I Found
Him Sitting With His Brothers, All Playing In Concert On Flutes.
I asked him, in Kisuahili, if he knew where Grant was?
On
replying in the negative, I proposed sending a letter, which he
approved of; and Budja was again ordered to go with an army for
Petherick.
22d. - Mabruki and Bilal, with Budja, started to meet Petherick,
and three more men, with another letter to Grant. I called on
the king, who appointed the 24th instant for an excursion of
three days' hippopotamus-shooting on the N'yanza.
23d. - To-day occurred a brilliant instance of the capricious
restlessness and self-willedness of this despotic king. At noon,
pages hurried in to say that he had started for the N'yanza, and
wished me to follow him without delay. N'yanza, as I have
mentioned, merely means a piece of water, whether a pond, river,
or lake; and as no one knew which N'yanza he meant, or what
project was on foot, I started off in a hurry, leaving everything
behind, and walked rapidly through gardens, over hills, and
across rushy swamps, down the west flank of the Murchison Creek,
till 3 p.m., when I found the king dressed in red, with his
Wakungu in front and women behind, travelling along in the
confused manner of a pack of hounds, occasionally firing his
rifle that I might know his whereabouts. He had just, it seems,
mingled a little business with pleasure; for noticing, as he
passed, a woman tied by the hands to be punished for some
offence, the nature of which I did not learn, he took the
executioner's duty on himself, fired at her, and killed her
outright.
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