He Wished Me To Degrade
Him, If I Thought Him Dishonest; Threw Himself On The Ground, And
Kissed My Feet.
I might thrash him, turn him into a porter, or
do anything else that I liked with him, as long as I did not
bring a charge of dishonesty against him.
He could not explain
himself with Baraka's long tongue opposed to him, but there were
many deficiencies in my wires before he took overcharge at Bogue,
which he must leave for settlement till the journey was over, and
then, the whole question having been sifted at Zanzibar, we would
see who was the most honest. I then counted all the wires over,
at Bombay's request, and found them complete in numbers, without
those he had set aside from the dowry money. Still there was a
doubt, for the wires might have been cut by him without
detection, as from the commencement they were of different
lengths. However, I tried to make them friends, claimed all the
wires myself, and cautioned every man in the camp again, that
they were all losers when anything was misappropriated; for I
brought this property to pay our way with and whatever balance
was over at the end of the journey I would divide amongst the
whole of them.
12th and 13th. - When more sober, Bombay again came to crave a
thousand pardons for what he had done, threw himself down at my
feet, then at Grant's, kissed our toes, swore I was his Ma Pap
(father and mother); he had no father or mother to teach him
better; he owed all his prosperity to me; men must err sometimes;
oh, if I would only forgive him, - and so forth. Then being
assured that I knew he never would have done as he had if a
woman's attractions had not led him astray, he went to his work
again like a man, and consoled himself by taking Sangizo's sister
to wife on credit instead of the old love, promising to pay the
needful out of his pay, and to return her to her brother when the
journey was over.
In the evening Virembo and Karambule came to receive the hongo
for their chief, demanding 60 wires, 160 yards merikani, 300
strings of mzizima, and 5000 strings of white beads; but they
allowed themselves to be beaten down to 50 wires, 20 pretty
cloths, 100 strings mzizima, and 4000 kutuamnazi, or cocoa-nut-
leaf coloured beads, my white being all done. It was too late,
however, to count all the things out, so they came the next day
and took them. They then said we might go as soon as we had
settled with the Wahinda or Wanawami (the king's children), for
Suwarora could not see us this time, as he was so engaged with
his army; but he hoped to see us and pay us more respect when we
returned from Uganda, little thinking that I had sworn in my mind
never to see him, or return that way again.
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