After This Unsatisfactory Interview, I Repaired To The King's,
Knowing The Power Of My Gun To Obtain An Interview, Whilst
Doubting The Ability Of The Wakungu To Gain An Audience For Me.
Such was the case.
These men had been sitting all day without
seeing the king, and three shots opened his gate immediately to
me. He was sitting on the iron chair in the shade of the court,
attended by some eighty women, tweedling the loading rod in his
fingers; but as my rod appeared a better one than his, they were
exchanged. I then gave him a tortoise-shell comb to comb his
hair straight with, as he invariably remarked on the beautiful
manner in which I dressed my hair, making my uncap to show it to
his women, and afterwards asked my men to bring on the affair of
last night. They feared, they said, to speak on such subjects
whilst the women were present. I begged for a private audience;
still they would not speak until encouraged and urged beyond all
patience. I said, in Kisuahili, "Kbakka" (king), "my men are
afraid to tell you what I want to say"; when Maula, taking
advantage of my having engaged his attention, though the king did
not understand one word I said, said of himself, by way of
currying favour, "I saw a wonderful gun in Rumankika's hands,
with six barrells; not a short one like your fiver" (meaning the
revolving pistol) "but a long one, as long as my arm." "Indeed,"
says the king, "we must have that." A page was then sent for by
Maula, who, giving him a bit of stick representing the gun
required, told him to fetch it immediately.
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