said lie longed to return to my hut, for he was half
starved here, and no one took any notice of him $ hut he
was destined to be a royal page, for the king would not
part with him. A cold fit then seized me, and as I asked
for leave to go, the king gave orders for one of his wives
to he flogged. The reason for this act of brutality I
did not discover; hut the moment the order was issued,
the victim begged the pages to do it quickly, that the
king’s wrath might be appeased; and in an instant I saw
a dozen boys tear their eord-turbans from their heads,
pull her roughly into the middle of the court, and belabour
her with sticks, whilst she lay floundering about,
screeching to me for protection. All I did was to turn
my head away and walk rapidly out of sight, thinking it
better not to interfere again with the discipline of the
palace ; indeed, I thought it not improbable that the king
did these things sometimes merely that his guests might
see his savage power. On reaching home I found ~Ka.bfl.la
standing like a culprit before my door. She would not
admit, what I suspected, that Méri had induced her to
run away, but said she was very happy in my house until
yester-evening, when Rozaro’s sister told her she was very
stupid living with the Mzungii all alone, and told her to
run away; which she did, taking the direction of N’yama-
soré’s, until some officers finding her, and noticing heads
on her neck, and her hair cut, according to the common
court fashion, in slopes from a point in the forehead to
the breadth of her ears, suspected her to be one of the
king’s women, and kept her in confinement all night, till
Mtésa’s men came this morning and brought her hack
again. As a punishment, I ordered her to live with
Bombay; but my house was so dull again from want of
some one to eat dinner with me, that I remitted the
punishment, to her great delight.
HtA|frTo-day I received letters from Grant, dated
2 2 d, 25th, 28th April, and 2 d May. They were brought
by my three men, with Karaghe pease, flour, and ammunition.
He was at Mafila’s house, which proved the king’s
boy to be correct; for the convoy, afraid of encountering
the voyage on the lake, had deceived my companion and
brought bim on by land, like true negroes.
12th.—I sent the three men who had returned from
Grant to lay a complaint against the convoy, who had
tricked bim out of a pleasant voyage, and myself out of
| the long-wished-for survey of the lake. They carried at
the same time a present of a canister of shot from me to
the king. Delighted with this unexpected prize, he immediately
shot fifteen birds flying, and ordered the men to
acquaint me with his prowess.
13th.—To-day the king sent me four cows and a load
of butter as a return-present for the shot, and allowed one
of his officers, at my solicitation, to go with ten of my men
to help Grant on. He also sent a message that he had
just shot thirteen birds flying.
Uth.—-Mabriiki and Bilal returned with Budja and his
ten children from Unyoro, attended by a deputation of
four men sent by Kamrasi, who were headed by Kidgwiga.
Mtdsa, it now transpired, had followed my advice of
making friendship with Kamrasi by sending two brass
wires as a hongo instead of an army, and Kamrasi, in
return, sent bim two elephant-tusks. Kidgwiga said
Petherick’s party was not in Unyoro—they had never
reached there, but were lying at anchor off Gani. Two
white men only had been seen—one, they said, a hairy
man, the other smooth-faced; they were as anxiously inquiring
after us as we were after them : they sat on chairs,
dressed like myself, and had guns and everything precisely
like those in my hut. On one occasion they sent up a
necklace of beads to Kamrasi, and he, in return, gave
them a number of women and tusks. If I wished to go
that way, Kamrasi would forward me on to their position
m boats ; for the land route, leading through Kidi, was a