mountain covered with, yellow dust, which the natives
collected, &c. &c.
Time was drawing on, and as the queen would not
appear of her own accord, I sent to request a friendly
conversation with her before I left, endeavouring, as well
as I could, to persuade her that the want of cordiality
between us was owing to the mistakes of interpreters, who
had not conveyed to her my profound sentiments of
devotion. This brought her gracious corpulence out all
smirks and smiles, preceded by a basket of sweet potatoes
for “ Bana, my son.” I began conversation with a speech
of courtesy, explaining how I had left my brother Grant
and my great friend Rumanika at Karague—hastening,
in compliance with the invitation of the king, to visit
him and herself, with the full bope of making friends in
Uganda; but now I had come, I was greatly disappointed;
for I neither saw half enough of their majesties, nor did
any of their officers ever call upon me to converse and
pass away the dreary hours. All seemed highly pleased,
and complimented my speech; while the queen, turning
to her officers, said, “ If that is the case, I will send these
men to y o u ;” whereupon the .officers, highly delighted at
the prospect of coming to see me, and its consequence a
present, n’yanzigged until I thought their hands would
drop off. Then her majesty, to my thorough annoyance,
and before I had finished half I had to say, rose from her
seat, and, showing her broad stem to the company, walked
straight away. The officers then drew near me, and
begged I would sleep there another n ig h t; but as they
had nothing better to offer than the hut of last night, I
declined, and went, my way, begging them to call and
make friends with me.
12th.—Immediately after breakfast the king sent his
pages in a great hurry to say he was waiting on the hill
for me, and begged I would bring all my guns immediately.
I prepared, thinking, naturally enough, that some buffaloes
had been marked down ; for the boys, as usual, were perfectly
ignorant of his designs. To my surprise, however,
when I mounted the hill half-way to the palace, I found
the hi Tig standing, dressed in a rich filigreed waistcoat,
trimmed with gold embroidery, tweedling the loading-rod
in bis finger, and an alfia cap on his head, whilst his
pages held his chair and guns, and a number of officers,
with dogs and goats for offerings, squatting before him.
When I arrived, hat in hand, he smiled, examined my
firearms, and proceeded for sport, leading the way to a
high tree, on which some adjutant birds were nesting, and
numerous vultures resting. This was the sport ; Bana
must shoot a nundo (adjutant) for the king’s gratification.
I begged bim to take a shot himself, as I really could not
demean myself by firing at birds sitting on a tree ; but it
was all of no use—no one could shoot as I could, and they
must be shot. I proposed frightening them out with
stones, but no stone could reach so high; so, to cut the
matter short, I killed an adjutant on the nest, and, as the
vultures flew away, brought one down on the wing, which
fell in a garden enclosure.
The Waganda were for a minute all spell-bound with
astonishment, when the king jumped frantically in the air,
clapping his hands above his head, and singing out, “ Woh,
woh, woh ! what wonders ! Oh, Bana, Bana ! what miracles
he performs!”—and all the Wakungu followed in
chorus. “ Now load, Bana—load, and let us see you do
it,” cried the excited king ; but before I was half loaded,
he said, “ Come along, come along, and let us see the bird.”
Then directing the officers which way to go—for, by the
etiquette of the court of Uganda, every one must precede
the king—he sent them through a court where his women,
afraid of the gun, had been concealed. Here the rush
onward was stopped by newly made fences, but the king
roared to the officers to knock them down. This was no
sooner said than done, by the attendants in a body shoving