The Officer In Turn Tried To Defend Mtesa's
Conduct By Saying He Had Given The Deserters Seventy Cows And
Four Women, As Well As Orders To Join Us Quickly; But They Had
Been Delayed On The Road, Because Wherever They Went They
Plundered, And No One Liked Their Company.
Had we returned to
Uganda, Mtesa would have given us the road through Masai, which,
in my opinion, is nearer for us than this one.
This officer had been wishing to see us as much as we had been to
see him; but Kamrasi would not allow him to get access to us, for
fear, it was said, lest the Waganda should know where we were
hidden, and enable Mtesa to send an army to come and snatch us
away. As the officer said he would deliver any message I might
wish to send to Uganda, I folded a visiting-card as a letter to
the queen-dowager, intimating that I wished the two men whom I
sent back to Mtesa to be forwarded on to Karague; but desired
that the remainder, who deserted their master in difficulty,
should be placed on an island of the N'yanza to live in exile
until some other Englishman should come to release them; that
their arms should be taken from them and kept in the palace. I
said further, that should Mtesa act up to my desires, I would
then know he was my friend, and other white men would not fear to
enter Uganda; but if he acted otherwise, they would fear lest he
should imprison them, or seize their property of their men.
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Words from 191146 to 191416
of 210958
