All I Did Was To Turn My
Head Away And Walk Rapidly Out Of Sight, Thinking It Better Not
To Interfere Again With The Discipline Of The Palace; Indeed, I
Thought It Not Improbable That The King Did These Things
Sometimes Merely That His Guests Might See His Savage Power.
On
reaching home I found Kahala standing like a culprit before my
door.
She would not admit, what I suspected, that Meri had
induced her to run away; but said she was very happy in my house
until yester-evening, when Rozaro's sister told her she was very
stupid living with the Mzungu all alone, and told her to run
away; which she did, taking the direction of N'yamasore's, until
some officers finding her, and noticing beads on her neck, and
her hair cut, according to the common court fashion, in slopes
from a point in the forehead to the breadth of her ears,
suspected her to be one of the king's women, and kept her in
confinement all night, till Mtesa's men came this morning and
brought her back again. As a punishment, I ordered her to live
with Bombay; but my house was so dull again from want of some one
to eat dinner with me, that I remitted the punishment, to her
great delight.
11th. - To-day I received letters from Grant, dated 22d., 25th,
28th April and 2d May. They were brought by my three men, with
Karague pease, flour, and ammunition. He was at Maula's house,
which proved the king's boy to be correct; for the convoy, afraid
of encountering the voyage on the lake, had deceived my companion
and brought him on by land, like true negroes.
12th. - I sent the three men who had returned from Grant to lay a
complaint against the convoy, who had tricked him out of a
pleasant voyage, and myself out of the long-wished-for survey of
the lake. They carried at the same time a present of a canister
of shot from me to the king. Delighted with this unexpected
prize, he immediately shot fifteen birds flying, and ordered the
men to acquaint me with his prowess.
13th. - To-day the king sent me four cows and a load of butter as
a return-present for the shot, and allowed one of his officers,
at my solicitation, to go with ten of my men to help Grant on.
He also sent a message that he had just shot thirteen birds
flying.
14th. - Mabuki and Bilal returned with Budja and his ten children
from Unyoro, attended by a deputation of four men sent by
Kamrasi, who were headed by Kidgwiga. Mtesa, it now transpired,
had followed my advice of making friendship with Kamrasi by
sending two brass wires as a hongo instead of an army, and
Kamrasi in return, sent him two elephant-tusks. Kidgwiga said
Petherick's party was not in Unyoro - they had never reached
there, but were lying at anchor off Gani. Two white men only had
been seen - one, they said, a hairy man, the other smooth-faced;
they were as anxiously inquiring after us as we were after them:
they sat on chairs, dressed like myself, and had guns and
everything precisely like those in my hut. On one occasion they
sent up a necklace of beads to Kamrasi, and he, in return, gave
them a number of women and tusks. If I wished to go that way,
Kamrasi would forward me on to their position in boats; for the
land route, leading through Kidi, was a jungle of ten days,
tenanted by a savage set of people, who hunt everybody, and seize
everything they see.
This tract is sometimes, however, traversed by the Wanyoro and
Gani people, who are traders in cows and tippet monkey-skins,
stealthily travelling at night; but they seldom attempt it from
fear of being murdered. Baraka and Uledi, sent from Karague on
the 30th January, had been at Kamrasi's palace upwards of a
month, applying for the road to Gani, and as they could not get
that, wished to come with Mabruki to me; but this Kamrasi also
refused, on the plea that, as they had come from Karague, so they
must return there. Kamrasi had heard of my shooting with Mtesa,
as also of the attempt made by Mabruki and Uledi to reach Gani
via Usoga. He had received my present of beads from Baraka, and,
in addition, took Uledi's sword, saying, "If you do not wish to
part with it, you must remain a prisoner in my country all your
life, for you have not paid your footing." Mabruki then told me
he was kept waiting at a village, one hour's walk from Kamrasi's
palace, five days before they were allowed to approach his
majesty; but when they were seen, and the presents exchanged,
they were ordered to pack off the following morning, as Kamrasi
said the Waganda were a set of plundering blackguards.
This information, to say the least of it, was very embarrassing -
a mixture of good and bad. Petherick, I now felt certain, was on
the look-out for us; but his men had reached Kamrasi's, and
returned again before Baraka's arrival. Baraka was not allowed
to go on to him and acquaint him of our proximity, and the
Waganda were so much disliked in Unyoro, that there seemed no
hopes of our ever being able to communicate by letter. To add to
my embarrassments, Grant had not been able to survey the lake
from Kitangule, nor had Usoga and the eastern side of the lake
been seen.
15th. - I was still laid up with the cold fit of the 10th, which
turned into a low kind of fever. I sent Bombay to the king to
tell him the news, and ask him what he thought of doing next. He
replied that he would push for Gani direct; and sent back a pot
of pombe for the sick man.
16th. - The king to-day inquired after my health, and, strange to
say, did not accompany his message with a begging request.
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