22d. - Kamrasi Sent To Say Bombay Was Not To Start To-Day, But To-
Morrow, So We Put The Screw On Again, And Said We Must Go At
Once; If He Would Give Us Guides To Gani, We Would Return Him His
Twenty Cows And Seven Goats With Pleasure.
I let him understand
we suspected he was keeping us here to fight his brothers, and
told him he must at once know we would never lift hand against
them.
It was contrary to the laws of our land. "I have got no
orders to enter into black men's quarrels, and my mother" (the
Queen), "whom I see every night in my sleep calling me home,
would be very angry if she heard of it. Rumanika once asked me
to fight his brothers Rogero and M'yongo, but my only reply to
all had been the same - I have no orders to fight with, only to
make friends of, the great kings of Africa."
The game seemed now to be won. At once Kamrasi ordered Bombay to
prepare for the journey. Five Wanyoro, five Chopi men, and five
Gani men, were to escort him. There was no objection to his
carrying arms. The moment he returned, which ought to be in
little more than a fortnight, we would all go together. An
earnest request was at the same time made that I would not bully
him in the mean time with any more applications to depart. So
Bombay and Mabruki, carrying there muskets, and a map and letter
for Petherick, departed.
23d and 24th. - Kamrasi, presuming he had gained favour in our
eyes, sent, begging to know how we had slept, and said he would
like us to inform him what part of his journey Bombay had this
morning reached - a fact which he had no doubt must be divinable
through the medium of our books. The reply was, that Bombay's
luck was so good we had no doubt regarding his success; but now
he had gone, and our days here were numbered, we should like to
see the palace, his fat wives and children, as well as the
Wanyoro's dances, and all the gaiety of the place. We did not
think our reception-hut by the river sufficiently dignified, and
our residence here was altogether like that of prisoners - seeing
no one, knowing no one. In answer to this, Kamrasi sent one pot
of pombe and five fowls, begging we would not be alarmed; we
should see everything in good time, if we would but have
patience, for he considered us very great men, as he was a great
man himself, and we had come at his invitation. He must request,
in the mean time, that we would send no more messages by his
officers, as such messages are never conveyed properly. At
present there was a great deal of business in the palace.
We asked for some butter, but could get none, as all the milk in
the palace was consumed by the wives and children, drinking all
day long, to make themselves immovably fat.
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