"Just So," Said I; "But Then, Don't You See, I Know My Value
Here, Which Makes All The Difference You Speak Of."
18th. - Whilst walking towards the palace to pay the king a
friendly visit, I met two of my men speared
On the head, and
streaming with blood; they had been trying to help themselves to
plantains carried on the heads of Waganda; but the latter proving
too strong, my people seized a boy and woman from their party as
witnesses, according to Uganda law, and ran away with them, tied
hand and neck together. With this addition to my attendance I
first called in at the Kamraviona's for justice; but as he was
too proud to appear at once, I went on to the king's fired three
shots as usual, and obtained admittance at once, when I found him
standing in a yard dressed in cloth, with his iron chair behind
him, and my double-gun loaded with half charges of powder and a
few grains of iron shot, looking eagerly about for kites to fly
over. His quick eye, however, readily detected my wounded men
and prisoners, as also some Wazinza prisoners led in by Waganda
police, who had been taken in the act of entering Waganda houses
and assailing their women. Thus my men were cleared of a false
stigma; and the king, whilst praising them, ordered all the
Wazinza to leave his dominions on the morrow.
The other case was easily settled by my wounded men receiving
orders to keep their prisoners till claimed, when, should any
people come forward, they would be punished, otherwise their loss
in human stock would be enough. The Wanguana had done quite
right to seize on the highway, else they would have starved; such
was the old law, and such is the present one. It was no use our
applying for a change of system. At this stage of the business,
the birds he was watching having appeared, the king, in a great
state of excitement, said, "Shoot that kite," and then "Shoot
that other"; but the charges were too light; and the birds flew
away, kicking with their claws as if merely stung a little.
Whilst this was going on, the Kamraviona, taking advantage of my
having opened the door with the gun, walked in to make his
salutations. A blacksmith produced two very handsome spears, and
a fisherman a basket of fish, from which two fish were taken out
and given to me. The king then sat on his iron chair, and I on a
wooden box which I had contrived to stuff with the royal grass he
gave me, and so made a complete miniature imitation of his
throne. The folly in now allowing me to sit upon my portable
iron stool, as an ingenious device for carrying out my
determination to sit before him like an Englishman. I wished to
be communicative, and, giving him a purse of money, told him the
use and value of the several coins; but he paid little regard to
them, and soon put them down. The small-talk of Uganda had much
more attractions to his mind than the wonders of the outer world,
and he kept it up with his Kamraviona until rain fell and
dispersed the company.
19th. - As the queen, to avoid future difficulties, desired my
officers to acquaint her beforehand whenever I wished to call
upon her, I sent Nasib early to say I would call in the
afternoon; but he had to wait till the evening before he could
deliver the message, though she had been drumming and playing all
the day. She then complained against my men for robbing her
gardeners on the highway, wished to know why I didn't call upon
her oftener, appointed the following morning for an interview,
and begged I would bring her some liver medicines, as she
suffered from constant twinges in her right side, sealing her
"letter" with a present of a nest of eggs and one fowl.
Whilst Nasib was away, I went to the Kamraviona to treat him as I
had the king. He appeared a little more affable to-day, yet
still delighted in nothing but what was frivolous. My beard, for
instance, engrossed the major part of the conversation; all the
Waganda would come out in future with hairy faces; but when I
told them that, to produce such a growth, they must wash their
faces with milk, and allow a cat to lick it off, they turned up
their noses in utter contempt.
20th. - I became dead tired of living all alone, with nothing else
to occupy my time save making these notes every day in my office
letter-book, as my store of stationery was left at Karague. I
had no chance of seeing any visitors, save the tiresome pages,
who asked me to give or to do something for the king every day;
and my prospect was cheerless, as I had been flatly refused a
visit to Usoga until Grant should come. For want of better
amusement, I made a page of Lugoi, a sharp little lad, son of the
late Beluch, but adopted by Uledi, and treated him as a son,
which he declared he wished to be, for he liked me better than
Uledi as a father. He said he disliked Uganda, where people's
lives are taken like those of fowls; and wished to live at the
coast, the only place he ever heard of, where all the Wanguana
come from - great swells in Lugoi's estimation. Now, with Lugoi
dressed in a new white pillow-case, with holes trimmed with black
tape for his head and arms to go through, a dagger tied with red
bindera round his waist, and a square of red blanket rolled on
his shoulder as a napkin, for my gun to rest on, or in place of a
goat-skin run when he wished to sit down, I walked off to inquire
how the Kamraviona was, and took my pictures with me.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 120 of 207
Words from 121815 to 122823
of 210958
