then asked his men what they thought had better be done.
The sages replied, “ Oh, make friends, and do the matter
gently.” But the king proudly raised his head, laughed
them to scorn, and said, “Make friends with men who
have crossed their spears with us already! Nonsense!
they would only laugh at us; the Uganda spear alone
shall do it.” Hearing this bravado, the Kamraviona, the
pages, and the elders, all rose to a man, with their sticks,
and came charging at their king, swearing they woidd
carry out his wishes with their lives. The meeting now
broke up in the usual unsatisfactory, unfinished manner,
by the king rising and walking away, whilst I returned
with the Kamraviona, who begged for ten more blue eggs
in addition to my present to make a full necklace, and
told my men to call upon him in the morning, when he
would give me anything I wished to eat. Bombay, was
then ordered to describe what sort of food I lived on
usually; when, Mganda fashion, he broke a stick into
ten bits, each representing a different article, and said,
“Bana eat mixed food always ;” and explained that stick
No. 1 represented beef; No. 2, mutton; No. 3, fowl; No.
4, eggs; No, 5, fish; No, 6, potatoes; No. 7, plantains;
No. 8, pombd; No. 9, butter; No, 10, flour.
16 th.—To-day the king was amusing himself among
his women again, and not to be seen. I sent Bombay
with ten blue eggs as a present for the Kamraviona, intimating
my desire to call upon him. He sent me a goat
and ten fowls’ eggs, saying he was not visible to strangers
on business to-day. I inferred that he required the king’s
permission to receive me. This double failure was a more
serious affair than a mere slight; for my cows were eaten
up, and my men clamouring incessantly for food; and
though they might by orders help themselves “ kii n’yan-
gania”—by seizing—from the Waganda, it hurt my feelings
so much to witness this, that I tried from the first
to dispense with it, telling the king I had always flogged
my men for stealing, and now he turned them into a
pack of thieves. I urged that he should either allow me
to purchase rations, or else feed them from the palace as
Btimanika d id ; but he always turned a deaf ear, or said
that what Sunna his father had introduced it ill became
him to subvert; and unless my men helped themselves
they would die of starvation.
On the present emergency I resolved to call upon the
queen. On reaching the palace, I sent an officer in to
announce my arrival, and sat waiting for the reply fully
ba.lf an hour, smoking my pipe, and listening to her in
the adjoining court, where music was playing, and her
voice occasionally rent the air with merry boisterous
laughing.
The messenger returned to say no one could approach
her sanctuary or disturb her pleasure at this hour; I must
wait and bide my time, as the Uganda officers do. Whew!
Here was another diplomatic crisis, which had to be dealt
with in the usual way. i I bide my time!” I said, rising
in a towering passion, and thrashing the air with my
ramrod walking-stick, before all the visiting Wakungii,
“ when the queen has assured me her door would always
be open to m e ! I shall leave this court at once, and I
solemnly swear I shall never set foot in it again, unless
some apology be made for treating me like a dog.” Then,
returning home, I tied up all the presents her majesty
had given me in a bundle, and calling Mafila and my
men together, told them to take them where they came
from; for it ill became me to keep tokens of friendship
when no friendship existed between us. I came to make
friends with the queen, not to trade or take things from
her—and so forth. The blackguard Maiila, laughing, said,
“ Bana does not know what he is doing; it is a heinous
offence in Uganda sending presents back; nobody for
their lives dare do so to the queen; her wrath would know
no bounds. She will say, ‘I took a few trifles from Bana