I Heard, However, That He Had Spent The Day Receiving
Suwarora's Hongo Of Wire, And That The Officer Who Brought Them
Was Made To Sit In An Empty Court, Whilst The King Sat Behind A
Screen, Never Deigning To Show His Majestic Person.
I was told,
too, that he opened conversation by demanding to know how it
happened that Suwarora became possessed
Of the wires, for they
were made by the white men to be given to himself, and Suwarora
must therefore have robbed me of them; and it was by such
practices he, Mtesa, never could see any visitors. The officer's
reply was, Suwarora would not show the white men any respect,
because they were wizards would did not sleep in houses at night,
but flew up to the tops of hills, and practised sorcery of every
abominable kind. The king to this retorted, in a truly African
fashion, "That's a lie; I can see no harm in this white man; and
if he had been a bad man, Rumanika would not have sent him on to
me." At night, when in bed, the king sent his pages to say, if I
desired his friendship I would lend him one musket to make up six
with what I had given him, for he intended visiting his relations
the following morning. I sent three, feeling that nothing would
be lost by being "open-handed."
22d. - To-day the king went the round of his relations, showing
the beautiful things given him by the white man - a clear proof
that he was much favoured by the "spirits," for neither his
father nor any of his forefathers had been so recognised and
distinguished by any "sign" as a rightful inheritor to the Uganda
throne:
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