Now, with regard to your accusation of my treating them
badly, it is all their own fault.
I ordered them to advance
slowly and pick up food by the way, as there is a famine here;
but they, instead, hurried on against my wishes. That they want
to see and give me presents you have told me repeatedly - so do I
them; for I want them to teach me the way to shoot, and when that
is accomplished, I will take them to an island near Kidi, where
there are some men [his refractory brothers] whom I wish to
frighten away with guns; but still there is no hurry, - they can
come when I choose to call them, and not before." Bombay to this
said, "I cannot deliver such a message to Bana; I have told so
many falsehoods about your saying you will have an interview to-
morrow, I shall only catch a flogging"; and forthwith departed.
13th. - More disgusted with Kamrasi than ever, I called Kidgwiga
up, and told him I was led to expect from Rumanika that I should
find his king a good and reasonable man, which I believed,
considering it was said by an unprejudiced person. Mtesa, on the
contrary, told me Kamrasi treated all his guests with disrespect,
sending them to the farther side of the N'yanzi. I now found his
enemy more truthful than his friend, and wished him to be told
so. "For the future, I should never," I said, "mention his name
again, but wait until his fear of me had vanished; for he quite
forgot his true dignity as a host and king in his surprise and
fear, merely because we were in a hurry and desired to see him."
He was reported to-day, by the way, to be drunk.
As nothing could be done yesterday, in consequence of the king
being in his cups, the Wakungu conveyed my message to-day, but
with the usual effect, till a diplomatic idea struck me, and I
sent another messenger to say, if our residence was not changed
at once, both Grant and myself had made up our minds to cut off
our hair and blacken our faces, so that the king of all kings
should have no more cause to fear us. Ignoring his claims to
imperial rank, I maintained that his reason for ill-treating us
must be fear, - it could be nothing else. This message acted
like magic; for he fully believed we would do as we said, and
disappoint him altogether of the strange sight of us as pure
white men. The reply was, Kamrasi would not have us disfigured
in this way for all the world; men were appointed to convey our
traps to the west end at once; and Kidgwiga, Vittagura, and
Kajunju rushed over to give us the news in all hast lest we
should execute our threat, and they were glad to find us with our
faces unchanged.
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