I Expected
Some Piece Of Cruel Mischief To Come Of All This, But The King,
In His Usual Capricious Way, Suddenly Rising, Walked Off To A
Third Court, Followed Only By A Select Few.
Here, turning to me, he said, "Bana, I love you, because you have
come so far to see me,
And have taught me so many things since
you have been here." Rising, with my hand to my heart, and
gracefully bowing at this strange announcement - for at that
moment I was full of hunger and wrath - I intimated I was much
flattered at hearing it, but as my house was in a state of
starvation, I trusted he would consider it. "What!" said he, "do
you want goats?" "Yes, very much." The pages then received
orders to furnish me with ten that moment, as the king's farmyard
was empty, and he would reimburse them as soon as more
confiscations took place. But this, I said, was not enough; the
Wanguana wanted plantains, for they had received none these
fifteen days. "What!" said the king, turning to his pages again,
"have you given these men no plantains, as I ordered? Go and
fetch them this moment, and pombe too, for Bana."
The subject then turned on the plan I had formed of going to Gani
by water, and of sending Grant to Karague by the lake; but the
king's mind was fully occupied with the compass I had given him.
He required me to explain its use, and then broke up the meeting.
4th. - Viarungi, an officer sent by Rumanika to escort Grant to
Uganda, as well as to apply to king Mtesa for a force to fight
his brother Rogero, called on me with Rozaro, and said he had
received instructions from his king to apply to me for forty cows
and two slave-boys, because the Arabs who pass through his
country to Uganda always make him a present of that sort after
receiving them from Mtesa. After telling him we English never
give the presents they have received away to any one, and never
make slaves, but free them, I laid a complaint against Rozaro for
having brought much trouble and disgrace upon my camp, as well as
much trouble on myself, and begged that he might be removed from
my camp. Rozaro then attempted to excuse himself, but without
success, and said he had already detached his residence from my
camp, and taken up a separate residence with Viarungi, his
superior officer.
I called on the king in the afternoon, and found the pages had
already issued plantains for my men and pombe for myself. The
king addressed me with great cordiality, and asked if I wished to
go to Gani. I answered him with all promptitude, - Yes, at once,
with some of his officers competent to judge of the value of all
I point out to them for future purposes in keeping the road
permanently open. His provoking capriciousness, however, again
broke in, and he put me off till his messengers should return
from Unyoro. I told him his men had gone in vain, for Budja left
without my letter or my men; and further, that the river route is
the only one that will ever be of advantage to Uganda, and the
sooner it was opened up the better. I entreated him to listen to
my advice, and send some of my men to Kamrasi direct, to acquaint
him with my intention to go down the river in boats to him; but I
could get no answer to this. Bombay then asked for cows for the
Wanguana, getting laughed at for his audacity, and the king broke
up the court and walked away.
5th. - I started on a visit to the queen, but half-way met Congow,
who informed me he had just escorted her majesty from his house,
where she was visiting, to her palace. By way of a joke and
feeler, I took it in my head to try, by taking a harmless rise
out of Congow, whether the Nile is understood by the natives to
be navigable near its exit from the N'yanza. I told him he had
been appointed by the king to escort us down the river to Gani.
He took the affair very seriously, delivering himself to the
following purport: "Well, then, my days are numbered; for if I
refuse compliance I shall lose my head; and if I attempt to pass
Kamrasi's, which is on the river, I shall lose my life; for I am
a marked man there, having once led an army past his palace and
back again. It would be no use calling it a peaceful mission, as
you propose; for the Wanyoro distrust the Waganda to such an
extent, they would fly to arms at once."
Proceeding to the queen's palace, we met Murondo, who had once
travelled to the Masai frontier. He said it would take a month
to go in boats from Kira, the most easterly district in Uganda,
to Masai, where there is another N'yanza, joined by a strait to
the big N'yanza, which king Mtesa's boats frequent for salt; but
the same distance could be accomplished in four days overland,
and three days afterwards by boat. The queen, after keeping us
all day waiting, sent three bunches of plantains and a pot of
pombe, with a message that she was too tired to receive visitors,
and hoped we would call another day.
6th. - I met Pokino, the governor-general of Uddu, in the
morning's walk, who came here at the same time as Grant to visit
the king, and was invited into his house to drink pombe. His
badge of office is an iron hatchet, inlaid with copper and
handled with ivory. He wished to give us a cow, but put it off
for another day, and was surprised we dared venture into his
premises without permission from the king. After this, we called
at the palace, just as the king was returning from a walk with
his brothers.
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