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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