He Then Thought Of Adjutant-Shooting With Ball, Left
The Court Sitting, Desired Me To Follow Him, And Leading The Way,
Went Into The Interior Of The Palace, Where Only A Few Select
Officers Were Permitted To Follow Us.
The birds were wild, and
as nothing was done, I instructed him in the way to fire from his
shoulder, placing the gun in position.
He was shy at first, and
all the people laughed at my handling royalty like a schoolboy;
but he soon took to it very good-naturedly, when I gave him my
silk necktie and gold crest-ring, explaining their value, which
he could not comprehend, and telling him we gentlemen prided
ourselves on never wearing brass or copper.
He now begged hard for shot; but I told him again his only chance
of getting any lay in opening the road onwards; it was on this
account, I said, I had come to see him to-day. He answered, "I
am going to send an army to Usoga to force the way from where
your men were turned back." But this, I said, would not do for
me, as I saw his people travelled like geese, not knowing the
direction of Gani, or where they were going to when sent. I
proposed that if he would call all his travelling men of
experience together, I would explain matters to them by a map I
had brought; for I should never be content till I saw Petherick.
The map was then produced. He seemed to comprehend it
immediately, and assembled the desired Wakungu; but, to my
mortification, he kept all the conversation to himself, Waganda
fashion; spoke a lot of nonsense; and then asked his men what
they thought had better be done. The sages replied, "Oh, make
friends, and do the matter gently." But the king proudly raised
his head, laughed them to scorn, and said, "Make friends with men
who have crossed their spears with us already! Nonsense! they
would only laugh at us; the Uganda spear alone shall do it."
Hearing this bravado, the Kamraviona, the pages, and the elders,
all rose to a man, with their sticks, and came charging at their
king, swearing they would carry out his wished with their lives.
The meeting now broke up in the usual unsatisfactory, unfinished
manner, by the king rising and walking away, whilst I returned
with the Kamraviona, who begged for ten more blue eggs in
addition to my present to make a full necklace, and told my men
to call upon him in the morning, when he would give me anything I
wished to eat. Bombay was then ordered to describe what sort of
food I lived on usually; when, Mganda fashion, he broke a stick
into ten bits, each representing a differing article, and said,
"Bana eat mixed food always"; and explained that stick No. 1
represented beef; No. 2, mutton; No. 3, fowl; No. 4, eggs; No. 5,
fish; No. 6, potatoes; No.
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