hatchet, the badge of office as chief of the district, as
a guarantee for me.
To wait here any longer after this, I knew, would be a
To LtimSr&i’s, mere waste of time, so I ordered my men to
2Sd- pack up that moment, and we all marched
over at once to LumffiAsi’s, when we .put up in his boma.
Lumeresi was not in then, but, on his arrival at night, he
Lumeresi’s Residence.
beat all his drums to celebrate the event, and fired a
musket, in reply to which I fired three shots. The same
night, whilst sitting out to make astronomical observations,
I became deadly cold—so much so, that the instant
I had taken the star, to fix my position, I turned into bed,
but could not get up again; for the cough that had stuck
to me for a month then became so violent, heightened by
fever succeeding the cold fit, that before the next morning
I was so reduced I could not stand. For the last month,
too, I had not been able to sleep on either side, as interior
pressure, caused by doing so, provoked the cough; but
now I had, in addition, to be propped in position to get
any repose whatever. The symptoms, altogether, were
rather alarming, for the heart felt inflamed and ready to
burst, pricking and twingeing with every breath, which
was exceedingly aggravated by constant coughing, when
streams of phlegm and bile were ejected. The left arm
felt half-paralysed, the left nostril was choked with mucus,
and on the centre of the left shoulder-blade I felt a pain
as if some one was branding me with a hot iron. All this
was constant; and, in addition, I repeatedly felt severe
pains—rather paroxysms of fearful twinges—in the spleen,
liver, and lungs; whilst during my sleep I had all sorts
of absurd dreams: for instance—I planned a march across
Africa with Sir Boderick Murchison ; and I fancied some
curious creatures, half-men and half-monkeys, came into
my camp to Inform me that Petherick was waiting in
boats at the south-west corner of the N yanza, &c. &c.
Though my mind was so weak and excited when
I woke up from these trances, I thought of nothing
but the march, and how I could get out of Ltimeresi’s
hands. He, with the most benign countenance, came in
to see me, the very first thing in the morning, as he said,
to inquire after my health; when, to please him as much
as I could, I had a guard of honour drawn up at the tent
door to fire a salute as he entered; then giving him my
iron camp-chair to sit upon, which tickled him much—
for he was very corpulent, and he thought its legs would
break down with his weight—we had a long talk, though
it was as much as I could do to remember anything, my
brain was so excited and weak. Kind as he looked and
spoke, he forgot all his promises about coveting my property,
and scarcely got over the first salutation before he
began begging for many things that he saw, and more
especially for a d^ole, in order that he might wear it on
all great occasions, to show his contemporaries what a
magnanimous man his white visitor was. I soon lost my
temper whilst striving to settle the hongo. Lumer&i
K