It Did Not Become My Dignity To Live In Houses Appropriated To
Persons In The Rank Of Servants, Which I
Considered the ivory
merchants to be; and as I had come only to see him and the high
officers of
Uganda, not seeking for ivory or slaves, I begged he
would change my place of residence to the west end, when I also
trusted his officers would not be ashamed to visit me, as
appeared to be the case at present. Silence being the provoking
resort of the king, when he did not know exactly what to say, he
made no answer to my appeal, but instead, he began a discourse on
geography, and then desired me to call upon his mother,
N'yamasore, at her palace Masorisori, vulgarly called Soli Soli,
for she also required medicine; and, moreover, I was cautioned
that for the future the Uganda court etiquette required I should
attend on the king two days in succession, and every third day on
his mother the queen-dowager, as such were their respective
rights.
Till now, owing to the strict laws of the country, I had not been
able to call upon anybody but the king himself. I had not been
able to send presents or bribes to any one, nor had any one,
except the cockaded pages, by the king's order, visited me;
neither was anybody permitted to sell me provisions, so that my
men had to feed themselves by taking anything they chose from
certain gardens pointed out by the king's officers, or by seizing
pombe or plantains which they might find Waganda carrying towards
the palace.
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