harmonicons. In a little while I felt tired of the monotony,
and wished to hang up a curtain, that I might lie down in privacy
and sleep till the king was ready; but the officers in waiting
forbade this, as contrary to law, and left me the only
alternative of walking up and down the court to kill time,
spreading my umbrella against the powerful rays of the sun. A
very little of that made me fidgety and impetuous, which the
Waganda noticed, and, from fear of the consequences, they began
to close the gate to prevent my walking away. I flew out on
them, told Bombay to notice the disrespect, and shamed them into
opening it again. The king immediately, on hearing of this, sent
me pombe to keep me quiet; but as I would not touch it, saying I
was sick at heart, another page rushed out to say the king was
ready to receive me; and, opening a side gate leading into a
small open court without a hut in it, there, to be sure, was his
majesty, sitting on an Arab's donkey run, propped against one
page, and encompassed by four others.
On confronting him, he motioned me to sit, which I did upon my
bundle of grass, and, finding it warm, asked leave to open my
umbrella. He was much struck at the facility with which I could
make shade, but wondered still more at my requiring it. I
explained to him that my skin was white because I lived in a
colder country than his, and therefore was much more sensitive to
the heat of the sun than his black skin; adding, at the same
time, if it gave no offence, I would prefer sitting in the shade
of the court fence. He had no objection, and opened conversation
by asking who it was that gave me such offence in taking my guard
from me to seize his Wakungu. The boy who had provoked me was
then dragged in, tied by his neck and hands, when the king asked
him by whose orders he had acted in such a manner, knowing that I
objected to it, and wished to speak to him on the subject first.
The poor boy, in a dreadful fright, said he had acted under the
instructions of the Kamraviona: there was no harm done, for
Bana's men were not hurt. "Well, then," said the king, "if they
were not injured, and you only did as you were ordered, no fault
rests with you; but begone out of my sight, for I cannot bear to
see you, and the Kamraviona shall be taught a lesson not to
meddle with my guests again until I give him authority to do so."
I now hoped, as I had got the king all by himself, and apparently
in a good humour with me, that I might give him a wholesome
lesson on the manners and customs of the English nation, to show
how much I felt the slights I had received since my residence in
Uganda; but he never lost his dignity and fussiness as an Uganda
king. My words must pass through his Mkungu, as well as my
interpreter's, before they reached him; and, as he had no
patience, everything was lost till he suddenly asked Maula,
pretending not to know, where my hut was; why everybody said I
lived so far away; and when told, he said, "Oh!
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