A Shield Was The Mark, Stuck Up At Only Thirty Paces; Still They
Were Such Bad Shots That They Hardly Ever Hit It.
Now tired of
this slow sport, and to show his superior prowess, the king
ordered sixteen shields to be placed before him, one in front of
the other, and with one shot from Whitworth pierced the whole of
them, the bullet passing through the bosses of nearly every one.
"Ah!" says the king, strutting about with gigantic strides, and
brandishing the rifle over his head before all his men, "what is
the use of spears and bows? I shall never fight with anything
but guns in the future." These Wakungu, having only just then
returned from plundering Unyoro, had never before seen their king
in a chair, or anybody sitting, as I was, by his side; and it
being foreign to their notions, as well as, perhaps, unpleasant
to their feelings, to find a stranger sitting higher than
themselves, they complained against this outrage to custom, and
induced the king to order my dethronement. The result was, as my
iron stool was objectionable, I stood for a moment to see that I
thoroughly understood their meaning; and then showing them my
back, walked straightway home to make a grass throne, and dodge
them that way.
There was nothing for dinner last night, nothing again this
morning, yet no one would go in to report this fact, as rain was
falling, and the king was shut up with his women.
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