I Then Gave Nasib Orders To Take Bombay's
Post, And Commence The March; But The Good Old Man Made Bombay
Give in, and off we went, amidst crowds of Waganda, who had
collected to witness with comedy, and were all
Digging at one
another's heads, showing off in pantomime the strange ways of the
white man. N'yamgundu then jointed us, and begged us to halt
only one more day, as some of his women were still at Kisuere;
but Bombay, showing his nozzle rather flatter than usual, said,
"No; I got this on account of your lies. I won't tell Bana any
more of your excuses for stopping; you may tell him yourself if
you like." N'yamgundu, however, did not think this advisable,
and so we went on as we were doing. It was the first and last
time I had ever occasion to lose my dignity by striking a blow
with my own hands; but I could not help it on this occasion
without losing command and respect; for although I often had
occasion to award 100 and even 150 lashes to my men for stealing,
I could not, for the sake of due subordination, allow any
inferior officer to strike Bombay, and therefore had to do the
work myself.
Skirting the hills on the left, with a large low plain to the
right we soon came on one of those numerous rush-drains that
appear to me to be the last waters left of the old bed of the
N'yanza. This one in particular was rather large, being 150
yards wide. It was sunk where I crossed it, like a canal, 14
feet below the plain; and what with mire and water combined, so
deep, I was obliged to take off my trousers whilst fording it.
Once across, we sought for and put up in a village beneath a
small hill, from the top of which I saw the Victoria N'yanza for
the first time on this march. N'yamgundu delighted me much:
treating me as king, he always fell down on his knees to address
me, and made all his "children" look after my comfort in camp.
We marched on again over the same kind of ground, alternately
crossing rush-drains of minor importance, though provokingly
frequent, and rich gardens, from which, as we passed, all the
inhabitants bolted at the sound of our drums, knowing well that
they would be seized and punished if found gazing at the king's
visitors. Even on our arrival at Ukara not one soul was visible.
The huts of the villagers were shown to myself and my men without
any ceremony. The Wanyambo escort stole what they liked out of
them, and I got into no end of troubles trying to stop the
practice; for they said the Waganda served them the same way when
they went to Karague, and they had a right to retaliate now. To
obviate this distressing sort of plundering, I still served out
beads to my men, and so kept them in hand a little; but they were
fearfully unruly, and did not like my interference with what by
the laws of the country they considered their right.
Here I had to stop a day for some of N'yamgundu's women, who, in
my hurry at leaving Maula's, were left behind. A letter from
Grant was now brought to me by a very nice-looking young man, who
had the skin of a leopard-cat (F. Serval) tied round his neck - a
badge which royal personages only were entitled to wear.
N'yamgundu seeing this, as he knew the young man was not entitled
to wear it, immediately ordered his "children" to wrench it from
him. Two ruffianly fellows then seized him by his hands, and
twisted his arms round and round until I thought they would come
out of their sockets. Without uttering a sound the young man
resisted, until N'yamgundu told them to be quiet, for he would
hold a court on the subject, and see if the young man could
defend himself. The ruffians then sat on the ground, but still
holding on to him; whilst N'yamgundu took up a long stick, and
breaking it into sundry bits of equal length, placed one by one
in front of him, each of which was supposed to represent one
number in line of succession to his forefathers. By this it was
proved he did not branch in any way from the royal stock.
N'yamgundu then turning to the company, said, What would he do
now to expiate his folly? If the matter was taken before Mtesa
he would lose his head; was it not better he should pay one
hundred cows All agreeing to this, the young man said he would
do so, and quietly allowed the skin to be untied and taken off by
the ruffians.
Next day, after crossing more of those abominable rush-drains,
whilst in sight of the Victoria N'yanza, we ascended the most
beautiful hills, covered with verdure of all descriptions. At
Meruka, where I put up, there resided some grandees, the chief of
whom was the king's aunt. She sent me a goat, a hen, a basket of
eggs, and some plantains, in return for which I sent her a wire
and some beads. I felt inclined to stop here a month, everything
was so very pleasant. The temperature was perfect. The roads,
as indeed they were everywhere, were as broad as our coach-roads,
cut through the long grasses, straight over the hills and down
through the woods in the dells - a strange contrast to the
wretched tracks in all the adjacent countries. The huts were
kept so clean and so neat, not a fault could be found with them -
the gardens the same. Wherever I strolled I saw nothing but
richness, and what ought to be wealth. The whole land was a
picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless sea in the
background. Looking over the hills, it struck the fancy at once
that at one period the whole land must have been at a uniform
level with their present tops, but that by the constant
denudation it was subjected to by frequent rains, it had been cut
down and sloped into those beautiful hills and dales which now so
much pleased the eye; for there were none of those quartz dykes I
had seen protruding through the same kink of aqueous formations
in Usui and Karague; nor were there any other sorts of volcanic
disturbance to distort the calm quiet aspect of the scene.
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