One Of His Men Accompanied The
Visitors Back To The Boats, And Saw Petherick, Who Took The Ivory
And Rejected The Women.
10th. - At 2 p.m. we were called by Kamrasi to visit him at the
Kafu palace again, and requested to bring a lot of medicines tied
up in various coloured cloths, so that he might know what to
select for different ailments.
We repaired there as before,
putting the medicines into the sextand-stand box, and found him
lying at full length on the platform of his throne, with a glass-
bead necklace of various colours, and a charm tied on his left
arm. Nobody was allowed to be present at our interview. The
medicines, four varieties, were weighed out into ten doses each,
and their uses and effects explained. He begged for four bottles
to put them in, till he was laughed out of it by our saying he
required forty bottles; for if the powders were mixed, how could
he separate them again? And to keep his mind from the begging
tack, which he was getting alarmingly near, I said, "Now I have
given you these things because you would insist on having them.
I must also tell you they are dangerous in your hands, in
consequence of your being ignorant of their properties. If you
take my advice you won't meddle with them until the two children
you wish educated have learnt the use of them in England; and if
I have to take boys from this, I hope they will be of your
family." He said, "You speak like a father to us, and we very
much approve. Here is a pot of pombe; I did not give you one
yesterday."
11th. - To-day, the king having graciously granted permission, we
went out shooting, but saw only a few buffalo tracks.
12th. - The Kamraviona was sent to inquire after our health, and
to ascertain from me all I knew respecting the origin of
Kamrasi's tribe, the distribution of countries, and the seat of
the government. I sent the king a diagram, painted in various
colours, with full explanations of everything, and asked
permission to send two more of my men in search of Bombay, who
had now been absent twenty days. The reply was, that if Bombay
did not return within four days, Kamrasi would send other men
after him on the fifth day; and, in the meantime, he sent one pot
of pombe as a token of his kind regard.
13th. - The Kamraviona was sent to inquire after our health, to
ask for medicine for himself, and to inquire more into the origin
of his race. I, on the other hand, wishing to make myself as
disagreeable as possible, in order that Kamrasi might get tired
of us, sent Frij to ask for fresh butter, eggs, tobacco, coffee,
and fowls, every day, saying, I will pay their price when I reach
Gani, for we were suffering from want of proper food. Kamrasi
was surprised at this clamour for food, and inquired what we ate
at home that we were so different from everybody else.
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Words from 185569 to 186090
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