After Listening To It Attentively, He Asked What Thing In
Creation I Considered The Greatest Of All Things In The World;
For Whilst A Man At Most Could Only Live One Hundred Years, A
Tree Lived Many; But The Earth Ought To Be Biggest, For It Never
Died.
I then told him again I wished one of his sons would accompany me
to England, that he might learn the history of Moses, wherein he
would find that men had souls which live for ever, but that the
earth would come to an end in the fullness of time.
This
conversation, diversified by numerous shrewd remarks on the part
of Rumanika, led to his asking how I could account for the
decline of countries, instancing the dismemberment of the Wahuma
in Kittara, and remarking that formerly Karague included Urundi,
Ruanda, and Kishakka, which collectively were known as the
kingdom of Meru, governed by one man. Christian principles, I
said, made us what we are, and feeling a sympathy for him made me
desirous of taking one of his children to learn in the same
school with us, who, on returning to him, could impart what he
knew, and, extending the same by course of instruction, would
doubtless end by elevating his country to a higher position than
it ever knew before, - etc., etc. The policy and government of
the vast possessions of Great Britain were then duly discussed,
and Rumanika acknowledged that the pen was superior to that of
the sword, and the electric telegraph and steam engine the most
wonderful powers he had ever heard of.
Before breaking up, Rumanika wished to give me any number of
ivories I might like to mention, even three or four hundred, as a
lasting remembrance that I had done him the honour of visiting
Karague in his lifetime, for though Dagara had given to coloured
merchants, he would be the first who had given to a white man.
Of course this royal offer was declined with politeness; he must
understand that it was not the custom of big men in my country to
accept presents of value when we made visits of pleasure. I had
enjoyed my residence in Karague, his intellectual conversations
and his kind hospitality, all of which I should record in my
books to hand down to posterity; but if he would give me a cow's
horn, I would keep it as a trophy of the happy days I had spent
in his country. He gave me one, measuring 3 feet 5 inches in
length, and 18 3/4 inches in circumference at the base. He then
offered me a large sheet, made up of a patchwork of very small
N'yera antelope skins, most exquisitely cured and sewn. This I
rejected, as he told me it had been given to himself, explaining
that we prided ourselves on never parting with the gifts of a
friend; and this speech tickled his fancy so much, that he said
he never would part with anything I gave him.
8th and 9th. - The 8th went off much in the usual way, by my
calling on the king, when I gave him a pack of playing-cards,
which he put into his curiosity-box. He explained to me, at my
request, what sort of things he would like any future visitors to
bring him - a piece of gold and silver embroidery; but, before
anything else, I found he would like to have toys - such as Yankee
clocks with the face in a man's stomach, to wind up behind, his
eyes rolling with every beat of the pendulum; or a china-cow
milk-pot, a jack-in-the- box, models of men, carriages, and
horses - all animals in fact, and railways in particular.
On the 9th I went out shooting, as Rumanika, with his usual
politeness, on hearing my desire to kill some rhinoceros, ordered
his sons to conduct the filed for me. Off we started by sunrise
to the bottom of the hills overlooking the head of the Little
Windermere lake. On arrival at the scene of action - a thicket or
acacia shrubs - all the men in the neighbourhood were assembled to
beat. Taking post myself, by direction, in the most likely place
to catch a sight of the animals, the day's work began by the
beaters driving the covers in my direction. In a very short
time, a fine male was discovered making towards me, but not
exactly knowing where he should bolt to. While he was in this
perplexity, I stole along between the bushes, and caught sight of
him standing as if anchored by the side of a tree and gave him a
broadsider with Blissett, which, too much for his constitution to
stand, sent him off trotting, till exhausted by bleeding he lay
down to die, and allowed me to give him a settler.
In a minute or two afterwards, the good young princes, attracted
by the sound of the gun, came to see what was done. Their
surprise knew no bounds; they could scarcely believe what they
saw; and then, on recovering, with the spirit of true gentlemen,
they seized both my hands, congratulating me on the magnitude of
my success, and pointed out, as an example of it, a bystander who
showed fearful scars, both on his abdomen and at the blade of his
shoulder, who they declared had been run through by one of these
animals. It was, therefore, wonderful to them, they observed,
with what calmness I went up to such formidable beasts.
Just at this time a distant cry was heard that another rhinoceros
was concealed in a thicket, and off we set to pursue her.
Arriving at the place mentioned, I settled at once I would enter
with only two spare men carrying guns, for the acacia thorns were
so thick that the only tracks into the thicket were runs made by
these animals. Leading myself, bending down to steal in, I
tracked up a run till half-way through cover, when suddenly
before me, like a pig from a hole, a large female, with her young
one behind her, came straight down whoof-whoofing upon me.
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