They are killing us;"
whilst I roared to my crew, "Go in, go in, and the victory will
be
Ours;" but not a soul would - they were spell-bound to the
place; we might have been cut up in detail, it was all the same
to those cowardly Waganda, whose only action consisted in crying,
"N'yawo! n'yawo!" - mother, mother, help us!
Three shots from the hooked boat now finished the action. The
Wanyoro had caught a Tartar. Two of their men fell - one killed,
one wounded. They were heard saying their opponents were not
Waganda, it were better to leave them alone; and retreated,
leaving us, totally uninjured, a clear passage up the river. But
where was Bombay all this while! He did not return till after
us, and then, in considerable excitement, he told his tale. He
reached N'yamyongo's village before noon, asked for the officer,
but was desired to wait in a hut until the chief should arrive,
as he had gone out on business; the villagers inquired, however,
why we had robbed the Wanyoro yesterday, for they had laid a
complaint against us. Bombay replied it was no fault of Bana's,
he did everything he could to prevent it, and returned all that
the boatmen took.
These men then departed, and did not return until evening, when
they asked Bombay, impudently, why he was sitting there, as he
had received no invitation to spend the night; and unless he
walked off soon they would set fire to his hut. Bombay, without
the smallest intention of moving, said he had orders to see
N'yamyonjo, and until he did so he would not budge. "Well," said
the people, "you have got your warning, now look our for
yourselves;" and Bombay, with his Waganda escort, was left again.
Drums then began to beat, and men to hurry to and fro with spears
and shields, until at last our guns were heard, and, guessing the
cause, Bombay with his Waganda escort rushed out of the hut into
the jungle, and, without daring to venture on the beaten track,
through thorns and thicket worked his way back to me, lame, and
scratched all over with thorns.
Crowds of Waganda, all armed as if for war, came to congratulate
us in the morning, jumping, jabbering, and shaking their spears
at us, denoting a victory gained - for we had shot Wanyoro and no
harm had befallen us. "But the road," I cried, "has that been
gained? I am not going to show my back. We must go again, for
there is some mistake; Grant is with Kamrasi, and N'yamyongo
cannot stop us. If you won't go in boats, let us go by land to
N'yamyongo's, and the boats will follow after." Not a soul,
however, would stir. N'yamyongo was described as an independent
chief, who listened to Kamrasi only when he liked. He did not
like strange eyes to see his secret lodges on the N'yanza; and if
he did not wish us to go down the river, Kamrasi's orders would
go for nothing. His men had now been shot; to go within his
reach would be certain death. Argument was useless, boating
slow, to send messages worse; so I gave in, turned my back on the
Nile, and the following day (16th) came on the Luajerri.
Here, to my intense surprise, I heard that Grant's camp was not
far off, on its return from Kamrasi's. I could not, rather would
not, believe it, suspicious as it now appeared after my reverse.
The men, however, were positive, and advised my going to king
Mtesa's - a ridiculous proposition, at once rejected; for I had
yet to receive Kamrasi's answer to our Queen, about opening a
trade with England. I must ascertain why he despised Englishmen
without speaking with them, and I could not believe Kamrasi would
prove less avaricious than either Rumanika or Mtesa, especially
as Rumanika had made himself responsible for our actions. We
slept that night near Kari, the Waganda eating two goats which
had been drowned in the Luajerri; and the messenger-page, having
been a third time to the palace and back again, called to ask
after our welfare, on behalf of his king, and remind us about the
gun and brandy promised.
17th and 18th. - The two following days were spent wandering about
without guides, trying to keep the track Grant had taken after
leaving us, crossing at first a line of small hills, then
traversing grass and jungle, like the dak of India. Plantain-
gardens were frequently met, and the people seemed very
hospitably inclined, though they complained sadly of the pages
rudely rushing into every hut, seizing everything they could lay
their hands on, and even eating the food which they had just
prepared for their own dinners, saying, in a mournful manner, "If
it were not out of respect for you we should fight those little
rascals, for it is not the king's guest nor his men who do us
injury, but the king's own servants, without leave or licence."
I observed that special bomas or fences were erected to protect
these villages against the incursions of lions. Buffaloes were
about, but the villagers cautioned us not to shoot them, holding
them as sacred animals; and, to judge from the appearance of the
country, wild animals should abound, were it not for the fact
that every Mganda seems by instinct to be a sportsman.
At last, after numerous and various reports about Grant, we heard
his drums last night, but we arrived this morning just in time to
be too late. He was on his march back to the capital of Uganda,
as the people had told us, and passed through N'yakinyama just
before I reached it. What had really happened I knew not, and
was puzzled to think. To insist on a treaty, demanding an
answer, to the Queen, seemed the only chance left; so I wrote to
Grant to let me know all about it, and waited the result.
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