Nile went to Misr (Egypt). The men and women
killed daily by a blow on the back of the head are cut
in pieces by knives made from the common reed ; the
pieces are then put into a cloth, and thrown to the
birds ; Masoongo, the head executioner, reserving for
himself all their hearts! Speke had saved the lives
of four or five people. If a man is seen being led
away with his hands tied in front, he is marked for
execution—if they are tied behind, he is under sentence
of a fine.”
We shall by-and-by see whether this gossip, brought
me by the Seedees, had any truth in it. And it may
not be uninteresting to mention here, that at a private
audience given me by his Holiness the Pope in 1864,
when I submitted to him a map of our route, explaining
the general configuration of the country upon the
equator, he remarked with animation, that my description
tallied with what he had observed in the
country of the Amazon, where he had passed many
years of his life as a missionary,—a fact I had not
known before. The Amazon is in the same parallel of
latitude as Uganda.
C H A P T E R X.
UGANDA, MAY 27 TO JULY 7, 1862— MEETING WITH CAPTAIN
SPEKE — AUDIENCE WITH THE KING OE UGANDA — THE
QUEEN’S DBAWING-EOOM— THE DETECTIVE SYSTEM— THE
EXECUTIONEES— STICK DEILL— INGENIOUS WOEKMEN IN
UGANDA— A STOEM.
T h e day of my arrival at the Uganda capital, the
27th of May 1862, was one not only of intense joy,
but deep thankfulness. I felt that my prayers for
our safety had been heard. Speke and I had been
separated for upwards of four months, and on being
led by some of his men to the small hut he occupied,
we were so happy to be together again, and had so
much to say, that when the pages of the king burst
in with the royal mandate that his Highness must see
me “to-morrow,” we were indignant at the intrusion.
The morrow, however, came, and with it the same sharp,
intelligent boys, to say that my stool might be brought
to sit upon in the presence of the king. Accordingly,
the present of a gun and some ammunition having been
graciously received by him, at three o clock, dressed in
my best suit——i. white trousers, blue flannel coat,
shepherd’s-plaid shirt, a helmet, and a red turban I