"But, For The Present, Is It True What I Have Heard, That Bana
Would Like To Go Out With Me Shooting?" "Oh Yes, He Is A Most
Wonderful Sportsman - Shoots Elephants And Buffaloes, And Birds On
The Wing.
He would like to go out on a shooting excursion and
teach you the way."
Then turning the subject, in the highest good-humour the king
made centurions of N'yamgundu and Maula, my two Wakungu, for
their good service, he said, in bringing him such a valuable
guest. This delighted them so much that as soon as they could
they came back to my camp, threw themselves at my feet, and
n'yanzigging incessantly, narrated their fortunes, and begged, as
a great man, I would lend them some cows to present to the king
as an acknowledgement for the favour he had shown them. The
cows, I then told them, had come from the king, and could not go
back again, for it was not the habit of white men to part with
their presents; but as I felt their promotion redounded on
myself, and was certainly the highest compliment their king could
have paid me, I would give them each a wire to make their salaam
good.
This was enough; both officers got drunk, and, beating their
drums, serenaded the camp until the evening set in, when, to my
utter surprise, an elderly Mganda woman was brought into camp
with the commander-in-chief's metaphorical compliments, hoping I
would accept her "to carry my water"; with this trifling
addition, that in case I did not think her pretty enough, he
hoped I would not hesitate to select which I liked from ten
others, of "all colours," Wahuma included, who, for that purpose,
were then waiting in his palace.
Unprepared for this social addition in my camp, I must now
confess I felt in a fix, knowing full well that nothing so
offends as rejecting an offer at once, so I kept her for the time
being, intending in the morning to send her back with a string of
blue beads on her neck; but during the night she relieved me of
my anxieties by running away, which Bombay said was no wonder,
for she had obviously been seized as part of some confiscated
estate, and without doubt knew where to find some of her friends.
To-day, for the first time since I have been here, I received a
quantity of plantains. This was in consequence of my complaining
that the king's orders to my men to feed themselves at others'
expense was virtually making them a pack of thieves.
1st. - I received a letter from Grant, dated 10th February,
reporting Baraka's departure for Unyoro on the 30th January,
escorted by Kamrasi's men on their return, and a large party of
Rumanika's bearing presents as a letter from their king; whilst
Grant himself hoped to leave Karague before the end of the month.
I then sent Bombay to see the queen, to ask after her health, beg
for a hut in the palace enclosures, and say I should have gone
myself, only I feared her gate might be shut, and I cannot go
backwards and forwards so far in the sun without a horse or an
elephant to ride upon.
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